Lucknow - the city of Maze

Lucknow – The Bhubulaiyan city.

The year was 1977 and we had an inter college sports event at Allahabad (UP). Those days train seat/berth reservation process was manual and almost everyone was at the mercy of the guy on the other side of the window. We were coming back in an unreserved compartment from Allahabad to Lucknow where we expected to manage reservations and catch a superfast train. We had 10 hours at our disposal in Lucknow.

The Maze, Bhulbulaiya,in Asafi Imambara

What to do in there in ten hours? Bhulbulaiyan was decided with one voice (we were three lads with one teacher). Off we three were to Bara Imambara and straight to the maze (or labyrinth as it is written there on the board) leaving the teacher behind to manage the reservation of berths in the evening train. The guides at the Imambara were after our money but we were bubbling with youth and confidence and there was no question of obliging them.

“You will get lost, boys, and plead with us to take you out of the maze. Then we’ll ask for double the rate.” The men told us. “Nothing doing, we will go alone and conquer the maze without you guides” was our response.

And we made it, taunting the guides while coming out the maze.

Asafi Masjid in the Bara Imambara complex

Last week, more than four decades later, I thought of the city of Nawabs again. Patna to Lucknow flight was available and I purchased a ticket. Lucknow airport is about 10 km out of the city. Uber was quoting Rs 550 while taxi drivers started at 800. Right in front of the arrivals gate, there’s the Lucknow metro station. Maybe less than 200m away. It was about two minutes walk to the deserted station. Only one more passenger walked along with me to the metro. Taxi guys kept saying that the metro was closed due to covid.

Thirty rupees and fifteen minutes later, I was in Hussainganj checking into a hotel I had prebooked.

All through the metro ride, I observed that Lucknowites were less used to this mode of transportation.

Lucknow has some of the best monuments of the Nawabi era. The Asafi Imambara and Rumi Darwaza are two very impressive structures of that era. The monuments are unique in design and concept and distinct examples of Awadhi architecture. We have to keep in mind that the Nawab got these monuments constructed under food for work programme during a long drawn drought as famine loomed large in the Awadh area. Instead of handing out a dole to the people facing famine, the Nawab decided to employ 20000 people on a project to construct a prayer hall (Bara Imambara) and a city gate (Rumi darwaza). Those who were skilled enough to do the construction work were paid for building the structure while others were paid for dismantling the same.

The concept of both these structures was unique like their designs. The Rumi Darwaza based on Turkish gate design is a five storey structure as seen from one side but it is single storey arched gate as seen from the other side. Similarly, the Asafi Imambara has a large arched hall with a maze of arches on its roof top called the Bhulbhulaiyan. Call it a maze or a labyrinth, but the arched web of tunnels is unique.

44 years on, I had plenty of time at hand to do the maze without a guide. There was no rush to catch a train. However, I engaged a guide. After we had come out of the maze I narrated to the guide my adventure of doing the tunnels alone in 1977. “Sir, I was 10 then, playing in the streets of Lucknow”, he told me.

Haji Murad Ali alias Tundey Mian was one very famous kababi of Lucknow. His melt-in-mouth-Kababs were famous with all; very rich and not so well to do. Now Tundey Mian is not there and the establishment has changed many generations' hands and spread to another part of the city. Tundey Kababi in Ameenabad still makes those succulent kababs where people come in droves to relish the famous recipe. I was there too.

Meet the 87 year old rickshaw puller Chhedi of Lucknow. My travels have presented before me examples of courage, confidence, and grit. Many aged people I have met during my travels took rigours of life with ease. Be it a man in his eighties roaming the temples of Cambodia, or another octogenarian trekking in Petra, Jordan, or this guy cycling a rickshaw – all have taught me that age is just a number and your strength lies in your mind and passion. You get tired when your mind is unable to keep you fresh and young.

Chhedi has been plying a rickshaw on the streets of Lucknow since he was 20. He told me “hum ne bakri ka doodh piya hain jo ki bahut taqatwar hota hain” and “Sahib, garibi hum ko taqat deti hain”. We were fed on goat’s milk that is very nutritious and Sir, poverty gives us strength.