Growing up in Hyderabad old city - Part 1

Oldest memories of my childhood go back to around 1979. I was four years old. My memories of that time are of the home, speaking to mom, playing with other kids, the view of neighborhood and first day at school. While many of the details are from later age heard from my parents in typical “you used to do this, said so and so on certain occasion” sort of conversions. This blog is to put down my memories before i grow older. Hope this blog gives a glimpse in to my child hood, my parents life, life in 1980s Old city to my son Amey. Off-course to my family, friends and whoever comes by to read.

Father, Mother, Elder brother (standing), me and Diwakar.

My father came from Hubli in north Karnataka in 1960s and settled in Sultan bazaar. He worked in a private company Andhra Chemical Supplies. His office was on the Goshamahal Road. I hear my elder brother, Dattatraya, had studied in Nrupatunga School. He studied in Nizam college and then did M.Sc ni Geophysics from Osmania university. By the time I was born my family moved to Shalibanda in Old City. My home was on main street that goes from gowlipura to Shah-ali-banda, opposite to a theater named Sudha. Back then it was a single screen theater of 35mm. Later, ni mid 1980s a Second screening hall with 70MM screen was added.  Now in year 2020 it is Cinepolis Sudha. The single screen Sudha Theater was a landmark in those days. I guess event today. Any visitor was guided to come to Sudha and then go this way or ask this parson. I think, am not sure, that the Anand Milk bar at Shalibanda cross road now was situated opposite to Sudha in early 1980s. There was also a Pan shop run by Anjaiah. 

I remember an incident where Anjaiah proved an angel. His shop was to the right of entrance to Chitgopkar house. My younger brother, Diwakar was 3 years younger. He must have climbed down the stairs and started playing on the street. We realized he is not around. I was sent to look in neighbors’ homes. My mother asked Anjaiah, if he saw my brother go down the stairs. He said No. My mother shouted at me to look inside again. Just then Anjaiah jumped out of his shop and started running towards gowlipura. After some time, he was back with my brother in his arms. He had heard two of his customers mentioning a young man carrying a crying boy. He ran on a hunch and found the man with kid. That was a close shave for my brother. That incident was discussed for many days. 

Our house had a bedroom, kitchen and Sitting room. The toilet and bathroom were common among the tenants. There was terrace above my house. Its area included my house and the adjacent tenants’ rooms. Owners were Chitgopkar family. They were Kannadigas. Ananth Chitgopkar lived on first floor. They had son Manohar, two daughters Vasundhara and Rani the eldest. All three were elder to me. Manohar and Rani old enough to carry me. I do not remember elder daughters actual name, but she was called Rani. Ground floor had four families staying on rent. There was another family who were from shadnagar. Their eldest child Naveen was one year younger to me. The younger was my brothers age. It must be this family that I learned Telegu. At home we spoke Kannada. I knew Kannada and Telugu during my first 3-4 years. Hindi, English were learnt at school. Marathi would come much later.

On the right was a building that housed a school run by "Bharath Guna Vardhak Sanstha" and a Public Library. The board reads Hyderabad City Grandhalaya Sanstha, Shalibanda. The earliest memories are filled with sounds of children, morning prayer. One of the entrances in that building had an image of boy siting with a book in his lap. There were crowds and noise at regular intervals. Wonder what a 4-year-old me made from those. My mom used to tell me in later years that I longed to wear the uniform. I would ask when can i go there and play with other elder children. When it was time to send me to school, my parents admitted me in "Bharat Guna Vardhak Sanstha" abbreviated to BGVS. This school taught from Nursery to Fifth standard. My life revolved around this school building even though I was shifted from this school in 1983 to Raghavendra High School. In fact, I wished to have studied at Vaidik Dharma Prakashika (VDP) in Shah-Ali-Banda. VDP has a nice playground. BGVS had very small place. In 1980 it a platform for Ganesh idol was constructed. The other school Raghavendra where I studied till 10^th standard did not have any playground.

Library building.

Coming back to the public library. It had an impressive building. Ground floor housed library. First floor was School. There was a underground section. I heard interesting story on the genesis of public library. I heard some gentlemen in gowlipura asked the people leaving Hyderabad after 1947 to donate their books. People left so many books that he could not accommodate them in his home. He started looking for a place to house library. That is when the current building was identified. Initially the books were stored in the underground hall. This has very thick walls and huge pillars. It was constructed to serve as bomb shelter during air raid. It accommodated about 100 people. Volume of book must be tens of thousands. Many of the books were stored away from reading area. It was well cataloged and professionally run. Not sure what the situation is in 2020. In childhood I went with my father to the newspapers section. Flipped through magazines and mostly pages with images. My father showed me to the books section when I was in third standard. In introduced me to the books for children, and the dictionaries. It was much later about 4 years later that started frequenting the library. There were two big books on the battles of world war I and II respectively. I spent next many months with those books.

There were times in a year, when curfew was imposed. School would be closed, dad does not go to office. I remember a bus was burnt in front of the Sudha Theater and the smoke was visible for many hours. People would listen to news on radio, discuss happenings in city. I used to get bored at home. Slowly got into habit of switching on the transistor for news. My dad used to listen to news bulletins in Hindi, English and Sanskrit. Only Sanskrit I understood then was “Sankruta vaartaha shuyantaam. Pravachaka Baladevananda sagaraha”. My dad has not learned Telugu, even after being in Hyderabad for two decades. While my mother spoke Telugu well. It is the exposure, need to communicate that taught my mother, me and my brother. My dad used Hindi and English at office. While his neighbors and friends were Kannadigas or Hindi was a common language among his Telugu and Maharashtrian friends.