Hyderabad Hues XIV: Elusive Koti and markets around it

I began this walk with an intent to see the Sunday book bazaar in Sultan Bazaar and Abids area and anything else that area may have in store. And what I found was an old market, some interesting buildings, an underground book bazaar, Rajasthani Chaat, a Jain temple and lots of pigeons. The palace or the King Kothi is something that this area is known as but the actual building remains elusive to the general visitor and no request to see is entertained, making it there but not there kind of structure.

We started from Moazzam Jahi Market, which with its tall clock tower is an easily recognizable structure. I had first seen its Silver model in the Nizam’s museum in Purani haveli a few months back and since them I wanted to see this. A very geometric building that is circular on the outside with a inner promenade but on top has three towers arranged in a triangle. Built in early 20^th century by the last Nizam Osman Ali, it was named after his second son Moazzam Jah and was meant to be a fruit market. Today on the outside you see big ice-cream shops, a bit on the side a perfumery and a hukkah shop and inside there are potters and grocery stores and yes a couple of fruit and vegetable shops too and meat shops at the end. Open space inside the market is feeding ground for pigeons. As you walk in the arched corridor outside the shops you will see the striking blue shop doors against the dark grey stone of the building, making it a pleasant play of bright and dull, but to see this you must go there before the shops open. And don’t worry early in Hyderabad means anytime till about 11:00 AM. On the other side the bright red of the potters pots gives another contrast. And if this is not enough, stand before the Hukkah shop to see all possible colors. Jambagh flower market was a part of this market but was shifted out a few years ago, now you can only imagine what colors the flowers would have added to this market.

As you see this planned market with covered corridors and open spaces, you wonder why any of the modern shopping mall designers have not looked at it and thought of an interesting design like this, that has shops, walking space, open air, sunlight and an interesting architecture that defines it. We could get access to the roof of the building and it was a good to stroll on the roof with red pots drying in the sun, towers telling tales of the gone bye era and an empty open space in the middle of the crowded city area. You can see the top view of the market and how this space at some point in time may have been used for open exhibitions or for kite flying competitions or just as a place to stand and watch the city go by.

From here we started tracing our steps towards Sultan Bazaar and saw some interesting buildings. There was this huge building that said ‘Bachelor Bldg’, and because of the font used, it felt like Bachelor Blog and that is what caught our attention and I assume it must have been a hostel for the single men. Then we saw another restaurant called ‘Taj Mahal’, that looked like an old cinema hall and when we checked we found that it was a high-end bar in the good old days. Then we saw this series of usual street scenes like vendors selling fake garments for all possible brands, juicewallahs and fruit carts. As we passed through Troop bazaar that I assume would have been used by the troops sometime and is now a hardware market, we saw this interesting demo of a pump where green water was being pumped to gain attention.

We reached Sultan Bazaar / Abids to see the book vendors lining the roads with books right outside the big book shops and the first reaction was happy. But we soon realized that since educational institutes surround the area only textbooks are sold here.  A sign saying bookshops led us to an underground subway that must have been built as an underpass for the busy road, but is now a full-fledged book market. A long, narrow, dimly lit passage is lined with small bookshops on both sides right up to the staircase comes quite close to a bibliophile’s heaven, except the place can be a lot more clean and must have more variety of books. I think book corners like this would be a great idea in the cities struggling for space and people looking for some solace from the crowds. People like me can spend hours in such alleys alienated from the real world and lost in the imagined world.

While you are here, you cannot miss the Gokul chat that I was told is a must visit for anyone in the city. It turned out to be an authentic Rajasthani chat. The place is known for the terrorist attack that it faced a few years ago and since them they have removed the sitting arrangement and now you have to go through the security check and eat standing. From here we wanted to go to King Kothi, the palace, but there were surprises on the way. There is Small Park behind the Gokul chat that is a marked place for pigeons and belongs to Pigeon Welfare Association with a colorful pigeon house towering in the middle. There is a board that even tells you that it is a private colony. You can see thousand of pigeons in this small place. You can enter the park and feed the pigeons if you like, but that is all you can enter it for. This was the surprise element of this walk.

As you walk out of the Pigeon Park in the opposite direction you walk through an archway that was probably meant to be a community gate sometime. As you come out you would be taken aback by the sudden chaos of a market place with vendors all around and customers pushing around. In this street there is an Shvetambar Jain temple, a typical structure in white marble that is very peaceful inside almost opposite of what the street outside is. We sat here for sometime, may be to feel the peace or to re-charge our batteries after walking around and to prepare for the next leg of the walk. Actual palace is a bit of a walk from here.

