A Final Adaab

Eid will not be the same in Lucknow this time without Jafar Mir Abdullah, 72, who passed away last Wednesday. Abdullah was affectionately called Nawab (ruler) and the centre table in his home was piled with goodies every Eid. he welcomed visitors to join him in celebrating the end of the period of fasting during the month of Ramzan that culminated in a feast on the festival of Eid, falling this year on Saturday.

Dressed in traditional clothes including an embroidered cap, a thin muslin tunic matched with leggings in crisp white cotton, the Nawab would greet one and all with the traditional ‘adaab’, a gesture implying a common culture rather than a different religion.

Whether he was a real, or fake nawab is another story. The truth is that his genteel ways and dapper dress took all those who knew him to times when monarchs had made Lucknow their home.

The Nawab was a cultural icon. He had probably taken upon himself the responsibility of not allowing nostalgia to make life in Lucknow sadder than it is. His presence in the city had allowed Lucknow to remain connected to the city’s past.

Educated at the Anglicised La Martiniere Boys College, and the Aligarh Muslim University the Nawab also had a degree in law from the Lucknow University. However, he turned his back on all run of the mill kind of professions to teach himself history.

He chose a traditional lifestyle, and as an adult he had liked nothing better to do than to talk about the times of monarchs, and to portray royalty on stage, in cinema and on YouTube.

He can be glimpsed in most period films about Lucknow like ‘Shatranj Ke Khilari’ and ‘Umrao Jaan’.

The late Nawab had lived in one corner of the Sheesh Mahal (palace of mirrors) that was part of the sprawling Daulat Khana royal complex built by Lucknow’s first ruler Asafudaula as a private residence.

According to historian Neeta Das, the Daulat Khana was the first villa type building in 1775 during the reign of Asafudaula who wished to live in a house that was similar to those in which Europeans had lived.

He chose Captain Marsack, in charge of one of the royal battalions in Lucknow to design his home. French engineer and amateur architect Antoine-Louis Polier, the court architect, helped to build the house in which Asafudaula had lived from 1789.

A walk within the falling apart walls of the Daulat Khana with the Nawab was an experience most special. He would point out architectural gems lost in the debris of neglect with great love.

At least for the past three decades, the Nawab had been the unofficial spokesperson of Lucknow’s unique lifestyle. He was the best person to speak about everything that made Lucknow different from other cities.

And everything that is precious in the city like colourful cultural activities, cuisine, crafts and an inclusive way of life where spirituality was encouraged and religion was not used as a weapon to hate the neighbour.

Austria based Indian origin film maker Sandeep Kumar has fond memories of being invited by the Nawab to his home in 2018.

“This was my first meeting with a nawab. I was totally taken aback by the ambience of the house and the presence of the man,” Kumar told The Citizen.

The film maker’s award winning film ‘Mehrunisa’ was shot in Lucknow with great input given to him by the Nawab. The film had used plenty of treasures borrowed from the rich collection of antiques which the Nawab lends to cinema and theatre productions.

“We used a big portrait of his father as a memory of an important protagonist in the film. I guess he was proud to be associated with our Austro-Indian film as he would always comment on social media platforms when he heard that ‘Mehrunisa’ had won yet another accolade at international film festivals. I cannot imagine Lucknow without the Nawab,” said Kumar.

Author Kamlesh Tripathi remembers the Nawab as his literature friend who was his best guide on Lucknow. “I gathered great insights from him while I was writing ‘Aadab Lucknow: Fond Memories.’ As a blurb for the same book the Nawab wrote: ‘khuda aabad rakhe Lucknow phir bhi ganimat hai nazar koi na koi achi surat aa he jati hai.

(Long live Lucknow, a city whose redeeming feature is that off and on it is still possible to sight a pretty face here)’.

Fake Or Real?

There will not be another Nawab like him, his admirers say. However, others including some of his relatives called him a ‘fake nawab’ whose paternal roots go back to Patna.

One winter afternoon over a cup of piping hot tea, and freshly baked biscuits, the Nawab told The Citizen that his father’s side of the family indeed came to Lucknow from Patna. But his maternal family traces its roots to Razia Begum, daughter of Nawab Syed Muhammad Ali Shah, the grandfather of Wajid Ali Shah, the last ruler of Lucknow who was dethroned by the British in 1856.

He said that his family has been living in the palace complex since the coronation of Muhammad Ali Shah to the throne of Lucknow in 1837. The Nawab said that many of his relatives were employed at the court of the later rulers of Lucknow.

Today, not much is left of the Daulat Khana palace complex. Each successive ruler of Lucknow till 1857 built his own palace as his residence while family members and employees of the court in different eras were accommodated in the palace complex.

Although the Nawab is no more, his work in cinema has immortalised him, and made sure that he will never be forgotten by anyone who knew him.

To Shoot Or Not To Shoot

Trust a comic to lift the veil of fear that clouds the streets of Uttar Pradesh (UP) today. After the recent shoot outs in UP, a stand up comic took to stage to wonder why the state is so interested in an all-in-one film city scheduled to be built in Lucknow at an enormous cost?

To make at least some shootings in the state legal, came the wisecrack from the same comic making his next joke drown in unending laughter.