Hyderabad, July 16: The Nawabs are long gone from Hyderabad but their pet aristocratic pastime of puffing on hookahs is catching on like wildfire.

Techies, tourists, college students and youngsters have of late been flocking to hookah bars mushrooming in and around Hyderabad, reviving what is called a “legacy of the Nawabs” and a “symbol of aristocracy”.

Not only that, the Andhra government has ruled that puffing on hookahs at pubs, bars, restaurants and coffee bars is not illegal and cannot be banned in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

The statement came from Andhra home minister Sabita Indra Reddy during question hour on Wednesday at a time when other state governments have been inclined to issue bans on smoking in public places. Reddy said providing hookahs to customers was not an offence under prevailing laws and a new law would be required to ban them.

“Hookah-smoking is considered hospitality in Hyderabad, a legacy of the Nizams. We cannot ban it. It was as common in mahals and palaces a few decades ago as serving dessert after dinner,” she said.

Sources said that the only occasions on which police mounted surprise raids on standalone hookah bars or cafes/restaurants with hookah counters were when people complained that the puffs were being laced with drugs and that college students and schoolchildren had been spotted there. Even then, the bar managers could only be booked for nuisance as there are no laws to monitor the use of hookahs, they said.

Dilshad Jah, a descendant of a Hyderabadi Nawab, said hookah-smoking was a centuries-old aristocratic legacy of the Persian and Turkish invaders. “It is a gift to us and is as popular as the Irani chai,” he said.

Muktadar Jung, a descendant of the 110-year-old Ali Yavar Jung who was a minister in the service of the seventh Nizam Usman Ali Pasha in the 1940s, said at one time there used to be 20 to 30 varieties of flavoured tobacco available for use in hookahs. “Now we get hardly five varieties.”

He reminisced that there used to be a silver hookah, the size of a horse, in the hall of his father’s palace where every guest could take a puff along with tea or wine.

As of now, there are some 30 hookah bars in Hyderabad, offering tobacco flavoured with honey, molasses or fruit and other flavours. Several have sprouted in Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Rajendranagar, Shamshabad, Kompally, Alwal and Madhapur. Apart from techies and youngsters, they are a huge draw for tourists from West Asia.

“Chocolate, saffron and mint-flavoured hookahs are a hot favourite with youngsters. I offer some 15 flavours,” said Riya Khan, who runs the Mirza Ghalib bar in Kompally in Hyderabad’s IT corridor. He said his clientele comprised techies from Infosys, Microsoft, Dell and Tata Consultancy Services and that he hosted hookah evenings for visitors from Iran and West Asia.

Hookah bars in upscale areas charge a minimum of Rs 250 for a twin puff. The prices go up to Rs 1,200 for a half-hour of puffing in a silver hookah. Some bars serve silver, glass, bronze and copper hookahs, in a practice reminiscent of the nawabi era. Generally one hookah has four attached pipes that four persons smoke at the same time. In downmarket areas, hookahs come for as little as Rs 25.