Hyderabad – this city of pearls is always in the news for thousand and one reasons, be it for food, clothing, parties, and launch pads or for its indomitable people like tennis star - Sania Mirza, the gorgeous Dia Mirza or cricket buddy V V S Laxman. Being the fifth metropolitan city and a common hub for IT industries to flourish, Hyderabad is not only known for its nawabi style but is named as Hi-Tec city. This city of nawabs has covered an extensive journey in a very short span of time.

Currently, Hyderabad is swarming with people from all over India. Reason - the Ramzan month and this season’s favorite and appetizing delicacy haleem. It is in this time of the year that the biryani capital lives and enjoys 24x7.

The festival of Ramzan or as it is called Ramadan is celebrated in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. This fast of Ramadan goes on for the entire month. It is in the evenings that people have haleem here that is when they break the fast. Towards the end of the month, the fast is finished and three days in a row are celebrated. This three-day festival is Id-al-fitr (the feast of fast breaking ). Family and friends gather together for congregated prayer and large and scrumptious meals.

Talking about meals gets me right back to the appetizing one I mentioned before, that is the heavenly haleem. This tasty and lip-smacking dish is not only relished by the muslims, but also by the non-muslims. Hyderabad has varied number of people belonging to different castes. People from all the communities enjoy the taste of haleem.

The basic ingredients of haleem are wheat and meat porridge with gram pulse, curd and vegetable oil. This is topped with fried onions, spices and mint. It is served with lemon juice. It is a very nutritious meal and mouth watering one too. Just check for your mouth now, I am sure it must have started watering by just listening to its description. The tastiest haleem in Hyderabad can be had, as you drive a bit further beyond Charminar, the place is Pista House. In just four years, this place has made people go bonkers over its cuisine. Apart from its regular cuisine, it is famous for it deliciously prepared haleem. Hyderabad is a big city, crowd from nuke and corner of the city come to this heavenly destination for just one bowl of haleem. Well if your appetite permits, you can have more! This one bowl of haleem is for Rs.40 here. People just can’t stop eating it once they start. A group of persons always regretted not having it. There are none other than the vegetarians. They always wondered what could it taste like?

No sooner than later, Pista House has come up with this new recipe of vegetarian haleem. Since many months over 100 cooks kept experimenting with different ingredients, till they strike the right one. The vegetarian haleem is made of ground wheat, vegetables and dry fruits. It looks the same but tastes heavenly with vegetables say the vegetarians.

With the increasing demand of haleem, the head of the Pista House M. A. Majeed, in collaboration with the postal government have a new idea of making this nutritious meal available to everybody. The idea is that the delectable dish instead of being served by the waiters will now be given or sent through the mailmen. By just placing the order on the phone the hyderabadis can relish haleem that will be neatly packed and brought to your doorstep. Or else, people can also go to the nearest post offices and get their haleem. This haleem is prepared and packed under strict hygienic conditions. After preparation, it is sealed and delivered at the nearest post office before the sunset. Food inspectors from the city’s Institute of Preventive Medicine supervise the entire process.

Over 3,200 orders are booked per day, which is creating big revenue. The packages display quantity, date of packing, shelf life and price. The shelf life for Haleem is one day and it is traditionally taken hot and fresh. These packages are delivered from 4.00pm to 7.00pm daily. This haleem is packed in plastic containers of different quantities like 300gm, 900gm, 1200gm and 1500gm. The prices are slightly higher than the prices at which haleem is sold at Pista House. Around 6-8 tonnes of haleem is made everyday at Pista House. 400 employees are involved in the preparation and selling of haleem. It is masses working towards satisfying the appetites of masses.

M. A. Majeed, owner of Pista House has plans on selling this haleem abroad, to countries like USA also. He has already forwarded the proposal to the government. Though, haleem is not yet sent overseas, but haleem from Pista House does go to other metropolitan and cosmopolitan cities. In Bombay, loads of Pista House’s haleem is been sent for urban iftar parties. Stars like Dilip Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Govinda annually relish this haleem by getting it through post. Our own telugu film stars also relish this dish. To avoid crowd from disturbing them while having haleem, these stars eat in their luxurious cars. It is funny and unbelievable to see people from various strata of the society coming to eat, smelling the Pista House haleem

So now you know till where you can smell Hyderabad’s haleem. Apart from Pista House second food hangout that makes lip-smacking haleem is Paradise. This haleem is relished till the day for sheer khorma and sewiyan ka halwa comes, that is Id-al-fitr.

Keep imagining the taste till this irresistible dish reaches your doorstep or else just drop in to join this haleem maniac festival.