A part of the palace has been converted into a hospital so you can walk into it and see it, but the actual palace is still a private property and us besides the security guards is guarded by tall walls all around it. The walls are so tall that you cannot even have a glimpse of the palace. The hospital part though gives you a fair idea of how the place must be. The KK mark that adorns the building has an interesting story behind it. It is said that the palace was built buy an Amir called Kamal Khan and he had put his initials everywhere on the palace, probably hoping that this would help his palace escape the Nizam’s eye. But as the fate would have it, Nizam liked it and took it away. Since the whole place had Kamal Khan’s initials, Nizam decided to call the place King Kothi to match the initials. Well, when a king wants something he will have it, this way or that way.

A very simple walk dotted with small but interesting things, but still managed to pack the surprise that every walk must have.

Thanks Sriram and Andrew for being my companions on this walk.

Hyderabad Hues XIII - Nizamia Observatory, Ameerpet

More than a century old space observatory, right in the middle of the city is one of the hidden gems of this city. Not many people know about it, though it falls in the walkers path and many people pass by it every morning and evening. This is the main building of the observatory that is now being used as a school for mentally handicapped. This campus is a part of Osmania University. 

This is one of the two observation decks or towers, now in the state of complete ruins. You can see the wooden panels have fallen over time. The interior is locked and you can not enter it. We could not even find someone who may have the key. This was a private observatory founded by Nawab Zafar Jung that was later taken over by the government and is now managed by Osmania University elsewhere where it was shifted in 1960s.

This is the other tower, more or less in the same state. These two towers are not too far from each other and are surrounded by trees now, though am not sure if it was so during the time when these were active spaces. This observatory for years worked on an ambitious programme of photographing and charting a large segment of the sky.

The lone sign that tells what it was...The observatory is believed to have cataloged more than a lakh stars and exposed thousands of photos. 

This is another structure with what seemed to us as observatory equipment. The outer part of this building has kind of Greek pillars, which could be a part of the observatory or a pavilion in the garden, as we could see a central fountain like structure as well. 

This is inside part of the pavilioned structure and could it have been a sun dial or something like that. 

This is how the art grows, this faded painting on the outer wall of pavilioned structure. Probably some people thought it was a temple of sorts or may be it was. 

This is the backyard of the main building, with barrack like rooms. From here the stairs lead you some 60 feet down where again there is a big building on the right hand side, and the rest is jungle. 

This structure has rooms that are more like junkyard today. You can see a lot of peacocks in the jungle around and some nice wild flowers. When you stand there you get no signs of being in the middle of the bustling city with S P Road only stone's throw away distance. 

I chanced upon this article through a Google search about Nizamia Observatory, that talks about Hyderabad's contribution to scientific advances in India:

THE NIZAMIA OBSERVATORY

By M. Burhan Hussain

Till the end of 19th century British India had only two observatories; one at Ootacamund and the other at Nanital. In 1908, Nawab Zafar Jung studied astronomy in England and he returned to Hyderabad along with two telescopes and an expert, whom he promised a net salary of Osmania Sikkah Rupees 1500.00 per month. He offered the telescopes to the Nizam, who ordered the installation of the telescopes at Begumpet, where they remained for the next 50 years. Mr. Chatwood, B. Sc. FRAS was appointed as its Director in 1908 and he was succeeded by M.R.J. Petcock, B.A.FRAS in 1924, who was succeeded by the famous astronomer Rao Saheb T.P. Bhaskaran, M.A. FRAS, F.N.I. in 1929. Mr. Chatwood and Mr. Pocock published two volumes of results that were completed in 1918. The whole work of the ‘Carte due Ciet’ Hyderabad Section was completed under the direction of Mr. T.P. Huascaran, who had published the remaining volumes of the astrographic catalogue and this brought the work to a successful conclusion.

In 1923, the equatorial telescope by G. Rubb was erected and a seismograph, Milne-Shaw pattern, was installed for the study of earthquakes and a second machine was added in 1929. A special underground chamber was constructed to house these delicate instruments.

In 1928, at the request of the International Astronomical Union, the section of the sky originally allotted to the observatory at Potsdam(Germany) was undertaken by the Nizamia Observatory. The work of measurement and reduction was completed and three volumes were published by the International Astronomical Union

A blank comparator for rapid comparison of astronomical photos was added to the equipment in 1938.

The proper notion of about 200 stars exceeding a sixth of a second per year was determined on the suggestion of Government of British India. In 1929, a pilot balloon station for observing upper air conditions was attached to the observatory. The flights were arranged in cooperation with Meteorological Department of the Government of British India.

