Popular stereotypes tag Indian cities. If Mumbai is perceived as a lively, always-on-the-move maximum city, Hyderabad has come to be known as a nawabi laid-back city full of gluttonous gastronomes always found either devouring biryani or gulping endless pyalis of chai!
It required a Dinesh C Sharma, a Hyderabadi himself, to demolish this stereotypical image of Hyderabad and tell us a wonderful backstory of how the 430-year-old city of Qutub Shahis and the Nizams has transformed itself from a sleepy urban sprawl of magnificent palaces and gardens into a globalized city that has footprints in everything that is ultra-modern as reflected in the location of the swank high technology offices of Google, Microsoft and Amazon, to name a few.
It is a monumental task to pack all the developments spanning centuries that transformed Hyderabad in a book of 300-odd pages but Sharma has accomplished it with elan. He has combined history with science and industry-related developments to weave a compelling story for all those interested in knowing the elements that go into making of a city, its organic growth and its metamorphosis.