STORY OF MY LIFE PART IV-LUCK NOW?

CHAR BAGH STATION

After spending about a year in Bangalore, Triloki was transferred to the royal city of Lucknow. I had always been fascinated by this city where I thought only nawabs resided and lived the life of luxury with the famous Lucknawi tehzeeb and the most melodious language Urdu spoken in a special style.Hindi films, particularly "Mere Mehboob" had a great role to play in my mental make up.

As our train chugged into the Char bagh station of Lucknow, I looked out eagerly at the people in the city. The city was beautiful. There were beautiful palatial buildings and lots of space, and trees. The river Gomti was a beautiful river and there were a number of bridges over it.

I loved the way the people spoke. There was a lot of politeness and sweetness in the language. Even the rickshaw puller spoke politely and did not just ask" kahan jaana hai?" There usually was no bargaining. I was amazed by the politeness and good language used. Everyone used the formal "Aap". "Tum and too" were unheard of. My maid servant addressed me as Bahuji. The maids were called Mehri not mai as we called them in Delhi.

We stayed in Nirala Nagar and my husband went to work in Aishbagh where the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) had its Office. One day he came back highly amused and narrated an incident where two people were fighting. Even in this verbal dual the politeness of the language was not allowed to suffer. One said to the other," Please do not make me open my mouth and say things  about your family members" the other replied, "Please do not force me to go into the history of your lineage."

There was total refinement in the way the dual was fought. There was no abuse, no crass words, no vulgarity at all, and the fight continued to the amusement of onlookers, particularly those from Delhi. Delhi people  too spoke Urdu but the chaste sweet refined Urdu of Lucknow was like nectar to the ears.

Boating on the Gomti was very pleasant. The river was wide and clean. The breeze was nice and soothing. The boats were few and were lit with lanterns. The city had not yet become too commercialized .

Those were days when salaries were not too high. Both of us loved living beyond our means so we lived on the mezzanine floor of a beautiful bungalow on Faizabad Road. Our landlord was Mr. Rameshwar Sahay who was a keen chess player and wrote a book on it. They had a large number of dogs as well as cats in their house. We always marveled at the way cats and dogs co existed in their house.

Having limited money, the end of the month usually saw us trying to raise funds by selling radii(past months newspaper). When anyone invited us for a birthday party towards the end of the month, I always wondered why children were born on later dates of the month. I wished that they would be born when one had the funds to buy gifts which was always in the first fortnight of the month.

The youth of today are so spoilt with money and huge salaries that I wonder if anyone would be able to understand how we managed to scrape through the month and wait for the first of the month when salary would be paid. There was a nice song by Kishore Kumar, "Khush hai zamaana aaj pehli tareekh hai"It means the world is happy as it is the first of the month. Now, even Radio Ceylon which played this song on the first of every month  seems to have gone defunct.
To save money Triloki and his friend used to pool their motor bike rides to office. Once when the petrol prices were hiked, both these friends went and bought bicycles, of course sophisticated ones with gears. After that they both started going on their stylish bicycles to work. 
I loved the names of the places in Lucknow. Kaiserganj, Aminabad, Chowk, Nakkhhas Aishbagh, Hazratgunj. All of them sounded very nice to me as they were replete with History.

There was the Residency which was destroyed during the First war of Independence in 1857. The Rumi Darwaza, The Bada Imambada, the Chota Imambara, and the Baradari. I loved these buildings. It is said that Wajid Ali Shah, the ruler of Awadh was  fond of music and also used to dance Kathak himself. The beautiful song "Babul mora naihar chooto hi jaaye", was written by him when he had to leave Lucknow after the British annexed his kingdom.  Earlier in 1785, Asaf ud daula the ruler then, got the Bada Imambada constructed so that people could be employed during a devastating famine. It is said that times were so bad that during the day ordinary people worked and during the night the noblemen worked there. It is also said that Asaf ud daula ordered that food be cooked for the workers by the royal cooks. The cooks  would put rice and mutton and spices in huge degs(cauldron) and allow it to keep simmering with the lid tightly  sealed. That they say is how Dum ki Biryani originated.

I last saw Lucknow about 38 years ago. I have fond memories of the place and so do not want to go back and see the Lucknow of today.

MAYFAIR

The chaat of Hazratgunj, the kebabs of Tunde, the Mayfair cinema hall with the Kwality restaurant, Carlton hotel, the University, IT College, Kukrail, Chinhat, are all memories which I cherish.

Lucknow is the place famous for the beautiful Chikan embroidery . Almost every woman was adept at this embroidery and it was a cottage industry.

The graceful sharara, garara was the dress of the noble women. Men wore achkans and sherwani, of course only at weddings.

Indeed Lucknow for me  was "Mere Mehboob" in reality.