Durgam Cheruvu aka Secret Lake, Hyderabad

Imagine you are sitting under a tree on top of a hill with a cool breeze blowing across your face and in front of you is a wide expanse of blue water surrounded by granite hillocks. And all this, right in the middle of the City of Hyderabad. Hyderabad sightseeing is always fun, not just because of the wonderful locals, and the beautiful locations but also because of the efforts that the AP Tourism Department has taken to develop most tourist places.

Durgam Cheruvu literally means Secret Lake in English. During earlier times, this lake used to supply water to the Golconda Fort. It lies just beside the posh Jubilee Hills area. The lake is called Durgam Cheruvu because there was no road leading to it for years and it was completely enclosed from all sides, making it difficult to know that there was a lake beyond the rocks. This was why very few people used to visit this place.
Today, the lake has been beautifully developed and landscaped with many different plants adding to the beauty of the garden on its banks. Usually this place has a large number of young lovers looking around for nooks and crannies. But on weekends, there are usually more families who come to enjoy the beauty of this lake. On top of the lake there is an amphitheatre and sometimes there are rock fests that are held in these beautiful, picturesque surrounds as shown in the photographs above.
This secret lake is surrounded by beautiful rocks which are very old and interest many geologists. On one hand of the Durgam Cheruvu, you can see many buildings of IT companies being built.
Durgam Cheruvu lake in Hyderabad also provides the facilities of boating on its waters. You can take a pedal boat and move around the waters for 1 hour by paying up only 120 bucks – provided you can brave the Hyderabadi sun. There are other rides also available for nominal prices in mechanized boats and also in putty boats.
The Secret Lake is open from 9:30 in the morning to 6:30 in the evening. There is a cafeteria and refreshment center on the top of the lake. Some more infrastructure is also getting built by the government these days.

How to reach there?
Durgam Cheruvu is near the Babasaheb Ambedkar college. The best way to reach this place is to look for a crossing near to the Madhapur police station on the main road that goes to Madhapur from Jubilee Hills. From the cross roads near the Madhapur railway station, you need to take a left turn if you are travelling in the direction from Jubilee Hills to Madhapur and keep moving. Ask around a bit and soon enough you will come to the ticket window near the lake.

Remember that it might be closed due to heavy rains in the monsoon too. You can call and arrange your trip to Durgam Cheruvu.

Phone Numbers of this place are 91-40-23110523 and 040- 55510372.

Reminiscing Hyderabad

Having been very recently laid off, I am back at home and enjoying myself while reminiscing over my beloved Hyderabad. I used to live in Begumpet and from my top floor flat we used to get a beautiful view of the Hussainsagar lake. My room mates have also been laid off and have returned home and so now that there is no more hope of my returning to that beautiful flat in Begumpet again, I am missing Hyderabad all the more so.

The mornings in Begumpet where the cool wind used to blow till mid day, the delicious, mouth watering idlis that I used to have after my morning workout in the gym where I used to be fed with my daily dose of Telugu songs, those indolent Sunday afternoons spent watching TV or reading books till one amongst us used to get all up and excited and there we used to jump one on top of the other-laughing and fighting, my weekends sojourns to malls and museums and mausoleums all around Hyderabad, the peaceful Mecca Masjid - an oasis amongst the noise and the hulla of Charminar, the hot afternoons spent in vain trying to get a movie ticket from Inox and Adlabs, the beautiful evenings spent beside the Hussainsagar that seemed to turn into a turbulent ocean during the rains, the quiet 'khopchas' that we had discovered atop the Birla Temple amidst all the melee for darshan there, the beautiful view that we had from behind the Birla planetarium - which was in fact much better than the whole show inside, the swirling winds atop Golconda and the joys we had had climbing atop it, the beautifully well preserved Indira Gandhi Nature Park and its animals, Durgam Cheruvu and its panoramic views, the night we spent listening to rock music at Shilparamam, the superb garden we discovered behind Hi Tech city, the beautiful shaded by lanes of Banjara Hills, the cool winds that used to caress our faces on our walks along the Begumpet road, the dark red skywalk over Begumpet road that was my secret hideout for a quiet time alone, the ice creams that we had taking night walks along the road and all the late night escapades that I have had walking along the Necklace Road.

The times that I have had in Hyderabad have been some of the best days of my life. I saw the world, I made some very special friends, I lived, I loved and I enjoyed. That was what made those moments in Hyderabad some of the most fulfilling moments of my life.

I believe that the core of a human being is formed because of the experiences that he goes through. Travel and life in different circumstances is probably one of the best ways to go about enriching your experiences and your soul. I believe that the myriad experiences grant depth to the soul and aids one's understanding of the universe besides unleashing one's creativity. Back home, life is a lot more comfortable and much smoother. But soon it will be time to move, to my greatest conquest yet. Till then, let us travel in beautiful Hyderabad.