Lahore Revisited at Dawn Lifestyles Exhibition

‘Revisiting Lahore A Photographic Journey’ comprises of a rare collection of the city’s history from F.S. Aijazuddin’s book titled ‘Lahore Recollected’. So, if you want to revive your nostalgia about Lahore as it used to be, vow not to miss it.

Dawn Lifestyles features display of consumer and commercial products by leading local and multinational brands. In addition to autograph and book signing sessions with eminent authors at “Books & Authors” pavilion, visitors can also enjoy an “All Breed Championship Dog Show”, a “Paintball competition” and tantalizing specialties at the Food Court.

The exhibition kicked off today and will continue up to 10 pm Sunday evening tomorrow. Like every year the venue remains Fortress Stadium’s Inner Ground.

Here’s to a fun-filled family weekend for all Lahoris to enjoy!

1. Energy Crisis (Peak Oil Prices – Power Shortages of up to 14 – 16 hours a day)
2. Shortage of Fertilizer (Leading to food shortages)

This is a story of how Cubans, who were an educated nation of doctor and engineers, stood up against all odds and survived gracefully. people believed that sharing what little they DID have (food, land, resources) with each other was more important and for the greater good than hoarding it for themselves. Also the government was very encouraging, and allowed all unused urban land to be turned into incredibly productive gardens.

Click on the image to see the video

With shortage of fertilizers and power cuts, We are also as vulnerable to a sudden collapse of our current agricultural systems. Watch this one for some inspiration on how to get our Pakistan out of the current Mess!

Also, in last couple of weeks, I have fallen in love with  TED.com again. There are some really inspirational videos over there. have a nice day!

by Jasmin Mirza. Book Review here

My first reaction was shock. yes, shock is the word that almost defines what i felt for days after reading those books. During my 8 years in corporate sector, I had an opportunity to live and work with people from different parts of the world. I attended training and seminars on issue of workplace diversity and gender issues. Even then this was too big a cultural shock for me to absorb.

Can people living in the same city  be so different and isolated in their values? Can all of this still be happening in modern times? Questions, questions and more questions I was left with. The adventure boy inside me wanted me to check out the Mohalla first hand. And I did. not once but three times but in none of those trips, I was able to verify the detailed descriptions of the sub-culture as defined in the books.

First trip was during day time and second one was in Moharram, so the bazaar was not open and all i saw was just the shops and ordinary people. I was impressed with the architecture of inner city though.  In the last trip, I got a glimpse of reality. It was at perfect time. 1 A.M. and I saw the same visuals as described in the books and as you will see in the documentary below. Since, I went alone, I did not dare to enter any of the so called “Office”.  Only few friends know what happened that night.

This documentary came as a surprise. It verified the contents of the books above and contains real truth about the people who frequent these tawaifs. the interview of the police office in charge is really interesting. This documentary was originally made for TV One but they did not dare to air it. so some one published it on internet. It is a real eye opener. It shows a face of our society, no one even wants mention. Download and save this as PTA might ban these URLs too. as it contains some politically radioactive content. Here is the excerpt from the blog where I originally found the links to these Youtube.com videos.

These book can be bought from here or here, both books were published by Oxford University Press and thus they should be available at FerozSons on The MALL.

A banned documentary which never came on TV. A must watch for every Pakistani and take a positive message and try to understand the true story of these Tawaifes. We call our society an Islamic society do we deserve for it? May Allah show us a rite path. Amin.

1. Watch Here
2. Watch Here
3. Watch Here
4. Watch Here
5. Watch Here
6. Watch Here

Note: Please don’t forget to give your valuable comments.

Usman Nasir’s Blog Page: Kahani Tawaif Ki Zubani – Hira Mandi

Though now obscured as a tourist destination due to its location 15 miles inside Pakistan, Lahore was the heart of Kipling’s India. Between 1882 and 1887, he worked there as the assistant editor of The Civil and Military Gazette, combing the back alleys of the old, walled city for stories and material for his later fiction. Like the Irish street urchin, Kim, the hero of his greatest novel, Kipling used Lahore as a base to explore the rest of the subcontinent.

Armed with the Penguin edition of ”Kim,” I set out for the Lahore Museum, where Kipling’s father, John Lockwood Kipling, had been the curator and where the first scene in ”Kim” takes place. The novel opens with Kim sitting ”astride the gun Zam-Zammah on her brick platform opposite the old Ajaib-Gher – the Wonder House, as the natives call the Lahore Museum.” It was while astride the gun that Kim meets a Tibetan lama, whom the boy then escorts into the Wonder House.