The observatory published ‘Astrographic Catalogue – Hyderabad Section’ in four volumes in cooperation of the International Astronomical Union.

The Nizamia observatory also maintained records of earthquakes and rainfall in the Nizam’s state.

“HYDERABAD – 400 YEARS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY”

How less we know about our own cities and its contribution to various fields.

Misty Meghalaya II – Cherrapunjee aka Sohra

Cherrapunjee is best known as the wettest place on earth, and so we studied in our geography lessons. The image that we have is of a place where it is constantly raining and all you would be able to see is rains and rains. We soon discovered it is not so and Cherrapunjee gets rains during rainy season mostly like the rest of the country, and it is only during that time that the rains here are more than any other place on the earth. In fact we were surprised to learn that the place is actually dry during winter months and faces a major water crisis. Now can life get more ironical: Wettest place on earth goes dry for months every year. I wonder if they ever tried any water conservation methods, did they face any challenge in doing so or they just accepted this as a part of nature their hills give them. Both ways life is tough – when it rains and when it does not.

Clouds will be you constant companions as you roam around Cherrapunjee. You can walk in the clouds literally, feel them on your skin and smell them. Clouds not just flirt with you, they also keep creating the scenery around for you. Sometimes they will camouflage the waterfall and you will only hear it, then they will show you a bit of it and raise your curiosity and then they will suddenly move away and let you admire the gorgeous waterfall falling into a deep blue lake.  Another constant feature is colorful flowers. You would see bright pink flowers flanking both sides of the road throughout your drive, all along the valleys and in front of every house – big or small. They do not look planted or force fitted but they seem very much a part of the place along with hills, clouds and humans. We spotted many varieties of flowers that we usually do not see in other parts of the country.  Amongst the Blue sky, white or grey clouds, green hills, flowers add their own brightness to the scenery with their vibrant colors.

The hills around Cherrapunjee are dotted with various waterfalls. You can stop around any valley and you would be able to hear or see a waterfall. Some of the waterfalls are a part of standard itinerary that you are taken around and have interesting stories about them. Steep straight falls, fall into the narrow gorges between the hills and culminate to become a river in the deepest part of the valley. From the top the rivers look like a tickle of water flowing between green slopes. Sometimes you will wonder at the might of this delicate little river that cuts through the rocky mountains and makes it way, you will envy it for its independence to be able to go anywhere on its will, to be able to cross borders as most of this water goes to the neighboring Bangladesh.

Legends and myths can never be too far. One of the falls called Noh Ka Likhai falls have a tragic story behind its name that comes from a women named Ka Likhai who committed suicide here after having eaten her own daughter mistakenly. A huge 200 ft stand alone rock formation that looks like an inverted Khasi basket is said to be a basket that belonged to an evil giant who used to trouble the people. Once they served him a meal full of nails and killed him, and legend is that his basket was left here upturned and even today stands as a rock. The way the rock is standing between the hills and the plains with its perfect conical top, you almost want to believe the story.

Meghalaya is home to as many as 788 caves, most of which are unmapped and unexplored, and some of them the longest one in the country. Mawsmai caves are probably the most visited ones as they are close to Cherrapunjee. There is a concrete staircase that leads you to the mouth of the cave. You see a huge hall kind of formation that leads to a very narrow pathway, where at most one person can pass through and then again a cave comes and you come out on the other side of the cave. These natural formations make you marvel at the nature’s diversity but the way they are maintained you do the same at man’s ignorance. Around the cave you can walk through a jungle with wild plants. We saw Mawsmai caves towards the end of the day and it is then it started raining after a long dry day. It felt as if the trip to Cherrapunji is now complete, as you have soaked yourself in its identity – its rains.

Cherrapunjee is now officially called Sohra, which was its original name. Cherrapunjee apparently was a British contribution. There are parts of Bangladesh that you can see from some places here and you would be amazed to see that hills suddenly become absolute plains where agriculture is being done like other plains. Ramakrishna Mission has ashram here, where they have a temple and a museum on Northeast. The museum shows pictures of all the falls in the region and tells you a bit of history about them. There is a small weaving center where some young man and women were weaving their traditional weaves. There is a temple behind the main building and walls of the building showcase some pictures associated with the region. Women in traditional Khasi dresses can be seen selling cinnamon and tea.

Despite being such a huge tourist place, tourism infrastructure is almost not there. You cannot even find a decent lunch unless you are staying in a rare resort here. Since most people come here for a day trip from Shillong, a couple of good restaurants that serve the basic meals is a huge need. As of now you only have small stalls that sell you small snacks only. Even getting the quintessential tea is not that easy in a land not too far from the land of tea.

