Few sentences on the city of lakes

Two pals from Bhopal separately tell me about suicides in their lakes because of Sonali Bendre presumably in the rsquo90s and Katrina Kaif around 2012 Both Bollywood stars were once in Bhopal Said Bhopalis couldnrsquot meet them So they drowned themselves apparentlyWhich tells me less about fascination for Bollywood stars as suicides perhapsmdashwhile I hear more personal anecdotes The origin of the Nawabi Bhopal itself involves death by suicide of the Gond Queen Kamlapati married to King Nizam ShahTo protect her sovereignty after the husbandrsquos murder Queen Kamlapati enlisted services of Dost Mohammad Khan a mercenary from the Mughal army Khan 16571728 unlike a dost eventually usurped the kingdomKamlapati took lsquojal samadhirsquo in the waters of Bhopal Guessing in the lake Of which there are 17 currently Plus five dams that lsquoBhopalrsquo is apparently named aftermdashfrom Bhojpal or the dam of Malwarsquos Raja Bhoj who ruled mid11th centuryTherersquos the huge statue of Raja Bhojmdashnone for Gangu Teli of coursemdashon Bhopalrsquos biggest lake aptly called Bada Talab Around the statue is the equally selfexplanatory Very Important Personsrsquo VIP RoadThe water is supposedly deepest by the statue A bridge planned through the lake authorities reckon must avoid deeper parts So Bhopalis donrsquot jump over Yo whatrsquos upSurrounded by hills forests lakes general greenery is Bhopal the finest Indian state capital Since Srinagar as we speak headquarters the union territory of JampK Madhya Pradeshrsquos capital must winIn some ways the allweather Bhopal as a retireersquos ideal address mirrors what Bengaluru Pune were in the 1980smdashbefore lsquoPunengalurursquo exploded in subsequent decades Besides yoursquore seeped in history plus all religions for stay and praycationsBharat Bhawan for arts and theatre is a cultural marvel Publishing scene is relatively upbeat Mumbairsquos filmOTT industry evidently loves to shoot in Bhopal Homes arenrsquot skyscrapers Therersquos a delightfully smalltown feelWhat about the people Wherever my eyes go I only observe suitably homogenised urban young from across the state and beyond doing the usual youngling things at malls promenades eateries Given the number of private colleges in Bhopal that Irsquom told also border on moneymaking racketsThat said the Bhopali got made nationally famous by Soorma Jagdeep in Sholay 1975mdashthe character based on an actual person invented by Javed Akhtar once a Bhopali himselfSoorma is characterised by talltalk spinning yarns being generally laidback Which anecdotally matches selfdescription of older Bhopalis still During a talk on Indrajit Hazrarsquos book In Praise of Laziness at the Bhopal Literature Festival a gentleman apprises us of DarulKohla Indiarsquos first club for slackersIt began in Bhopal in 1930s Membership fee was a pillow People rolled on the floor into the club for meetings It definitely shut down because they were too lazy to run it for longHow about that OG Bhopali then with the peculiar twang penchant for exaggerations A local gent I met years ago described everything around us as ldquoAsiarsquosrdquo largestdeepestsmallest They are likely to be found in the lsquoCityrsquo Irsquom told Meaning Old Bhopal quite similar to Delhirsquos walled cityA lot of the charm and architecture of these parts can be attributed to four Begums early 1800s onwards who ruled Bhopal in succession once it became a British regency Assured of imperial protection in terms of warsfratricide I suspect the begums could look at making Bhopali life betterPostindependence Bhopal got widely known globally for the 1984 gas tragedy Itrsquos a shame A top American executive wondered to me recently about how much money the firm Union Carbide must have paid off to rename the fatal methylisocyanate leak from its pesticide plant as the Bhopal Gas TragedyInitially the American exec knew it to be the Union Carbide disaster That factory stands as is still contaminating the soil beneath it Culprits got away Bhopalis got no closure To digress about 200 km from the tragic topic what do you reckon is Indiarsquos nightlife capital Depends on how you define nightlife ie not pubsnightclubsBut generally people in fair gender ratios up and about in their city before crack of dawn safely hanging around hogging streetfood their prime addiction mostly laced with sevIndeed the outdoorsy Indore Itrsquos perhaps to Bhopal what Surat is to Ahmedabad in Gujarat or Mumbai is to Delhi for Indiamdashequations defined in terms of commerce and politics The lsquoCityrsquo side of Bhopal too has forever been known for its latenight Suleimani tea and kabab shops After the usual barhop in Bhopal I rest my liver to make space for other speciesrsquo body parts We head to the City Itrsquos all shut around midnight The streets have no gameDonrsquot know maybe this is a postpandemic phenomenonmdashyou could notice this anywhere between Brazil and Bombay Or perhaps this has something to do with a new governmentrsquos rules mandated to suck the joy out of peoplersquos livesmdashbanning sale of meat by vendors or decreeing a shutterdown by 10 pmSpeaking of the latter may I guide you to the bar with the best view in a state capitalmdashthe massive Wind amp Waves overlooking Bada Talab with Begumrsquos lit jewels for Marine Driversquos Queenrsquos Necklace panoramically across Splendid Itrsquos run by the govtMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper