Anuradha Naik
Do Din will have focus on two neighborhoods for this year’s event. Bholakpur scrap market and Mallepally CIB quarters. Both of them are historic neighborhoods. The first was a tanning centre in mid 19th century grown around a Qutub Shahi Mosque now popularly referred to as Musheerabad Badi Masjid; gradually became the centre of an industrial belt between Hyderabad and Secunderabad and attracted a lot of migrants throughout the 20th century and finally became one of the main scrap markets in the city. The second was the immediate catchment of the Afzal Sagar tank and was mapped in detail in 1912 municipal survey. It was built up by the City Improvement Board and then gradually got built up. The Afzal Sagar tank now remains only in name. Mallepalli was the area to which the elite of both Hindu and Muslim religions moved in the 50s. Long time residents recount how every famous Urdu writer had passed through Mallepalli. It was the cultural elite but not necessarily the affluent families that lived there.