Facts about Hyderabad.Part 6

Facts about Hyderabad.Part 5

Saidanimma's Tomb

Today I had some work in Ranigunj.While going towards the bus stop near tank bund,I stopped by Saidanimma's tomb on MG road.It is on the left side of the road while going towards tank bund from Ranigunj.

This tomb belongs to the mother of the Abdul Haq Diler Jung,a noble in the Asaf Jahi court.Built in the late nineteenth century(1800s).Even though this was built in the Asaf Jahi time(nizam's time) it has predominantly Qutb Shahi features.The tomb is full of ornamentation and looks similar to the work in Paigah tombs.

This structure lies on the main road and one shouldnt miss this when taking a stroll on the Tank Bund stretch.

State Central Library,Afzalgunj

Yesterday one of our lecturers took a leave and we didnt have any classes in the afternoon.Instead of going back home I thought of visiting some heritage structure.After some brainstorming I zeroed in on State Central Library in Afzalgunj, formerly known as Asafia Library.It is one of the biggest libraries in India.The state central library started in 1891 by Nawab Imad ul Mulk and later shifted to the present status.I called up shoaib and he readily agreed to accompany me.We boarded a public bus from Mehdipatnam to Afzalgunj.From the afzalgunj bus stop, it is a short walk to the library.The front arch of the library could be seen from a distance beautifully framed by the surrounding trees.As we entered the library complex the first thing I noticed was the number of students present here.They were everywhere, some sitting on the
flight of steps that lead to the main door of the library,some in the lawns,some near the gate etc.
We stood before the steps, took in the view and took some pics.The facade of the building is its best part with a big arch with some beautiful decorations.We went inside and the first left turn is the
reference section.It has a number of other sections like the newspaper section,technical section,periodical section urdu section etc.we scrolled through the books row by row and in 15 mins finished.(There werent many books here though i cant say if they have kept them in some other part of the library)The reference hall was big and spacious with all the glory of the Osmanian architecture.But sadly it not kept in shape.The whole building looked in a dilapadated state.Unless some one takes care we may lose this building too.After taking out a couple of 'Imperial gazeteers of india' books i asked a person who looked like the caretaker about books on hyderbadi history.He called a girl and instructed her to give hyderabad history book to me.she took me to another room and gave me a book.I thought she would show me an almirah full of books,and here she was pinting toward a single book.I was disppointed but took that book anyway.I suspect they dont take youngsters seriously.These days whos interested in history,they may be feeling.Anyway I skimmed through the book.It was published during the time of the 7th nizam in 1929 .The book was good,there were some good old pictures.We sat there for 2 hours.At 5pm ,as
the time for iftaar was drawing near,we decided to leave.Before leaving the complex we made a walk along the perimeter looking at the building.The main building is in a poor condition with moss growing in some areas.At the back a relatively new section has been made,the urdu section.

There is also a technical section.The most popular one here.Those students I saw earlier were here for the techical section.After coming out i took some more pics and then left satisfied after seeing one of the best buildings of the Nizam era. 

Paigah Tombs

Public Gardens or Bagh-e-Aam in Nampally is a place i saw many times while passing through nampally while going to abids.But i never had a chance to visit it.Finally last sunday,getting bored i called up akram and farooq and suggested a trip to PG.The three of us soon boarded a bus to nampally.Its a journey of around 15mins from Mehdipatnam.We got down at nampally busstop, crossed the road and reached the park entrance.Having reached the entrance we were a bit confused about the layout of the garden. some aimless wandering later we found our bearings and started our stroll.The garden itself is beautiful with a small lake in the middle.To our pleasant surprise we found a number of school children who came on an excursion.Strolling leisurely,with a gentle breeze blowing,we watched the kids joyfully whistling and shouting as they


played 'out-out'.After this leisurely walk i came down to business.My actual idea behind this visit was to take a look at the 6 heritage building that this garden encloses.I could only find 5 i dont know what the 6th one is.The 1st is the archaeological museum.We made a quick visit inside and the main attraction of the museum is the Egyptian
mummy.Its one among the 6 mummies found in India.There are many other artifacts,guns,coins,paintings and things on which i ,as an ameteaur cant comment.Maybe sometime later ill write an entire post on this museum.Next heritage building was the Jawhar Bal Bhavan. We couldn't go inside as some renovation was going on.I clicked some pics and
then moved on to the next building,the Jubilee Hall.This was a palace made in 1913 during the reign of Mir Osman Ali Khan.The silver jubilee coronation of the 7th Nizam

