A Brush of Royalty at Taj Falaknuma Palace

Some trips bring more than the excitement of travelling. Even without any planning, they unwrap beautifully and turn out to be perfect. When you have your best friend by your side, everything else anyway has to fall in it’s right place. So that’s what happened when a phone call converted itself into a fight-ticket and soon I set out to explore the City of Navabs. Taj Falaknuma Palace 

Ever since I had heard about it at an event by Telangana Tourism Taj Falaknuma Palace had secured a spot in my bucket list. A trip to Hyderabad won’t be complete without witnessing this gem. If you ever find yourself at Hyderabad, skip everything else and head to Falaknuma Palace. Oh, wait. That won’t be possible because you can’t just walk in without a reservation. My friend had tried booking a couple of times earlier as well, but she was denied as it was last minute and they didn’t have any spots left. This time we booked well in advance. High Tea at Taj Falaknuma Palace on a Sunday afternoon was more than a perfect idea. It couldn’t have gone any better.

Criss-crossing through the narrow lanes of the old city, we finally reached a turn proudly displaying the entry to Taj Falaknuma. We took the turn and a road bordered with huge trees on both sides greeted us. It was a hot day, and the sight of greenery already made us feel better. Soon, we were at the entry gates which proclaimed a lost legacy,  with guards welcoming us into a bygone era. Our reservation duly checked, we were escorted inside. A lane dividing a perfectly manicured lawn into two halves lead us to the lobby. While the lawns were pretty but what caught my attention was a tree. I spotted raw-mangoes hanging on it, a sight not many of us city-dwellers are used to in today’s times. If this were not Taj, I swear I would have tried to steal these mangoes!

Even though I had to give up on the idea of stealing those raw-mangoes, I made a note to include them in the blog-post. For a moment, it was like going back to the days when my neighbour had a mango tree and how kids in the neighbourhood learned the tricks to climb it for a bounty. I continued walking with these thoughts, and suddenly the past faded and the present stared at me. It was such a beautiful sight that I don’t know how to describe it in words. The corridors lead to an open area, overlooking the city of Hyderabad. It is here that I understood why the palace is named Falaknuma which means, like the sky. The sky was a thousand different shades of blue, and the city beneath it seemed like a vast expanse of everything else. Both, clearly marked by a horizon that seemed not so far away from here. 

Even though I could not get enough of staring at the view, my eyes fell on the art-work on the dome by chance. The picture does no justice to what I had seen. Beautiful would be an understatement. Here on, I realised that at Taj Falaknuma Palace, every nook and corner is a piece of art. And not just yet another piece of art but the best that I have ever seen. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed inside, so I could not capture all of it. But then that meant I could adore all of these to my heart’s content without bothering to get a perfect shot.

And that’s us, trying to pose but what we really wanted was to look at the other side. In fact, that would have come out as a really amazing picture. And that’s a silly afterthought but I think I should make a note of it for future. 🙂

Our table was ready soon, but we were not really in a hurry. We posed and pretended-candid for another fifteen minutes before going in. After all it’s not everyday that one gets to get inside a real palace. The dining hall was yet another definition of perfect, with huge French windows overlooking the lush green lawns. I have always loved sitting by a window, so we grabbed a table by one. White windows and green gardens beyond them made for a very pretty picture. A welcome drink later, we were asked our choice of teas from among at-least twenty five types they had. By the number of options they had, it felt as if this was not a palace at Hyderabad but some royal castle in England. I didn’t know that time but then the stories that unfolded later on verified some of those beliefs.

Everything about that high-tea was perfect. The environment, the ambiance, conversations, the munchies, the tea and the fact that we are friends for a lifetime. It was around twenty four years ago that we first met. A student decided to fake sickness and the new girl in class got a seat next to her. I can’t thank my stars enough, because someone( I don’t remember who) had stomach ache and made his/her parents fall for that prank. Thank you,who ever you were, for not coming to school and giving me an empty desk that day. Isn’t it amusing that such random acts by people who we don’t even remember have shaped our lives in so many ways? While that person would have got a day off, what I got is a very very precious friend. One for more than a lifetime, through thick and thin of it all.

