State Central Library,Afzalgunj

Yesterday one of our lecturers took a leave and we didnt have any classes in the afternoon.Instead of going back home I thought of visiting some heritage structure.After some brainstorming I zeroed in on State Central Library in Afzalgunj, formerly known as Asafia Library.It is one of the biggest libraries in India.The state central library started in 1891 by Nawab Imad ul Mulk and later shifted to the present status.I called up shoaib and he readily agreed to accompany me.We boarded a public bus from Mehdipatnam to Afzalgunj.From the afzalgunj bus stop, it is a short walk to the library.The front arch of the library could be seen from a distance beautifully framed by the surrounding trees.As we entered the library complex the first thing I noticed was the number of students present here.They were everywhere, some sitting on the
flight of steps that lead to the main door of the library,some in the lawns,some near the gate etc.
We stood before the steps, took in the view and took some pics.The facade of the building is its best part with a big arch with some beautiful decorations.We went inside and the first left turn is the
reference section.It has a number of other sections like the newspaper section,technical section,periodical section urdu section etc.we scrolled through the books row by row and in 15 mins finished.(There werent many books here though i cant say if they have kept them in some other part of the library)The reference hall was big and spacious with all the glory of the Osmanian architecture.But sadly it not kept in shape.The whole building looked in a dilapadated state.Unless some one takes care we may lose this building too.After taking out a couple of ‘Imperial gazeteers of india’ books i asked a person who looked like the caretaker about books on hyderbadi history.He called a girl and instructed her to give hyderabad history book to me.she took me to another room and gave me a book.I thought she would show me an almirah full of books,and here she was pinting toward a single book.I was disppointed but took that book anyway.I suspect they dont take youngsters seriously.These days whos interested in history,they may be feeling.Anyway I skimmed through the book.It was published during the time of the 7th nizam in 1929 .The book was good,there were some good old pictures.We sat there for 2 hours.At 5pm ,as
the time for iftaar was drawing near,we decided to leave.Before leaving the complex we made a walk along the perimeter looking at the building.The main building is in a poor condition with moss growing in some areas.At the back a relatively new section has been made,the urdu section.