Tuesday morning, again we woke up early and left the hotel by 7:30 AM to APTDC office on Tank Bund road by a rick. We reached the office by 7:45 and surprised to see not many people waiting. We had breakfast at the same Haritha restaurant adjacent to it and again waited for more than half an hour. The bus finally arrived and we sat, and still waited for half an hour before finally leaving at around 9.
The guide mentioned about the day's tourist places to be covered. First was the Birla Mandir, then Charminar, Salarjung Museum, Nizam Jubilee Pavilion, Chowmahalla Palace, Zoo, then break for lunch and continue to Golconda Fort, Qutub Shahi tombs, shopping for pearls and then finally drop at Lumbini Park. The trip looked quite exciting.
The first spot we covered was Birla Mandir. On the way, we saw the Secretariat and head quarters of Andhra Bank. He stopped us at some main road and asked us to go thru a narrow lane upwards for Birla Mandir, giving us 45 mins time. Cameras were not allowed inside the temple. Birla temple was fully built of marble and is situated at some height. The presiding diety over there was Balaji, which was considerably tall. There were few small temples of Ganesh & Hanuman around. From the top, we could see the Hussain Sagar lake, but it was dull due to weather.
The bus arrived at 10 and next we proceeded towards Charminar. It’s a very famous landmark of Hyderabad situated at the heart of old city. The guide told that there wouldn't be a halt over Charminar, and the bus would just circle it due to the heavy rush there. As we entered the old city, heaps of garbage greeted us. It was an ugly sight to look at, wonder how people stay there!
Charminar was built by Sultan Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the ruler of Qutub Shahi dynasty after he had shifted his capital from Golkonda to Hyderabad. He built this famous structure to commemorate the elimination of a plague epidemic from this city. He is said to have prayed for the end of a plague that was ravaging his city and vowed to build a mosque at the very place where he was praying.
After encircling Charminar, we next proceeded towards Salarjung museum. Near the museum, the guide made us wait for 15 minutes when he came back with the tickets. He already mentioned that he would take us only around the important 3 galleries and later one could come at his own time to have a full look of it.
The Salarjung Museum is the third largest museum in India housing the biggest one-man collections of antiques in the world. Nawab Mir Yousuf Ali Khan Salar Jung, former Prime Minister of the Nizam of Hyderabad, spent a substantial amount of his income over thirty five years to make this priceless collection, his life's passion. The collections include Indian Art, Middle Eastern Art, Far Eastern Art, European Art, Children Art along with a Founders gallery and a rare manuscript section. The museum building in a semicircular shape with 38 galleries, spread on two floors, displays only a part of the original collections.
Near the entrance, in an open hall, one of the museum's important exhibit - a musical clock, was kept. The time was close to 11 and people had sat to see the timekeeper emerging from the upper deck of the clock to strike a gong as many times as it is the hour of the day. A goldsmith beat his sticks, which indicated the seconds. This musical clock was bought by Salar Jung from Cook and Kelvy of England and it had more than 50,000 parts. It was a visual treat at 11. But I thought, the musical clock at Jaganmohan Palace, Mysore, was far better than this in comparison.
Behind the clock, there was a gallery of sculptures, and the famous among them was that of Vieled Rebecca by G.B. Benzoni, an Italian sculptor. Her beautiful face hazily is visible through a marble but gossamer veil.
Next, the guide took us to art gallery which had paintings. In between paintings, was a captivating double-figure wood sculpture. It stands before a mirror and shows the facade of a nonchalant Mephistopheles and the image of a demure Margaretta in the mirror. A warrior on the front & a woman at the back. It was marvelous.
Next we went around galleries which had collections of antique clocks, crockery items and porcelain works. I later went to the museum shop and enquired about price of miniature double-figure model, and he told it costs Rs. 400. We finally exited the museum at around 11:45.
Next we came to Nizam's Jubilee Pavilion museum, which is about 1 km from Salarjung Museum. It is situated near Purani Haveli, a place acquired by Nizam II around 1750. The museum has a vast collection of objects including gifts and mementos presented to the last Nizam on the occasion of the silver jubilee celebrations in 1936. There are also models made in silver of all the prominent buildings of the city and citations in Urdu about H.E.H. Mir Osman Ali Khan, gold burnished wooden throne used for the silver jubilee celebrations, gold tiffin box inlaid with diamonds, gold model of Jubilee Pavilion, silver coffee cups studded with diamonds. Sadly, photography was prohibited inside.
