Hello dearies, welcome back to our #Hyderabaddiares series podcast. Today I am very honored to interview Captain Kayarmin Pestonji. He will take us through his ancestral lineage and also talk about the very popular ‘Pestonshahi sicaa’. Seth Viccaji and Seth Pestonji Meherji were originally from Tarapore. the brothers would collect taxes for the British Government for north and South Konkan villages for land and sea customs at Poona, Ahmednagar, Solapur and Khandesh districts till 1836. They doubled the revenues derived from the customs. In 1836, Maharaja Chandoolal, the famous Dewan of the Nizam was impressed by the work of these 2 enterprising and intelligent brothers and invited the brothers to Hyderabad and encouraged them to open a Cothee or Banking House in Hyderabad. The Nizam handed the Aurangabad mint to the Brothers to mint and manage the Nizam's currency. They were given permission to mint their own currency. Over 1 crore 'Pestonshahi Sicca's' in various denominations were made from Silver and Copper from 1832 to 1842. They were also extremely philanthropic and constructed cart roads, erected travelling bungalows, built and repaired tanks and wells. they built Dar-e-Mehers in Tarapore (1820), Sholapur (1845), Secunderabad (1847) and Dokhmas in Balapur (1839), Aurangabad (1842),Sholapur (1842) and Hyderabad (1839). However, they met grief and poverty after everything was confiscated overnight from them by the Nizam. Then what happened, stay tuned.