Hanging Gardens & Kamala Nehru Park

Last week my nephew visited me. 


Sitting at home and just eating and napping is not a good idea especially if there are so many interesting places to see. The weather is warm, I agree, and there is much too much humidity too. Normally people would prefer to spend a day at AC mall and shop till they drop dead, but is that a good idea for the person who is visiting you from Spain? Especially when there is so much to see in the city of Mumbai, where there are lots of open spaces and many picnic spots.


I decided to take him for a South Mumbai tour.

One of the places that he liked during this tour was Kamala Nehru Park and Hanging gardens.

Nestled close to each other, this is a delightful  place to visit, mainly for its spectacular view of Chowpatty beach and Queen’s Necklace (Marine Drive). The sea breeze from Arabian sea can blow your thoughts away as you breathe in the scent in the air and enjoy the scenic view of Mumbai sky-scrapers against the blue sky with golden beach below touching the waters. 

Kamala Nehru Park is located at the top of Mumbai’s Malabar Hills and it is named after Kamala Nehru, the wife of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

A structure shaped like a shoe is the main attraction at this park which is inspired by the nursery rhyme “There was an old woman who lived in a shoe”. Remember that? Not only were the children enthralled by this shoe, I even saw few adults walk up the dingy steps inside the shoe to click their photograph from the tiny window. Some brave children walked up the top of the boots to enjoy a slide down the sloppy sides.

On the other side of Kamala Nehru park, across the street are the steps leading to Hanging Gardens. The steps are low, evenly spaced and not tiring at all. There are several gates leading to this park, which also have slope paths for wheel chairs.

If you go across and climb the step leading to ‘Hanging Garden’, you are in for a visual delight. The park is manicured in the shape of animals. This park was laid out in 1881 over Mumbai’s main reservoir to cover the water from contamination.

Outside these parks is a street market selling odd things like artificial jewelry and handbags, and for people who love the street food there are many hawkers too. In the weather like these these black Jamun sprinkled with salt and red pepper was a big treat....