The Zam-Zammah (Urdu for lion’s roar) is known in Lahore as Kim’s gun, and, except for the brick platform that has been replaced by marble, the copper and brass cannon looks exactly as Kipling described it; a massive icon of imperialism over 14 feet long, mounted on wooden wheels that are well over six feet in diameter. And the Wonder House opposite is just that; in my opinion one of the world’s great underrated museums.

Pakistan’s oldest and largest museum is a red sandstone masterpiece of Anglo-Indian Gothic with a white marble facade that unlocks a treasure chest of southern Asian artifacts.

I walked into the main vestibule under a high, frescoed ceiling, listened to the hum of the wall fans, and immediately felt at home. This was as I had always imagined the perfect museum to be, with just enough clutter and disorder to create a feeling of intimacy, but not so much as to distract from the individual works of art.

Kim and the lama had gone into the ”Wonder House to pray before the gods there.” The lama was especially awed by the collection of religious statues from Gandhara, a Buddhist culture that flourished in northwest Pakistan in the first centuries A.D. There are also Hindu and Jain sculptures, Persian, Turkoman and Kurdish rugs, Islamic glazed tiles and calligraphy, Tibetan furniture and votive paintings, and a main gallery filled with Persian and Mogul miniatures. Visually, it is like being glutted with a spicy, multi-course subcontinent meal.

In the novel the ”Keeper of the Images” – a figure based on Kipling’s own father – inspired the lama in his spiritual journey across India in search of a sacred river. The wealth of this collection speaks volumes about the encyclopedic knowledge of Asian culture that the curator, Lockwood Kipling, must have possessed; knowledge that evidently rubbed off on his son to judge by the lavish descriptions in ”Kim.”

Kim procured food and lodging for himself and the lama in Lahore’s old city. ”The hot and crowded bazaars blazed with light as they made their way through the press of all the races in Upper India, and the lama mooned through it like a man in a dream.” The crowds are as dense now as they were then (”Kim” was published in 1901). But unlike bazaars in India itself, there are no beggars and few of the hustlers who make life miserable for tourists in places like Delhi and Agra. Despite the press of humanity, you can have a measure of solitude in Lahore’s old city.

And you can see women too: after visiting so many Middle Eastern bazaars where women were just bobbing black tents, I was dazzled by the number of poor and lower middle class Lahori women with hauntingly beautiful faces, highlighted by eye kohl, gold jewels in their noses, and the flowing saris and trousers-and-tunics outfits that give the bazaar its dash of primary color.

I had entered the old city through the Delhi Gate, the most impressive of the portals that are still standing. Under the Mogul emperors Akbar the Great, Jehangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, Lahore reached a zenith of splendor. The old part of Lahore is the greatest medieval architectural spectacle between Delhi and Isfahan, rivaling the former if not quite the latter.

After a few minutes of walking I came to the Mosque of Wazir Khan, which gets its name from the Governor of the Punjab who built the mosque in 1634 during the reign of Shah Jahan. In an Oct. 1, 1887, dispatch in the Civil and Military Gazette, Kipling wrote that the area of the mosque was ”full of beauty even when the noonday heat silences the voices of men and puts the pigeons of the mosque to sleep.” I removed my shoes and walked into the courtyard at midday, sat on a rush mat under an archway and admired the thin wafers of red brick, the kashi tiles and the frescoes painted in various shades of yellow and orange, the very colors of the ground curry sold in the market nearby. The crazy geometry of the bazaar buildings towered over the courtyard, making it seem even smaller than it was. But, on account of the courtyard’s silence and the lovely reflecting pool in the center, I felt far removed from the city.

I walked out of the old city through the Kashmiri Gate, not far from where Kim and the lama spent their first night on the road together in the stable of an Afghan horse trader. The stables are gone, but the transient atmosphere of the caravansary persists in the form of tented tea stalls and rows of jute beds. For the equivalent of 50 cents, I took a three-wheel auto-rickshaw for the five-minute ride to the Badshahi (King) Mosque, farther along the collapsed old city wall. Completed in 1674 by Aurangzeb, the last great Mogul emperor, the Badshahi Mosque is said to be the largest single-unit mosque in the world, and is arguably second only to the Taj Mahal as an example of Mogul architectural genius.

