Visiting the spot where the so called Mutiny of 1857 started in Lucknow

 My short video shot at the place where the so called Mutiny of 1857 started in Lucknow no the night of May 30  1857

Trump’s tariffs are new; but is enough being done by India to promote exports?

 

Trump’s tariffs are something new but precious little has been done in the last decade to promote exports in India. In the last few years specially after implementation of GST regime exports have become particularly complex specially for the small exporters. Here we have to consider the fact that a major portion of China’s exports are by small exporters. While I am not an expert on China’s export policies I did gather some information from small time exporters. These exporters mainly sell online on cross border selling platforms like amazon, ebay and a few others. Some of them have never travelled outside India but only get orders online. Talking to these people I got to know that the government does not have any policy on cross border selling. The laws specially GST laws are so complex that even export import agents, chartered accountants and even senior officers of commercial taxes department do not seem to have clarity on laws concerning cross border selling for small exporters. To add to the woes small time exporters have to register their business at eight ports to even start a business. Registration is very difficult and only offline registration by a import export agent actually works. These people charge rupees eight thousand to rupees fifteen thousand per port for registration. Registration can be done online too but the site does not work smoothly and it can sometimes a whole day to get registration done on a single port if at all. Exporters feel that it looks like a ploy by the department to keep away small time exporters and only encourage big businesses.

Exporters also said that it is a golden period for Indian exports if only the government does enough because rupee has become weak and sellers can offer lower dollar rates to importers abroad than their competitors in other countries.

Some exporters also talked about the era of P Chidambaram who made licensing procedure and exports in general very simple and could be credited with giving the decisive push to Indian exports specially by small exporters.

Hope the government formulates a robust export policy to combat not only Trump’s tariffs but the evil of babudom and red tapism always plaguing Indian exports. It would require several bureaucrats with deep knowledge of trade and commerce to implement a revolutionary exports policy to reap the benefits of a higher dollar rate versus the rupee.

क्यों लगा रहता है लखनऊ के कुछ महत्वपूर्ण रास्तों पर जाम क्या अंग्रेज़ों की हरकतों का है ये अंजाम ?

 

लखनऊ झेल रहा है अंग्रेजी हुकूमत के परिणाम

कभी आपने सोचा है कि लखनऊ में छतर मंज़िल के सामने, सिकंदरबाग चौराहे पर और सफ़ेद बारादरी के पास हमेशा ट्रैफिक जाम क्यों लगा रहता है ? शायद इसलिए कि ये रास्ते लखनऊ को आबाद करने वाले नवाबों ने कभी बनवाये ही नहीं थे।  इन रास्तों को अंग्रेज़ों ने ज़बरदस्ती लखनऊ की बेहतरीन इमारतों को गिरा कर बनाया। 

साल १८५७ में अंग्रेज़ रेजीडेंसी में फंसे हुए थे ।  वे ३० जून १८५७ की करारी हार से उबर भी न पाए थे की उनपर रेजीडेंसी के चारों ओर से हमला चालू हो गया जो लगभग तीन महीने चलता रहा उसके बाद ही कानपुर से उनकी मदद को एक छोटी अंग्रेज़ सेना पहुँच पायी ।  ऐसा इसलिए हुआ क्यूंकि लखनऊ में आलमबाग से लेकर रेजीडेंसी तक हर घर, हर गली में क्रांतिकारी छुपे बैठे थे। सितम्बर १८५७ में रेजीडेंसी में फंसे अंग्रेज़ों की मदद करने आयी सेना, जिसमें अपने समय के महानतम समझे जाने वाले क्रूर अफसर नील और हेवलॉक थे, पर क्रांतिकारियों ने इतना ज़बरदस्त हमला किया की बजाय मदद कर पाने के वो भी  रेजीडेंसी में फंस गयी।  इस हमले में ब्रिगेडियर जनरल नील बेगम हज़रत महल पार्क के दक्षिणी ओर स्थित नील गेट पर चढ़े एक क्रांतिकारी की गोली का शिकार हो गया।

इन घटनाओं की वजह से नवंबर १८५७ में जब कॉलिन कैम्पबेल ने रेजीडेंसी में फंसे अंग्रेज़ों को निकाला तो उन्होंने खुली सड़क से लखनऊ में घुसने की कोशिश नहीं की बल्कि इमारतों में बारूद के धमाके करके रास्ता बनाते हुए वो आगे बढ़े ।

१८५८ के अंत तक लखनऊ अंग्रेज़ों के कब्ज़े में था और वो धीरे धीरे लखनऊ में महलों के घने जाल को कम करने लगे।  रेजीडेंसी में घुसने में सबसे ज़्यादा समस्या उस स्थान से पहले बने महलों की वजह से आयी इसलिए सबसे पहले छतर मंज़िल के आसपास बनी दीवारों को ध्वस्त किया गया फिर बड़ी और छोटी छतर मंज़िल के बीच में बनी एक बहुत ही खूबसूरत फव्वारों से सजी संगमरमर की बारादरी को ध्वस्त कर दिया गया और बीच से सड़क निकाल दी गयी।  उल्लेखनीय है की ये छोटी सी इमारत इतनी खूबसूरत थी की लार्ड ऑकलैंड की बहन जो की नवाब साहब द्वारा महल देखने के लिए निमंत्रित थी इस ईमारत की खूबसूरती देख कर मंत्रमुग्ध हो गयी और उसने लिखा “पूरे हिंदुस्तान में शायद ये अकेली ऐसी ईमारत है जिसपर मेरा दिल आ गया है और सोचती हूँ कि अगर ये मेरी होती तो कितना अच्छा होता।”  आज का कमिश्नर ऑफिस छोटी छतर मंज़िल  के एक भाग पर बना है  ।

सिकंदर बाग नवाब वाजिद अली शाह द्वारा बनवाया गया एक आलीशान बाग था। आज जो सिकंदरबाग हम देखते हैं वो १८५७ के सिकंदरबाग का केवल बीस प्रतिशत भाग है। सिकंदरबाग के पूर्वी छोर पर तोपों से एक गड्ढा कर अंग्रेज़ सिकंदरबाग में घुसे थे। यह स्थान अंग्रेज़ों ने एक स्मारक के रूप में विकसित किया। इस स्मारक को अभी भी ऍन बी आर आई के अंदर देखा जा सकता है। १८५८ के बाद सिकंदर बाग को ध्वस्त करके उसे बीच से सड़क निकाल दी गयी।

कैसरबाग़ नवाब वाजिद अली शाह का एक हसीन सपना था। ये चारों तरफ से आम आदमी के लिए बंद था।  इसके पश्चिमी छोर पर नाट्य प्रस्तुति आयोजित की जाती थी और शायद केवल इस लिए एक बहुत ही खूबसूरत ईमारत जिसका नाम बड़ी लंका था को बनवाया गया था। बाद में ध्वस्त करके बड़ी लंका  की जगह अमीरुद्दौला लाइब्रेरी बनायी गयी। उत्तर की ओर भी कैसरबाग़ बंद था। चूँकि अंग्रेज़ों पर सबसे ज़्यादा गोलाबारी कैसरबाग़ से ही हुई थी इसलिए अंग्रेज़ों ने इसको खोल दिया और बीच से सड़क निकाल दी।

