Honour Among Thieves - Jeffrey Archer

 Archer comes with an idea by Saddam Hussein to steal the Declaration of Independence and show how powerful he is to the world by burning it on the 4th of July. Some American Italians get together with some Iraqi government people and some expert forgers and then we have some Professor type CIA fellows with names like Scott Bradley and a Israeli Mossad agent called Hannah. The dela is done and the forgery completed and the document taken and kept in the Iraqi President's room and within a few hours even after the Iraqis know of the plan and the people who are coming to change it and all that allow the document to be changed twice under their very noses. Happy reunions for the prof and his lover the Israeli babe while an Israeli soldier and a Kurd and one Colonel are killed.

They all appear the smartest and at the same time dumbest people on the earth. The master forger is a nice guy who says when he hears what they did with the forged declaration - isn't there any honour among thieves left?   Give me a break.

100 Great Events that Changed the World - Terry O'Brien

 The title says it all. It starts with Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC and ends with the Paris attacks in 2015. To get an idea

Julius Caesar's assassination (44 BC)
Crucifixion of Christ (30 AD)
Dedication of Constantinople (33 AD)
Death of Prophet Mohammed (33 AD)
Signing of Magna Carta 
Gutenberg's printing press
Fall of Constantinople
Columbus lands in Bahamas
Magellan sets sail for the Americas
Copernicus publishes

....
US Declaration of Independence
Battle of Trafalgar
Waterloo
Morse Code

....
End of Civil War in America
Death of Lincoln
...
Women vote
Athens Olympics
Marie Curie discovers radium
Boxer Rebellion
Marconi's transatlantic signal
Einstein's theory of relativity
....

Titanic...

Battle of Somme...

Fleming discovers Penicillin
...

Dandi march by Gandhi

Pearl Harbour

Roger Bannister runs the 4 minute mile
Beatles on Ed Sullivan show...
Man lands on the moon
Microsoft
Apple
...
Cell phone
Mandela..
WWW
Fall of Berlin Wall
Social networking
Dotcome bubble bust
9/11

Obama elected
Paris Attacks

Interesting list. Good insight into the world and its progress.

  

Hyderabad by Walk - Musi Riverfront - Nayapul

I tried to do some research on Nayapul (New bridge - as against Purana Pul, old bridge) but got precious little. Also did not get a good shot of it. It is the road that connects the new city to heaven - the old city restaurants like Nayaab. Shadab, Nimrah and Laad Bazaar ad so on. It was built in 1859 according to Wiki during the regime of the 5th Nizam Afzal Ud Dowla. Afzal Gunj was named after him since he gifted land to grain merchants.

The Musi from Nayapul

The Musallam Jung bridge

Beyond Nayapul was the Salar Jung museum and beyond that the Chaderghat bridge. For now we decided to call it a day and pottered around on the bridge looking at the Music river and the attempts to make a riverfront which Ahmedabad did so. Some day I hope they get to do that.

Attempts at creating the riverfront - also spot the Kingfisher

A view of the High Court, the Musallam Jung bridge and the riverfront

The more I see of Hyderabad, the more I am convinced that it has enough to be named a heritage city as are Ahmedabad and Jaipur. 

Hyderabad by Walk - High Court of Telangana

 Further on we passed the High Court of Telangana which was constructed by the 7th Nizam Osman Ali Khan (1515-1919).  

Pic courtesy Sunnie

It was then the High Court for the state of Hyderabad Deccan. the High Court was originally in Pathergatti and in 1909 moved to various places before this building was constructed in 1919. Shankar Lal of Jaipur gave the plan, design was by Mehar Ali Fazil and Chief Engineer was Nawab Khan Bahadur Mirza Akbar Baig. Construction started in 1915 and ended in 1919.

Interestingly, while digging to construct this building they came across the ruins of two Qutb Shahi structures - Hina Mahal and Nadi Mahal.

Hyderabad by Walk - Musi Riverfront - City College

 The City College is an imposing structure form the outside and they say it looks even better from the inside. This being an early hour there was no access to get in and all pics were from the outside. 