Even though it was just tea and nothing alcoholic, memories flooded every available space in my heart. After the high-tea we were booked for a walk into the past at the palace. The agenda was to know about this beautiful palace built by the Nizams and their history. Even if you’re not much of a history person, don’t miss this walk if you are at Taj Falaknuma Palace. The walk takes a lot of unexpected turns and will leave you craving for more.

A learned gentleman accompanied us inside the palace and took us through the pages of history which were almost coloured by British invasion of India. Falaknuma Palace was built by the Prime Minister of Hyderabad,Nawab Vikar-ul-Umra, and later owned by 6th Nizam of Hyderabad. The cost incurred in creating this beautiful palace was around forty lakh Rupees and it left the Prime Minister in debt. There’s a story that goes round which states that the debt and the cost of maintenance was so high that he tricked the Nizam who loved all things extraordinary into buying this beauty.

The walk took us through the pretty banquet halls to the bedrooms and the bathrooms of the Nizams. Every aspect of every corner of the palace is so pretty that it’s a thing to stare at.Whether it’s a sofa that was ordered from Italy for Nizam’s begum, or chandeliers imported from Belgium or her bed or the art-work on window panes. The adjoining bathroom to queen’s bedroom also hosts world’s first bath-tub made in marble and imported from England. This bath tub has an in-built system of hot/cold water, a shower and a Jacuzzi. This was one bath-room which had royalty written all over it with a brush of history. I could not stop wondering about what began as an exchange of goods from Europe could have turned into something so ugly that we became slaves to the East India Company.

My thoughts were brushed away as we entered the grand dining hall. Even though I don’t have a picture, as photography was strictly not allowed, I will search one and try to show you the grandeur that is the royal dining room. No doubt it is very pretty,has the world’s largest dining table that can host 101 people at the same time but the best thing about it is the acoustics of this room. Any voice, even a murmur made anywhere in the room is audible in all the corners. The story behind this is that the Nizam, being the head of the state knew that people are bound to gossip about him even when they are at his royal ball. So, he made sure he could hear anything and everything that was being said in this hall.

For the rest of my life, I will remain in awe of this dining hall. I have never seen anything like this, and the picture only does half justice to what it is in real. A piece of art, a poetry, a royal remembrance,whatever you call it, this room has seen history being made and it stands true to the legacy of the Nizams even today, in all it’s glory. The walk was over at this high point, and we all came out of the dining hall, wishing for more. We spent some more time listening to the stories which spilled over from the dining room.

And then we noticed that a royal guest had just arrived and this chariot was getting ready to receive the Governor of Kashmir and his family. What amazing hospitality!

Because we didn’t want to leave just yet, we roamed around for some time, clicking pictures. I wanted to wait for the sunset to freeze that moment forever. A pretty sunset did happen, and I got so carried away that I forgot to click a picture. It complimented Taj Falaknuma Palace so well as if both of them were part of the same sky! Leaving you with some pictures of the palace to absorb the grandeur, the grace and the beauty of a fairy tale that came to an end with India’s independence.

That, by the way is the royal ball room where Arpita Khan got married. Taj Group has done an amazing job at maintaining this royal property such that it really looks and feels like a palace. Fact is, that the queen had agreed to this deal only with a promise that the guests be treated as royal, and Taj Group sure lives up to that promise ever since. Taj Falaknuma Palace has been named as the best Palace Hotel in the world and it’s Hyderabadi fine dine restaurant, Adaa has been the only Indian restaurant featured in the list of top 100 restaurants of the world. Also, this is maybe the only hotel in India which asks you to conform to a formal dress code. I just did not want to come back home as there was a story calling out to me, from each leaf, each fountain, each corridor of the palace. But then, I had a flight to catch.

We were dropped off to the valet parking area by a golf-cart which criss-crossed through the huge royal gardens. The sun had set and a cool breeze made it’s way and we saw many a peacocks making merry. I could not get over this brush of royalty for a long long time. In fact,looking at the pictures makes me want to go back and search for some more old, untold stories from the era of the Nizams. Time to find the best deals! Cleartrip, Yatra or MakeMyTrip, who is it going to be the savior this time?