Light Within

Away from Lahore, I wondered if all the rhetoric about the magic city had any substance. Land of superlatives, Lahore is Pakistan’s second biggest and one of the most prosperous cosmopolitan cities, home to universities and colleges, spiritual centers, and historic, cultural, commercial, and political center. It has been a land of plenty for centuries. “Lahore is one of the greatest cities of the East,” wrote William Finch, a traveler from the West, in his journal back in 1610.” I found new answers every day.

With over 1500 years of recorded history, Lahore has surpassed those days when saint Hazrat Data Gang Bakhsh said, “It is one of the hamlets in suburbs of Multan”. It has been an empire, a kingdom, a state capital and now cultural capital of a young nation forged in the crucible of one of the world’s oldest civilizations. Lahore is constantly reinventing itself. Now it is changing into a city of fun, festivities, fun and flowers.

The city is known for its beautiful gardens, exquisite fountains, delicious cuisines, and rich heritage of architecture, art, and music. Mughal rulers introduced the concept of green places, gardens, and baradari in the city. In 1849, there were 164 gardens in and around Lahore and most were intact till partition in 1947. Traveller John Foster Fraser wrote in 1899, in his book Round the World on a Wheel, “Lahore is a sort of glorified Gardens.” The axiom seems true in spring when all roads are lavishly lined with flower beds, flower baskets hanging with poles and bougainvillea blooming from the outer walls of private houses.

Someone once put it that the streets of (old) Lahore are not only paved with bricks but with history. The old and compact part of the city - the neighborhood where many links of the city with the past are in tact - is not at all easy to navigate. But by wandering aimlessly not only you will get less heated up but you will see more too, and it will eventually get you where you started. Enter through any of the thirteen surviving gateways around once walled city and you can make it around without so much as glancing at a map. What you need to do is make a conscious decision to see Lahore, as it is required to be seen: on a long leisurely stroll into the life of the city. A diplomat once said, “Lahore should be seen on your own. No protocols, no guides, and no time limits.” Another thing you will need is a starting point.

The best place to start is at Food Street in Gowalmandi, a good mixture of past architectural glories and present culinary delights. I could not recognize the old Gowalmandi I was familiar with during my stay in the 1970s. It has changed so much after commissioning in 2000. Gowalmandi Food Street gained popularity as a food centre after independence when Kashmiri immigrants settled here. With them came new types and traditions of food. A trader of the street says, “Apart from a variety of cuisine, Gowalmandi Food and Heritage Street has come up as a singularity in Lahore.”

“We want to show real Lahore in Food and Heritage Street,” says a shopkeeper in the Food Street. It is a wonder what collective efforts on the renovation of built heritage with balconies and angular projections lining the street have resulted in. Lahorites already (and justifiably) compare the ambiance in the Food Street with lanes in Rome, Paris, and Athens.

Sizzling spicy foods on display on the Street are very mouth-watering. Unfazed by the noisy crowd and the bustle, people do not look at each other. At night, the tables are full. One of the shopkeepers said that on average he sells 200 kilograms of meat and chicken every day. Everybody is led by aroma and looks at the food in front of him or on the fire. A variety of languages greets your ear. The waiters will get the orders though mine was changed once. I was served Butter Chicken Karahi when I ordered a chicken breast piece. Foreign tourists look at the food being prepared with amazement and keep clicking their cameras.

So these are some of the realities of Lahore.