Chaar-minar to Karachi !!

Chaar-minar is iconic building of Hyderabad. I have mixed feelings about pathetic glory of it.It looks grand when we look into it with its minar facing blue sky. Though, no way it is comparable to patronas tower or Taipei building of modern world. It is situated as junction or circle where four roads come and join together. Big open walls welcomes us from nearly 50m distance before Chaar-minar. Those who can remember Bangalore city market area, for them imagining Chaar-minar locality is very easy ! It is fully crowded almost all the day of the week, busy with all kinds of business. Burning sun , smoking vehicles, huge crawling raffic, population surrounding the area and tourist who write their names on each and every brick of chaarmeenar are ruining the legacy of Chaar-minar.
It was around 3.30PM when we headed towards Chaar-minar after having visited NTR memorial. Chaar-minar seems to be entrance of old city, possibly then known as Secunderabad. Hyderabad and Secunderabad are twin cities. New areas of the city are known as Hyderabad. These cities roughly divided by a river wherein i couldn't find much water flow anyways.

I don't want to explain the architectural beauty of the building. History, may be good or bad, is
always charming ! But i can't stop myself writing about our mentality of treating historical monuments. Look at any wall of Chaar-minar, you can find some Laila-Majnu's name scripted on
it! This is the story of each and every historical monument in India. I have no words to condemn
such a great level of indecency.


No doubt, beauty and grandeur of Chaar-minar is deteriorating everyday. If it has to be saved for some more years then swift action is necessary . There are two options: First one is relocate everything surrounding Chaar-minar including people, traffic, shops, business, schools, masjid. Considering the ground realities of communal harmony and political favoritism this can be a highly uphill task for the administrators.

Second option is to move Chaar-minar itself ! I mean to say replicate Chaar-minar in some other
place. This may be the best solution even though original monument is not preserved, but legacy of history can be remembered for some more generations.



When all these was happening Srini was in his own world. His daughters have called him and demanded dress for them from Hyderabad. We could find hundreds of shops surounding Chaar-minar. He got completely confused, lost. Finally he decided not to buy anything !! Gagan wanted to have some official snaps. He looked very happy after having photo shootout. I believe he wants to show this to somebody !!!

Now our next destination is Karachi biscuits ! Karachi bakery is located somewhere in Abids. Karachy bakery is famous for its mouth watering fruit biscuits and bakery foods. Srini was uttering every half an our from the minute he landed in Hyderabad that he has to buy karachi biscuits !!


Again we got into the auto. Auro driver wanted 50 rupees for a distance of around 3-5kms. Rs. 30 was the adequate charge, but he refused to come for that amount. We are in hurry and stepped into auto. I couldn't resist myself to ask him why the name Karachi?? he quipped shop owner is ancestrally rooted in Karachi and he started business here in Hyderabad, hence the name. He continued "que me khade raho and biscuit khavo" (wait in the que to eat biscuits). After a while he announced: "two things of Hyderabad are famous in the world". I just wondered and asked him what are those? He said it is Karachi biscuit and Hyderabady achar (Pickle) !!. I didn't question anymore. I surprised. He didn't mention Hyderabad Biriyaani.


Bakery was full packed with biscuits, cakes and people to buy it. There was a big que to pay bill. I swiftly moved around the bakery and finally settled with a packet of fruit biscuits costing Rs. 70 for 450 gram pack consisting of 25 biscuits, making aroung 3 rupees each for a biscuit. I just had a look those people surrounding me. I surprised myself that i was the only guy who took one packet biscuit . Everybody else in the que had atleast 5 packets in their hand !


If at all if you feel like having those biscuits just contact them here:
www.karachibakery.com

You ask any auto driver, or any by passer they know Karachi bakery ! This tells popularity of those biscuits.

Time being signing off.

Will come up with travelogues of Birla Mandir, Ramoji Rao Film City, Golconda Fort, famous Hyderabad Pearls and some corporate lessons i learned from an auto driver !!! He practicaly
showed me how a service model can be applied on corporate world !!!!