Visited Salarjung, Charminar & Mecca Masjid

An old saying goes like this: 'Ghar ki murgi daal barabar'. This is true in case of historical monuments also. Most of the visitors in any historical place are from outside the city in which the monument is located. The locals generally don't find the place as important since it has always been there for them. This situation has been fully true for me. Having stayed in NCR, I never visited Red Fort or Qutub Minar or Jantar Mantar or Lotus Temple. I have seen these places many times from outside while travelling but never actually went to see them during my stay at NCR. The same situation happened at Hyderabad also. I hadn't visited Salarjung Museum or Mecca Masjid or Charminar since the time I have come here. But this time, I decided to make mends. Today, I went to see all these three places.

I started off with Salarjung Museum. I reached there at 11:30AM and straight away headed for Musical Clock. I had heard a lot about this clock & hence didn't want to miss it. Crowd had already started gathering in the hall to watch the 'event'. Since I had some 15-20 minutes in my hand, I decided to visit Rebecca gallery. Here I must confess that I ain't among those persons who will look at the finer details of each work of art..Mostly, I'll just give a passing glance and move on.. I agree that the craftsman must have made something good and he/she must have got good money for it but what the heck, what is the need to drooool over it. So while in Rebecca Gallery, I just saw some sculptures and passed by..until I reached the statue of Veiled Rebecca.. and then, my heart stopped. Oh God, the statue was awsome. Now I know why people sing praises of it. The sheer beauty of the sculpture hooked me..I spent 4-5 mins just admiring the beauty of the statue . Now 4-5 mins is LOT for me considering that I hardly give couple of seconds to each work of art. I tried to think how Benzoni would have created such a masterpiece but was at loss of ideas.
Since the time was ticking by, I went back to the hall hoping to grab a seat but all the seats were already taken. So I stood by one side near the wall and waited for the 'moment'. At 12:00PM, a timekeeper came out and struck gong 12 times and then went back inside the clock. Whoa... what was that? Agreed that the clock is nicely built and has lot of dials..but still, do hundreds of people wait daily for this dng-dong thing?? It is just a watch folks and there will be thousands like this in people's homes. I didn't find anything special in it.. But seeing that the museum folks are earning lot just by showing a watch, I'm thinking that I should also buy one clock with a cuckoo and ask people to pay for watching it come out of watch at the stroke of every hour.. Well, it sounds like an idea to me. If ppl can go to see the timekeeper doing some ding dong, why they won't come to see a murgaa saying cuckroo-koo.. :)) Long story cut short, I didn't like the watch show. There were a lot of other collections too in the museum.. some egyptian, french, south indian, kashmiri etc etc etc..I sleepwalked thro' most of them. Some collections were really good..like the porcelain stuff and the wooden sculpture having two faces.. even the marble sculptures were good. I didn't like the modern art section though. Actually, it was not a problem with the collections, I should say that I don't understand this form of art. I saw a painting by M F Hussain and I couldn't decipher what it was meant to be. It looked to be some random array of colours.. why would someone keep it in a museum.. or for that matter, why would someone even call it a painting? LOL :)) So overall, this museum was worth mainly for statue of Veiled Rebecca and some other sculptures/crafts. The collection was good and I'm sure that the Salarjungs had loads of money to buy all those costly artefacts but then, I sleepwallked thro' all that stuff.

My take: To evoke interst from junta like me, the owners should allow us to get one souveneir free of cost or better still, they can allow us to take an artefact back home. Atleast, then we'll see everything closely and admire the art (and choose the best artifect for us too). OMG, what an idea sirjee....anybody listening???

Once Salarjung Museum was done, I headed off to Charminar. Charminar is 1.2 kms away from Salarjung and both Museum and Charminar are in old city area of Hyderabad. I went to the upper storey of Charminar and saw the surroundings from there. I could see the Salarjung Museum from there. Another thing I noted was that the autowallahs had taken over the road right below Charminar.. I thought to count the number of autos but then dropped the idea. I have posted a pic which I clicked. If you are reading this blog then probably you have got nothing better to do. So could you please count the autos for me and post in the comment section :) I'm just curious to know.

I spent some time at the top of Charminar and then headed for the Mecca Masjid. It is situated right next to Charminar. It is a big mosque and you'll find lot of pigeons just after the entry gate. I spent some time there. Saw some kids playing with pigeons and running after them. Yeah..seen so many times in movies when lots of pigeons fly...today, I was right there.. It is indeed a wonderful sight!!!

Oh yes, before I finish, wanted to mention the entry fees for each place:
Salarjung Museum: 10 bucks per Indian person.. Foreigners need to shelve INR 150.
PS: Photography not allowed inside Museum.
Charminar: INR 5
Mecca Masjid: No such charges...
Better to keep some change handy to avoid any issues!!!

Chalo I'm done for this post.. C u folks l8r..
Bye