Hyderabad by Walk - Durgam Cheruvu Lake

Now the Durgam Cheruvu lake has a path all around it and it is a pretty walk. You buy tickets for 10 bucks and off you go - its way less crowded and less elitist than the KBR Park. The waters are tranquil, you get to see birds, the suspension bridge, the buildings at the IT Parks and the Inorbit mall. 

Cable bridge from the entrance

The IT area

Sunrise and all things normal

As you go to the other side you pass the little mosque which had now become a big mosque just as the little temple has now become a big temple. On this side there are places to sit and watch the sunrise and do yoga (which a few people were doing), meditate or even play shuttle.

Old mosque

Cable bridge from the tree shade 

Sunrise

Despite all that its still very peaceful if you get there by 630ish. The walk one way was about 3 miles so we walked back to earn our breakfast.  

Hyderabad By Walk - Errum Manzil, Raj Bhavan Road

I got into my walking mode and when I reached Ameerpet decided to go on straight and not turn back as I normally do. Past Punjagutta and further on until I came to Red Rose. 

Hidden from view - can see the old palace behind the trees and the new offices behind it

That's when I got the thought that I should possibly get a glimpse of Irrum Manzil Palace which which later became the Chief Engineer's Office where my Dad worked in the late 1970s and retired from there. I got into the Metro station thinking I will get a good view from there but I could see nothing. I could see a watchman sitting at the entrance to the hill leading up to the palace and for a moment decided against engaging with him.Then something in my mind said - go ahead and try and let's see.

Long and winding road

First glimpse to the left - the heart leaps

View from the side

So I walked in and past the watchman who only looked at me and let me go in without a question. i could see the palace looming to my left as I climbed (they are also building some major temple there in front of the building). I climbed up and turned into the building area. I clearly remember seeing people playing cricket in nets in front of the building, dressed in whites. So when I went there and actually looked at the building I was amazed at the sheer size and scale of it.

As I turned towards the front of the palace

The size gets you - just too big to capture in one frame

From the front - those stairs

Nawab Safdar Jung Musheer-Ud-daula Fakhrul Mulk built this palace just as he built Irrum Numa (later to become the TB Hospital) much closer to my house and where his tomb lies. Built in Indo-European Baroque style with 150 rooms, furnished with Loiuse XVI furniture, a 9 hole golf course, stables, a dairy farm, the palace was built on a hillock to overlook the Hussain Sagar lake.

The left side of the palace

View from the left

The left most part - falling apart

In later years the palace was taken over by the government and used for keeping old records and then the Public Works Department and now the Chief Engineers offices. Dad worked there as the Chief Engineer, National Highways and I remember staying in the guest house behind the palace from where we would go down to Sabon Bakery which was unfortunately shut down in the 90s.

Left to right

A closer look

Right now the palace looks dilapidated, doors are open leading to musty staircases, no part of it is used in the front nor being restored, the place where they played cricket is a dump yard for old unused cars and vehicles. 

A temple

Zoom in to see what's written on the left hand side shed - seized and smuggled goods

I am thinking how wonderful it would be to lease this property out and restore it a bit - make it into a hotel, an outdoor seating place, a tourist attraction. i would happily pay 100 bucks or more to just get a guided tour. 

Old vehicles in front of the palace

A nice old jeep

I paid much more when I went to the Baroda Palace and I can easily see how this can be made into a nice tourist attraction with parks, eateries.

The backside of the palace - looks like it is being used as an office

And the new - the new Chief Engineer's office

Juts glad I decided to walk in and take a look.          

And a Voice to Sing With - Joan Baez

I found this book in Pune, and somehow found it interesting based on the cover and the blurb without really knowing how impressive Joan Baez's life had been. I had never heard her sing, so when i checked out her songs I was wondering at 'We shall overcome' which is the tune on which 'Hum Honge Kamyaab' seems based on. And so many more songs with powerful lyrics demanding justice, equality, peace and all things right. Joan put together 30 albums and was a super star in her own right and in many ways.

Born January 9, 1941 to a Scottish mother and a Mexican father who would be a scientist, Joan and her two sisters travelled around with their parents. She had a penchant for drawing, singing, learned to play the ukelele, fell in love easily (something she continued to do all her life). Impressed by Gandhi's non-violent approach to protest she became a life long advocate for non-violence, followed Martin Luther King and performed at the Civil Rights March on August 28, 1963 at 22. Normally barefoot, bohemian, a guitar strapped to her shoulder, Joan Baez wrote songs, joined protests left right and centre, fell in and out of love. She discovered Bob Dylan and promoted him, fell in love, and describes one moment as the time when she most felt love - a moment when she had a mom like feeling. Anyway Bob grew bigger and left her, treated her badly during a Europe trip and she left him. But both seem to have been the love of each others lives from what I gathered, never getting over each other. 