An evening with Mahila Mandali

This New Year I was in a small town in Malnad region of Karnataka that has a substantial population of Konkani community. I was invited to be a part of the function organized by the Mahila Mandali there. Now I had never ever attended a function that has been completely organized by women in rural India and the one that is community based. So I was pretty keen to see how this works and what an impression it has left on me. Since this was a New Year day, may be it is a sign for the year to come.

The four-hour event included community rituals, prize distribution and a lot of song and dance. The scale and professionalism with which the event was managed was worth appreciating. The level of participation was huge. I assume it is because it is a closed knit community and people know each other, so they are more participative. Apparently they had organized sports and cultural competitions before this function and distributed prizes for the same while giving cash prizes to children who performed well in their academics.  Whatever little I could understand of what they spoke, I could make out that the focus of their lives remain their children. Before the cultural part of the event they followed their own elaborate rituals of honoring the elderly in the traditional way, keeping their cultural ethos alive. All the women were wearing their best Saris, and when many of them came on the stage, they created a kaleidoscopic sight that I really liked. Urban India is getting very colorless, with women wearing more neutral and subtle colors, especially in a professional environment, in order to not stand out. Here every woman was wearing a strong color to stand in. In fact I wore a Sari there so that I do not stand out and get an insider’s perspective.

Bollywood dominated the music and dance that went on for 3 hours, though it was a community of non-Hindi speakers and not a word of Hindi was uttered otherwise during the function. Age of performers ranged from 3-70. It was painful for me to see 3 year olds going through the trauma of being on stage for the sake of a smile on the parent’s face who were all excited with cameras and video recorders. At the same time it was heartening to see an elderly lady perform on Chhamak Chhalo in a very graceful and innovative way and then coming back in another garb to entertain with a one-act play that had the audience laughing through the act. There was Karaoke style singing, small plays and a couple of performances based on mythology with classical music and dance, bollywood dances and of course Kolaveri. Though you could not call them great dancers or performers but their enthusiasm was unbeatable. The costumes, the make-up and choreography were all well prepared and you could see the impact of popular media everywhere. The music systems, the camera guy and video recorders all over the place could have competed easily with any up market urban event. Though the no of cameras always make me wonder why we are creating so many copies of the same content, and do people even have time to look at the content once it is created.

Above all, this was a platform for women to be express their creativity, to be able to get out of their homes, organize themselves, manage funds and enjoy themselves. It was also an impetus for them to keep themselves updated on what is happening around in the world. It seems the event is pretty much a part of their lives as it repeats itself every 1^stJanuary. To me, it was revelation and changed my view of how I think women in small town India live. They know how to enjoy themselves and go all out and enjoy with each other, without their men folk, but never without their kids. It made me think, if we women in urban India are grossly missing out on this fun, are we trying too hard to be a part of the men’s world and in the process missing out on the basic fun in life.

Some astrologers said that this century is going to belong to women, may be and hope they were right!

Revisiting Hampi

I first visited Hampi 7 years back, when I had just started experimenting with my small but new digital camera, with a friend over a weekend from Bangalore. In my memory it was one of the best trips I had. Hampi with its majestic ruins stood out in my mental map of India. It had vast serene environment with farms interspersed with royal palaces, beautiful temples, long bazaars had an aura of perfect calmness amidst past glory. Stories of Tenali Ram played in my mind as I wandered through the place. Last week on our way to Western Ghats from Hyderabad, we stopped at Hampi and I again walked through this ruined city, which is now a world heritage site. I wanted to spend some time in that calmness that I had experienced then and admire the rock structures as the sun goes down and when it comes up early morning. This time again I wanted to capture some of the city in my camera, for memories and for sharing. 

Alas! The place has changed so much. Last time I had gone on a weekend and this time on a weekday, but the crowd was so much that I could see but not feel the place. People were jostling everywhere. There were long queues of school children who were being moved in queues through the monuments and then made to stand for a group picture by the teachers. Open spaces were their playgrounds and I wonder if they were even told what the place is and what its significance is. I wonder if the teachers themselves knew anything about the importance of the place. They were all young women more worried about getting the right pose for their pictures. Then there were buses full of tourists that came in the morning and as soon as they landed, drivers and conductors took out the huge cooking equipment and started cooking for the tourists, making the whole place look like a huge picnic spot.