लखनऊ नवाबी समय में भी एक बहुत ही सोच समझ और सूझ बूझ से बनाया गया शहर था लेकिन अंग्रेज़ों ने जान बूझ कर इसकी इमारतों को ध्वस्त कर दिया क्यूंकि उनमें छुपे क्रांतिकारियों ने बहुत से अंग्रेज़ सिपाही और अफसरों की जान ली थी ।

इसीलिए हम देखते हैं कि प्रारम्भ में जिन रास्तों की बात हुई थी उनपर अभी तक भीषण जाम लगता है और शायद आगे भी लगता रहेगा ।

अनुराग कुमार 'अविनाश' 

लेखक एक उपन्यासकार हैं और १८५७ के लखनऊ पर दो उपन्यास लिख चुके हैं ।

अंग्रेज़ों की भारत में सबसे बड़ी हार जिसको इतिहास के पन्नों से गायब कर दिया गया

 

लखनऊ के इतिहास का शायद सबसे महत्वपूर्ण युद्ध चिनहट की लड़ाई है जो ३० जून 1857 को चिनहट के पास इस्माइल गंज में लड़ा गया था। उससे पहले लखनऊ के इतिहास में शायद कभी इतना महत्वपूर्ण युद्ध नहीं लड़ा गया अंग्रेज़ों ने इस युद्ध को इतिहास से करीब करीब गायब कर दिया क्यूंकि ये उनकी सबसे शर्मनाक हार थी वह भी उस शहर में जिसके राजा को वो नाचने गाने वाला और कायर करार कर के हटा चुके थे। वो अपनी इस हार से स्तब्ध थे और कभी भी पूरी तरह से इसको स्वीकार नहीं कर पाए की भारतीय उनको उखाड़ फेंकने के लिए एक हो चुके थे और पीछे हटने वाले नहीं थे।

इस युद्ध में एक तरफ ब्रिटिश फ़ौज थी जो की कुछ ही दिन पहले रूस को क्रीमिया की लड़ाई में हरा के लौटी थी और दुनिया की सबसे शक्तिशाली सेना थी और दूसरी तरफ हिंदुस्तानी स्वतंत्रता सेनानी थे जिनको कोई विशेष प्रशिक्षण नहीं मिला था हालाँकि उनके सेनापति बरकत अहमद ईस्ट इंडिया कंपनी की सेना के एक बहुत अनुभवी अफसर रह चुके थे और युद्ध की सभी बारीकियों को समझते थे।  इसके विपरीत ब्रिटिश सेना सर हेनरी लॉरेंस के नेतृत्वा में लड़ रही थी जोकि बहुत अनुभवी थे लेकिन वो काफी सालोँ से फौजी ज़िन्दगी से अलग थे और एक सिविलियन अफसर बन चुके थे।  हेनरी लॉरेंस का स्वास्थ भी ठीक नहीं रहता था और मौसम तपती हुई जून की गर्मी का था जो की अंग्रेज़ों के लिए जानलेवा साबित हुआ । २७ जून यानि तीन दिन पहले अँगरेज़ कानपुर हार चुके थे और नाना साहब के सामने आत्मसमर्पण कर चुके थे इस घटना से भी लखनऊ के क्रांतिकारियों को लगा की ये शायद सही मौका होगा अंग्रेज़ों को उखाड़ फेंकने का ।

अपने कुछ जूनियर ऑफिसर्स जैसे की मार्टिन गब्बिन्स जो की गुप्तचर विभाग का मुखिया था, के दबाव डालने पर हेनरी लॉरेंस ने लखनऊ के बहुत नज़दीक आ गयी एक क्रांतिकारियों की सेना पर हमले की तैयारी की। इस छोटी सी फ़ौज जिसमे करीब ४०० से ६०० लोग ही थे फैज़ाबाद रोड से चिनहट की और आगे बढ़ी लेकिन इस्माइल गंज पहुँचने पर इस फ़ौज पर एक ज़बरदस्त हमला हुआ क्यूंकि भारतीय फ़ौज के पास काफी तोपें थी और वो अँगरेज़ सेना से दस गुना ज़्यादा बड़ी थी जिसमे बंगाल आर्मी के प्रशिक्षित और पुराने सैनिक और तोपखाने की अच्छी जानकारी रखने वाले तोपची भी थे। कुछ ही समय में इतनी ज़बरदस्त गोली बारी हुई की अँगरेज़ सेना के पेर उखड गए क्यूंकि क्रन्तिकारी ब्रिटिश सेना की तरह ही किलाबंदी करके गोली चला रहे थे।  उनके पास एक दर्जन तोपें भी थी तत्कालीन प्रत्यक्षदर्शी तो यहाँ तक कहते हैं की उसमे नीली वर्दी पहने रूस के सैनिक भी थे क्यूंकि रूस क्रिमीआ की लड़ाई से खार खाया हुआ था और अंग्रेज़ों से बदला लेना चाहता था।

हेनरी लॉरेंस बहुत पहले ही समझ गए की वो बुरी तरह से हारने वाले हैं इसलिए उन्होंने जॉन इंग्लिस के हाथ में कमान सौंप कर अपनी बची खुची फ़ौज को सुरक्षित वापस रेजीडेंसी पहुँचाने की कोशिश में अपनी सारी शक्ति लगाई। उन्होंने कुकरैल पुल जो की लखनऊ पहुँचने का एक मात्र पुल था पर अपने तोपची लगा दिए और भारतीय क्रांतिकारियों को डराने के लिए झूठ मूठ उन तोपों पर आग सुलगाई रक्खी क्यूंकि गोला बारूद ख़त्म हो चूका था।

  उधर अँगरेज़ सेना के तोपखाने के हिंदुस्तानी सिपाहियों ने भारतीय सेना में शामिल होना ठीक समझा और अपनी तोपों के चमड़े के पट्टे काट दिए जिससे घोड़े उन्हें न खींच पाएं। इन तोपों पर बाद में हिंदुस्तानी सेना ने कब्ज़ा कर लिया। कहा जाता है इसी में से एक तोप के गोले से हेनरी लॉरेंस की रेजीडेंसी में चार दिन बाद मौत हो गयी।  

दिन के बारह बजे ये ऐतिहासिक युद्ध समाप्त हो चूका था और करीब ३०० ब्रिटिश आर्मी के सैनिक या तो मर चुके थे या गायब थे यानि आधी सेना समाप्त हो चुकी थी।  रेजीडेंसी में एक विजयी सेना का इंतज़ार कर रही अफसरों की पत्नियां इस तबाही को सुन कर और देख कर न केवल आतंकित थी बल्कि कुछ चीख चिल्ला रही थी और अपने बच्चों को सीने से लगा कर घुटनो के बल बैठ के प्रार्थना कर रही थी

