This is the only know picture of the lake, taken in 1976 by John Cline, after the embankment, known locally as a 'bund'
had come up cutting off the lake from the two-century old 'Constantia'.
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| This picture was taken in June 2011. The river has since been rerouted flowing about 100 metres beyond where it is seen in the pic which is close to the distant embankment. |
The River Gomti, like most rivers in India and elsewhere, would flood during the rainy season and overflow its banks all along its course, joining up with the Martiniere lake forming a sheet of water for miles beyond. The earliest water levels was registered in perhaps, 1923 to be beaten by the High Flood Level - 1960. During the next decade the water level never went much beyond the banks of the lake, barely reaching the road in front of the Martiniere steps. This was much to the disappointment of the school boys (us). The next big flood was in 1971. I was out of school and in Calcutta at the time. The flood level, I don't remember accurately while I write this, was close if not higher than the 1960 level. This was the proverbial last straw for the city administration. To protect the growing city building embankments on both sides of the river was seen as the only way out! This spelt doom for the lake because instead of building the bund along the river beyond the lake, it litterally ripped in half a masterpiece when it cut the lake off from the building. It doesn't mean much for those who have joined the institution after the 'crime' but remains a festering sore for all of us from the 1960's and earlier.
Leaving aside the aesthetics the lake was an experience, an adventure and a pastime - the bank was where boys lolled around and chatted while dragonflies hovered over - boys of all ages sailed boats made from paper and wooden ice cream spoons that glided over the water lining the opposite back with a strip of white. One time the college warden had to order an end to boats, at least temporarily, because of the mess it had caused. Fishing was the other interest where boys fashioned hooks from pins to pull out mostly tiny fish that fell for the bait! Since the water level in the lake remained low most of the year it was a good way to crouch out of sight of a prefect or master and run down the length of the lake then popping up and hiding behind one of the many trees that lined the bank - a common way to escape punishment!
For the record: During the last tenure of the BSP Government, under Chief Minister Mayawati, squatters who had built a small village close to the railway tracks and were rival Samajwadi Party supporters, under Mulayam Singh Yadav, were 'relocated'. Then the whole lake area was cleared up to be used as a park. Not long after the BSP which had converted a large area into a memorial to Dalit leaders about 3-400 metres upstream from the Martiniere, decided to reroute the river closer to the opposite embankment, in the process building a weir 50 metres upstream (out of the pic), thus, giving back La Martiniere the land that the river had cut away. Of course one cannot really be given back as long as the bund exists. Today, in my estimation, the river is flowing where it must have flowed a century ago.
