A fun-filled nursery stroll

Sunder Nursery, the 16th century heritage park has much to offer, from veggies to clothes to local delicacies, apart from an introduction to Capital’s past.

A fresh start of the weekend morning with family amid fresh veggies and flowers is always enchanting, if followed by a nice stroll in Sunder Nursery at Nizamuddin Basti.

This 16th century heritage park, in the heart of Delhi, is a beautifully manicured garden, laid around 15 well-preserved Mughal monuments.

While UNESCO has granted world heritage status to Sunderwala Burj, Sunderwala Mahal, and Lakkarwala Burj, thanks to Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) and Archeological Survey of India, which have over two decades, renovated the entire area giving it a beautiful facelift.

On a Sunday, Delhiites flock here with family and friends to buys the best organic farm produce, which includes fermented food, millets, glutton free, dairy free products, estate coffee, traditional homemade remedies, dry fruits, cold pressed oils, artisanal cheese, milk products, natural compost. The market is run by Meenu Nageshwaran’s Earth Collective, an endeavour towards clean eating.

One can gorge upon lip-smacking biriyani, haleem, organic dosa etc, from home kitchens. The food is sold out pretty fast. While the market is open till late April, one can truly enjoy heritage walks and photo shoots in the area. Raghav often comes here with friends interested in photo walks with the nature. He feels this a greta place for amateur landscape and profile photography.

In fact, many come here for pre-wedding shoots and the park charges separately for such shoots.

Coming here is like entering a serene spot in the midst of city chaos, where one can happily roam around, explore and enjoy Sunder Nursery-Batashewala Complex, the monuments, flower gardens, well-manicured lawns, lakeside views, central axis water garden and biodiversity zones. In fact, Ratish Nanda, CEO of AKTC always maintains that heritage buildings in India need to open up to other community activities too as this ensures more footfall and better management of the site in return.

In fact, history has it that the British used this area as a testing ground to plant foreign trees. Ever since it has maintained its nursery status.

On weekdays, one can get very good plants at reasonable rates from this nursery, which offers a plethora of flowers, shrubs, orchids and other saplings.