अँगरेज़ इतिहासकार मानते हैं की खुले युद्ध में अंग्रेज़ों की इतनी ज़बरदस्त हार भारत में कभी भी नहीं हुई थी। युद्ध के बाद किसी तरह गिरते पड़ते लू और तपते हुए सूरज की तपिश झेलते हुए अँगरेज़ लगभग रेंगते हुए रेजीडेंसी के पास पहुंचे और उसमे से काफी रेजीडेंसी के अंदर घुसने से पहले ही मौसम की मार से गिर कर मर गए।

इसके बाद हिन्दुस्तानियों ने रेजीडेंसी को घेर कर रखा और कई बड़े अँगरेज़ अफसर कभी रेजीडेंसी के बाहर नहीं निकल पाए, उनकी कब्रें  रेजीडेंसी के अंदर ही बन गयी। बाद में अंग्रेज़ों ने चिनहट की लड़ाई और रेजीडेंसी के घेराव का ज़बरदस्त बदला लिया और लखनऊ को बर्बाद कर डाला।

तत्कालीन अँगरेज़ स्त्रियों की डेरी और पत्रों से लगता है की ये युद्ध बहुत ही भयानक था और ३० जून तो केवल उस यातना का आरम्भ था जो की पूरे १४८ दिन चली और जिसमे कई महत्वपूर्ण अँगरेज़ अफसर मारे गए जैसे हेनरी हेवलॉक और जेम्स  जॉर्ज  स्मिथ  नील जो शायद जनरल डायर के प्रेरणा स्तोत्र थे और जिनकी हैवानियत को शब्दों में बयान करना मुश्किल है।  ये दोनों ही लखनऊ में चिर निद्रा में सो रहे हैं।

चिनहट के युद्ध पर अभी बहुत शोध होना बाकी है लेकिन ये हमेशा भारतियों को अन्याय के प्रति मिलकर आवाज़ उठाने की प्रेरणा देता रहेगा।

 

अनुराग कुमार 'अविनाश'  

लेखक एक उपन्यासकार हैं और १८५७ के लखनऊ पर दो उपन्यास लिख चुके हैं ।

 

 

The typical Indian road the only gift that Indians ever received from its rulers!

 

I have a feeling that well made roads are a very recent phenomenon perhaps Adolf Hitler perfected this for obvious reasons. I would imagine that across cultures and countries till about two hundred years back, only highways or roads leading to palaces or main markets were well made and rest of the roads in the city or villages were primitive having little resemblance to the roads we see today. Perhaps in so called poor countries it is still that way but I am sure it is changing fast.

In Lucknow the city where I live in north India due to influx of a large number of people seeking work and perhaps business the roads are virtually crammed with vehicles of all sizes; also pavement sellers have increased in geometric proportions and this has made me think a lot about Indian roads. Our roads in India are free – free in all senses of the word though vehicle owners have to pay a hefty road tax to be accurate. Our roads are probably the only gift we have received from our rulers in the last thousand years or maybe more. You can block one whole stretch of road and have a marriage party there and keep the road blocked for even a couple of days. You can block it for religious purposes like a jagran or offering namaz or Ganesh puja. You can block it permanently by constructing a mosque or temple in various stages step by step or even a mazaar or a mini temple. You can block a part of the road and construct your lawn on it but in that case unless you are connected to a political party you may be fined but you can always get a stay from a court for that. You can block a historical building’s part jutting out on the road and have your shop there as I have seen in Lucknow. The list is endless! Oh I just remembered in one area in Lucknow after blocking part of the road people actually built a house and constructed a bridge connecting the blocked part to their home and they park their car on that bridge and this was replicated several times so much so that the government actually widened that road and built a very smooth and high quality road on that encroached road and in fact created a whole bypass road there; so the way was actually shown by the encroachers. In another area in Lucknow pavement shop keepers became so numerous and so strong in one old market of Lucknow that the government actually had to give them well constructed shops for free before removing them from the market! These are the rich benefits of encroaching upon roads in India. Stay tuned for more interesting stories I am still compiling them and feel free to add yours in comments section.

The legend of half man half horse creature

 

Most horror stories, at least in India do not have origins or ends; they are like rivers which flow continuously without breaks, gathering in their great volume lots of material which adds to their complexity and fascination. Sometimes however a river becomes dead because what feeds it is gone; it may be a glacier or rain; that is what also happens to some horror stories, when people become more rational they stop passing the story along and adding to it their own bits of imagination: that is exactly what happened to the story of the half man and half horse creature haunting the Spaulding bridge in India.

            The tall man with an aquiline nose and beetle brows could hardly be restrained even by five well built soldiers of the English army. He was very excited and was shouting something at regular intervals that sounded like a warning. His horse, a jet black Arab was very restless and could hardly be kept in check.

            Brigadier Hawking was in charge of garrison at Harnau the city that the English army had captured a few months back.  What he thought was a minor incident at first, looked like it would blow up into a riot if not a battle. The English army was stationed across the river in a cantonment about six miles from the river. Most of the town was on the other side of the river. The cantonment was not in the main town because technically the town belonged to an Indian Nawab and it was only after the Nawab was deposed that the English could call the town their own and establish a new cantonment. But before this could happen the people rebelled against the English and fought a fierce battle which the English won but not before they had lost a large number of their best officers. The English army realized that the weakest point in their supply chain was the narrow and dilapidated bridge over the river which neither allowed troops nor carriages to move fast enough. Moving heavy artillery was another big problem. So they did a quick survey and decided to demolish the old bridge and build a large modern one in its place and also to move the cantonment to a large location inside the city: the former was an easier job but the latter a lengthy one so they took up the former with great zeal and this is how all this started.

            During the rule of the Nawabs public works were in the hands of rogue elements who did whatever they wanted and presented the bills; if they were at all audited the rogue contractors would bribe the auditors too! However with English army engineers this was not possible; they had to build the bridge where the river was the narrowest. If they built the bridge at any other site the cost would go up dramatically and when the project would be inspected sometime in future, those in charge were liable to be punished heavily.

            After a careful survey the army engineers identified a spot near the old bridge which could be used for constructing the new bridge but that made it imperative that the old bridge be demolished as it was too close to proposed site of the new bridge, almost touching it. The old bridge was duly demolished using gunpowder. The debris was cleared in a week and all was set for digging foundation for pillars for the new bridge when it occurred to engineers that they would have to demolish a mazaar too! This was rather problematic since two or three caretakers in charge of upkeep of the mazaar had already objected to construction activity saying that the eternal peace of the peer in the mazaar was being disturbed by huge demolition and construction activity. This had been reported to top authorities who had ordered all work to be put on hold.

            Captain Hawking had carefully studied the report and was now looking at the man with immense power; he was a tall bearded man with a green cap and a matching green dress.

