Hyderabad...

Hyderabad: One city I know about more than the others that I have visited... I have never ever been to this place, but I feel a strange connection with this place... I do not know if it is the magic of an article I read, or my friend being in this city, but there is something..

The haaoo for yes and nakko for no spoken in Hyderabad are famous all over India... We have had many artist from there and the most famous haunted place, which is "Ramoji Film City" is also located in the city, that has some pretty interesting names of places, as in:

-->Bibi ka Chashma (wife's spectacles),

--> Ghore ki Qabr (grave of the horse),

--> Mehboob ki Mehendi (beloved's bleach),

--> Sookhe Mir ki Kaman (arch of the lean baron),

--> Koka ki Tatti (a bamboo
house),

--> Purana Kabootar Khana (an old coop for pigeon's),

--> Magar ki Baoli (Crocodile's well),

--> Khuni Darwaza (bloody door),

--> Moti Galli (fat lane or perhaps, pearl lane),

--> Patli Galli (a narrow lane)

--> Domalguda (mosquitoes breeding place)


"Bibi ka Chashma", should not be construed as wife's spectacles. Bibi here refers to "Hayat Bakshi Begum", daughter of the founder of Hyderabad -"Quli Qutub Shah" and "chashma" in Urdu is a perennial water spring.

Professor Dharmendra Prasad was right when he wrote, "Place names are the expressions of human activity, progressive exploration and settlement of people."

Hyderabad is the "manufacturer" of love, as said by Khushwant in one of his articles... The liaison between Sultan Quli Qutab Shah and "Bhagmati" is the creator of the name Hyderabad... He was so much foolishly in love with Bhagmati that he made her his sultana and changed her name from Bhagmati to "Hyder Mahal" and named the city after her "Hyderabad"...

Sultan Qutab prayed to "Allah" that "Millions of all castes, creed and religion make it their abode like fish in the ocean:,,, his prayer was granted...

Earlier the majority was of Jahs, Dowlhs and Jungs... but now is being held strongly by Raos and Reddys...

I read somewhere that you would get to know you are in hyderabad, when:

--> your life's ambition is restricted to 3 words- US, H1 visa and Green Card.

--> When the language you speak is a strange mixture of Hindi, English, Telugu, Marathi and Urdu.

--> When you find that Mehboob ki Mehndi is not the Rajesh Khanna movie, but the city's red light area.

It is stated that this city is famous for its aphrodisiac qualities and health giving climate..

There is a lot more to Hyderabad, than mentioned in this article or others or in Wikipedia... It will be felt only after a visit to this place... which I look forward to... :)