Tome & Plume: VIP Road, Thorough Fare For Rover’s Eye

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh):

Whatever the road bring

To me or take from me,

They keep me company

With their pattering – Edward Thomas

A trip through a thoroughfare in a city means being away from the shackles of life. A journey through Bhopal’s VIP Road gives the same feeling. The road looks like a black river, courting the silver-grey Upper Lake. The road looks like a bejewelled bride in the rainy season.

The boundless lake is on the one side of the thoroughfare. On the other side stands the historic Gohar Mahal. But the road unfolds itself at twilight. Many people gather on the road in summers to enjoy the cool breeze emanating from the lake. A rolling stone, standing there for several hours, tends to be oblivious of his surroundings. The horns of vehicles may not even enter his ears.

Bike racers converge on the thoroughfare in the evening. The race begins late at dusk. They also perform stunts. The police act many times. But who bothers? A true Bhopali lives for each day. The road connects the city with Raja Bhoj airport. Green woods on both sides of the road welcome a tripper.

The forested thoroughfare ends at Lal Ghati. A market burgeons there. The rover slowly crosses the crowded market and moves towards the airport. There is greenery again. From the airport road, the tops of a few blue hillocks appear within sight. Their crowns gather green moss in the rainy season. Otherwise, they are just crags.

Under the summer sky

On the VIP Road, the vehicles seem to be floating like boats. But the real boats set their sails over the Upper Lake. They gradually mingle with the horizon. If it is noon, one remembers the lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:

All in a hot and copper sky,

The bloody Sun, at noon,

Right up above the mast did stand,

No bigger than the Moon.

It may be a hot summer day. Yet one stops on the VIP Road. Beauty breathes before his eyes. A rover likes to capture sunrise and sunset. Standing on the VIP road, one can chase the moon and fog. The memory of it will stay with the rambler forever.

Pride and glory

The VIP Road is Bhopal’s pride. The Upper Lake is the city's glory. The past murmurs in each wave of the lake. The present hollers on the VIP Road. The residents of the city stand between pride and glory.

Lights reflect in the water of the lake at night. Hillocks on the other side look like giants. On a full moon night, if someone switches off the lights, the road, the lake, and the firmament turn into a canvas.

The VIP Road is more than a thoroughfare. It is part of the city’s daily life. The five-km-long road came up in the 1990s under the Bhoj Wetland project, which consists of the Upper Lake and the Lower Lake.

The wetland keeps the city green and clean. The area got the designation of the Ramsar site in 2002.

The administration has banned the entry of heavy vehicles on the road. But the people love to breach the rules. Royal Flying Corps First World War fighter Harry Day said, “The rules are for the obeyance of fools and the guidance of wise men.”

Heavy vehicles enter the VIP Road, causing inconvenience to the common man. Then, who bothers?

There is, however, no specific history of the VIP Road. Thus, little is known about what happened at this scenic site in the Nawabi Era.

The area may have played an important role in the socio-cultural life of the city.

Because the Gohar Mahal was at the site, the people of the royal family must have used this place for a leisurely drive or for a horse ride. But a mist shrouds the past. The days of yore just stare through the never-ending silent nights. They tell countless tales through the murmurs of the Upper Lake, which just flash upon the rover's inner eye.