Hyderabad made me forget Pune.

We left Pune for Hyderabad on the eighth day of ten-day Ganapati Festival. Ganapati festival in Pune is just unmissable. Huge pandals, colorful decorations, street food, the whole lively atmosphere and of course the beautiful idols of Ganapati, they never let you go home. Yet missing all this, there we were coming out of the Hyderabad Airport and entering the city of Nizams.

The driver took small lanes to skip barricades on main road to finally reach the hotel. My Instagram was showing me irritating stories of my friend’s still roaming, enjoying the festival in Pune.  I closed my eyes instead and started to focus on tomorrow’s itinerary.

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Rich, old Hyderabad.

The next day was quite busy with the rich, rusty, old City tour. While coming back, there were even more diversions than yesterday. Not knowing we asked the Driver to which he casually said, “Vo kal Ganesh Visarjan hota to idar se Ganesh ko leke jataan or Hussain sagar me chhod detaan.” (Tran: Tomorrow is Ganesh immersion so they take idols from this road and immerse it in Hussain Sagar lake)

I was a bit happy to know that Ganapati festival was celebrated even in Hyderabad. Regardless, I knew it could be none like the one in Pune with Dhol-Tasha (percussions) troops playing in sync, idols on decorated colorful chariots. Never the less I had told my friends to video call me at night after I come back from Gigantic Golconda Fort next day.

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Left-Golconda fort Arial view, Right- Acoustic Dome (Credits-Mithun)

This greyish-brown stone fort spread across 11 Kms, surprises tourists with its excellent acoustics, defense mechanisms and more. The entry gate is about a kilometer away from the Darbar (Court). Yet it is so designed that a clap at the entrance reverberates and can be heard clearly in the Darbar. This worked as a warning note to the Royals in case of an attack. With many such surprises and stories, we walked our way up to the guest room for royals. Even the guest room was designed such that Qutub shah could listen every single word spoken by the guests.

Although extremely happy with this new knowledge, my mind was still stuck on the fact that I am missing the famous Visarjan (Immersion of idols) rally of Pune. With this frustrating thought we were back to our hotel without any sign of Ganapati idols on the road. After freshening, with absolutely no hope, we left to see if there was any action near the Barricades.

There must be 100s of Two-wheeler parked before the barricades. Surprised to see this, we walked beyond the barricade to find ourselves in a street full of people and huge Ganapati idols lined one behind other. The sides of roads had a continuous brewing smell of coffee, masala corns being made on coal and a constant shout, “Lo Biryani lo Garam Garam Biryani.” (Trans: Have some hot biryani)

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Lord Ganesha immersion rally in Hyderabad.

The idols on the street would be at least 20-30Ft high, loaded on colorfully decorated chariots with speakers playing local songs and people happily dancing in front of it. This is the exact scenario at night in Pune but only missed the Dhol-Tasha troops. Before I could even end this thought, I heard heavy percussions being played in absolute sync. After about 15 mins the troop came forward with the rally and to my surprise it was from Pune. Ganapati festival in Hyderabad made me forget Pune completely.

I felt like Hyderabad was the dome in the gates of heaven, from where Ganapati knew that I was in Hyderabad. Ganapati like the Nizam could probably hear my every prayer and wish made from my room. This made me realise that god is everywhere all we need to do is connect with him through some dome or probably just by sitting in your room, he will fulfil your every wish.

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Painting by- Ms. Devika Mahajan

Know More About Hyderabad

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” When you pray, God listens.

When you believe, God works.”

Bible(edited).

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Contact Author–

Abhishek Purohit

wanderfulltales@gmail.com

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