By Mohammed Sanaullah Farhan #
Home is where a man feels the warmth of careness, love and affection, where he sees the nurturing of one’s heart by nature, where he hears the voice of tranquillity and where he smells the aroma of life’s journey. It is a place characterised by all the necessary ingredients to make a savoured dish.
One finds solace in times of discord, companionship in times of abandonment and pleasure in times of pain. And what better place could there be on earth when you find all these numerous features in one city. Well that’s true, there is a city with all these traits and that is my Hyderabad.
A city 400 years young, thriving amidst robust commercial, professional, business, social and charitable activities, never getting wearied or old by the time, but growing younger and smarter by the day. It has witnessed, through many ages, various rulers, people and guardians caressing it like a lovely and adorable feline and making it today as one of the best places on earth.
Today, Hyderabad poses as a blend of all religions, races, creeds, sexes and origins. The culture is more than just being unique, adaptable by the social animal very swiftly. My Hyderabad has evolved and evolved accommodating all kinds of people and making them feel at home, taking in all as her own children and not making a single soul feel as an adopted one.
Such is the demand today that nowhere in the world will you find two different states fighting for one city to be their unencroachable capital. This single fact speaks volumes about the demand and lust this magnanimous city possesses. The ruling class is trying to make the most of this by making it the most happening city on earth.
The burden of time may prove too much on the gloss of my home town for it is being thrived upon excessively which may harm her. It has remained famous for the tagline “Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb” which aptly elaborates about the cultural persity it portrays and the homeliness it offers to a visitor.
It can be rightly nomenclatured as the Biryani Capital of the world, Pearl house of Asia and the Sherwani of India.
I never did, for a moment, realise that things will pick up speed in such a manner that when you look back, it just looks like your own shadow, though more than a score has passed.
The attachment which I’ve developed, the longingness to be in Hyderabad, which has grown more stronger when you’re away from it, and the feeling which you call ‘Apnaapan’ in the local Urdu dialect, for I couldn’t find an exact substitute in English, has all made me wish more and more for my city. To see it being crowned with more jewels and polished by the best one can offer, has always remained my dream.
To start with, I would choose the total rejuvenation of the lifeline on which my city was built. Yes, the Musi. People should not show their back to the things or services one has done earlier, not here in Hyderabad at least. The revival of the Musi along with the adjustment and re-alignment of the famous Pul’s above it and reshaping of the arches underneath it will, give the city a very pristine look.
One can never, for now, decongest the area around the majestic Charminar but there can be a modernisation plan to accommodate the businesses around it by constructing a circular complex around the historical wonder. That indeed looks very ambitious and imaginary but is practically possible and will amaze a traveller.
As for the two royal Palaces, I can assure that there is not any need for a couple of decades for anything and they can attract anyone with the splendour which they display today. Their preservation and care is being taken care off well and these two surviving Palaces will play the host to the visitor.
Indeed I do want my Hyderabad to stand out from the rest of the cosmopolises across the globe and not be behind in the evolutionary race but on the same hand I am against it being turned into a Concrete Jungle sporting mindless and overzealous Skyscrapers.
Hyderabad is well ahead in the modernisation race with many commercial, technological and business parks and hubs.
It will be better to tailor this advancement with the present geographical and locational setting keeping in mind that no particular area is left behind.
Development begs to happen in the older parts of the city which has been an object of neglect by various authorities. Priorities have to be changed to see that the weaker, marginalised and immobile locations are taken into the fold of progress and growth.
A well established and properly functional city development corporation with ample authority coupled with ample accountability consisting of leading figures from the city can help redress this particular problem of
regional imbalance.
Lastly, the indigenity of the city should not be tampered with. The Hyderabadi youth himself differs from all his contemporaries across the nation, or to be more comprehensive, across the globe. The filtered and simple Urdu language with its many famous words, phrases and sarcasm, the local way of life, the Chalta hai bhai, khala and Chicha attitude and the humanness it offers will have to be preserved to make it look and appear different.
The city has many treasures to offer to a vivid traveller. One of the many reasons for me not going anywhere abroad is the attachment which I have developed with it. Being Hyderabadi itself is a pride and an honour.
As the famous narration goes, “Poore Duniye me Hindustan acha, usme Andhra Pradesh acha aur usme apna Hyderabad acha” (In the whole world India is good, in it Andhra Pradesh, now Telangana, is good and in that our Hyderabad is the best), narrating the life Hyderabad has to offer.
[This article was written as part of Hyderabad Youth Mirror’s city-level Essay Writing Competition 2015. The author is a student at University College of Law, Osmania University. He received First Prize worth Rs 4,000.]