The charm that is Charminar

Life goes on quite normally and mundanely, I'm sure, in the streets of Charminar but oh, the charm that place holds! Especially for someone used to a sanitized uniformity of  nouveau-urban life complete with those ubiquitous glitzy 'malls'.


Yeah, as with all things, there is an inevitable 'underside' to it as well (not to mention quite a dark underbelly) like that of having to wrestle your way through a crowd that jostles and pushes and even slices your handbag making away with your precious bills if you're not careful.


But still, I think no other place in Hyderabad compares to 'sheher' as it was known back when it was the Nizams' Dominion and in my grandmom's colourful recollection of the dominion's pulse.


Having to walk down the narrow lanes which are brimming with vehicles and a multitude of people all trying to make their way, seeing crumbling walls of old 'deodis' and palace walls and shops flanking either side and hearing a chorus of noises from the automobile engines, the chattering and sometimes yelling crowd and the boisterous shopkeepers is reason enough to put you off from visiting Charminar. Ironically, it's all of this that also makes it such an incredibly charming place. The streets have a vibrancy that rubs off on you. All the noise and the crowd and the sights make the place 'alive'. You can't help but wonder at the dynamism of the place - everybody's moving, everyone's busy with something.


Half the charm is because of the grand old buildings that dot all four cardinal directions from 'the' Charminar that lend an 'awesome' characther to this place! They've stood there for years (and many more to come, I'm certain. That's a hallmark of great architecture - built for the fourth dimension). Their staidness, so diametrically opposite to the life teeming all around them, adds to the charm of Charminar.


And you find goods and products that you'd never find anywhere else in the city. This is from a shopaholic's perspective though! Things are just so conveniently available within a foot's distance! Like the time when on one of our tiring shopping sprees, Mom and me were fretting over finding a shop that sold the last buy, a bunch of safety pins, on our list even as we were walking out the door of another shop when bang! a hawker   who ambushes us on the sidewalk has the stuff we're looking for right there in his little tray of goods that he's expectantly holding out to us.
The traditional eats you get here are a whole other chapter in themselves!


A study in contrasts, Charminar is also a great study in lively, usable urban public spaces like the public squares across Europe. The streets are bustling, the built spaces are always occupied, there's zest in the air. It's a perfect example of mixed-use zoning and how successfully it serves the purpose that any city or part of a city should - being enjoyably livable. All it needs is a little effort from the powers that be to improve the infrastructure and amenities, bring an order to the business process that happens here which would bring the much-needed improvement in the standard of living of residents here and encouraging businesses in this area to retain their old-world charm by promoting Charminar as the place to be to get an authentic and traditional feel of the old Hyderabad.