Hyderabad and Delhi: My two favorite cities

I identify myself as a Hyderabadi having spent a major part of my adult life in this city. I love Hyderabad.
I am fascinated by the layers of history one encounters through the old city. Hyderabad is so very much like Delhi, a city whose seams seem to be bursting by the constant inflow of people writing their own stories and leaving their imprints.

For instance, right beside the Charminar of the Qutubshahis is Nizamia General Hospital built by the Asafjahi Nizam. A few hundred yards further is the Mecca Masjid. Its construction was initiated by the Qutubshahis but completed by Aurangazeb after his Deccan victory, inadvertently incurring the curse that bad luck follows anyone who completes the construction of the mosque.

The destinies of Hyderabad and Delhi have been intertwined. Their kings fought battles against each other and beside each other at several points in time.

Aurangazeb the last of the great Mughals and Tanashah the last Qutubshahi king rest in their tombs in Kuldabad, rivals in life but neighbors in death. Their tombs lie in the same tomb complex. Kuldabad is also the final resting place of the first Asafjahi ruler Nizam-ul-mulk, Aurangazeb’s loyal general, who laid the foundation for modern Hyderabad after the end of the Qutubshahi dynasty.

My trips to Delhi were only for work until...last year around this time, Vishnu and I made an exclusive 'touristy' trip. We booked our stay in a hotel beside Khan Market, opposite Sujan Singh Park. Sujan Singh Park, house to Delhi’s celebrated biographer, the eccentric Khushwant Singh whose opening line about Delhi was:

“I return to Delhi as I return to my mistress Bhagmati when I have had my fill of whoring in foreign lands…”
Singh, Khushwant. Delhi: A Novel. Delhi: Penguin Publishers ltd, 1990.

I read it as Khushwant Singh’s complaint about Delhi’s seductive snare that drew in warriors from far lands North West of Delhi: From Muhammad Ghur to the five dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate, Babur and his Mughal dynasty upended by the British. Just like the legendary curse of Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid, it is said that whoever builds a city in Delhi doesn’t stay in it for too long.

I like to believe in the romance of it all...
Delhi deserting Shahjahan (after he built Shahjahanabad) and to prove its fickle mindedness once again,
Delhi ousting the British after they built their grand offices on Raisina Hill.