In Love with Lahore

The student Exchange visit of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India to Pakistan (under SAFA – South Asian Federation of Accountants) was finally cleared by Government of India in December, to the collective relief of 9 students and many officials. However, the excitement dropped a couple of notches when we discovered that visas had been granted (inexplicably, isn’t it always?) for just 7 days and for the city of Lahore only as against the application which also included Islamabad and Karachi and was planned for 10 days.

Nevertheless, the enthusiasm of travelling ‘abroad’ and that too to troubled neighbour was sustained. To top it, we were informed that our escort officer’s visa application had been rejected and that we were ‘on our own’. An official briefing just summarised the repetitive buddhivada many including my sister, had delivered – avoid contentious issues, DONOT utter K- word.

While PTDC of Pakistan and DTC of India operate the Delhi-Lahore bus, the officials of the home country manage the administration whosoever bus may be plying. ‘Patriotic’ DTC officials charged Pakistani travellers for excess baggage and let us- Indians- off as the monies went to PTDC (as our tickets were booked on PTDC bus). T

he Delhi-Lahore bus is probably the most secure surface public transport vehicle in the subcontinent. One pilot jeep and one escort vehicle of the local Police accompany the bus right through the entire journey on the Grand Trunk Road built by Sher Shah Suri. Additionally, an anti-hijacking commando sits right inside the bus. The journey time of 12 hours provides an hour and a half for immigration and custom formalities on either side of the Wagha border. This requires physical unloading of the luggage for inspection, reloading, and travelling 200 m to cross the border and unloading again for inspection. We were lucky to be delayed just so much as to witness the Change of Guard ceremony (locally called “Parade”). 20,000 Voices rent the air with emotional cries of “Zindabad” just after the Indian BSF and the Pakistan Ranger alternated the words “Hindustan” and “Pakistan”.Throughout the journey our Pakistani co-passengers tried to tell us that Lahore was no different from any other Indian city.

Upon arrival, our tired contingent had a quick evening tour of Gulberg, a posh locality where we were put up, and discovered (to my considerable disappointment) that Lahore did, indeed, look like any other Indian city.The Next morning, a Sunday was reserved for Sight-seeing. The tour was prefaced with security instructions, asking us not to reveal our nationality and always be within earshot of our armed security guard (who was with us 24X7). Our first visit was to the Race Course Park which once served as the Race Course, until the Islamic hand struck and all forms of gambling was declared Un-Islamic and so it came to be a park.

Our next visit was to the Shalamar Bagh built by Shah Jahan (His idea was to bring the beauty of Kashmiri gardens to the plains). An expansive terraced garden with symmetrical entrances, it has marble structures for the artists to perform and a pavilion for the Emperor. The garden is filled with fountains (of Shah Jahan era). The Bagh’s hydraulic engineering is apparently a marvellous mystery to modern engineers. However, the fountains were not working and when asked why, the ball was thrown back at us. Apparently, India has held back the water on the River Ravi and hence the garden is unable to meet its water requirements. Indeed, we did view the Ravi ; all we could make out was puddles of water.An interesting incident happened at the entrance to the Shalamar Bagh. The entrance to the UNESCO heritage site is priced Rs 10 for locals and Rs 200 for foreigners. Our hosts hoped to get away with the Rs10 tickets but the ‘bindi’ worn by a Thiruvananthapuram colleague gave it away and the security guard wouldn’t let until we bought the Rs 200 tickets.The next stop was at the Shahi Qila (Royal Fort). Built by Akbar, it is about 5 centuries old and houses a museum. Here, we discovered that the city was founded by Lava and Kusha, sons of Rama and was named Lahore after Lav (locally pronounced as ‘Loh’). The North Indian festival of Lohri (coinciding with South Indian Bhogi) apparently derives its name from Lahore.

