Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Taj Mahal

if you thought looking at the subject line that I had been to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal monument, then I will scream and say "gotcha" ! I did visit that as well but it was sometime in the 90s. Coming back to the present,this Taj Mahal is actually a pretty popular hotel in Hyderabad which has played a very important part in my new job ! Long pending blog but decided to write this when I boarded the flight this morning. This , my friends , is an 'Ode to Taj mahal hotel ' !

Having gotten used to staying in 5 star hotels ONLY in my previous job, this was a humbling experience initially to start off with, with a few parts not working in the room or requiring some level of fixing .For eg, the TV remote had to be pressed real hard to change a channel, the fan had this whirling noise and automatically used to switch off as if it decided its own destiny. Nice philosophical twist to the fan tale!

Well having said that I must say I completely enjoyed the stay and as I discovered in my last stay, most waiters now acknowledge my presence with a "hello " or a nod of the head, the guys who clean the rooms salute me which is in a way, embarrassing or the guy at the reception asked me how many days I would stay in this trip with a very enthusiastic "Hello sir". Much of this was on evidence when I went to the hotel with my colleague and friend Ram to have a cup of coffee in the evening( our daily routine almost) and this waiter came along and wished me and asked us what we wanted in a much more "user-friendly" tone. A few kannada speaking waiters were way too happy to have me in their midst and speak in kannada coz' till then I was speaking to them in my usual awkward Hindi ! Also, when you stay for that long in a hotel, you end up eating every item that they have in their menu and that was definitely the case here as well. But I must say that most of their dishes taste real good.

OH another thing that I discovered after staying there for more than 25 days and that too this one by accident was that they serve the World's best Upma or Uppit( Somehow I had missed this!). I have always loved this dish but at restaurants, it is somehow not that great but when I had this a couple of days back , I was totally bowled over by the taste. Ever since , I have been recommending it to whoever I have met and I think they all feel that I am out of my senses! Yet another specialty is their coffee. I still remember the meeting with my manager when he was down in Hyderabad. He gulped down 5 cups of coffee one after another because it was so good. Yes, 5 freaking cups! I restricted myself to a meager 2 cups!

The other thing that happens at this hotel very often are birthday parties , retirement functions and even weddings. The most irritating of them are the birthday parties, most of them of kids between 1 and 3years, because they have blaring loud Tollywood and Bollywood music till 11pm but I guess because of their cheap rates and location, most people prefer this location compared to some others. All in all , the experience has been interesting and pretty good! So following is my recommendation :

I , the writer of this blog, sincerely and strongly recommend my readers to definitely visit this wonderful hotel in Himayat Nagar, Hyderabad if and when you get a chance!

Also make sure you have Upma and a cup of coffee !!!

2 comments:

Deeps said...

This post is coming in after really long time :D.

Its very rare that a hotel has that
tasty Uppma. Nevertheless, Recommendation taken :) Will try next time around.

Unknown said...

Totally agree!! I was recommended the Taj Mahal Hotel by someone when I was in Hyderabad almost 10 years back. And I didn't know that it was a south Indian vegetarian restaurant, going by the name!!
Totally kick-ass place, and I do like their thali the most!