"Metiabruz: Where the Spirit of Lucknow Lives On in Kolkata"

Do you think I am joking, friends? Oh no! I am quite serious. Kolkata, once the capital of British India, bears a hidden secret. Kolkata offers you a glimpse of the good old royal era of Lucknow (“Nawabi Jamana”) portraying through arts, music, architecture, and cuisine. Yes, a city within a city that seems to wrap a piece of the past successfully till now, The Metiaburz, established in miniature form of Lucknow. Have you ever tried to find the romance in the yellow, wrinkled pages of history? Have you ever fancied walking along the road wrapped in the gray mists of the past? Come and satisfy your fantasy here at the Metiaburz, where past and present cuddle each other with compassion.

Certainly, this question will come crawling in everyone's mind. Let's find the answer. The Metiaburz is located in the south-eastern part of Calcutta near the bank of the famous "Hooghly River." On 13th May 1856, the fifth king of the Oudh, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, broken-hearted and overthrown by the British, took refuge in the Metiaburz with his family, close followers, cooks, and musicians. Certainly a long way from Lucknow. The British banished the Nawab Wajid Ali Shah from his adorned Lucknow, but they could not erase his memories, attachments, and affection for it. So, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah decided to infuse the Lucknow heritage and culture into a foreign land, the Metiaburz. Within a few years, he changed the Metiaburz to a miniature form of Lucknow, the “Chota Lucknow.”

?Few more words about “Mini Lucknow," the Metiaburz in the date back.

Let's turn over a few pages of history. Let's find out the last days of an exiled Nawab. Let's feel the heavy heart of an uprooted person who had been deprived of the love of his homeland, the loving memory of his childhood, and the exciting days of his youth. In Kolkata, the British offered him a bungalow (the bungalow -11), once a residence of Sir Lawrence Peel, ex Supreme Court chief justice, as his residence. Nawab Wajid Ali Shah renamed it "The Sultan Khana" and renovated the bungalow likewise to justify the glory of the renaming. Though British rulers confiscated his land and treasure, they arranged one lack (1, 00000) rupees of motherly allowance to the Nawab. Nawab Wajid Ali Shah started to reconstruct the locality as a mini-Lucknow and infuse the Lucknow culture and heritage locally.

Mini Lucknow and the Nawabi era:

In his 31 years in Metiaburz, many stunning palaces like the Adalat Manzil, Murasa Manzil, the Noor Manzil, and the Qasrul Baiza were made under Nawab's supervision. Religious architectures like Sibtainabad Imambara, Begum Umda Mahal Imambara, Bait-Un-Nijat Imambara, and Shahi Masjid were also constructed for the offering of prayer and assemblies during the religious ceremony. The Nawab established an open-air zoo and a snake park, which were likely the first of their kind in Kolkata. The Zoo, quite a crowd-puller and popular at that time, had tigers, panthers, and leopards, and many more endangered species.

The exiled lordship was a great admirer and patronage of dance, poetry, music, and sports like his ancestors. He introduced many sports like kite-flying, cockfighting, pigeon-flying, and wrestling, which he used to cherish in Lucknow. The Metiaburz also eyewitnessed the excellence of royal tests in music and dance as the eminent performers were summoned by the exiled prince to perform. The Nawab had introduced for the first time many exotic Nawabi dishes like Nargis koftas, Murg mussalam, the owadhi biryani, mutanjan, and sheermal in Kolkata, which have even been quite popular among the foodies till now.

At the end:

?Time and tide wait for none. Once witnesses to royal passion, grandeur, and glory, Metiabruz still has tales to share with visitors." Come and listen to the tale of an exiled prince and his craving for his homeland. Walk along the streets of the Metiaburz to tune your heart with the old memories confined in the atmosphere. Maybe you will listen to a few lines of the song written by the exiled prince playing from a roadside stall, still heaving the air of his craving for the homeland.