Tanya scheduled a heritage walk on the Musi riverfront titled Tughyani Sitamgar. From what I gathered Tughyani means flood and Sitamgar is something to do with September and disaster or something problematic.
The day of the walk was September 27 and the significance of that was that the great flood of the Musi happened on the 28th of September, 1908 and claimed more than a lakh of people. Tanya said that of the 788 tanks, more than 220 breached and caused a flood that rose some 16 feet over ground level.
Thousands of people were washed away (75000 was the official figure), many clung to trees and got on roof tops to survive. Overall a humongous disaster which made the 6th Nizam invite Mokshagundam Visweswarayya to engineer things in a fashion so that the flood would not repeat. Flood control measures were brought in which included Osman Sagar, Himayat Sagar, establishment of the City Improvement Board (Aaraish-e-Balda) in 1914. Iconic buildings such as High Court, City College, Osmania General Hospital, Asafiya Library came up on either side.
The Musi flood was caused by exceptionally heavy rains that started on September 26. Within three hours the waters rose 16 feet, over the bridges.
Anyway a small group of enthusiastic heritage walkers met at the mosque near Ghansi bazaar and were soon given the cards that is Tanya's hallmark, neatly sealed and packed in envelopes (very elegant) - cards with pictures, maps and information about the major parts of the walk and the history. After a brief intorduction and a look at the High Flood Level mark on the mosque which was some ten feet above is, we headed along the road towards the imposing City College. Before City College we stopped at a place where Tanya gave us a short brief.
From there we traipsed along towards City College and to the beautiful, tree laden road that abuts the South bank of Musi. We skipped the Musallam Jung bridg with all its thousands of pigeons, and went into the City College premises. Soon as we entered I saw some kids playing cricket at nets and recognised my old pal from the winning under 15 Hyderabad side from 1982, Kishenlal Yadav, who was coaching the kids. We met for a bit and meanwhile the gang was ready to head out. Unfortunately we didn't click a pic.
We stepped around the High Court and stopped at a Hanuman temple right next to the High Court. It was not a very old temple and we went in for a bit. From there, down to the Victoria Zanana hospital a beautiful structure which has now been converted into some official building of the High Court. Though threre is no activity we were not allowed inside the building and we just looked at it form afar. I remember a good friend of mine being born there from a vague recall. Someone shared some pictures of a beautiful fountain there in an article by Serish Nanisetti, another authority on all things Hyderabadi.
From there we stepped across the Musi on the Afzal Gunj bridge I think and by this time some were comaplining of hunger so we stopped at this very cute little hotel and ate some biscuits and drank chai while Tanya quickly showed us her ppt, another unique feature of Tanya's walks. She does strive to educate and really prepares for these walks - she showed some rare pictures, maps and stuff like that.
Post chai break we went to the Osmania Genereal Hospital, the old Victorian type building which is so beautiful, and to the huge tamarind tree which saved 150 people from the flood. Among those who was saved by the great tree was poet Amjad Hyderabadi - he lost his wife, mother and daughter in the flood. He wrote a poem Qayamat-e-Soghra. A few lines from it read thus
- The sepulchrul silence of night, the sinister clouds
The unreleting rain, the freezing winds,
The uprooting of houses, the screaming sounds
Praying with teary eyes, anguished minds
(All of the above is reproduced from Tanya's cards)
A poignant moment, we took some pictures with the banyan tree and then Vasu and I rushed off because I had a meeting.
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