Neha's Lucknow: Part II

“Go and get lost!” said Tarun Bhaiya and we happily obliged.

I always pictured mazes as set upon the landscape, revealed from a bird’s eye view. Viewed from above all the forking and the choices are laid bare that it makes sense that the lost raise their hopes to the heavens.

Bhool Bhulaiya is a labrynth of a different kind. It is three dimensional and set within the walls of the Bara Imambara. The narrow passages interconnect with each other through 489 identical doorways- doorways barely tall enough for a person of normal stature (though I even had room to spare). It opens out through multiple exits into the balcony of the main hall of the Bara Imambara- the large vaulted chamber, whose proportions are magnified by the absence of supporting beams.Below us the the hall was being painted and polished in anticipation of Muharram.

The complex consists also of the Asfi mosque, and the bowli (a massive water storage feature, with descending steps leading to its heart.

Along with its labrynth the extravagant complex hides within a story of hunger. It is said that Nawab Asaf-Ud-Daula started the project to generate employment during the famine of 1784. Our enthusiastic guide explained how during the daytime, common citizens would construct the building and in the night the nobility, whose employment was in secrecy, would demolish it! And thus the construction stretched over the years, evolving, albeit slowly, into arches and doorways and the mesh of alleys to lose oneself in.

My Harry Potter wisdom told me that moving in a single direction would take me out of the maze. But in the ten minutes that we were allowed to wander away from the watchful eyes of our guide, we managed to take all the wrong turns and stumbled, from time to time, upon dead ends or equally lost and dazed companions. A maze with not even the skies to look up to!

From the terrace of Bara Imambara .we saw Lucknow in all her architectural grace. The city was as I always imagined her to be. From the Azfi mosque the voice of the muezzin poured out into the noon heat. Under our gaze the city buzzed with activity- full of life.

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Neha's Lucknow: Part I

(for Anu)

Tousled and shabby, we trouped into the car and made our way through the busy Lucknow noon. We formed the bride’s side at our two friends’ wedding. Different trains had dropped us on the platforms of Lucknow railway station that morning. Finally I was in Neha’s lucknow. A trip in plan since 2004; which, like all our plans, Anu, Neha and me refreshed each time we met. It was the first time me and Amma were travelling together also. (Now those are plans that date back roughly to the time when memory starts). So we all assembled there and waited for Surajit, who arrived soon with a much better groomed groom’s party.

Given the normalcy of the occasion, I might not have noticed where we were, had it not been pointed out. Those were the premises of the Lucknow division bench of Allahabad highcourt. The infamous locale of the most ludicrous judgement in Indian judicial history. The Ayodhya verdict magically transformed myth to reality, gave legal attestation to Gods and built temples out of thin air. It was a wonder they still knew how to issue mundane things as marriage certificates!


It was too brief a stay to know the city. But Neha’s family ensured that we got to know its tastes well. From the famed Makhan malai, made from the morning dew, kachchodi sabji, pakoras, panipuri, chaats, and much more, we moved on to the various flavours of the hooka and meetha paan. We braved the congested streets to reach the succulent tunda kebabs, biriyani and falooda kulfi. The party spilled over from the colourful wedding eve into the next day when the bride and groom were more at ease and in their selves as we know them.



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