Hyderabad, July 22 -- What's in a name? Shakespeare may have believed that a rose would smell as sweet by any other name, but he clearly never visited Hyderabad. Had he done so, he would have realised that a humble brinjal - better known here as baigan - isn't just a vegetable. It is an emotion, an exclamation, a punchline, a philosophy and, as it now turns out, the title of a book.

For the uninitiated, baigan is a perfectly respectable, nutrient-rich vegetable found in kitchens across India. But in Hyderabad, it has achieved celebrity status. It has quietly slipped out of the frying pan and into everyday conversation, becoming an inseparable part of Dakhni.

Someone is boring you? Say "Baigan ke bataan nakko karo."

You couldn't care le...