The Haunted Monkey Bridge

"The haunted monkey bridge"

I started paddling the #bicycle furiously as the approach to the bridge neared.

Paddling thus, I sailed over the mild incline and levelled up at the #bridge.

The speeding bicycle shot across the bridge and went down the slope on the other side to cross the big iron gate of entrance to #Lucknow university.

What a relief ! I was safe ! It was the first time I had crossed the  haunted #MonkeyBridge in the gathering darkness of an evening. and nothing happened to me !

Yes ! Monkey bridge was #HAUNTED. Thats what everyone said when I joined the university. Suddenly an apparition would appear out of the blue to drive daylight out of an unsuspecting wanderer. There were so many horror tales. Here is one:

". . . . . . .He was moving on the road towards the bridge on a desolate winter evening when a begger accosted him.

" God will bless you sahib. I have not eaten anything today. bless me with a  small coin and God will bless you with a fortune."

He found and took out a two paisa coin from his coat pocket. The beggar was all wrapped up in a soiled torn blanket. Now he unwrapped and  extended his hand.

What came out of the blanket was the huge leg of a horse, with a hoof touching his hand.

He panicked  and started running away. He saw a tonga ahead.

He shouted at the tonga to stop.

The tonga stopped abruptly and he jumped to the rear seat. He asked the tonga driver to drive away fast. The tonga picked up speed.

"What is the matter #sahib ? you seem to be very agitated "

He narrated the frightening experience to the tonga driver.

" . . . and Í saw a horse's leg coming out of the blanket " He concluded.

" My God", exclaimed the tonga man, " was it like this .."

The tonga driver extended his arm towards the rear of the tonga where the man was sitting.

. . . And it was a huge leg of  horse  before him, the hoof prodding him. He looked up at the tonga man's face and saw a sneering horse's head there staring at him!

He shrieked and jumped out of the racing tonga, fell on the road and fainted . . . he was rescued  moments later by a #chowkidar (security patrol) on the night beat. . . "

That was one of the many stories going round when I joined the university.

Monkey Bridge, also know as #Bruce's Bridge, was built c.1866 to cross the Gomti River linking Lucknow University on the northern bank to the Chattar Manzil on the southern bank.
"There was formerly a bridge of boats here; the present bridge was built in 1865, and completed in 1866, under the superintendence of Mr. Bruce, the Municipal Engineer." (archive)

Towards the begínning of 1960s it was decided to replace this narrow, low, flood prone ageing Monkey bridge with a sturdy new four lane higher level bridge. The 'haunted' bridge was to be demolished.

Construction work started. The pillors of the new bridge, however, kept developing defects endlessly and there was no progress for quite some time to the utter desperation of  the engineer-in-charge. Then one night, as the story goes, the engineer was visited by a holy man in his dream and was advised to construct a temple of the monkey God Hanuman on the river bank at the site of the new bridge.

A small temple of hindu God Hanuman ji came up soon

and it was followed up successfully by a new imposing #HanumanSetuBridge.

The Ghosts of monkey bridge, if there were any, disappeared.
And the #GhostStories are no longer heard. . . .

*



LUCKNOW CALLING : The Ghazi-Uddin-Haider Canal

"LUCKNOW CALLING : The Ghazi-Uddin-Haider Canal"

A wide open drain runs through  the outskirts of Lucknow zoo and enters the Raj bhawan estate. Cutting across the north eatern edge of the estate,

it runs  along the back of Mall Avenue and Purana Quila. Then it turns south, cutting across the station road and going  to chhitwapur, further into the Charbag area and beyond. This stinking, slums infested, drain is famously known as Gaziuddin Hyder canal.

Lucknow was an insignificant place in north India until Asaf-ud-daula, the wazier Nawab of Oudh
moved his capital from Faizabad to Lucknow. And then a metamorphosis  started taking place.

