Humans of Tank Bund: Sellers Who Keep the Spirit Alive

Hyderabad: Every evening, Tank Bund fills up with people who come here to earn a living. These are the humans of Tank Bund. The ones selling soda, chudwa, balloons, puffed rice, toys, light-up devil horns. Some dress up in cartoon suits. Some carry the same basket every day. So many kinds of work exist on this one stretch, all without signboards or fixed salaries, almost like a mini fair. They come to stay till they have sold enough.

Subba Rao is one of them. He first came four decades ago selling coconuts, but now pushes a soda cart. “People used to come in more numbers earlier,” he said. “Ten years ago, the Tank Bund was more crowded. Now people go to Necklace Road or some new park, the city has expanded after all.” He lives close by and comes daily. “I have two children. This has fed us over the years."

The routine is unspoken. Venkanna, who sells chudwa, reaches by 2 pm and stays till midnight. His cart is older than many of the joggers who pass him. “Chudwa was the first. Then came ice cream, sugarcane, soda, but now look, there's corn, toys, masks and so many types of balloons.” He left during COVID to return to Jangaon. “It was tough. But I came back.” Like him, most return to the same spot each day. There’s no official system, but everyone knows who stands where. Echoing the words of Rao, he says, "There was just one Tank Bund earlier. Now there are so many."

Around 5 pm, the road turns into a stretch of small transactions. A child pulls at a parent’s sleeve for devil horns that glow in the dark. Someone else buys roasted peanuts. A group of girls was seen cutting cake near the footpath. “It’s Ujjaini’s birthday, so we all came to Tank Bund,” said one of them, giggling. “I walk up and down shouting till my throat hurts. No one sees you unless you block their view,” said a young boy selling plastic toys.

Many of them have been watching the city change from this very spot. “Earlier, every statue used to have lights,” Manohar remarked. “I have not seen those in years.” He is from Karnataka and has started selling special light balloons recently. “Everyone sells normal heart balloons. I wanted to get something different.”

Some see this place as a relic. But others say it’s the only open space in Hyderabad where people from across class lines brush past each other. The couple eating corn, the boy handing out masks, the family walking their dog, the man pushing a juice cart and they all occupy the same few feet. Lasya, a junior college student, said, “So many people have their livelihoods depend on this one stretch of space. You see all kinds of people here. It’s best during sunset. I love the breeze on my face. It is so nice. At times, I want to come here to just observe."

There’s a morning version of this scene, too. Sellers like Vijay arrive at 5 am, around the same time the fitness crowd comes in. He deals in aloe vera juice, ragi malt and other healthy juices. “The ragi is a crowd favourite,” he said. They leave by 9 am. These morning sellers are fewer but mostly selling the same stuff. The rest arrive later.

Some of them are also the first to notice if something is wrong. Tank Bund has seen accidents, fights and even attempted suicides over the years. The vendors, often dismissed as background, have helped in more than one case.

Most of the vendors stay till 11 pm. They return again the next day. Their work doesn’t get listed in accounts of heritage or tourism. But some of them have been here longer than the railings, longer than the selfie crowd, and some might even say they’ve kept the space public by occupying it every evening.