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Taramati Baradari – a link to a romantic past.

By: Vijayshree Kurumilla

‘Taramati Baradari’, I had only read about it in the newspaper, but never really saw it. I would have missed seeing it, had we not been looking, for a restaurant, to have our breakfast, on our way to Vikarabad and hunger pangs made us, take a detour to stop, near the place. The food at the restaurant, here was lousy but the tea and coffee were good.

It was very hot and everyone wanted to hurry back on our journey, but asked me, if I wanted to go and check the monument out. I looked up, at the monument standing in elevated isolation. The sun was beating down hard and I wondered whether I would be able to walk up, all those steps, with my knee problem. I thought I must give it a try, for at least, the view from the top.

There are many legends surrounding Taramati, the courtesan of the Seventh Qutub Shahi Ruler of Hyderabad. The monument was constructed incorporating special acoustic skills, to enable the King staying in Golconda, to listen to Taramati, singing, from here.

I ascended the steps very fast and reached the monument. There was something terribly romantic about the place, as this, was one monument, standing in, such splendid isolation. What really stuck me, about the place though, was this: Even in such peak summer heat, if you stand under its roof, it was so cool and the breeze caressing you was, refreshingly cool. The moment I stepped out of the roof, I could feel the scorching heat. It was like magic, I went in and felt cool and stepped out, to face the heat.

Braving the sun, I looked around, to get a bird’s eye view, of our city. There was nothing but ugly buildings all around, specially, the tall zombie towers, of LANCO Hills. No greenery anywhere, excepting for a tiny patch; where the Gulmohar trees grew and had blossomed orange.

The view all around was ghastly but I thought of, how it must have been like, when Taramati came up to this tower and sang from here, and her song was carried, by the gentle breeze and the special acoustic skills of the monument, to the keen ears, of the King at the Golcanda Fort. She would have only seen mountains, lakes, and trees which would have blossomed orange, all around.

It was really hard to break off from those thoughts and the magical cool of the monument, but I did not wish to linger and stare at the destruction, wrought on the city, by our greedy rulers. One set of rulers had built and nurtured this city, with love and another set of rulers, have come to destroy everything, in it with hatred.

‘Taramati, the enchanting singer, does your soul still wander here, where you sang and the wind carried your song on its wings, to touch that someone who always longed to hear you sing?’

Taramati Baradari, is a must see, for people still in love with the Hyderabad of yore and all those romantic legends associated with it.

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