Old photographs of Lahore – what a discovery on New Year’s Eve

Raza Rumi

Happy New Year to all the Lahore Nama readers those who are interested in the magnificent city called Lahore. I discovered this amazing site with breathtaking photos of an undivided India and here are a few from Lahore:

Punjab Public Library, 1870s

Top Ten Books on Lahore

By  Shiraz Hassan

1. City of Sin and Splendour: Writings on Lahore by Bapsi Sidhwa

‘The ancient whore, the handmaiden of dimly remembered Hindu kings, the courtesan of Mughal emperors’, the ‘Paris of the East’, Lahore is more than the grandeur of Mughal forts and gardens, mosques and mausoleums, the jewel colors of everlasting spring. It is also the city of poets, the city of love, longing, sin and splendour.

This anthology brings together verse and prose: essays, stories, chronicles and profiles by people who have shared a relationship with Lahore. From the mystical poems of Madho Lal Hussain and Bulleh Shah to Iqbal’s ode and Faiz’s lament, from Maclagan and Aijazuddin’s historical treatises and Kipling’s chronicles’ to Samina Qureshi’s intricate portrai5ts of the old city and Irfan Hussain’s delightful account of Lahori cuisine, City of Sin and Splendour is a marriage of the sacred and profane. City of Sin and Splendour is a sumptuous collection that reflects the city it celebrates.

Lahore Fort facing decay, laments Pakistani daily

The Lahore Fort, which is a “16th-century jewel of Mughal architecture and has but one rival in the subcontinent the Agra Fort” in India, is facing decay, a leading Pakistani daily has said.

An editorial in the Dawn Monday said that a wedding function on the historical Lahore Fort premises “by a party with connections in the Punjab government once again comes as an instance of bending the rules to please `friends’.”

“This was done in blatant violation of the rules set by Unesco, which has enlisted the fort on its World Heritage list of endangered monuments.”

It described the Lahore Fort as “16th-century jewel of Mughal architecture (which) has but one rival in the subcontinent: the Agra Fort, which is arguably less spectacular but for its view of the Taj Mahal from one of the balconies”.

The World’s Number 1 Best Selling BlackBerry Application is MADE IN PAKISTAN!

The World’s Top Selling BlackBerry Application is Lahore-based Pepper.pk’s Photo Editor

Just a couple of days ago we shared Pepper.pk’s amazing achievement; their Photo Editor application for Blackberry devices had made it to the Top 5 best selling BlackBerry applications on RIM’s AppWorld. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, I received an email from the Pepper.pk team who sounded on top of the world and could hardly contain their joy! Photo Editor is now the World’s #1 Best Selling BlackBerry Application across all categories. And it’s made in Pakistan! How sweet is that?

A visit to Bhagat Singh’s village

by Haroon Khalid

Amongst the numerous Punjabi patriots that have been borne over centuries, arguably, Sardar Bhagat Singh’s personality stands as the tallest in stature, fame, and sacrifice. However, a strange event occurred after the death of this son of Punjab. The land that he called his mother got divided into two parts. This partition not only divided land but also mentalities, families and heroes. A strong sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’ were forged, to invoke patriotism, justifying the partition, or the betrayal, fueling nationalism. What is Indian is anti-Pakistani and vice-versa.

In this division of history, where does Bhagat Singh stand? He was an Indian when he died, but can he become a Pakistani after Pakistan, based on his ancestral village. Logic has it that he should become an Indian like Allama Iqbal became a Pakistani. We know that Bhagat Singh was an atheist. Can Pakistanis even dare to own atheist heroes? Now that is a path I am frightened to tread on.

Lahore……Searching For Its Lost Soul!

By Adnan Bashir

Regarded once as the city of gardens, spilling with a populace of millions, modern day Lahore desperately falls short of its reputation. Crowded and choked, it remains buried and veiled in a shroud of smog and dust all round the year. For the same reason, looking at the other end of the spectrum, environmentalists rate Lahore as the most toxic and polluted urban metropolitan of the country today.

Depletion of parks and gardens has become a trademark of the contemporary development. A monster of concrete jungle emanating in the form of high rise commercial buildings, plazas, flyovers, underpasses, roads and pavements has swallowed the open spaces, green belts, trees and plants. Population of Lahore, which is tipped to approach 10 million, is left with hardly any respite against the ever growing congestion and traffic.

The Holy Pets

by Haroon Khalid

There are many practices in our society which are religious and have their origin in Hinduism. The Mazaar culture and the aura of the saint, his miracles, and other features of his life, represent a closer Hindu connection. One such mazaar is the tomb of Peer Abbas, situated in the heart of the Pattoki town. This is a huge building which is now under the Auqaf department. Completed recently with the help of magnanimous devotees, the edifice attracts people from all over Punjab.

Peer Abbas is also famous as Peer Abbas Kutteyanwala, which means one who has dogs. During his lifetime, the Saint kept company of dogs who followed him everywhere he went. It is said that whatever Peer Abbas was given to eat, he used to hand it over to the dogs. His nephew, Jafar Kazmi says, his uncle had named all his dogs but those names weren’t conventional; they were derived from government offices, specially associated with the Department of Police. SP, AC, Commissioner, Havaldar, Inspector, Judge.

