HYDERABAD: To commemorate the 143rd birth anniversary of Nightingale of India, Sarojini Naidu, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) has displayed her poem ‘The Hussain Saagar’ on the Tank Bund road where it will be a permanent fixture.
‘’To commemorate her love for and close association with Hyderabad, we have displayed her poem “Hussain Saagar” @Tank-Bund’’, MAUD Special Chief Secretary, Arvind Kumar tweeted on Sunday.
Asif Ali Khan, an architect, writer and heritage enthusiast, had earlier taken to twitter quoting the poem of Sarojini Naidu, requesting Arvind Kumar to inscribe the poem on a plaque and instal it at a suitable place on the Tank Bund, so that people could admire the beauty of the lake, just the way Naidu has described it. Arvind Kumar assured that he would do the needful. In her book ‘The Bird of Time’ published in 1912, Sarojini Naidu had described the lake as a reflection of her soul and had penned “The Hussain Sagar”.
She would sit by the lake for inspiration and some of her best poems were penned on its pristine banks. In the poem, she says that the lake is so devoted to her lover, the wind, that she is indifferent to the advances of her admirers. A century later, people still relate to those poems and writings, as Hussain Sagar continues to make love blossom, immortalising the memories of those who frequent it.
An acclaimed poetess, the freedom fighter played several key roles, was born and brought up in Hyderabad. No poet in English has ever described Hyderabad, its history, culture, traditions, customs, people and nobility as vividly as Sarojini Naidu.