SHAHER _E _YAAR “ Tales of Awadh by INTACH Lucknow Chapter

The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is a non profit organisation 
founded in 1984. Since its inception, INTACH has pioneered the conservation and 
preservation of not our natural and man-made heritage but also tangible and in tangible 
heritage.It Documents unprotected buildings of archaeological, architectural, historic and 
aesthetic significance, as well as the cultural resources, as this is the first step towards 
formulating conservation plans.It Develop heritage policies and regulations, and make legal 
interventions to protect India’s heritage when necessary.
In the past ,the Lucknow Chapter has successfully organized Heritage walks, Clean Monument ,I love 
my city programmes in addition to listing of heritage buildings and documentation of intangible heritage of Lucknow and organizing for the first time the Heritage Awards for unprotected heritage. To recall, a unique programme was held in feb 2020 .–where the focus to the lifeline of Lucknow , and attention towards Gomti was drawn with a Boat trail where a boatride of denizens with live music of musicians on board matched the rippling waves of Gomti with a panoramic view of the monuments of 
Lucknow on its banks.It was huge success and then pandemic happened and there was lul in activities for this period.

This time this programme SHAHER E YAAR ,Tales of Awadh has a theme of wonderful stories of Lucknow 

narrated and also weaved by the Lucknowites .This special programme has an itenerary from which it 
would be evident that its here where from the days of Ramayan till present times where histories 
overlap with the Ganga Jamuni culture.

Our international celebrity-Daastaango Himanshu Bajpai narrated tales with his magical touch !!The 
tales included the features for which Lucknow is known for like cuisines,satires,courtesy,history,literature,language encompassing all the culture aspects.  Himanshu Bajpai entralled the jam packed audience,  to some entertaining stories on Lucknow.  The well educated and culturally oriented audience applauded Himanshu Bajpai, all thru out. Then a very 
talented storyteller Rupali Chandra read story in her initimable style .The stories included one of 
famous hindi writer Bhagwati charan Varma “prayashchit”,Another story was of a typical luckhnawi 
flavour. In addition, an interesting panel discussion with the stalwarts of Lucknow like Mr Roshan Taqui ,Mr Chandrashekhar Varma and Dr Shobha Bajpai deliberated on the littrateurs who enriched the cultural heritage of Lucknow. Vipul Varshney mentioned the contribution of great authors of hindi like Munshi Premchand ,Nirala,Yashpalji, Amritlal Nagar and Bhagwati charan Varma in the preogress of Hindi language in the heartland of India when english and urdu were in more use than other languages. 
The writings of Meer Anis ,Insha and Nasikh with Majaz were also discussed by her. The Lucknow Boy Vinod Mehta and Amish Tripathi ‘s popularity in the todays readers were applauded.Answering a 
question on how Hindi literature and Hindi writers flourished at the time when Urdu and English 
literature occupied the reader's mind, Chandra Shekhar Varma said that Good literature is not 
dependent on the language. In the Hindi heartland there were number of writers and scholars working but few of them caught on the pulse of the readers and became instant success. Roshan Taqi in his 
address highlighted the classic and progressive urdu poet's contribution. He also said that going by the 
rising popularity of contemporary poets he sees a bright future of Urdu. In her reply to a question about the sanctity of Language Dr Shobha Bajpai while expressing her concerns over the degeneration of language said that change is inevitable, still we should change in sensible and logical manner. She added 
that literature has to cater to the contemporary readers in it's form and content. Mrs Anita Bhatnagar Jain (retd IAS) felicitated the participants and also appreciated the efforts of INTACH in creating aware towards the heritage and culture of the city.

Syed afzal Ali shah Maududi. 

Editor cum Bureau chief. 

Lucknow