After a gap of three months, we planned our visit to cover another Jyotirlinga, Mallikarjuna Swamy Temple in Srisailam our 10^th out of presently total 12 in India and Hyderabad.  Hyderabad is famous for Char Minar, Golconda Fort and pearls.  It is also called the Pearl City. 

We left Delhi on 17^th by 9.50 Air India flight, which was late by one and half hours but made up half an hour and landed Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad at 1 pm.  We reached the CPWD Guest House in Koti at 2 pm.  After clearing formalities, we started for the excursion trip and visited Salarjung Museum, Char Minar and Birla Planetorium on that day.  By the time we came out of Birla Planetorium, it was already 7 pm so we called it a day. 

Salar Jung Museum - The Salar Jung Museum is a repository of the artistic achievements of diverse European, Asian and Far Eastern countries of the world. The major portion of this collection was acquired by Nawab Mir Yusuf Ali Khan popularly known as Salar Jung III.  It was opened for the public by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India on 16^th December, 1951.  The Major attraction of the Museum was the Musical Clock, Veiled Rebecca and Double Statue.

Rebekah or Rebecca, the daughter of Bethual, is a Biblical character from the Old Testament. The image is carved in single block of stone without and joint.  It is so beautifully carved that one can even feel the signs/lines of the veil donned by the carved image.

The Musical clock is a British Bracket clock. It has got a mechanical device by which a miniature toy figure comes out of an enclosure and strikes the gong and then returns back to the enclosure at each hour.  It attracts a large number of visitors and they sit and wait to watch this act.

Double Statue – Double figures are carved out from a single block of hard brownish wood.  The sculptor symbolically depicted Good (female) and the Evil (male) in this life-size double image.

Char Minar - Charminar, the landmark of Hyderabad, was built in 1591 by Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah, the fifth sultan of the Qutub Shahi dynasty of India.  The building got its name from its four minarets.  The visitors can go upstairs to further explore the beauty of the city.  The view from the upstairs was very charming.  From here one could see the rush of old city, Mecca Madina Masjid (got its name because cement from Mecca Madina was brought to build this), Golkunda Fort, etc.

Birla Planetorium –The cosmic presentations here have highlighted various my

steries of the Universe as they have unfolded-from Halley's comet through space explorations of the solar system to the riddles of Black Holes and the newly discovered dark energy. It also presents the travel of Mangalyan to Mars.  It has been acclaimed the very best with a better rating than those in Europe, the US, Far East, Soviet Republics and elsewhere.

 

Next day, 18.2.15, was scheduled for Ramoji Film City.  We started at 8.30 am, took a local bus and reached the film city well before the Opening Ceremony and stayed there till Closing Ceremony.  It was a full day enjoyable though tiring excursion trip.  After the closing ceremony, we again took a local bus and reached back koti by 7.30 in the evening. 

Ramoji Film City was established by Indian film producer Ramoji Rao, head of Ramoji Group, in 1996. The facility has been certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest film studio complex.  It is also a popular tourism and recreation centre, containing both natural and artificial attractions including an amusement park. 

The opening ceremony was very entertaining.  Among other things, the attractions were Red Vintage Bus Tour which showed the replica of Red Fort, Jama Masjid, Mughal Garden of Delhi, Hawa Mahal of Jaipur, Airport, Railway Station, Church, Temple, Indian Buildings, Buildings outside India, etc made for shooting purposes. 

We also saw Butterfly garden, Kripalu Caves, Bonsai Garden, Bird Park, Japanese Park, Sun Fountain, etc. 
Stunt Show – It was a live stunt show by which the various Artists thrilled us by their performances.

Filmy Duniya – It is an unforgettable ride that takes us around the many famous spots related to films all over the world. 

Lights Camera Action – This show depicts how the movies are made.  One hero and one heroin are selected out of the spectators so that everyone could get the feel as to how the films are made.

On 19.2.2015, we saw Golkonda Fort, Qutab Tomb before proceeding to Srisailam, which is around 225 km from Koti which took around 5 hours by road.

Golconda Fort -Golconda (sometimes spelled as Golkonda) Fort was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Golconda which flourished between the 14th to 16th century. It is situated 11 kilometers from Hyderabad.  One can see the beauty of the city from the top of the fort.

After taking our lunch, we started for Srisailam at around 2 pm and reached there around 7.30 pm.  Some friends were waiting for us to facilitate our Darshan at Temple.  We performed Pooja of old lingam as well as the present one and got ourselves blessed.  We were amazed to see the ‘Tri fruit tree (Triphala uruksham)’ which is a combination of Juvvi (white fruited wavy leaf fig tree), Raavi (Sacred Fig or Bo-Tree), and Medi (Cluster Fig Tree) planted together become grown as one tree.

Next day, 20.2.2015, we got early in the morning at 3 am so that we could be blessed with the Suprabhat Darshan.  We left for Hyderabad at around 8 am and reached Hyderabad at 1.30 pm.  After meeting some more friends at Hyderabad, we left for airport to catch the flight at 8.55 pm.  This flight was again late and took off at 10.30 pm.

Early Morning View, Mallikarjunaswamy Temple 

A View of Mecca Madina Masjid from Char minar

A view of Husainsagar lake from Birla Planetarium