Ever wondered what sets a Hyderabadi apart from the rest of the country? Read on to find out.
* Your address reads 23-404-32/67A-43 (New MCH number 56-678/4A/B-22), when you actually live in the second house beside Zamzam Cafe in the lane behind Anand Theatre on SP Road.
* Your street has at least one bandi that serves Chinese delicacies such as ‘vegetable soft needles’, ‘navrotten kurma’, ‘chicken manchewurea’ or ‘American chompsee’.
* When somebody asks you for directions to go anywhere your answer is always, ‘seedha chale jao.’
* You can speak Hindi, Urdu, Hinglish, Telenglish… everything except Telugu, fluently.
* You ask the waiter to get you ‘achaar’ even if you are sitting at a lavish continental dinner.
* You order for a tea just after having had a caramel custard.
* You have at least one Srinivas, Prasad, Reddy, Raju or Rao in your neighbourhood.
* You have at least one cousin, friend, colleague or acquaintance in the US in software.
* Every time somebody gives you some good news, you ask, ‘Party kab hain?’
* You refer to any past as ‘parso’, be it yesterday or long before three hundred years.
* Even 11 am is subah subah.
* You label your boss as ‘Dimakh Kharab.’
* You are 15 minutes late and you feel you are on time.
* You look at the ‘fixed price’ board and ask ‘dene ka bolo.’
* You feel offended by someone looking at you (Kaiku ghoorraa re?)
* You always say chup be, mooh dekh aaine mein.
* You say ‘Light le baap’, however grave the situation is.
* You feel it’s your Nizami birthright to show your hand and stop the traffic while you cross the road.
* You can hang out at an Irani cafe the whole day after ordering one-cup tea and an empty saucer for your friend and you.
* You have to eat biryani atleast once a week.
* You keep saying nakko, hou, kaiku and hallu.
* You tell your friend ‘abhi aathu mein’ when both of you know you won’t be back.
