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.