Hyderabad by Walk - Musi Riverfront - Osmania General Hospital

Much has been heard and said about the OGH and we walked towards it. On the way we passed some Gurdwara on the right and saw an old door leading to a mosque adjacent to the OGH. 

Gurdwara entrance

We went in through the main gate which is where all patients enter from. It has a screen like entrance which I remember from way back. 

Old mosque - very good looking

As wide a shot as I could get

The mosque from inside the OGH new block

Another pic of the mosque

Like I told Sunnie, I remember me and my Dad going there for what appeared to be a harmless tooth extraction. I must have been 12-13 and we went in his car, with him driving. Once the procedure was done he stumbled out of the room, holding his bleeding gum and we quickly figured he won't be able to drive. Luckily his subordinate was around so we got back safe. Dad and his hospital stuff is legendary.

The OGH with its famous screen like entrance

Interesting door to the mosque

Another door

Cute little cafe

Anyway we got a couple of shots of the mosque from the inside. Then we walked back on to the main road, past the interesting door of the mosque, past a cute little tea shop and walked down the road to the old hospital block,. And the sight of that building blew me. It's one of the most beautiful structures I have ever seen. The gateway was open, the grounds overgrown, huge trees, the building looking unoccupied but majestic, like a palace fit for kings. Of course some work was going on by the side.

Side entrance - but it looked so good from here itself

Another preview

A better view

The best i could get - the pics don't do justice

Close up

Osmania General Hospital is one of the oldest hospitals in India. Built at a cost of 2 crore in 1919 by the 7th Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan, it was designed by the British architect Vincent Jerome Esch and Nawab Khan Bahadur Mirza Akbar Baig in Indo Sarcenic style. Before the OGH was built, there was a hospital called the Afzal Gunj Hospital which was constructed by Salar Jung in 1866. The wards of this hospital were shifted to the new building in 1926.

The garden, gazebo etc

Mitti ka sher

Would have been a beautiful garden in its day

  We entered and found some massive trees to the left. There was a gazebo like structure, ill maintained of course, with two people reciting some Hindu chants. Many dogs lay in leisure. Upon closer look we found a board on that huge banyan tree - it apparently saved 150 people who climbed on to it in the flood of 1908. I could not resist taking a pic with the tree. 

The tree that saved 150 people during the flood of 1908

Me and the great tree

The tree again

The OGH in all its grandeur

Closer look at the building and some time spent on the gazebo. Also a morbid board about unclaimed bodies suddenly brought us back to reality. But then one also felt for those searching for missing people, the many who searched fro unclaimed bodies, the many bodies that actually went unclaimed and you wonder at life, its ups and downs. But it was a place i did not want to leave. And hopefully no one is planning to demolish it - like our past CM KCR tried to - its just too beautiful to do anything stupid like that.  

Board for unclaimed bodies - huge humanitarian service

Another board

Other memories of the OGH, I remember our cricketer friend Ayub Khan telling me that he grew up on campus nbecause his dad worked there. Lucky Ayub! It looked like a walk into an Enid Blyton novel.

Hyderabad by Walk - Musi Riverfront - The Central Library, Afzal Gunj

Afzal Gunj always reminds me of the iconic Gowliguda bus station made of the curved metal roof from where we took many buses to and from in important junctures in our life. Despite going up and down that road many times I never noticed the magnificent State Central Library which is right there at Afzal Gunj, a few yards from where the bus stand had been (now shifted across the road and called Imlibun Bus Stand).

From the closed gate 

So Sunnie and I decided to do a partial Musi Riverfront walk and started at the Telangana State Central Library. I parked in front at a comfortable place right near the Central Library. It was an early hour, 640 am, so it was not open. But its a beautiful structure which is included in the 2025 World Monuments Watch compiled by World Monuments Fund.

From within the library campus

The library was originally the personal library of scholar Moulvi Syed Hussain Bilgrami and after it became public property in 1891 it was named Asafia State Library in honour of the Asaf Jah dynasty. It was called the Kutub Khana Asafia initially and was established in the place where the present GPO stands, at Abids. In 1936 it was shifted to this building. The building came up as part of the City Improvement Board plan which came into existence after the devastating Musi Floods of 1908, conceived by the 7th Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan and the famous engineer M Visvesvarayya being brought on board to redesign the riverfront. The building was designed by British architect Vincent Jerome Esch and has been granted heritage status in 1998. 

It contains half a million books and magazines including rare palm leaf manuscripts. Originally had some 17000 manuscripts going back to the 5th and 7th century which have since been transferred to the Oriental Manuscripts Library.  

One part of the building - exquisite work

It would be nice to go in and see how it looks inside. Some other time.      

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John le Carre

 Never read a John le Carre novel before and never too late to start. So picked up TTSS with the right earnest - the last time I picked up one of his novels i got confused pretty fast and gave up. This one started well with an interesting character who comes to school and meets a Billy Bunter kind of boy and things are looking interesting before it got too complex with too many characters and too many operations and code names and stuff. i feel i should watch the movie to get a hang of it. The title is code names for agents in the form of a children's rhyme.

