Go,Take a walk.

Go take a Walk. Its world environment day.

Sometimes a walk can heal. While Johnny keeps walking for many of us; a weekend morning walk without Johnny’s hangover can actually heal. If it happens to be on world environment day, its super special. My walk today was planned. As Sundays are mostly for 5k Runs, today seemed a good day to just wonder around by foot and do some “Active Travel”.

To my delight, that small gate, just 800 Meters outside our apartment complex, which I had passed so many times, to and from my work, beckoned me to enter it. Since I usually drive around this bend and curb, I hardly got the chance to enter this small gate. I had seen a few workers or local helps coming in and out of this gate earlier, but now with the pandemic lockdown, and no travelling to work, I had almost forgotten about it. But today I ventured to try and see what was beyond that gate; did it lead to some thorough fare, some short cut, some lump of garbage or what? Since I was walking and not running or driving, I had the time to ponder over these thoughts as I entered, the narrow passage after the gate. The passage let to another narrow gate with bollards placed at the entrance. I quickly passed the bollards and lo and behold, I was amazed to see the passage open to a vast expanse of land and not only land, I was amazed to see the land was filled with water. IT WAS A LAKE.

Immediately I started thinking and calculating and realized that the “Kundanahalli lake” which I had heard about but never saw, was this. I can assure all of you readers, this beautiful lake is so hidden and cushioned between the Hussle and the bustle of the India’s busiest IT corridor, it will surely get missed. The high concrete walls fencing the water body too doesn’t invite any curious attention. I could not believe this find. I and many other folks have passed this road and this narrow gate but never could imagine, behind this was hiding an awesome, serene and beautiful natural resource of the city.

Now as I walked past the vast lake, riveted by the calmness and serenity of the lake, I was wondering why no one and even our apartment builder never spoke or pitched about this beautiful piece of water body. In fact, a huge dump of garbage just outside this concrete bordered lake had been points of talks with fellow residents and surrounding local authorities but no one has ever spoken or at least promoted this nature’s resource. This lake does show up on google maps and I was aware of it and even had wondered at times where was this lake but never did I or anyone discuss this and hence the search and discovery just got ignored. Moreover, we have stayed in this locality for more than a decade, though this particular place only for last 2 years, most of which got consumed to covid; yet to find such a beautiful lake in such close proximity of our stay and work was a sure wow factor for me, today.

I am still not sure why this lake is not made a major green spot amongst residents and highlighted as a major carbon sink to reduce pollution. Naturally though it seemed all green now due to low vehicular movement of the past two years, it could still do with some maintenance and upkeep. Also, a little more promotion amongst the local residents could change this lake into a great natural retreat amidst one of the busiest IT corridors of India, more like the beautiful Nike Corporate Office in Beaverton, Portland, USA housing a lake inside their vast office complex.

Anyways, this walk to discover “Kundanahalli Lake” was a pleasant surprise for me. I invite folks to visit this place once the pandemic is over and do our bit in keeping this secret green spot clean and green and make it a neighbor’s envy and owner’s pride.

So go, “Active Travel” and take a walk. You will discover something too.

Happy World Environment Day.