Hyderabad: Hundreds of visitors thronged Charminar on Sunday evening to take part in the inaugural day of ‘Ek Sham Charminar Ke Naam’ after the huge success of ‘Sunday Funday’ on Tank Bund. The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) authorities started the programme to provide entertainment to the denizens of the city as well as its visitors. Starting from the evening, it lasted till late at night.
The surroundings of historic Charminar were illuminated with colourful lights and the whole area was packed as people from different parts of the city reached the venue to have a good time.
While a police band kept the crowd entertained, people started playing to ‘marfa’ and ‘teen maar’ beats. For some time, Charminar vicinity became a mega dance floor, with scores of youths enjoying the evening to the fullest. Those who were not familiar with the old city of Hyderabad, did some chance shopping.
A wide variety of food stalls, stretched till Macca Masjid, served delicacies at reasonable rates. Since Charminar and its roads are narrow compared to the Tank Bund, there was traffic congestion, but the police made sure the traffic was eased from time to time.
Bahavani Preeth, who came along with her mother and son all the way from Jamia Nizamia, said, “It is so nice that authorities have taken such an initiative. We enjoyed the music played by the police band as they played some heart touching songs. They made our evenings so pleasant.”
Manjula, another visitor who was there during the whole event, said, “For old city people, it’s a wonderful gift from the government. We can easily make our Sundays memorable. We expect many more cultural events to be added to this ‘Ek Sham Charminar Ke Naam.”
A police officer who was on duty near Gulzar Houz said, “We have been here since morning. There was a heavy rush of people, many parking areas were allotted and signboards were put up all over so that people were able to park their vehicles.”
Narsing Rao and Padmawathi, a couple who came from Towlichowki, said, “Organizers are not able to manage the crowd at the stage, for senior citizens like us, we are not able to locate what is happening where. I hope by next Sunday, organisers will have a clear picture.”
Sajid Khan, owner of a food stall ‘Khan-Miya’, made brisk business. He said, “We got more business than we expected. All the food stalls here are having good sales.”
Hyder Ali and family from Chandrayangutta said, “We came to Charminar many times, but we are witnessing Charminar like this for the first time.”
