Hyderabad by Walk - Gun Park

 Right opposite the Assembly is a park which is known as Gun Park. I never got a close look at it so we went across to it. There was a fence around it earlier but they have removed it. However there was a security guard who asked what I was looking for. I said I wanted to look around and he said I could.

Telangana Martyrs Memorial or the Gun Park Martyrs Stupa

We stepped in to see a few cannons placed on the lawns. Then there was the Telangana Martyrs Memorial - a Stupa called the Gun Park Martyrs Stupa built IN 1975 to commemorate the sacrifice of the 369 students who died in the agitation for a separate Telangana state in 1969 falling to bullet wounds. (Also there are cannons placed there so I am not sure about the real story.) 

Guns and the memorial

That's one of the reasons why they call it the Gun Park apparently because guns were used to kill the 369 students. I do not know if their names are written - it would have been nice if they were.

The structure was sculpted by former Professor at the JNTU Fine Arts College, A Yadagiri Rao and he explains that the black granite base is to depict mourning, the 9 holes meant to represent bullets, the sun arch from Sanchi stupa, plaques on four sides, 9 strips standing for 9 districts, the Dharma chakra standing for tolerance and truth, the red granite for sacrifice, the chakra for peace and love and white lilies for the freshness of youth and immortality.

Statue of Sardar Vallabh bhai Patel

One wonders how many such slices of history we miss in our daily grind. We stood there for a moment, for those 369 young souls and headed out.  

Across the road from the Assembly, on the other side of the Gun Park are the iconic All India Radio (AIR) building which broadcast Yuva Vani which introduced ABBA and company to me and the Nizam Club.