Who Can Really Say?

Things are winding down. This is my last night in the hotel. I've been taking pictures here for almost 2 weeks and today I was either lucky, or experience in the setting helped a bit. These shots are a slice of Hyderabad -- my slice -- the one I see every day.

Well, almost every day. This is the first time I've seen a traffic stop in progress. It's a universal language.

This is a traffic stop in the making. By my guess there are 9 passengers and a driver in this taxi.

I've tried to show a few pictures of some of the poor, very poor people along the route to work. This is as poor as it gets. He's there in the same spot every day.

Hyderabad also has a dog problem -- wild dogs, that is. In the last few days a mom and her three pups found a spot to sleep in the 105+ degree heat, amongst the granite boulders in the garden outside the office. Mom is on the left.

But it's not all bleak and grim, traffic and overcrowding and desperate poverty. Next to that is the promise of change and growth. A new office building sits beyond aluminum barracks housing the laborers who bake in this heat to build them. There's the stone upon which Hyderabad is literally built, and the flowering bushes and trees that dot nearly every street. The larger city beckons beyond. I haven't truly seen Hyderabad -- I've seen two end points and the route in between. It can be harsh but it's also beautiful.

Another spectacular sunset was growing tonight as I left the office. I couldn't get an angle on it -- there was always something in the way. My bad luck, but there was a magnificent end to the day for someone in Hyderabad.

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My time here is short. Two days from now I'll be standing on a line in the Hyderabad Airport waiting for a ticket, watching someone rifle through my luggage, or sitting in what passes for a seat until my flight is called. The new airport is scheduled to open in a year or so and it won't happen soon enough.

I scrolled through my pictures to see what's left to post. I don't want to repeat myself but if popular demand compels, I have plenty of shots of those funny little yellow taxis with unfinished buildings in the background draped in bright blue tarps.

I've pretty much carried my camera wherever I go on the theory that a) you can't take a picture if you don't have a camera with you and b) hefting darn near 5 pounds of camera all day long will tone my biceps. Which led me to these two shots in the hotel lobby while waiting for travel companions to join me for dinner. The first is -- well, the lobby.

There are wide, round, shallow brass(?) bowls on the lobby floor near the front desk, filled with water, flower petals floating on the surface, each with three candles glowing. I don't know if they're simply decorative or if they signify something particular. But they are pretty.

Which led to wandering outdoors, and this picture of the fountain in the middle of the lake.

More wandering outdoors later.

Last year I posted a number of shots of tent cities where the deeply poor live. We're driving the same route to the office each day as we did back then and I have to say that there are fewer of them along the way today than there were last year. Which is not to suggest that there are fewer deeply poor people in Hyderabad -- only that they've moved, or been moved, to somewhere else. Here are two shots of what we do see each day.

On the other hand, we also drive through one of the wealthier neighborhoods in Hyderabad, called Jubilee Hills. This house is as ostentatious in its own way as anything. It's poured concrete which, I'd think, is hardly an aesthetic value (unless that's how the owner made the money to build it I suppose) but the key bit is this: it's built so high on a hill that you can only access the house via the rather obvious elevator shaft.

And then, one night after dinner I wandered out onto the hotel grounds to find something new to shoot. Here's what I found.

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I said I'd post more photos of flora and fauna. There's that and a bit more. These were taken over the last few days.

Here is a closeup of some flowering bushes near the lake in front of the hotel.

There were two ducks playing in front of the hotel the other day, walking back and forth in front of the door, chasing each other.

Nearby on the lawn was a goose. That is a goose, right?

Talk to the hand?

"Honey, can you get some meat while you're out?" (Look closely in the window).

On the way to the Fort and the Seven Tombs last Saturday we passed oxen pulling a cart loaded with grasses. Two pics.

This tree is on the grounds of the Seven Tombs. I want one like this in my yard!

Where do snakes live? In a den? Whatever, here's home sweet home.

You don't see too many camels in Hyderabad. We encountered one during a drive through the Old City.

This is almost copyright infringement. Someone call legal! Or George Costanza.

And finally, this statue sits in front of one of the government buildings in Hyderabad. No introductions are necessary.

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Not much time and not much else to say. Things are going fine at the office. I've been feeling good since I was sick last week. It was hot again today. See what i mean?

