HYDERABAD: As his friends, Hyderabadis, and countrypeople poured into the hall, a wave of deep sorrow pervaded them all. For they had gathered to lend their ears to tales about a boy from Alwal.

This was common for years at the Venkateshwara Temple and the Masjid e Rahmania in Alwal. “Earlier when I came here 20 years ago we used to enter from the temple doorway, wash and enter the masjid.