Lucknow visits Delhi in the form of letters
Welcome To CitySpidey

Location

Lucknow visits Delhi in the form of letters

India Habitat Centre organised 'Lutf'e-Lucknow', a festival celebrating Lucknow's culture

Lucknow visits Delhi in the form of letters

An overnight train and a few hours on the Yamuna Expressway connect Lucknow to the capital of India. Over the years, the two cities have shared a special relationship with the exchange of culture and ideas. An abundant number of Lucknowites have also found a home in Delhi for work or education. Celebrating this bond, India Habitat Centre organized 'Lutf'e-Lucknow', a festival celebrating Lucknow's culture and heritage.

On the first day of the two-day-long event, a program 'Lucknow in Letters- Endeavours, Achievements and Tragedies' was organized. This included a multilingual reading of personal letters written to/from Lucknow by Saman Habib and Sanjay Muttoo that provided glimpses of the city from the 'Ghadar' of 1857 to the present times. Several culture enthusiasts from Delhi and Lucknowites in the capital attended the special program.

For the audience, the letter recitations became a window to the past. It offered means to embrace the culture of Lucknow with lived details penned in letters. We traversed historical events such as the time when Wajid Ali Shah was banished to Kolkota, conditions during the plague of 1906, events during the revolt of 1857 and the last letters of Ashfaqullah and Ram Prasad Bismil from the prison.

Also read: Getaway locations near Delhi for a long weekend

Moreover, the letters penned by writers and poets such as Majaz, SM Mehdi,  Munish Saxena and Kaifi Azmi gave the audience a peek into their personalities as the letters mentioned personal anecdotes and concerns of these individuals.

The personal letters read brought to life a range of emotions from love for family, language, and loss of culture. Some evoked chuckles while the others sighs. Amrita and Ridhima, from Delhi who attended the event, found it extremely relevant and meaningful. Amrita says, "The event took us through everything we have lost over the past century. First of all, letters as a medium have disappeared in this utilitarian world, then the strong emotions, courage and beauty of language have also disappeared. But then there is hope too, in the vision of freedom fighters of the time who dreamt of amity and things like the love for mangoes which cuts across time and age."

Credits- CitySpidey

Like Delhi, Lucknow has developed into a metropolitan on a mould of the past. Several youths like myself while growing up have witnessed the city swiftly changing physically and in terms of sensibilities. The letters read also brought into perspective some places of Lucknow such as the Carlton hotel in Hazratganj and the narrow gullies from Molviganj.