Udaipur is very very popular round the globe as Lake City. Of course, with the beautiful lakes like Fateh Sagar Lake, Pichola Lake, Jaisamand Lake, Rajsamand Lake, Udai Sagar Lake and talabs like Badi talab, Swaroop Sagar talab and Doodh Talai talab what else would anyone call it as!! The romantic view of these water bodies leaves a special effect on the hearts of just everyone.

Has anyone ever imagined what would have Udaipur been called had there been no lakes or just one or two? With the growing population and also the benefits of tourism, the city has seen a mushroom growth of schools and hotels. Even paying guest accommodations are on a rise. Schools and hotels,both big and small can be seen in just every colony and lane.

Now, let us imagine that the natural beauty minus the lakes was the main centre of attraction for our city. What would Udaipur be tagged as in this scene? “Udaipur-Hotel city” “Udaipur-School city” “Udaipur- Green city” or some kind of food city or hill city or mall city or temple city or fashion city because all these fields are definitely on the boom.

When we think of food, what does our city not have? From Indian to purely traditional, Italian to Chinese, Mexican…just every variety is now available here. Even frozen food from pork to prawns to lobsters to crabs, ready to eat vegetarian dishes like dal, rice, kulcha, potato tikki, chaat…everything is available now.

Malls have also come up in the past few years…even extremely busy and jam-packed lane has a mall and people are drawn to them like bear to honey.

Talk of fashion and the city is just amazingly trendy. Though fashion comes a little late in the market, any new style in the movie is immediately copied and you have the dress out setting the trend in no time.

Well, people are religious and obviously there is no end to places for praying which definitely provide peace of mind. The city has lovely places of worship and all are visited everyday.

So, if we go back to the title, what would you tag Udaipur as?  The options stated above do not define Udaipur. Maybe this is because we have known Udaipur as Lake city. The thought that troubles me is that what if the rate of growth of global warming someday makes the lakes disappear. Any Udaipurite’s heart would miss a beat at this thought. The calm that a person feels at heart is because of the effect of the lakes as water is supposed to calm your senses and help you grow maintaining the natural balance of thoughts.

 Though the naming options are many, my heart says Udaipur’s beauty lies in the existence of lakes. Devoid of lakes the city would not even have grown so much. The peace and prosperity of the city is because of the fact that we are blessed with lakes since ages and they have the magnetic power which pulls prosperity. Had there been no lakes, probably tourism industry wouldn’t have added Udaipur to their itinerary to that an extent.

Let us all love our city even more, Udaipur…CITY OF LAKES as that’s the only way it should be known.