A friend and I started a simple tradition: each week, we would pick a random alley in the Old City and walk through it with no map and no destination. No landmarks, no checklist.
Somewhere along those walks, our understanding of the city began to shift.
The Hyderabad I thought I knew— dynamic markets, staggering monuments, vibrant storefronts—started to feel like only the surface layer. The alleys revealed something deeper: a world of artisanship, craftsmanship, and home-based work that exists largely out of view.
Here, bangles were shaped over open flames just outside doorways. Fabrics were embroidered stitch by stitch by artisans bent over colorful fabrics. Perfumes were blended in dimly lit shops, quietly and precisely. The same items I had seen neatly displayed in stores were being made here slowly, manually, and invisibly.
Each alley carried its own rhythm, its own specialization. In some, artisans sat shoulder to shoulder in near silence, their hands moving in practiced repetition. In others, entire families worked out of their homes, each person responsible for a different stage of production. The alleys were constantly buzzing with energy and movement, sustaining generational skills and traditions.
With every additional lane, and through conversations with artisans along the way, a pattern became increasingly clear. These crafted goods operate within two parallel economies. One is handcrafted production entrenched in the hidden alleys and overlooked corners of the city. The other is mass-produced, cost-efficient goods prevalent in commercial and tourist centers. In many cases, the visual difference between the two is minimal, but the implications are not.
Conversations with artisans made that distinction impossible to ignore. Many spoke about how their work, often passed down through generations, is gradually being displaced by machines, block-printing processes, and a growing demand for speed. A family’s livelihood and generational practice is now forced to cater to a market that prioritizes efficiency and price over effort.
That shift, from seeing the finished product to understanding the process behind it, fundamentally changed the way I think about consumption in Hyderabad. It shed light on how often convenience is chosen over craftsmanship, and price over process.
The question, then, became unavoidable: If I wanted to take something from Hyderabad, something authentic, what would that actually look like?
1. Zardozi Embroidery
Zardozi¹, an intricate form of embroidery using gold and silver threads, has roots in Persian and Mughal traditions and remains deeply embedded in Hyderabad’s textile culture.
One evening, while walking through Talabkatta, I came across what I can only describe as magnificent in scale: rows and rows of artisans, each bent over fabrics stretched across old wooden frames, embroidering for hours at a time. The alley seemed endless, filled with the quiet concentration of people stitching together garments that would later be sold in brightly lit wedding stores.
These hand-embroidered pieces are often found in smaller, less commercial textile shops along the peripheries of the Old City. In such spaces, the distinction between handcrafted and machine-produced work becomes discernible. Subtle variations in stitching, slight irregularities in embellishment, and the uniqueness of the piece reflect the presence of the artisan’s hand, qualities absent in standardized production.
2. Bidriware
Bidriware², decorated silverware, is one of the most distinctive crafts tied to the Deccan region. These blackened metal objects, inlaid with intricate silver designs, reflect a blend of Persian, Turkish, and Mughal influences.
In the backstreets, I watched artisans patiently etch delicate patterns into dark alloy bases before inlaying thin strips of silver by hand. The process is slow and precise, requiring an incredible level of control. A single piece can take days to complete.
Accessing handcrafted Bidriware often requires moving beyond formal retail spaces and engaging more directly with workshop clusters or semi-formal channels. These include small collectives and digital platforms like WhatsApp-based networks and Facebook marketplace. Consumers and producers directly interact, controlling their methods of production in a less competitive environment. These informal channels promote spaces where the tradition continues as a livelihood.
3. Lac Bangles
Lac bangle making is one of the most recognizable crafts associated with the areas around Charminar and Laad Bazaar. Traditionally, the process involves heating metal rings, coating them with resin (lac), and then decorating them with stones by hand³.
However, when I set out to purchase lac bangles in these highly visible market areas, I was disheartened to encounter rows of mass-produced pieces engineered for volume and affordability, repeating identical designs and reflecting a noticeable decline in quality.
Conversations with artisans revealed how many have adapted by linking with intermediary organizations and NGOs as a means of sustaining their livelihoods while preserving tradition. Kritikala represents one such model, creating spaces for women in Talabkatta to produce handcrafted goods while connecting them directly to consumers. Through this network, I observed clusters of women seated together, carefully placing stones onto heated resin and transforming simple metal rings into intricately decorated bangles. The process was deliberate and collaborative, demanding both precision and time. The finished pieces were of high quality, thoughtfully packaged, and durable, distinguishing themselves from mass-produced alternatives.
In this context, Kritikala’s work extends beyond retail. It bolsters artisanal labor by connecting it directly to markets, rather than replacing it with mechanized production. Such models suggest that the preservation of craft lies not only in consumer awareness, but in the development of systems that allow traditional methods to remain economically viable.
These spaces felt closer to what I had seen in the alleys—more intentional, more connected to the people behind the work.
4. Attar
Attar, traditional oil-based perfume, is one of the more understated yet deeply embedded elements of Hyderabadi culture. Alcohol-free and long-lasting, these fragrances are often used in daily life, particularly in moments of prayer or gathering.
Across the Old City, small perfumeries line the streets, many of them easily overlooked. Inside, the atmosphere is quiet and unhurried. I observed shopkeepers carefully blend scents, combine notes such as musk, floral, and woody elements, and adjust the proportions to create a fragrance tailored to the individual.
Unlike commercial perfumes, attar is not selected from a fixed range but developed through interaction. This mode of production and sales resists uniformity and scale and promotes composition with intention.
It’s one of the few items I came across that has not been heavily commercialized for tourists, and perhaps because of that, it feels even more rooted in everyday life and represents the culture and depth of the labyrinth of the Old City.
Walking through the alleys of Hyderabad reshaped how I see and inhabit the city. The colorful markets, diverse stalls, and vibrant finished products are only the surface. Beneath them lies a deeper layer rooted in process, family tradition, and labor unfolding out of sight. It lives in the hands that continue to make, adapt, and sustain these crafts, often with little recognition.
Simply walking through the Old City changed the way I think about consumption more broadly. It made me more aware of how often we choose the final product without considering the process behind it and how those choices determine what endures and what fades. In the end, what we choose to buy doesn’t just fill our homes, it determines which crafts and traditions continue to exist.
References
¹Zardozi.” Cultural India, https://culturalindia.net/indian-crafts/zardozi.html
²Althagafi, K. (2023). “Bidriware: An examination of the Indian metalware’s origins.” Cogent Arts & Humanities, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2023.2221886
³Muppidi, Rambabu (2025). “A Study on Lac Bangles: Design View of Society and Cultural Aspects of Hyderabad.”Current Trends in Fashion Technology & Textile Engineering. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/395903188_A_Study_on_Lac_Bangles_Design_View_of_Society_and_Cultural_Aspects_of_Hyderabad
