A comfortable 6 hour train journey brought me from Delhi to Lucknow. Cliches abound about tehzeeb, nawabs, kebabs, and cultural refinement. Lucknow is among the more interesting UP dust-bowl cities - there is quite a lot of history here and Avadhi cuisine, especially the kebabs, can inspire books.
I was lucky to get quite good weather when I was there – cloudy with a cool breeze (apart from the occasional inconvenient shower) so I was able to do my sightseeing without sweating too much. The most famous monuments of Lucknow are the Imaambaras (buildings to commemorate Muharram - mourning the killing of Imam Hussain). The largest and the oldest of these is the Bada Imaambara which was built in the late 18thC. It has a huge central hall (which, when it was built, was then the world’s largest vaulted hall without supports) – this hall has some mausoleums and taziyas from Muharram processions. Besides, the complex also has the Asafi Mosque, a baoli (step-well), and a bhulbhulaiyya (labyrinth) which has (scary) dark passages, some of which end abruptly or have drops. Fortunately, I didn’t get lost or fall down in the abyss.
Close-by is the Roomi Darwaza, a huge gate that dwarfs everything else in its vicinity. Apparently, it was called Roomi because it was the replica of a gate in Istanbul which, according to my guide book, was called ‘Rome’ in those days as it was the capital of the Eastern Roman empire. Huh?
Nearby is the ‘Picture Gallery’ which houses the portraits of the Nawabs of Avadh. A good place to put faces to the names of Asafuddaulah (the Nawab who moved the capital of Avadh from Faizabad to Lucknow in 1775), Wajid Ali Shah (whose portrait reminded me of Amjad Khan. Maybe, it was because I’m a fan of ‘Shatranj ke Khiladi’), and others I hadn’t even heard of.
If there’s a Bada Imaambara, can the chotta one be far behind? I found the Hussainabad Imaambara to be better (even though it is smaller) than the bada one – it looks like a pretty painting in black and white. There is a water pathway that leads to the golden-domed Imaambara. On either side of the Imaambara are two tombs that look a lot like miniature Taj Mahals. As at all monuments at Lucknow, here also I was hounded by ‘guides’. I had been warned by a rickshaw-waala not to engage the guides in conversation or else one gets stuck with them. The third Imaambara I visited was the Shahnajaf Imaambara which holds the tomb of Nawab Ghazi-ud-din Haidar who was the first ‘king’ of Avadh.
When I asked the concierge at the hotel the directions to The Residency, he gave me a funny look and said, “What will you do there? Only couples go there!”. And sure enough when I got there, there were hardly any tourists but only couples looking for peace and quiet in the vast lawns of the Residency complex. The Residency was built in 1800 and became a part of the First-war-of-Independence (mutiny?) folklore during the siege of Lucknow in 1857 when close to 3000 Britishers barricaded themselves in for 4-5 months against the sepoys led by Begum Hazrat Mahal (a wife of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah). Of these around 1000 finally survived the siege when they were rescued. Most of the buildings are in the same state as they were when the siege ended so most of the walls still bear signs of repeated cannon shots.
My guide book said that outsiders are not allowed to visit La Martiniere school without prior permission of the principal. I decided to give it a shot anyways. As I reached the gates of the school, the guard predictably told me that there was a school function going on and that I would not be allowed inside. Then he asked me where I had come from. When I said Delhi, he said, “Aap itni door se aaye hain toe mana kaise kar sakte hain.” The school building, which is quite imposing, and goes by the name of 'Constantia' was designed and built by the Frenchman Claude Martin in the 1780s as a home. He never married and didn’t have children so he willed that the building be converted into a school after his death. A music competition was on that day and there were strains of music that wafted through the air as I explored the school building (without the permission of the Principal, mind you!).
OK, enough about buildings and history. Lucknow is well known for its food, especially the kebabs. Apparently, the Kebabs of Lucknow are minced very finely because the 18th C Nawab Asafuddaulah had lost all his teeth so he could only eat the most succulent food (This story sounds as far fetched as the one according to which all of Spain lisps because one of their Kings used to lisp). Anyways, I’m not complaining about the kebabs being finely minced. They were really tasty and light.
The culinary institution in Lucknow is ‘Tunday Kebabi’. The first time I went there, it was closed (it was a couple of days after Eid). I went again the next afternoon and they’d just opened for the day and said that it would take a couple of hours before the food would be ready. Maybe Tunday was not in my kismet. Fortunately, I was third time lucky. The ‘restaurant’ was crowded, and not-too-clean, and within minutes I had a plate of finely minced mutton kebabs and parathas in front of me. Needless to say, I gorged on the kebabs. I tried all sorts of kebabs (galawati, kakori, sheeekh, shammi) at the ‘world-famous restaurants’ like Naushijaan, Dastarkhwan, and Nawabs.
So another city visited. Another set of tasty meals. This could go on!