“Dear Winslow if I am not mistaken I have seen the guy before as also his horse which to be honest is a beauty”, said Captain Hawking putting his pipe to his lips.

“I agree with you Sir, but only just; I myself thought so, we all have seen such characters during the just concluded Mutiny or should I say the Great Mutiny for it was perhaps the greatest of the Mutinies till now. These are religious fanatics acting as soldiers of the faith and have very little if any fear of death, they are generally dressed in green and bearded but that is only a superficial resemblance. The guy we have here does not belong to these parts; he has come from somewhere in extreme west of India upon hearing of imminent destruction of the so called mazaar as his ustaad belonged to some sect created by the saint or peer buried in that mazaar. He has visited this area for the first time as his ustaad had instructed him to stay in the west of India and spread teachings of the sect I mentioned before. Being from a warlike tribe martial qualities have come to him naturally as in those areas only he survives who can use firearms or knives best”, said Colonel Winslow

“Well! So what do you suggest Colonel Winslow what should we do with him, I do not want another religious fanaticism induced riot here, I have had enough for a lifetime during the Great Mutiny as you rightly call it: God knows how we were able to crawl our way out of it, pitched battle is one thing but your enemies climbing out of every hole and attacking you with anything they have got and anytime they choose is a different thing altogether. Help me on this Winslow, I am an old man now”, said Brigadier Hawking who was new to the parts and had been brought in from retirement for help in quelling the Great Mutiny.

“Sire I thought of buying time but that is not going to help because we are going to build the bridge here anyway, till then I think the only thing we can do is to put this person in jail in some unknown location and maybe release him when the bridge is made. We have to do all this off the record as we just cannot afford another inquiry only months after the Great Mutiny”, said Colonel Winslow in a cold blooded way.

“Do whatever it takes Winslow! I know you can bring it off! You have a carte blanche from me just make sure it is quiet!” said Brigadier Hawking in a dismissive tone.

So the man was taken to a secret prison in the dead of the night far away from the city a prison which had housed all undeclared prisoners from the time of the Mughals; the English had a way of blending into things instead of creating their own poisons. Some people suggested that the man’s horse be killed but the officer in charge laughed it off and just released the horse in the forest as it acted too wild to be of any use to them.

Two platoons of army were stationed near the site of the bridge for the entire duration of the construction as the English did not want to take any chances with local rebellions after the Great Mutiny. The entire mazaar was removed without trace after cordoning off the area. In less than a year the bridge was ready, painted and inaugurated by the Commander in Chief. 

The mysterious bearded man with green cap had been quite a handful in his place of incarceration and a huge amount had to be spent to maintain military personnel just to guard him. He had a new unpleasant surprise in store almost every day for those guarding him and had injured quite a few of the jail staff. He would not eat for days or rant off nonstop in his language which no one understood. He had no connection with the outside world but that did not break his spirit. He was not tortured physically because his guards were afraid of him and also did not have the orders for torture, they treated him more or less like a beast and maintained a safe distance from him

            One day he disappeared, taking advantage of the very thing his captors thought would help keep him in captivity – water. The jail was situated on a mini island, perhaps artificial, made by the Mughals for their ‘special’ enemies. Over hundreds of years the drainage system had become defective and water had corroded and made small passages into big tunnel like structures. The prisoner perhaps studied the sound of the flowing water very carefully, it being absolutely noiseless in the jail and the prisoner having nothing to do but listen to sounds. No one really knew how he did it but he escaped the prison fort and swam to mainland and disappeared without a trace; later it was found that his accomplices had been living near the jail since his incarceration and had his own black Arab ready for him. The horse had of course found his way ‘home’ as all intelligent animals do.

The news was sent to the head quarters in Harnau which ordered the prison staff to mount no search and to forget about it all and remove all traces and records concerning the incarceration of the prisoner, the bridge being up and functional they felt there was no need to spend another penny on the disappeared prisoner.

            Some months later while Brigadier Hawking was visiting the newly built Spaulding Bridge along with a dignitary he was shot dead in a hail of bullets by the mysterious man and his associates. The mysterious man in green also had the audacity to put his foot on the prostrated Brigadier Hawking’s body and raise his arms in a show of victory. He then quickly disappeared along with his associates on the highway riding on his legendary horse. He was pursued but it was too late and the assassin’s black Arab was too fast!

Brigadier Hawking died on the spot, none of the people who were shot survived, the aims of attacking party were lethal and they seemed to be highly trained marksmen.

            Colonel Winslow’s leg shook as he heard of the news; it was a huge blow to him but he composed himself as he by default had become the highest authority in the land. He immediately despatched search parties with strict orders to bring the culprit dead or alive and started preparing for a state funeral for Brigadier Hawking. He felt like a child who had been orphaned, he had become accustomed to living under the shadow of the seasoned soldier and literally felt like weeping with the double blow of losing a father figure and having the immense responsibility of ruling the land teeming with what he thought were delinquent elements. Only his military training kept him from weeping like a child when he first saw the prostrate body of Brigadier Hawking the dead man’s mouth open in a ghastly manner as if from shock.

            After the burial Colonel Winslow wept openly in his room and banged his head several times on his table, he was clueless about what to do about the assassination but as hours passed by he resolved to punish the culprits in a way that should set an example for the ‘rebels’.

            While fleeing the attackers had left behind pamphlets which warned people against using the bridge as it had been constructed on the mazaar of a saint and was sure to bring bad luck to those crossing it, they also warned people of the vengeance by followers of the saint whose mazaar had been destroyed. The English did their best to hide the pamphlets but the news got leaked and in fact in a week the whole town knew every small detail about the events connected to Spaulding bridge.

            As happens in extreme emotions Colonel Winslow forgot all about his diplomatic training and became very angry when his search parties returned empty handed. He had the men declared outlaws and a huge reward was put on their heads. Soon the city’s streets had posters announcing the reward on the bearded man and his associates.

            Nothing happened for weeks but one day a beggar delivered a crumpled paper with a rough map of hideout of the wanted bearded man. The text in Persian said “Your enemy is my enemy too! I don’t want your money!”

            The English army surrounded the location and captured the bearded man. Colonel Winslow would have loved to cut the man down with his sword but he knew that it would be a bad idea. He began to think of ways to finish off the person who had killed the father figure who had trained him for years and who had been his only inspiration throughout his career. Against his better judgement, since emotion had clouded it, he ordered a public hanging of the bearded man on the Spaulding bridge. His immediate juniors knew that advising the Colonel against his intent would be suicidal since they knew well how much the Colonel hated the assassin due to personal reasons.

