Landmarks of Hyderabad in a Nutshell

A city of 7 million (1/3 of Mumbai population) Hyderabad seemed to be a more packed and noisy place due to the thousands & thousands of cars, autos (rickshaws) and bikes (motorbikes) on the roads every day. As this time I wanted to see every bit of the city, I could experience the hectic feeling of Hyderabad even more than most populated city, Mumbai.

On Tuesday, after the arrival at 8:10 am, I was at my “home sweet home” where a new AIESEC member, Kavya was hosting me. I had the chance to properly connect, update the blog and catch up with the emails. My intention was to be out on Hyderabad streets already by noon time, however with the exhaustion of a 17hr trip and no proper sleep, I fell asleep and by the time I woke up it was already 3:30 in the afternoon. 
Akhil, who is my great “RECEP” and Kavya, my sweetest “HOST” joined me and we went to the see the city lake Hussain Sagar which is located right in the center of the city. The lake itself is not very big, it is quite dirty to swim in (or even touch) but it has a special meaning for the Hindu Hyderabadis.

Every year around Ganesh Chaturthi time, statues of God Ganesh are immersed in the waters of the lake. After the ritual, the lake is filled with statues containing hazardous toxic materials and it takes months to clean them away. Even if it is in the center of the city, the lake seemed like a remote place and surrounded with barbwire, but still grants a nice atmosphere which exists in the cities even with a small amount of water. (God Ganesh symbol on the right)


After Hussain Sagar, being a former nargile addict, I was quite eager to try Indian hookah with different flavors and we went to a nice coffee "nearby" called Chocolate Room. By the way, in Hyderabad (or generally in India) “nearby” concept is very different than what we have in Europe, in Hyderabad they mean around 20-25 minutes of car ride when they mention "nearby". 

Akhil, Kavya & I enjoying shisha and my ice tea(?)

Second day was a more efficient day compared to the laid back first day. Akhil took me to the biggest Hindu temple close to the city, Birla Mandir. There are many other big temples around the city however we decided to skip as it would take min. 1 hour to reach those ones.

The history of the Birla Mandir temple does not go back very far, it was completed only in 1976. It is glamorously white, made of marble, needs to be visited with barefoot and it includes a special allusion section for Sai Baba (an Indian guru) who is holy for both Muslim and Hindu followers in India. The temple is embellished with the statues of different Hindu gods, including Krishna, Ganesh & Hanuman. In the main praying area, there are 2 Pandits (priests) serving coconut water and blessing the Hindu believers. Walking barefoot for more than 10 mins under the burning sun, our feet got almost raven with cracks and Akhil and I were almost melt into tears  when we saw the other visitors taking their time, walking slowly and enjoying their visit.

Of course, we still had to visit the other landmarks, Charminar, Laad (Bangles) Bazaar and Chowmahalla Palace on the next day, as we didn’t have time to check these places with Akhil. My  last day was the Holi and after the celebrations, we went to visit to Old City with Kanya, Akhil, Koutilya, Aunt Sharada and Uncle Ganesh.(latter 2, Kanya's parents)


The symbol of the old city, Charminar basically means 4 minarets. Climbing app. 100 incredibly narrow steps, we accessed a great landscape of Hyderabad and i learnt that the hectic, noisy, dusty but lively view lying in front of me was in fact the “calm face” of the city as the Holi day is one of the quietest times of the year. 

Charminar and View of the "Quiet version" of the Old City

Having bought a couple of bangles, trying coconut juice on the street and paying a short visit to already ‘out of working hours’ Chowmahalla Palace, we completed our compact but efficient tour of the old city in the 3 days.

More to come..