Anyway the plot goes like there's a hero called George Smiley who is an ageing spy coming out of retirement or rather put in retirement thanks to a botched up assignment in which the other guy we started with gets badly hurt and is captured. The entire plot is about how there could be moles in British intelligence system from the Soviet Union and there's one overarching villain called Karla who Smiley is up against. Going by how things are, Karla is ahead of the game with moles all over. Smiley also has a problem with his unfaithful girlfriend who he cannot get over - its always those who get away that we cannot get over looks like. Anyway he has to find the mole in the top position and ensure justice is done until the next novel. This is the Karla trilogy and Smiley apparently appears in five novels.

Le Carre (not his real name) was a real spy and knows the inside out of stuff that happens which comes out. Only the many names, codes, nicknames and characters got me confused and I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked to. Jim Pridaeux, the first character, had a lot of promise but he disappears just when he gets interesting. Smiley comes across so slowly that it took me a long time to figure he is the protagonist.

 

      

Hyderabad by Walk - Ameerpet, Nizamia Observatory

 Kiran told me that there was an observatory somewhere near Ameerpet and I checked it out on the net. There were some comments from people who had been there as part of some heritage walk and they were like we cannot go in and stuff like that. It looked like it was someplace near the Punjagutta-Ameerpet intersection so it was on a whim that I extended my walk and went looking for it on maps.

Tomb at Ameerpet - just off Srinagar colony road

Past Ameerpet and towards Punjagutta, past the graveyard (the tomb to the right on the Srinagar colony looks beautiful, wonder whose it is) and turn immediately near the temple before the government quarters on the left. 

Temple at Punjagutta colony 

Walk through the colony until you hit this big patch of well manicured land - the Centre for Economics and Social Sciences (CESS). The Nizamia Observatory is within this campus.

Tower 1 at Nizamia Observatory, CESS

Another view

The entrance looked formidable with security guards and stuff and I pushed my luck and asked the guard if i could see the observatory. It was an early hour, 630 am or so so he said i could and told me they were defunct and showed me where both towers were. I walked in the campus which was beautifully maintained and found the first tower to my right. It was a granite structure with wooden steps and was enclosed by some protective fencing so i could only see it from the outside. I went around the backside and found the other tower.  

Tower 2

Another view

The Nizamia Observatory (taken over by the Nizam Government in 1908) is an optical observatory constructed by Nawab Zafar Jung Bahadur who was from the house of Paigahs and Amir of the Khurshid Jah estate, The Observatory was established by the 6th Nizam Mir Mahboob Ali Khan and was named Nizamia Observatory in honour of the Nizam. Originally the observatory was located at Phisalbanda Palace (now Deccan Medical College). After the Nawab's death in 1907 it was given to the Nizam Government. In 1950 it was shifted to the current location of Japal-Rangapur. It was used to observe the 1980 solar eclipse and the Halley's Comet. Currently situated in the campus of CESS.

Tower 2

The Observatory had a Cooke Astrograph, a Grubb Refractor Telescope and it made 463, 542 observations and participated in Carte du Ciel. It did some serious work obviously. Directors include Arthur B Chatwood (1866-1915) after which it was moved to Begumpet, then Robert J Pocock (1914-18), TP Bhaskaran. Then the Observatory moved to Osmania University where it was headed by Akbar Ali, AK Das, KD Abhayankar and then moved to Japal-Rangapur and then KV Karandikar.   

Had chai at the canteen which was empty and clean. 

Special Education and Training Centre for intellectually Disabled

I walked out through the back entrance and found myself looking at an old building which looked dilapidated - part of Osmania University. The main board said that the Special Education and Training Centre for Intellectually Disabled. A smaller board was less subtle and said it was the Special Education Centre for Mentally Handicapped. It is part of  Institute of Genetics and Hospital for Genetic Diseases. 

The Special Education and Training Centre for Intellectually Diasbled

Looks like a haunted house

Birds!

A fabulous Roman style garden with a pond and a gazebo

Another view - it must have been beautiful in its heyday

Road leading down to Ameerpet - CESS to the left

Does not look like much work is going on here. Some people were walking in the huge, overgrown campus, few of them stretching near the old building. The building is at the top of a hillock and I walked down and turned right and there's a gate which has a board 'Osmania University' written on it. Out of the campus and walk and you end up somewhere near Sheesh Mahal theatre. 

One wonders what Osmania University is doing with such lovely facilities in the heart of the city that are going unused. And I wondered at how I lived 40 plus years in this area and never knew that such places existed!      

Hyderabad by Walk - Gunfoundry

 For someone who studied for four years in All Saints High School whose address is Gunfoundry (1783), i never found out why and where this Gunfoundry was. It had to be somewhere surely! So the walk definitely needed me to explore and see what this was about. 

Gunfoundry as it appears from the gate 

We crossed the road from Aliya and went past the Lepakshi emporium which was the route we took for four years in All Saints - get off the bus at Nizam College and walk past Lepakshi to school. As we entered the lane I saw a brick structure which was quite unimpressive but with a gate that had an important look about it with some government markings.

