Dear Kamah Sir,

Thanks a lot for your encouraging comments! It made my day, coming from such an accomplsihed photographer himself. But the photos were taken from my Sony DSC H2 digital camera. Frankly speaking Sir,there's not much of a creative satiafaction in digital camera, unless of course its a high-end Digital SLR which I cannot afford now. Yeah, I have had great satisfaction by clicking with my older Nikon F10 manual SLR.

Dear Dr. Bhagwath,

Lovely Pictures Indeed! Aap ne to yahan pe kamaal kar diya. I did not know you were such a good photographer. You did complete justice to "Badi Jheel". I liked all the pictures. Especially, the first picture with sun setting in the background and boat in the foreground is very beautiful. I always like to take a boat ride on such lakes and in the boat it is needless to say that I enjoy playing my high-pitch or small flute folk tunes such as Kishore's melodious song "O Maazhi Re" from the Film : Khushboo".

In fact, few weeks back I took a boat ride in Nakki Lake in Mount Abu, Rajasthan and I played 2 spellbinding tunes on my flute and my friend took a video while I was playing and the video came out very beautiful.

I hope politicians will not destroy beauty of Bhopal by building that flyover over "Badi Jheel" and with malls all around Bhopal. I hope a good sense will prevail and they will abstain from spoiling natural beauty of Bhopal.

Please do post such beautiful photos in future. We all enjoy looking at it. My love to your both little daughters and regards to all other family members.

Cheers!!!!
Dr. Kamath  

Dear Sablu,

Thanks a lot for your appreciative note. I am happy to inform you that my photos of the Badi jheel have been showcased by sulekha on the "Member album" at http://photos.sulekha.com. I am recalling another immortal song sung by Rafi saab with the similar location of a lake. It is the title song "Dil ne phir yaad kiya".

Dear Bhagwath,

It’s your brilliant creations and depictions in your blog about Lakes of Bhopal. Wish I could visit these awesome destinations if time permits me in future. And I appreciate all the awesome photos collection by you. Specially, apart from all photos, I love the first one of bhadi jhil. It’s really making me very nostalgic and remember me to sing a song kahin dur jab din dhal jaye.

Excellent write-up on Lakes of Bhopal. Keep sharing such posts.

Cheers!

Dear Nathan Sir,

As usual you are prompt and perspicacious in your comments. Sivaram Sir too pointed out that in the west though they have malls, multiplexes etc, they do not exist at the cost of natural heritage. There is a big hue and cry raised by many concernec citizens here in Bhopal, but all appears to be in vain.

Dear Sivaram Sir,
Sorry for the late response. Your viewa on the preservation of natural heritage were spot on. Instead of aping the materialism of west, why cant we for a change ape the way they preserve their heritage? Anything goes in the name of development. I think I should have renamed my post as "An obituary to the city of lakes!"

Dear Dr. Sundeep,

Your blog was an eye-opener! I have never been to Bhopal and I never imagined it is so beautiful, thanks to those lakes, which have been so lovingly captured in your snaps. It is indeed a pity and a matter of great shame if these lakes are going to be tampered with for the sake of a few more malls that could make a handful of builders and politicians fatter. This mall-culture is getting more and more disgusting. Such a thing is unimaginable in the West where any natural land-mark is cherished and preserved as a treasure! Hope wisdom dawns on our city-planners too and builders stop ruling the Earth!

Regards,
S.V.Nathan.

Dear quasimodo,
You are absolutely right! But are the voices like those of Mr Buch being heard? The other day there was a war of words in print media between Mr M N Buch and Mr Manoj Mishra. Mishraji had the gall to compare the current "Plan" with that of Singapore! He argued that Singapore has more density of population and skyscrapers than Bhopal, whats wrong in enjoying an evening in an AC multiplex or in a pub or windowshopping in a mall etc. Mishra said that development lobby always have to contend with fight put up by the conservationist lobby. He hoped that the conservationists will see the light of the day and realize that not ALL development is bad.
Do you think building a flyover over the beautiful upper lake to facilitate rapid traffic movement is a good idea? Do you seriously imagine that chopping off the wonderful foliage around Char imli or 74 bungalow area to make way for malls etc is "development"? Why cant the development be somewhere far away lets say Kolar road or Hoshangabad road which is anyway "developing" fast enough? I just feel that the builder-politician nexus is out to exploit the commercial gains from investing in the prime locations.

Dr Sundeep

First of all the Lakes were awesome . The photos of the lakes,the sunset photos and the photo of jetty lighted up at might all fabulous .Nature at its best .Thanks for sharing these photos.

It was shocking to know that these lakes will be destroyed  soon in the name of development.
It is so difficult to create nature but so easy to destroy!

As an analogy In US every big city has a downtown close to the lakes .Downtown is meant for skyscrapers and the lakes like this Bhopal are the pride of the cities and are used for tourists attractions. All new malls and multiplexes will be only allowed in the suburbs .This wonderful nature can be destroyed only unfortunately in India

I think the Bhopal citizens should fight for preserving the nature . It is quite possible to change the decision. Hope Bhopal remains the same

Thanks

Sivaram

dear sundeep,
i feel that development of bpl should be planned along the lines of the master plan made by shri Buch,whose vision gave us the modern /new city of bpl.
lovely photos
Q