            On the appointed day traffic on the bridge was stopped after dawn and all the arrangements made, Colonel Winslow’s juniors begged him not to go to the scene of execution to which he agreed but instructed them to have the event photographed. The bearded man was hung at the gallows which were hastily erected and dismantled with double haste. Two of his associates were also hanged, as instructed their bodies were buried in unknown locations within the hour. The only highlight of the executions was that the bearded man said nothing, his face was stony and expressionless but he put the noose around his own neck, again without any expression of emotion. Just as he was about to be hanged to the horror of all present his famed black Arab appeared out of nowhere like a storm and almost smashed the gallows but a hail of bullets by the guards present cut him down. The bearded man looked relieved to see the fate of the horse as if it was now all set to join him in his own long journey.

            The central government however was very angry with Colonel Winslow’s action as the resources of the home country had been put to great stress in quelling the Great Mutiny only a few months back and the emotional officer almost started another one. The intelligence department newly created sent a confidential report that posters swearing vengeance for execution of the bearded man had already come up in lanes and by lanes near Spaulding Bridge. The government was very sensitive to such incidents as before the Great Mutiny sequence of events were similar. Colonel Winslow was strongly advised unofficially to accept an assignment in the government back home as a ‘reward’ for services rendered during the Great Mutiny. Colonel Winslow never regretted his actions and was almost relieved to be rid of the immense responsibility of controlling a populace full of ‘delinquent elements’ and sailed home the next month being relieved by a younger and shrewder officer. What sealed the government’s decision was the intelligence report of Colonel Winslow’s intent of displaying the bearded man’s severed head on the Spaulding Bridge!

            The new administrator was General Stadman, who when informed of posters promising vengeance for the dead bearded man famously said, “Ignore the damn posters!” The city needed rebuilding and General Stadman was just the man for the job being related to a lot of people in the construction trade! He loved his job and his relatives loved him.

Devout Muslims at first did not use the Spaulding Bridge but used a bridge of boats which was reclaimed by them and repaired at private expense. When this was brought to the notice of General Stadman who said again “Ignore it! We built the bridge for ourselves not for them anyway; if they want to use it they are welcome to do so but if they can make private arrangements it is even better”. New entrants to the city of Harnau from the northern side knew nothing about all this and used the Spaulding Bridge freely.

Old English officers in India with a deep knowledge of religions in India were very critical of project engineers who surveyed and proposed site for Spaulding Bridge and opined that it was imperative that the mazaar should have been left alone regardless of the cost to the government because a government had no option but to respect the feelings and beliefs of the populace it planned to govern! The aforementioned however was classified information and government only planned to learn from the obvious faux pas but do nothing about what was essentially over and done with! The central government believed that removal of Colonel Winslow brought the matter to an effective end!

            Trouble started in the winter of the year following the violent incidents at Spaulding Bridge. Harnau was notorious for extremes of weather. While in summers the sun literally burned down the crops in fields and forced people to remain indoors throughout the day; in winters due to extreme cold the poor died like flies having little to fight the icy winds and occasional icy rain. Places close to the river that ran alongside the city were also affected by a thick envelope of fog which made movement of carriages almost impossible and as such after sundown few people ventured near the river not only because of the cold but for fear of being robbed. The most vulnerable point in the whole city was Spaulding Bridge! Prior to the bridge all structures were barely a few meters above the level of water and fog rarely covered them but somehow Spaulding Bridge which was way above water level to allow passage of large boats and small ships was not only enveloped in fog but a kind of miasma seemed to hang about it only due to its altitude and proximity to a large body of water which was by no means clean!

            By dusk even those who had pretensions of being rational and objective could not but marvel at the ghostly picture the Spaulding Bridge presented being almost entirely invisible due to the fog and the said miasma! Burning of a large number of fires for cooking along the bank of the river made matters worse for visibility on the bridge!

            At first a couple of incidents on the bridge seemed isolated! A beggar leaped to his death from the bridge and a week afterwards an opium addict shouting “Ghost! Devil on a horse is after me save me!” and a lot of gibberish ran as if for his life away from the bridge but collapsed on the roadside and died - his eyes wide open! Then two weeks later a whole bullock cart fell off the bridge, something incredible as the bridge had high railings, the cart would have to be pushed off by immense force for such an accident: ironically a child of four or five whose family died in the accident survived and it was perhaps he who gave origin to the legend of the half human half horse creature which haunted the bridge by saying as if amused “Half human half animal threw our cart in the river as we made him angry by crossing his bridge without permission”.

In India of those days people had little to do except indulge in gossip the whole day specially in a town like Harnau: they lapped up the words of the child and created their own elaborate stories out of it. The whole city talked of nothing but Spaulding Bridge and the creature which haunted it. No Indian soul, at least the civilians ventured onto the bridge after dusk. The government was informed of the poor lighting during winters  so arrangement were made to install lamps at regular intervals on the ornamental pillars on the bridge which were made in style of buildings surrounding the bridge so that it could blend in. The lamps had to be lighted after dark but those given the responsibility of lighting them would light the lamps just before the dusk and did not dare venture a climb up the pillars after dark. The fog on the bridge was so thick that the burning lamps only made the atmosphere more eerie. After dusk only non-Indian government officials used that bridge and they too avoided doing so if only due to fear of highway men and there were quite of a few of them during those times.

            As the winter progressed to its high point of ferocity the incidents at Spaulding Bridge increased; most of the people seemed to jump to their deaths in the river below but occasionally a body would be found with eyes wide open in what the police described as death due to ‘horror’. It came to a point when even during the day people avoided using the Spaulding Bridge and either used a boat ferry or the makeshift bridge that had been laid down privately. This worried the government! They tried to schedule the running of official carriages after dusk through Spaulding Bridge giving special allowance to carriage men all of whom were Indians but after initial reluctance and applications for being ill the carriage drivers flatly refused to drive through Spaulding Bridge after dark. When this information reached General Stadman he said, “Ignore it! Do what the carriage drivers want! It is not important!”

            He knew what was important for him, it was ‘reconstruction’ and he did a lot of it! His next plan was to bring railways to Harnau as it had been created the capital of the region. This necessitated that the Spaulding Bridge be made absolutely safe as it was the route through which all officials connected with the railways were likely to pass as also the material needed to lay the tracks at a later stage. General Stadman smelt money, lots and lots of it and all it needed was that the supply line be safe and truly open. He wrote about the problems connected with Spaulding Bridge to central government and asked for advice. Prior to the Great Mutiny the central government would have been amused by such a request and would have even thought the officer insane and not fit to rule but it was different after the Great Mutiny which had taught them  a lot of things about ruling India. They constituted a team of experts who were scheduled to visit in weeks after the receipt of the letter as they had been stationed in different parts of India however some incidents involving English soldiers on the Spaulding Bridge made the situation an emergency and within a week a team of five seasoned English officers had started monitoring Spaulding Bridge and preparing a report.

The head of the team was Colonel Dunn a man well versed in major Indian languages and one who had great interest in Indian religions and beliefs but at the same time a soldier who had served during the Great Mutiny and helped negotiate with the defeated princes after the historic episode. He was one of the few who had suggested to the government to forget about past incidents and channelize the martial qualities of Indians to expand English empire further. He was very sensitive to common Indian superstitions especially those connected to ghosts. He had his own ideas about ghosts and the crux of the matter was that he did not believe in them regarding them as figments of overactive oriental imagination!

