The Meerut Scrapbook
Mustafa Castle, Ashoka Pillar
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Last updated - Monday, 20-Jul-2009 18:32:06 EDT
Press F11 for a better view.
Sunrise/Sunset for 7th Dec Twilight start - 6:40am Sunrise - 7am Sunset - 5:21pm Twilight end - :5:56pm. Meerut Latitude : 29.0 deg N, Longitude : 77.5 deg E.
This was an annual function with a difference. Lots of items interspersed with magic shows. However what carried the evening was the Principal Dr.Seema Tyagi's recount of the terrifying experience of Dussehra night. The family with friends had gone to Lansdowne Saahil her son started from Delhi around 11pm . As luck would have it, he had an accident in Bijnor at around 2:30am. It was the overflow of help from strangers which astounded the family. Two persons were closing their Teashop and a Punjab National Bank Employee was supervising some work in the office. Saahil dragged himself out of the wreck and was then taken by the three who located a Doctor who could perform some initial surgery at that hour. Without their help things could have been very different. They also rang up Rajiv and Seema who rushed down with Arun in his Qualis.I have some idea what those 3 - 4 hours must have felt like. The three were the chief guests at the function. The first thing which comes up about UP is its backwardness. Maybe we are proud of it. One thing is certain people feel first and think later..... Saahil had the seat belt on which certainly helped avoid more grevious injuries.
Carol singing at Christmas lunch at St. John's.
Feeling too happy ? Then just look at TV Newspapers and other things they call the media to cure that. Limit your World to family and friends and you will usually find little to complain about. That is if (and a VERY big IF in INDIA) ,you have some of the basic amentities of life.. well OK,what the rest of the World calls basic. We have also been suffering from a strong dose of Communism for a long time. In fact longer than the originators of the concepts. And here is reason for happiness . There is strong evidence that it will soon wither away. Reason enough to be Joyful :) :)
Never too early to listen to soothing music. The word 'German' brings up images of World Wars and Hitler first. Yet this same country has provided the best Music, Literature, Science, Maths, Engineering to the World. Food for thought.. It is said that "two of the worst written books had the Maximum impact on the last century" *. Which ones? Mein Kampf, Das Kapital yes, both from German authors.
* The statement came from the book The Books that changed the World by Robert Downs. Should come as a surprise to those who think the greatest impact was through technical upheavals.
MEERUT is an ancient town , but little literature about it is available . Any information mythical, factual, or hand me down stories preferably specifically related to your ancestors are welcome. Contact address is at the bottom of page. To come back to this site look for Meerut in Yahoo regional directory.
It is not generally known that Meerut was one of the 16 major
towns of Ashokan times . An Ashokan pillar was erected here which means
that this was a major Buddhist center . This pillar was shifted to Delhi near Bara Hindu Rao Hospital on the ridge around 1300 AD. The one at Firoz Shah Kotla Ground came from Topra. For the uninitiated the Ashokan Period (a short historical note) dates at
around 256 BC. About 75 years after Alexander's ( Sikander in Hindi ) invasion
of the Punjab.
Don't know what Ashoka wrote about ? Then
checkout the translation of all his Edicts by clicking here .
Currently these pages are partial to the immediate colonial past. See a 1904 map of the district ( click here) .And of the town (click here )
The picture which best represents Meerut is the spectacular Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCSU) Gate. It is no easy job to label the style . Futuristic ? Modern ? Indian ? Western ? Ancient ? Rural ? Urban ? Take a good look, it is perhaps all of these. The pillars go all the way back to ancient Greece or Rome. And the security cabins? A roof under a roof ? It is perhaps the only one its kind in the world. Help !! Talking about labels.. why should one have a neat label for everything ? And as usual the name of the architect to whom the honours go is not easy to find. Not to a casual observer at least.
