At Hyderabad airport, I was in queue for the pre-paid taxi - when my turn came and I said 'Nampally' (where my hotel was), I was tapped by someone who suggested that we share a taxi. I'm usually quite circumspect about people who I meet at the exit of an airport / railway station / bus stand but, given that I had not slept for a minute the previous night, I gave in and agreed. Note to self: Never again!!!
No - I was not mugged or ripped off but throughout the 40 minute taxi ride, but this gentleman (if I can call him that), spoke non-stop and asked me all sorts of questions ranging from the tax rate in the UK to real estate prices in Edinburgh and Delhi (thankfully stopping short of the very intimate queries). I would have gladly given him 400/- rupees to shut up (twice the amount I saved by sharing the taxi with him). He was dropped off before me - as soon as he was out of the cab - the taxi-driver turned to me and said 'kitna advanced aadmi tha na?'
I got to my hotel and rested in my room for half an hour to get the non-stop chatter and questions out of my head. When I did head out, my first stop was Charminar. There was cacaphony there too. But of a different kind - policeman shouting, people gesticulating, cars and 2 wheelers honking, pearl-shopkeepers trying to attract the attention of 'customers'. But these are the sounds I love (and missed in Europe!).
Coming back to Charminar – it is located in the heart of ‘old’ Hyderabad. The monument, which is the iconic image of the city, was built in 1591 by Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah to commemorate the end of an epidemic. Using the steep stairs, I got to the top of the monument, from where one can get lovely views of the cramped city and streets scenes below. On the second floor of Charminar is a mosque and there is a Muslim shrine on the ground level, along with a temple which seems like an encroached after-thought.
Close by is Laad Bazaar famous for its shops of bangles, perfumes, pearls, and jewels – I gave all of them a wide berth. Also next to the Charminar is the 10,000 capacity Mecca Masjid (so named because some bricks used to build it were brought from the holy land of Mecca). Construction of this mosque was started in 1614 and still wasn’t completed in 1687 when Aurangzeb annexed the Golconda empire. He ordered immediate completion of the mosque - the minarets, which were supposed to soar over those of the Charminar, were completed at the level they had reached (so they look rather stunted!).
The Salarjang Museum is one of the main ‘tourist attractions’ of Hyderabad. This museum contains the private collection of Mir Yusuf Ali Khan a.k.a. Salar Jang (1889-1949) who was the prime minister of the seventh and last Nizam of Hyderabad (more on the history of the Nizams later on). Salarjung was a rich chap - after all he worked for the-then richest man in the world – he bequeathed his private collection of over 35,000 items to the Government and the vastness of the museum is a testimony to his wealth and tastes (reminded me of the Burrell collection in Glasgow).
The most famous artefact of this museum is a 150-year old Musical clock placed in a large hall where people crowd at the stroke of every hour (which is when the music happens). Once can sense the air of expectancy in the hall as the hour approaches. A minute or two before the hour a ‘man’ with a staff comes out of his ‘room’ in the clock. That is when there are loud ‘aaaaaaah’s from the assembled crowd. Then, at the hour, the ‘man’ strikes a gong for the appropriate number of times and, immediately after striking the gong for the last time, he hastily goes back into his room. The latter action, done suddenly and with a jerk, causes everyone to titter and giggle. Show over!
Another famous piece at the museum is the ‘Veiled Rebecca’. This stunning marble statue, carved by Benzino, is of a thinly-veiled woman. The folds of her veil and her semi-transparent expression behind it are very beautifully and delicately done. Another well-known sculpture is of ‘Mephistopheles and Margaret’. Carved in wood, this double-sided statue has Mephistopheles on one side and Margaret on the other, both characters from Goethe’s Dr. Faust.
My next stop was the ‘Nizam’s Collection’ housed in Purani Haveli (one of the Nizam’s numerous palaces). A bit of cut-paste history of Hyderabad - in 1724, after the death of Aurangzeb, viceroy Asaf Jah declared the independence of Hyderabad state and proclaimed himself the Nizam. It was only during the time of the seventh Nizam in 1948 that Hyderabad was annexed into India (even though the Nizam wanted his state to be part of Pakistan – a potential logistical nightmare as it would have been surrounded on all sides by India).
