If you wish to explore the city of Hyderabad on your own; or with your muse, spouse, partner, alter-ego(s), close friends, or colleagues; we have arranged a variety of personalised and customised theme tours that were selected for Colloquium delegates by Jayanthi (AKA Jonty) Rajagopalan and her team at Detours India, to showcase Hyderabad in an off-beat and different light from the usual city tour.
Let's hear what Jonty has in store for you this September.
Detours India
Hi, I’m Jonty. After graduating in management studies and after 14 years of experience in the corporate and social development sectors, I started Detours India in 2008. Today, the Detours team consists of five other people like me. We try to take the untold stories of Hyderabad and weave magical tours around them to give our guests glimpses of the city in a new and completely different light.
- We take small groups to visit artisans who have been all but forgotten by the present generation.
- We visit the by-lanes of Hyderabad to give you a glimpse of the lives that people live. They may not always be picture-book perfect, but this clearly depends on which kind of picture-book you cherish.
- We often sit by beautiful tombs and listen, and remember the stories of romance and tragedy. Every so often you may actually feel the presence of those whose memories we evoke.
- Many of our tours focus on the arts and crafts, especially those that are becoming difficult to sustain.
- Apart from traditional crafts of the region, such as Bidri, Ikkat-weaving, and Dakhini miniature paintings, we also take people to visit new-age designers, and funky boutiques; and to explore the crowded by-lanes and secrets of the myriad local bazaars.
- If you are a foodie whose desire is to explore the culinary heritage (AKA cook-book secrets) of Hyderabad, then Detours can help you with exposés of secret family recipes stashed in hidden and oft-forgotten corners of splendid, old homes.
- Detours also delights in watching intrepid visitors deal with self-imposed challenges to their digestive systems (roadside food stalls not recommended if this our first visit to India)! But, some do like it hot- and for them, we recommend the ubiquitous piping-hot chilli fritters. Sheer music for a true foodies’ soul!
- So, whether you want to learn how to make the most perfectly cooked Biryani from an old family recipe, to learning how to make Haleem; from an even-older recipe; we have tours for all kinds of guests!
Our Tour Companions
While it is a cliché to describe India as a complex country, we know that it is this very complexity that makes travellers come again and again.
Our Tour Companions play a very important role in helping you make sense of our culture and our idiosyncrasies. We have a small group of young, enthusiastic tour companions who are keen travellers themselves, and who relate very well to international travellers.
All of them speak the local languages and are familiar with the unique history, and culture of this region. Some are experts in their fields, and all are keen to associate with Detours in order to promote a greater understanding of India’s cultural uniqueness.
In fact, all of us at Detours are cultural ambassadors of this country. Our interactions are not just rehearsed lines about a monument, but a blend of history, anecdotes from our lives, and the lives of those lived before us, and a range of experiences of everything that will help our guests relate to Hyderabad, and to India better.
Detours India and the Cochrane Colloquium September 2014
We are excited to present a set of tour options during the Colloquium, which will give you a chance to experience this part of India. We offer different options so that you can choose the ones that best suit your interests, as well as the time available for you before the Colloquium, during Colloquium days when you might have some free time to spare, and on some of the evenings.
Booking Process
To book your tour or for enquires about the tours, e-mail us at: cochrane2014tours@detoursindia.com
Please note: Booking for all tours closes on 31 August 2014.
However, we will have a tour desk at the Colloquium where you can book your tour in case there are vacancies.
Book your tour from among the categories below: