It is the morning of 4 April 2026, Mohammed Quli returns to his city after 35 years, a visit which was chronicled by Mujtaba Hussain in his Quli Qutb Shah ka Safarnama. 

A reflection on the great Musi flood of 1908 and how Hyderabad still faces floods today—not from the river’s fury, but from urban neglect, lost lakes, and unchecked concretisation.

The Musi river, also known as the Musa, is a major river system of Telangana, which begins and ends entirely in the Telangana state. The...