1979

From Mansoor Khan, memories of those days:

Fellow Nizamians: Here are a few things I always cherished about the college in
 mid seventies. Shahid Akbar ke chekkey, Seetaram ki Dhuan bowling, Obaid ki Ghoda
 Savari, Vinay Kumar ki live commentary, and Jhaad ke Neechey ki Awara Gardi..... Kahan
 Gaye wo log.

1981

Vijaya Kumar Pidugu (B.Sc.) http://xeno.chem.psu.edu/~vijaya recalls:

We used to mostly hang around the canteen consuming gallons of tea or hang around steps and tree near the botany department. Thing I always remember and wonder about is how we used to get way without attending classes. Thing I always enjoyed was the election campaigning in Nizam College and of course, ragging the junior girls and becoming very good friends later.

1985

From Syed Jaffar Hussain

" I was the captain of Nizam's riding team. Recieved many certerficates and medals for this particular sport. Lot of my classmates and other faculty students used to call me by my nicknames "JAFF" or "RIDER". I really enjoyed my time at Nizam's and still miss my days under the famous "TREE" as well as the small cafeteria in the center. I will be more than happy to talk to any of my classmates via email or phone. Guys from other faculties may remember me very well because I did show jumping and tent pegging with one hand on College Day Celebrations 1985, the other one was fractured".

***
1988

From Pavan Mamidi:

"My memories of Nizam College afford me snapshots of situations and circumstances ranging from visiting Kottha Das Das-anna, or Das-Pylvan) along with my brothers from saidabad (Seenu-anna, Raju-anna, Murali-anna
etc.), to managing Sumesh (New Science College guy officially) and Chotey (of the RTA fame) during Expressions-88. I fondly remember, the following people: Buddu (D.Srinivas, now a lawyer in AP), Gyan-Pylvan (real-estate business beyond old city!), Nidhi (B.Com. chappie, now doing his Ph.D under a bloke called Mintzberg or something), Raghuram Kalluri (Ph.D, somewhere in the US), Baradhwaj (Bardhu, who vanished in 89), Adil (now a married and a respectable doctor in Hyderabad), the Hema Rupani's, Sapna's and Shireen's. I must not miss Radar-Ravi (Ammanamanchi; he was my political  Guru!) in this list by any means. Madhu (Yasikhi) was always somewhere there in the background (taking a good 5 hours to get from the front gate to the back gate), providing leadership. I also remember Devedar, in whom I had a good friend; sadly he died in 89.

A Couple of Things I learnt in Nizam College:

1. shaking hands during elections;
2. consuming enormous amounts of tea with Osman biscuits and cockroach crunch samosas;
3. striking deals and reconciling warring parties in IC (sorry, India Cafe);
4. the names of cafes in every street in Hyderabad!!

A Quick Quiz on Cafes in Hyderabad:
1. Where is Cafe Nebraska?
2. Where is Sea-Rose cafe?
3. What is a tea with a greater amt. of milk called?
4. What was the price of a Gold-Flake(King) in 1985?
5. Which cafe laces opium in its tea?
6. Name the cafes opposite the secretariat?
7. In front of which cafe did Gyan Pylvan get thrashed?

Answers:

1. In Adikmet (near Osmania University);
2. In Issamia Bazaar;
3. Pauna;
4. 75 paisa/ciggie;
5. Alps;
6. Teheran cafe and Operah cafe.
7. Parwaz Cafe (near Nampally railway station).

******
1992

Suresh Vandanapu (B.Sc., MPC) reminisces:

Our place was on those steps of the English building opposite to the Physics lab. The only aim to come to college was to eat our lunch together as early as possible. I remember well..., One fine morning around 9:30 am... Vice-Principal & Principal while passing by thru that area asked us "You people are having ur lunch so early??". By the time we joined the college..., there was no canteen, no elections. But we still had fun with the freshers party, and not to mention ragging the fresh post-graduate students.

