Picto Diary - 13 December 2019 (2) - Nawab Jafar Mr Abdullah

Above: Ada Designer Chikan Store. Lucknow, India. 13 December 2019.

TIMDT stocks up on famous Lucknow Chikan. Drums tries on chikan kurta. Guide/handler Cyrus looks on.

Above: Nawab Jafar Mir Abdullah. Husainabad-Sheesh Mahal, Lucknow, India. 13 December 2019.

Nawab Jafar Mir Abdullah is a direct lineal descendant of the third Nawab of Awadh, Jalaluddin Shuja'a ud daula Hyder, 1754 to 1762.

The Nawabs were Persian, Shiite Muslim gentry called by the ruling Mughals in Delhi to oversee northern, Gangetic Plain, inter-river Indian lands under their control.

The Nawabs brought Persian culture, including art, dance, music and architecture to Avadh. Lucknow, the principal city of Avadh, is laced with splendid mosques, imambaras, city gates, and palaces all built by the Nawabs and their artisans.

As the Mugals' influence began to wane in the second half of the Eighteenth Century, the Nawabs' power grew. They became semi autonomous rulers.

Enter the British East India Company (EIC) into the power vacuum left by the Mughals. EIC entered into treaty and trade agreements with the EIC to include, paid for by the Nawabs, an extensive Residency in Lucknow for a EIC functionary and numerous hangers on.

As long as the trade flowed smoothly, and EIC profits grew, the Brits allowed the nawabs to "live like kings."

But, in 1857, the tenth (and last) Nawab, Wajid Ali Shah, who had 365 wives, stretched British patience. The Brits declared him indolent, kicked the Nawab out, took direct control of Lucknow/Avadh and sent the nawab to live out the rest of his life under house arrest in Calcutta.

Wajid Ali Shah's ouster coincided with the Indian Uprising (The Mutiny, in British lingo) in 1857. The ouster was not the cause of the Uprising, but it was a contributor. Most of the ousted Nawab's employees were left without jobs. They had reason to be sympathetic with fellow countrymen who resented the growing hegemony of the EIC in India.

Famously, three thousand Europeans and their Indian loyalists were besieged in the Lucknow EIC Residency during the 1857 Uprising. Only one thousand had survived when they were rescued by British troops five months later.

J. G. Farrell's Booker Prize winning novel, "The Seige of Krishnapur," which I read earlier in 2019, is a fictional account of the siege of the BEIC Residency in Lucknow.

As I toured the Lucknow Residency yesterday I was able to correlate the layout with the events described in the novel.

NAWAB JAFAR MIR ABDULLAH

Nawab Jafar Mir Abdullah, shown in image with The Bishop and Drums, is a proud direct descendant of the Nawabs. He notes that he and fellow descendants form part of a worldwide association of Nawab descendants.

Mr. Abdullah offered us Indian sweets, delicacies, tea and even a chew of betel nut... which TIMDT eschewed. I jumped in on the betel nut. Drums was willing, but, TIMDT put her foot down.

Nawab Jafar Mir Abdullah is devoted to his Shiite Islamic faith. He recounted for us the story of Karbala.

Karbala is a city in central Iraq best known as the location of the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE, or the shrines of Imam Husayn and Abbas.

Karbala is considered a holy city for Shi'ite Muslims, in the same way as Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. Tens of millions of Shi'ite Muslims visit the site twice a year, rivalling Mecca as a place of pilgrimage.

The martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali is commemorated annually by millions of Shi'ites. Up to eight million pilgrims visit the city to observe ʿĀshūrāʾ (the tenth day of the month of Muharram), which marks the anniversary of Husayn's death, but the main event is the Arbaʿīn (the 40th day after 'Ashura'), where up to 30 million visit the graves. Most of the pilgrims travel on foot from all around Iraq and more than 56 countries.

In 1964, with four fellow students from American University in Cairo, I travelled by third class bus from Damascus to Baghdad with thirty Syrian Shi'ite pilgrims on their way to Karbala. The bus made two or three extended stops in the middle of the desert. The pilgrims sat on the desert floor, prayed and brewed tea.

None of the pilgrims as much as looked at any of us strange, Western, backpacking teenagers...until.... the end of the trip. On entry into Baghdad, the pilgrim's Imam, seated at the front of the bus (we were seated at rear) turned around and smiled at us. At that point every one of the pilgrims, mimicking the Imam, turned around and gave us all a big smile.

I asked Nawab Abdullah (direct male descendants of the original Nawabs carry the nawab title) about sectarian tensions between Muslims and Hindus in India. He said the situation remains well under control. "Muslims and Hindus live peacefully together all over India," he said. "Partition in 1948 was a big mistake," said Mr. Abdullah. "Think how powerful India would be today were she not divided in 1948." I did not push the point by asking about India's new immigration laws which discriminate against Muslims, which laws are the reason for a growing number of demonstrations throughout India.

I asked Drums to recite The Five Pillars of Islam for Mr. Abdullah, which he did successfully. Looking at me Mr. Abdullah, impressed and smiling, exclaimed, "you taught him that? "Yes," I replied.

Above: Gol Darwaza Chowk. Lucknow, India. 13 December 2019.

Enter the old chowk. We dodge motorcycles, motorbikes, and cows. This... is India.

In a crowded, narrow lane, the motorcycles and scooters whip by pedestrians, carts, rickshaws at an unbelievable pace. A street like this would be banned in a western city. Yet, in India, the street thrives... is alive with all manner of human activity. I marvel at the skill of the scooter/cycle riders. Pedestrians stay on the side of the lane, move in their direction, seemingly insoucient to the risks of getting hit. There must be an unwritten modus operendi for both pedestrians and riders that allows each to seemingly show indifference to what the westerner would consider to be common sense safety precautions. I had Drums walk in front of me and was constantly telling him... "stay to the side... bike coming." The Indian pedestrians we were walking with stayed to the side, for sure. But, they seemed to be less outwardly concerned with personal risk in a dangerous area.

As driving in America becomes more safe, it becomes more rote. Many people, who view driving as an chore to be avoided, yearn for the advent of the driverless vehicle. Today, numerous safety features on vehicles inhibit wrong moves... automatic braking, for example. The evolution from the standard to the automatic transmission has rendered driving to become more of a chore than an interesting challenge requiring dexterity and timing. I ask my self, is the reduction of the driving dexterity challenge in America, putting Amercans at a disadvantage in some way to the Indian scooter drivers who use/develop incredible amounts of dexterity and timing skills just to get from one end of the chowk to the other?

By taking all of the challenge out of driving, and shifting that challenge to robotic solutions, are we turning ourselves into the functional equivalent of amoebae?

Above: Neighborhood multi-god, Hindu Temple. Gol Darwaza Chowk. Lucknow, India. 13 December 2019.

Above: Mubeens. Gol Darwaza Chowk. Lucknow, India. 13 December 2019.

Kebabs on the grill.

Above: Mubeens. Gol Darwaza Chowk. Lucknow, India. 13 December 2019.

Lucknow is for kebabs! Here, chicken kebab and buffalo kebab.