I was born and grew up in Hyderabad. My memories of my beautiful Hyderabad and Secunderabad are both diverse and valuable. My two grandfathers lived in Jambagh in Hyderabad and Bholakpur, and my parents, Sreeram Bhoopal and Snehalata, had their home in Chilkalaguda, known as Walker Town and later Padma Rao Nagar. Both my paternal and maternal families were in the administration -- irrigation, agriculture, revenue and police. My maternal grandfather B Ranga Reddy and my father C Sreeram Bhoopal were in the Hyderabad Civil Service (HCS).
This gave me great exposure of the city and State. After 1956, my father travelled and worked in what was the new State of Andhra Pradesh. Secunderabad was home to me as we lived in Walker Town and my two schools -- Mrs Roshier’s Froebel and St Ann’s High School Maredpally -- were here. I cycled to school very often, which was a learning experience about my city and life. It was very safe to travel from home via Secunderabad station to school. I started exploring Secunderabad Cantonment, the beautiful military area that provides lung and open space for the city even today.
Trips to my paternal grandparents and heritage visits to historic sites with my amma Snehalata and other visitors led to a greater awareness of my city and State. Traffic was light, roads were good, girls were safe and life was easy. The same stretch from Padma Rao Nagar to Begumpet via St Ann’s High School is today a nightmare. The first rains brought a wonderful scent to us; today’s rains send us scurrying home to escape from flooded roads. The many lakes and kuntas in Hyderabad city and State that enriched our lives, are either encroached upon or have turned into cesspools flowing with garbage and sewage. The heritage buildings that graced both cities have been mostly replaced by nondescript soulless concrete. The top of the double-decker bus that I travelled in afforded wonderful vistas of the two cities.
My memories include the pleasure of hearing the four official languages of Hyderabad State, namely Urdu, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada and of course English as the additional working language; Osmania University requiring education in both Urdu and English. I leave it to the readers to decide for them whether the changes that have taken place in these 75 years are for the better.
(Anuradha Reddy, convenor for INTACH-Hyderabad)