I recently visited Hyderabad,
India, the largest city in the state of Andra Pradesh and India’s fourth
largest city overall.
This was my first visit to
India. My father was born and grew up
near Hyderabad but immigrated to the United States when he was a graduate
student.
We stayed in the nearby
suburb of Secunderabad in an old British style club called the Secunderabad
Club. This location was close enough for
us to travel to Hyderabad for sightseeing.
Among some of the attractions
I saw:
CHARMINAR MOSQUE – “Charminar”
loosely translates to four towers. This
holy place, which dates back to the late 1500’s, reminded me of a four sided Arc
de Triomphe the way it towers above this crowded portion of the city which also
contains the Ladd Bazaar a great place for shopping.
GOLCONDA FORT - 11 kilometres west of downtown Hyderabad is
this former main line of defence from Moghul invaders. It sits on top of a
steep hill and has evening light shows and daily tours.
BIRLA TEMPLE – Also on a hilltop
vantage point is this historic temple, the largest in Hyderabad. An incredible nightime view of the city can
be seen here. The Birla Science Museum (which
contains a dinosaurium and planetarium) is nearby.
But for me the greatest part
of this trip was meeting a number of my relatives whom I’ve not met
before. Aside from two cousins who also
immigrated to the USA, I had not met any of my father’s family prior to this
trip. The get together lunch we had was
one of the most unique experiences of my life.
I can’t speak about other areas
of India but Hyderabad was a lot more modern than the perception of India I had
from books and movies. This coupled with
the introduction to my own family members made this a very special trip indeed.
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