The Road to Old City

Area exclusively for honored guests

These clothes weigh over 25 kilos

Waking up at 8 a.m. on any Sunday morning is not easy for me. But the trip to the Chowmahalla Palace was worth the one hour trip into Old City. Maybe it’s because we got to go to the Lad Bazar afterwards, which is particularly known for its bangles.

Either way, the palace definitely pulled us back a couple hundred years when women of royalty in Hyderabad wore about 25 kilograms in clothes and jewelry. I should add that the display of saris was incredibly impressive—especially all the gold and silver threading spanning more than four meters in length. Our guide, Abbas, was most helpful in illuminating the objects with stories and historical context.

Unfortunately, he was unable to join us as we walked up what seemed to be a never-ending spiral staircase of the Charminar Mosque.  But the view? Absolutely breathtaking. I think we were able to glimpse almost every other historical building in Old City such as the Mecca Masjid.

This is one of the views from the Charminar Mosque

Our driver Ravi was also especially kind to take us around the Lad Bazar as Sneha bargained for all of us. The thing is, we are so obviously foreign that the merchants of the area hike up the prices to an extraordinary degree. Needless to say, Sneha turned out to be a bargaining queen for all of us as we navigated multiple bangle stores.

None of us took pictures at the Bazar! So I got this from Google Images, but it's pretty much what all the bangle stores looked like.

We start teaching at the schools again tomorrow. I’m excited as we finished figuring out the curriculum and have been supplied with more books and school supplies.