Biryani Dreams: 15 Short Stories That Capture the Heartbeat of Hyderabad

Rajesh Seshadri
Sep 17
3 min read

When you think of Hyderabad, what comes to mind? The aroma of dum biryani wafting from bustling kitchens? The clinking of chai glasses in an Irani café? The grandeur of the Charminar standing guard over centuries of history? Or perhaps the lyrical rhythm of Telugu and Urdu mingling in everyday conversations?

Hyderabad is not just a city — it is an emotion. And that emotion is at the heart of my new book, Biryani Dreams: 15 Short Stories from the City of Nizams, the eighth volume in the acclaimed Heartbeats of India Series.

This collection is more than just fiction. It is a tapestry of lives, flavours, and paradoxes that make Hyderabad what it is — timeless, bustling, soulful, and always surprising.

Why Biryani Dreams?

Just as biryani is more than a dish — a blend of spices, rice, meat, and love simmered into perfection — this book is more than a set of stories. Each tale is layered with nostalgia, humour, and poignancy, offering readers a feast of emotions.

Through 15 immersive short stories, Biryani Dreams explores Hyderabad’s charm, contradictions, and culture:

Irani Cafés & fading legacies: Where friendships are brewed stronger than chai.
Bazaars & bustling lanes: Echoing with voices of shopkeepers, poets, and dreamers.
Modern love & tradition: A Tinder date meets a conservative Telugu amma in Jubilee Hills.
Music, loss, and resilience: A traffic constable who sings to hide his grief.
Cultural crossroads: Friends of different faiths testing loyalty in a Charminar café.
Farewell to heritage: A Parsi café closing its doors one final time at Tank Bund.

These stories aren’t just about characters; they’re about the pulse of a city where the old and new constantly collide, creating sparks of humour, heartbreak, and hope.

Hyderabad: The Soul Behind the Stories

Every story in Biryani Dreams is anchored in Hyderabad’s iconic locales — Moazzam Jahi Market, Tank Bund, Mehdipatnam, Jubilee Hills, Malkajgiri — places that are more than backdrops. They are characters in themselves.

Moazzam Jahi Market: Juicy fruit and poetic justice in “Jamuns and Justice.”
Jubilee Hills: The comedy of culture clash in “Tinder, Tea & Telugu Mothers.”
Tank Bund: Nostalgic farewells in “The Last Irani Café.”
Secunderabad Station: Second chances on a pre-dawn train.

Through these tales, readers are invited to walk Hyderabad’s streets, smell its food, and feel its contradictions.

Part of the Heartbeats of India Series

Biryani Dreams is the eighth volume in the Heartbeats of India Series — my ongoing literary journey through India’s cities. Each book celebrates a city not just as a place, but as a living, breathing entity with stories hidden in every corner.

Previous books have explored Mumbai, Bengaluru, Varanasi, Thiruvananthapuram, and more. With Hyderabad, the journey takes on flavours as rich and layered as the biryani itself.

Nostalgia, Humour, and Poignancy in Every Page

Here’s a taste of what to expect:

A retired judge turned fruit seller pulled back into a courtroom to face his estranged daughter.
A singing traffic constable whose viral fame hides a heartbreaking truth.
Four college friends at a Mehdipatnam café — until one secret threatens to shatter everything.
An aging café owner facing the death of tradition as modern malls take over.

These stories are bound together by one theme — the resilience of the human spirit against the backdrop of a city that is forever changing, yet forever rooted in its culture.

Closing Thought

Hyderabad is a city of paradoxes. It’s where pearls and IT parks coexist, where biryani competes with pizzas, where Telugu, Urdu, and English flow into each other seamlessly.

Biryani Dreams captures this very essence — that life, like biryani, is always a mix of flavours. Some bites are spicy, some sweet, but together, they make a dish you can never forget.

So come, sip chai, taste nostalgia, laugh a little, maybe cry a little — and lose yourself in the 15 stories of Hyderabad’s heart.