considering the concrete jungles we live in the very thought of someone owning a lake conjures images of royalty sonegaon lake a significant water body of the city and a 300yearold heritage structure was owned by the bhonsala family who were the royalty of this region even they couldnt sustain it as part of recovery for their taxes the lake was auctioned by the court of wards headed by the district collector in 1971 the property was brought on the block a number of times when finally a city businessman naresh sutaria was bitten by the bug to own the lake he purchased it jointly with his doctor friend rajan bhiwapurkar the sale deed was made in the name of their spouses dr sudha sutaria a leading ophthalmic surgeon and dr rekharani bhiwapurkar a gynaecologist on june 21 1974 though these were two best known families of the city in those times too they also couldnt revel in the luxury of being owners of a lake at least not for long instead of being a racy story of high life and good times this offbeat purchase of sonegaon lake reads like a sad saga heavily punctuated by personal tragedies misunderstandings growing rifts between friends social activism and administrative lags the purchase was made on a whim my husband was very fond of farming but knew nothing of it rajan was a close friend and owned huge tracts of farmland so my husband invited rajan to make the purchase jointly as he didnt have sufficient funds to buy it alone says sutaria now 81 she adds it was his passion and he loved it i was a busy doctor and didnt have the time he fell in love with it when he saw it and made the purchase in my name explaining how she became owner of this water body rekha bhiwapurkar now in her 60s says my husband owned large tracts of land that were already under the urban land ceiling act so he brought this property in my name describing the beauty of the lake in those days sutaria says it was breathtaking there were no structures or hutments as far as the gaze would go standing on the embankment you could see sfs college and the airport compound wall the two families would often go for picnics on weekends to this site there were lots of birds there we would take the kids and enjoy watching the overflow and cook some rustic meals like jowari rotis remembers bhiwapurkar both the families did plantations of coconut and ashoka trees vegetables like tomatoes and bottle gourd and cereals like jowar and wheat were cultivated by them there was a huge well in the vicinity of the lake we had kept a watchman to keep it clean says sutaria both the families had constructed a hut for watchmen who guarded the property the one constructed by bhiwapurkars still exists on the western side of the lake it was a nice way