Tag: Lucknow

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Happiness update week 14 – At Home!

This Sunday I intend to redeem myself and post my happiness post bang on time. I’ve plenty to be happy about. 
I’m home.
No matter where you go, no matter how many years go by, the city of your birth and childhood always remains special. It holds the dearest memories of a million seemingly inconsequential things that gave you immeasurable happiness. That’s what Lucknow is to me. Each year I return during the summer and try to recreat and reach out to all of those things. There’s a special warmth in the smiles, a special welcome in the greetings.

Since the twins came along I love bringing them to this city of my birth to share a bit of my childhood no matter how different it is from there’s. The food I loved, the friends I had, the places I enjoyed going to… All of it.
The happiness list is not easy to make, though, because it’s the scores of intangible things that make me happy here. Nonetheless I’m trying….
Even as we landed the kids were welcomed with that hug from dadu at the airport..

Mercifully my parents’ home and The Husband’s home are just a couple of minutes walk from each other and so the family converged the evening of our arrival. A few hours later we were off to our favourite roadsde pani-puri stall to kick off the home coming.

That kind of set the tone for the coming days. The two sets of parents here believe in the old traditional way of expressing love… Food! The FIL spoils the kids silly with laddoos ensuring there’s always a ready supply at home. Ostensibly they are for the kids but who’s checking to see how many the mum gets away with? Hah!
That’s not to say there’s nothing specially for me. Since the FIL discovered my favourites I don’t have to ask him or remind him either. Nowhere in the world do you get jalebis and khastas like in Lucknow. If you’ve been here earlier you’ll know my Lucknow holiday starts with these pictures, always. Here they are again.

The kids like the jalebis well enough but turn up their noses at the super spicy khasta filling.
The MIL meanwhile is not to be left behind. There are hugs aplenty which H has begun to resist, just a tiny bit. N, though revels in the attention and is often found perched on someone’s lap no matter that she’s a tall 8-year-old!

Despite a sever knee problem, she makes sure the dinner table is laden with all our old favourites. Palak-paneer tops the list. I can never get it perfect like her despite having her go over the recipe a hundred times. It’s the kids favourite too. That’s a bonus because the plates are polished clean even without my constant ‘Eat fast, keep chewing, talk less’.
What the twins like best, however, is goofing around with cousins. It’s a bit of a madhouse in this tiny place with kids getting underfoot no matter which way you turn. They spend the day showing off varied interesting talents like who can do the most summersaults or who can burp the loudest.

That’s it for now. Today evening we’re off for a movie with the kids – The Bhootnath sequel. They’ve watched the first one countless times so this promises to be a treat. And then it’s a PIZZA PARTY.

Okay, since I said that.. To appease my own conscience, I need to add that I’m off to the gym from Monday!! See you folks tomorrow at the A to Z Challenge with another one of my favourite authors. 
Meanwhile be happy.
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Happiness Update – Week 9

Here’s last week’s happiness update. I’m sure you guys know the drill by now so without much ado here’s what made me happy.

1.The Husband coming back home after almost a week

Such happiness.. I do need my jousting partner around.

2…. laden with boxes of special Lakhnawi mithai..

There was a box ONLY for me with this…

That’s Sohan halwa for the uninitiated. How I love love it but it has so much ghee that you can actually see a white layer when you bite into it. I was sent just two pieces so I don’t overindulge. I swear the parents keep tabs on my weight from across hundreds of kms! Of course I refused to share.

3. A non birthday present from the sister

Aren’t they gorgeous?

4. Becoming redundant bit by bit

This one is relief, pride, happiness all rolled into one. It’s so great to watch the kids grow independent.

4. Chaste Urdu from an autowallah

This sure made my day. As I was handing out change to the autowallah ‘Shukriya’ said he in such perfect diction and so politely that I was transported back home right away. No offence against the local Marathi but no language in the world can parallel the sweetness, grace or the elegance of Urdu.

5. A late night cup of tea with The Husband.

This used to be a ritual before he joined the gym and started crashing with the kids. Now it’s a rare thing to be cherished.

6. A big tight hug

Umm… nothing beats this.

The picture is an old one but the hug was just as warm
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C is for Clock Towers

That’s the clock tower in my hometown Lucknow. Isn’t it magnificent?

In Lucknow we call it the Ghantaghar. Literally translated it means hour (Ghanta) house (ghar).. pretty apt, I say. Ghanta also means a ‘big bell’ in Hindi and that fits in well too, bell-house, since it must have tolled to tell time.

