From a traveler’s perceptive, you need just two days to
absorb the best of city.
*How to reach Lucknow?
Distance from Delhi
is approx 600 km and it takes around 14 hours to complete it by non-deluxe
state transport buses. A strong suggestion - if somebody is traveling from
Delhi to Lucknow
by rail, kindly make use of Lucknow Mail
(an ISO 9000 certified train) or Lucknow Duplicate.
Having slept 8 Friday, 8 Sunday nights in LM, I believe it is one of the best trains currently running
in the country. Rate Card for LM – Rs 594(3AC), Rs 222(Sleeper)
Start:We boarded Shatabdi(morning edition) from New Delhi Railway
Station & landed in Lucknow
at 12:30 A.M. Cost per ticket - Rs 610
Sites:
Bara Imambara and
Bhool Bhulaiya – It is a complex
man-made structure. On ground floor you have Imambara, which has some artifacts
from past and photographs of the time when Lucknow was flooded by river Gomti.
Above floors have been named Bhool Bhulaiya(Lost by
mistake). For first timers, it’s advisable to take a guide along. Puzzle inside
is quite simple. You have to start from one hall and end at another. At every
crossing, there are 4 ways to go, out of which 3 are wrong. And the correct one
leads to Delhi, Agra, Faizabad(as per our guide). Apart of
these, there are other facts too(like building’s material made up of organic
stuff, etc). As you reach higher floors, view of the city is majestic. City
looks charming from the top galleries and you can see other nearby monuments
too.
Disclaimer
of Lucknow do
not agree with the information provided by guide and consider them false.
Rate Card: Entry ticket(Rs 20), Guide rate(Rs 75 for Bhool
Bhulaiya/ Rs 150 for Bhool Bhulaiya+ Imambara+ a nearby Baouri). If you are
going for guide kindly go for Bhool Bhulaiya only.
Nearby monuments include – Chota Imambara, Clock Tower, **Rumi
Darwaza** & more of Mughal architecture. They all are worth one look and not
much spectacular.
Next day early morning we went to Lohia Park and Ambedkar Parksince
it was close to our Gomti Nagar guesthouse. These parks are huge. They
are not parks, they are fields. They are fields in which money has been
invested like water. There are no bulls here for tilling, but there are
arrogant elephants everywhere. Sadly, there are no crops for these
fields. Fields
(parks) are good, still in harvest(maintenance) but when you see the
cost for
making them; you can’t appreciate them. May be thatswhy, crowd wasn’t
there. If the concept is extended to the city and these fields starts
coming up everywhere with those elephants, City of Nawabs will soon
turn to'City of Elephants'.
Next places to visit where malls. Famous ones are Saharagunj
(Hazratganj) and Fun Republic
(Gomti Nagar).
Markets: Hazratgunjmarket is the best market of
the city. Aminabad and Chowk are considered cheaper and are famous for there
Chicken Suits shops(Chicken is some type of embroidery)
Food:One thing you love about this place. Awadh-lucknowvi andaaz
is best on platter and food here is relatively quite cheap. Some places which
you have to try –
Ram Aasrey Sweet Shop
– This shop belongs to Ram Aasrey Halwai. The first branch was opened at Chowk.
Besides Chowk you have branches at Hazratganj too. The best community which is
served here is Malai Paan(also known as Malai Ki Dori). Instead of beetle
leaf, Malai is used to make the paan. Inside stuffing has dry fruits in liquid
sugar. The taste is quite unique & lovable. Rate Card – Malai Paan @ Rs 8
*Royal café @
Saharaganj mall** – This shop is located in the food court of Sahaganj Mall. There USP is
availability of taste at very low prices. I was a regular here and am a big fan
of there Thalli. Servings in Thalli include – 4 combinations of dals/vegetable
(including paneer items), veg biryani, 1 naan, 1 lachha parantha, sweet curd
(mouthwatering) and 1 sweet with salad and papad. 1 Thalli per person can serve
the purpose of Breakfast and Lunch. Mouthwatering is the term I use for there
food and the Thalli here is definitely one of best North Dishes items available
in Lucknow. Rate Card – Thalli @ Rs 76(taxes extra)
Burma bakery @ Aliganj – Try there chocolate
biscuits. *Rate Card – Choc Biscuits @ Rs 76/kg.
*Worst place to eat in
Lucknow** is Tunde Kababi @ Aminabad. Now this place is very very hyped.
Ambience is horrible. This place is equivalent to Hell if you are a hardcore
veggi. I was accompanied by some of my Lucknow
acquaintances and the review of non-veg written below is heresay from them.
Kababs are in the form of circular soaps and there top surfaces are burnt in
already over-burned oil. Chicken Butter Masala was one more dish which was
ordered. According to my understanding of Chicken dishes it was a ‘gravy-wala-chicken’. People with me thought it
was killed twice before being cooked and must be a victim of malnutrition.
Gravy was mixture of yellow oil and red oil and had a disgusting smell in
already disgusted environment. Now about the veg items which I tried. Menu has
only 3 veg items – raita, biryani and kheer. Biryani was boiled rice with
non-veg smell. Raita was a chemical mixture of 30 ml ‘beakerfull’ of white colured
diluted liquid and 2-3 spatulas of Boondi balls floating in it. Roti were
inspired from chewing gums ads. We weren’t that brave to try Kheer. *Rate Card – 1 Kabab soap @ Rs 10, Gravy-wala-chicken @ Rs 50(approx), Raita @ Rs 15, Rice @ Rs 20.
Also, Lucknow
also gets quite a lot variety of Mangoes. Langda
and Dehseri are found in abundance
and are quite cheap here.
*Return from an Ordeal
– *
We boarded Shatabdi(evening edition) from
Charbagh Railway Station at 3:30 pm & were scheduled to reach New Delhi around 10 pm.
Rate card - Rs 795
writer of this article is a
Comp. Engg and worked as a consultant in Lucknow for over 3 months. For
a more descriptive article on Lucknow accompanied with pics goto - https://speakingpictures.blogspot.com/2009/07/lucknow-city-of-nawabs.html
