LUCKNOW DIARIES

It is not a surprise to us that strangers guess that we belong to Lucknow. We are  not  annoyed  at people’s objection  to our habit of saying ‘hum’. We don’t feel  awkward to offer things to people saying ‘pehle aap’.

                We don’t mind walking in the dingy lanes of Nazirabad  or wasting our time  loitering  in Hazratganj .It doesn’t matter to us  when  people say that King of Chaat is too unhygienic to be visited , or that kite flying is  a forbidden play .We  pay least attention  to people who disagree that Lucknow is not the best city of the country .Hardly do we listen to those who are against  our way of talking , or those who think that wearing hand woven chikan clothes  is outdated .

                 The genes which we have got  don’t really allow us to  consider this ctiticism .This criticism is worthless because  Lucknow  is the best place you would get on the reader’s digest world map.

                 So through this fabulous journey you will discover a Lucknow you have known ever since .It’s  a journal  to help the people of Lucknow be LAKHNAVIs once again , to tell the the world  that Lucknow is much more than a city  it’s a culture, and that the city has more than just kababs and nawabs .And afterall

“Lucknow hum per fida, Hum Fida-ai-Lucknow

Kismein hai dum itna, Jo Humsey Chhudwai Lucknow”

                   So we , Vindhya Gupta  and  Shubhang Chaturvedi  , two lakhnavis who set out on an expedition  to find the real essence of Lucknow  have  certainly come across things that were there but still not there , things which happened yet did not  happen and people who even after existing  did not exist. In doing so we encountered a journey which was so beautiful that made us stop and think over and over again  , IS IT THE SAME LUCKNOW we have  been living in for fourteen years ?

                    Being a Lakhnavi is just not about living in Lucknow but about feeling Lucknow . The tehzeeb , the nazaaqat and the nafaasat  are three things which can neither be given to or be taken from a Lakhnavi ,because it’s in them , in their blood.

So………..enjoy!!

MOHAMMAD BAGH CLUB

                          Before beginning the, not so properly known, history of Mohammad Bagh Club I would like to share ,as a Lakhnavi, my personal attachment to the club. The one which I really grip in my memories is that I learnt to swim in the club .The first time when I  went inside a pool I was about 3 years old , a time when everything tends to catch your fancy , a time when you clutch everything you see , because it’s all so new , so beautiful .I know , to say that I first swam in the  pool of M.B. Club doesn’t make the place important  in accordance to a general view point , but yes it definitely does make it important  according to me .And in Lucknow I am not the only ‘ME’ who has had  this feeling , my father , his father , my father’s son and in coming times my father’s son’s sons will also experience the same amazement and someday somewhere pen it down to contribute to the ever growing number of ‘MEs’, because it’s not about learning to swim but about the place where you recorded an essential part of your  childhood , a place which according to you has existed ever since existence began .So that makes it important now ? Doesn’t  it ?Well , I think so.

                             The club was established in the year 1899.It was built by Nawab Saadat Ali Khan as an orchard in the Dilkusha pocket of Lucknow.So my saying that the club has existed ever since we know existence, is not wrong . Mohammad Bagh, along with its structures built by the British Army, was chosen as the venue for a true blue British club and named  MAHOMED BAGH CLUB LTD.It was established for the  promotion of games, amusement, social and literary enjoyment for its members & their families, Originally the membership was open only to Defense Services Officers. In 1947 the club started accepting civil services officers, Taluqdars, the Feudal class and other prominent citizen as members. The ICS & IPS cadre was granted only temporary membership. Gradually more civilian members were inducted.That was all I found interesting .As a person who doesn’t like to read much , I prefer descriptions short .However, I  found it extremely  intriguing  to know things I did not about a place which I thought that I knew very well.

HUSSAINABAD CLOCK TOWER

                     Cricket is a game of 11 men , where many of  the players though being good are overshadowed  because of their existence in times of legends , one of them is Rahul Dravid .It is isn’t like Dravid is not a player worthy of praise , or he is incapable of achieving any goal set ,  but some things are just because they are, there isn’t any reason why  he isn’t very famous but even then it is a fact that he is not .And the Hussainabad Clocktower stands as the Rahul Dravid of Lucknow , though extremely important yet noted , though always required to complete the Indian Team yet not counted . In short , it is underrated .The tower does deserve some acknowledgement , actually more than some .

