LUCKNOW, Sept. 13 -- Lucknow's past may be cherished, but it should not be romanticised at the cost of its present, additional chief secretary basic and secondary education and author Partha Sarthi Sen Sharma said at the Gomti Book Festival at the University of Lucknow on Sunday. He said the city's culture and traditions were constantly evolving and there was no point in deciding that everything about the past was good and everything in the present was bad.

"The city has a mix of people representing the 19th century and the 22nd century as well. The city's culture and tradition are not static. They will evolve and it is a continuous process," Sen Sharma said.

He said the Lucknow of 50 years ago would be different from the city of 100 or...