From there, we came to Chowmahalla palace. It had a big gateway as entrance. Chow means four, and Mahal means Palace. Chow-Mahalla therefore means four palaces. It had a beautiful garden and on either sides of it were the Northern and Southern courtyards. At the far end was the Durbar hall and next to it was a Clock tower.
The oldest part of the complex currently under restoration (in Southern courtyard), comprises of the four palaces Afzal Mahal, Mahtab Mahal, Tahniyat Mahal and Aftab Mahal.
The northern courtyard has a long corridor of rooms.
The clock tower houses what is affectionately called the Khilwat Clock which has been ticking away ever since the palace was built.
The grand pillared Durbar Hall has a pure marble platform on which the Takht-e-Nishan or the royal seat was laid. There were spectacular chandeliers hung in this regal hall.
On the first floor, there were various porcelain crockery items used by the then Nizams.
There was a room exclusively for weapons used by them.
Also there were fire resistant almairahs brought from England.
Having seen all these, we were a bit tired. We next went to the zoo and the guide made us take a quick round around the zoo in a zoo cart. There was nothing special in the zoo - the usual tigers, lions, elephants, bear, peacock, some birds, etc. One animal which was rare was the Bengal tiger, or white tiger. It would have been better if zoo had been skipped.
We were too tired by this time and finally the guide took us to a Haritha restaurant after some 20 minute drive. This restaurant was located at Taramati Baradari which was once a caravan station for traders and travelers. A buffet was arranged and was quite sumptuous. We finally finished lunch by around 3 PM.
Post lunch, we visited the Golconda Fort. Ibrahim Qutub Shah built this fort way back in 1512 and designed a perfect acoustical system by which a hand clap sounded at the fort's main gates, the grand portico or "Fateh Darwaza”, was heard at the top of the citadel, situated on a 300-foot (91 m)-high granite hill. The acoustics were due to the diamond shaped cuttings on the top of the wall. This is one of the fascinating features of the fort.
The grand fortress is protected by three formidable lines of defense. The first, an outer fortification made up of granite blocks. The middle wall surrounds the base of the hill and the innermost one follows the contours of the highest ridge.
The Golconda Fort was famous for diamonds in its heyday, and it is said that world famous Kohinoor diamond was from this fort. There was an area called Nagina Bagh, where once merchants came from various parts and sold their diamonds.
There were army barracks and inside was a small stone of great weight, about 200 kgs. It was said that whoever wanted to join the army, in those days, had to lift this to find their capacity!
The guide gave us half an hour time to go to the highest point of the fort which was around a kilo meter - "Baradari". The steps were big enough and we halted after every few steps. Baradari is the main entrance to the fort located on the eastern side. On the way, we saw Ramdas jail and also Ibrahim mosque.
We finally reached the topmost point which had a very vast area. The winds were cool and a bird's view of Hyderabad could be seen. The Minarets of Charminar was vaguely visible. At a distance, we could also see the famous Qutub Shahi tombs. They were total 7 in all.
The magnificent fort could be seen entirely.
We descended the steps, took some rest at the basement and went to the bus. After some time, we went near the Qutub Shahi tombs. Nobody was interested in getting down and to see them, so we just proceeded back to Hyderabad.
It had begun to get dark by the time we entered Hyderabad. As this city was famous for its pearls, the guide took us to a famous pearl shop - "Bhagyalakshmi Pearls" claiming that they were the oldest family in this business. We had a look at the Hyderabadi pearls and it was good. The rate was also good ;) , so didn't purchase anything.
We finally got dropped at Lumbini park at around 7:30 PM. We purchased tickets for laser show which was about to start in few minutes at the park. For the show, we had to deposit our bags at the counter & could take only camera & mobiles. The show started at 8 PM it was very good lasting for half an hour. History of Hyderabad was shown along with other items, not to forget the telugu film industry. Music was loud and the fountains danced to it synchronously.
After the show, we came to the other side of park and boarded the last boat to the Buddha statue at Hussain Sagar lake. The statue stood tall, at one side of the lake and it shined in the lights. This statue is the prime attraction to anyone who visits Hyderabad. From the small island where this was placed, we could see the Necklace road twinkling.
After the boat ride, we came back, crossed the road and took a bus to CBS. We reached our hotel at around 9:30 PM, had authentic Hyderabadi Biryani for dinner and went off to bed.
It had been a great day, and lots of places covered. Only one day remained for us, and that was the day to recollect her good old days, her house, school, college, etc. We were beginning to think that the trip was getting over soon..
