Hanging Out in Historic Hyderabad

One recent Friday night, John and I took an overnight train to Hyderabad, the capital of the state of Andhra Pradesh. The plan was for John to spend weekend and for me to stay an extra four days, visiting friends who were raised there, and their families. We stayed at a local Brahmin-owned hotel where I happened to notice that one of the rules posted on the door was that no meat products were allowed in the rooms. I chuckled about it then, but a few days later returned from a day of sightseeing with half my uneaten lunch, and had to prove that it was “veg” (a paneer, aka cheese, and vegetable kabob wrapped in a rhoti, or Indian flatbread) before they would stash it in the kitchen refrigerator.



With a population of ten million people, Hyderabad is one of India’s biggest cities and is plagued with the same infrastructure issues we are accustomed to in Bangalore. Like Bangalore, it is a center for IT companies (called Cyberabad) most of which are located outside the city center in an area called Hi-Tec City. The difference is that Hyderabad has a much richer cultural history than Bangalore, with some outstanding monuments, which had drawn us there.

Our first stop was the Charminar, its four graceful minarets making it the building most identified with the city. Muhammad Quli Qutab Shah, the fifth sultan of the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda from which they fled water shortages, built the Charminar in 1591. The sultan modeled the well-planned city of Hyderabad on the city of Esfahan in Persia. (The enormous Golconda Fort eight kilometers away was the highlight of out trip, but more on that later.)

Near the Charminar in the historic Old City stand the Mecca Masjid (mosque,) the Charkaman (Four Arches,) and the Salar Jung Museum, all to the south of the River Musi. As impressive to me as the monuments were the twisting lanes and warrens that make up the bazaars.













The major products sold there are textiles (most of the vendors seemed to be primarily wholesalers who would also sell retail) and pearls. Pearls have in fact given Hyderabad one of its names: The City of Pearls. (The other name is the City of Nizams reflecting the dynasty that ruled Hyderabad from 1722 until Indian independence.)












We enjoyed the Salar Jung Museum that houses the largest one-man collection of antiques in the world. Salar Jung, a prime minister of the Nizam, amassed the eclectic collection. The work, which I wasn’t allowed to photograph, is diverse and includes art objects from the East and West. A small canteen-like cafeteria provided an economical lunch without to leave the building.
The next day we got a car and driver and set out for Golconda Fort, with its outermost wall’s circumference of about 7 kilometers, one of the most impressive monuments of its time that I have seen anywhere. Golconda was rebuilt for defense from invading Mughals from the north. Its builders designed a perfect acoustical system by which a hand clap sounded at the fort's main gates, the grand portico, could be heard at the top of the citadel, situated on a 300 foot (91 meter) high granite hill.

We found a small celebration going on at a Hindu temple tucked in the bowels of the fort. We spent most of an afternoon exploring the fort by day, and I returned a few days later for the impressive evening Sound and Light Show.










The tombs of the Qutb Shahi sultans lie about one kilometer north of Golconda's outer wall. These 82 structures are made of beautifully carved stonework, and surrounded by landscaped gardens. All but two kings of the dynasty are entombed there, plus relatives, dancers, singers, and doctors who served the kings.

After John left, my friends and I spent a day in an activity that was a complete departure from Hyderabad’s historic monuments: a visit to the Ramoji Film City, an integrated film studio cum theme park. Its nearly 3,000 acres earned a designation in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest film studio in the world. The shows, including a wild west stunt show, were professional, and the rides fun for the children I was with.










But the most interesting aspect was the bus tour through movie sets that represent locations throughout the world. These include a Japanese garden, artificial waterfalls, airport terminal, hospital, railway station, churches, mosques, temples, shopping plazas, palace interiors, chateaus, rural complexes, and urban dwellings. 80 films in several languages such as Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi and Bangali have been produced there in the twelve years of its existence.









Other attractions I enjoyed in Hyderabad:

1. The boat ride that takes visitors across the lake in Lumbini Park to see a large Buddha on a small island.

2. Birla Mandir: a Hindu temple made of white marble located on top of a hill overlooking the city.

3. Birla Planetarium with shows that unveil the mysteries of the cosmos and the origins of the universe, in various languages.