Hyderabad, April 8 -- Nothing lasts forever, as they say, and it couldn't be truer for Hyderabad, which is rapidly going through major cultural shifts. Within that sphere of change are many, many things that have disappeared or have started to. If someone had told me a decade ago that one day our Irani chai-obsessed city would become a coffee-loving city, I'd have scoffed.

But I was wrong, which is why I am writing this now. As much as I don't want to say it, the culture of sipping Irani chai in tiny cafes is slowly slipping away thanks to the birth of bourgeoisie cafes selling exotic coffee and more (which I am not complaining about, by the way). It's a combination of different things, and as much as we romanticise nostalgic love o...