The courtyard, within four inches of being a perfect square, is almost twice the length of a football field. The linear sweeps of red and pink sandstone clash majestically with the three white marble domes that appear as planets floating in space, around which smaller, white marble satellites, resting atop the turrets and minarets, revolve. Though the scale is grand, it isn’t alienating. Under the stucco tracery of the prayer hall, men were relaxing and praying on the carpets. Nobody talked to me, or stared either. I could have read several chapters of ”Kim” without being interrupted.

The Badshahi Mosque stands in perfect spatial harmony to the old city, the white and gold pudding cake of a Sikh temple, the gardens of Hazuri Bagh and Akbar’s fort. The Sikh temple holds the remains of Ranjit Singh, a one-eyed drunkard and opium addict who brilliantly ruled the Punjab in the early 19th century by uniting all the Sikh tribes and maintaining peaceful relations with the British. It was amid the trees and flowers of the Hazuri Bagh where he held court.

The red brick fortifications of Akbar’s Fort, roughly four times the size of the Badshahi Mosque, give an impression of what the old city walls must have once looked like. The fort, completed a century before the mosque, is nowadays a quiet world of well-kept gardens and archeological remains. In the northwest corner is the Shish Mahal (Palace of Mirrors), built for the women of the court in 1632 by Shah Jahan, the same emperor who built the Taj Mahal. What’s left of this pleasure palace is actually quite little. But, like a good, spare poem, the few marble, Corinthian archways and pavilions, each overlaid with frescoes and thousands of silver, convex mirrors, are sufficient to convey the luscious ambiance of the harem. One can imagine the women, in jewels and saris, reclining on cushions, while sipping pomegranate juice and being refreshed by the breezes that blow through the archways.

The most magnificent of the surviving pavilions is called the Naulakha, which means nine lakhs, or 900,000 rupees, because that was the cost of building it. The Naulakha was also the title of a novel Kipling wrote in collaboration with Wolcott Balestier, the brother of his fiancee, who died of typhus a few weeks before the wedding. In the book, the Naulakha is a famous jewel. But Kipling no doubt was inspired by this pavilion in the Shish Mahal, filled with silver and semiprecious stones. Close by is the Fort Museum, an air-conditioned refuge from the heat, holding an excellent, albeit small, collection of miniature paintings and illuminated manuscripts.

The next morning I took a taxi to the Anarkali Bazaar just outside the Lohari Gate. According to legend, Anarkali (Pomegranate Blossom) was the name of a favorite concubine of Akbar the Great, whom he put to death for having a love affair with his son. This is Lahore’s main shopping district, and on account of its length and the mixture of exotic and mundane household goods, it reminded me of Muski Street in Cairo. For the tourist, Anarkali is a disappointment. All I bought was a battery-operated racing car for my son. (The best collection of miniature paintings I found not in Anarkali, but in the gift shop of the Lahore Museum, where prices range between $10 and $200 depending upon the quality. And for those interested in printed cloth and saris, the best shops are in the Panorama Shopping Center, formerly the site of The Civil and Military Gazette, on the Mall road.) From Anarkali, I took another auto-rickshaw to the Bhatti Gate, and walked up the bazaar street to the Faqir Khana, a rambling, down-at-the-heels mansion in the old city that is known for its private art collection. The guest book showed that I was the first visitor in three days.

A kindly man led me through the many rooms of the house, teeming with precious objects: carpets, old books, Chinese silkscreens, Buddha statues, coins, pottery, paintings, photographs. There was a Mogul miniature with a detail of a court artist drawing a horseman. The horseman was so small that a magnifying glass was required to see it. I was next shown a framed and shredded piece of silk. When I held it up to the sun I saw an intricate Mogul needlepoint drawing of archers and courtesans. This work of art was so faded that a strong light was needed to reveal the details. In another decade or so, I thought, nothing would be left of it.

”Kim,” as I was discovering, though as old as the century, had not faded at all in its ability to render both the overwhelming beauty and squalidness of the Indian subcontinent. And my last night in Lahore, I thought I caught a glimpse of the respect, combined with the terror and amazement, with which Kipling himself must have reacted to this city, back in the days when he edited newspaper copy while sweating under a ceiling fan and sipping a whiskey and soda.

