Lahore ka Jughraphiah

veeresh # 9 - The Lahore you have described is NOT the Lahore that I grew up in or the one I visit almost every year. Are there problems and issues in Lahore? Yes. Is there room to make Lahore better? Yes! But your analysis could not be farther from truth.

I have read Mantolives ilog (which presumably will make its way to this board as well) and I agree with his assertions. Please read that.

For a man who has claimed to have roamed four corners of this world, you have surprisingly managed to cling on to the old ``my country is better than yours`` mantra. You belong to a country where the city of Kolkata is located. That is the most horrifyingly filthy city in the ENTIRE world, as attested universally by world`s information sources. You should have been a bit humble before pointing your biased fingers towards Lahore.

Veeresh,

You just plain and simple wrong... and absolutely arrogant. Thats all I can say.

So you are basing your expertise about Lahore on ``overflight`` and the ``railway`` station... very neutral of you.... You really have no clue... and when I told a visiting Indian about your comments... she was all laughter ... replying ``These Dehli wallahs live in a fantasy world``... see then again she was not naive enough to base her entire experience on the train station... and overflight ... this is universal view.

May I suggest next time you come around Basant time, allow me to show you around... and use the extensive Daewoo, Double Decker and other Bus transport system... You will find that your view was not only misplaced but based on extreme ignorance.


-YLH

``Including in 1971 and subsequently``

This is the year 2004... please wake up.

YLH/06, how can one be ``jealous`` of a city?

Yes, let us put things in their proper perspective, sure. And a comparative with Delhi is just one aspect.

All my life I have been told by a group of people that Lahore this, Lahore that. Lahore nahee vekheyaa te kamme nahee. At the same time, for quite some time now I have been trying to get to the bottom of this Lahore-fascination with our Wagah-Attari candle wavers. On the other hand, feedback about Lahore from friends of mine who have been to Lahore for one reason or the other, including in 1971 as well as subsequently, gives me a different perspective.

So I decide to take a look for myself on a variety of parameters.

a) Size:- From the air, flying in from the West towards Delhi, you overfly both Lahore and Amritsar. On a clear night you can even see ``the fence``. But what`s more, you can see both cities. Amritsar, as far as being lit up is concerned, seems to be about twice the diameter. And Amritsar is not the largest city in Indian Punjab by a long shot.

b) Atmospheric pollution:- tell me about it. Leave aside the fine dust on the Wagah-Lahore segment, which is due to mass scale de-foresting, the existing levels of air pollution in Lahore are just inhuman.

c) Cultural Scene:- there was not one theatre, music or ``cultural`` programme listed in the media during the period I was there, other than a performance at the Race Course by a few rock groups from India and Pakistan. There was no evidence of street theatre. There was no sign of free inter-mingling of young men and women at the street level. There was ample evidence of monetary collection in the name of religion and Kashmir all over the place.

d) Human rights:- the kind of terrible behaviour by lower-level government persons that I saw during my trip to and from Lahore was and still is unmatched anywhere on the sub-Continent. I have plenty of observations on this subject, but just one should suffice - an immigration staff (the black Pathan Suit ones) picks up the baby of one of the travellers on the Wagah-Lahore stretch, and shakes the baby till the child`s parents and grandparents give whatever was demanded. Does it matter if that poor person was Indian/Pakistani/Hindu/Muslim, I don`t know?

e) Public transport:- the less said the better about the state of the trains and tracks. And as for the city as well as rural buses . . .

f) Idle rich, inertia levels, conspiracy theories and ``control``:- from what I could make out, on this, Lahore takes the cake, the baby and the bathwater too. Just one example - look at the cost of newspapers and magazines? To an outsider, the who think stinks of a few people trying to keep a larger number of people down.

Yes, the spirit of the people, the warmth of the man on the street and the sheer dynamic pulse . . . all this and more.

But that`s the people, Yasser, making the best that they can out of a situation. Even in the worst of Socialist days, for example, the people you met in the East European countries were any day warmer and better to meet up with than those from the more ``advanced`` countries.

I am not jealous about Lahore. Sad, maybe. It was nothing like what I was told it would be.

And in addition, the biggest validation I made was this:- Lahore has not been able to shake of its feudal and colonial past, in fact, it has simply added to it. Which is why, I think, for a select few opinion-makers, Lahore still remains the promised land that they still dream about.

Dream on.

