My Lucknow Trip, 1973

I had given my intermediate exams and was free , so during the summer vaccation I visited Lucknow to visit my Mausi and Mamaji, who lived there. This was the first time that I was travelling and staying at a placew on my opown with out being chaperoned by my parents. I had a lot of fun with Deepa Mausiji, Hem Mamu,. Vijay and Jayshree. Though it was hot we travelled all over the place and took photographs with our black and white camera. The beauty of Lucknow and the happy time I spent there has always left a very memorable mark on my mind and remains for ever fresh.

The courtly manners, beautiful gardens, poetry, music, and fine cuisine and the rich life styles of the royals had already maade an impression on me when I had read some books related to Lucknow and later on saw Satyajeet Rays, Satranj Ke Khiladi. I longed to see this place in person for it was the city of Wajid Ali Shah, a very loving , emotional and caring nawab who had an artistic bent of mind. It is believed that the city has been named after Lakshman, the younger brother of Lord Rama. The city was earlier called Lakshman Pore that later turned in to Lucknow. The city later passed to East India Company after Nawabs lost the battle of Buxar in the year 1764. The city remained the capital of Awadh or Oudh province of the British and went on to become the capital Central Province and in turn Uttar Pradesh.

In Lucknow we travelled all over the place visiting the Imambara. There are lots of Imambara in Lucknow but the most famous ones are Chota Imambara, Bada Imambara and Shah Najaf Imambara. These are the sites of annual 'Azadari' or mourning sessions that occur in the Islamic Month of Mohharum and called 'Asura'. The Tazia processions and Marsia sessions of the old city are trademarks of Lucknow. We would keep roaming around, chatting till tweleve or one o,clock at night. We would eat a lot of Dushari mangoes . We remebered Mirza Galib who was very founfd of Dushari Mangoes and would say that dushari mangoes should always be eaten alone and no one should be watching for it is ibn eating the dry part of the seed that one really gets the taste of the dushari. India produces many diifferent varieties of mangoes including langra, chosa, malda, sipya, malka, amarpali, ratoul, Baganpally, Rasaal but is is dushari which has a special corner in my heart, not so much due to the taste but all the fun and happy times associated with it in Lucknow. I remember that my first story which was published by a Allahabad Newspaper came out when I was in Lucknow. My inter results were also declared when I was here. I was very nervous and kept walking up and down but at around two thirty in the afternoon Harish mamaji brought the nwespaper and we looked for my roll number. I saw that I had got a first division. This was a very happy day. i will always chrish the memory of my travle to Lucknow and all the love and affection which i got from ChChachi ji, Buwan Mamu, Hem and Papu Mamu. I met Deepa Mausi after a gap of nearly thirty years in Toronto Canada, which she has now made her home. We could still chat and pick up the threads from the past. We spoke of all the fun that we had in Lucknow when i was a girl and had just pased my intermediate.