Rani Baagh’s visit Shifa Agha

Name: Shifa Agha

BS Part-III - Roll#104

Feature : Rani Baagh’s visit

Few days back me and my friends thought to visit “Rani baagh” and relive our childhood memories. So, we decided to go there by 6 o’clock in the evening. After attending our classes we were free by 12:30 p.m. that day, so we took a bus at 1 p.m. and went to one of our friend’s house, had lunch, took a nap and then got ready to go to ‘Rani baagh’. We booked a ride on ‘Careem’ but it took so long that I suggested to cancel the ride and go there by ‘rukshaw’ instead; which I thought would be more fun in that fine weather.

So anyway, we reached ‘Rani Baagh’ around 6:10 or 6:15 p.m. As we went in, I was surprised to see that there was no crowd at all; as one would have expected on a fine partly clouded evening, in the only amusement place in the city ‘Hyderabad’ (well maybe not ‘only’, we have ‘Boulevard Mall’ now). We went to the ticket counter, where we joined a queue of few people which we were glad about that at least we didn’t have to stay there for long, which was a good start. We got our tickets for Rs.20 each and walked in with excitement.

As soon as we got inmy friend wanted to go on rides, so we headed towards ‘Ferris wheel’ first. Bought tickets, which again wasn’t much of a problem; as there weren’t much people on ride as well. There were me and my friends and a newly married couple; I assumed from the way the woman was dressed, and there were two other families.

The last time I visited ‘Rani baagh’, about three or four years ago, this place was filled with people. Few years back this place was very different, it used to be crowded, not only in vacations but work days too.

After ‘Ferris wheel’ we decided to go to ‘dodging cars’, but we were told that it would open after ten or fifteen minutes. It wasn’t completely dark so we captured photos (or better say selfies they were). We then went to zoo where we bought tickets for Rs.30 for each. As we went in, it was a disappointing sight to see. There were no animals in the zoo, except for monkeys and parrots. The condition of the zoo was terrible, it could barely be called a zoo. It seemed like the animals were not been given enough food or taken proper care.

We then went back to the rides section and sat on a nearby bench there. It was dark by now and ‘Rani baagh’ was filling up with people. But I noticed, the crowd wasn’t mostly from the city, they were mostly villagers.

As we were sitting there and enjoying summer breeze, we heard a man educating his kids about ‘Rani baagh’. He told them that this garden was opened in 1861 as a ‘botanical garden’and then later animals were moved in. It was home to 21 species of mammals, 41 species of birds and 10 species of reptiles. And that the garden was re-christened in the honour of ‘Queen Victoria’. The man would have talked more but the kids didn’t seem interested and were eager to go on rides.

By now all rides and food stalls were open. So we went to a ‘chanaa-chaat’ stall and then to a ‘gol-gappay’ stall. My friend then insisted to go on ‘dodging-cars’. But, this time it wasn’t that easy, as the section was full with people mostly men, so we dropped the idea and decided to go back home now. While we were leaving, we went to a canteen, bought cold drinks, took a last picture and then left.

On the way back home, I realized that this is the only amusement park in ‘Hyderabad’ with a zoo, where people can bring their kids and divert their lives from ‘social media’ and ‘office-stress’.

Therefore, the administration should work to improve the conditions of ‘Rani baagh’ and take proper care of the remaining animals and more animals should be brought back to the zoo. There must be accountability of funds, given to run ‘Rani Baagh’. And the administration should make the environment more secure and welcoming for families. 

Practical work conducted under supervision of Sir Sohail Sangi 

Department of Media &Communication Studies, University of Sindh 

#Hyderabad, #RaniBagh,