Guys, pay attention to the subtitle: ``Lahore is Lahore.`` No matter who thinks what, Lahore is unique in its many ways. There is no reason and no logic for discovering Lahore by any other means, as Pitrus suggested, you can discover its wealth of culture through `Lahore is L:ahore.`

In the month of July, 2004, Saima Shah put me in touch with Professor Robert Anderson, Professor of Communication, Simon Fraser University, who wanted tp gather information about Dayal Singh (of Dayal singh College and Dayal Singh Library in Lahore), a Philanthropist. Professor Anderson is writing a book about Lahore (?). I was amazed at the extent of his knowledge regarding Lahore and the people who were associated with this city of culture. To cut it short, it`s not only us, the natives of Lahore, who are enamored by it, it has bewitched people all over the world.

Wishing you all well.

Mohammad Gill

Jaahil ko ugar jehl kaa , inaa`am diyaa jaaey
iss hadsaa-e vaqt ko--kya naam diyaa jaaey ?
maikhanoaN kee tauheen hai, rindoaN kee htak hai
kum zrf kay haathoaN meiN ugar jaam diya jaaey.

---

``hUmm aisay saada diloaN kee niazmandee sey
butoaN ney kee haiN, jahaN meiN khudaeeyaaN kya kya``

The simple-folk that we are, respectful & polite
has led many stoneheads behave like gods.

---

Dear Veeresh sahab....

The one part you missed out on was that this was written more than thirty five years ago by Pitras Bukhari Sahab... who produced Pakistan`s greatest satire... the Principal of Government college.... this is simply a translation...

I don`t want to get into a debate about Lahore .... Your jealousy of the city is rather well known ... thankfuly there are enough Indians who have been to Pakistan who don`t share your views about Lahore. Unlike you they haven`t based their entire analysis of a city while passing through the Railway station which is now in one corner of Old Lahore. Please refer to Akar Patel`s article and Dost Mittar`s articles... they, unlike you, actually went around the whole city.

But you see ...your comment about Freethinker being non-patriot is rather funny given the context you see... And while we are on the topic of ``real Manto`` vs ``New Manto``.... maybe contemporary analysis requires New Mantoesque analysis as it is more current and true...

-YLH

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Mr. HP:

Thank you for your comments. The pun of “Ravi Zaeef” was only one of several situations where I nearly gave up. This situation, I thought, I had saved to some extent by drawing attention to the involved double entendre. A couple of other situations were more difficult.
And you know what. At a couple of places in the original Urdu script, there are some “sags” also. Quite a bit of the beauty of the original essay was lost in the translation but whatever remains in it has pleased a couple of other readers and probably there are some more who’ll enjoy it.

I thank you for your compliments on my skills in writing on science and other related issues but there again there are some who believe I should do something else.

Let me give you a brief explanation. I am not totally stranger in the field of Urdu literature although I admit I am not quite up to the current generation of the Urdu writers. All my life, I’ve been reading Iqbal, Ghalib, Faiz, Faraz, Manto, Pitrus, Krishan Chandar, Bedi, Ismat and many others. I’ve read from Qasmi, Shahab,Wajdah Tabassum, Ashfaq, Mumtaz Mufti, and so on. I admit my translation was not up to your mark, I’m sorry for that; the fact is that there is room for improvent in whatever you write or choose to do.

I did this piece to take a break from Science and Religion. I’m shortly returning to Religion to face a battery of malicious criticism. Many believe I don’t have business writing on religion either because they know better..

Thanks again for your comments. Wishing you well,

Mohammad Gill

Pitrus Bukhari was one of top class Urdu humorist and satirist in the subcontinent. He was also a head honcho at the all India radio before partition. He brought Radio Pakistan to life and along with his brother Zulf Bukhari, was a major sponsor of arts and classical music in Pakistan. He represented Pakistan at the UN. In between, he wrote little nuggets of humor and satire. He died of natural causes but today I see that he was murdered posthumously by Dr. Gill.

Gill Sahib, I apologize and I don’t mean to disparage you or your translation.

Translation of satirical work IMO is the hardest thing as the satirist plays with the words in his/her writing and often those words just lose meaning when translated into another language.

I wish you had given up on this translation when you first realized that how subtly Pitras used the word “Ravi” and you were unable to carry the pun in English.

“You will find this river near the two bridges (one for railway trains and the other is the road bridge) where it lies in the sand bed; the act of flowing has stopped since long. It is therefore difficult to say if the city is located on the right or the left bank.”

It annoys me to even discuss what you have written above. Literary pieces are not translated exactly. I am not going to continue on this as it really pains me.

You are a very good writer about science and things related to science and that is where your talent lies. Please don’t stretch yourself. It is not necessary.

I apologize again.

There goes most of my travelogue, last part. Anyways, see where a few small comments about super-fine dust of Lahore got me? What you did miss out on, Gill Sahib, is the rather top-heavy ``Government babu`` presence in Lahore.

Gill Sahib, you are now about to join the list of non-patriots for your very Mantoesque description of Lahore. The real Manto, I mean.

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