                      It might interest you to know that the 67-meter tall tower is the highest clock tower in the nation . Also, the principal wheel of the clock is one and a half inches thick and has a diameter of 2 ft, which makes it larger than  the ultra – famous Westminister Clock . The tower though called ‘Satkhanda’ has only four storeys  because its construction was halted when its erector Nawab Muhammad Ali Shah passed away in 1840. The tower was built to mark the arrival of Sir George Cooper, the first Lieutenant Governor of the United Province of Awadh. But, now it is popularly known as the Hussainabad Picture Gallery. The picture gallery deserves special mention and according to me , it  is no less than the very well known Louvre in Paris .When I  recently went there for the first time  , the paintings held me for a while and made me laugh at myself for being ignorant to such beauty .The tower was designed by Roskell Payne in Victorian -Gothic style . It’s gigantic pendulum has a length of 14 feet and the dial of the clock is designed in the shape of a 12-petalled flower and bells around it. Gunmetal is used for building the clock parts . And the clock costed Rs. 1.75 lakhs to the government at that time .Quiet lot! According to my views , this monument is the best in Lucknow .

                            My mother says ,“Kisi ke ghar ka chulha jalane se bada koi kaam nahi hota”(meaning :no job whatsoever is bigger than providing food to someone) and the Tata Group provides food to over  396,517 people across the globe, doing a job which if called great will be underestimated .There is a saying in Philippines – The big , full rice crop bows and I would to thank that noble Philippine man, who  by inventing this quote gave me an apt adjective phrase for the Tata chairman –Mr. Ratan Tata . Mr. Tata  who on Wikipedia is called one of the major industrial figures in the age of globality , doesn’t mind to shake hands with the drivers of the trucks manufactured by factories owned by him .

                              Coming to the Tata Plant in Lucknow  is the the youngest production facilities among all the Tata Motors locations and was established in 1992 to meet the demand for Commercial Vehicles in the Indian market. The state of art plant is strongly backed by an Engineering Research Centre and Service set-up to support with latest technology and cater to the complexities of automobile manufacturing. Fully Built Vehicle business, which is one of the fast growing areas of the  business, is also established in Lucknow. One of the sources say ,” In light of Company’s aggressive growth plans, we are currently in expansion phase and production at Lucknow would grow many-fold in near future.” Well to not make it boring I would not extend it too long.

                     

CENTRAL INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS

Before writing this I felt a feeling of guilt inside me, my mind coercing me to think about the harm , the inflicts we make in the beautiful  world of nature where everything has its own importance , everything is in accordance to nature’s law. And then we say in our EVS books and classes that we should conserve and preserve nature for our future and the coming generations. How deceitful we are indeed!

But anyway, I am writing a book on Lucknow and not on how to preserve and conserve nature( let that be the work of our great environmentalists), If I started doing that ,well you might see me flashing on your T.V. any day ! Leave all that behind and read on to find more about CIMAP.

Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, popularly called CIMAP, is a frontier plant research laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). It was established originally as the Central Indian Medicinal Plants Organization (CIMPO) in 1959. CIMAP has been providing and extending technologies and service to the farmers and entrepreneurs of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP’s) with its research headquarters at Lucknow and research centres at Bangalore, Pantnagar, Purara and Hyderabad.

        A little more than 50 years since its inception, CIMAP has been able to make bilateral relations on MAP technologies with Malaysia. Apart from focusing on conservation and preservation of high quality MAP’s, CIMAP also has been actively involved in national and international projects.

   Internationally, CIMAP has been recognized as the focal point for South East Asia by International Centre of Science – United Nations Industrial Development Organization (ICS-UNIDO) and has collaborated with Bulgarian Academy of Rose Oil Technology. Nationally, CIMAP has collaborated with Indian Institute of Agricultural Research (IIAR) Gandhinagar, Gujarat and with North East Institute of Science and Technology (NIEST) Jorhat,  Assam.   

