The Jessica the nation forgot: Shot in Lucknow, died in Delhi

Within a week, Mehar, citizen and league of the charmed and privileged, wife of an influential Congress politician Luv Bhargav, was shot in the neck on February 28 for telling off an insulting and foul-mouthed youth who was harassing her daughter-in-law, in the heart of Hazratganj, Lucknow.

(Investigations have made little headway. The police identified Sachin Pahari as the man who shot her and Amit, Pramod Kumar and Jai Singh as his accomplices. Police have managed to arrest two persons — Jai Prakash, who is reported to be Pahari’s cook, and Pramod Singh, who confirmed to the police that Pahari was the one who shot Mehar.)

As the nation was gripped with the trial of Lall and the young Priyadarshini Mattoo, whose appeal against the acquittal of the prime accused hangs fire for six years, Mehar battled for her life and it finally ebbed away in city hospital in Delhi today.

She would recall with fondness and pride the times she spent in the ensnaring corridors of the courts in Lucknow, fighting for the small men and their families, while warding away greedy and rapacious lawyers and peddlers. Her face would light up with delight when she talked of the small gifts she received, a small bag of jaggery or a basket of gourds.

Yet Mehar would lament on the demise of good manners and breed. ‘‘She worried about the new people with money who visited malls and theatres,” says sister-in-law Renu, who is married to Mehar’s husband’s twin, Khush Bhargav. ‘‘There is a mall coming up outside our house and we always wondered if we’d ever visit it.”

Like the famed Lucknow families, the Bhargav mansion is a one-stop house for good, old-fashioned Lucknowi tehzeeb (culture),...