Lucknow

21-23 September 2007: My friend Elisabeth is working in the South of Nepal since May last year. For months we were trying to meet half way between her town and Delhi. We decided that that would be Lucknow. Lucknow is the capital town of Uttar Pradesh, a state in the North of India. It was the home of the Nawabs of Avadh who reigned the area for about a century after the decline of the Mughal Empire. Most of the city's monuments date from this period. I haven't heard a single human being who was positive about Lucknow apart from the nation famous kababs. Well, they are all wrong.

How to describe Lucknow? It was quite a bizar experience when we woke up the first morning at 6am by the noise of people breaking down a wall. I noticed the dust in the room and called the hotel reception. After scolding staff the noise stopped. However, at 7am reception phoned us to ask whether we wanted coffee or tea. What genius reception staff phones up hotel guests at 7 in the morning for coffee or tea??? No need to repeat my friend's reply to them. Enfin, few hours after our premature waking up, Elisabeth looked at my face and cried out what on earth I had smudged on my face. She said it was all black!! And indeed, the interior and some exterior parts of my nose were completely black.It took us few seconds to realize that the 'breaking down of a wall' had in fact been a fire! It turned out that the fire had taken place in the room next door. We were appalled! It had not crossed any manager's head to evacuate the corridor or even to warn the guests. For 5 hours we slept in a smoke infested room. We could easily have died of smoke intoxication. I was ready to smack every irresponsible and incompetent staff member's head through the wall. The manager defended himself by stating that he tried his level best to put out the fire. What a complete moron he is. Obviously we left that by insanity troubled place and nicely installed ourselves in a 4-star hotel with smoke detectors!

Then it was about time to marvel at Lucknow's historic monuments.First the remarkable architecture of Martiniere school (see picture 1)with it's unconventional blend of various architectonial styles. Second was the Shah Najaf Imambara which is the tomb of one of the former Nawab's of Lucknow. Unusual elements were the numerous chandeliers hanging from the ceiling (see picture 2).

Third was the Bara Imambara (see picture 3 and 4), a colossal tomb built in the 1780s by Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula as a famine relief project. By coincidence, we met two of my friends from Delhi who made the guided tour through the labyrinth a lot more fun. Apart from the fire incident Lucknow was fun and a welcoming alternative to the zillion Hindu temples that I have seen over the course of my stay in India. Elisabeth and I will definitely meet again.............. in Lucknow!