            The team identified a house overlooking the Spaulding Bridge and stationed themselves there to watch the bridge carefully! They kept up the watch relentlessly making sure however that no one knew what exactly was going on. They watched and watched and nothing happened but one day they got ‘lucky’; they saw a bullock cart at dusk crossing the bridge; it was full of veiled female villagers who obviously did not know anything about the creature haunting the Spaulding Bridge. The bullock cart went on halfway through the bridge and nothing untoward happened but as the cart reached the halfway mark suddenly a cloud of mist mysteriously enveloped the bridge; sound of neighing of a horse was heard, it was not a normal sound; they could just about call it neighing as it was a strange mix of neighing and screaming. Colonel Dunn was suddenly very excited and said, “Off to your horses this moment, we are going to catch this fiend alive today. Hurry hurry!”.

            In a matter of minutes the Colonel and his team were on the bridge but they were just in time to stop the bullock cart from falling off the bridge altogether, the bulls were hanging from the railing of the bridge and in another minute the pair had fallen into the river and disappeared, the women in the cart were all wailing, the cart driver was perhaps the first to have fallen and was the only male in the party. With great effort Colonel Dunn and his team were able to stabilise the bullock cart and promised the women by gestures to arrange for another set of bullocks. To the best of his abilities Colonel Dunn, who was well versed in north Indian rural dialect, tried to ask the veiled ladies about what they had seen but they seemed to say that if was too sudden for them and that because of their veils they saw nothing.

            Colonel Dunn was very upset as he had hoped to catch the ‘culprit’ red handed. He kept up his watch for the next three days working round the clock. It seemed to the team that whoever was behind the incidents had taken warning and given his ‘mischief’ a ‘break’. Their efforts seemed to have reached a dead end and this was not something Colonel Dunn liked since he was accustomed to giving quick results. It was then that Colonel Dunn thought of a trick. He procured a large bullock cart and hired some villagers who drove the bullock cart while he and his party hid under a heap of dried grass with their rifles cocked. It was a very uncomfortable position to be in but they had put all their money on luring the ‘mischief-maker’ with this ruse.

            The oversized bullock cart appeared out of gates of a large mosque complex and headed straight for the Spaulding Bridge; in a few minutes it started rolling on the bridge. Everything looked normal. Colonel Dunn was almost disappointed; it was then that the mist enveloped their cart; this was unusual since it was not the season for mist or fog in the region. All members of the team checked their guns, they were ready. The cart rolled on; faces of hired villagers exhibited no sign of alarm, moments passed like ages and then there was a jolt to the carriage; Colonel Dunn poked his head out of the dried grass his rifle ready to shoot; he gave out a cry – in another moment the bullocks screamed too – a death scream and did their best to haul the carriage over the railings, this was unsuccessful but then the railings themselves gave way, after all they were only made of ornamental stone. The whole cart heaved once and disappeared into the depths of the river.

            Colonel Dunn and his team’s demise in their failed mission was kept a secret by the government, officially they did not exist from the very start. Local government understood that Spaulding Bridge had become a doomed project, it was ignored from that time onwards, it was not repaired and it lost its glory over a period of time. The Government saw the writing on the wall and started building another bridge downstream which was to be a double bridge for both vehicles and trains. People did use the Spaulding Bridge and incidents of people falling or jumping off the bridge became infrequent but did not cease altogether. Roughly a hundred years afterwards the English left India which became independent. There was a talk to rename Spaulding Bridge after an Indian freedom fighter but it could not happen for the simple reason that there were a number of plaques imbedded in the stone bridge announcing its name and who inaugurated it. The country was poor and it had other things to spend money on – renaming of an abandoned bridge could wait!

            Almost a hundred years had elapsed since the Spaulding Bridge was first inaugurated; somewhere along the way people forgot about what all had happened on the bridge, that generation was long dead! Nobody bothered about the bridge in the meantime! Somehow in the magic hundredth year of the bridge it again came into the limelight! The city of Harnau started seeing a real estate boom and started expanding in all directions including northwards. The only bridge connecting hitherto abandoned north of the city to the main city was Spaulding Bridge. Traffic increased manifold and it was then that the deaths started again. The government was alarmed, the one thing it did not want was unexplained deaths, the new government this time an Indian government expected huge investments in the city and it did not want negative news in the papers! The government was quick to move therefore and appointed a seasoned officer from the police who had distinguished himself in intelligence operations to probe into the matter!

The man A.C. Srivastava was a very meticulous man; he studied everything he could lay his hands on including classified material on the bridge in Deputy Collector’s archives originally created by the English. He got to know all about the hangings and the subsequent operation by Colonel Dunn. He knew he had to change his line of action, being a man from intelligence department he knew how to mingle in the crowd. He started looking for old families in the city that had been living in the area near Spaulding Bridge. He did not have to look hard; there was a small colony of very old but very poor families near the bridge itself. These families were dependent mainly on the big mosque complex near the bridge for their livelihood as were their ancestors. Posing as a writer Srivastava met them and asked them about their opinion on the incidents on Spaulding Bridge, most of them knew almost nothing but Junaid a gardener he met told him about Syed Shamshuddin the lone surviving member of a very old family who lived a furlong from his home. Srivastava had a hunch that his meeting with Shamshuddin was going to be important. In a few minutes he was knocking at the rundown house of the man. Out came a very tall man with a high aquiline nose his long hair falling down to his shoulders. His clothes were not very imposing but he was dignified which looked quite incongruous with his financial standing so much so that Srivastava felt tongue tied. Srivastava introduced himself as a writer and much to his relief the tall men invited him in. Srivastava saw that his one room dwelling was neat though not painted. The walls had religious calligraphy sketches and room smelled of incense. What struck Srivastava most was a hand painted portrait of a man who looked much like Shamshuddin but even more staggering was the fact was that the man was on a jet black horse, very majestic and tall, an unusually large animal. Srivastava had read the files well and could not help but think of the man who had been hanged on the bridge. He felt an unknown fear which was heightened by seeing a green cap on a peg on a wall of the room. Shamshuddin keenly followed Srivastava’s eyes and said, “Yes that Shaheed was my great uncle; I too belong to the same sect; that picture is the only memory of my uncle now in jannat. Why don’t people understand that the bridge is cursed and nothing that they can do will free it from the curse; people say I look entirely like my great uncle but isn’t that quite natural, only two people from the same family can resemble each other not strangers in the street.”

            Srivastava again felt a strange fear rising inside him and thanked Shamshuddin profusely all the time avoiding his eyes. He was very relieved to end his meeting with the tall imposing bearded man and walked away from the house to his car.

