The railway station at Charbagh was built much later than the 900 year old Mazar Sharif of Khamman Peer Baba. The shrine is revered by people of all faiths. Baba Khamman Peer was a Sufi saint. Every week on Thursday, the Mazar is thronged by devotees who come to pray and wish for anything and ask for blessings.
When I first saw the water hen on the bamboo, it was the first time I saw any water hen. I looked up picture books on birds, and found her looking out of the book ‘ Joys of Bird Watching’ published by National Book Trust. This is how I came to know the water hen. It is on foggy winter mornings that I see the family strutting over the bamboo. On sunny days, the coukal rules the roost.
Late Profs. Ranbir Singh and Vimala Bisht’s house is a treasure house of paintings. Vimla Bisht was acomplished in ceramic and terracotta work. Though the professors are no more, their house cum studio is an art lover’s delight in Lucknow, India. Padmashri Prof. RS Bisht was Principal at College of Fine Arts and an accomplished painter.
The garden is productive because of the little time spent in daily watering, pruning dry twigs from shrubs (Chinese orange, roses, poinsettia, Shatavari), pruning the chrysanthemums thrice in the year, and emptying the seeds collected from last year into a few flower pots (marigold, French hollyhock, mustard, coriander have sprung up).