India: Hyderabad

This would be the last installment of my India travels story-mory.... 7 days spent in Bangalore shopping for clothes, souvenirs and books. 4 days in Nagpur eating Indian food and blend with the people. The last 3 days was spent in Hyderabad; a million and thousand of thanks to our very funny but very kind host, Ben, who took the time off his serious banking job to show us around the city.

Books, darn cheap books.

Hyderabad used to be a city that is almost made of gems and diamonds back in the days of the Sultans and the Nizams (equal to Prime Minister).. the diamonds on the coronation crown that sits on the Royal King/Queen Brit's head, in fact, comes from a place in Hyderabad (which I will tell you later). Although now, it seems like there's no more precious gems to be found anymore, but however, now Hyderabad is known as the City of Pearls, which confuses me since this place is very far away from the sea. But hey, who cares, as long as the pearls are cheap! :D

Hyderabadi Pearls (bukan utk mami jarum).

The city is split into two sections, the old town of Hyderabad, which is flooded with all sort of people. It's easy to get pick pocketed if you're not careful with your belongings. Hawkers stalls are strewn all over the main road selling all sort of stuffs, such as this fellow below, who's selling glasses.

One cup.

The old town is populated mostly by Muslims and has very beautiful architectures, such as this one below; The Charminar. This piece of architecture sits as the city's square and was built by the ruler,Muhammed Quli Qutab Shah to commemorate the end of the plague after moving his city from Golkonda to Hyderabad. If you could imagine, The Charminar sits at the center of the hustle and bustle streets of Hyderabad, just like Arc de Triomph sits in the center of Paris traffic.

The Charminar

At first, I only took pictures of the Charminar from inside the car, but the view was limited and blocked by the window and the car's roof (it's almost impossible to capture something that's huge from inside a confined space at a close range). So, Ben (our host) said I should get out of the car if I want to get nice shots, and he said "but be very careful!". The way he warned us is like, "OMG, the people out there are like pirates, you better watch your back!" (yes, over dramatic me). But just look at the people who are waiting outside of our car when it stopped. We were surrounded by beggars.

A woman and her children, asking for money.

Yes, it was quite scary for me at first because I've only heard about beggars crowding tourist stories from my parents and family members who went to newly developing and third world countries such as the Middle East and some parts of South East Asian countries that's just full of peopl begging for money. I did not offer them anything and try not to make any eye contact. Instead I gave them a brush of cold shoulder, which sometimes makes me feel guilty whenever I look at the picture again. They're not the only poor family but they're one of many families who begs for money around the city of Hyderabad.

Charminar's Minarets

Andhra Pradesh food is something that we had to eat, more spicier and hot than the food at Nagpur, which was pretty mild. I think I ended up drinking a whole large bottle mineral water just to cool off the heat. Food was no issue because most of the people in Hyderabad are Muslims.

Mich, me and Ben

The second section of the city is the newer part of the city, which is known as Secunderabad, and there's a lot of international companies setting up in this section and more modernised than the old town. There's the Indian Google office, IMAX, the army camp and of course shopping malls. Both sections is separated by a large Hussein Sagar lake, a man-made lake commissioned by the Sultan in order to have fresh water supplied to the people of the city. At the middle of the lake, there's a huge sculpture of Gautama Buddha that was made in 1992.

Hussein Sagar Lake

If you're in Hyderabad, a must-see historical site is Golkonda Fort (Shepherd's Hill in old Telugu), and the must-see event at this must-see site is the Light and Sound show that starts at night. We arrived a few hours before sunset, and set out to take a self tour in the inside of the fort.

A map of Golkonda Fort

My first impression of Golkonda Fort is that, it is much more bigger and has more grandeur than any other fort and castles I've seen in UK. Just look how tiny that guy is standing beside the high, big and broad wall that had stood against the test of time for almost 800 years! The reason for building such stronghold is to protect the rulers and the diamonds from enemies that might attack using elephants.

