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Shaam-e-Awadh:Writings
on Lucknow
Neatly divided into five sections, the book seamlessly blends the nawabi with the colonial. It juxtaposes the pompous display of grandeur during the coronation of Nawab Ghaziud din Hyder, who had elevated himself as the first ruler of Awadh, to the mind-boggling extravaganza of the double wedding of Subroto Roy’s sons in 2004. The 35 pieces include poems based on Lucknow, anecdotal essays, extracts of novels and short stories, researched articles, biographical sketches, pages of a catalogue from the Government of India Archives, illustrations from the legendary newspaper Oudh Punch, recipes of Awadhi cuisine and even a telling political commentary by Mrinal Pande , who is a ringside observer of events in the present day UP. The most compelling, however, are the pieces which speak of a certain way of life and legends that are unique to Lucknow. One such essay is ‘Zikr Us Parivash Ka: Begum Akhtar in Lucknow’. Speaking of the city’s contribution in the making of the legend, author Saleem Kidwai notes, "The city of Lucknow, with its nawabi traditions and long history of patronage of music first provided Akhtari Bai with the perfect venue to take her singing career to heights...found the man who was confident enough to marry her without demanding the renunciation of her voice as a price of the ‘respectability’ of being a wife... Only in Lucknow was the culture flexible enough to accommodate a determined woman who was also a brilliant maestro." The informative essay ‘Afternoon in the Kothas of Lucknow’ by Veena Talwar Oldenburg is an excerpt from a larger academic book on the courtesans of Lucknow. It unfolds a world very different from the one seen in stereotyped ‘Muslim socials’. Puncturing the kidnap theory most of the courtesans whom the author interviewed over a decade (1976-86), revealed that they had escaped from the jahannum (hell) of their natal or marital homes marked by physical and mental abuse. Another startling revelation was regarding their sexuality. "Almost every one of the women with whom I had private conversations during these many visits claimed that their closest emotional relationships were among themselves, and eight of these reluctantly admitted that their most satisfying erotic involvement was with other women". The anthology brings out another little known fact. Mirza Ghalib, arguably one of the best-known Urdu poets was not enamoured by the Lucknow known for its tehzeeb (culture) and nafasat (sophistication). When he had to flee Delhi and come to Lucknow he immortalised his wonderment at his decision in the following verse that is hardly flattering. ‘Lakhnau aane kaa baais nahin khultaa yani havas-e-sair o tamaashaa so vuh kam hai ham ko’ "My reason for coming to Lucknow remains a puzzle, because my desire for strolling among spectacles or carnivals is negligible". The anthology has extracts from well-known works like Rudyard Kipling’s Kim where the boy’s school "...stands in vast grounds next to the Gumti River..." is indubitably based on La Martiniere Boys School. Extracts from other popular works which use Lucknow as the backdrop find a place here, including Allan Sealy’s Trotter Nama, Munshi Premchand’s Shatranj ke Khilari, Attia Hosain’s Sunlight on a Broken Column and Ruchira Mukerjee’s Toad in My Garden. Going through the writings in the anthology, a well-defined genre seems to be about the cosmopolitan experiences of students from the city’s fine schools. In ‘Laughing in Lucknow’ Outlook Editor-in-Chief Vinod Mehta admits to having spent 10 happiest years of his life at the La Martiniere Boys School where he learnt that "laughter was the answer to all the ills and evils our planet is heir to. To laugh one’s way through life became my lofty mission." ‘The Unabashed Birthday Bashes’ by the editor and Mrinal Pande describe Mayawati’s birthday party along with that of her rakhi brother Lalji Tandon that went horribly wrong killing two dozen women in a stampede over saris. Two writers as widely different in their styles as Mark Twain and V.S. Naipaul, had visited the city in 1891 and 1962, respectively. While Naipaul concludes in his India: A Million Mutinies that the city was the ‘end of the line for Muslim India’, Twain manages humour in the grimmest situation. In Following the Equator he describes his visit to the burial grounds in the Residency: "After a fashion, I was able to imagine the fiery storm that raged night and day over the place during so many months, and after a fashion I could imagine the men moving through it, but I could not satisfactorily place the 200 women, and I could do nothing at all with the 250 children".
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