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Rai Mahboob Narayan Sahab
Me, a fifteen-year-old random unknown boy. He, a seventy-year-old scholar who was hugely respected everywhere. This consideration and manners (Rawadari in Urdu) were a unique element of the Hyderabadi culture. When I recall those days and think of the times we are living through, I wonder what went wrong. How did we become like this?…
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Shows respect where respect is due
“Girte hain shahsawar hi maidan-e-jung mein. Woh tifl kya gire jo ghutno ke bal chale – Mirza Azeem Baig (Only the horseman falls on the battlefield. How can that child fall who crawls on his knees!)
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Horses, elders, Ustaads
The stories we hear mould us. Not all of them need to come from our parents. It is the variety and diversity of life experience which is the foundation to build a lot of skills. This comes from adults who have led interesting and challenging lives. We learn through their stories; we see with their…
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Shillong – A place in the clouds
Summer in Hyderabad has temperatures in the high 40’s Celsius while Shillong is a mist covered heaven, so the invitation was most welcome. Money, as always, was in short supply and so I traveled by third-class train. I took the East Coast Express which I had to catch at Vijayawada on its way from Chennai…
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Who is a Hyderabadi?
Black granite outcrops dotted the land, culminating in Banjara Hills, which was the high point. This ridge sloped down the other side to the plains before rising again, a sharp, steep granite wall on top of which sits Golconda Fort. This part of the Deccan Plateau was characterized by huge granite rocks balanced apparently precariously…
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Last of the Generation
Monsoon began always on June 7, and we went to buy fish as it was believed that it was good for health to eat fish on the day the monsoon set in. My father would take us to the Monda Market in Secundrabad, and we would gingerly tiptoe through the slush of the fish market,…
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Of dogs and boys
I believe that the commercialization of medical care and education are the two major causes of social corruption and breakdown of values in our society. How we were unable to transfer the wonderful values we grew up with to our own children, remains a mystery to me. It is not that there were no corrupt…
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Hyderabadi Nostalgia
We did not have telephones. Only those with ‘pull’ could get a phone. For ordinary mortals, a phone connection took fifteen years to materialize. If you paid Rs. 15,000 (an absolute fortune) you would get a telephone connection in three to four years. We had to either go to the post office to make a…
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Hyderabad Public School and other matters
We were taught to distinguish fact from fiction and allegory and to draw lessons. We also learned to laugh at ourselves and to have a good sense of humor. This seems to be in short supply currently with people taking themselves far too seriously and carrying their sense of offence on a hair trigger. Such…