Kolkata to Delhi drive : Part 2

Sultanpur and Lucknow (Day 4 NH96)

Another early travel on day 4, this time the destination was Sultanpur, where I did my MCA from Kamla Nehru Institute of Technology (UP Technical University). I always had an idea that Allahabad -> Sultanpur distance although only 99KM, the road is not good, so it will take minimum 4-5 hours.

So we started around 4-4:30, however we found the road to be much improved. NH96 was much improved now. While driving almost around 2 hours, I thought I would be reaching the college way to early, however, took a wrong highway to Amethi somewhere. So I had to take another 35 KM drive back to Sultanpur and was at college by around 7:30. I showed my parents the campus, went to the mess and immediately all of them recognized me, offered breakfast for free.

My Campus KNIT Sultanpur

KNIT Campus near Gomti River

Near Gomti

My mom handed over Rs 200 to them though. It was quite emotional. The mess was totally governed by a Bengali group from Puruliya since 1979. It was the same people since I left. Till the time the breakfast was being prepared I took my parents and all to a walk across the campus and also to the back of the campus on the banks of the Gomti River. It was wonderful. Many things had changed.
Parents and uncle all liked the campus very much. We came back, had our breakfast in the mess, and started around 9:30. Just coming out of the campus, there is a dhaba where we used to have tea. We used to call it Baba ka Dhabaand I found baba’s brother Pramod there. He recognized me quickly and I handed him over a photograph almost 7 years old, with him at the middle. He was also emotional.We then said a goodbye and left for our next destination Lucknow.

Lucknow although 139 KM, the road I knew was very good and I expected a drive of around 2 and half hours. My friend in TCS Lucknow had already arranged a hotel in Hazrat Ganj, where he stays. He also took half day’s leave, so that we could visit various places in Lucknow directly and he can guide us too. So nice of him. We were late by around 1 hrs. in reaching Lucknow, immediately went to Lal Bagh, where my friend’s brother was waiting. He took us to the hotel, we checked in there. It was decent hotel, with two rooms for us, we got a discount too :-), courtesy my friend. After checking in, and freshened up, we did lunch in a descent hotel, and my friend was also there by then. We started to visit Lucknow heritages at 2:00 PM and first visit was to the Residency. It’s wonderful with its awesome architecture.

Lucknow's Residency

Inside the Residency

View of Residency

From there, went to the Bara imam Bara, chota imam Bara, back to the Mayawati’s Ambedkar Park, and then came back to see Hazrat Ganj. We did that in my car only. Residency for its beauty, Imam Bara (chota and Bara) for their awesome architecture is just amazing. We took a guide in Imam bara and he only guided us to the bhool bhulaiyya.

Bara-Imam-Bara Lucknow

Another closer view of the Bara-Imam-Bara

Bhool Bhulaiyya

Everything is so well maintained and the Islamic architecture is so beautiful. And then there is the most beautiful place in Lucknow, the beauty of Hazrat Ganj in the evening, incredible.

Hazrat Ganj in the evening

Spent around an hour there, purchased few sweets and then went back to visit my friend’s mom and dad. After an hour or so, we again started and this time we had our destination for Alam Bagh, to get some chikan shopping done and having Lucknow’s famous tundai kabab. Lucknow over all is an excellent and planned city. The roads are wide and it’s very green all around. Everything was as per plan, we had a wonderful dinner and that ended up our wonderful Lucknow visit. Everything as per our intention was covered in a single day. Came back to the hotel and went for sleep. While having our way back to Delhi, we had plans to see the char bagh railway station. No doubt, this has to be the best railway station in India, with its awesome architecture.

Ambedkar Park

Char bagh stations,Lucknow

Lucknow->Kanpur->Delhi (day 5-NH 25 up to Kanpur and NH2 from Kanpur to Delhi)

We planned to start next day for Delhi relaxed by around 7AM. We got up around 6AM, got freshened up and started for our Delhi journey around 7:40 AM. It was some sort of troublesome journey at the end, though initially everything was perfect. Once you reach Agra, traffic starts kicking you and especially in Faridabad, it becomes pathetic. Although we started around 7:40 in the morning we reached our home in Indirapuram by around 10 PM in the night.

This concluded one of the best journeys of my time.