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The unhurried mall
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The annual Numaish is a memory-jogging fair that may have lost its novelty but is unbeatable in its nostalgia. SERISH NANISETTI writes
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PHOTO : NAGARA GOPAL
World of joy Ferris wheel, roller-coaster ride and balloons - nothing can beat the Numaish
Enter this mall and you are in the unhurried midst of nature. Acres of space, a toy train which even adults love to ride, eats from around the city, sinless window shopping, sinful sweets and best of all haggling. Which mall will allow you to bargain and then chase you down with the price getting lower as the footsteps get faster? It is the thing-to-do for most Hyderabadis who even show it off to out of towners for the 45 days it stays in the city itinerary.
Enter in the evening, get X-rayed, frisked and baggage-checked and you are in a world of leisure that is as Hyderabadi as you can get. A couple sit down near the Vijaya Dairy stall with their baby in the pram, Abid Hussain talks about the good times: “I have known this since childhood. It is a whirr of memories, travelling in a bus from Irani Gully, the wooden toys, the rubber toys, the lai-lappa which we children used to get after a lot of pestering and now I want to buy toys for this one,” he says pointing to the baby squinting into the light.
Vijay Reddy, sitting near the Radio Station waiting for his family, sucks in his breath, closes his eyes and says: “Numaish for me, means the smell of fresh earth as fairway is watered in the evening. The sounds of the radio station about Farooqi powder, Zinda Tilismath, Lamsa tea and the melodies of Mukesh, Lata, Rafi and Kishore and the announcements about the lost children in green frock, blue shirt etc.”
The more the things remain the same more subtle is the change. Inside the Radio Station, before the announcers walk in, the song is from Pakeezah: “Mausam hai aashiqana…” It is not coming from the tape deck, for the first time it is a CD player Denon DN D4500 which is playing it. “This is the first year we are using this,” says Ajay Kumar Jaiswal pointing to a bunch of MP3 CDs. “This is the heart of exhibition. Yesterday night we had a three-year baby with us, the parents walked in a relaxed way at 2 a.m. and took the child with them,” says Ajay who has been working for the past 25 years. Another old hand Basheerullah gets offended when the talk veers to “old songs that are played again and again”. “People come here to listen to these songs. We have time slots.
These songs are hummable, Rafisaab, Mukeshsaab, Lataji’s magic cannot be reproduced.
Do you think this place will sound the same if we play modern songs?” he asks rhetorically.
The Numaish is a memory jogger for families as well as a tradition. If one family’s first visit at the Numaish is Vijaya Dairy Stall, then another family begins it with the train ride, yet another family begins it at the Agrawala Chat.
There are two things a true-blue Hyderabadi will not do at the Numaish: Visit it within 15 days of its opening, then, purchase clothes and other stuff at least three days before closing time.
To each Hyderabadi his own Numaish.
Rings of security
Men in black Security is no longer checking the tickets
“Jaldi ticket lo, jaldi andar jao, andar aapka intezar ho raha hai,” says the announcer at the Ajanta Gate hurrying the visitors. First the visitors are segregated by gender, then they pass through a metal detector, then they are frisked, two video cameras mounted on lampposts keep the vigil for the trouble-makers. The most talked about thing isn’t necessarily bad. The three rings of security at the Numaish this year have made it an uneventful one. The men in dark blue safari suits and the women in violet saris ensure that you are safe.
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