From other travelers, I had heard vague stories about the ‘’street of the dancing girls” in the old city, but I assumed this was just a polite phrase for a red light district. Then a taxi driver insisted I was wrong, and took me inside the Taxali Gate to the Diamond Bazaar at 11 P.M. This was where Kim had listened to the fakirs and their ”lewd disciples.” (I did see one old man who was shaking a bell and chanting.) The narrow, derelict alleys here were crammed with all types of people, and groups of policemen stood at each corner. But there was no atmosphere of crime or tension.

The crowds were attracted to the succession of lovely carpeted rooms lined with velvet cushions, which were opened to the street and illuminated by the light of hissing gas lamps. In each of the rooms, as though mannequins in a store window, were one or two beautiful women sitting impassively, sipping tea and flanked by a troupe of musicians and an old woman – the dancer’s ever-watchful mother. None of these women leered or even smiled at the passers-by. The women looked fresh, haughty and elegant in their saris of every imaginable color, like the daughters of rich oriental politicians being shown off at a ball.

I selected one room and entered. The door closed behind me and I was offered a seat against a cushion. Then, to the accompaniment of a sitar and a squeeze-box piano, two young women began a classical dance. Their painted faces could have been sculptured by a Mogul artist: I was reminded of the ladies in Shah Jahan’s court. The dancers asked for the equivalent of $10 for the private, 15-minute performance. The only thing hokey about it was that, in the middle, a vendor came through the door, as if on cue, and threw rose petals at the dancers.

There are tales of wealthy Arab emirs who send their servants to these streets near the Taxali Gate at night, ready to pay thousands of dollars to the mothers of the most beautiful girls in order to take them as concubines to the Gulf. It is the kind of story that young Kipling would have loved to check out, wandering these same back alleys as he often did.

”Our city, from the Taxila to the Delhi Gate . . . would yield a store of novels,” wrote Kipling, whose imperialism was tempered with a humanism and street-wise reporter’s knowledge of the East that many people today don’t give him credit for. And, particularly in ”Kim,” Kipling has created a sympathetic literary myth to go hand in hand with Lahore’s artistic pleasures.

Credit: Published in New York Times, Jan 29, 1989 Photos: AP Pakistan

Today, 49 years later the All Pakistan Music Conference maintains its poise and is held every year without fail reminding us of the art that breathes in the same ambience as we do. Classical music and dance is in the air of the subcontinent. We can choose to ignore it but not eradicate it.

The remaining APMC Festival 2008 has been postponed but the last of the few events was last month when Hajrah Khan, a Social Sciences Major from Lahore University of Management Sciences read an academic paper on “Urdu Ghazal & English Sonnet” very intricately interlacing the two and reminding us , art has no boundaries, geographical or demographic. The esteemed presence of Shaista Sirajuddin to read out the English Sonnets selected by Hajrah and Dr Arfa Syeda Zehra to recite Urdu Ghazals added to the magic.

The research paper was followed by Tabla maestro Shahbaz Hussain from Manchester, who gave a talk on different components of Tabla(solo) playing again resembling those of an English Sonnet and and Urdu Ghazal. Shahbaz Hussain is a student of Ustaad Allah Rakha’s son, Ustaad Shaukat Hussain and Ustaad Fayyaz Khan. He has also performed with Ustaad Valayat Khan on his last concert in London. Shahbaz Hussain teaches at NewCastle University which happens to be the first university in the world to have introduced a degree in Tabla. Himself being born in the UK, his parents hail from Lahore and so here’s a son of the soil making us all proud of the fact that we share his roots. This event was by far the best account of playing any classical instrument and the accompanying talk (given in English) was surprisingly free of any (greek!) jargon  and completely comprehendable by the common man.

The best part was where he told how long ago a girl from Lahore was married into a musical “gharana”(family) in Delhi and her father gave her 500 “gats” as her dowry. Shahbaz also played one of those Lahori Gats in the end.

All Pakistan Music Conference is an association which is truly (and quietly) conserving our heritage and not letting it wash away with the graffiti of all things new.