            His next stop was the psychiatric department of a renowned medical college incidentally a stone’s throw away from the Spaulding Bridge. He had an appointment with Dr. Kar the head of the department. Dr. Kar already knew what Srivastava wanted to talk about and had the relevant material in front of him. He said,”Srivastava Ji the crux of the matter is psychiatric illnesses have many manifestations and one of them is phobia for ghosts, the seed of psychiatric illnesses takes root in the soil of weak minds, infants are all same they do not fear ghosts, it is one’s upbringing that is mainly responsible for making people psychologically vulnerable, lately however scientist are looking at the possibility that psychiatric illnesses are inherited but this is a very early stage for that line of research. To put it plainly a rumour put forward many times by many mouths becomes a belief specially for those psychologically vulnerable, this  I am sure a man of your erudition already knows; it may become a hallucination, a hallucination for us but a reality for certain set of people who believe in that hallucination and may in this particular case to escape the more frightening hallucination of a ghost jump to escape the horror, also animals like bullocks, horses etc. who are closely associated with their masters not only mimic their emotions but may even amplify and become even more disturbed than their masters and may even develop power several times more than is expected of such animals and jump off railings such as those on Spaulding Bridge. Not only men but animals too use only a very small part of their physical abilities in normal times but in emergencies they may act with ten times more power!”

            Dr. Kar had confirmed much of what Srivastava, a very well read man, had thought himself except the animal mimicking master bit. He did not know however where to fit in the tall man and his great ancestor. But Srivastava an Indian bureaucrat was a very practical man too; he wanted to close the case and finish the assignment and move to Delhi riding on success of his short probe. He explained his conclusion to his immediate senior and even showed his report which he had had typed out by his secretary. His senior looked at it disinterestedly and from above his reading glasses he said, “Srivastava you are too much of an academician and I respect you for that, your conclusion is much in order and your report very meticulous but you have to make it believable too. Yes that is important, you have to present bills, you have to have a budget, a ‘cheap’ report or inquiry is considered a hurried inquiry, make some bills, take your time roam around the bridge, be seen on the bridge lest someone may say tomorrow that you did not go to the bridge even once and yes never file a report immediately, sit over it, let those guys there ask you once or twice about the progress of the report only then they will think you are working hard, I hope I sound convincing”.

            Srivastava suddenly understood what being a senior bureaucrat meant, he was convinced about every word his senior said and thanked him profusely for his advice and promised to adhere to it and left.

            The next day he drove down to Spaulding Bridge with his final report in a file which he carried in his hands by his side. He alighted at the far end of the bridge and instructed the driver to go back to office. It was dusk; he had chosen the time on purpose, he walked towards the bridge smiling and feeling triumphant. As he stepped on the bridge he admired its architecture greatly, nobody could have said it was made by English architects, the style was purely Indian and he really liked the observation balconies at regular intervals on either side of the road on the bridge; those he felt were marvellous, he himself stood on one balcony and watched the river flowing below and washer men washing a huge number of clothes down below. He noticed that it was growing dark and misty but since it was November he felt it was quite normal though he did regret sending the driver back. He started walking towards the other end of the bridge, he planned to hire a horse carriage there, he looked forward to travelling in one since it had been decades since he had enjoyed a ride in a horse carriage.  As he moved forward the mist thickened, he moved faster, after a few paces he could hardly see the ground he was walking on, he hurried. With each step he took it became darker which was inexplicable, he moved on and on and thought he should have included installation of arc lamps on the bridge as it was very poorly lighted. He even remembered a relative who dealt in such things!

He mentally calculated that he had been walking briskly for at least an hour and the bridge was only about quarter of a kilo meter in fact much shorter! He looked at his hand winding watch, it had stopped! He shook it vigorously and then put it close to his ear, the balance wheel was oscillating but the hands were not moving; this was when his fears started. By now he was unable to see anything at all he just moved ahead, suddenly he heard the neighing of a horse a very loud neighing almost a scream, he explained to himself that it was a good thing since it meant a horse carriage was nearby and he could hire it but he did not have the courage to look back, the sound of horse’s hoofs was coming nearer, this time Srivastava really panicked he ran at first reluctantly then his file fell off he could see it no longer but he ran now unashamedly as if his life depended upon it, he ran through pitch darkness and fell a number of times but got up and ran again, in the process he had lost his glasses and a shoe then suddenly he felt two tremendous poles had hit him from behind, the bridge suddenly became visible as he fell injured on its railing, he saw that it was daylight still and no mist, he however dared not turn back, he again felt a tremendous force of two thick poles and this time rose in the air and started falling into the river, he looked up and saw the bearded man in a green cap, his eyes ghostly his hair dishevelled and he was resting on the railings no not his hands but two very black forelegs of a horse.

            Srivastava’s report was found on the bridge later which said that the creature haunting Spalding Bridge the so called half man and half horse was only a figment of imagination of people with psychological disorders and having suicidal tendencies. His disappearance was attributed to highway robbery since his glasses and shoes were found on the bridge. Few people ventured on the Spalding Bridge after dusk in any case and even a highly educated bureaucrat sometimes made mistakes!

 

           

           

 

 

My forced tryst with land mafia in Lucknow

 

 

I once met a ‘criminal’ lawyer in a train on way to Allahabad. The engine broke down and we had a long conversation while waiting in wheat fields somewhere between Lucknow and Allahabad. He said if land mafia want they can grab your house anytime; I laughed in his face and said “Are you kidding?” he laughed back and said “I knew you would never believe me; no one can until it happens to him”. I never thought that within a few years it would happen to myself or just about since this is ongoing.

Around February 2021 we heard noises behind our house in an adjoining property we looked and found some half a dozen men with tree cutting tools working on wild plant and bushes that had grown over the property that belonged to our family and had been let out to a family by my grandfather. These tenants had not paid rent for at least two decades. It was a large family made larger because of matrimonial union with another family living in adjacent property also our tenants.

I asked the people cutting those trees about the future plans and they said the whole property had been bought by someone and that he had ordered clearing of the plants and trees. I thought it was a joke since in last one decade nearly a dozen people had come up to my father claiming they had bought even our house which is at the mouth of the property and that we should clear out for a small compensation. The lie that we did not own the property where we lived was perpetuated by the most sinister person of the tenant family in fact the head who had earned a lot of money by becoming a broker for a government doctor.

The so called buyers disappeared after they asked around and were probably told the truth.

One day someone called aloud from the property for my father who a cancer patient and much demoralized was literally shivering as he was due to go for his surgery to Bangalore soon and felt the plans might be scuttled due to a new nuisance in the neighbourhood. I thought he was just being paranoid but he was right. I went up on the terrace and saw a man with dark glasses, very tall, dark and with a beard. He said he had bought the whole property and that we should clear out soon and that he was ready to pay a small sum. I said that with COVID raging on we are not even in a position to talk but he seemed to have lost the faculty of hearing and just blabbered on. Thankfully he disappeared after this and the tree cutting continued.

