As the officers-in-charge of Semmozhi Poonga were setting things right after its inauguration on Wednesday, K. Roshini made a sneaky jump into one of the fountains along with her younger brother.
Their mother, K. Jayashree, pulled them out of the fountain before the officers could notice. “It is fun to see so many fountains all at one place. I have never seen a colour fountain,” says the 13-year-old Roshini, grinning at her eight-year-old brother.
Residing close to Cathedral Road, the siblings, escorted by their parents, waited since 4 p.m. to gain entry into the Poonga.
Soon after the inauguration, the gates were thrown open to the public, who were queuing up to take a peak into the festooned garden.
“Who can imagine that this place could be transformed into such a serene park? We need more green spaces like this to combat pollution,” says K. Ramanarasimhan, who was a regular to Woodlands Drive-in that had given way to the Poonga.
Taking a stroll around the place with her three-year-old, Priya Ingale, a biotechnologist, says the place could have done without elaborate tiling. “Some of the gardens such as Aromatic, Bamboo and Bonsai are stunning with such exotic varieties. The amount of hard work that has gone into the making of these is quite evident. But the façade and the entry point need more greenery. Tiling spoils the look,” she says.
But nothing could contain the excitement of P. Latha, who tagged along with her father who was on security duty. She knelt down beside the cascade fountain and pocketed the pebbles. “We live very close by. I have decided to come here every week,” says the class IV student.
Rameshwaram, a 72-year-old, was sharing a suggestion with one of the workers in the Poonga who was cleaning up the rubbish. “The dustbins are far and few. The distance between the bins should not be more than 10 metres,” he told the worker.
The public would invariably litter the place and cleaning the eight-acre place would be a major challenge for the workers, agreed an official from the Horticulture Department. As motorists made brief halts along the sides of the road to take a look at the Poonga, traffic piled up on Cathedral Road till 7 p.m. The entry fee for the Poonga is yet to be fixed, the officials said.
