Loitering near Charminar

Sunday morning in Hyderabad

Both children slipped, they rose - getting their spread-out feet together in the process, tapped their bums and were at it again; skidding on the grains put-out for pigeons. Ten odd meters away few not so adventurous children gently offered grains to ever-ready pigeons. A third category of children fell in the hesitant category. This action around pigeons was endearing enough to take one’s attention off from Mecca Masjid’s splendour. I silently thanked the non-interfering parents! Amidst the small crowd, I guess, I also saw an aunty from Rajasthan, a Hindu, putting grains for pigeons and quietly walking away. To quote Vinod Mehta ‘there’s somewhere a moral in all this’. One side of the Masjid’s spacious compound was being swept clean with entire branches of coconut trees while farther away, in a corner, young ones played with ball. Carefully draped chandeliers inside the building brought out other, not so welcome, actions of the pigeons!

Before the Masjid we made a visit to Nimrah Bakery. They had run out of bun-malai; we were late at 7.30 am! At Nimrah, I realized then, it makes sense to eat and get packed from what you then see for it disappears fast. Like in many other aspects of life planning is of little use here. To the uninitiated it is the birth-place of melt-in-mouth Osmania-biscuits and Cake-rusks like none other; when hot they make one absolutely focused on one’s tasty-buds. Mumi enquired when do they open – 4.00 am was the answer. Some day soon, I said to myself, Nimrah followed by a walk to the Golconda Fort, along an intriguing route.

A walk beyond the lad bazaar (that of the bangles fame) reminded us of the Heritage Walk we had been a part of, on an earlier Sunday. It had been an interesting experience to walk amidst history and have it interpreted by a very motivated facilitator. We had then taken the route that began from Charminar and meandered its way along the lanes to end up at Chowmahalla Palace. Today we walked a portion of that route - narrow and not so narrow lanes. The small garden housing a tower, the crumbling haveli with an absolutely stunning façade and birds in cages around a corner. Some of these had House- crows and House-sparrows today.

"Mecca Masjid, Hyderabad, India" by Lala Deen Dayal - British Library. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mecca_Masjid,_Hyderabad,_India.jpg#/media/File:Mecca_Masjid,_Hyderabad,_India.jpg

The Sunday market then. The sheer range of used items on sale was mind-boggling. Irons (light and heavy), fans and fan-wings, music-systems, ball-bearings, wrist-watches, wall-clocks, range of cleaning-equipment, bangles, wooden photo-frames, stoves (both kerosene and gas operated), battered looking candle-stands, water-coolers and more. Some new were sold along with, these included mobile-chargers and cycles. The Last Nizam by John Zubrzycki, a book I read in recent times, talks of how items were put up for sale by the aristocracy during 1960’s. Was this the market I wondered?  The book itself, as the cover states, is a story of how the heir to India’s richest princely state gave up a kingdom and retired to the dusty paddocks of outback Australia.

It was interesting how some of these items evoked memories and emotions while some just did not matter. The fervor and colours reminded of me dadi multiple times. The audio-cassettes on sale were a pleasant sight, especially at a time when (touch wood) I have got my cassette-player back in action! Mugs were fascinating; brass and bronze ones especially. I tried bargaining for a pair of large ones and the uncle selling did not budge. I quit after some minutes. My bargaining skills are at best – BAD. At another place I picked up a smaller one.

Loitering without goals, aims, and objectives is ever fun; more so in spaces that espouse identities, culture and character.  

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End note: Do try going to Charminar on an early Sunday morning. You will enjoy - beginning with how quick and easy you get there and how different the city looks when roads are empty.  We did and so did the person driving the auto!

Earlier post on Hyderabad