E-Paper
A hand pump in Lucknow is named as ‘Anarkali’ for this peculiar reason
The boundary wall of the Housing and Development Board complex near the Polytechnic Chauraha features the handpump embedded into it.
In a peculiar incident, residents of a housing society in the capital city of Uttar Pradesh have borrowed from film imagery to dub a handpump, which lies half buried inside the boundary wall of the complex as the ‘Anarkali Pump’, after the celebrated Mughal courtesan.
The boundary wall of the Housing and Development Board complex near the Polytechnic Chauraha features the handpump embedded into it.
“This land belongs to the housing development. When they built the boundary wall, they built it over the handpump. Now, half the handpump is in the wall and the other half is out. The construction workers didn’t even see it,” says a resident, Deepu.
Since the handpump is half buried in the wall and cannot be used to fetch water anymore, the residents have taken to calling it the ‘Anarkali handpump’.
According to legends and as picturised in the period movie, Mughal-e-Azam, Anarkali was buried alive in the walls on orders from Mughal Emperor Akbar.
The handpump is said to have been situated where the boundary wall was planned. So, the construction workers decided to build the wall over the handpump.
