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Dive into the past: Tilak tank swims into the future with a 100-year heritage of sports service
The Tilak tank hosted crowd-puller water polo matches that were so popular that they were advertised outside colleges in the city
The Lokmanya Tilak swimming tank in Pune was an old stone quarry with some natural springs when it was inaugurated on April 30, 1922.
In its centenary year, Punekars recall some fond memories of the tank that has trained many swimmers.
The Tilak tank hosted crowd-puller water polo matches that were so popular that they were advertised outside colleges in the city.
“This tank came into being for the erstwhile Deccan Gymkhana which was established in 1906. The gymkhana officials dreamt of sending Indian athletes to the Olympics,” said Amit Golwalkar, secretary of the Tilak tank.
A meeting about this dream was held at Deccan gymkhana with its members and Sir Dorabjee Tata who wanted to send Indian athletes to the 1920 Antwerp Olympics.
With the help of leased land belonging to Shirole Patil a colony was built to cover the cost of constructing an Olympic size pool.
The old stone quarry was used to get the stones to build this colony of bungalows surrounding the gymkhana, thus using the quarry to create the swimming pool.
The mine had natural water and on the day of Gudi Padva on April 30, 1922, it was inaugurated by NC Kelkar, who was the then president of Poona Municipality.
“The water was green in colour and initially people were afraid of getting into the deep end, but the attraction of swimming in an Olympic size pool was so much that parents would come along to see their children swim,” said Kalpana Agashe.
Kalpana was around 4-years old when her father and her elder brother taught her how to swim. She went on to become a national swimming champion and later a coach for Vimlabai Garware school and now has her own students.
“Whenever it rained, students would avoid coming to tank since it was open to air and had crude steps and border. That was the time for all the water lovers, coaches’ juniors and seniors to play volleyball with the half team in water and others on sides, or even hold relay swims. We had a lot of fun,” Agashe said.
But what attracted a lot of people to the tank were the water polo matches which had the most audience during that time.
“I was part of water polo and I remember that posters would be put outside colleges to advertise these matches and the Tilak tank would be fully surrounded from all sides, with people shouting, ‘shoot the ball’,” recalls Golwalkar.
For veteran swimmer and coach Sham Karandikar, Tilak tank has some fantastic memories.
“I was coaching at the tank for 25 years from 1977 to 2001 and used to swim regularly. The green water of the pool would often make people cringe at going into the deep which was around 7 feet or more and then there was a diving area of more than 15 feet deep. There was even a cement slide that students often enjoyed, some of the parents would be afraid of sitting on the steps then as there were many snakes in the crevices, but the love for swimming made people come every day. This was one of the biggest pools of 100 metres length,” said Karandikar.
The current Tilak tank is an upgraded version of the earlier version which housed an olympic size pool of 50 metres with eight lanes and charged only ₹2 as fees.
Now, the tank has 1,500 permanent members and a floating population in the summer which bring in around ₹60 to 70 lakhs in revenue.
Latest upgradations
The pool has been upgraded and offers a variety of sizes; an Olympic size of 50 metres and eight lanes, a mini short course, a newly built 25 metres pool with eight lanes, a baby pool of 25 metres with four lanes and a special walking pool of 20 metres by three metres for aqua therapy.
