Nothing changes, yet nothing remains the same...

Well, unfortunately, real life in Hyderabad can't keep pace with the frenetic pace of bloggers in virtual space. The city's languid lifestyle was once a major attraction. Today, it is a happening place with all the attendant problems on infrastructure and civic life. For old timers, the Arts College and the High Court are monuments that mirror the city's grandeur (of yore). Youngsters prefer to talk of Hi-tech City, the pubs in town and multiplexes. For some, there are distinctive traits that go with Hyderabadi culture; for others it's the new melting pot--accepting and open enough, culture be damned. For yet others, with one foot planted here and the other 'there', 'two-timing' is simply not easy.

If you're looking for a good book--there are many on our city--Ms. Noopur Kumar's 'Portrait of a City' has some excellent photographs (by Mr. D. Ravinder Reddy) on the many facets of Hyderabad, over the last few decades. It's an excellent coffee-table work and certainly worth a read.

Saty
----
***image source: D.K. Agencies]
See also

India centre (at Hyderabad) engineers played key role, filed 40 patents for Vista ,
Venkatesh Ganesh

Hyderabad: A Tale of Hype and Hope. By Patralekha Chatterjee. (Urban Age, 1999) [includes: From Minarets to Microsoft]

What else to read

The ubiquitous 'auto'.....

Catch the City Happenings - Daily life in Hyderabad***

"Auto strike called off, panel formed", says The Deccan Chronicle

And now for an update on life in our beloved city....
For a week now, they have been off the roads, and traffic has never been smoother, better, more organized and anxiety-free, on our (justly) much maligned roads. The ubiquitous 'autorickshaws', which have been a permanent fixture on our city roads, since the early 70s, make sudden, sneaky appearances and disappear, after fleecing an odd customer. The reason behind all this--our dear 'automen' don't want digital meters and have gone on an indefinite strike, assuming that they would bring the city to its knees. Well, that didn't quite happen--life goes on, schoolchildren continue to get dropped, resources get pooled and the RTC does it's fair bit. Meanwhile, some of them--the auto fellas, I mean-- have never had it better--a two mile ride can now cost you a hundred bucks!
So much for 'desh ki dharti' post-Republic Day. And speaking of Republic Day Celebrations, who doesn't know how it's celebrated? As a child, I'd see my parents sitting glued to the radio listening to Melville de Mello (was it?) on AIR, describing the Parade in Delhi. And in later years, when you had nothing but just Doordarshan to watch, the entire household (and this was a 'ghar ghar ki kahani') watched the Parade in the Capital on TV. For donkey's years now, neighbourhoods have had the habit of planting a loudspeaker somewhere (courtesy local MLA, for the most part) and subjecting the entire neigbourhood to patriotic songs like 'mere desh ki dhharti', 'ai mere watan ke logo' 'yeh desh hai veer jawanoN ka' 'apni azadi ko hum' etc., played endlessly all through the day.Well, things haven't changed one bit (in this respect) in all these years.

*** Much more in pictures: Life in Hyderabad ... photos by Steve Cubbins and Alex Wan

What Hyderabadi bloggers are doing on the Republic Day

A quote from the desk of a Hyderabadi journalist,

India: Misery and magic Haroon Siddiqui
HYDERABAD–The day India launched four satellites into space was also the day the construction crew arrived at the neighbour's house for adding a floor. ... Full article

kyonke mera dil hai phir bhi hindustani ...

Today is India's Republic Day. Let us see what Hyderabadi Bloggers are doing.

Uday Patadia @ The Global Times Of Hyderabad: India Poised / India Vs. India [Making of Bachchan India Poised read the text too]

On This Republic Day ... The two facets of a Republic, Abhishek

Rajitha Reddy Eda say's Lage Raho Gandhiji -- Epica Awards 2004!

Happy Republic Day, Abha

Hyderabad too has its Republic Day parade in the Gymkhana grounds, Lakshmi Mareddy

Republic Day of India, A Special Day In My Life! Raju Byna

Festivals-- Pongal and Republic Day, Erin's Blog

Happy Republic Day, Pooja

Happy Republic Day People..........
Sharing with you the JOY and PRIDE of being an INDIAN, Sadiya

PUNCHLINE:
And, you are a Hyderabadi if.........

1. Your address reads as 23-404-32/67A-43 (New MCH number 56-678/4A/B-22), while you actually live in the second house beside Zamzam cafe in lane behind Anand Theatre on SP Road.
2. You end up buying only a salwar kameez, whether it is a theatre workshop, food mela, consumer expo, designer jewellery show, science show or an automobile convention.
3. Your street has at least one roadside mobile hotel that serves Chinese delicacies such as "Vegetable soft needles", "Navrotten Kurma", "Chicken Manchurea" or "American Chompsee".
4. Your answer is 'seedha chale jao' when somebody asks you for directions, whether it is to Malakpet, Masab Tank, Malkajgiri or Moosapet.
5. You come across tailors sporting the board: Immidiot delivery in two days onli.
6. You can speak Hindi, Urdu, hyderabadi hinglish, except Telugu, fluently.
7. You ask the waiter to get you some 'Mango pickle' even if you are sitting at a lavish continental banquet dinner with exotic Chinese, Mexican, Italian and Lebanese cuisines.
9. You order for a tea just after having had a Caramel custard.
10. You have at least one Srinivas, Prasad, Raju or Venkatesh within six square feet. OR you have at least one cousin, friend, colleague or acquaintance with these names.
11. You have at least one cousin, friend, colleague or acquaintance in the US in software.
12. Everytime somebody gives you a piece of good news, the first thing you ask them is 'Party kab hai?'
13. Refer to any past as 'parsoon', be it yesterday or long before three hundred years.
14. You say 11 A.M. as subah subah.
15. You label your boss as: 'Dimagh Kharab'
16. You are 15 minutes late and you feel you are on time.
17. You look at the fixed price stand and still ask: 'dene ka bolo'
18. You are reading this and secretly admitting that you are, after all, a true blue Hyderabadi.
And realize: Once a Hyderabadi, always a Hyderabadi

See also: Who is a Hyderabadi??? Posted by Prince on May 02, 2007 5:57:00

City Non-Stop - It happens only in Hyderabad

Questions people have asked about this traffic:

Have you ever seen such a flawless cut?