A few facts..
Height:  67 meters – It is the tallest tower in India.
Built in: 1887
By: Nawab Nasir Ud Din Haider
To: mark the arrival of Sir George Couper, the first Lieutenant General of the Awadh Province.

As a kid I remember the grounds around the tower where we’d accompany our dad for his morning walk. I love it’s old worldly feel and deep red colour. In case you want to read more about clock towers of Lucknow you can go to An Indian Muslim’s Blog.

Back then clocks and watches were a rarity so it must have been a structure of some importance, specially for calling out people for prayer. How lost we feel now without a clock! Come to think about it not being driven by time wouldn’t be such a bad idea, right? Of course only if you don’t have angry bosses waiting for you, or the school bus to catch each morning. Life would have been amazingly laid back and relaxed.

Linking to ABC Wednesday

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Welcoming Winter

Winter it is.. finally. However here in this quiet Western part of India, it hardly comes to stay. Even so, I find myself disliking it more and more. I never was a winter person and have gotten worse over the years. Age is catching up, perhaps.

I go around shutting doors and windows, yet it makes sure to find that one window I forget to shut and comes rushing right in. I find myself shouting at the kids to wear chappals and jackets. I find myself secretly wishing they wouldn’t go down to play. I am reluctant to go down for my evening walk. I have to admit though, that when I do go, I quite like the little nip in the air which is all we can boast of here.

The kids don’t seem to mind the cold at all, don’t seem to even notice it. ‘Was I ever like this?’ I wonder. Like I said I never was a winter person but there are some things about it that I truly loved. Here are a few..

The bonfires

There’s nothing like a North Indian winter to teach you the fantastic camaraderie between a bonfire, roasted peanuts and hot chilie garlic chutney. That sounds just so Chinese – Let me put it this way – Lehsun aur mirch ki chutney. That’s more like it! What a cosy threesome that is! We’d sit around shelling peanuts, eating and chatting for ages by the light of the bonfire. How we loved watching the fire flare up when we threw in a bunch of peanut shells, to be half heartedly reprimanded by our mum or dad.

Makkhan malai

Then there was Lucknow’s own answer to the videshi souffle – the fluffy, frothy, light as air makkhan malai that would melt in your mouth. It was such a Sunday ritual for us. We’d wait for the bhaiyya to come around on lazy mornings. He’d weigh it out and hand it to us in earthenware plates. We’d compare for ages who’d got more, not believing for a moment that 100 gms had to be the same on each plate. One of my more enterprising cousins would shamelessly ask the bhaiyya for an additional dollop and, to the chagrin of the rest of us, he was never disappointed.

The sunshine

And of course there’s the sunshine. Winter in Lucknow came with the warmest sunshine ever. We’d lay out a rug on the grass in our garden and settle down with a book for long hours of lazy reading. The asparagus creeper would be in full bloom and it gave out a sweet sickly scent that seemed to be a huge hit with the flies. They came in hordes and hung around the creeper all through the time it bloomed. Their buzzing had an oddly soporific effect. That and the warm sun would make sure the book fell aside within the hour and we were lulled into the most delicious sleep ever.

And there were other pleasures..

Snuggling into huge heavy cotton quilts with a hot water bottle when temperatures fell.

The thrill of waking up in the morning and wondering whether it was still night. How grown up I felt!

The delicious smell of fog.. quite like that of the first rain showers.

Coming from school and mum handing over freshly ironed still warm clothes to wear. Bliss!

Blowing ‘smoke’ from imaginary cigarettes. We would try for hours to form rings like we’d seen the villain doing in the 70s flicks. The rings never came but the ‘smoke’ was fun enough.

I do miss all of that. Maybe winter wouldn’t be such a bad idea if I stopped trying to shut it out. I’ll go now fish out my woollens, dress up to the T, and go to meet winter in all it’s glory.

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Sepia tones of Lucknow

That’s Lucknow’s magnificent Rumi Darwaza
Old this certainly is .. dating back to 1784. This 60ft tall Rumi Darwaza was built by Nawab Asaf-Ud-Daulah as an entrance to the city. It was modelled on Istanbul’s Sublime Porte.
In fact most of Lucknow’s monuments were made under the reign of this nawab. From what little I’ve read of him he had little more to his credit than the beautification of Lucknow and his generosity that bordered on the eccentric.
The monuments sure are beautiful and when you’re as rich and spoilt as the nawabs are believed to be, some eccentricity is in order.
Linking to Thursday Challenge : “MONOCHROME” (Black and White, Sepia, Old Looking,…)
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