Coming back to the ‘Nizam’s Collection’ – aside from diamond-encrusted hand-mirrors and gem-laden hookahs, the most interesting part of the collection is the 240 feet walk-in wardrobe of the Nizam (apparently the largest in the world). He obviously never repeated his clothes! Well if you are the richest person in the world, you can afford to do so.
On Sunday morning, I decided to go for an early morning heritage walk conducted by the Andhra Tourism Development Corporation. It was heartening to see a number of locals (and tourists) who were willing to 'spoil' their Sunday morning to see a slice of Hyderabad. I reached much before the appointed time (at Charminar) and enjoyed seeing a different aspect of the area. It was totally quiet - people with newspapers huddled around tea stalls, vendors setting up their stalls, a lone autorickshaw looking for fare, streets being swept up. It was a perfect way to see a heaving bustling city take a lazy angdai before it got down to the serious business of the day.
The two hour walk took us from Charminar to the Chowmahalla Palace a couple of kilometres away. We passed through Laad Bazaar and also saw a number of old palaces belonging to the Nizam or their lackeys. The majority of these palaces were in rather bad condition and all that remained of most were their facades. The tour ended, with a nice impromptu breakfast, at Chowmahalla palace which I had seen a day earlier.
Chowmahalla Palace ('palace of four palaces') was the seat of the Nizams - construction started in the mid-18th C and it was completed only in the mid-19th C. The palace passed on to the first wife of Mukarram Jah (the 'successor' of the seventh, and last, Nizam) who restored it along with the Faluknama palace, now a hotel. The star attraction at Chowmahalla Palace is the gaudy-yellow 1911 Silver Ghost Rolls Royce that belonged to the Nizam.
The construction of Golconda Fort, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, was started in the 11th Century by the then Hindu rulers of the area. The current structure dates back to the time of the Qutb Shahi dynasty in the 16th century. The fort is a sprawling complex that will impress anyone – the most interesting feature is the concealed clay pipeline system used to supply water to all parts of the fort. The acoustics are also quite fascinating – a small sound in the first gate apparently carried to the top of the fort more than half a kilometre away and could be used to signal an oncoming attack. There is a well-publicised sound and light show in the evenings, which I missed.
Of course, no trip to Hyderabad is complete without reference to, or consumption of, Biryani. I did quite a bit of the latter. And here’s a bit of the former. Like any other culinary speciality anywhere in the world, everyone swears by a different restaurant that serves the best. The most recommended names were 'Paradise', 'Alfa', and 'Bawarchi'. Each biryani had its own distinctiveness. I’m not going to stretch my neck out and rate one better than the other. Needless to say, they were all great. Each restaurant proudly reminds the customer that it has no branches even though there are ersatz’ galore. So, for example, apart from the ‘we have no branches’ Bawarchi , there is also a ‘new bawarchi’, a ‘green bawarchi’ and even a deliberately, but cleverly, mis-spelt ‘bavarchi’.
On my last day in the city, I visited the much-recommended Ramoji Film City which is one of the largest film studio complexes in the world. Though I did see a couple of film shootings in progress (couldn’t figure out who the actors were), I was quite disappointed by the overall experience which reminded me of the kitsch at ‘Universal Studios’. There was a ‘tour’ of the film city showing us the elaborate (but tacky) sets, neatly manicured gardens where the likes of Abhishek Bacchan and Salman Khan have strutted their stuff. Our guide went on and on, “this garden is where Vidya Balan shot for ‘Ooh La La’ and this is the park where Govinda shot the song from blah blah blah”). I was bored as they showed us fake train stations, banks, airports, the inside of an aircraft, schools, and even a London street! To kill time I saw the incredibly bad ‘spirit of Ramoji’ show and also a ‘wild-west’ action show that is the staple of any self-respecting film studio in the world. I will not waste further words on the subject.
That ended my short stay at Hyderabad. At the airport on the way back I saw something that made me smile. A 30-35 year old, slightly nervous, man leaving for foreign shores was being seen off by his entire family of 50 (I am not exaggerating!). There were the obligatory photo-sessions with teary grandmothers and aunts, awed cousins and nephews/nieces, and jealous uncles. And of course there were thirty-odd feet to be touched. A microcosm of my Incredible India!