Kos Minar by Haroon Khalid

In the outer-skirts of the historical city of Lahore there is an obscure kos minar, still standing proudly, with half the base missing, reminding one of the grandeur, power, wealth, and culture that once was bestowed to the Mughal city of South Asia. Another such structure is also present near the canal, in Lahore.

Kos Minars were initiated by the third Mughal Emperor, Akbar, a note of which is also present in Abu Fazl’s Akbar-Nama. These were solid structures constructed on the ancient Grand Trunk road around 30 feet long. The purpose of these minars was to demarcate the road from the environs. These are called kos minars because they were constructed at a distance of every one kos¸ which is roughly around 3 kilometers. These were initially constructed from Agra to Ajmer via Jaipur in the west, then from Agra to Lahore via Delhi in the north and finally from Agra to Mandu via Shivpuri in the south. After Akbar, his descendants continued the policy of ornamenting the Grand Trunk road with such constructions, which were raised all the way from Peshawar to Bengal. These must have been around 3000 such structures, but in the context of Lahore we can talk about just two.

The first one is standing in the middle of a rice field in a village in the outer skirts of Lahore called Wara Gujrana. Despite its partial ruin state, the minar still manages to capture the imagination of the viewer taking one back to the dynastic days, when such constructions would have been a sight of delight for the wanderers traveling through the treacherous forests of Punjab. Besides the minars, caravanserai, and wells were also constructed with the royal edict. It is reported that before these kos minars were constructed, Banyan trees used to play the role of measuring distance and demarcating the road. Exactly opposite this minar towards Lahore, one would spot an ancient Banyan tree, which could have been the original marker. Further west around kos from this tree is another Banyan tree, and if the kos minar, and the other two Banyan trees are seen from above, they would appear to be in a straight line.

If the straight line is continued towards the eastern side there is, yet, another kos minar, roughly around one kos from here. For the course of this research it was not possible to visit that minar as it lay on the other side of the border. The minar is clearly visible from the high point at the Killa Jevan Singh, at the village with the namesake. This is the last Pakistani village, before the Indian Territory begins.

Despite the conspicuous presence of the kos minars the Banyan trees and the caravanserai, there were absolutely no signs of the original Grand Trunk road. The road which is now known as the GT road is at a considerable distance from the location. The thoroughfare, which was used throughout the ancient times, up to the days of Mughals is no longer functional. The GT road today is not the original GT road constructed during the tenure of the Mauryun Empire.

The third minar is located next to the railway track, close to the point where the tracks that go to Amritsar and Multan part ways. Unlike the earlier two minars, this one is not prominent and is, in fact, difficult to track in the hubbub of the city. There is considerable distance from the minar at the Wara Gujrana and this one, or so it seems because the extant road between these structures is not straight but makes a triangle. If, indeed, the perpendicular distance between these minars equal to one kos then we have in the environs of Lahore three consecutive minars. More work at a structured level needs to be done to see if these three minars are 3 consecutive kos minars, right now, it is a matter of conjecture.

The Grand Trunk road has played a crucial role in the history of South-Asia. It could be called the ‘Great Wall’ of South-Asia. In fact we can proudly say that it was more effective than the Great Wall ever was. It played a crucial role in facilitating trade in India, first build during the Mauryun Empire. At that time the Indians were trading with the Greeks and this road was a huge leap forward in terms of progress. However, the real master mind behind this ingenious civic creation was the Afghan Sher Shah Suri. He not only made a proper road out of the mud track that existed at that time but also straightened it, where the bends were much cursive.

Akbar the successor of Sher Shah Suri understood the vital role that this road played in the economics of India strived to make it safer for the travelers by erecting kos manars, caravanserai, etc. His successors, primarily Jehangir and Shah Jahan, played a vital role in further establishing the GT road.

Besides the economic factor, another very important aspect of the Grand Trunk road was administration. The government needed an effective transport system to govern better. Official message carriers were sent from one end of the country to another with urgent messages. For the purpose of achieving more speed, new horses and messengers were available at these caravanserais and manars, where, either, the messenger had some water, rested for a while, before resuming his/her journey, or relayed the message to the next messenger. In this way, the kos minars also acted as check points, where usually the horse or the rider or both would get changed. Such a method guaranteed a faster postal service.

We know from the remains of a caravanserai at the nearby village of Wara Gujrana that there was a caravanserai here; therefore this particular kos manar must have been during its time an important check point.

Photo of the Week: Talking Trash

Photo by Acumen Fund Fellow, Bryan Farris

“Walk into any Pakistani’s home and it will be in pristine condition,” said Amjad Aslam, the Chief Marketing Officer at Ansaar Management Company (AMC), “but outside our walls you’ll find trash in the streets.”  A day later I observed as a couple riding on a motor bike threw their trash at a garbage container rather than in it.  They sped off without looking back.

New Rooftop Cafe – Jammae Mastan in Lahore

Jammae Mastan

Cafe

Rooftop, Hast-o-Neest, 10 Commercial Building, Crossing Anarkali and the Mall, Lahore

Open 10 am to 8 pm daily

Tea, Coffee, Snacks, Dessert & Sheesha!

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