City College from across the road 

City College is one of the older colleges in Hyderabad and I know that there is a team in the HCA that is called CCOB (City College Old Boys) and they play pretty competitive cricket. Across the road from City College lies the Quli Qutb stadium. The College is one of the oldest heritage buildings.

From closeby

Lovely structure

As with all things around the Musi Riverfront, the City College was constructed by the 7th Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan. The institution itself began as City School or Madarsa Dar Ul-Uloom by the 6th Nizam Mahboob Ali Khan in 1865. The institution was renamed City High School by the 7th Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan. Urdu was the medium of instruction. The new building was designed by the British architect Vincent Jerome Esch as part of the City Improvement Board's plans. The High School added Intermediate and moved into the new premises in 1921. In 1929 it became a college.

Notable alumni are politicians Shivraj Patil, P Shiv Shankar, Marri Channa Reddy and film writer Paruchuri Gopala Krishna. It has cricket grounds and a football stadium and looks big enough to host a lot of stuff.     

Hyderabad by Walk - Musallam Jung Bridge

 And then we walked past one of the cutest Police Stations I have ever seen, down the road past the Police chowki and then came upon the Musallam Jung bridge which is the one that has tons of pigeons on it. One side of the bridge is only for feeding pigeons and many families stop there buy grain from people selling it and stop there enjoying themselves.

Musallam Jung bridge (Pigeon bridge to me) - all pics courtesy Sunnie

This bridge was built in 1893 by the 6th Nizam Mahboob Ali Khan. The bridge was damaged in the 1908 floods and restored again. It followed the Purana Pul bridge and the Afzal Gunj bridge to connect the Hyderabad city to peripheral areas (or now, to connect the new city to the old city).   

We were getting off the bridge and then I saw this old old woman with the most brilliant smile asking me for alms. I just could not refuse her and gave her a nice twenty just to see if that smile could get any better. It did. Eyes that are full of smiles.

Hyderabad by Walk - Musi Riverfront - Purana Pul

 As we turn left at the end of the Jummerat Bazar road, we come upon a new bridge which is used for vehicular traffic. This we discovered is a parallel bridge next to Purana Pul (called the Quli Qutub Shah bridge according to a plaque on it) which was a 1578 construction from the Qutb Shahi times, the first bridge in Hyderabad, among the oldest in South India, and it connected Golconda where the Qutb Shahis ruled from and Hyderabad, where they shifted the city as Golconda became too crowded.

The Quli Qutub Shah bridge

Plaque

Believe it or not - you are on Purana Pul

The thing about old constructions - Purana Pul was the only surviving bridge from the 1908 floods and stands strong even today though it has been declared unfit for vehicular traffic. now all one sees are some hawkers and the bridge in a badly maintained state. For a bridge that had a legend of romance after it - the story is that Qutb Shah Sultan Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah had this bridge built for his son Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah who was braving turbulent floods to meet his love Bhagmati who lived in Hyderabad city across the Musi. Purana Pul translates to Old Bridge!

Now you can see the bridge

Get a sense - how old the bridge must have been and how well its being maintained

Another view - the sun rises on Purana Pul

There was a move to make this a symbol of love by calling it 'Pyarana Pul' (Bridge of Love is my guess) and some Valentines Day celebrations conducted on it but both ideas did not take off. That we celebrate anything like love is far from our minds more so when it is to do with a Muslim ruler and a Hindu lady.

A better idea of how it looks when you are on it

The Musi from the Purana Pul

The Purana Pul from the Hyderbad city side

The bridge itself has 22 arches, is 600 feet long.  

We walked across, peered at the Musi underneath which looked quite manageable now, like a stream, walked past the hawkers, ended up near the other end where there's a temple to the right. 

Musalam Bridge I think 

And then, the magnificent Purana Pul darwaza, one of the two surviving darwazas of the 13th darwazas of Hyderabad city.  It is believed to be 15th century construction, around the time Hyderabad was built.

Purana Pul darwaza - one of the two surviving gates

The Purana Pul darwaza

From the other side

We walked past the darwaza, to the left. It was a beautiful, quiet road with hardly any traffic.. I think we passed what was a hospital once, on the way. In a while we will come to the Musallam Jung bridge and its pigeons and City College and the quiet road past the High Court.