A little later  Ghazi-ud-din Haider, the first Nawab Wazier, who had been  raised by Lord Hasting to the dignity of King of Oudh in 1818, assumed the reins of power. In his time Lucknow   became a great  Imperial city of the Nawabs. Gaziuddin Haider   facelifted the city with landmark buildings - among them being the majestic Chattar Manzil, the Mubarak Manzil and the Shah Manzil in the Moti Mahal complex . He also constructed the tombs of his parents, Sadat Ali Khan and Mushir Zadi Begum.  For his European wife, he constructed a European style building known as the Vilayati Bagh. Another creation was the Shah Najaf Imambara (1816),

his mausoleum, on the bank of the Gomti. This mausoleum was a copy of the fourth Caliph Ali's burial place in Najaf, Iraq.

The Canal was indeed the most ambitious project undertaken by Ghaziuddin Hyder. The idea was to construct a link canal that would  connect the river Ganga in Kanpur with the river Gomti in Lucknow. A canal was constructed across the heart of the city but had to be abandoned subsequently due to faulty engineering, the gradient being defective, defeating the purpose for which it was intended.

Having failed to link the Ganga,  the Canal came to serve the purpose of the main arterial drain into which smaller drains  from various colonies of Lucknow empty their muck as it flows into the river gomti. In course of time it accumulated lot of filth and acquired a distinct stink . Unauthorised hutments cropped up along the canal leading to sprawling dirty slums.

A few years back a drive to beautify the city took place. As a result  of this programme, a long stretch of area lying along  the back of Mall Avenue got face lifted.

Slums were cleared and  a neat wide flyover was constructed above the canal. The area was beautified with lamp posts , flowering trees and shrubs and side lanes. (see photos).  The idea was novel and besides transforming the dirty, slum infested, nala area into a nice neat stretch it vastly eased traffic congestion on the busy havelock road.

The legacy of Ghaziuddin Hyder has, thus,  acquired another, modern,  identity -The Ghaziuddin Canal Flyover - giving a fresh lease to the legend of the Lucknow Nawab !

**

The Tehsildar

"The Tehsildar"

The training had started.

It was some kind of a practical district training - getting attached to various functionries of the district administration  from the tehsildar to the district magistrate, to get a feel of the tasks they perform and getting an idea of how the government works at the cutting edge level.

I was attached to Tehsildar first and reported at 10 o'clock sharp at what was known as his 'Chamber'.

The  modest size 'chamber'  had a big green rexine topped office table there with a comfortable swivel chair on one side and four simple chairs on the opposite side.  The Tehsildar's chair was vacant.

I waited the whole day . Tehsildar did not come.

Next day I had some books with me - the various manuals like the Taqqavi Act, the Cr P C. I studied these.

The Tehsildar did not come.

In the next two days also, the Tehsildar's chair remained unoccupied.

On the fifth day as I was scootering down to the Tehsil office, I decided to visit the District Magistrate on my way. He was responsible to the central government for my training.

"So how is the training going? " He enquired pleasantly. He was an affable old chap.

" I am with the Tehsildar, Sir,  for the last four days, " I replied "reading the various manuals"

There was a note of disapproval in his eyes. "That you could have done in Delhi itself. No need to have come here. What is the point of coming to a district if you don't get practical experience" he observed sarcastically.

" That's exactly how I feel sir" I replied cooly, " but that is the only thing I can do to utilise time as the Tehsildar has not come to his office for the last four days".

The obvious happened next. He phoned the  tehsildar and gave him a thorough dressing down.

" you can go to his office now.", he said replacing the phone, "He will be there today" .

I found  the tall and hefty tehsildar in his chair as I entered his so called 'Chamber'. He had some kind of resemblance to the hollywood 'western' actor John Wayne.

I greeted him.

He ignored my greeting. I could see that he was seething with anger but could not direct it towards me.

He rang the call bell and the office boy rushed in.

" Where is the ameen? Useless fellow. Ask him to come immediately" he shouted.

When the Ameen came he barked at him for a few minutes, unloading his pent up wrath.

He then called the Naib Tehsildar and shouted at him too for quite sometime. He looked at me for effect. I gave a bored expression.

He called quite a few other subordinates and went on with the shouting game. He kept looking at me all the time to gauge my state of mind.

I sat there with an expression of intrigued disinterest. why was he behaving in this manner, I asked myself.

He had called another chap for his dressing down drama but the bloke was absent. As he sat there waiting, keeping himself in readiness to explode on the bloke , I got my chance.

