Date:12/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/12/stories/2006051221180200.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

History comes alive at Chowmohalla Palace

Special Correspondent

Princess Esra, wife of the eighth Nizam, inaugurates the sound and light show

RELIVING GRANDEUR: Artistes taking part in the sound and light show at the Chowmahalla Palace on Thursday. -Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

HYDERABAD: Bathed in moonlight and a rich tapestry of words and music narrating the story of its past, Chowmahalla Palace in the old city shone with the glory and grandeur of the past.

Needless to say, it took people back in time when the palace throbbed with life.

Princess Esra, wife of Mukkaram Jah, eighth Nizam of Hyderabad, inaugurated the sound and light show at Chowmahalla Palace here on Thursday watched in awe by old timers and cultural torchbearers of Hyderabad.

Restoration work

A part of the sprawling 12-acre palace was opened last January while restoration works of the huge southern courtyard still on. "It took five years of painstaking work to restore the palaces of the first courtyard back to their old glory. Efforts are on to make it what it once was, the centre of Hyderabadi cultural life," maintained the Creative Director of Chowmahalla Palace and the man credited with the creation of Shilparamam crafts village, G. Kishen Rao.

Show on weekends

The sound and light show would be organised on the weekends to enable people relive the grandeur of the palace, built in the late eighteenth century and once the seat of power of the Asaf Jahi dynasty.