A big thank you to all those who gave me enough encouragement to carry on with the series. So, here I am, presenting the sequel.

Now about places that are famed for sight-seeing, I went on a quest to visit most of these places so that I can see for myself and they were awesome 🙂 A few places, where I haven’t yet been, I am planning to do it soon 🙂

Charminar: The famed Masjid with 4 minars. A must-visit monument. The streets around the charminar call out to you and will surely be a match for your shopping urge. But never forget to bargain downright for everything, else you will find a big burning hole in your wallet.

Salarjung Museum: This is one of the most awesome museums I have ever seen. It holds all the collected treasures of the Prime minister of the 7th Nizam during the Nizams rule.This museum will take a day’s time if you want to do justice to it. Here I am gonna give you a few highlights which you must not miss in this museum.

• Musical clock: This clock is a visual delight among many other clocks in the gallery. For every hour, a time-keeper emerges from a deck and strikes the gong as many times as is the time of the day.
• Veiled Rebecca: This is a white marble statue of a woman. What’s the deal in that, you ask? The woman is Rebecca, a princess, who is sculptured as she draws her veil. The big deal here is the folds of the veil is so intricately carved on the marble that your eyes fail to believe that it is indeed marble and not a piece of cloth. You gotta see this to appreciate it fully.
• Double Statue in the Statuary gallery: This statue is that of rich man on the front side and that of a poor woman on the backside. Awesome sculpture.

Apart from these 3, there are so many galleries as Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Carpets, Weapons, Statuary, Textile, Porcelain galleries. The list is just endless. It is worth your time.

Birla Mandir: Everyone knows about this white marble temple. The carvings on the marble catch your heart and the white marble radiates purity.

Nizam Jubilee Pavilion: This made my day, to say the truth. This is the museum where the gifts presented to the Nizams are exhibited. The 6th and 7th Nizams have had a hell of a life, I must say. The sixth Nizam guy has had an interesting habit. He has never worn a same dress twice in his life. Hence he has the largest wardrobe in the world which is about 250 feet long with a trial room between 2 blocks of wardrobe. Can you believe it? And the 7th Nizam guy determined to beat his predecessor, has used stuff that is made of only silver or gold embedded with navratan stones. Starting from his throne to his tiffin box. But what made go like “what the heck!” was even the cup in which he spit after chewing pan was made of pure gold. The tools used for laying the foundation of the building, the walking sticks, letter boxes,toys for the children- all these were of silver, gold, ivory embedded with gems. No wonder India was a rich country. There is also a 180 degree glass painting of the 7th Nizam is an awesome masterpiece.

Chowmahalla Palace: This is the durbar of the Nizams. Fine marble floors. The exhibits include the stuff that the Nizams had used in their daily life. The chandeliers here were awesome. The carpet before the throne was embroidered with gold thread.

Golconda Fort: As you know, this has been the shooting spot for Magadheera and many other films. A very ancient monumental fort. I just want to say one thing. You need to make sure you are fit and strong, because you have to climb up all the way to the highest point which is enough to make anyone with a weak stamina to see spots before their eyes.

Nehru Zoological Park: This is a picnic spot on weekends to a large population. A large variety of animals call this place their home. Definitely takes an entire day to go around this park by foot. Though they have a 20 minute train ride within the zoo to cover the main areas quickly, the train trip will give you many no-shows since the animals do not just sit near the fence and wait for you to come by.

Hussain Saagar lake, Lumbini Park, NTR gardens and memorial: All these are located in the same locality. The lumbini park and the NTR gardens are suitable for a fine evening stroll with games for indulging and you can go for boating at the Hussain Saagar lake which separates the twin cities, Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

Ramoji Film City: I haven’t been here yet. But I have heard a lot about it and so would you have. I am planning to visit this integration of studios soon. 🙂 Of what I have heard, it is a vast empire of film studios that requires a lot of walking on your part.

Sudha cars: This is little tit-bit I add for those who are in love with cars and mechanical engineering. Holding the guiness records, Sudha cars has the world’s tallest cycle. And the museum exhibits wacky cars of all kinds. I will name a few for provoking your interest. Shivling car, Computer car, Bed car, Golf ball car, Cricket bat car, Cricket ball car, Boot car, Fountain pen bike, Snooker table car, Lotus car and so on. You name it, they have a car in that model. Really awesome models and I feel Mr.Sudhakar, who is the reason behind all these cars, is a very deserving candidate for the guiness record. All these cars in working condition and a CD of the demonstration is also available for you to believe it.

