Glimpses of Uttar Pradesh

In the Land of the Nawabs

Saturday, 3rd February 2007

9:30 A.M: We are now fast approaching Lucknow, the capital of U.P. As you can see, I didn’t disturb you early this time and I’ve already brushed my teeth and freshened up, unlike the other day. We’re still pretty much at the outskirts of Lucknow- some more time to go; the timing was quite intentional of course, so that I could tell you something about this city before we set foot there.

Lucknow is an ancient city, said to be part of the Kosala Kingdom (modern day Ayodhya) in the days of the Suryavanshi dynasty. It was the seat of the Nawab of Avadh (anglicised as Oudh), after the Mughal empire exploded into splinters in the 18th century. While I don’t know much about the Nawabs of Avadh, its fairly obvious that they were patrons of arts. The Nawabs came under the trap of the Subsidiary Alliance System, eventually surrendering their fiefdom to the British, who grabbed it in 1856 under the plea of misadministration. The last years of the Nawabs of Avadh saw Delhi usurp the role of the cultural capital of Hindustan (which of course, did not include regions south of the Vindhyas in those days).

Needless to say, Lucknow was pretty much in the eye of the storm when the uprising broke out in 1857; the diposition of the Nawab of Avadh was one of the main grievances of the mutinous soldiers, many of whom belonged to this region. The famous siege of Lucknow was relieved at first by the Company armies under Sir Henry Havelock and Sir James Outram, before Sir Colin Campbell’s forces dealt the coup de grace. Here’s a photograph of Lucknow in the immediate aftermath of the fighting.

Lucknow was included in the territories of the “United Provinces of Agra and Oudh” in 1902 and became the provincial capital in 1920, when the capital was moved from Allahabad. After independence, it became the capital of the present day Uttar Pradesh… and tell you what, we’ve arrived! Time to make a move folks… I’ll tell you the rest of it later, as and when time permits.

10:30 A.M: Here we are, sitting in Room No. 107 of Hotel Ganga Maiya (yup the name’s genuine). Why this hotel is called by this name, I’m not sure, since they have their own river here- which I’ll come to in a moment. As far as the hotel is concerned, you can guess the quality thereof by the name; I’ll say no more. Incidentally, Satish has gone in for a shower, which means I can tell you the rest of it while we wait for him to come out.

I’ve already told you about Lucknow’s past. Lucknow today is well known for its “Tehzeebwaali Urdu” (cultured Urdu) and it’s kotis, made famous by Rekha in Umrao Jaan, and much else besides. Of the lot, the Urdu survives to this day, but the Kothis have long since vanished- except in Hindi movies. Talking of movies, Lucknow has also produced legends like Talat Mahmood and Naushad Ali. It is also famous for its handicrafts- time permitting, I’ll also get myself a Lucknowi kurta… though I doubt if we’re going to have the luxury of time.

Lucknow is situated about 500 kilometres south-east of New Delhi (where I’m going tomorrow). This city enjoys, if that’s the word, extreme weather, with summer temperatures in the high 40s (a singularly ghastly prospect, I promise you) and winter temperatures in single digits- sometimes close to freezing point. It was estimated to have a population of about 25 lakhs in 2006. As I was mentioning earlier, Lucknow even has a river, the Gomti, flowing through it. The Gomti is a tributary of Ganga, meeting the Ganges somewhere in Gazipur district.

Apart from being nawabon ka shehar, Lucknow is also the constituency of India’s former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who I believe, is considered unassailable here. to be sure, U.P is currently governed by the Samajwadi Party (SP), which would roughly translate as the “People’s Party”. From what I know (and I’ve been here last June as well), the party has pretty much come to power and sustained itself on brute power. A lot of people told me last time round (and still say by the way) that the party has instituted pretty much a Gundaraj (rule of gangsters) here, unlike what’s being claimed in an ad featuring a legendary actor that

UP mein dum hai (U.P is on the go),
kyonki yahaan jurm kam hai (because crime here is low).

And even as I speak, my mobile phone is ringing. Tell you what, I think I’ve troubled you enough for now. I’ll come back to you as soon as we make a move.

12:00 P.M: Finally, we’re about to make a move. If you wonder why it took so long, its on account of the ‘collective inertia’ that sets in when you’re in a group. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced it, but things tend to get really delayed when you have to move in a group- more accurately, when more than one person has to move. I really wonder how huge armies are mobilised. I remember reading sometime that as late as the second world war, 10-15 miles a day was considered excellent progress; I now have some idea why it was so.

We’ve got into an auto by the way. We’ve managed to strike a deal with him, to take us to the office of our clients located at Gomti Nagar for fifty rupees. You know, the system of charging fares by the metre is virtually non-existent in India. I’ve seen it only in 3 or 4 cities so far and I’ve visited nearly 20 different cities across India.

And even as I talk to you, I can see to my right a huge equestrian statue of Prithviraj Chauhan, seated on his legendary horse, Chetak. Satish is incidentally, from Chitod district in Rajasthan. I won’t trouble you about him… too long a story, his.

We’re now going over a bridge… in fact our rickshawwallah tells me that this is not really a bridge, merely a road that’s at an elevation. You too would be fooled into mistaking this for a bridge, since there are railings on both sides and treetops beyond them. I must say that this road is surprisingly broad and clean and is in excellent condition. Assuredly, this road is much better than most roads in Bombay where I live.

