HYDERABAD: After a long tiring day at work spent making office presentations coupled with chais and coffees to stay alert, the next place one looks for at the end of the day is a place one can chill out unencumbered by any questions. As every individual is different, the choices for destressing is also varied – be it gossiping with friends, reading books or just playing the games; everyone has a hangout spot.
For Rohit Rajarapu, a corporate employee, a hangout spot is where there is mellow music so he can talk to the person accompanying him peacefully. “Many places in the city play loud music. I try to avoid going to such places as the whole purpose of catching up with a friend is lost. I make sure that the place I go to offers good food as I am a foodie and like to experiment with food. The ambiance also plays a lot of importance. It should have fresh flow of air ideally like Eat Street.” The ride down to Eat Street is also what makes it a must visit place for him, he adds.
Some like Bhavneet Singh, a football enthusiast prefer a place where he gets to watch his favourite game while also chatting with friends. “I prefer a place with a good sound system and a projector to screen football matches. That would be my idea of a perfect hangout. I usually visit Café Rabaat or Café latte.”
As money is something a student has to scrimp on, finding a place where cost of the food fits into their budget is crucial. So is the case with Twinkle Dundoo, a Btech student who says, “Having quite a big group of friends , I would prefer a place which is big and spacious, so that even if we make noise, it doesn’t disturb anyone. We love playing so we usually go to gaming malls. We are gastronomic saints so we prefer places that provide good food at a reasonable price. A dance floor or a gaming zone only adds to the fun.” She counts Cafe Coffee Day, McDonalds, Maharaja chat in Film Nagar, Nanking among her preferred hangout spots.
With so many restaurants and gaming places coming up, it’s again a challenging task to attract the young crowd.
Nishant Sinha from Coffee Cup, a café at Sainikpuri says, “Our café is usually thronged by youngsters from army background and these people have travelled quite a lot. As a stand-alone place we pamper our customers a lot. We customise food according to their needs. A few of them ask for spicy food whereas others ask for a particular ingredient in food so we have to customise the dish accordingly. Apart from that, we have karaoke every weekend which is liked by many. We try to engage them by providing games, holding guitar classes, painting exhibitions.”