Hyderabad by Walk - King Kothi Palace

 Despite having studied in All Saints High School which is a stone's throw from the King Kothi Palace I never thought of checking it out. So on Sunday last me and my travel spirit headed to the area. Parked in the lane where those three large houses are, the shadi khana lane, and walked back. I remember one old friend's house being there somewhere.

Sri Thyagaraja Government College of Music and Dance 

Bang opposite where I parked was this quaint gate painted blue with the board Sri Thayagaraja Government College of Music and Dance. Since it was an early hour I took a pic of the gate and the building (over the gate). 

The inside - beautiful campus

It was so nice to see such a facility, well maintained and well preserved, right in the middle of the city, offering courses in music and dance. I heard that they shot Sagara Sangamam there. Started with a nice feeling.

King Kothi Palace

Round the corner from the end of the lane, past the sellers of second hand scooters and bikes and to the left is one part of the King Kothi palace which was converted into a hospital. The palace building still looks imposing and nice. In three parts originally - the Main building (which was converted into a hospital), the Usman Mahal (which has been demolished and a new block for the hospital constructed), and the Nazri bagh where the Nizam lived and where the Nizam's estates offices are/were.  

The District Hospital board

The old building given away to the government hospital

Can make out the palace despite the cars

The frontage

How it looks from behind

The buiding

All the specialties 

No maintenance, no security, some ladies cleaning up, the place seems to be used as a parking space I feel. Walked in and around and took some pics of the old building which seems to be storing old equipment. There's a statue of Gandhiji with a Satyameva Jayate written under.

Nazri Bagh or Mubarak Mansion

The hospital block is separated from the Nazri Bagh palace by a wall but if one makes the effort, one can see some spectacular parts of the palace from over the wall. This is where the 7th Nizam, the richest man in the world in his time, lived all his life.

Parts of the Nazri bagh visible

The Ghadial gate

The King Kothi palace, or the part that is called the Nazri Bagh has been sold off to some private parties and they are engaged in some legal issues so one cannot access it. Walked to one side of the hospital and could get a peep of how majestic this palace was from some glimpses of that building over the wall. Then walked around and looked at the famous purdah gate. One yellow gate which gave a small inkling into the palace - some people were inside but no way to catch their attention. Beautiful.

Purdah gate - purdah was lifted when the Nizam went out

The purdah gate had a curtain and hence the name

There is an interesting anecdote on how the King Kothi palace became the King's palace. The palace was originally built by a nobleman Kamal Khan incorporating elements from European, Islamic and Hindu architecture. However Kamala Khan inscribed his initials KK into every part of the palace. The 6th Nizam liked the palace and wanted to purchase it but the initials KK were proving to be a deterrent. That was when a courtier suggested that since it is a kothi (a huge house) and it belongs to the king, the KK could be changed to King Kothi. The 6th Nizam moved in and it is here that the 7th Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan lived from an age of 11 till he passed away in 1967. Interestingly the 7th Nizam is buried in a mosque called Judi mosque which was constructed by the Nizam. The Judi mosque is across the road from the palace which is where his mother was buried and it was his wish that he be buried where she was. The first Nizam is buried in Auragabad, the second to sixth are buried in Mecca Masjid and the 7th in Judi mosque.  

The Judi mosque where the 7th Nizam is buried

Then past the famous Hyline Bakery which we passed when we were in school while going to watch 'Jaws' at Parameshwari as reward for beating HPS Begumpet. Searched for the Wesley Church and enroute saw a beautiful estate with an old well and a cute temple. People were just waking up so no one seemed to be bothered.

Old well inside the temple complex

Old Jagannath temple - it even had a chariot house

Wesley Church

The CSI Centenary Wesley Church has a history dating back to the early 19th century. It is one of the earliest churches in Hyderabad. Apparently the Tamil speaking Christians in Hyderabad would travel to Secunderabad to pray at the St Thomas Church in bullock carts and a land was given by Prime Minister Salar Jung to build a church here.

The original Church built in 1969 - Christ Church

The Wesley Church was quite grand - the old one beautiful.

Waled past the Maharashtra mandal and peeped in. A nice auditorium that also seems to serve as a badminton hall and other buildings to the left. This part of the city catered to a large Maharashtrian segment. 

The Maharastra mandal was where Chitra and the Bhaves would go for their Maharashtrian activities. Some interesting old houses along the way and then back to the car. An interesting day out capped with a nice breakfast at Taj.       

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.