The first step in our journey was getting there. Lucknow is about 10 hours away, so we took an overnight train that left Wednesday evening after school. The kids enjoyed jumping around from bunk to bunk before we finally made them got to bed. It wasn't the most restful night of sleep, but when we woke up we were only a short distance from Lucknow.
Once in the city, we were off to see the sights. First on the list was the Imambara, a complex built by the old nawabs of Lucknow in the 18th century.
The favorite part of the students was the maze inside designed to keep the Muslim women from finding their ways out of the building and mixing with the men. The kids also enjoyed making it up to the top of the building and taking in the views of Lucknow.
After the Imambara we visited the Lucknow cantonment church. In the time of the British rule, most cities were divided into civil and military areas. This church was built for the garrison and was very similar to the church that figures in the opening of the book that the students were reading for English class. We took the opportunity to get a good group shot of the whole class together.
After a restful night's sleep at the hotel we visited the La Martiniere school. This boys school was established in the mid-19th century (only a few years before Woodstock) and the students of the school volunteered to assist in the defense of Lucknow during the siege of the Residency in 1957. We got our advisor group together for a nice group shot.
Though we did see a lot of historical sights on our tour of Lucknow, we also made some time for modern conveniences. We visited two malls over the course of the weekend to avail ourselves of the air conditioning and enjoy KFC, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut. The students also had a chance to do some shopping for little things that they thought their parents and siblings might like.
After spending a couple hours at the Sahara mall above, we made our way to the Residency. This is where the British Resident lived during colonial times (he was the official government representative in Lucknow). The Residency was the center of the Rebellion of 1857 (as it was called by the British) when it was surrounded and seiged by the Indian forces that mutineed against their officers. The kids looked around and took notes before we played some games in the field waiting for the sound and light show to begin after dark.
The next morning was our final day in Lucknow. We wanted to take the sixth graders to visit a haveli. This was one of the large estates owned by the wealthy in the colonial times and they also figure in the book that the students were reading. We had a connection from school that brought us to the house of one of the descendents of the Nawab of Lucknow. He opened his home to us and gave us a tour of the old estate.
After all the sightseeing, the kids were ready for another break. To kill the time between our haveli tour and the train ride home, we visited the home of one of our students. His family is a little on the wealthy side and they told us that we could use their movie theater. Even though the movie was in Hindi without subtitles, it was still an enjoyable experience. The plush leather seats and massaging footrests were an especially nice touch.
After our taste of luxury, some of the students were rudely greeted with our train home. Due to booking problems, we were in a slightly lower class for the trip back to Dehradun. It was dank and dirty, but the kids still seemed to have fun socializing.
It was a great trip, but it was really tiring. We left on Saturday night to take the overnight train and didn't make it to our home in Mussoorie until about 3:00 in the afternoon yesterday. After a quick nap, we brushed our teeth and went to bed. This left little time for lesson planning so we were, essentially, flying by the proverbial seats of our pants today at school. All went fairly well and we're feeling pretty confident about the rest of the week.
Dave and Beth
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