It is generally thought that in his lifetime the great saint was called as Gang Bakhsh but afterwards he became too famous as ‘ Data Gang Bakhsh’. Ali Hajvery (R.A.) was a Persian sufi and a scholar. The greatest saintof the sub-continent born in Hajver, a town of Ghazni in Afghanistan, in 1000 A.D (400 H) and died in Lahore in 1063 or 1071A.D. In the course of his spiritual journey to God, he journeyed physically to many countries, including Turkistan, Transoxania, Iran, Iraq, and Syria where he met innumerable Sufis and Sheikhs, many of those have been mentioned in his book ‘Kashf-ul-Mahjoob’.

During the urs the shrine and its whereabouts are beautifully lit. A large number of devotees from different parts of the country besides tens of thousands from the city will visit the Data Darbar to pay their homage by reciting verses from the Holy Quran, qawalees, and recitation of naats and poetry to the saint. Separate arrangements are made for women to visit the shrine. ‘Langer Khana’ (distributing free food) and milk sabeel also attract a large number of people. The tradition of milk-sabeels traces its roots to a time when the people of Lahore used to give tax in the form of milk to the city keeper Ray Raju Jogi. Legend has it that when Hazrat Data Gunj Baksh arrived in Lahore, he stopped them from this practice. As a result, their businesses flourished and followers began giving the milk to the saint to give to the needy. Today, milkmen continue the practice by donating milk to destitutes.

Sultan al-Hind Hazrat Khwaja Moeenuddin Chishti paid his homageto Data Ganj buksh in the following words:

Ganj Bakhsh-e faiz-e aalam, mazhar-e Noorr-i Khuda
Naqisaan ra peer-e kaamil, kaamilan ra rahnuma

“The bestower of treasure (Ganj Bakhsh) in both the worlds, the reflector of the splendour of God, An accomplished spiritual guide for the learned and a guide for the ignorant”.

According to some historians one of the first persons to become Muslim at the hand of Hazrat Data Gang Bakhsh was Rai Raju. He was Naib Hakim of Lahore at that time. On his conversion to Islam Hazrat Data Gang Bakhsh named him Shaikh Hindi. There is likelihood that under his influence many other people also converted to Islam.

When Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh, R.A came to Lahore, he built a “Khanqah” and a Mosque, known as “Khishti Masjid”, outside the city on a mound to the west of Bhati Gate near the bank of river Ravi.
It is said that when the mosque was originally being built by him some of the locals pointed out that ‘the “Qibla” of the mosque is not in the right direction and appears towards south’. On complaint, he asked the people to say prayer and during the prayer he showed them the Holy Kaaba, consequently its direction was right.
It was the first miracle of the saint. This mosque became a model to look at for the fixing of Qibla of all the mosques in the following centuries.

The historical records tell us that after the death of Hazrat Data Gang Bakhsh, R.A, because of the reverence and respect of the Muslims for the great Saint, the mosque has been the subject of renovation, addition and beautification for several times by different devotees.

The great Mughal Emperor Akbar built the northern and southern massive gates and floor leading to the cenotaph. Later, in the third year of the reign of Emperor Mahyiudin Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir (1658-1707 A.D) an excessive flood in the River Ravi ruined the original mosque. So, keeping in view the need of mosque, within few days a new beautiful building of the mosque was built on the same foundation. The emperor also built an embankment that not only had been a major reason in saving Mosque ever after but also caused the river to change away its course further north.

Maharaja Rangit Singh (Nov.1780- June 1839) himself also had great respect for the Holy saint. He came to hold the shrine in great reverence and made many offerings. He contributed Rs. 10000 on the occasion of each Urs of the Hazrat Data Gang Bakhsh and he also repaired the mosque periodically.
After him Maharani Chand Chour (Wife of Kharak Singh and mother of Naunehal Singh) repaired the mosque and also built a beautiful vaulted chamber over the cenotaph where the Holy Quran was recited day and night.
The already existing mosque was a flat top building having minarets but without any dome. In 1860 AD, Gulzar Shah, a Kashamirian, rebuilt the mosque on the same pattern. It was for the first time that he also built a huge dome in its center with two other small domes on its right and left.
There were also low height minarets at the corners. In1879A.D the mosque was again repaired by Jhando chob Farosh. Some people say that there was no dome over the mausoleum of Hazrat Data Gang Bakhsh, in 1868 A.D Haji Muhammad Noor built a dome over the mausoleum.

The recorded events revealed that, in 1921 A.D under the supervision of Ghulam Rasol Khatwala, a major operation was exercised here when in place of the earliest modest mosque a pretentious building was constructed here but it was damaged in late 1960 A. D during an earthquake. The Punjab Auqaf Deparment took the charge of the shrine and the mosque in 11 January 1960 A.D.

