Hopes of seeing the sun rise over the lake vanished quickly as a solid cloud cover kept the sun away which actually helped us through the 2 hour walk in a way. We parked at the restaurants on Necklace Road as usual and headed towards Sanjeevaiah Park side. There was some running event going on so half the road was blocked. We trudged along on the other side - past the Lake Front Park, the Butterfly Park, the Spice Park, Thrill City, Sphoorthi Sthal, Sanjeevaiah Park and so on. It was very nice to see so many people of all ages engaging in all sorts of physical activity - running, walking, cycling etc.
Beyond the Sanjeevaiah Park I noticed that there have been developments since my last walk. Ghats have been built for immersion of idols perhaps with a clear walking path alongside and its a quite welcome development because that stretch was a desolate and would naturally lend itself to some unsavory activities.
We passed the Gali Maisamma temple to the left, passed where the Nest restaurant was which in its time had some fine memories for me, until we got to Nani's. Now this Nani's is some kind of an open food court like place with tiffins, tea and stuff - very popular going by the number of cars and people inside. Twice before I went away intimidated by the crowds but this time we decided to have a go.
There was a dosa counter which seemed quite popular by the number of people in queue. We went to the chai bandi and got ourselves chai. What surprised me was that there was a huge open air seating area behind, adjacent to the lake. We sipped our chai in khullads and headed out. Past the HYDRAA office to the left, the shabby memorial commemorating 200 years of Secunderabad, the stunning Saidanima tomb, a very cute cafe called Star Cafe adjacent to the Sailing Annexe.
On to the Tank Bund and we passed this fabulous Police Station which definitely was presented Independence in construction. To the left was Royal Fish Fry. Then some new statues to the right of Basaveswara, Swami Vivekananda, while the left side had statues of many great personalities of the past - I am ashamed to say I could not recognise many of them. The tank which was presented to the people of Hyderabad, the park behind it which had an aquarium I think, have been there since the 70s. The park looked quite peaceful and i felt bad that very few have the sense of leisure to simply sit in the park. One old man was and I envied him.
The pedestal on which there was this page with a poem by Sarojini Naidu has been taken over by many modern artistes and poets and the original poem is now faded into a good intention by whoever came up with it. Of course the practice of cutting birthday cakes and throwing it all around on the pavement still continues.
Past the Buddhist stupa, sealed and locked. We peered over to see the steps that would go down into the lake and I remember during college times going down once and almost losing my footing on those uneven steps. For someone who can barely float, it was not a good idea I think.
The Boats Club looked like a very interesting place and there was an opening to the lake which Vasu said was for boats to come in. I would have never guessed. one wonders why this club with such a lovely location, beautiful building and lots of parking has not been able to match the Sailing Club even remotely. Remember going there once. Then there is an enclosure for G. Venkataswamy, another for Konda Laxman Bapuji, one for T Anjaiah (his name is smaller than the person who unveiled the statue Dr YSR), one huge enclosure with a statue of a warrior which is surprisingly unnamed. I somehow got this feeling that the lake has become a place of pride for all prominent people just like the Delhi place. With the statues on and around the lake its just too many now to have any real interest for the average citizen - we have Dr Ambedkar towering over the rest, Buddha in the middle of the lake, the many statues on Tank Bund either side, Rajeev Gandhi opposite the Secretariat, PV Narasimha Rao, Indira Gandhi near the Prasad's Multiplex roundabout and I am sure I missed a few.
We realised that the stainless steel structure with a flame on top, the Martyr's Memorial has an entrance that is rather hidden from the main road and walked into it by mistake thinking it to be a short cut. I realised that there is a huge place inside the Telangana Martyr's Memorial and maybe will visit it one day. There is some nice sitting area where Vasu and Srikanth sat for a bit before we headed back. The Secretariat looked as imposing and nice as ever - it makes a great picture post card.
On the Necklace Road I saw one very interesting sight - a group of some 12-15 women bikers, their bikes parked on the road while one of the seniors spoke to them, perhaps their route map for the day. They were engaged in such serious talk that I gave up on the idea of asking them if I could take a picture - would have been a rare one.
The NTR Gardens looked brilliant with lush green trees that overlooked the road and one wonders how beautiful the road would have been if they had not chopped off some 100 plus trees for the eFormula Racing. Those trees were such brilliant yellow. Past fully decked up girls who were shooting for reels with their faithful photographer boyfriends (now every girl needs one such guy who will take photos patiently), and one guy who hired two photographers while he posed in front of his car. As we turned the corner to our car many of the dog owners who come on weekends for the dog show heading off with their dogs on the bikes and scooters.
Some more development in terms of seating area and playing areas for children to the right of that road. However I would like more see more seating area overlooking the lake all around - there are too few seats. Nothing gives people more peace than merely looking out at water bodies and if we give them enough place to just sit and watch over, people would be calmer and more at peace. We ended the walk about 2 hours 15 minutes into it and figured we must put back all the calories we burned asap and headed to Purna Tiffins. Good job.
