Roaming around Hyderabad

In the last days of Guy and Caspar’ stay here we have been visiting the local city attractions. In the early morning we went to the Birla Mandir, a 30 year old temple on top of a hill overlooking Hyderabad. This relatively new made temple complex dedicated to the Hindu god Venkateshwara, is made entirely of hand carved Rajasthani marble, and really shines there on the hilltop. It was wonderfully cool to walk on the smooth marble, and the morning air was really cool, and foggy, and it felt as though the winter fog from the North was rolling in over the city, as the sun could not be seen at all. We watched 3 eagles circling over the hill, and surfing on the updrafts coming quite close to us.

Telugu university, where Sandeep had obtained his masters in dance

After this peaceful start to the day we ventured into the city centre where we visited the Telugu university, where Sandeep had obtained his masters in dance. It was a lovely creative environment, and we saw the dance faculty, and even passed the Graphic artist’s (or professional artist’s as they call it) classrooms. There was a wonderful exhibition of paintings by students (I presume) covering much of Andra Pradesh history in pictures, which was very interesting. One painting depicted how one of the Nizam’s had been so impressed by the kuchipudi dance troupe, that he handed them the land of Kuchipudi village.

After this we visited Hyderabad’s main stage, Ravidra Bharati, where Sandeep has performed more than 80 times. It is a lovely theatre, with a huge space surrounding the back stage area, and making for a great environment to put on big productions. A local dance school was preparing for their annual function, and we enjoyed listening to the live dance orchestra, which is such a luxury for dancer to have in Australia. After this we came across one of our favorite stores in Hyderabad Kalanjali, where they sell everything in clothing anyone could possibly want. There is endless choice in glamorous beaded salwar suits, ethnic hand printed shirts, and great little Elvis-like sequined white suit jackets for 3 year olds – amazing. Almost impossible to concentrate on selecting anything, as there was just so much choice. Next door to the clothing department was a furniture and artefact showroom. This was like walking into Aladdins cave – and it did make us wish we were loaded with cash…beautiful beaten silver metalwork swing seats, with silk of many deities, as well as a 2 metre wide carved sandalwood statue of Lord Nataraj worth about 10 000 Aussie dollars. It was truly magnificent. It still amazes me how in India one can get anything in any price range from very cheap to incredibly expensive. We could not take photos in this showroom, so thus no pics of these incredible treasures.

After yet another tempting shopping expedition, we were very hungry, and the kids were all fired up about the nearby McDonalds, where we tanked up on Chicken burgers, Paneer (fresh cheese) wraps and veg burgers. Then we headed to the other side of town, where roadworks made it extremely difficult to get to the home of one of Sandeep’s major dance gurus. We finally reached there pretty hot and bothered, which was all thanks to Sandeep’s perseverance in the difficult traffic. His dance guru Sri Nataraja Ramakrishna had been awarded one of the 4 highest civilian honours of India namely PadmaShri. He solely revived a temple dance unique to this state of Andra Pradesh called as Andra Nathyam. Without his lifetime of work completely dedicated to this dance form (he never married for this reason) the art form would have been completely lost. He is now in his eighties, and has health problems, but his eyes just glowed, and he spoke incredibly articulately about dance. He has written 50 books in the subject, but unfortunately for us, these are all in Telugu. The dance was originally performed by women only, as part of a religious ceremony or offering at the temples of Andra Pradesh. Under Moslem rule some of these lady dancers were also dancing in the courts and thus got compromised. So in the 1950, after independence this religious dance form was forbidden. So Nataraja Ramakrishna solely revived the dance form, and is still working tirelessly to give it a higher profile. He is also an expert on Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam, and it was a real treat for Freya to present one dance item to him in his home. He then gave her a beautiful pomegranate for her along with his blessings.

Sri Nataraja Ramakrishna giving Freya the only book written by Ramakrishna in English

For dinner we went back to one of our favorite haunts Eat Street on the lake and had our fill of chaat and pizza.

The following day we went to see probably best known part of Hyderabad, the old city and the markets around the Charminar (the four pillared arch in the centre of the old city). It was really busy and bustling, but thankfully there was a pay parking area, where we could finally get rid of the car. It was quite hot too, but after a plate of cool watermelon, we felt refreshed and eager to see the famous bangle markets of the Laad Bazar, which is located in one of the four streets stretching from the Charminar. We were constantly followed by kids trying to sell is plastic pearl necklaces – one boy confidently offered me one for only 10000 rupees ($330), trying out his luck….In the end we had to threaten them with the police if they did not scoot. The unending street of bangle shops was amazingly dazzling, but everywhere the shopkeepers were urging us to come in and see their wares, which was quite distracting really. In the end we found a small lane, where it was quieter, where I haggled for a good price on the lovely lac bangles with glittering stones, and amazingly intricate bangles made of glass.

Irani Chai at the Medina Cafe

Then we evacuated down the street to Medina Cafe, famous for its Irani Chai, where we also ate some lovely fresh strawberries, which Sandeep had managed to buy in the street at the normal rate- as soon as they saw me the price doubled. Sandeep had to keep reminding me to walk away from interesting goods and not look the slightest bit interested. Otherwise the opportunity to bargain was gone.

We continued on to the chappal sellers street to buy Guy some beautiful handmade leather sandals. There was so many shops, but I think in the end we found the friendliest, and Guy found some lovely pairs. Sandeep and Freya found one the the largest pairs of Kolapuri slippers in the world!