Situated opposite the Qila is the Badshahi Mosque, built by Aurangazeb almost entirely of red sandstone. It is the world’s largest mosque courtyard for outdoor prayers. Amongst its revered exhibits are relics of Prophet Mohammed including his hair (yes, a single strand is well preserved and so is his clothing) Built across the road from these monuments is Minar-e-Pakistan, a National monument celebrating the creation of Pakistan. It has been built on the very spot where a Muslim League Resolution was passed in 1940 to demand a separate state carved out of Muslim dominated regions of British India.At the Shahi Qila, our contingent took a break for tea at a restaurant and I walked into a souvenir-cum-book shop about 50 metres away. I asked the shopkeeper for a map of Lahore city and he demanded Rs 100 placing it in front of me. I, in my broken Hindi, masquerading as Urdu, said it was beyond what I could afford. The shopkeeper asked if I was a student and to a nod reduced the price to Rs 80. I claimed that it was still way too much. He then questioned me if I was from Karachi to which I said “Nahi”. He asked me as to where I was from. Evading an answer I started looking around while he persisted and I was forced to confess “India”. Do you watch Hindi Movies ?” . Relieved, I beamed “Yes” to which came one more poser. “Is saal kisko milega Best actor award ?” Not having much of a clue, I safely said “I hope it is Shah Rukh; He is my favourite”. To which the two persons happily pronounced that Shah Rukh was their favourite as well and shook my hands profusely, sold their Rs 100 map for Rs 40 and sent their best compliments to Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit.Later, we realised that the local cable TV operator, funnily -or is it villainously- named, Mogambo ( In a tragic coincidence, the man who made Mogambo famous – Amrish Puri died that week; Pakistanis too mourned his death) delivered atleast 8 Bollywood movie channels on his own. On the subject of movies, enquires revealed that locales in the movie “Veer-Zara” were not shot in Lahore but probably India itself.

Most of the satellite channels were Indian, even though there exists an official ban on Indian Channels. Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi is a superhit there too, we realised when locals discussed with us the morality of Tulsi killing her sons. Our waiter summed up the situation rather aptly- “Hindustan ko Pakistan harane keliye Bandhook ka zaroorat nahi,sir. Indian films aur Indian TV channels ko bandh kariye; Pakistan ka log pagal ho jayenge, sir.”

We sneaked past Lahore International Airport named after Allama Iqbal, the poet who gave us “Sare Jahan se acha” and the Qaddafi cricket stadium. We visited ‘Food Street’ a Pre-Independence part of Lahore which houses ‘Hindu buildings’. Our hosts were keen that we taste the best of Lahori cuisine but were disappointed because of “your vegetarian problem”. (sic)

The next day onwards our official programme began and we visited a CA firm, a couple of factories, the Lahore stock exchange and Chambers of Commerce. Here, we came across very friendly people chatting with us about “common origin”, dosti and all until Kashmir somehow sneaked in and the mood became sober. We were even surprised that officials of the Chambers of Commerce in Lahore placed priority on political issues over bilateral trade. In the evenings, we went shopping and visited the old Anarkali Bazar (named after a courtesan in Akbar’s court) famed for alleys name-it-and-you-shall-get-it goods and some haggling.

Shops were stocking up really huge kites in view of the February festival of spring-Basant. Pakistan tourism is attempting to make the kite flying season an international festival. When the merchants eventually got to know that we were from India (Our local escort attempted to protect our identity by proclaiming we were from interior Sindh - where Urdu and Punjabi is not spoken) the reactions were mixed. Some of them exploited the tourists and gave us raw bargain while others gave huge discounts justifying that they had to exhibit their goodwill in a tangible measure for Indians to believe that Pakistanis were serious about Dosti.

Symbols of the common sub-continental history were omnipresent. Many of the pre-partition legislations are common to the countries. The Lahore International Airport is named after Allama Iqbal the poet, who gave us “Sare Jahan se acha”. Pre-partition buildings (many with Hindu inscriptions) in older parts of the city are still around. We dined at a restaurant in one such area.

Overall, a tour of Pakistan turned out to be a wonderful experience. One realises that as individuals, Pakistanis are hospitable hosts and wonderful human beings. I, for one, hope to visit Pakistan again. Or as the Pakistanis say Inshallah I will.

This was written in February 2005, published in the New Sunday Express on 11th February 2005.