Venugopalakrishna Kotipalli B.Sc. (MPC) remembers:

"I still remember how we used to spend most of our time in the college on the steps of the Russian language classroom hall opposite the Chemistry building, enjoying our time by just ragging the fresher and even students who had joined new into the post graduate courses. It was just fun. The amusement did not end only outside the classroom but also the way we became a pain in the neck for nearly all the lectures. The logical reasons we used to give to the Hindi lecturer to just try to postpone her class are still fresh in my memories. I personally have really very unforgettable memory of one occasion when all of us were sent out of the classroom for creating mischief inside the classroom, which resulted in the lecturer also giving a walkout. And after that we all went to his room and asked him to forgive us. Finally we were successful in coming to a common understanding with him and the class was resumed. God just return me those awesome days of enjoyment."
***
From Joseph Kennedy Wells, who would have graduated in 1992 (added September 1999):

"Jaane Kaha Gaye Woh Din......Woh jhaad ke peeche, 'ped' ke 'neeche'- well, I was mostly a nerdy newcomer in Genetics back in 1989. My tenure with the college was just for a year but the association is forever- I was always and will always remain a 'Nizamian' ! I left Nizam to rebel against my 'genes' wanted a more interactive science than Genetics- ended up as a Calcutta University groomed (hey, met my wife there, too) Occupational Therapist ( Ergo Medicine
practitioner as they sometimes call it back in India)... Currently, I am a Director of Rehabilitation Services for a Rehab Corporation in the U.S..

Names and many faces have faded away but the memories remain intact- jinhe naaz hain Nizam pe woh kahan hain......How are those artistic LifeScience students , lively Arts students, calculative Commerce students and the commercialized Physical Science students......Hard to say who enjoyed their time most then, and still harder to say who do now- still one thing for sure whereever they are, they will LIVE LIFE-THE NIZAM STYLE !!!
Good work and best wishes on this site..........."

***
Unfortunately.....
Over time, the premises of the College haven't fared well due to apathy and incompetence on the part of authorities. Here's an update from an upset Nizamian about what has been happening:

"Shouldn't you be concerned about what your college is like now?

The 'Madrasa e Aliya' building (the 'English/ Languages building' for some of us) is no more! Save for a brief write-up in the Deccan Chronicle frontpage some 6 weeks ago, it went down unsung, unsupported. The only thing wrong with that structure (it wasn't falling apart) was found by the Principal and University Engineering and Maintenance: they cited 'landscaping', 'improving the elevation of the adjacent Science College building' as important priorities, overriding any feel for history and conservationist concerns.

Some of you may have noticed or otherwise that the 'stage' alongwith the building that used to house Geography, Psychology and Sociology has also been demolished and a new building, the 'Centenary Block', a tasteless pink! structure with businesslike? smoked glass windows (no pretenses to any postmodernist flirtation with tradition) has come up more or less on its plinth. The building was occupied over a year ago.

The grounds, cricket, football/track, hockey, save the basketball court have been walled up with granite --  would you believe that this was justified on grounds of curbing disturbance from public and other functions which the college had begun to hire out till some 3 yrs. ago ( the University does this job ever since it was noticed that a good deal of the money from hiring the ground was sticking to the Principal's pants)!

All large trees (about 4-6 remaining) have been girded at the base of the trunk with cement platforms (does it need a botany research project to tell us that trees dry out like this?). These trees are about the only places for students to hang out; they stay away from the dingy new library ( this new building is older, about 1990?) next to the old well; they are out of bounds in the front verandah of the College office; they are shooed out from corridors anywhere; there has been no regular canteen for years. As on date there is no working water-cooler ('fountain' for the US Nizamians) in the entire college. Some senior old students, Madrasa e Aliya, (MeA) batch of '49, are planning a get together (interested? contact Wg Cdr FJMehta).

Pitiful, when some of them sarted to pick at remains of the MeA building, debris, small tiles which, as they told me, would serve to inscribe names and retain as souvenirs. I believe it is instructive to look at Nizam College as an institution, and its students to see how we (Hyderabadi/ Indian society) have been coming to grips with modernity, rather than think we were always imbued with it, our successes in the market/ international division of labour notwithstanding. for MeA, batch of 1949 Wg Cdr FJ Mehta (retd), 5-4-75/1,MG Rd, Opp TVS Sec'bad-500 003. Phones: +91 40 7830415(o);+91 40 7801217(r)"