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.