Hyderabad ( Impressions of India-4)

Hyderabad was a pleasant detour. The city is picturesque and looks like a phoenix of a modern technopolis rising from the ashes of the feudal Nizams.

• The city is at its glamorous best at night. Jeweller’s shops in every nook and cranny of Nampali, the old city. They are lit up like soaring flares, the glam-sham of the gold and diamonds luring you inside.
• Moti bazaar is a unique experience. The ‘pearl market’ is a dense haphazard medieval quarter of Hyderabad where pearls spill out of every little ramshackle building. White and yellow, king sized or micros, plain or dyed in rainbow colors, its possible to get pearls t suit anybody’s taste. Even fake pearls forced into you hands by brazen streetside hawkers are yours for the picking.
• Char Minar, the heart of the city, sits imposingly at a crossroad and lords it over streets where the crowds are so thick you cannot glimpse the ground. The buildings are straight out of a sketch of Baghdad in the Arabian Nights and the hordes of burkha clad ladies, covered head-to-toe in black veils draw you into a secret medievalish fantasy land.
• The Mecca Masjid is right next to the Char Minar and is one of the biggest and grandest in India.
• Hussainsagar, the Lake of the Sultan, separates the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. It is a shimmering turquoise green reflection of Hydebrabad’s skyline. With a long promenade, landscaped parks and a mammoth statue of Buddha in its center, the lake lords it over the city.
• Swarming lemon yellow autorickshaws are a speciality of the city. Buzzing all around you, this cacophony of rickshaw engines going phut-phut-phuta-phut and the swirling yellowish masses all hypnotize you in no time.