I could not make head or tail of it and asked a young man who was passing by if this was Gunfoundry and he confirmed it and said yes it was. Apparently the brick structure has some stuff under the ground according to him. It was locked and no one was allowed inside.

Old buildings in the area behind Gunfoundry

According to Wikipedia, my fav source, Gunfoundry was also called Top ka Sancha and was built in 1783. It was a cannonball factory set up by the French General Michel Raymond during the times of the second Nizam of Hyderabad Nizam Ali Khan. Apparently its the only surviving gunfoundry of the 18th century.

The beautiful Mahboobia School

Originally built of brick walls 50 feet high and tapering off from 25 high onwards, the foundry was built by brick, lime mortar and iron rods etc.

Ah. another ghost exorcised. Now i know what, why and where this Gunfoundry is! 

Hyderabad by Walk - Aliya School for Boys

The last walk I could only peep into the dilapidated Aliya High School for Boys (1872) from the outside but this time the gates were wide open and a solitary person was sweeping the deserted grounds. The school was founded by Salar Jung I during the times of the second Nizam in the premises of Nizam College as Madrassa-e-Aliya. It was a school for the elite and the sons of the city's nobility. It was one of the best schools in the city.

Aliya High School for Boys - A Heritage Structure

The Literature Dept flourishing - I Love You baby 

A look at the state of the building

Famous alumni reads like a who's who of those times from the princes to scientists to engineers to diplomats to sportspeople to writers - Nawab Ali Nawaz Jung (engineer), Ali Yavar Jung, the 7th Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan himself, his two grandsons Princes Mukarram Jah and Muffakam Jah , Kishen Pershad (Prime Minister), Asif Iqbal and Ghulam Ahmed (cricketers), Idris Hasan Latif (PVSM), Raja Rao (writer).

The front portico

The side entrance

Perhaps the Main entrance - decent shape

The right side of the building where the main entrance is

Originally it was run by Anglo Indians and  was one of the top schools in the early years. After Operation Polo it was taken over by the Government and steadily went to shambles. Now a heritage building which looks like it might fall down anytime, its surprising they have any activity in the school. 

In another great twist, the Department of Education is located right behind this school in the most run down parts of it!

Hyderabad by Walk - Clock Tower, LB Stadium

We continued the walk from Gun Park towards our final destination which was Grand Hotel. On the way i stopped to see the clock tower at the Police Control Room which always looked impressive but I never stopped a moment to admire it. 

We crossed the road and peeped at the clock tower which looks every bit as majestic as any but there's precious little written about it. I noticed that the path led to  some volleyball training that was going on in a rectangular ground which is on the border of Lal Bahadur Stadium (earlier called Fateh Maidan). We stepped inside and found many parents also sitting on steps that also served as the pavilion or seating arrangements.  It was good to see so much serious sporting activity in the mornings, parents waiting to drop and and pick up their children. Further on we came upon some handball practice to the right and then to the left the tennis stadium and tennis courts (not as well used). 

We came over to the stadium side and passed by the halls which were under the steps - the table tennis halls where I used to play in 1977 going from school, the shuttle badminton halls etc. The ground has a bit of history. It was originally called Fateh Maidan because this vast open ground was where Aurangzeb's Mughal army camped during its 8 month long siege of Golconda. When they won, they named the ground Fateh Maidan which translates to Victory Square. The name stayed until 1967 when it was renamed Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium after the Prime Minister of India. 

The stadium is owned by the Sports Council and previously it was used to play International and national cricket matches by the Hyderabad Cricket Association which had a small office in the ground. The stadium had a capacity of 25000. It hosted three tests and 14 ODIs. The first Test was against New Zealand in 1955.

This was where we watched international cricket matches - I remember watching a South Zone-England encounter in 1982 with passes we earned thanks to playing for Hyderabad Under 15 team and helping our team win (and the horrible state camp before that tour led by Prem Kumar and Kaleem Ul Haq). I remember Baig sir (and Vaseem Ul Haq sir) coaching there for years, running the show brilliantly and producing many great cricketers. I remember going to him. The exercises running up and down the steps. Another time a South Zone Pakistan and another time a South Zone West Indies. We would get passes those days - now they do not give ex-players passes anymore.  

Fateh Maidan is also where we played a few league matches for MCC under the legendary ML Jaisimha and other matches like the Thumps Up trophy between All Saints XI and Rest of Hyderabad XI which All Saints won! Also where I played a practice match against Zimbabwe in the lead up to the Reliance cup and knocked over two wickets. 

That's me bowling opener Brown! 2-17 in 6 overs.

Fateh Maidan club is also where we used to frequent with Ranjan who was a member (and since I worked in IDBI which was just across the road it was easy. The shopping complex towards the Nizam College had a cute bookstore which I frequented but never bought any book. I got my first car stereo fitted in one of those shops on the other side. Then there was the Irani cafe (don't know if its still there) which people would say was owned by actress Tabu's family. Another memory is doing one of those school drills for some state function with some sticks - crazy. Hated that.    

Somehow I realise I spent a lot of time in this area - school was at Gun Foundry, cricket was at the stadium, work at IDBI. Hmmm.