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was held here hence the name.As we were taking some pics ,a person who looked like some kind of a supervisor asked us who we were and what we were doing.On telling him that we were students and taking pics ,he rudely stared shouting at us and told us to leave immediately.I tried talking but he would have any of it .He kept asking us if we had permission to take pics.I still dont know if we require permission or not.Anyway we left him there shouting and moved on to the next building the Shahi Masjid.Walking ahead i saw a building with some intricate designs made all around it.This was the mini Bal Bhavan.Presently it houses the HQ of dept. of horticulture.From
here we wound up our small tour and i boarded the return bus happy with the knowledge that i could strike off 5 more names of heritage structures from my list of 150.
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Walk it! Feel it! Heritage Walk 2

I was waiting for a chance to go the heritage walk for a long time .it finally came yesterday. I called up two of my friends and requested them to join me. To my delight they agreed.
I reached Charminar at around 7am and Mudassir and Layak, my friends were already waiting there. We went towards the Heritage Walk stall setup at the base of the Charminar. The security guard pleasantly inquired if we were there for the Heritage Walk. We replied that we were and soon tickets in hand we made our way inside. We waited there for a while till the arrival of our guide at around 7 40. Till then many other tourists gathered and surprisingly there were more foreigners than Indians. Our guide was a polite and good natured lady. After a brief and colourful introduction by her, the walk started.
The first stop was immediately outside the Charminar. The jama masjid was built my Mohd Quli Qutb Shah before the construction of the Mecca Masjid began. Jama Masjid was the first big masjid to be constructed outside the Golconda.We looked only from the outside as the locals refused permission to let us inside. After the explanation by the guide,we walked towards the charkaman. 'kaman' means gateway and 'char' means four. This gateway frames the charminar beautifully when viewed from some distance.The four ways leading outward from the Charminar all have one kaman each.The surroundings have many such kamans apart from the four mentioned above. As we moved on, we came across a crossroad ,the center of which had a fountain named Gulzar Houz.
To the left is the Sehr-e-Batil kaman and to the right is the Kali kaman.From the Gulzar Houz we procedded towards the Patherghatti Market.All of us looked with interest but to the sellers's dismay nobody bought anything.
The moment the patherghatti market ends,the dewan devdi complex starts at the right side of the road.'Dewan' means 'prime minister' and 'devdi' means house.This structure belongs to the Nizam era and not the Qutb Shahi era. Much of it does not exist today,only some small portions can be seen. Further walking brought us to the Dewan Devdi Darwaza ,which thankfully is in fine condition.This was the home to many of the prime ministers of the many nizams.
Also the Salarjung Museam was based here before it shifted to the present location.
The last stop was the Badshahi Ashurkhana,the place of mourning built by Mohd Quli Qutb Shah.This was undoubtly the most beautiful structure in the whole walk.The Ashurkhana lies opposite to another heritage building,the Alladin building.The main Aashurkhana complex is square shaped with four buildings at each side.As we enter, to the right side there is the Nagar khana and to the left the Ashurkhana.The other side has a kitchen and some rooms.The Ashurkhana itself was not as big as i expected. After acquiring the keys from the caretaker and removing our footwear,we went inside.The main wall was breathtaking to say the least.It had enamelled tiles which glistened in the morning sun's rays.We spent a long time looking at the tiles.Sensing our interest right from the start,the guide gave us some more interesting nuggets of information.One such was that in the 1908 floods of musi(yes!! the musi did flood some times in the past)half of the Ashurkhana was submerged damaging the tiles below the waterline.These were later repainted by the nizam but the glory of the qutb shahi tiles could not be regained.After some time, breakfast packs were distributed and then some sizzling irani chai was served.After this, the walk eneded and one by one the tourists left. Soon we found ourselves alone with the guide,with whom we talked for sometime. She soon left as she had another tour to go to. We clicked some more pics and then left.
It was 10am and the breakfast didn't appease mudassir's appetite,so we went to the famous hotel shadab and had some local hyderabadi fares .Layak still didn't want to go so i suggested why not take a look at some more heritage buildings nearby while we were there.He agreed and we then had a look at the Govt City College and the Puranapul. After that we decide to call it a day and went home.