So many monuments had barricades erected around them. Last time there were no fences and no barricades, you could walk across any place. After all everything there is stone and what can people do to stones. But looking at the crowd on a weekday, I am sure the barricades were indeed required. Vithala temple that has the signature stone chariot of Hampi can now be approached only on foot or you have to take a km long ride on the battery operated golf carts. The ceiling of the Rang mandapa has fallen or is being restored, so you cannot enter it. The musical pillars have been acid washed making them look freshly sculptured but devoid of the music that they emanate. I was told that no one is allowed to touch them now, while last time our guide actually played them for us and even we with our untrained fingers tried to make some music out of them. Similarly, you have to stop way before the Virupaksha temple then go on foot. Number of food stalls and push cart vendors have also increased in proportion to the visitors. The surroundings of Virupaksha temple were filthy and you wonder why all this drama of not taking shoes inside the temple, when right outside the temple there is so much filth. The guide fees has increased manifold and literally every monument had guide sellers, trying to tell you that visiting Hampi is useless without the guide.

We visited the step well and the festival platform early morning, when the city was still waking up and I really enjoyed roaming around here, finding various camera angles to capture the place and trying to imagine how this place would have looked on a festival day. There are lots of ruins around this area, where only the foundations of buildings remain. It made me think is that why they say the foundation of the building must be strong, for the building may falls, but the foundations remain to tell the stories. The sheer symmetry of the step well makes it enchanting. You can look at it for a long time and not be bored because there is a design that holds your attention. I do not remember seeing the fine paintings on the ceiling of Virupaksha temple, which I admired this time. I also learnt that Pampa Devi, an Avatar of Parvati is the local deity after whom the city was named, and it got distorted to its present name Hampi.

This time also I could not visit Anegundi but we drove through the road leading to it and it was a beautiful drive. There are stone hills on both sides of the road with finely balanced boulders, which give an impression that the stones could fall any moment but apparently they have been hanging there forever. Small farms spread between these hills have big and small rocks scattered over them. The place gives a very artistic impression, as if the creator was playing with green and grey colors. On top of the hillocks here and there you see small white temples and then from somewhere the steps leading to the temple. This place still had the serenity that I saw in Hampi in my last trip, the unadulterated nature with no over the top modern buildings and billboards vying for your attention. 

I wonder if one should re-visit the most cherished places or not….

Looking Back @ 2011

New year means different things to different people. I like to look at it as a point in time, where you look back at last 12 months and see what you did and may be use that as an input into planning what you want to do for next 12 months or so. Today, on first day of 2012 when I look at the year just gone by, I am surprised by the amount of travel I managed to do this year. Saw a new country in Nepal and travelled to all four corners of the country.

Highlight of this year were trips to Bihar and North East. I revisited Rishikesh, Mathura and Hampi this year and observed the pace at which these places are changing. A few observations that stand out from traveling across the country are:

·       Whole of country is under construction. Though the locals will tell this is a never ending process, this road has been under construction for last so many years, but you wonder how this can be true for almost all corners of the country. National highways, state highways, flyovers, underpasses, railway tracks and sometimes airports, everything is under construction. People go through the inconvenience of construction for years in a hope that someday their journeys will be easier.

·       Gol Gappe, known by various names across the country are available in the remotest part of the country and may be the only as-is survivor in the food category that is under threat from standardization. This is closely followed by beauty parlors that can also be seen almost in all places.

·       As you travel through the remote areas of the country you observe the difference that is popularly called India Vs Bharat. Though mobile connectivity is available throughout the country, you have no roaming facility in Arunachal if you are a subscriber of private telecom companies and the coverage of BSNL in urban India is not comparable to that of private players. You see the impact of Government run organizations and schemes in rural India that we almost write off in urban India. Unfortunately, plastic has entered the entire fabric of our country. I am pained to see all the roadside chaiwallahs using the cheap disposable plastic glasses and almost sitting of the pile of these glasses. The same goes for paper cups used by juicewallahs. Will it be possible to reverse this – I only hope it is.

I taught travel writing at National Institute of Travel and Hospitality Management and loved doing it. Interacting with young minds is such an invigorating experience.  I managed to read 50 books this year too and have created a dedicated website for my book reviews: AnuReviews. I hope to bring in a little more focus to the two pursuits of mine: Books & Travel. A little bit of recognition came my way through this Television Interview.

Though the plans of next travel are always playing in the mind or being explored on the Internet, I hope to reflect a little more on the travels that I have done and the ones that I will undertake this year. I got to interact with lot of you, my readers. You gave me suggestions on new places to see, you shared your thoughts, you gave me additional information about the places on this blog and most importantly you kept me encouraged to travel more and inspired to write more. I hope that many more channels will open up this year.

Wish you all an insightful journey through 2012!