Where Shivaji Maharaj stands guard ...
| Date :25-Jul-2019 |
Vijay Phanshikar:
Very few roads in the city have so many attractions as does Netaji Subhash Marg -- from the Iron Bridge (Loha Pul) at the western end to the south-east corner of the Shukrawar Talao (Gandhisagar). In good old days, the road presented a classic amalgam of the traditional and the modern. Today also, its character remains more or less the same, barring a few changes that time thrust upon it. If one cares to pause and ponder, one realises what an array of attractions lines up the Subhash Marg even today. But the biggest attraction on the road was the astride statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj atop the Shivraj Litho Press owned by the famed Dhanwatay family.
In good old days the statue, unveiled by no less an iconic person than Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, became an instant attraction for the people of the city and the visitors. It was almost a sacrilage of sorts if the visitors did not bother to visit the road and stand before the greyish-blue Shivraj building and fill the eyes and the head and the heart with the sight of the great statue. People stopped by the building every now and then to take a good look at the great statue that could actually be seen from long distances, thanks to the height at which it stood -- both physically and figuratively. Of course, things have changed a lot these days.
People are always in a hurry, and do not seem to have the time and inclination to pause and behold the great statue. But even now, people like me still do find time not to pass by and pause to look at the statue in the manner of a devotee. The statue is really a marvel in a true sense. But the most striking of its characters is its pitch black colour -- which actually conceals a lot of details of the otherwise artistically sculpted figure of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on the horseback. But visually, at any time of the day, from any angle and direction, the statue appears as a silhouette, assuming a rather surreal character. Each time one saw the statue in the childhood, its fascination grew.
And sixty-plus years later, the quality of magnetic fascination has continued to be the same. There are some people who now feel that the statue should be reinstalled at some other public place. I beg to differ, however -- wholly on nostalgic ground. For, from its high perch, the statue -- actually Shivaji Maharaj -- keeps a protective eye on the city. The sense of assurance and security the statue, thus, lends to the people is unmatched, so to say. For people like me -- who are in a massive majority -- the statue occupies the best possible perch and should not be shifted. Let us now turn to other attractions along the Subhash Marg. The first is the name itself -- of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
But let us begin at the beginning -- the Loha Pul. It has a massive presence in the memory of Nagpurians. It is an old structure strengthened from time to time to help retain the flow of north-south-south-north railway traffic in the country. Erase the Loha Pul (Lokhandi Pul) from Nagpur’s memory, and there would be a terrible cultural gap that nothing else can fill. Then there is the Martyrs’ Memorial (inaugurated by the legendary Field Marshall Sam ‘Bahadur’ Manekshaw right in the centre of the first square from where branch out roads to the Vijay Cinema to the south and the Fuley Market to the north. Go further up between the Cotton Market to the left and the Jayashri Cinema to the right.
Keep going along between Subhash Mandal to the left and the ancient Bhonsla-time Khandoba Temple to the right just before the Shivraj building. And then right opposite the Shivraj building is the famous Geeta Mandir that has attracted countless lakhs of people annually (even now). In good old days, a unit of the iconic Empress Mill stood next to the Shivraj building. It is no more there, however. Further up the road is the square whose one corner hosts the Agyaram Devi temple.
The road along the western rim of the Gandhisagar now hosts the famous Raman Science Centre (introduced through the joint effort of two important leaders -- P.V. Narasimha Rao (who was Member of Parliament from Ramtek and subsequently became Prime Minister), and Banwarilal Purohit (then Member of Parliament from Nagpur and now Governor of Tamil Nadu). The Subhash Marg ends near the Gandhisagar lake’s south-east corner that also hosts a clutch of temples. A little distance away is the famed Tilak Statue that has witnessed many an event of the city’s history ...! Even today, each of these attractions add up to the memory file of the people in a unique manner.