" Do you have this combination of Sun, moon and mars in your horoscope?" I asked him suddenly , explaing the combination.

He was taken aback. This was the last thing expected  from me.

There was now a metamorphosis. He looked stunned for a while and then he gave me a disarming smile, relaxing.

” Yes I do have. But how did you know?". He was curious.

"I guessed.The way you were shouting at your staff meant that it was most likely" I replied in a friendly tone.

The bloke he had been waiting for, now entered. But the drama was already over.  No more shouting.

" You should come to office in time, son. " He said patronisingly to the nervous young man, "See, we have a guest here. "

The chap now noticed me and gave a resounding salute which I acknowledged.

" That's better. Now get some tea and good biscuits please" the Tehsildar instructed him, "and ask the driver to be ready with the jeep. We are going for inspection of a village in an hour"

I had a most lively and instructive practical experience of how a Tehsildar works, in the days that followed. He took me to neighbouring villages and showed me how he settled land disputes, how a field was measured, what crops were sown and how a green manure of fast growing DHENCHA weed is used in the interval between the two main crops to revitalise the fields.The tehsildar was an efficient and popular person and saw to it that he made up for the lost four days!

The district magistrate was very much pleased to see the progress of my training and attributed it to the way he had pulled up the Tehsildar.

I knew better ! (And you too now, don't you ! ).

The stars had a role !!

**

Once upon a time in Allahabad

"Once upon a time in Allahabad"

First came the musical chimes - one chime, loud and clear, for each quarter of an hour. Then came the powerful gongs that set the skies vibrating for miles around. Eight gongs in all, as I entered new katra colony at eight o'clock  on my first morning in Allahabad.  Welcome to the University of Allahabad !!

Yes that was the welcome note to my arrival at Allahabad university several decades back.  The powerful clock tower was on the top of the majestic, red roofed yellow stone Senate Hall in the Arts faculty campus. This clock had been supplied by the manufacturers of the London Big Ben and was a perfect copy of the famous clock.

As I look back through the mist of time I see the university road connecting the science  and the arts blocks. There were several shops on either side of the road, some were book shops and  there were at least two restaurants.

Towards the Sir Sunder Lal  Hostel side the last shop was a restaurant cum  bakery of Bhat ji. That was two shops after the barber's shop.A young man from there carrying a big tin  box in the carrier of his bike used to come to our hostel in the afternoon. There were fresh buns, butter, pastries and  loaves of bread in the box

. We either paid in cash or noted the amount in a long narrow book that he carried, to settle the payment at the end of the month.

Somewhere in the middle of that small market was the popular Jagati's restaurant, its owner, Mr. Jagati always in a Gandhi cap over the western dress.  It was usually fully packed at lunch time with students and others. I believe that it is no longer there.

The corner shop at the crossing towards the science block was a general merchandise shop run by two almost identical looking  young brothers.

They stored almost every thing a student required. When nylon was first introduced, this shop was among the first to sell somewhat expensive pure nylon socks which were tough enough to last for ever! The cotton socks used to wear out within weeks.

From this general merchandise shop crossing,  there was a road towards the Anand Bhawan. Right at the  beginning was H D Pant tailor's shop. At a little distance, close to the Diamond Jubilee hostel , was a corner tea shop run by an old woman.

The shop was popularly known as "Buria ki dukan"(old woman's shop. She offered some ready made snacks and good quality tea. A tasty, spicy "mixture" of puffed rice and various "dals" was popular with students, most of whom were on shoe string budgets.

The Arts block side had the stately grand Senate Hall.

The science campus  consisted of  yellow stone buildings of various departments and one could locate  the chemistry department by the pungent odors of various gases including H2S emanating from there !. The university's cricket ground, hockey and football fields as also the squash and tennis courts were located here in the  ample open expanses. There was also  that timeless stately Muir tower.

The campus was very  clean.Plastic desposable shopping bags and plastic bottles had not yet arrived and the menace of plastic garbage was blissfully missing. All  food in the hostels  was organic as the use of fertilisers and pesticides had also not begun. The air was  clean. The menace of smog came later.

That was way back in the past. But the gongs of London's big Ben at the start of  BBC news still keep resurrecting the  memory of my days once upon a time in Allahabad !

                            ***

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