Reclamation work!

April 17, 2013
Another old well on the Martiniere grounds was exposed to the world after the trees and bushes around it were removed in recent months. The school authorities remained completely oblivious to large swaths of property and concentrated on only what was in use and the running of the institution. The land on the village side, seen in the pictures, was also a part of the golf course in the 1960's and for a few years later. Once I left school, end of 1969, I must have visited a few times during the next two and a half decades. The embankment, better known as the bund, came up perhaps towards the ending of the '70's. This came as a shock to me! But I've got to admit I didn't notice the changes taking place on the village side of the road. The whole area had become an open-air toilet.
 Temples, in other words religion, has been long a weapon used for self-gain. Temples along roads in most parts of Lucknow are there to protect illegal constructions - usually businesses - shops etc. The temple in the top picture was planned for the same purpose but the school authorities constructed the boundary wall despite the place of worship being used to prevent it. Those behind  these temples often say that the temple has always been there, or, its thirty years old. The one in the pic supposed to be 30 years old!

Martiniere January 2013

 Visited the Mart with Kenny and being  Jan it was still misty late morning. Top pic shows Sykes Hall and the kitchen area being spruced up.

Kenny at the Band Pavilion (Built 1890) It's just a guess that the Mart may have used this area for its sports as the Polo Grounds, as it was still known in our time, was used by the army till they developed their own ground in the Cantonment that today houses the Surya Auditorium. The info about the polo grounds I got from old Martinian Satish Bhatnagar's book 'Bright Renown'. Satish, I understand is working on an updated version.

The Mart owns its own tractor, financed by a group of old boys. Testing it is the Principal's grand nephew.

Ken Taylor

Kenneth Jude Taylor who migrated to the UK in 1974 works for Underground rail. He'd visited Lucknow in Jan 2013. He had visited Lucknow twice in the past 18 years but thought I wasn't in Lko anymore. In 2012 he found my email address and since then we've been in touch.

Pic from the past!

A picture I don't remember seeing before. Only Kenny is in the UK while the other three live in Melbourne.
Four Martinians: William Lyons and Kenneth Taylor (standing) and Peter Quieros and David Young sitting

A picture from the 1960s sent to me by Kenny Taylor (standing second from left).
The Dignum-Gardner-Sinha-PennB house in the background.

Maurice and Glenna James in 1976

 

Glenna and Maurice James 

Maurice James moved to the UK in 1959 with wife Glenna (nee Nestor) and their five children - Lesley, Allan, Christine and twins Maureen and Denise (?). Maurice worked as the labour officer of a sugar factory chain in Uttar Pradesh being posted at Gauri Bazar not far from Gorakhpur. Maurice, the son of Thomas  and  Elsie Katherine  (nee Shepherd) James had four siblings all of whom have predeceased him - Freddy, a paratrooper during WWII was in the police at Lahore before he moved to the UK in 1947 (?) or around the time India got independence. The others were Dennis James who settled in Perth, Australia in the 1970's followed by Noreen Vincent. Dorothy James who remained unmarried passed away in Bangalore in the 1980's where she had spent much of her life.

 The picture was taken by John Cline when he met them in 1976 in the UK.

Squirrels feed!

On Friday morning I was lucky to get close enough to take these pics with my camera phone. Often one might see pigeons and parrots feed along with the squirrels. The Residency and the Botanical Gardens are the only peaceful places because the zoo remains too crowded.

Nancy J Powell

Audrey (my wife) and I visited the Residency Friday (Aug 31) morning for a walk.  We do this two or three times a week. This time, however,  it was to be different from the instructions being given at the entrance gate to spruce up the place because of an important visitor. We wondered who could it be!

The place has two main gates, one which is always in use and the other that allows VIP motorcars in. Near the VIP side we found about a dozen cops in riot gear. The path was being swept and lined with lime (chuna) with arrows pointing out the way - no room was being left for error. Obviously this was a very special guest but I couldn't even start guessing who was visiting. It would have been different had I glanced at the newspaper before coming out. We returned to our walk for health and returned to the other side to wait. Finally, the visitors came along led by a lady in slacks with a long-lens camera in her hand. Walking past us she said 'morning' and we replied and the tall guy with the West Point hairstyle said "Namash-kaar!'

Only when I checked the newspapers I came to know that we had met the US Ambassador, Ms Nancy J Powell. I regretted not asking her if I could take a pic. The top one was taken from too far when she looking down. The lady in front is a member of her staff whose name I learnt later is Anna Martz. Ms Powell on Thursday had attended a party thrown in her honour by Mr Ammar Rizvi while earlier in the day she had met the CM Akhlesh Yadav and other state officials.