Golconda Fort Top offers exciting views of the living city and the city in ruins!!

Golconda, a ruined city and a national heritage site is situated about 15 kms from the heart of Hyderabad city.


This city and its fort can be explored at leisure in half a day and during this exploration one has to ascend the various steps of the fort to reach the top.


And it is here from the top and during the climb that one gets excellent aerial views of both the city in ruins ‘Golconda’ and the thriving city beyond ‘Hyderabad’.


The fort, within which the Golconda city is located has quite a large perimeter and this perimeter is made up of rocks, ruins, surviving structures and greenery.


The area beyond that are the immediate human settlements and the local baazars. The skyscrapers in the horizon are the buildings and organizations that form the Information Technology Park of Hyderabad. The really green belt is the army area.

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Bibi-Ka-Maqbara: A Taj Mahal Lookalike!!

I am sure most of us have seen or been to the Taj Mahal at least once, but have you seen a replica of the Taj Mahal and that too in India?


Well, I hadn’t till I visited the Bibi-Ka-Maqbara at Aurangabad. This monument was built between 1651-1661 A.D. by Prince Azam Shah, son of Emperor Aurangzeb as a loving tribute to his mother, Rabia-ul Durrani.


Situated in the heart of the city of Aurangabad, this beautiful mausoleum that architecturally resembles the Taj Mahal of Agra is known as the ‘Taj of Deccan’ or ‘Dakkhani Taj’.


I have been to the Taj Mahal about 4 times and can say that I know more or less each corner of it. So when I landed at Bibi Ka Maqbara, I was stunned to see views that I had previously seen only at Agra.


But, I have to say that, though this monument resembles the Taj Mahal, it is not being maintained like the Taj Mahal. And that to me is a shame as it is still a architectural beauty and a pride of our country.

 
The Mughal garden, living water management system, pavements which are ornamented with little kiosks, finely worked brass doors, stucco floral motifs on the shell lime plaster, rank Bibi-Ka-Maqbara among the best of the ‘Beautiful Mughal buildings of Deccan’.


Hence, I sincerely hope that the government of India and the Archaeological Society of India take good care of this beautiful monument and ensure that it survives the centuries of the future.

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View of Port Blair from atop the Cellular Jail watchtower

The Cellular Jail may have had an infamous past, but the views from atop the watch tower are simply stunning.

 
There are satellite dishes amidst coconut trees nearby. Then we have the bluish green waters of the Bay of Bengal. And in the yonder, we have the views of many tropical islands that are dense and green.


Very picturesque indeed!

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Cellular Jail Museum – Remembering the infamous past

As I kept wandering about the various wings and corridors of the Cellular Jail, I came upon the Cellular Jail Museum.


This is where one can see life size models that depict the life of a Cellular Jail inmate.

 
The prisoners were punished in various ways. For a certain type of crime, they were whiplashed by the jail officers and made to break huge rocks into small stones for hours.


Then, the other punishment was to strip the prisoner, make him stand on the main portico and whiplash him till he fell unconscious. This was done to send a lesson of fear to the other jail inmates.


Then, the most infamous one was to get the prisoner to grind groundnut/palm oil and whip him if he stopped due to fatigue or pain.

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The Cellular Jail Gallery!!

The Cellular Jail at Port Blair, which is a national heritage site features great galleries.


Painters and artists alike from all over the country have contributed their works here.


These paintings in the Cellular Jail gallery are not only fabulous in design and taste, but are also monumental in helping tourists visualize life in the jail and outside (around Port Blair) during pre-independence days.

 
While some paintings illustrate the atrocities meted out to the Indian prisoners, the others provide chronicles of the lives of Indian freedom fighters.

 
Then there are some that show fights between the bows and arrows of the local Andamanese tribes and the guns of the British officers.

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