Hyderabad II – Char Minar and Nizam palace

Alright so in continuation to my last post on the Hyderabad trip, I am writing this. After going to Golconda fort, I wanted to see the char Minar and Nizam’s palace. Therefore I set forth in an autorikshaw( This was the next day ofcourse). Though I must warn fellow travelers that they charge ridiculous amount until unless you are willing to bargain with them.

The Char Minar is situated deep in the old city of Hyderabad, it took me 30-45 mins from my residence in Hyderabad (which was outskirts of Hyderabad near the IT city).

I for one had never seen Char Minar, so obviously was excited to see it for the first time. Though many had warned me not to keep high hopes as it may lead to disappointment. Still the excitement was there.

Upon arriving at Char Minar, I can say it was pretty much what I expected . Reasonable expectations did come to my rescue. There was a counter for entering, which charged about Rs 4 per person. This was done by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). I dare say the job that they were doing for maintenance was not good.

The view from char minar was certainly a delight. The staircase to get up however was too narrow and steep. I guess architects forgot about people climbing up. Usual to the Indian standards the site was riddled with piques of paan (The banner of  “Kindly Paint me red”  was the only sign missing, rest of the job was done fully well by the local tourist armed with their gutkas. This is specifically the case of staircase).

The view from the top of Char Minar was a nice one. You can see the entire old city and the mosque which is besides it. There is a famous bangle shop there. It is in a lane which faces one of the four walls of Char Minar.  That same lane would eventually lead you to Nizam’s Palace.

I remembered the mosque near Char Minar from the news briefing about Saina Mirza, the news was such that she went for a photo-shoot there. Apparently the orthodox individuals had an issue with her “posing” in a mosque.

The minar offers a view into the lanes of Bazar. I clicked couple of picks of the opposite side, the hustle and bustle of the lanes brought out the liveliness of the city. After staying there for 45 mins. I moved onto Nizam’s palace. Apparently Nizam had seven wives and 42 concubines and 40 Children. Quite an Army indeed.

The Place of Nizams was huge indeed. ASI handled it too. They charged Rs 10 to enter but for forigeners it was a bit more. The courtyard was grand and one was able to see the place where the Nizam use to sit.  However the clicking of pictures in the inner chamber was not allowed. It was a sort of a museum of the history of nizams.

Nizam’s Throne :

While going through the museums of nizam, I got across a pic which looked familiar to me of black and white cinema era actress, Nilofar. Apparently she was married to the Nizam (That was a news to me).

Finally after watching the whole of the palace which was done in an hour or so. One decided to head back to the city. There was some time left so one could catch on some other places before it was dark. Hussain Sagar Lake was such a spot.

They say that Hussian Sagar Lake was a man made lake build built by Hazrat Hussain Shah Wali in 1562, during the rule of Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah.

There is one big statue of Buddha in the middle of lake which was installed in 1992. One could see a boat club there, where people were boating in the lake. For those interested in going to see the Buddha statue, they need to board a ferry.

The sight at Hussian Sagar lake was a calming one . The winds were also keeping temperature chilly. The whole day’s trip came to a fitting end. It is a popular spot among tourist and I can certainly see why it is so.

Hyderabad I – The Golconda Fort

Last year I went to Hyderabad, the second IT city after Bangalore in south India. It is the capital of Andra Pradesh which currently is in a bitter battle of separation, in order to create another state of Telengana. I stayed in Hyderabad for 7 days before proceeding to Bangalore via a bus.

I reached Hyderabad in august of 2010.(cannot remember the exact date). I do remember however that it was 10 am that my flight landed and I had boarded the flight from delhi at 7:30 am (so it took 2 hours and 30 mins ) . This is the exact time that it takes if you are going from delhi to Thimpu,capital of Bhutan. Remarkable right… India is a vastly remarkable country…

The first couple of days were just site seeing near the place I resided. I tried to get accustomed to Hyderabad but then I ventured out to see the Golconda fort.

Golconda fort has an interesting history, it starts with  13th century  built by the Kakatiya kings. Though the current structure was build by the Bahmani Sultanate .After the collapse of sultanate, a new empire ruled over it. That of Qutb Shahi dynasty before it fell to Mughals. It was captured by Mughals during the time of Aurangzeb. It is said that he captured it to finance his crumbling empire as Qutb Shahi dynasty had lots of diamonds. The region itself was rich producer of diamonds.

The historians also write that the defense of Golconda fort was so good that Aurangzeb’s army was not able to get in. Only after bribing the gatekeeper, the Mughal army was able to capture the fort.

Something which amused me was to find a temple at the top of fort. The story about it is that a saint Kancharla Gopanna, popularly known as Bhaktha Ramadaasu, a devout Hindu constructed Bhadrachalm temple without informing the sultan at that time Tana Shah. This resulted in his being  jailed located inside the fort. I saw the place where he was jailed but forgot to take a pic(but certainly got the pics of temple).

I think, of all the ancient monuments that I saw in Hyderabad. Golconda was finest. At the top of the fort one could see Hyderabad. It think the attacking armies could have been easily spotted 100 Kms away. Truly on top of the fort it was a remarkable view. The greenery of Hyderabad is also proved when you view from top of Golconda fort.

While in Hyderabad I also observed one trend, there seems to a lot of construction going on. It seemed that Hyderabad was on infrastructure revamp mission. The road connecting airport to outskirts of Hyderabad where most IT companies are offers memorable sights for watching.Though I must say campus of both Microsoft and Infosys were equally beautiful.