This physics teacher is cooking up a storm

Hyderabad: The Covid-19 pandemic did a lot of things to a lot of people across the globe. For BV Rama Prasad Rao, it catapulted him from explaining the nuances of physics to students to making biryani.

Quickly getting popular is the ‘Teacher’s Biryani’ near Lakdi-ka-pul Metro Station, which Rao set up to make ends meet post the jolt he suffered during the 2021 lockdown. The homemade chicken biryani that this former teacher cooks is for just Rs 99!

In the pre-Covid era, Rao was teaching physics at one of the leading colleges in the city. He was happy and content with his job. But when the pandemic struck Hyderabad and forced the administration to clamp lockdowns, his life, like that of many others, took an ugly turn.

It was during the first lockdown when he tried his hand at cooking. “I was watching a lot of cooking videos and trying recipes at home. My children, who are foodies, liked my food and we had a lot of fun cooking,” he says.

Fun apart, the pandemic pushed Rao into a phase of unstable finances. “I saw a lot of people who lost their jobs during the lockdown. I was worried that I would lose mine too,” he says.

Although Rao managed to stay afloat by taking tuitions, it was his children who talked him into opening the food joint. At first, he selling offering biryani from a bandi in Tarnaka and later scaled up to Teacher’s Biryani at Lakdi-ka-pul.

Rao is now gradually expanding the place and looking forward to adding more varieties — such as fish, prawns and vegetarian biryanis — to the menu. When asked if he wants to return to teaching, he says he is content with what he is doing — serving good food to people.

“I get a lot of compliments for my biryani and I’m now financially secure,” he says, adding that all he wants to do now is to expand his business, which he feels allows him to meet people from all walks of life, have conversations with them and learn new things. But he is dedicated to maintaining the quality of his food.