We’re now passing through a remarkably wide road, extraordinarily wide for this part of the country. The road is superb and I can see state of the art shopping malls and multiplexes on both sides. Geez, its hard to believe that places like this also exist in U.P. You know, people in Allahabad claim that their city should be the capital of U.P- since the high court and the famous university are located there. Having been there and having also seen this city, I’m convinced that Lucknow is indeed the capital of U.P and deserves that position. This folks, is a real city, not an apology of a town, unlike the places we've seen so far on this trip!

And even as I speak, I can see a magnificant building. Its an amazing building, presumably constructed by the British. Our rickshawwallah tells me that’s its Vidhan Sabha- the seat of the state legislature. Sadly, I exhausted all the reels in the camera at Jabalpur and consequently, am unable to show you a picture. If only...

12:30 P.M: Here we are, finally at the office of _ Cement Ltd. Time for work folks… sorry to do this to you, but I have to leave you for the time being. Catch you in the evening.

8:00 P.M: Geez, its really late…finally got done with the days work. Fortunately, Arvind had done an excellent job- I only had to take care of the presentation and discuss the report with the marketing manager here. anyway, there’s isn’t an awful lot of time now. We have to have dinner and go to watch the 9 ‘o clock show of Mani Ratnam’s Guru… time to hurry folks!

8:30 P.M: We’re having dinner in a shopping mall in Saharagunj. As the name itself suggests, this area has been developed by the Sahara group- best known as the sponsors of the Indian cricket team. Believe me folks, this area is truly breath taking. It could easily compare with the best areas in Bombay or Delhi and this mall is every bit as good as any mall in Bombay that I’ve seen. What’s just as remarkable, is that this city also has an FM radio station; I’m hearing FM for the first time since we left Bombay on the 9th of last month.

Anyway, I fear I don’t have time to talk to you- we’re getting late. Got to finish dinner and rush to the cinema…

12:00 A.M: Whew, what a movie that was! Truly breathtaking! Wonderful potrayal of the life of Dirubhai Ambani and a supreme performance by Abhishek Bachchan. Guru is a wonderful throwback to the bad old days of the license raj when you needed the Government’s permission to do anything. Thank God we did away with those draconian rules… and the cold, nippy air blowing against my ears suddenly brought me back to reality. Its surprisingly cool here and its also a bit foggy right now. The weather is simply breathtaking, I promise you. You never get weather like this in my part of the country- though I’ll gladly trade that weather for the summer in these parts.

And even as I speak, we’re passing through the Vidhan Sabha. Its well lit and believe me folks, this building is simply incredible. I’d be guilty of no exaggeration if I were to say that it looks like a nayi-naveli dulhan (can’t satisfactorily translate it into English). For those familiar with Bombay: the splendour of this building would easily compare with that of the clock tower at the University or of Victoria Terminus. Granted that I’ve seen very little of this city and perhaps the best parts too, I must say that if you ever visit this part of the country, you really ought to look up Lucknow. Having seen this place, I’m convinced it is indeed nawabon ka shehar.

You know, I can see a massive convoy of vehicles- all in blue lights. Time for another snippet: a car with blue lights (neeli batthi as its called in these parts) is a pretty common sight. You have two varieties: Blue lights for people who’re in the civil services and Red lights (lal batthi) for people who’re in police service. I’m told that such a long convoy can only be of the chief minister and that Mulayam Singh Yadav, the current chief minister, is seated in one of them. Interestingly (I’m told) there’s no fixed rule as to which car he could be in. he could be in the first today, the third tomorrow, tenth the day after… nothing is sure.

Arvind tells me that people in these parts hanker for the civil services. For one, there is precious little industry in these parts and so Government service is the most sought after profession. And of course, the neeli batthi holds out tremendous attraction to the youth, who get to see little else besides. You know, I’m really indebted to him for all his inputs on U.P. He’s given me priceless inputs on the mentality of people here, the culture of these parts and much else besides.

12:20 A.M: We’ve stopped by the road-side, not far from our hotel. The reason? Our good friend Arvind (whom you’re already familiar with) says that there’s a guy here who makes excellent tea and some snack made of bread- something he’s never had before. Apparently he operates only by night. I can see a surprisingly big crowd here- I never suspected that there would be so many people outdoors at this time of the day (or rather night)- its already the third pehar of the night. For the uninitiated: in Indian tradition, the day is divided into 8 pehars of 3 hours each- 4 pehars of the day from 6 A.M to 6 P.M and 4 pehars of the night from 6 P.M to 6 A.M.

12:30 A.M: Just finished my tea `n bread. The tea was superb, I promise you. Its by far the best tea I’ve tasted since I left Maharashtra; I scarcely expected to find such lovely tea outside my native state. As for the bread, it is exactly the same as bun-maska (literally bun and butter)- you can get it in any of the Irani restaurants in Bombay.

But I fear I’m getting a bit sleepy. Its time to get back to our hotel… Arvind’s off to his homeland Allahabad tomorrow morning while I and Satish are off to Kanpur. I’m of course, going to Delhi as well- to attend the wedding of a very close friend… I fear its really late and we have to leave early tomorrow.

My apologies friends, but that’s all I could show you of Lucknow… some other time I hope. For now, I have to make a move but stay with me and I’ll take you around to Kanpur, Delhi, Allahabad, Varanasi and Patna over the coming weeks. But for now, good night- or rather, good day.