Joan married an activist David Harris and they had a child Gabriel (Gabe) to whom the book is dedicated and who completely stole he attention. In between all this she protested against the war in Vietnam, tourned Vietnam during the infamous Christmas bombing of Vietnam, composed and released an album 'Where are you my son?' with bits of dialogue and music and sound of bombs. Joan, as someone rightly said was Zelig-like,  being present on so many great events - she performed 14 songs at Woodstock, opened the show at Live Aid's American wing (where she flirted outrageously with Don Johnson and several others and was, along with The Who, Crosby Stills and Nash and Santana, the only survivor from Woodstock to perform at Live Aid), sang at the Civil Rights movement, was featured on the cover of Time Magazine, went to Poland to support Solidarity party. Joan is unapologetic about her choices and loves (including one girlfriend when she was 22 which seemed to have got her into some  trouble. Joan was a big one to seek help from therapy from a young age.

Overall, gutsy, spontaneous, living life with convictions and courage and love, Joan Baez is certainly someone who lived a life I envy.  They don't make people like that anymore and I am so glad I read the book. I listened to a few of her songs and loved them. I cannot help but think that spending five minutes listening to her and her life philosophies would be such a wonderful thing. (One nice thing about these old books is stuff we find in them - I found a passport pic of a smiling man with a mustache - wonder who he was and why his pic was in the book and what he is up to now).         

Hyderabad by Walk - Lake View Park

Bang opposite Prasad's is a small park which we pass every time we cross the Khairatabad flyover and it caught Sunnie's eye. He indicated that we must visit the park one day to check it out and the opportunity presented itself soon. Turns out that the all around Hussain Sagar lake there are so many parks - NTR Gardens, Lake View Park, Lake Front Park, Sanjiviah Park and so on. Apart from the open lawns and greenery that one can access freely.

Sunrise in the Lake View Park 

More sun rise - can see two girls on the bridge

This park is right next to the flyover and I do not remember it being there. It was probably made to prevent encroachment of government land through slums. One can see the dignity housing for the slum dwellers as one turns into the lane. To the right is the gate.

One of the bridges

Khairatabad flyover to the left

It's peaceful, small, well maintained. Walkers, joggers, laughers, cricketers, stretchers were occupying the place. Sunnie and I kept to the left and walked up and around the little pond. There were small bridges built across the pond in several areas. Most of the exercise oriented people stuck to the area near the entrance. The walkers and a few joggers went along the walking path.

The lake with Dr BR Ambedkar in the background

We crisscrossed the two- three bridges, talking about some intense topic. Two girls sat on the bridge discussing worldly affairs. A group of young kids jumped the wall and set up a cricket pitch in the middle of the walk way. When Sunnie asked why they jumped the wall when entry was free (till 8 am or so) they replied as boys do - this is shorter (and jumping walls is way more fun than coming in through the gate dude!)

We walked two or three times since it was a small park. Some old people sat and chatted. One sporty fellow was leading some stretching exercises to a bunch of assorted people. A small laughing club was laughing away. Some yoga practitioners were on their job.

Nice. So there's a park like this for every KBR park - happy!        

Padmaavat - Movie

 A fictional story based on poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi's poem 'Padmaavat' it shows how Allauddin Khilji was besotted by the beautiful Rani Padmavathi of Mewar and wages war to possess her. However she commits Sati by jumping into a burning pyre with the other women in the fort before he can capture her. 

 

Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

 Published in 1925 and rated among the top 100 novels Mrs Dalloway is a story set in post first world war Britain. Apparently Virginia Woolf had written two short stories 'Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street' and 'The Prime Minister' and combined the two.

The story takes place in a day in the life of an English socialite Mrs Clarissa Dalloway who is throwing a party that evening to be attended by elite classes including the Prime Minister. She has married a successful and reliable man Richard Dalloway instead of her old flame, the enigmatic and demanding Peter Walsh, and another female flame Sally Seton. Now both Peter and Sally are invited to the party. While Sally is happily married and has five kids which is a far cry from what she was in her youth, Peter is still madly in love with Clarissa who also yearns to get away from her life. In all this there is the story of Septimus Smith, a war veteran who is slowly losing his mind and who also remembers his friend Evans for who he has sexual feelings. At the moment though he has no feelings for anyone, including his wife. 

Towards the end Septimus commits suicide, an act which Clarissa apparently sees braver than the choices she is taking.

Pretty forward for those times one must say. I liked the intensity of Walsh's feelings for Clarissa and their unfulfilled love story.      

Smile Please - Movie

 Marathi. 2019.

A sensitive film that addresses the issue of dementia and how a family copes with it. Mukta Barve is very good

in the lead role as Nandini, a fashion photographer who slowly realises she had early onset of dementia and how she and her family copes with the gradual loss of her memory. 

Liked it.