There! I have listed all the spots that I know. And I am counting on Spaceman, Chandana, Sumitra and other Hyderabad waalas to add those that I missed.

This city is worth a visit for everyone 🙂 Do come here at least once in your life on vacation 🙂

P.S: Sorry for the long post, but the city deserved it. Next post will be on people and language 🙂

Until later 🙂

Pre-Script: The series about Hyderabad starting with this post should have ideally been named “Memories from Hyderabad” but I liked “Memories from Madhapur” better and Madhapur is where everything started for me. 🙂 This is sort of just an intro post to the series.

This series of post is dedicated to the city that is Hyderabad. A city that turned from a nightmare to an eye-opener for me. Long back, I remember my blogger buddy, Sumitra asking me to write more about Hyderabad and I feel now is the time for it.

Image Source: http://www.mapsofindia.com

I must give a disclaimer to all of you that I am not much of a roaming person and hence I cannot give extensive travel experiences giving exhaustive descriptions about the city, but I am going to give it from my life’s perspective. A perspective which will tell you how the city grew upon a person who didn’t want to enter it in the first place and now she will be more than happy to live her rest of her life in that city (Sadly, as I grew fond of the city, situations made sure that I have to take measures to move out. Murphy’s law!). Also, I am going to write about whatever I know about the city and experts please correct me if I am wrong and add to it if I missed anything, which I am sure I am bound to. Now that the disclaimer is over and I am in the safe zone, here is Hyderabad through my eyes.

When I first stepped out of the Charminar Express at Nampally Station, all I had in my eyes and heart was fear. I did not know enough Telugu to manage. I knew Hindi but had lost touch of it long back. So, with a few recollected Hindi words and no arranged place of accommodation, I set out to start my life at Hyderabad.

With the help of a kind friend, I soon found out my office where I was supposed to report and after a lot of hassles, I settled in the company guest house to wait until some of my friends to arrive to report at Hyderabad. My company guest house was in the outskirts and the locality was known as Lambadi Tanda or at least that’s what was on the address given to me. Even the auto drivers looked at me weirdly when I wanted a ride to Lambadi Tanda. The word felt like a swear word on my tongue. Surely enough, all the other places felt weird-Kothaguda, Kondapur, Madhapur, Panjagutta, Lakdikapool(I had trouble pronouncing this;For a while I was calling it Ladki ka pool 😉 ) and the like.

With more friends arriving and finding a hostel in Madhapur, I settled in. That was when I fell in love with the place. Madhapur is by far the best place to live in if you want a reasonably affordable hostel with good facilities and your office is in Hi-Tech city. You can get almost everything within walk-able reach. The place was suitable in every way for a corporate’s life. If you prefer living in houses and not hostels, that would be a slight disadvantage. This is because houses with 1 single room that is just as big as Harry Potter’s cupboard, with a kitchen and washroom of the same size will cost you 8000 rupees per month. For a decent flat, you might want to make your budget, a 5 digit number. The best option of accommodation for people who want a cheaper yet comfortable place is a hostel or sharing a 3 BHK with 5 other friends.

Another area which is similar to Madhapur in life style and other aspects is Kondapur. The same rules of accommodation apply here too. Jubilee hills, Banjara Hills are areas where you can hit a higher note of living standards and prices too sky-rocket at the same rate. As for the nature of these localities, Banjara hills is a quieter residential area while the others always bustle with crowds until late night. The fashion showrooms in the Jubilee hills locality are awesome with a wide collection range. However, if you are a typical street shopper, you need to catch the bus to Koti or Ameerpet where after a day’s shopping you will feel you still have not managed to quench your shopping thirst.

With this, I pause. People who live in Hyderabad, please do chip in, in the comments section, about your first places in Hyderabad. And readers, I need your support for continuing this series. So, please let me know your thoughts.

Until later 🙂

P.S: I wanted to cover to the sight-seeing places too in this post, but the length of the post went beyond bearable limits. So I had to postpone the tourist spots for the sequel.