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The lake that defines, divides the city

Photos: P. V. Sivakumar and K. Ramesh Babu

Changing views Hussain Sagar clicked from the Black Rocks in 1892 (top), in 2002 (below) and the rage of the lake on August 25, 2000 (left)

A strong breeze had arisen and the surface was curled into thousands of waves, whose crests, as they broke, sparkled like diamonds, and threw their spray into our faces as they dashed against the stonework of the embankment.

Thug, Ameer Ali

Crinkle your nose at the stink, see it as the haunt of the suicidal, wonder at the signage that says: ‘444’ as if it were a numerology trick, or laugh at the sign that reads: “Staying here in a closed space can be dangerous for your health”, but if you are a Hyderabadi you surely cannot miss the massive sheet of water called Tank Bund or Necklace road or Necking Road, or Eat Street or Hussain Sagar Lake.

Stop by on a rainy evening, hold the guardrails and bite deep into the warm roasted corn on the cob smeared with salt, masala and lime, smack your lips and you might think that the lake was always there. Born along with Durgam Cheruvu, Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills and much of the hills and vales of the ring of fire that created Deccan Plateau some 2500 million years ago, the lake got its shape 445 years back. It was the Peerzadah Hussain Shah Wali who deepened and enlarged the lake in 1562 when his father-in-law Ibrahim Qutb Shah asked him to build a reservoir. Unfortunately, the lake became so deep and big that remained empty for nearly four years and the king had to order Raza Quli Neknam Khan to bring a channel of water from the Musi to fill up the lake.

It cost the king Rs. 254,636 to get the lake dug. But the king got the shock of life when on an excursion in the lake he asked the boatman the name of the lake: "Hussain Sahib Cheruvoo". Peeved at his effort and money going unacknowledged, the king rode out and marked an outline for another lake to be called Ibrahimpatnam Lake. The grave on the edge of the lake is not that of Hussain Shah Wali, who is buried in the Dargah near Shaikpet a few miles from Golconda fort, but of an unknown mendicant.

The lake became a source of drinking water and remained so till the British came and created pumping stations for water supply to Chudderghat, Hyderabad and the Residency. The lake’s fall from status began with commencement of regular water supply from Osmansagar in 1921 thanks to the efforts of Visweswaraiah.

Part of the mystery about the lake is explained by the obsession of then ruling classes with water from their place of origin, the present day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Central Asia, where water was a precious commodity. When the plentiful bounty of Indian monsoon was wasted they could not stand it and created the series of lakes that used to dot the city. And unlike the native people whose reverence for water was religious, the conquerors saw the water as the life-sustaining liquid creating chahar bagh for their idea of pairidaeza (paradise).

If Hyderabad saw the rage of Musi in 1908, Hussainsagar Lake showed its rage on August 23-24, 2000 when nature’s bounty swept away hutments and shanties that had clogged up the lake’s channels over the years.

A real tribute to this lake that sprawls over 13 square miles would be to stop effluents from entering the lake, not throwing the plastic waste after having a meal at Eat Street and putting an end to submersing Ganeshas and puja material into the lake.

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