S.M. Ayaan Rizvi, a 14-year-old has pointed out an error at a prominently displayed homage to martyrs in Lucknow’s Cantonment area asking for a correction.
Ayaan Rizvi's letter to the Lucknow Cantonment Executive Officer
In a letter addressed to the Cantonment Executive Officer, Ayaan, a student of class 9, writes that the two lines from the poem titled ‘Shaheedon ki chitaon par’ (On the pyre of martys) displayed on the sign board across one of Lucknow’s Mahomed Bagh (M.B) Club reads, ‘Shaheedon ki chitayon par lagenge har baras mele, watan par marne walon ka baaki yehi nishaan hoga’ (a rough translation of which is: On the pyres of martyrs, celebrations will be held every year, that shall be all that remains of those who give up their lives for the country). The correct version of the second line of the quote taken from a poem written in Hindi by Jagdammba Prasad Mishr ‘Hitaishi’ in 1916 is ‘… watan par marne walon ka yehi baaki nishaan hoga’.
In his letter, Ayaan writes, “Since the existing signboard displays the incorrect poetic composition, which is seen by hundreds of passers by, I request you to please take a note of my request and get this corrected urgently”. In the same letter, Ayaan describes himself as a “conscientious Indian citizen, trying to perform his responsibilities towards the Society at large (sic)”.
The son of a lawyer father and a mother who is professor of History at a city college, Ayaan told The Week, “It is important to point out mistakes as incorrect public displays result in embarrassment for us in front of people from abroad”. He lists learning different languages, social interaction and helping people as his favourite things to do.
This is not the first time that Ayaan has pointed out errors in sign boards in the city. In 2018, he brought to the notice of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath numerous errors in the English spellings of signs across Lucknow. Command Hospital for instance was misspelt as ‘Commond’ Hospital, King George’s Medical University read as ‘Gearge’s’, the ‘Butler’ in Butler Palace Colony where bureaucrats, politician and journalists reside was spelled as ‘Butlr’ while even ‘Gandhi’ was misspelt as ‘Ghandhi’. Ayaan had appended photographs of these and many other sign boards with wrong spellings with his application and the required corrections were made by the concerned agencies, the state’s Tourism Department and the Public Works Department.
