Biryani has been much in the news lately, thanks to the rather intemperate and unwarranted remarks on the kind of Biryani prepared by people of the coastal Andhra Pradesh. It does not matter whether the ‘Andhrans’ can make tasty, spicy biryani – to the discussion on forming a separate state. If Andhrans make tasteless biryani, you don’t have to make tasteless remarks on that, Mr KCR!
Indeed, no one said that the ‘Andhrans’ taught culture to the Telangana folks. It was really the leaders of the first Telangana movement (back in 1969) who said that the people of coastal Andhra don’t know tameez and tehzeeb. Back then, a lot of them addressed public meetings in Urdu – and claimed that Hyderabad’s cosmopolitan culture would be compromised in the composite Andhra Pradesh. In addition to the dialectal difference between the kind of Telugu spoken in Telangana and Andhra, the leaders of the first Telangana struggle belabored the point of their superiority on account of being able to speak in Urdu, which is but a mixture of Hindi and Persian!
And now let us get back to biryani. For long, I believed, like most Hyderabadis, that biryani is a Hyderabadi speciality. And one day, my HR manager at Citec (Ms Shraboni Majumdar) clarified that biryani was basically an alien preparation. Here is what wikipedia says:
“Biryani was originated in Iran (Persia) and it was brought to the South Asia by Iranian travelers and merchants. Local variants of this dish are not only popular in South Asia but also in Arabia and within various South Asian communities in Western countries.”
And there is this interesting thing about Lucknow biryani:
“Lucknow and biryani have an almost symbiotic relationship. The Lucknow (Awadhi) biryani is the footprint that the Muslims of the Mughal Empire left on the northern part of India. It originated in the village 'Bare Next' and although it originated in the North, Virani Biryani has also picked up flavors of the South. The Awadhi Biryani is also known as "Pukka" Biryani as the rice and meat are cooked separately and then layered.”
There is Calcutta biryani, there is Sindhi biryani, there is Kozhikode biryani and even Thai biryani. And of course, there is Hyderabadi biryani.
As I have already stated, there is nothing to boast about making great biryani. Or even sending it to terrorists holding the Hazrat Bal mosque to ransom.
Three cheers KCR!
Three jeers to Mayawati
It was indeed shocking to see the footage of a security officer cleaning the shoes of U.P. Chief Minister Mayawati. Well, three jeers at her…
Nice read! Like most non-vegetarians, I believe that a true biryani is made of meat. There is nothing called a veg biryani. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd yes 3 jeers to Mayawati. Our politicians never cease to amaze us with their humbleness.:P