Café Nandini

Hyderabad is a weird city. It strives a little too hard to make you feel at home. And to tell you the truth it does succeed!

It was raining one day when 5 of us entered this small Udupi restaurant called Café Nandini. The guys were just looking for something to eat, and I was waiting around as usual. Just then I smelt an aroma that wasn’t really very familiar in Hyderabad, that of fresh filter coffee (any corporate person would agree with me on this ;)). On an impulse I ordered it, and that was the moment Hyderabad came a lot closer to being ‘home’:) That coffee was the best I’d had since I left from Mysore. That’s when I realized that this place certainly deserved a blog entry :) The coffee reminded me so much of how Ma used to make it for me and get it to my room, how I used to sit on my bed and drink it watching something on my PC, how I’d spilt some of it on my bed and cleaned it up in a hurry ;) (Mom still doesn’t know about the stain under the sheet since I assume the bedspread hasn’t been changed yet!)

We went back there yesterday for dinner, and another amazing thing happened. For the first time in many many years, I managed to finish a whole Channa Batura (they call it Chole Batura here) by myself! The big deal here is that I didn't 'waste' any food!

I’m sure a certain someone will be proud of me ;)