Define Hyderabad by city’s localities

A rich repertoire of Hyderabadi naamaan by J. S. Ifthekhar, The Hindu: Hyderabad,February 13, 2013

Extract: Koka ki Tatti, Panchi Buraq, Kali Khabar, Behrupiya Galli, Jalalkutcha. Hold it, they are not tongue-twisters meant to test your pronunciation, they are just names of some of the city’s localities. Sure difficult to articulate, but not difficult to locate.

It is an endless list of funny, often outlandish names by which some of the areas in the old city are known. Interestingly, many of those who live here are not fully aware of how and why their ‘mohallas’ are known by such odd names.

 

Now, you need not struggle to find out. Just go through the book “Hyderabad – Mohalle, Gali aur Kooche” and the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fall into place effortlessly.

Unique work

Noted academic Anandraj Verma’s book, scheduled to be released shortly, is a collector’s issue. It is the only such book in Hindi and this makes it unique.

It not only tells the story behind the area names but also dwells at length on the historical structures, religious places, social customs and important families of each locality...

And do you know about Rajarayan Shamraj Bahadur and the clock tower at Shah Ali Banda which shows the time in different numerals -- English, Roman, Urdu and Hindi -- on its four sides. Mr. Verma mentions many such little known things about Hyderabad.

The city’s famous bangle street, Laad Bazar, is ‘Hyderabad ka suhag bazar’ for Mr. Verma. He sums up its history with Firaq Gorakpuri’s verses:

Bindi, jhumar, jhumka aur bazoo ke joshan

Missi, gaja, kajal aur paoon ke chan

Itni cheezen dekh kar lalchaye gori ka man

Gori ko bazaar dikha kar pachtaye sajan

continue reading: A rich repertoire of Hyderabadi naamaan

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Names of city localities hark back to a forgotten era - Times Of India

Often there is more than one history on offer for certain places. To wit, the origin of Abids is traced by Narendra Luther in his blog to "Albert Abid... a Jew and a valet of Mir Mehboob Ali Khan, the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad (b:1866, d: 911). In course of time, he became quite rich and so he set up a shop where Palace Talkies ( presently Big Bazaar) and Bank of Baroda are located. He called it Abid & Company." It was from this shop that the whole locality derived its name, Luther writes. Alternatively, there is another version of an American Jewish gentleman called Abid Evans, after whose shop the area got its name.