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we listen to those who are against  our way of talking , or those who think that wearing hand woven chikan clothes  is outdated .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 .

                               

LUCKNOW ZOO

                              Zoo , a place which according to the dictionary is an establishment that maintains a collection of wild animals, typically in  park or gardens, for study , conservation , or display to the public .But to me or to you the zoo is nothing like the above lines .It is a place which cannot be summed up in a sentence or paragraph , because its glances each time you close your eyes  thinking about it are vast , because your  childhood album is never complete without one picture of you in the zoo , because every movie you see is incomplete without the hero hugging his father and crying over thanking him for being there , and showing his gratitude to him for taking him to the zoo on his shoulders , because this is not just your story but that of millions and billions of people across the globe and because a zoo is not just a place but  is the dressing of  the salad days.

                               The Lucknow Zoo is here since time immemorial. The Zoo receives about 900,000–1,000,000 visitors annually. The Zoo is home to 440 mammals, 261 birds, and 40 reptiles representing 97 species. A Toy train was started in 1969. The rolling stock consisting of engine and two coaches is the gift of Railway Board. The train was inaugurated on the Children's Day Nov. 14, 1969 by the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. The track is 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) long and has crossings and signals. Rides start from Chandrapuri station and travels to almost every section of the zoo. A British-era train will be an added attraction for visitors to the city zoo. The train  belonging to the 1942 – period was shifted to the zoo from Maharajganj, where it was lying almost discarded.

                                    The UP state museum in Lucknow, once was situated in the historic Choti Chattar Manzil and the Lai Baradari. It moved in 1963 to its new premises, a modern structure in the Prince of Wales Zoological Gardens (Lucknow Zoo).The museum has some beautiful artifacts  .Of these invaluable collections the 17th century engraved wine jar having the name of Aurangzeb Alamgir, a 1036 AD dated jade chamakali bearing the name Jahangir, a 16th century painting of a picture from the Kalpasutra , a 16th century copy of the Harivansha in Persian ,a rarely found silver and gold coins, an ancient anthropomorphic figure and a fossilized plant deserve special attention. Not only this, the Egyptian mummy and wooden sarcophagus of 1000 BC add extra charm to the collection .

                                    The zoo is indeed a delight to visit .

THE BADA IMAMBARA

I erased it a hundred times before I thought that I should write about how I wrote .There is so much to do when you write a book at the age of thirteen , and ofcourse the possibilities of a successful outcome decrease when you have only 4 days for the completion .But you know after a certain age when a lot of time has passed , you tend to miss those moments , which were though tiring but fun , times you spent banging your head on the wall about what to do and what not  to , or pressing your head into the pillow to hide the tears of fear , or thinking that a minor failure is the end of the world .Each one of us has gone through these  feelings , which make memories ,which make life.

                  Well , while thinking about writing the history of Imambara  , I became a bit  reminiscential , thinking about  times of delight and amazement , my memories held me and wrote through my hands everything written above . So I won’t credit myself for the above lines , however they are . Moreover , I find thoughts put to paper more interesting than history , so to make the history of Imambara interesting I  thought not to erase the above paragraph  for the hundred and first time and write it again.

                     A least known fact , which is quiet absorbing is that during the reign of Nawab Asaf -ud – daula (1748-97) a famine struck the city in 1783 , and the  Bada Imambara along with other monuments was used to generate employement .The grandiose building  , during the day time , was constructed by a set of ordinary people and the raised structure was broken at night by the noblemen and other elite .This  relief measure taken by Asaf – ud –daula gave birth to a famous anecdote

“JISKO NA DE MAULA , USKO DE ASAF UD DAULA”

                         For me, writing about the Imambara was most fascinating , because not even one of the many facts about it can be called non-fascinating. As we proceed into the ‘BHUL-BHULAIYA ‘ another enthralling piece of information  bangs the 489 doors of the interconnecting passages of the three dimensional  , possibly the only existing , labyrinth of India .To add to the sound of the bangs , below the labyrinth lies the  main Imambara  consisting  of a large vaulted central chamber ,containing the tomb of Asaf-ud-Daula  (50 by 16 meters) , the height of the tomb is 15 meters . It has no beams to support the ceiling, and is one of the largest arched constructions in the world. There are eight surrounding chambers built to different roof heights , the labyrinth came about unintentionally to support the weight of the building, constructed on a marshy land . The  echo of the thumps increase as I further write about the  architect  Kifayatuallah , who was chosen to construct the building by a competitive exam. His body lies buried in the main hall of the Imambara beside that of Asaf- ud – daula  further adding to the echoes ,  because it is a unique fact that the body of the sponsor and the architect lie  buried side by side .Now the sound of the battering becomes faint , because we move away from the labyrinth , outside the Imambara , where   Asaf-ud-Daula  erected an 18-m high Rumi Darwaza . This portal, embellished with lavish decorations, was the Imambara's west facing entrance. Time to put on the ear plugs again, as we go inside  to know about the  blocked secret tunnels . One of them , according to legends, leads through a mile-long underground passage, to a location near the Gomti river .Other passages are rumoured to lead to Faizabad (the former seat of power of the Nawabs), Allahabad and even to Delhi. They exist but have been sealed after a period of long misuse as well as out of fear of disappearance of the people who purportedly went missing while exploring.

                      Feeling enlightened ? Atleast I am !