As there was rapidly increase in number of visitors so the government decided to embark upon an ambitious two phases expansion plan of the Mosque. In 1978 A. D, the phase one (western side of the shrine) was completed under the supervision of General Zia-ul-haq. The mosque was shifted from its original place further towards west. The second phase (eastern side of the shrine) was begun in 1997A.D under the direction of former Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif that has completed now. It is divided into four parts on Mughal Chahar Bagh pattern.
On completion, the project would have a double storey complex consisting of a basement for parking vehicles, a Sama Hall, Ablution site, Toilets, Administrative block, Atiqaaf rooms, Langer Khana, Library, Madressa, Industrial School, Quran Mahal and A/C plants. The upper storey consists of a square prayer chamber, the mausoleum, the Chillaghah of Hazrat Khawaja Muinudin Chishti (R.A) and a wide courtyard.

The facade of the prayer chamber is a magnificent arched structure raised in blue tiles with two high cone style minarets that are gold plated. On the south, in front of the mausoleum, there are two doors. The Shah of Iran donated one of these doors that has beautiful Iranian inlaid work on gold. All the arches, the window frames and pillars in the mosque and mausoleum are in carved marble. The entire floor is also in marble. The mosque is spread over a total area of 3,68,150 sq. ft. and it is the third largest mosque in Pakistan. It can accommodate up to 52,600 people.

Source: The Nation

Pasting someone else’s mail:

We need to find Students in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta and Islamabad to co-ordinate this effort.

———
Just saw a Justice who had refused to take the new oath speaking on GEO this
morning–he had tears in his eyes as he spoke. A handful of people had left
flowers outside his gate. And the news anchor was saying that it is a pity that
so few had done so–yes it is hard to withstand a baton charge or a tear gas
attack, but leaving a few flowers is not hard. Perhaps you can use your network to encourage people to leave flowers outside the houses of the justices and the bar association officials–just leave them as far as the police will let them go. This would also be a way of catching the attention of the international media.

—————
Dear All,

Several individuals stand out in the struggle for rule of law in Pakistan over the last few months. Most important are the honorable judges of the superior courts who have refused to take oath under this illegal PCO. These honorable judges are now under house arrest. Their refusal to bow to illegality and the state’s oppressive response are the clearest and most unambiguous expression of the nature of the forces arrayed on each side in this confrontation. Thousands of overseas Pakistanis are eager to show their support for these judges and to contribute in some form to the ongoing struggle. We propose the following non-violent, but potent, symbolic action:

SEND FLOWERS FOR JUSTICE.

Individuals as well as organizations should arrange to have flowers delivered as soon as possible to the houses of individual heroes in this struggle. This proposal was initially sparked by the sight of anonymous well wishers trying to deliver flowers to Justice Khwaja Sharif in Lahore. One proposal was to set a date (Friday after juma prayers was suggested) at which time these deliveries would be scheduled, but I think we should leave it up to everyone to pick the time of their choosing. The intention is to flood the streets on which these people live with thousands of flowers. IF the police intercept the flowers, every effort should be made to publicly display their resistance and to leave flowers at the nearest convenient symbolic point.

Dr .Zafar at ANAA has committed one thousand dollars to this project and suggested to pick one person in each provincial capital and Islamabad and send 200 dollars worth of flowers to each recipient. One list of proposed candidates consists of:

1. Justice Rana Bhagwandas in Islamabad. (Justice Iftikhar Choudhry is the obvious choice and other organizations may wish to pick him, but we felt his stature is absolutely unassailable now and we wanted to highlight the important role played by Justice Bhagwandas. But all the other “rebel” judges are deserving of this too and it would be great if other organizations could pick people like Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Sardar Raza, etc.)
2. Justice Khwaja Shareef in Lahore. Justice Ramday is also in Lahore these days and is most deserving of support.
3. Justice Sabeehuddin in Karachi (His address is as follows. Banglow # 44/2, 13 Street,Phase-V,DHA.Karachi. Ph: 5847582)
4. Justice Tariq Pervaiz in Peshawar
5. Unfortunately, all the judges of the BHC have become lotas. We are thinking that the most appropriate person in Quetta may be the president of the BHC bar association, who is under arrest.

