Today's Lucknow is an oriental dream city of splendour and poverty, spacious roads and dingy by-lanes, palatial buildings, unique monuments and green and gracious parks. Capital of Uttar Pradesh, that is, the Madhya Desha or heartland of India according to Manu, the hub of most fervent political activities in India, yet a city of easy pace and refined taste and temperament. Lucknow is to be seen, to be lived and to be believed.