The city I could never leave or forget

Although I feel like a traveler without luggage, being away from here since 1981 when I joined the National School of Drama in New Delhi, I keep coming back to Lucknow because of my family and it is where I belong. I hope this sense of belonging stays in me forever. My father and mother stayed in old Lucknow around the time of Partition, where my Nana had a house in Nakhas in a lane opposite Prakash Cinema.My father studied in Hussainabad school (still intact) behind the Imambara near Teele Waali Masjid and completed engineering studies from Hewett Polytechnic. We grew up in a house my father bought near Nishat Cinema in Chaulkhi area of Qaiserbagh in the mid-'60s. My house had several old theatre-turned-cinemas at walking distance till Hazratganj.
This theatre /cinema connection seems to have had some bearing on me and I eventually landed up in Mumbai. On the other side of my house lived Zakir Sahib, an excellent painter of cinema banners and hoardings. I would spend hours watching him and his associate Jilloo Bhai make huge faces of stars and their larger than life cutouts. It got me interested in sketching and painting. I would come back home and imitate them making sketches, using the square graph method for enlargements. I would make my own posters and place them in my house as hoardings on several sites like the staircase top and window ledge. I would also make portraits of these actors and paint them with poster colours. I was asked to make posters of a play in 1977 and that got me in touch with live theatre performers in Lucknow. I acted on stage with Meghdoot group that eventually led to my getting selected for NSD in Delhi and subsequently took me to Mumbai.
One of my earliest memories is frequenting the old American Center behind our house on the Wala Qadar Road in the Chandiwali Baradari that now houses a court. It had a small A/C Library and showed films in the open air theatre on their campus. I remember watching there the film on Neil Armstrong's landing on moon and several comic films. It got closed around 1971, post the Bangladesh War. The entire city had a very pleasing architectural character, with a combination of Nawabi and British elements. The sprawling bungalows on several sides of the city had its own laidback charm. The Cantonment was another secluded township, very quiet and peaceful. I watched some old classics in Mayfair which was our all time favourite, not only for films, but also for food and books. The British Council Library on the premises got an entrance from the verandah much later, but we would go from the stairs on the right to read and borrow books that gave me some of my earliest insight into Arts, theatre and cricket. The entire city gave its inhabitants a sense of comfort and security that I now find missing
The old buildings of Nazirabad ,Aminabad, Chowk, Qaiserbagh, Lalbagh and Hazratganj were charming reminders of the legacy the city inherited. Elphistone Cinema was right at the Qaiserbagh circle which had a uniform façade. Sadly it gave way to Anand cinema, damaging the symmetry of the circle and its continuous row of homogenous buildings right through Nazirabad to Aminabad area and beyond. It was my usual walk areas, holding hands of my dad and tagging along to those areas, where we would go to buy our daily needs, long before the malls came up.
The old National Herald, Navjeevan and Qaumi Awaz newspapers were housed in a sprawling building right next to the circle. It also had a post office where I got my first account and passbook. My daily drive to school in Mall Avenue in a cycle rickshaw, picking up friends from nearby areas was an interesting routine. It would take us through several localities and we would enjoy the early morning sights of the city. I also remember how my entire family would travel in a tonga to see the Imambaras during Moharram days, or visit parks and areas around in the evenings. Dussehra /Diwali holidays would often coincide with Urs of Dewa,where we would go and stay in tents. The weeklong visit had its share of Mela rounds, stalls from several part of the state would come with their fare, the nights would be spent in musical evenings, mushairaas, etc.
I remember going for the Mushtaq Ali benefit cricket match as a child, inaugurated by chief guest Dilip Kumar. Several great cricketers came to that match and I have autographs of some of them. The stadium from then on became my other favourite haunt. Lala Amarnath conducted a cricket coaching camp, where Mohinder and Surinder were also present. I learnt the basics watching Lala coach boys older than me. The Sheesh Mahal and Frank Worrell tournaments attracted several national players. I saw the likes of Salim Durrani, M L Jaisimha, Kapil Dev ,Bishen Singh Bedi,Yashpal Sharma and several others play from close quarters. I met the great Dhyan Chand in this stadium in 1973, the Asian All Star Hockey team in 1974 with the legendary Samiullah and Ajit Pal Singh, the world cup winning Hockey team of 1975. I got the chance to hold that Hockey World Cup in my hand, helping carry it inside the stadium. I still have the autographs of these heroes kept safely in my cupboard.
I think Lucknow changed drastically during the Emergency, or I could see the changes more clearly then. The shopping complex culture came in decisively with the construction of Janpath Market. Although earlier the Lalbagh Park was usurped to make an Apna Bazaar kind of place, ruining what was a very lovely open space. That is now completely gone to seed. Areas like Darul Shafa, Qaiserbagh, High Court and Nazirabad became cluttered and dirtier. The tendency to take over footpaths and flood them with goods has made the old areas of Lucknow claustrophobic. I remember the Qaiserbagh and the surrounding areas as open as Gomtinagar is today. No wonder Gomtinagar is the new centre of the city, although I find it more like what NOIDA is to Delhi than as a part of Lucknow.
Hindi films now operate in a shrinking territory. Earlier, they were made for an all India audience, but now Telugu, Tamil, Malyalam, Punjabi and Bengali cinema is thriving. Films being shot in Lucknow and UP in recent times have become increasingly rooted to Hindi heartland. Fortunately, it is not about the Kotha culture of the Muslim socials kind, which created a most unreal and embarrassing notion of Lucknow. The dreamscape cinema of late Yash Chopra and Karan Johar has few takers now. Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj, Tigmanshu Dhulia have grown up in the cities of Benares, Meerut and Allahabad, and understand the social dynamics well. They have more interesting, first-hand experience of life. It is the Dhonification of Hindi films. Interestingly, cinema is also reflecting what is happening in the field of politics. With the absence of strong Central leaders and parties, it is the era of regional parties and chief ministers.