Every person or organization should pick their own names and go ahead with their own timetable.

1. Take this in the spirit of a WIKI. This is not some kind of centralized top down campaign. Let each individual and organization take it in any direction and in any manner they wish. Spread the word. The most effective strategies will be the ones that evolve locally in Pakistan. I hope Sabahat Ashraf and others like him will help to spread the word.
2. Online ordering of flowers is easy, but those companies may not cooperate to the end. Most flowers should ideally be delivered by volunteers in those cities. Student organizations are the best place to target for volunteers. publicity in the press, over the internet and by word of mouth will be the most important factor in the success or failure of this campaign. Please contact whoever you can and carry this forward. ANAA will use its own resources to arrange or attempt deliveries.
3. Overseas Pakistanis can send cash to whatever person or entity they trust in order to financially support this effort.
5. Media coverage is key.

I am spreading the word. I hope others will come forward to take this much further. It sounded like a good idea to several of us, but if it sparks some other, better idea in anyone’s mind, please go ahead and act on that. Send us your proposals and we will try to spread the word.

Act locally, think globally…

Garbage set on fire in the premises of Lahore Fort.

Image Courtesy of DailyTimes

Causing grave damage to structures of historical and cultural importance through acts of negligence, vandalism and commercialism, is a sad fact that most of the people give a damn to worry or care about.

Why are we, as a society, becoming so insensitive to everything that has anything to do with civic responsibility…!

Coping with the joy (read stress) that is the first semester of a Master’s program, my fellow classmates and I found ourselves pressed for time to get our library membership forms and begin researching literary greats in-depth. All four of us decided to climb into a car and make our way to The Mall straight after our third class in the morning. By the time 2 o’clock actually rolled around, it began raining. No, no, not raining, I mean RAINING. (a notch above in intensity from the pakora-chai drizzle, know what I mean?) After weighing the pros and cons, which included ruining a new pair of slippers, waiting out the weather, postponing the trip all together, and the technicalities involving broken windshield wipers, we all sprinted to our vehicle of choice and began the journey towards the Library.

Ahh, Traffic. If you live in Lahore, inhabit Delhi, exist in Karachi, or any other bustling metropolitan Asian city you should have an idea what that word means. For those who don’t: normally slow and erratic traffic is even more so because the rain makes driving/riding haphazard. Don’t ask me how, but it does. Established fact. Waiting and slinking our way through traffic, we made peace with the circumstances, rolled down our windows and enjoyed the weather.

Speeding on The Mall, which is actually a bad idea considering the presence of the police, our car tires shrieked as we turned onto the parking lot of Bagh-E-Jinnah, as if the signal our arrival to all the bookworms inside. Umbrella-free, and toting mostly leather bags, we braved the gigantic and fast-falling raindrops once again to enter the Library from under the columns.

Interrogated by the grandfatherly (read harmless) security guard and then allowed entrance into the library itself after disposing of private books, we went straight to one of the many dark wooden tables on the immediate left, impatient to be bestowed with our library membership forms. If you are a student, the deal is you have to bring in your university/college identitfication card to prove that you are , indeed, a post graduate student, then and only then can you expect to recieve the pea-soup green library card form. Aside from the card the only other predominantly green aspect of the library was the carpet, but that is a story for another day. ( I intend to share my impression vs. actual experience of the library soon, I need to visit once more…hang on)

We were wet yet triumphant! Now all we needed were two specifically specified sized photographs, a bunch of boring personal details, a signature by our Head of Department, and we can research to our merry lil hearts content!!

Splashing through the considerable puddles on our way back to the car, my classmates and I chalked this trip up to the gorgeously rained-out Bagh-E-Jinnah/Quaid-E-Azam Library as one we were not going to forget any time soon. Ending the way any heroic voyage should, the sun shone golden-warm rays all the way home.

With many other interesting posters depicting the era before partition, there is a poster related with Lahore by Jankidass & Co from Neela Gumbad and O.K. Electric Works Limited, The Mall, Lahore, it is “from the 1920s, Congress advocated the boycotting of British goods and the embrace of swadeshi – the promotion of Indian products and traditional technologies.”

Though the poster looks quite nice with all the fans and tricycle, I just cannot figure out that how two traders could go for one poster, maybe because of ONE cause, i.e., independence? and now, can we think of sharing ads? NO WAY!!!!

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Suggested by Atif S.