Regarding the mindset of people here it would be in order to quote a State Bank of India hoarding which said "Apna Ghar, Anpni Kar, Apna chota Karobar". That came close to defining the axle around which life rotates in many of the prosperous smaller towns in all of Northern India. It seems the coming or going of larger Industries in the vicinity does not have much effect on the economic climate. That is quite obvious in Modinagar where almost all Modi industries have closed down. Here in Meerut there is no let up in new shops opening and flashy Malls coming after Modi Continental closed down. Many visitors note ample evidence that ignorance is bliss. However that does not rankle them as much as the evidence that ignorance is wealth.
That is Ghantaghar in the picture on the left. Easily the most magnificent structure in Meerut. Built by the British in 1914, in place of what used to be Kamboh Darwaza(Gate). The window on the left looks out from a little room on the first floor where the old man the keeper of the big clock lived and ran a little shop for clock repair. He died in the early 1990s. Sure enough the big Clock stopped.. short.. when the old man died, nobody rewound it. It is a great change from the open and vacuous Cantonment area. Need a Calculator cheap clock transistor radio or want to get a mechanical/pendulum clock ( yes even Grandfather Clocks) repaired then this is the place. Further down is Lala ka Bazaar - ideal for cheap toys in bulk for Christmas trees, Birthday party favours, all sorts of plastic and glass jars are also available.
This milestone is about 400 meters north of Begum Bridge. This area is now known as the Zeromile point after the Meerut Cantonment Board very graciously looked up its records and put back the names which had become invisible on this, well, signpost. The distances are in miles.
Some facts and figures about Meerut. The latest census puts it in the above 1 million category. It has about the same population as Indore, Faridabad, Thane. It is the 24th largest town in India (populationwise), and the 4th largest town in UP after Kanpur and Lucknow, and Agra. Kanpur is larger than Lucknow with a population of 2.5 million. It is about 6 hours drive from the Taj Mahal Agra and Fatehpur Sikri. It is less than 50 Km from Hastinapur the seat of both Hinduism and Jainism. Haridwar - in the region where both Ganga and Jamuna enter the plains - is a little over 100 km.
A Computer page to share tips
The entrance to Mustafa Castle is shown below. Belongs to
the family of Nawab Ismail. One of the sons was a signatories of the Indian
constitution. There is a huge photograph of all the signatories of the
constitution in the main room. It is not a public place .
This is what Dr. Tariq Kuraishy ( now in the US for the last 30 years ) has to say about Mustafa Castle....
I am one of Nawab Ismail Khan's grandsons. I've been in the U.S. for almost thirty years, but have been back to Meerut a few times. What you refer to as the Grand Home is actually called Mustafa Castle. Built by Nawab Ismail's father, Nawab Ishaq Khan, and named for his father, Nawab Mustafa Khan Shefta. Shefta was a contemporary of Ghalib's and a prominent poet in his own right. My memories of living there in the 50's and 60's are wonderful ones. Of witnessing the end of a golden and opulent era. When the Nawabs and Rajas lost their estates, titles and lands, the mansions could not be kept up. It is almost sad to visit this once wonderful castle, in it's present state of disrepair. Somebody told me about your site, and it brought back a few memories.
Dr. Kuraishy's e-mail is : kuraishy@sbcglobal.net.
I have included a reply from an uncle of Dr. Kuraishy in Pakistan. You have to click the link in the text adjoining the next picture.
Perhaps the Grandest old building in Meerut. It is called Mustafa Castle. 'Palace' may not be off
the mark . Still occupied by the descendants of the original owners. The
Drawing room is retained in its original layout as a tradition . Among
many antique items is an old floor standing candlestand , which can hold
7-8 candles . Still used because of a very unreliable electric supply. It has been visited by Mahatama Gandhi,Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Nehru, Jinnah.
West End Road
Click here to read further details about Mustafa Castle sent by Mr. Iftikar A Khan in Karachi.If you want to book the area for a wedding , conference , birthday that is possible now click here
The whole place was upgraded in the summer of 2004. It can be hired for Weddings, Birthdays and conferences. It is called Castle View.
No text about Meerut can be complete without a reference to the Mutiny of 1857.
Click here for some notes. Use the Browser back button to come back here.
Move mouse over the descriptive text to change picture.
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