Kanpur, was renamed Cawnpore, by colonial British masters, as the East India Company officers, civil
servants, gold diggers, Christian missionaries, exotic adventure seekers,
found the traditional name Kanhapur, difficult to pronounce.
Over the coming period, I will try to take you gently into the historical and rich
past of Kanpur, the city I personally grew up in, the city which flows in my very blood,
the city which in the most profound sense, is me, my love, my hate, my everything. The city, whose
countless dawns and twilight hours, I saw merged, with the flight of birds, and the calls to the faithful,
from local masjids, the city whose hospitals I saw,
overflowing with suffering humanity, the city whose trees, breezes, roads and parks, I loved with the last
drop of my blood. The city where I learnt to be a happy child, then a mature man, the city, where I learnt,
to embrace all that was gentle and kind, and where I learned to reject, all forms of empty pomposity, intellectual fraud,
and meanness. The city where I saw myths, merged with reality, cold winters mixed with hot summers, the city
where once my grandmother, showed me the dancing Shiva, in the green veins of her thumb. The city, where I would see
the daily passage, of magnificent life and fearless death, enacted in the corridors of my being.
I may have the ocassion to make use, of some of the rich and profound, lifetime, of
passionate and painstaking research, carried out into the history of Kanpur, by my
deceased paternal uncle, Dr Munishwar Nigam. Dr Nigam, spent 20 years, with the great passion
of his life - collecting innumerable historical details, about the city that he himself grew up in.
I still remember, the pride, with which he used to collect each small detail about Kanpur,
and communicate it to me and to many others, in his ringing voice. A story, that always seemed epic in proportions,
given his gift with words.
I personally invite, all history lovers to share their experiences.
Please email : cawnpore@marsh.in if you wish to share any thoughts about Kanpur history
For me, personally, Kanpur has been the larger than life canvas, on which many generations of my family have lived
out very fulfilling, sometimes poignant, sometimes sad, sometimes grief struck and tragic,
but always very interesting, and yes, deeply memorable lives.