Last year I posted a few pictures of the buffaloes that freely walk the streets of Hyderabad on their way to and from their watering or their grazing spots. And I do mean freely. Here's a shot I took last week.

Yesterday, though, I saw something new. Our previous encounters have always been on narrow roads with slow moving traffic. Today a group of them (small herd?) decided to cross one of the busy 4 lane boulevards that pass as major arteries where traffic can reach 40mph (which is fast for Hyderabad traffic).

All of which raises the question, should you play chicken with a buffalo?

More fauna, and perhaps some flora to follow.

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And on the eighth day he read.

But here's last night's sunset.

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As I mentioned in my last post, near Golconda Fort are a group of tombs of six of the seven Qutb Shahi dynasty shah's and some of their family members. It's not easy for me to remember which tomb belongs to which shah so I'll take a stab at it. Future Googlers beware.

This one I'm clear on. It belongs to Abdullah Qutb Shah (Qutb is pronounced "kutub"), the sixth and last of the seven to be entombed on this site. He died in 1672 after holding power during a time of decline. Eight years later the kingdom was conquered by Aurangzeb, a rather unpleasant fellow who imprisoned Abdullah's successor Abul Hasan Qutb Shah until he died in 1687.

The next tomb is possibly the most beautiful. It belongs to a woman, Hayat Bakshi Begum, I believe, the daughter of the fourth shah, the wife of the fifth, and the mother of the sixth. She was obviously much loved to receive this monument.

Here is the marker for her tomb -- she is actually buried in the basement, below this spot. The man in the picture pulled back the drape to reveal the detail.

Outside her tomb is perhaps the world's smallest mosque, said by Arafat to have been built in only 24 hours. Why the rush? I don't know.

Now, the big guy, the most famous of the Qutb Shahi dynasty king's, Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the founder of Hyderabad (and the father of Hayat Bakshi Begum). His tomb is the largest and and is built on a platform raised above the others.

We walked down to the basement to see his final resting place.

And here he is.

One thing I couldn't help noticing as I walked over the many acres covering the site are the elaborate gardens that have fallen into disrepair. I don't know whether it's lack of money or interest but it's obvious that the landscaping has suffered from neglect. Here is a pool long since emptied and now strewn with weeds and trash.

But imagine the possibilities!

The picture I forgot to take is of the unfinished tomb of the seventh and last shah who's final resting place, obviously, is not here. It's shows the dome half built with brickwork exposed. Pretty cool, especially after observing so many finished examples. Complaints will be heard tonight down in the hotel bar for as long as you're willing to buy.

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As I type this it's Sunday morning, but this post describes Saturday and I'm only now catching up. I was originally going to do some sight seeing on Sunday but those plans changed just before mid-day, and so under the auspices of our driver/guide Arafat I went to see the ruins of the Golconda Fort and the Seven Tombs of the Qutb Shahi dynasty nearby.

The earliest fort dates to the 12th century and was made of mud and clay. The Qutb Shahi dynasty was founded in the early 1500's, and it took them decades to build the stone fort that stands in ruins today. The fort sits on a granite hill almost 400 feet high. It's actually four forts surrounded by an outer and inner walls over 6 miles long. Some of the walls sport ramparts and battlements with ancient cannons. A tour of the fort takes hours and if you're willing includes climbing nearly 400 steps to the very top. Given the 100 degree plus heat I passed, wimp that I am.

But here are some shots of the fort from a distance.

We enter the first gate.

And get the first view of the top of the hill.

Then we drive through another gate.

Here's a closeup of the top of the hill.

Pulling back on the zoom shows how far away we still are.

And another zoomed shot.

This photo shows two walls -- I'm not sure how many layers of walls there are, but I think they'd do a pretty good job of keeping out the Orcs.

The town of Golconda sits inside the perimeter of at least some of the walls. We passed several Indian Army installations to get to the fort, and some of them are also inside the walls. This picture shows barracks on the right, one of the walls on the left, and a fabulous pair of trees.

So -- not much else to say about the Golconda Fort. It was the seat of the Qutb Shahi dynasty until the 4th Shah, Muhammad Quli Qutb, moved the dynasty to the new city he decided to build, Hyderabad. I wish I'd been able to take the tour.

It's off to breakfast for me. I'll post my pictures of the Seven Tombs later today.

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