After about a week father left for his surgery and the tree cutting finished. Now a gang of demolishers descended on the property. They started demolishing some dilapidated houses with a vengeance even using electric machines, my house started shaking with the impact since it is made of lakhauri bricks and is quite old. We kept quiet since the demolition was going on in a property the tenant seemed to have bought though we felt quite concerned.

A gang of very uncouth, foul mouthed and delinquent looking men some six in number started hanging around below our house since then and have not left even for a single day since March 16 2021. While I was going out one day one of these uncouth creatures stopped me and said “I hope your house above is vacant since we are going to demolish it and everything you might leave there is going to come down”, this sent alarm bells ringing and I was at my wits end since father’s future was already uncertain and he had left the city.

I approached a journalist friend who with the help of another journalist in a leading daily in Lucknow fixed up my appointment with the ACP of police of our area. I gave him my application and he sent me to the SHO of our area, the SHO instructed the chowki in charge of our area and I went to meet him. The chowki in charge promptly stopped all work at the site and the men went away but their leader whose name I did not know then but now know to be one Karimullah was the main ‘architect’ behind systematic demolition of our house on one pretext or another. He never left! He stayed in front of our house down there below, looking periodically up at our house with his fierce eyes and his sinister expression; I can never forget him till I live! He has been like a tiger chasing a deer who just does not give up!

In about ten days time the work on the property started again; we ignored it this time since it was again being done in a property we believed the tenant had brought from my grandfather’s brother. But that was only the fig leaf as we later realised, the mission of this Karmiullah chap was to actually break down our house. We again inquired from the labourers working there and they said that all tenants, the relatives of that sinister tenant who had moved to a more posh location of the city after making money, were going  to go away including a childless widow the sister in law of the tenant who was the head of the family. I decided to quiz the widowed woman who lived just below our floor. She was literally shaking with fear and in tears, I tried to calm her but she kept on saying “We are powerless! Only you can help us! They are forcing us out of our own home!” I  informed the police and gave them her number but it appears she was too afraid to talk to the police! I myself called her many times but she stopped picking up my phone! I called up her adopted son but he too was very afraid and only picked up my phone once.

The demolition squad gradually tried moving closer to our house and then I called the chauki in charge again, he stopped their progress and told them to restrict themselves to an area which they had purchased only. Around this time he called me to the police chowki and this is where the nightmare started!

I was met by two very tall and one very fat man all claiming to be lawyers. One of these was wearing the mask that lawyers in court wear during COVID. They abused me in the police chowki while the chowki in charge was busy talking to other people. They said they will beat me up whenever they saw me and that I should discuss vacation of our home with them. I tried to maintain my cool seeing how comfortable they were in the police chowki while I was afraid what might happen to me. I told them that I did not talk to strangers and that they should show me some proof of their identity which of course they never did. I asked them to show me some proof that they had bought the property but they were unable to do that and showed instead some fake papers. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, I do not know why but chowki in charge was really cowed down by these people. Later I got to know that they were actually office bearers of some kind of bar association in civil court in Lucknow and that at least one of them was notorious for being part of land grab cases in Lucknow.

The chowki in charge said that since he was unable to solve the problem we should meet the SHO and talk to him in a few days.

I got out of there much relieved and in a few days the second wave of Corona hit India. The SHO and all senior officers were said to be infected and went into isolation. Work stopped somehow and I started writing to senior officers and leaders in Lucknow including the CM and my local MLA but due to Corona everything had suddenly come to a standstill and I could not meet anyone. CM’s  Janata Darshan had also been suspended and he himself was infected so nothing could be done anymore. I started appealing to all the bureaucrats, leaders and the CM himself on twitter but till date I have not got a single reply or information about action taken from anyone at all.

After about a fortnight during which time the work remained suspended, something terrible happened. The work had remained suspended I got to know later because  the kingpin of all this sinister plan the tenant , the head of the family had died, I got to know this only a few days back.

So the terrible event was that the day after the last tenant shifted some half a dozen people started breaking down our very house. I put a video of it on twitter and called up the SHO of our area who sent  a new chowki in charge since the older in charge had lost his father and was away. Both me and my father were shaking with fear while these half a dozen men would have broken into our house and I have no idea what they would have done. Fortunately I have the videos of these happenings. The police came but before that those three sinister people turned up and shouted obscenities at us and told the demolition gang to demolish our house with a vengeance and without any fear. I have the video of this sinister even happening in the capital of Uttar Pradesh.

The chowki in charge came and stopped all work and told us to meet the SHO the next day with our papers. I was so afraid that I hired a lawyer to accompany me to the SHO’s office.

I reached the SHO’s office the next day and there were these guys already there settled in comfortably as if they were sitting in their drawing room while I was trembling with fear. I told the SHO that I feel reluctant in speaking to strangers and that they should show some identification but this was ignored and till now I have no details about this. I asked the SHO to make these people show the proof that they had bought the property but they showed only a couple of papers of property the dead tenant had bought from my aunt in the name of his daughter in law, nothing proved that the so called lawyers present there owned even an inch of land there. I kept on demanding but got no papers. The SHO asked them what they wanted and they said that they wanted to dig out a passage below our house so that they could move out the debris. This was of course only an excuse to start demolition activity. Ultimately the SHO made me agree to an arrangement wherein the demolition will stop below our house and their engineer will survey the spot and decide whether carving out a passage will be practical. I reluctantly agreed but said that they must give in writing that they will make good any losses if the demolition activity damaged our house. I waited for a week but demolition went on below our house with a vengeance without any undertaking being given by them as agreed in the office of the SHO. One day a team from Bharat Samachar a Hindi news channel hearing about my problem came to meet me and make a report. The workers immediately phoned up the tall man who claimed to have bought the property at the beginning appeared immediately, while the crew of Bharat Samachar was going out the tall man with his half a dozen men threatened to beat up the crew.

The tall man suddenly got panicky and even against advice of his senior workers had a load bearing wall demolished in the ground floor. I phoned up the SHO who asked me to meet him in his office.

When I reached his office these guys were already there smiling and being very comfortable. I complained to the SHO that in spite of agreement made in his office these people never honoured it, never gave me an undertaking and had now demolished a load bearing wall. The SHO did not do anything and in just passed on my proforma for an ‘indemnity bond’ which they have till date not filled up and given to me.

Karimullah the demolition man has meanwhile relieved the floors below of everything, doors, windows, electric fittings, water lines everything even loose bricks. Every day there is some damage to our house from below. Everyday my father just hides behind the curtain in our balcony and watches these goons looking up at our house with sinister intent.

Our problems were compounded due to the fact that civil courts were closed mostly since late March and have only now opened but not fully.

We have written to and I have personally met every senior bureaucrat including some police officers but to the best of our knowledge except from the chowki in charge no government servant has taken any action. We are defenceless against this huge army of land grabbers with police saying it is a ‘civil’ matter whatever that means and not putting the fear of God in these lawless people as we have been expecting since day one.