Enlightening Pilgrimage of Indian Heritage

A Wish That Came Through

(From the Travelogues of Mathew D. Kunnappilly)

At Dewa

First we went to Dewa, about 20 KM outside the city, to visit the Tomb of Gurban Ali Shah, the father of Sufi saint Waris Ali Shah-a historical place. The annual Dewa fair in the middle of October is very famous. The saint, Waris Shah, started this fair. (This saint died on April 7, 1905) This fair organizes one of the biggest cattle markets in northern India. While going and coming back I asked to be taken through some villages and the driver did. (Never before I had gone through north Indian villages. I shall talk about these villages later.)

Immam Badha

Next we went to see the Immam Badha (Immam Bagh) and the Mosques on the bank of Gomathi River, within Lucknow city. This is an old Palace of the Nawab, now a historical place. Of course, the palace is big. It is a 3-storied building. The center hall is huge and open to the ceiling. There are 3 smaller halls. One is in the Persian motif, the second one in the Chinese motif, and the third one in the Indian motif.

At the first story level the center hall, which is oval shaped, has railings around the walls where people can stand and watch the proceedings down on the ground. The walls have intricate projections on it. The length is 320 feet from one end to the other. If some one strike a match or tare a piece of paper at one end, the one standing at the other end can hear it as if the other person did it standing next to him. The projections on the walls carry the sound.

There is only one entrance from out side (at least for the tourists). First you climb a 45 flight stairs. From there all the walkways are through inside the walls, like through tunnels. Once you take two or three turns, you will loose your orientation completely. With the help of a guide you can come out to the open from any part of that building in7 minutes. Without help, you may never come out. One amazing feature of this dilapidated building is if you put your year against the wall, you could clearly hear any whisper from any of the rooms inside. This is the way the Nawab spotted the conspirators and gossipers, I suppose or why should there be this feature in living
quarters?

Another interesting feature of the palace is, at the 3rd story level there is a window like opening where the place watchman can sit and watch. There are openings on all the walls at a sloping angle. From his seat the watchman can see even a cat walking across the palace gate half a mile away and down. Because it is at a sloping angle no one shall be able to see the watchman even with a binocular.

I was extremely tired. My legs were aching. My feet were sour walking bare foot over stones, sands, broken brick pieces, nails, and even broken glasses. I was ready to leave but our guide would not let us. "You must see the well" he insisted. The well is little away from the palace building. It was dug to have water for the construction of the palace.

We followed him. It was getting dark. There were steps leading down to the well. There were many buildings around the well. There is roof over the well also. The whole thing looked like Dracula's Castle. Bats were all over.

The well is over 80 meters deep. (I think that is what he said) It was almost full. He had a story about the well to tell. During the colonial era the local British agent accused the Nawab of stealing from the treasury. The Nawab out of shame committed suicide. Then the agent demanded the keys to the treasury from his son. The furious prince refused and threw the keys into this well. The British brought in8 pumps and set up to empty the well to recover the keys. After working them for 24 hours the water level went down only 2 inches. Finally, the mighty British had to give it up. The keys are still in the well. "No one knows where the water is coming from into the well," he said. This is what the guide said; at least this is what we understood. This expression, "no one knows" you will hear from the guide quite often anywhere you travel in India. This is to over emphasize the terrific workmanship of the past. There is no mystery about the water in this well. This well sits below the Gomathi River and the water is filling in from the river.

Finally, we concluded our visit and headed home. It was about 8 pm. On the way, within the city, I noticed a beautiful structure sitting in a nicely landscaped terrain. I asked what it was and told that was a Temple. I said  that I would like to see it. We were going on a one-way street. So, we had to go around and come back and we did.

Next: Ramakrishna Math