An evening at Charminar

Charminar, Hyderabad

Dawakhana

Colorfully lost in time

"Chudiyan le lo", Bangles at Charminar

Camaderie - Afzal, Hussain and Rehan

The Charminar is as much the signature of Hyderabad as the Taj Mahal is of Agra or the Eiffel Tower is of Paris. Often called "The Arc de triumph of the East", Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah, the founder of Hyderabad, built Charminar in 1591 at the centre of the original city layout. Legends has it that it was built as charm to ward off a deadly epidemic raging at that time.The Charminar is a square edifice with four grand arches each facing a cardinal point that opened once upon a time into four royal streets. At each corner stands an exquisitely shaped minaret, more than 55 mt. in height with a double balcony. A bulbous dome crowns each minaret with dainty petal like designs at the base. A beautiful mosque is located at the western end of the open roof and the remaining part of the roof served as a court during the Qutub Shahi times.

Deepak and me took an autorikshaw to the Charminar and I was overwhelmed by the cacaphony of colors and riot of sounds. The shops are layed out in layers around the minaret, like leaves of an onion. The outmost shops display brightly colored chunnis and salwar-kamee overlayed with intricate lace and zari work. Then followed the lane selling the bangles and itar - the persian (?) perfume. I am yet to see a more gaudy and varied collection of bangles anywhere in the world. The penultimate layer had lot and lots of jewellers putting up their wares on display. The glitter of the jewellary added a shimmering magnificance to the fading day.

The Minar itself is flanked by lots of eateries and shops selling dry fruits all the way from Afganistan. We walked into a place that was selling faluda.It looked really old with murals made out of mirrors adorning the place. We didn't quite like what we ordered, but next time you are around just walk in to have a look at the glass work. One the left hand side of the minar is a mosque that's supposed to house upto 50,000 people at a time. The guard, Muhammad was kind enough to let us in and click some photographs even though it was much past closing time.

Then we chitchatted with a really old cloth peddlar called Karim. He told us about the davakhana and some tidbits about the place and its history. He also directed us to a placed called Sadab that apparently sells the best biryani in that area. We loafed around quite a bit and finally turned up at Shadab. The kebabs there were really good, I cant say the same about the biryani. To top it off we finished with Irani Chai, really sweet and refreshing.

Then we called it a day and headed home :-)