How many accidents in a second?

Who controls the traffic?

Who monitors the movement of vehicles?

Can this pattern work any where else in the world?

NB. A Hyderabadi may respond:
Hey Ghar mein bol ke aaya kya??? Arre Marna hai kya??
Arey bhai, agey chaltay kya, sawalan nakko karo, mein zara jaldi may hoon--keep moving, dont bug me now, I am in a huury....

Sankranti and 'patangs'

I wonder who it was who brought 'patangs' or kites to Hyderabad. They fill the skies in quite a few sizes and all the colours you could think of.
From the time that we grew up--in the 60's--to these days, the price of patangs, manja ( the sharp thread used to cut other kites) and charaKhs has gone up in astronomical proportions. No wonder, there aren't as many kites as we used to see around December and early January, but Makara Sankranti seems to have made up for all that. There were zillions of kites everywhere and I couldn't resist getting into a few 'painches' (kite-fights) myself, when my job was actually to keep a close eye on my kids and their friends who were flying from our rooftop. The terminology (of 'patangbaazi') hasn't changed with the times, mercifully, and so everyone knows that a 'Dhiil' fight is one in which you keep releasing the string till you cut or get cut, just as 'khiinch' is tugging to the bitter finish (definitely requiring more skill). But not everyone these days seems to know what a 'jiiba' or a 'pattidar' is, as opposed to earlier times. But then times they sure are achanging......

NB. It is a harvest festival celebrated in most parts of India under different names .. Sankranti(A.P, Karnataka), Pongal(Tamil Nadu), Makar Sankranti (Maharastra and Gujarat) and Lohri (Punjab and Haryana). source: Me, Myself, I and stuff...., by Rajitha
PUNCHLINE:
Meethe gud main mil gaya til,
udi patang aur khil gaya dil,
Har pal sukh aur har din shanti aap ke liye Happy Makar Sankranti..
source: SMS Messages Collection#18- EJalgaon.com

Catch the City Happenings - Sunrise and Sunset at Hyderabad

This is about a day in Hyderabad.

More on Moazzam Jah

Well, you might think that yesterday's post was a prelude to this. It didn't occur to me at the time I posted my take on Narendra Luther's book that I have a few recollections of Moazzam Jah myself, and my own little brush with royalty--inconsequential as it may have been.


I had just joined a Master's program in English in the year1980, when a friend's senior cousin, Rashid Qayyum, asked me if I'd be interested in helping Moazzam Jah's son--Shahamat Jah, with some English. In other words, was I willing to be his 'tuition master'? I agreed quite readily, because for one thing, it meant some extra bucks I could do with. For another, and more importantly, I'd be able to catch a glimpse of the legendary Moazzam Jah, the former junior prince of erstwhile Hyderabad. For the next few months I went quite religiously to 'Fern Villa' in Red Hills where I'd sit with Shahamat in his room trying to help him with the odd poem or essay. Once in a few days, Moazzam Jah Bahadur would ask for me and make small talk. He also invited me for dinner once and ensured that some very good vegetarian food was cooked. But, by then he was a shadow of his former self and could not move about freely.

As Hyder Ali Aatish of the Lucknow school tells us:
na gor*-e-Sikandar, na hai qabr-e-Daara
miTay naamiyoN ke nishaaN kaise kaise

*grave

saty

'Nocturnal Court': Life of a Prince of Hyderabad by Narendra Luther

Talking of books on Hyderabad, I think Narendra Luther's 'Nocturnal Court', a translation of Sidq Jaisi's unforgettable account of life and times in Moazzam Jah's Court ('Darbaar-e-durbaar) is an excellent work. While the English translation is certainly nowhere close to the Urdu original, in spite of Luther's monumental effort, for those who can't read the original, and as it happens, they are the vast majority, the book provides a very rare glimpse into the exotic evenings at Moazzam Jah's Court. And for those who don't know who Moazzam Jah--after whom Moazzam Jahi Market in Hyderabad is named--was, he was the second son of Mir Osman Ali Khan, the Seventh Nizam of Hyderabad.

Moazzam Jah's real name, if I remember right, was Shuja'at Ali Khan. He also wrote under the taKhallus or nom de plume of 'Shaji'. Off-hand I like most others can quote quite a few of Shaji's memorable couplets, written in simple Urdu, but I guess one would suffice, for now.
shaam-e-Gham kaT rahi hai mazay meiN Shaji
shaam-e-Gham ki seher ho tau kya kijiye
Saty

Multicultural Celebrations Around the New Year by Desiz

An interesting audio talk -- celebrations in India that is a land of unity in diversity.

PS. We dedicate this post to recognize the Gujarati's in Hyderabad.

Sal Mubarak~ Happy 2006!
Hungry for Holidays, anyone?
Listen to the whole show
Duration 11m 4s

Technorati tags: gujarati
New year
Desiz