Impenetrable walls of Golkonda

Seven Kings of the Qutb Shahi dynasty ruled over Golkonda. The first three kings constructed the fort in over 62 years. It is only during the rule of the fourth king, Muhammed Quli Qutub Shah laid a city called Bhag Nagar, after the name of his beloved wife, Bhagmati, which is now called Hydrabad.

Bala Hissar Darwaza, entrance into the fort.

The first invasion of the city and the fort was by a Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb during the rule of Sultan Abdullah Qutub Shah. But a treaty was arrived on the request of the Sultan. As an execution of the term of the treaty, the Sultan's daughter was given in marriage to Aurangzeb's son.

First view of the insides of the Fortress. Acropolis at the top most point.

Aurangzeb then invaded Golkonda for the second time during the rule of Abul Hasan Tanasha. The invasion lasted for 8 months but Aurangzeb couldn't win over the fort because of the strong gates preventing them from entering the fort and also due to acoustics system of the fort. Even the rustle of leaves at the Fateh darwaza, which is at the lowest level of the fort area, can be heard clearly at the Bala Hisar pavilion on the top of the acropolis.

Corridors.

Finally the fortress couldn't held out against Aurangzeb, falling to the Mughals through treachery. Abdullah Khan who was a seditious despite being a commander of the Qutub Shah forces and was deputed on the eastern gate of the fort opened the gate during the night giving access to the enemy to enter the Fort.

Cheeze!

Abul Hassan was arrested and placed behind iron bars for 14 years in Chini Mahal of Dalatabad Fort. When he died, the Kingdom of Qutub Shahis passed away together with him, and there was an advent of Mughal kingdom. Governors then were appointed in Hyderabad to administer the city.

There's a group of people shooting a video clip. Try to spot the spotlight.

It's a pity that the fort fell out because treachery. It's not a new story, after all this happened it many kingdoms and fortresses of the old. Now, all that's left are empty halls and rotting buildings that's chipped in a million places standing quietly as a reminder for everyone now. The wind that blew along the silent corridors are as if trying to whisper a warning to us about the dangers of having a snake under the mattress.

Everybody must have AT LEAST one 'leaping' picture. Polis tu mesti rasa nak lompat jugak.

More views of one of the fort's buildings.

Assembly Place

The main attraction of Golkonda Fort is the Sound and Light show that's starts at night time. We waited patiently at the assembly place (above) for 1 hour or so until the sun sets. As the sun disappear, hundreds of mosquitoes started to appear and the management brought in a guy to spray something like the denggi spray here in M'sia. Yup the gun-like thingy that emits thick white smoke. I'm not sure whether what they sprayed there was insect repellent that is safe for human or real pesticide. I hope it's the former because, the most ridiculous thing is that we sat at our chair and didn't budge a bit during the smogging session because we are scared other people might take our seats, because that's the best seats in the house. How kiasu are we now?

The picture above is the same picture of the assembly hall taken during the show. The show is an animated summary of the history of the fort itself, about the lives of the kings and the people living inside it. All of that was narrated by Mr B (Amitabh Bachan) himself. What a soothing and macho voice he has. The colourfulr lights will be shone towards a certain area or a certain part of a building when a story was being told to give the impression an event happened here and there.

For me, I guess the most interesting story was about Prince Qutub Quli Shah and Bhagmati. The Prince who was riding back to his palace saw a charming local but very beautiful Telugu dancer called Bhagmati and instantly fell in love with her at first sight (!!!). She was a Hindu and a commoner by birth so his father, the king disapproved of the match. When the prince was prevented from meeting his beloved and kept under house arrest he crossed the barriers in his fort, swam across the Moussi river on a stormy night to keep his promise to Bhagmati. After seeing this the king not only gave him permission to meet Bhagmati but also built a bridge across the river for the prince’s safe journey to the other end. The prince later married her. It’s even said that the prince named his city Bhagyanagar -which was later changed to modern-day Hyderabad. Aww... how romantic is that??

