Its the second time in my life when I am actually seeing people in lahore avoiding chicken. Lahoris, being famous for their “healthy diets” (throw in all the sarcasm you can muster up here), are usually the last ones to go to such extremes, but ask any round the corner tikka shop and you will actually see lesser crowd there. According to BBC, pakistani authorities have quarantined two poultry farms in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) after a mild strain of bird flu was detected there.

just about every other building facing Cavalry ground bridge has one spiral-y staircase? Seriously, what gives?

Hey everyone, what you think of this new look of lahore? The layout, colors, features or anything else. You like it, dislike it. The old one was better or this one?

Also tell us the areas where we need improvement. Please feel free to criticise us. Your help is highly appreciated :)

I love photography. It allows you to appreciate life and see the otherwise invisible things. I am not very good at it personally (basically a collector) but some of the people I know are brilliant photographers. Last night, while looking for something interesting, I discovered this wonderful website which has some rare B&W photographs of Indian sub-continent. You can find the works of Samuel Bourne, Fred Bremner and one of my favourites John Sache featuring lahore, karachi, balouchistan, hyderabad, Lucknow, Benaris, Dehli and many other cities of pre-partition era. John Sache’s work has also been featured here if anyone is interested.

Here are some of the photographs of Lahore:

River Ravi 1895 – Photographer unknown

From Hawkshaw’s India – Mistree or Carpenter – Photograph by Sache
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Driving by Fortress Stadium tonight, i couldnt help noticing that there were too many lights around. Almost all the fountains were sprouting water and there were a lot of traffic police walas on the chowk along with their 500cc suzukis. I asked a friends if he knew anything about what was going on and he replied in a very funny accent, “lagda ay koi wada pyo a reya ay” (seems like some ‘big father’ is coming). What ever the reason may be, the lower end of the Mall Road is bright and shiny tonight.

Although the cold streak of lahori weather subsided about 2 weeks ago and there were no more jackets and sweaters in the veiw, today seems to be an exception. Out of no where (or perhaps from the northern areas), there seem to be signs of rain coming as the sky is filled with clouds getting darker and darker. Theres a slight chill in the breeze and it seems as if its going to be a rainy day after all.

it’s this new place in y-block, defence. i’ve always wanted a place for just drinks (obviously the non-alcoholic kind, but i still tiptoe around using the word ‘drinks’ for the connotations! :( )
it’s a small but nicely done place – red couches and interesting but weird lamps on tables. When we went, the menus hadn’t been printed yet, and the waiter had to recite everything that they had on the menu dhaba-style…heh, much fun. The owner later came around and had a talk with us about what we thought…and i really wanted to ask for a mufta (free food!) but didn’t :/ They had a LOT of nice stuff on the menu – the diaquiries were really yummy and the chocolate milkshake, according to my friend, was comparable to that darkchocolate magicshake thingie (because I can’t remember the exact name :/) they have at gelatos…which is apparently saying a LOT!

the picture has nothing to do with the place though, it was taken by my friend A, of the LUMS cafeteria (pdc)… :D

Qaddafi stadium and surrounding areas are supposed to be one of the safest and happening places of Lahore; full of life all the time. Something unusual happened last night when I was coming out of a house with a friend of mine (just two blocks away from Qaddafi’s main gate if you come from Main Boulevard). We met this common friend after two years gap so it was all memories and laughs. There is an extra police presence around Qaddafi these days due to unrest in Lahore. So anyways as we approached towards our car, a white Toyota Corolla stopped in front of me and a friendly looking gentlemen asked ‘Pai Jan, aye main boulevard gulberg kithe ve’ (brother, where is main boulevard gulberg)?
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These are some of the pictures of the sabotaged buildings i took today, almost one week afer the incident.
I found the glass windows in most of the buildings along the mall either cracked of shattered.