Well as my time in Lucknow
draws to a close I find it difficult to reflect on the amazing time I have had
here. The teachers at Vidyasthali asked
me what I liked about Licknow and what comes to the forefront is the unending
kindness I have been shown here.
Everyone—students, teachers, staff, people I meet in auto rickshaws,
etc.—have all welcomed me to this city in a multitude of ways. I will never be able to truly thank everyone
for the kindness they have shown me. But
before I depart let me try to document the last in a series of adventures I’ve
had in Lucknow
with the dynamic duo Anand and Vikas!
On Sunday Anand, Vikas, and I attempted to make the most of
the tourist stuff in Lucknow. They kindly picked me up and before heading
to Bara Imambara we made a quick stop for breakfast. We had idli which is a South Indian kind of
rice cake, almost a polenta texture, in a spicy curry. (I think I described that right, otherwise
boys please correct me J ). It was
delicious! So far I have really enjoyed
all the food in Lucknow. After our stomachs were full (I could only
eat ½ and felt like a wasteful westerner, but they assured me it was okay), we
moved to Bara Imambara.
Bara Imambara is a huge Nawab palace/religious place/shrine. There are 4 buildings in the one area, one of
which is still used for religious services.
They were constructed in the Islamic style that I’ve spoken so much
about. Beautiful scalloped arches and
vaulted ceilings. The main building has
old pictures of Lucknow
throughout and small alcoves or stages that are now used to house different
exhibits or shrines. Upon entering I
once again relinquished my camera to Anand since he, as previously stated, has
become my official Lucknow
photographer.
Then after ditching our shoes outside and looking around the
inside of the main building we made our way to the Labyrinth. First you have to climb a steep set of stairs
to the top of the main building and from here you are allowed to explore the
narrow hallways and dark passages ways that make up the top of the
building. As is the case in many
countries, except the US,
the safety of the visitor is not a huge concern. One is allowed to climb about the top wherever
one pleases. In the US this would
never happen. So of course I tried to
take full advantage of climbing about whenever possible. The three of us continued to tramp about the
labyrinth. Vikas and Anand sporadically
cracking up about the apparently ludacris information they overheard from the
“guides” people had hired to take them around.
This made me happy that I had the “best” guides in Lucknow—even if they didn’t really have any
information for me besides “unconfirmed” facts.
We eventually grew tired so we sat in the opening of one of the windows
and simply put—enjoyed the view. Upon
our descent Anand told me I had to find the way back, which translates into us
wandering around, and crawling through windows for an extra 15 minutes before I
eventually managed to get us back.
We then moved to another building in the same set of
monuments, Bauli, it was a medium sized structure that surrounded what once was
a well. Creepy hallways encircled the
large dried up well, but what was most fascinating was the amount of Lays
potato chip bags littering the ground inside the building. You could almost hear the muffled cries of
the UNESCO World Heritage committee as we wandered over the empty remnants of
those who passed before us. From the
Imambara we took a Tonga
ride (Horse carriage, and super touristy) to Chhota Imambara a smaller
shrine. There we took more
pictures—shock! Checked out the royal toilet, literally a massive bathroom with
about 4 different sized built in tubs. Then proceeded to the ghat to ponder the
gomti river and when we had tired and were fully touristed out we made our way
back to Bara Imambara. Along the way we
stopped at a roadside vendor to drink coconut milk straight from the coconut
and then watch as a man hacked the coconut open to serve us the coconut meat
from inside our respective coconuts.
Yum!
To continue my education into what really defines Lucknow we went to
Mint. Mint is a lounge with a surprising
amount of young people, all flashing as many name brand items of clothing they
possible can and trying to look cool while smoking hookah. Now I say a surprising amount of young
people, because a lounge is something that people in Lucknow don’t quite know what to do
with. Last week for example, we peeked
our heads in Zero a family lounge, which is essentially a club where you will
find men, families, and the occasional woman.
Club culture hasn’t quite made it to Lucknow, but they are trying and so it
becomes a strange hybrid of family hangout/makeout spot/bar. Yet out of all 3 the Lucknow dynamic duo took me to Mint was by
far the best. We relaxed on comfy
couches, the boys watched cricket, and I tried to understand cricket. I had a drink with ice! Don’t worry I asked ahead if they used
purified water to make their ice, and we had a meal of pasta. I know also weird that they serve main
courses in a club.
From here we moved on to an area near Hazrat Ganj and had
chaat. Chaat is essentially street food
in different configurations of fried goodness.
First we had aloo tikki and then moved onto these thin hollow fried balls
filled with a spicy water and topped with yogurt and tamarind. You have to eat them fast before they get
soggy, so good! We had three different
kinds of chaat the names of which I can’t remember, but all were equally
delicious. In an attempt to seek out the
night life we moved on to Lucknow
University. Anand and Vikas’ alma mater. Turns out there is no night life there
either. J But it is a beautiful campus, I really love
the Islamic architecture in Lucknow. We then went to a fairly new coffee shop for
tea and surprisingly met two of Anand’s friends one of whom it was her
birthday, so we all celebrated with a delicious chocolate strawberry cake. By the end of our cake we were all tired and
touristed out and so made the trek home.
Once again a great last day of tourism for me in Lucknow!
I will try to update more, even though I will be moving on
from Lucknow
today. I don’t know how much internet
access I will have, but know that if you don’t hear from me all is well and I
will let you all know when I arrive safely back in the US on 16th of
August!
Bye for now!
