“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 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.
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!
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.
(cont.)
(cont...)
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