Another journey –this time to Lucknow. The days are getting warmer now, so we start early in the morning when it is pleasantly cool and there aren’t so many bicycles and bullock carts on the road.
A three hour drive has brought us to the outskirts of Lucknow. This building is what is left of Iskanderbagh, a walled pleasure garden built by Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awad, as the province of Lucknow used to be called. Wajid Ali Shah withdrew into his court, refused to see visitors or even his own ministers and surrounded himself with musicians and supposedly immodest women. The British regarded him as an imbecile and deposed him in 1856. This was one of the causes of the Indian Mutiny of 1857.
Here in the heart of the city is Aminabad. As one can see from the veiled women it is a Moslem quarter. In fact Lucknow is the main centre of the Shia Moslems in India. The first Nawab was originally a merchant from Persia.
There is something awfully intriguing about a woman in a veil, but alas the lifting of the veil –when it happens- usually leads to disappointment.
On we go to Hazratganj, another central district of Lucknow. Lucknow is undoubtedly one of the most interesting cities of Northern India from both the historical and the architectural points of view, so we must come again to see more of it. But meanwhile it is time to start on the long journey back to Allahabad before darkness falls.
When travelling by road in India it is almost certain that sooner or later you will come across some colourful, fascinating or pathetic human scene. Here, near a small village, a fair is in progress. It is a characteristic tableau of rural life.