HYDERABAD: Right by the very busy Mumbai Highway (NH-65), stands a small, beautiful and secluded structure at Ameerpet. Nearly a 100 years old, the structure is a private cemetery of an extremely illustrious Hyderabad family, and though it is well-maintained, both the structure and the stories of those buried there are largely unknown.
Among the persons buried here are four Padma awardees, as well as the man who was entrusted with the construction of Begumpet Airport.
The structure was completed in 1926 by Dr Edith Boardman, an Englishwoman, as a resting place for her husband Syed Hossain Bilgrami — an educationist and scholar who also worked in multiple roles under the Nizam. His great grandson Raza Bilgrami, 69, says when Bilgrami was in England, he was suffering from some health issues.
As a result, his good friend and the then Prince of Wales (who later became King George V) sent Edith, a nurse, back to India with Bilgrami.
“Edith, who was called memsaab by everyone, ended up marrying my great grandfather and she stayed in Hyderabad for the rest of her life. She built the structure after he died, and as per her wish, she too was buried at the same cemetery. Her grave was left unmarked as per her own request” says Raza.
Other illustrious members of the family buried in the cemetery include Dr Syed Husain Zaheer (Padma Bhushan), an eminent chemist who served as the director general of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ali Yavar Jung (Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan), a diplomat and the former Governor of Maharashtra, his wife Begum Zehra Ali Yavar Jung (Padma Bhushan), a social worker and the founder of Society For Clean Cities (SCC), and Masuma Begum (Padma Shri), an education activist who was the first woman Minister of erstwhile AP.
Zayn Khan, another descendent of the family and currently a Hyderabadi, said he knew both his maternal grandfather Husain Zaheer and Zaheer’s brother-in-law Ali Yavar Jung very well. Khan has been serving as a trustee of the structure for many years now.
Raza Bilgrami’s parents, too, are buried in the same cemetery. Raza says his father, Naqi Bilgrami, one of the few Aeronautical Engineers in Hyderabad State, was entrusted by the Nizam with the task of constructing the Begumpet Airport.
“To procure aircraft for the airport, father sought help from his good friend JRD Tata. The two were fellow students in England and were also part of a flying club.”
Raza says sometime later in life, his father had suggested the authorities to acquire about 4,000 to 5,000 acres of additional land beside the airport for its expansion.
“They laughed at his suggestion to procure more land. If they had listened to him back then, we wouldn’t have had to build the Shamshabad Airport afterwards,” Raza said.