Taramatic Palace with the Mosque at front.

The insides of the mosque

The mosque illuminated with light at night.

This is my final entry about my trip to India. If given the change I'd go and visit the country again. It's very beautiful and highly inspiring. And you must go there too one day.

Read more here-lah:
1. Legacy of the City of Pearls

Nagpur

Halluuu.... sambung story trip to India :D
I'm going off for a long break... Guess I'd leave some blog updates.

Here are some experiences I'm sharing when I was in Nagpur (check-out where Nagpur is here). We had to take a Bangalore-Delhi flight which had two stops (Pune and Nagpur) to reach there. It's my first time riding a stop-and-go plane, some sort like a bus (easily amused first timer).

We stayed at our friend's house and met the whole family, and by that, I mean EVERYBODY (well, almost!). We planned a quick trip to Khindsi Lake that was about 2 hours drive from our place. Everybody wanted to go and so, all went to Ramtik together. In one car. A car with the size of a Peugeot 206. If you look at the picture below, just imagine how similar that Peugeot resembles a sardine can.

How many persons you can fit in a Peugeot 206? 8 people apparently.

Khindsi Lake in the evening. Family day out.

Errr... after that outing, I preferred to stay put in Nagpur and use a lighter mode of transportation - the Autorickshaw. Less squashing, more open space and fresh air. Hehehe... okay, I'm won't complain anymore, it was an interesting experience.

Strings of autos, waiting for passengers.

Nagpur is not really a 'tourist-y' place, and that is a good thing, because there won't be a lot of shopkeepers taking advantage of gullible tourist, like me :P. This is the place where you can go and see how Indians live their lives in a daily basis. Went to the local market. Shop at the mall. Window shopping at Archies. Drink coffee at Coffee Day. Eat lunch at Zync (I think that is what it's called) and had my first Affogato (banyak syiok!).

Flower seller.

Zindegi (Life) goes on.

Market.

We also had our own private henna session.

Sammy said Dinshaw is a very popular ice cream brand and one of the best in that region. The ice cream was super delicious. In other region, there's Amul, which is equally mouth watering.

Dinshaw Sundae ice cream.

An Unforgettable Wedding

The wedding was my main reason flying to India. And that was my answer when people asks me, 'Why on earth are you going to India?!' Yes, why not India? Nothing wrong with that.

Akad ceremony

In India, weddings are a serious matter. It not only involves the bride and groom's nucleus families, but it extends to distant bau-bau bacang relatives that you never knew you had. Therefore, it has to be at least a splendor, if not perfect; everyone will remember it as a very special and smooth sailing day (and so to avoid fussy aunts complaining about everything).

Uncles, aunts, first cousins, second cousins, all possible relatives that you can gather.

As for this wedding, the preparation was quite straight-forward (from my eyes, but I guess for the organiser, it's a total mayhem). Like other customary wedding preparations, it started with the preparation of the bride with mehndi (putting on henna) a day before the wedding. She will have her whole arms (from her fingertips to her elbow) and legs (from the toes to the knees) with henna. The colour of the mehndi will dutifully becomes darker when the wedding day arrives (the next day).

The groom offering a drink to his bride

Then comes the next thing, putting on traditional wedding attire. Because this is India, we expect the guests (females) would be wearing their best collection to the wedding, therefore the bride has to wear something further more elegant, stylish, shinier, fancier and heavily adorned with all sorts of jeweleries so that she will stand out from the crowd.

After the akad, both groom and bride are officially husband and wife.

The groom.

The bride.

The dholly is an interesting kind of transportation. The name dholly crops up a few times in the famous movie called 'Dil Wale Dulhania Lejayenge' (DDLJ). It's a wedding carriage used to carry a newly wed bride inside. Usually her close relatives; her father, brother or uncle, will carry the dholly (with the bride inside) on their shoulder to her new home. The groom, obviously have to walk alongside since the dholly can fit only one person inside.