LUCKNOW RESIDENCY " Here lays the son of Empire who tried to do his duty"

Not every time  do I show  an interest in the history classes but when it comes to the wars of Independence I am struck by a wave of enthusiasm .Since when I was a child I was from the patriotic lot  , the one who is always interested in knowing about the country .It is a fact that in my early days I was strange enough to think that I will join the army and die for the nation because that was an act of valor , and that there was nothing greater than dying a martyr .Well , even today I do agree with that , but  for a girl of five to talk like that can be perfectly termed  as strange .As for the Residency ,  though it is in my own city and has nationwide recognition , yet was unknown to me until recent past .Now that is called being unaware !

                         The saga of the siege of 'The Residency' will go down in the history of India as a brave effort done by handful of Men, women and children to thaw the efforts of mutineers.

                        The Residency is actually a group of buildings that were built in 1800 A.D by Nawab Saadat Ali Khan, the Nawab of the then Oudh . It was constructed in order to serve as the residence for the British Resident General who was a representative in the court of Nawab. The year 1857 will always be mentioned in the chronicles of history because of its dramatic sequence of events. The year saw the Sepoy Mutiny, which is also sometimes referred as 'The First War of Indian Independence'. Lucknow also became one of the seats of that uprising. The Residency became one of the most talked about battlement during the siege of Lucknow. The mutineers laid the siege on The Residency in early June that year. Nearly all the Europeans who resided in the city of Awadh took shelter in Residency. It is said that as many as 3500 people sought shelter during the siege. The siege continued for more than 140 days. The residence of the palace held together during the continuous shelling that lasted for a month. The canon balls withered the walls of residency but the palace held miraculously. Sir Henry Lawrence who bore the responsibility 3500 human lives undertook the defense and counter initiative. The brave-heart fell on the last days of siege. The reinforcement force rescued the palace after 5 months.

                            The redbrick ruins , still holding the scars of the canons are now peaceful and have developed as a tourist spot .There is brooding silence of the ruins makes one expect  that the the ghosts of the dead to suddenly materialize and flit across the rooms. The cemetery at the nearby ruined church has the graves of 2000 men, women and children, including that of Sir Henry Lawrence who died defending the empire. There is a weathered epitaph near the grave of Sir Lawrence that reads " Here lays the son of Empire who tried to do his duty"

                             

SHAHNAJAF IMAMBARA

                              When I began to think about how to begin with the description of the Shahnajaf Imambara , I had feeling which was quiet strange .Every time I have written a write up , I have tried my best to make it interesting , and as I don’t prefer to read much I don’t expect someone else to prefer what I don’t  prefer .But for this one article I was out of ideas , in the sense I was feeling blank and at the same time too full to think anything .Well but I had to write something , and as a great friend of mine quotes , “A good writer is one, who is successful in conveying his mental state to the reader , making him experience the same feelings as he does and thereby binding him in such a way that the person cannot sleep until he has read the entire book, for it is only the way in which things are conveyed matters and nothing else .” It is these words which help me to continue every time I decide to give up because of mental block . Because that mental block is also a state of mind , and if put to paper will definitely help me to make a connection with the reader , irrespective of being good or bad .

                          Well, moving on to the history of the Imambara. Shah Najaf Imambara in Lucknow takes us back to the ancient times when Islam was in the nascent state and still struggling to make its own mark. The Imambara is dedicated to Moula Ali or Shah Najaf, the son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad who was a great intellectual as well as a brave warrior. His valiant endeavors in protecting and popularizing Islam won him the title of Haider-e-Khuda, meaning "Lion of Allah". He later became the 4th Caliph of Islam.  The monument can without a doubt be tagged as one of the most splendid monuments of the city .It was built by Ghazi – ud – Din Haider to serve as his mausoleum . It is also the repository of the remains of Ghazi-ud-din Haider and his wives that also include Mubarak Mahal, his European wife.

                                 This Imambara is in the shape of a dome . At the entrance lie beautiful gardens ornamented with flowers of various kinds. The tomb of Ghazi-ud –Din Haider is located at the center of the building , and is surrounded by  the more impressive silver and gold tomb of Mubarak Mahal , and another tomb . The tombs and their  design patterns are simply charming .