सुखना की शाम

सुखना क्यों? · Why Sukhna Lake Is Special

कोई इंजन की आवाज़ नहीं — only paddle and rowing, since 1958. That's why the promenade still sounds like footsteps, water, and someone's radio.

The lake was formed by damming the seasonal Sukhna Choe stream in 1958, part of Le Corbusier's original master plan for Chandigarh, engineered with L. Verma — read more on Wikipedia ↗.

हर सर्दी परिंदे आते हैं — Siberian ducks, storks, and cranes migrate through every winter. It's why the birdsong that fades in under the radio on a clear day isn't random ambience — it only plays when it's actually clear and daylight at the lake, the same way everything else here follows real conditions.

In 1974, engineers rerouted the Choe to bypass the lake entirely; water now arrives through three small silt-catching ponds instead, a quiet fix still holding after fifty years. The lake itself covers about 3 sq km, deep enough mid-lake (16 feet) for sailing dinghies, shallow enough at the edges for herons to wade. It's now a protected national wetland.