New Hyderabad and Old Hyderabad

I visited Hyderabad a year or two ago, and it left am impression on me that I still remember. The Airport was nice, it was clean and pretty modern. I remember it being a little bit empty or unfinished, maybe a bit dusty. The ride from the airport was lined with landscaping, similar to what you'd see in California, in fact the air was like arid like California's and quite pleasant. It was something of a desert, the land look dry, parched, fried. It wasn't smooth sand dunes, it was rocky and with dried bush. It looked a bit like a drought scene, or a dust bowl. but it was empty, and of no real consequence because the road was paved nicely, and their was no traffic.

Getting into the city, it looked like how I would imagine Israel to look; white washed building with rooftop terraces. We saw a strange glass fish of a building. The city didn't look particularly amazing, but it looked pretty clean. We didn't even see much of any slums, which is very suspicious for a major Indian city.

Our hotel was quite nice, for what it was. We stayed at the Taj Vivanta. The interior design was interesting and modern, the staff was fresh faced, well kempt, very hospitable. I guess by western standards it could be considered a luxurious 5-star hotel, but these are not things that stir my soul. There was a plush lobby lounge where they served us nice juices, and teas. Main dining hall had people to wait on you very attentively, and there was a nice spread of Indian and Western fair. The place reeked of orange plugin spray. There were many more amenities that we didn't really check out. WiFi was our number one concern at the moment. Nothing special about our room, the view was to the back of another tall building. I could see someone feeding birds. 

I didn't see that many birds though. We had just arrived from Kerala, so I was adjusting from the sudden decline of all life forms around me. 

We stepped out to get some food. We wanted to try the best biriyani in town, and we were pointed to some nearby place. I got a glimpse of the people, trickle of niqab-clad women here and there ride on that back of there husbands motor cycle. The people here looked more dry here. There faces were matte, a little fairer, less mustaches. Aside from an occasional burqa, or hijab the dress was pretty suburban U.S. I was told the food was good, I don't eat meat, so I think the rest of my family enjoyed the food more than I did. I had a peanut kabob.

I went with my cousin to the Old City. As we neared the area, the architecture started to change, I saw my pointed arches, and pointed domes big and small. The burqas started becoming more numerous, so too the men in white cropped pants. It became dense with people; we had arrive in the middle of a bazaar. 

This was a completely different city.
 

This placed was markedly Islamic. There were people selling everything in all directions, traffic was trying to push through a crowd. I don't think I saw a single woman's face there, but I saw many burqas. The area had many large civic and religious building built by the erstwhile Nizams. The Charminar, a large Mosque, a hospital with domes and arches.The place had a distinct style, a flavor, and it wasn't bland like the city of my hotel. The Sign were in Urdu, they had a painted/calligraphic look to is. There was no nature here, none that I can recall. The Azaan played in all directions on loud speakers, but no one stopped to pray. It had a North Indian Islamic feel to it, like what I would see in Hindi films. I could tell who was Shia by the hat they were wearing. It was sensory overload, in typical Indian fashion. I think we felt panicked at times. I think someone tried to hit me with their motorcycle when I tried to cross the road. 

There was something haunting about it, there was some social tension in the air. But I think I liked it, better than modern Hyderabad. The Tehzeeb was there. Where was the Hindu Hyderabad? Hindu-ness was much less overt in Hyderabad, and I felt sad about that. The rest of Hyderabad seemed to be sanitized with secularism. But this area was poorer than the rest of the city. It seemed like people here didn't really have the aspirations of the New India, they were content with selling something on the street and living self-ghettoized. 

Off to one side of the main drag, there was a walled Palace and Garden. Here there was order; a large rectangular water body with fountains, surrounded on all side with an arcade of cusped arches. This Palace was a little less exquisite compared to the Mughal forts of the North, at least on the exterior. Simple plaster moldings along the arches made for design. Some of the buildings had a European style. The Chowmallah was sumptuous; large archways, Chandeliers everywhere, Marble and intricate designs. You could tell they spent their money here. This place too felt steeped in history, in nobility,  and gentility. It was Islamic in a very light sense, it wasn't as heady as the city outside. It hearkened back to a time when perhaps Islam was westward looking. But it wasn't bland, it had a sweet cream taste with cardamom like Ras Malai. 

The rest of the City was more or less aspiration Pan-India. I didn't really get the feeling I was in a Telegu place, there was nothing really specific about it. It had all the trappings India's modern cities like Bangalore, Gurgaon or Bombay. It was modern in parts, but I didn't get a sense of history there, I guess I could compare it to Dubai. It was still India in it's India way, but a bit tamed. It was a bit unsettling. I shouldn't feel that way in a country that has 7000 years or more of history. 

I want India to be rich, but not lose itself in the process. It seems we're throwing away our past to look to the future. We want to be compared with Europe or USA on equal footing, which comes from a place of deep insecurity, an insecurity that I too am guilty of. But anyways, money is money, people want to make money. I guess making money is the mode we are in now, and that doesn't really require culture. 

There is something about being able to say that you're doing what your father is doing, and his father before his, until you have whole neighborhood that are like that. You can't manufacture that, and that is what I see a lot of in the U.S. People are trying to cook food the old way, or dress in vintage, recreate it's past. But in someways you can't. Once you break with tradition, it's gone forever. The India I connect with the most are the people who uphold all our traditions, of all our convoluted practices. It's not a job for them, it's their duty. It's one thing to start a fire, it's altogether a very different thing to keep that fire burning for millennia.