British Residence

British Residence
Originally uploaded by Maleaji.

I got it into my head that I wanted to go to Raymond’s tomb on Sunday. No particular reason, except that I had not checked it off my list of things to do in Hyderabad, and for some reason I thought it was in seconderabad, where I was and, as it turns out, it was not. After a lot of random driving and asking people about it, I gave up, and went to the Osmania University College for Women, AKA, the British Residency. At the Nizam’s museum, I saw the letter that ceded it back to the Nizam at independence in 1947. I’m guessing went down hill a bit for the building since then. It is a mess. Crumbling, there is literally a pack of feral dogs and piles of burning trash lying around (and keep in mind this is a functioning college). At the same time, it’s beautiful – you can absolutely tell how grand both the grounds and the building used to be, and it’s very quiet and peaceful (except when the feral dogs start fighting.) I actually ran into the same guy from the UK who had been at the HEH Nizam’s museum – he was with the principal of the school, and said his company was going to finance part of the restoration that’s going to take place, so that made me happy. After walking around outside, I decided to be bold and look inside the foyer.

I lived in DC long enough to pick up on the fact that lots of the really fancy buildings around town are horrible, soul-crushing thowback to the 70s cubicles inside, which give you no concept of what kind of building your actually in. While I know that it’s different here, I was still expecting the same kind of thing. I looked in the front, and there were beat-up desks in the room, but when I looked up, there were huge chandeliers, and even in the dark I could sort of make out the detailed, Islamic designs painted on the ceiling, two flights up, and a beautiful, if dusty balcony. But I lost my nerve, and didn’t start poking around (like a big jerk, I might add.) The guard who let me onto the grounds (partly, I think, because he seemed really amused by my bumbling Telugu), said that I should come at nine the next morning, and although I tried to explain that I had to work, I think I might take him up on the suggestion later one this week, when everyone is on their retreat, because I’m dying to see more of this building.

So more later. It was a really fun little outing. I really like this town. Even on the way home from my little excursion, I saw another huge palace up on a hill (and this was is really enormous) that I had never seen before. It seems like the supply of gorgeous ramshackle buildings just doesn’t run out here. So why isn’t anyone interested in seeing them?