georgie's musings

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Birla Vidhya Mandir formerly Philander Smith school, Naini Tal***

In June 2015 when we visited Naini Tal, accompanied by by grandson,
Aden I walked up to see this school. I was disappointed on
two counts one is that being on the edge of the hill the
main building was robbed of a front view and secondly
there was no indication that this was formerly Philander-Smith school,
a pre-1947 insitution!
(Hope to come back and put some captions
to the pics)

Built by Nawab Nasiruddin Haidar in 1832

DARSHAN VILAS KOTHI
BUILT BY NAWAB NASIRUDDIN HAIDAR
IN 1832

This building is at the side of
Darshan Vilas Kothi
Both buildings are under repair
as see in September 2015

Friday, October 2, 2015

Indian National Flag Atop The Lucknow Residency!

The Indian Tricolour was raised
for the first time atop the Lucknow
Residency on October 2, 2015, the
birth anniversary of Mahatma
Gandhi.**

IN a newspaper report

several weeks ago, the Archaeological

Survey of India had revealed its

plan to fly the Indian flag from

a pole that was to be installed

at the same spot from where

the Union Jack fluttered till

it was taken down at midnight

on the 14th August 1947.

I am a regular visitor to most of Lucknow's

historical sites so on an earlier visit after

the pole had been installed, I

photographed it but there was no

indication when the flag would be

hoisted.

This morning, Oct 3, 2015,

I visited the Residency and discovered

the flag had been raised.

I then asked an ASI employee

on the grounds and he told

me that Oct 2 was the first day.

People found the plan so

strange! One person on facebook

asked: What's the idea?

The employee told me that

the ASI planned to fly the

Tricolour at all its historical

sites. His tone indicated that the

move could have been considered

strange by others as well. "What's

strange? We are putting up the

flag at all our sites!"

Decades have passed

why would the ASI choose to put

the flag up at the same spot

the British flag occupied!