Hyderabad: Visiting the city of Nawabs – Part 1

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To Read Part-2, please click here

Overview: My friend in Hyderabad was requesting me to visit Hyderabad since long. And the time had come when he himself was shifting his base to Bangalore. So finally we decided to visit his house and do some touristy in Hyderabad. Though this was not my first visit to Hyderabad and definitely not my last either, my wife was visiting Hyderabad for the first time. My friend had purchased a new Ford Figo so a comfy ride around the city was assured.
We reached Hyderabad on Saturday morning. It was a rainy morning but didn't dampen our spirits. We went to the Buddha Vihar which was close to my friend's place. From there we picked up his wife on the way and then went to the necklace road and went to have some chats beside the Hussainsagar Lake. It was nice and cool and was drizzling a bit. We got a chance to catch up with one more friend at the food court.
We headed towards Gandipet which is around 20 kms from there. Gandipet, or Osman Sagar lake as it is also called is built over 45 sq kms of area with a garden and a dam built over the river Musi. Gandipet has become a main centre of attraction around Hyderabad. A couple of old structures built near the lake by the Nizam of Hyderabad Osman Ali.
         

From Gandipet we went to Taramati Baradari which is a sarai, which was built in 1625 AD during the reign of Qutub Shah. It is an open pavilion built of Granite stone using Lime Mortar. The terrace has 12 arched doorways while the base of the terrace has 9 arches. The perfect acoustics of the fort enabled the ruler to enjoy Taramati's song even from the fort. As a tribute to Taramati, she was buried in the Qutub Shahi tombs. This ended our first day in Hyderabad.   

To be continued. To read the next part, please click here

Comments

  1. Arti25 December 2011 at 20:04

    Your pics are a real treat Arun! I have never been to Hyderabad, it seems lovely in that weather... The night shots are pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown26 December 2011 at 15:29

    Great pics & narration. Taramati pic is super duper!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lakshmi26 December 2011 at 19:46

    your post shows that there is so much that i need to see in Hyderabad..love the pics

    ReplyDelete
  4. Arun26 December 2011 at 20:11

    Thanks Arti, Sripurna & Lakshmi for your kind words...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Arnie27 December 2011 at 11:53

    Loved the pics Arun! Especially the Taramati one! Keep going on...By any chance are you related to Infy?? Just guessing from the name of your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Arun27 December 2011 at 12:03

    Thanks Arnab.. Yes I used to work with Infy from 2005-2009. But apart from the travel portal of Infy, 'Payana' also stands for 'Journey' in Kannada..

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gowtham28 December 2011 at 12:02

    I always thought Hyderabad was dry, hot place. Your post makes it contradictory! Nice post.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Manreet Sodhi Someshwar29 December 2011 at 09:54

    Lovely! Especially liked the second pic of Taramati Baradari.

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Puru@ShadowsGalore29 December 2011 at 22:04

    Beautiful photographs giving a glimpse of the city of the Asafjahi Nawabs! I am wowed ! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Arnie3 January 2012 at 11:24

    Oh is it, thanks for this cool tip, I will keep this in mind.Now I have the clue where Infocions might have got that name from.

    ReplyDelete

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