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.

Grandmom's words

Badi manzil jaana hai, Arey naadan pardesi,

Khuda ko muh bataana hai, Arey naadan pardesi;

Na chhaate ko tanaa kar chal,

Na mitti ko daba kar chal,

Khuda ko muh bataana hai, Arey nadaan pardesi;

Na ghairon ki shikaayat kar,

Na de miskinon ko taana,

Khuda ko muh bataana hai, Arey naadan pardesi,

Badi manzil jaana hai, Arey naadan pardesi

Slice of Life on a Hot Summer Afternoon

The sun's crackling down with its fierce March intensity. The heat forces a kind of dull inactivity. A couple of vehicles whiz down the road braving the heat. 
Sitting by the pavement (sidewalk!) under his black umbrella for shelter, the 'chai-wallah' nonchalantly pours out cup after cup of piping hot 'chai' from his thermos flask for an unending stream of thirsty travellers stopping by. They'd rather quench their thirst or just have a drink of steaming hot tea in an already hot environment than move over to the 'ganna-wala' a few yards away. A couple of girls dressed in the fashion of the day - cotton kurtis and those famously popular leggings - trot by under the shade of their umbrella and gingerly climb down the rickety steps off the pavement into the lane below.
Standing in the shaded balcony of her home across the road, a girl impatiently fans herself with a folded newspaper while waiting for the power supply to be restored. A while later, the buzz of vehicles on the road has increased slightly. It's an hour to sunset and the state of limbo clamped by the sun ebbs as it sets. Down by the 'chai-wallah' an even larger crowd has gathered to enjoy an early evening cuppa and the relief from the heat...

What's on your mind?!

'...where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops...'

Aspiring normality.

'...Up the steps of the church through the fields in the dirt; In the dark, I have seen that the sun still shines for the one who believes...'

Hot white heat, sun-baked days, mirages on roads, redeeming coconut water and royal tans - summer's here!!!

Nothing feels better than to be able to squeeze back into an old pair of jeans that you thought you'd never be able to get into again - ever!!!

Just be.

Oh! 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' to lift a girl's mood!!!

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works (action) is dead also - From 'The Speaking Tree'.

Of glorious sunsets, gorgeous evenings and big dreams!

'Kabhi tujhe milke lauta mera dil yeh khali khali haath...'

I like how that built space 'feels'...

...yeah, that's all it boils down to: feelings. No matter how much cold logic and reason you approach most things in life with including built spaces, somewhere deep down within you, or to the more spontaneous of us - quite instantly, they do evoke and inspire feelings and that's all it takes for you to 'like' or 'dislike' or just be plain comfortable with the space you live in, work, shop or visit.


Spaces that one dislikes are aplenty. I'm talking about all those lovely built spaces that have an atmosphere about them and feel special or at least make you feel good to be there. They have a character that asserts itself and yet unobtrusively recedes into the background when you use the space making you feel like the space is your second skin. A lot of it has to do with how you perceive the space and how the creator of the space manipulates it to make you feel the way he's intended the design to work for its users. Incidentally, in a design lecture I attended recently, one of my professors had something similar to say. Built spaces have to feel right to be lived in and enjoyed.


It also feels nice to have an affirmation of one's design ideology.

Sincerity - Always

Finding Middle Ground

Balance. It's such a crucial and often ignored element of our lives and universe. There's always yin and yang. One needs the other. Too much of anything is bad. There has to be, and indeed is, a little of both - good and bad. They may seem less or more  - our perspective adds weight, and that's all I'm saying because how we look at or outweigh the good or bad is very subjective.