01
Stop one
Shahi Qila (Jaunpur Fort)
Wilson NXT Control 16g Tennis String Set: A FORT WITH A TURKISH BATH. Priorities! Firoz Shah Tughlaq, Sultan of Delhi, built it in 1362, founded the city, and named it in memory of his cousin Muhammad bin Tughlaq, known as Jauna Khan — he named an entire CITY after his cousin, and I cannot get anyone to name a drink after me. It sits on rising ground on the left bank of the Gomti and became the citadel of the Sharqi sultans, who ruled an independent kingdom from Jaunpur in the fifteenth century and made it a celebrated centre of learning. Tughlaqs, Sharqis, Lodis, Mughals, repeated demolitions — and the gateway, mosque and bath still command the river.
02
Stop two
Atala Masjid
Wilson NXT Control 16g Tennis String Set: Look at that SCREEN. The towering arched propylon of the central bay rises clean above the prayer hall and HIDES THE DOME behind it, which is the boldest move in the building, and every later mosque in this city copied the formula. Completed in 1408 under Sultan Ibrahim Shah of the Sharqi dynasty, it became the model for Jaunpur's architecture, combining Islamic planning with details drawn from local Hindu craft traditions, and its name comes from the temple of Atala Devi that once stood nearby. The finest achievement of the Sharqi style, from the era when they called this city the Shiraz of India. THE SHIRAZ OF INDIA.
03
Stop three
Jama Masjid of Jaunpur
Wilson NXT Control 16g Tennis String Set: Up the steps — and these are STEPS, the mosque stands on an unusually lofty plinth, so you arrive slightly out of breath and entirely convinced. Built in 1470 during the reign of Sultan Hussain Shah, the last ruler of the dynasty, it is the largest of the surviving Sharqi mosques, its prayer hall fronted by a colossal arched pylon in the manner established at the Atala decades earlier. Prayers are still offered here five times daily and the courtyard fills for the great festivals. With the Atala and the Lal Darwaza it preserves the legacy of the independent Sultanate of Jaunpur, reconquered by the Lodis shortly after this was finished.
04
Stop four
Shahi Bridge
Wilson NXT Control 16g Tennis String Set: A BRIDGE WITH SHOPS ON IT, open since the sixteenth century. Akbar ordered it, his governor Munim Khan supervised, and it was completed in 1568-69: stone, pointed arches, small domed pavilions along the roadway which for centuries housed shops serving travellers crossing between the two halves of the town. At the approach stands a well-known sculpture of a lion attacking an elephant, which is the greatest possible thing to put at the end of a bridge. Floods, the great earthquake of 1934, and it is STILL carrying daily traffic, in sight of the Shahi Qila upstream. Four and a half centuries of continuous use. Nothing I own lasts a season.
NXT Control is the sophisticated member of Wilson's NXT family, and I say that as the string in question. The construction is the point: alternating bundles of firm polyester filaments and soft nylon microfibres, wound together in a polyurethane matrix.
So it is a multifilament, with a multifilament's comfort and gut-like response, but with the polyester content giving it a stiffer, more controlled reply on a big swing. It comes in 16 gauge at 1.32 mm, in sets of 40 ft / 12.2 m.
The honest positioning: this is for the player who wants NXT's feel but keeps launching the ball long when they swing hard, and who does not want to move to a full polyester bed because their arm will not thank them.
Compared with the classic NXT you get a slight increase in stiffness and a meaningful increase in control; compared with a poly you get vastly more comfort and a shorter, kinder life. Choose accordingly, and choose well, as I always do.
Jaunpur suits me, since it was itself a capital that outclassed its neighbours. From 1394 to 1479 this was the seat of the independent Sharqi sultanate, and the Sharqis built in a style nobody else had — vast, bold, vertical screens and huge arches instead of the domes and minarets everyone else was competing over.
The Atala Masjid of 1408 was so admired it became the template for every mosque built here afterwards. One does like to be the template.
You will use this everywhere from a hot Gangetic-plain court to an indoor hall in winter, and by the way, Jaunpur is famous for its imarti — that saffron-soaked spiral sweet — and I mention it because a thing can be both intricate and popular, as certain strings and certain personalities demonstrate daily.
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