After spending so much time at the Qutub Shahi Gardens, we stood at such a time that proceeding towards Golconda Fort wouldn’t have left us enough time to explore the Fort well enough. But then I thought we could go and watch their evening sound-and-light show! I always find the sound and light shows like a history class, but better with audio/visuals 🙂
And so we did. We went up to the Fort and watched the show in Hindi for half an hour, and came back home, only to come back the very next morning!
We spent the entire morning at the Fort complex, exploring the ruins the next day.
The Golconda Fort, which translates to ‘Shepherd’s Hill’ in the local Telugu language, flourished under the Kakatiya rulers of India. We went all the way up to the hilltop where the durbar hall was, whichgave me Turkish or Middle Eastern vibes! I really enjoyed the architecture of the hall, and the views and cool breeze from up there. This place can be so warm even in the Winter months!
Golconda used to be the capital citadel for many years before the capital was shifted to present-day Hyderabad, and this is why the fort still houses evidence of an administrative city by itself- a granary, prison, mortuary, baths, mosques, temple, a ‘baradari’ durbar hall, kitchen, laundry area, palaces, gardens, quarters- the expanse is so huge that hiking up and down can be a good day’s workout!
I loved everything about the Fort, except the smell of bat poop in some corners, especially at the large runway corridor that leads to the Rani Mahal Courtyard. The courtyard is beautiful even today, but beware of bats and the smell on the way there!
There are so many tourists here throughout the day and rightly so because the Fort where the Kohinoor diamond was home to, is still quite well maintained and a treasure house of history.
There are bakery stores right outside the entry gate, and I wanted to try some of the snacks that I had seen for the first time. I asked for this interesting pattie, which turned out to be sweet, and since I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, I struggled to finish it 😃
It was particularly interesting for me to see the huge darwaza gates still intact, and how people pass through them on a daily basis; also to see the street lights that gave a British-Indo Mughal feel. But then of course, the present-day traffic and electricity lines/poles, advertisement boards bring me to present day immediately.
It was here that I heard a local woman call out to her friend saying ‘randi’ which made me chuckle, because just the evening before my friend had told me that the word ‘randi’ which is an abusive slang in the Hindi language, only means ‘to come’ in the local Telugu language haha
We pass a huge dome-like darwaza gate one more time in two days and leave the Fort walls to exit from the pages of history. A few minutes later, what we witnessed some hours back feels like another era, as we find ourselves on the roads of modern-day Hyderabad, where people have stopped hailing autos unless booked via an app.
From one side of the mirror to the other.
Which other historical place has made you feel the same way?
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