What was once branded as a first class idea as a tribute to the then living icon Lata Mangeshkar is now in ruins. Once a glorious and glamorous garden complete with a musical fountain and a four-storey tall replica of flute, the Lata Mangeshkar Garden in Surya Nagar in East Nagpur is one place that nobody would want to visit. So terrible is the overall condition of the garden that it cannot be refurbished to its old glory without tearing it down completely and re-created from ground up -- in other words, from the scratch.

The Lata Mangeshkar Garden, thus, offers a darkly classic example of the terrible skill the city’s civic administration has acquired over decades -- the skill of spoiling things beyond repair, beyond recognition. The city boasts of countless such spots that would be matters of pride. But one example is good enough to prove the point -- the Zero Mile spot, that has gone terribly out of shape, thanks to the civic neglect. The country’s centre has fallen on bad days -- as if the civic body has played a foul game with it almost deliberately.

The story of the once-famous Lata Mangeshkar Garden begins right from its front gate whose arch rises to more than thirty feet above the ground. What one notices first is the missing brass letters of the name plate of the garden up on the arch. And then one’s attention is drawn to two wild trees (yes, trees) having grown to good size on the top of the gate.

One’s mind cries silently -- at the plight of the garden named after Lata Mangeshkar whom the world considers possibly among the finest representations of positive Divine intervention in human affairs. And frankly, the garden had started its walk downhill even when the Queen of Music still lived. Just step into the garden, and you will come across the massive spread of the civic apathy. But first, the musical fountain.

There is no fountain. There is no water. And there is no music. Somebody from the civic body has done something very silly -- he has covered the lower portion of the arch in the centre of the pond with a dirty black cloth, perhaps to hold together the contents of the fountain about to fall apart. That black cloth gives an eerie yet saddening look to the place. Turn away from the fountain in disgust, and your eyes fall on the tall structure of what looks like a flute. Those who have seen it when it was first displayed at the Lata Mangeshkar Garden will never like to take even one look at the rusting structure. Still turn head away from that apology of flute and your eyes will get scorched at the plants having dried, the walking track having gone bad, the stairs leading up to the top of the back gate of the garden having been broken at every step ...!