Entreat of an Epic City .......

An Hyderabadi's Soulful Outcry....

If you are from this part of India, where I am from; probably you would have been asked this question not once but many a times and the question is, “Do you support Telangana?”  How uncomfortable you felt then? But I was not the one to be uncomfortable, every time I was asked this I would say, “I sympathise with the misery of certain sects of Telangana who have been deprived from any sort of respectable living for decades”. By now you might have pictured me as a supporter of the ongoing burning issue, if you did! You should continue reading to know the actuality. I am a Hyderabadi, not just according to the birth certificate but also by the nature, by the heart and this is the only place I know and I want to live in, may be that’s the reason even the Texas’s and Atlanta’s couldn’t hold me back eve for a month. Even my family has its strong origins on this land of richness in wealth and the warmth; this was just an FYI only for the curious gentlemen!

Time passed by, situations and issues started unfolding more and more to an extent where now I sympathise with Hyderabad more than the telangana, you read it right, I used to sympathise with Telangana but now my large sympathies are for Hyderabad, I say this after having spent my last two years in and out of OU completing my post-grad. I have seen the struggle inside OU and as well as the struggle outside, while the media was more interested about the inside news, I am curious to talk about the struggle outside OU. My sympathies are just not enough; I seek sympathies for Hyderabad from humanity at large. I want every human on this earth to take a notice of this, for they would learn not to be a warm host ever again, for they would know that the cities that they live in shouldn’t be shared with the others, for they would know the pain of a historic city once on the Times Cover for its richness now weeping and wailing for being friendly as it always does.

Hyderabad, which was established as a symbol of love, much before the great TAJ was built; still it always got sidelined. But never did it complain, never did it asked for its due recognition. Though the city was built to be as big as the present Great Britain, it was planned to accommodate very few. But due to its richness and glory the influx of men continued and according to the 1901 census population was well over 5lakh; many migrated from the different parts of the Deccan to this city. A city as great as this today seeks sympathies from its own people, it still calls them all as its own since it welcomed them all with the open arms at different points of its life. If almost everyone dwelled into Hyderabad’s heart for their living at various points of time in the history, how can this land decide upon who is close to it? To which point of the history do we go back to decide to whom does this great land belong? It never asked any one their origin before providing them with an asylum but today the same people want a complete possession of it? When a large part of Hyderabad has gone into Maharastra! Now should we also ask for those regions as well, as they were once a part of Hyderabad?

Hyderabadi’s, having inculcated this culture of warmness from their land have welcomed each and everyone from various parts of the country and the world with open hands. They didn’t differentiate among the religion’s, the caste’s, the economic status but little did they know that the same people whom they welcomed ages back would start differentiating on the name of region. Hyderabadi’s though they witnessed other parts of the city being transformed in the name of development while they remain ignored, they maintained a staunch silence through out; for they never differentiated among the regions of this city. Even today Hyderabadi’s doesn’t speak up, even now they don’t voice their opinion and they remain unasked. They are left unasked for their views, their willingness, their likings, unasked for everything since they have been too amiable with everyone. But now its time to raise our opinion, today we cannot be a mere spectator to the misery being inducted to our land.

Yes, Telangana culture, custom’s and accent is different from the other regions but if that becomes a basis for a separation. Then under which region do we group Hyderabad? Hyderabad all through its existence displayed its unique culture, unique language which is widely popular across the country for its friendly slang. My common sense says to me that I cannot group it under any region, if culture, custom and accent is taken as a consideration, what does your sense say?

Even in the midst of all this protests and bandhs for past few years, Hyderabad and hyderabadi’s have kept their spirits high and did not bother to get bogged down with the situations. Or else why you would still see traffic jams on the roads on a day of bandh, when the protesters did not even refrain from using the force against anyone willing to carry on with his day-to-day work. Even the pulse of Hyderabad is not disturbed, the malls are still gushing with people and theatres filled to the brim. Hyderabadi’s love towards the food and movies is still intact keeping the spirit of Hyderabad alive.

It’s just not that, though the industry and commerce in Hyderabad are being pushed into every hardship possible time and again. But the organisations kept performing and kept achieving. City has shown no less growth compared to the other cities of India, it still shows same IT revolution and software exports as it did few years back if not more. Though I had to go to OU everyday for my post-grad, my sessions were disturbed only twice in two years! It’s true that we Hyderabadi’s are being troubled to an extent where it can be termed it as harassment as well. We are not being allowed to work on what and when we want to, we have to follow their schedule and their timeline. We have to plan our travel according to their moods and we need to plan an outing based on their will. Or else our roads get blocked and turned into their kitchens, if we divert ourselves to the other routes our vehicles get stopped and when somehow to escape this trap we end up driving more our engines give up for the need of fuel and when roads are blocked why would the bunks be open?

Still we went forward, still we performed and still did we achieve what many other cities couldn’t. We stretched ourselves, compromised with our weekends, compensated the holidays, sacrificed the vacations and we now seem to be up for every obstruction. If state run buses are off the road, we took autos and trains to our destinations and when the trains and autos were forcefully stopped, we took private run buses and not sure how but we did reach but we reached our work places and continued our work.

It’s good in a way that we found an opportunity to showcase to the outer world that come what may, disaster what it might be Hyderabad and Hyderabadi’s doesn’t stop. And we showed a promise that your investments here surely would be valued with a promised growth even in the dire situations as it may be. This city has always been a paradise for the true hard workers, empires have been built based out of Hyderabad, and if you have put your efforts you were never disappointed. So why not we start putting more efforts towards reaching further heights, instead of fighting among us, Hyderabad still is as encouraging as ever!

 - Harish Bheemarthi