The " Tank Bund " Road

Another Gem from the TIME-LIFE archives. Tank Bund Road at Hussain Sagar - with the Naubat Pahad in the center background at the distance. For the Hyderabadi challenged, Naubat Pahad is the hillock on which the Birla Mandir was constructed. To the right of the photo, one can see the chimney stacks of the "Mint" - at the Mint Compound location. And wonder of wonders! - no cars or automobiles on it!

If you look closely behind the third light pole from the right - you can see a strange building - which we used to say was shaped like a steamer ship - it was the Hyderabad Boats Club Building. I thought the building is still there today, but i cannot locate a picture of it anywhere.

I still remember the road being this width when I was a kid. Only after NTR came did he undertake the widening and beautification of the road.

State Central Library, Afzal Gunj, Hyderabad

This photograph is from the TIME-LIFE archives on Google. I had to rack my brains to id the building - because this style of architecture is usually found in the Osmania University - and I was not able to place this. Then I realised that it was a Library - it was the State Central Library in Afzal Gunj (or Afzalgunj), near the Osmania General Hospital.

I was a regular to the library in the 90s, first visiting it in 1990 and visited it as recently as 2004 or 2005. Its a pretty big library -and had a great collection of military books related to india. Their storage room has tons of old rare books - including Gazettes of India dating from the 19th Century.

The building is one of the 137 such designated as "Heritage Buildings" by the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

I tried locating a contemporary photograph of this building but was not able to locate one - Strange in the age of Digital Photography and Internet Photo uploads.

What was that double fence and security towers? The Jail of course!

Coming into landing at Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad, the above structure used to catch my attention - double wall, security towers, some sort of control tower in the middle - must have been a high security place. Indeed it is - The Cherlapalli State Jail - which I found out only today - thanks to Google Earth. The above photo was taken by me from the aircraft.

A view in google maps :


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