For many of us, it is a goosebump-inducing sight to drive by the gun-mounted jeep named after Param Vir Chakra awardee Abdul Hamid. The jeep was used by infantry troops to destroy the enemy’s Patton tanks in the 1965 India-Pakistan war. ‘Vir’, the sobriquet Hamid earned, destroyed eight of these.
It is equally pride-inducing to read the billboard about Lieutenant Premindra Singh Bhagat, the Victoria Cross recipient, named the ‘saviour of Lucknow’ for his brilliant plan to plunge boulder-laden trucks into the Gomti when it flooded in 1971, thus plugging a potential highly destructive breach.
The Lucknow Cantonment, which holds these and many other reminders of the country’s bravest and finest, is so located that no one en route to the airport (from most parts of the city) can miss it. The Lucknow Gazetteer puts the area of this settlement at 6,700 acres. Among its many distinctions is India’s longest racecourse (3.5km) and the Kothi Bibiapur (a country residence built by Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula), which has the country’s first serpentine wooden staircase. There are features it shares with other cities—such as the Top Khana (a place for storing artillery) bazaar and a quaint club named Mohammed Bagh, where little bells are still used to summon servers. It also includes some head scratchers—among them, a Gun Factory area, despite the fact that no such factory existed in the cantonment.
Denne historien er fra February 04, 2024-utgaven av THE WEEK India.
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Denne historien er fra February 04, 2024-utgaven av THE WEEK India.
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William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.
Garden by the sea
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RECRUITERS SPEAK
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MORAL COMPASS
The need to infuse ethics into India's MBA landscape
B-SCHOOLS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT INDIAN ECONOMY IS GOING TO WITNESS A TREMENDOUS GROWTH
INTERVIEW - Prof DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
COURSE CORRECTION
India's best b-schools are navigating tumultuous times. Hurdles include lower salaries offered to their graduates and students misusing AI