July 13, 2008

The Shahabad

When I was a kid residing in the Old City area of Hyderabad, flooring of a house was synonymous with the term 'Shahabad'. It was much later when my Geographical knowledge gained some proportion that I came to know that Shahabad was actually a small town in the Gulbarga District of North Eastern Karnataka.


This variety of stone, technically a yellow flaky limestone, is found in the entire North Eastern region of Karnataka (commonly referred to as Hyderabad karnataka owing to its proximity to Hyderabad) and the adjoining borders of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. It is of ideal weight, texture and color to serve as an excellent material for florring. In fact the stone is used in its native region not only for flooring, but also for making walls and roofs. A special alternating stone size arrangement is used on the roofs to provide excellent ventilation while also providing a solid cover. This typical arrangement also helps in allowing a few rays of sunlight to pass through them, thus illuminating the hutments while also acting as natural ventilators. The region is a dry and hot area and surprisingly, the hutments having the Shahabad roofs are cooler than concrete structures.


But, technology takes its toll. Shahabad stone is a perfect raw material for cement and these are being mined hopelessly and turning these natural hutments into concrete jungles. Huge cement factories have come up in the region which today produces 40% of India's cement.


Long Live the Shahabad !


20 comments:

Meher :) said...

I am thinking its been long we did meet up.. will surely plan something.. maybe the Salar Jung Museum itself!

Few things going on right now... once settled, will let you know :)

Meher :) said...

BTW... GOLD! Me first :D

rantravereflect/ jane said...

shahabad: well, tat sounds goood..ya never know, when something gets replaced by csomething more commonplace (in this case cement), the original things becomes a thing of designer value: n ya'd have home designers n interir designers resorting to its use again, n pumping up the price ;)
demand n supply... supply n demand..
:)
soo yehh long live!

Ankur said...

u reminded me of my village... ya i m.. my roots are still there, though the house there is rented but yes.. we visit that place sometimes!! !:)

So this year, i will definitely make a move there... a day for sure!! :)

Thanks!! :)

Cheers!!!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Sindhu

Cool.. Lets plan up something.. and yep, congrats on getting Gold. Pass on the luck to some Indians heading to Beijing!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Jane

Yep, ur right.. our culture is such that we misuse something, and when that becomes scarce, we sell it for megabucks!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Ankur

Whoa.. ur village someplace near Shahabad? Cool!

ceedy said...

I know of this as this is my profession to specify them...in India many places are famous because of the kinds of stone..

other examples are jaiselmer which is a softer yellow stone for cooler interiors,

then kota and then the granite and marble from rajashthan...

@ankur..

I thought you stay in rajashthan??? werent you celebrating rajasthann royals win???

m confused now

Keshi said...

untouched beauty of villages will always intrigue me...

Keshi.

Chakoli said...

:)))

Cinderella said...

Nice info !

Gunjan Aylawadi said...

wonderful post thr!!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Ceedy..

Wow, we have a geologist amidst us.. yes, I know of the Jaisalmer, even the Jabalpur and then we have the Cuddapah black stone!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Keshi

Unfortunately, a lot of that untouched beauty is being eroded. :(

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Chaks

:)


@ Cindy

Thanx :)


@ Gunj

Thanx :)

Chakoli said...

Meri :))))) ke response mein hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm kya??:PPP

ceedy said...

Are me not a geologist....am an architect and used to use these stones in our designs when I was back home...

and yes thank you for reminding Cuddapah....

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Chaks

Haan.. jab toh wohi sujha.. and it wasnt connected to ur :))) though !


@ Ceedy

Cool!

Anonymous said...

Yeah. the tiles are really good. The house at our native place has these tiles laid nearly 100 years ago, but still they are pretty god, and will last atleast 10 years more

Mahesh mahesh.pillai@mworldtechnology.com said...

wow............... u remind me of a horible incident i have there in shahbad i do have my roots in shahabad but dont know what to do