Receiving a dholly.

Like in all Hindi movies with wedding scenes in it, it wouldn't be right if there's no dances involved. Why not? It's a happy event, everybody's clearly in a mood to celebrate penyatuan dua hati. Put on a few new Hindi songs and and that popular DDLJ's, surely everybody will boogey down on the dance floor, starting with the newly weds.

Bollywood moment. Shy, shy cat.

The party has started

Adorning traditional accessories

Pagri (turban)

Saje nak test

Prep for reception

Newly weds sitting on the dais

Wedding food. In which I think much better than the usual routinely nasi minyak that we always have back home.

No pictures PLEASE!

Wedding

Bangalore: First impression doesn't count

Landed in Bangalore close to midnight, outside of the plane, I was greeted by a red and white wall mosaic of an Indian woman wearing a traditional Indian dress. Interesting, what else could there be on the other side. During the four hours flight to Bangalore, my traveling mate, Michelle, had been explaining to me almost everything about India that she knows of (she studied there for sometime), and one thing that she emphasized over and over again is - be prepared for a culture shock. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect at first and I've already erased all the nice things that saw in Hindi films from my memory so that I won't be disappointed if all the Indian men doesn't look like Hritik Roshan at all.On first impression, everything is messy and unorganized, starting from the luggage collection and till we crammed our over sized luggages into the car. Although it seems like havoc, this is quite subtle since it's midnight and more than half of the city dwellers are asleep. (OK, I'll save my culture shock for tomorrow when the city wakes up).

Culture shock #1:
First time on Indian roads and auto-rickshaw gave the scare of my life. It's like having a 'rempit' youngster taking on the wheels. They go left, right, center and in between other vehicles irrespective of the common road law that we know of. All things that have wheels utilises the horn a lot, and it's a norm to drive with one hand placed on the horn button and pressing on it every 10 seconds to inform their presence on the road because most of them don't use side mirrors. It's common to see signs behind vehicles that says "Horn Please" or "Sound Horn". Crossing roads is also quite tricky. Just close your eyes and start crossing. That's India. Watch this clip:

Sound Horn Please

Auto Rickshaw (auto)

Culture shock #2:

People still sell things on carts, pulleys and from baskets on their heads. Not a big shock really, more like a reminiscence of old memories when we had these kind of sellers in Malaysia when I was a small girl at my kampung.

An India lady selling bananas from a basket on her head.

Selling ice cream by the road side during traffic jam.

Culture shock #3:
People will stare. And will continue to stare at you like you have two noses on your face, men, women and children alike. Just ignore. Also, crowds will start to flock around you when you stop by a shop or a road side stall, just because you are there. I remember this particular baju shop that we entered, there were no customers at first, but after 5-10 mins, people started to come in crowding the shop. This also happens in a few more shops we went to.

They we staring at me long before I took my camera out.

Culture shock #4:
Dust. Everywhere. Hygiene. Pretty bad state. If you can, please hold until you reach home. Rubbish. Everywhere. Well, at least the cows and dogs help to eat them up. Beggars. Everywhere.

Cows. All natural.

Well. The above might sound scary to some of you who are used to squeaky clean and pampered surroundings. But once you start to see past these first set of layer that covers India, you'll start to enjoy and appreciate the beauty that lies beneath it.

India is very colourful. There's just soooooo much colour around! From sarees to surrounding decorations, they try to maximise the use of colours. It just gives the effect of good vibes around you.

Daisies in a clay pot.

Thousands of bangles in a thousand of different colours.


This guy is embroidering a ghagra top.

Sometimes, walking around Bangalore, I do feel like it's a city that is stuck in middle of between heading towards modernity and at the same time, trying to conserve it's olden values. Old and new trying to survive without having to cut each other out.

Posing in front of some old shops that's been around for like 50 years or so.

More moderns shops can be found at Brigade Road.

Sculptures of horses at The Palms .


Mix.

Next: The Wedding.