Fourth Planet: Yakki Gate

Yakki Gate

Right after Sheranwala Gate in clockwise order there is Yakki Gate; this gate is famous for its havelies and temples. Join me for a walk through this gloroius gate. All I want is for you to comprehend the present situation of this historical city by understanding its past, and through that, help contribute to a better future.
The Yakki gate, originally known as Zaki Gate, is said to be named after a martyred saint, who according to legend, fell fighting against the Tataraies who once invaded Lahore. Zaki Pir fought them with great courage and bravery. During the battle he got decapitated near the gate but his body kept on fighting for some time even without the head and finally fell in a quarter of the city some distance away from the gate. One tomb of this great saint is said to be built where his head fell and the other tomb where his body collapsed. Both are revered by the faithful of this soil. People from all over the country come here and pays tribute to this brave man.
Apart from this brave saint Yakki Gate is famous for its beautiful but semi-demolished havelies and temples. Unlike the last three gates this very one was primarily a residential area. There are small shops, mostly run by the immigrants from the Frontier Province and Afghanistan (Pathans). Historically speaking, the people from the royal courts of the Mughals used to live here in their beautiful havelies. Now, most of these havelies have vanished from the face of the Walled City. Along with the old style buildings and small, tiled houses, there are modern abodes too and there is the sky high building of Nawaz Sharif Hospital. On the face of it would seem that this hospital, like Mayo Hospital, is a blessing for the residents of the Walled City after Mayo Hospital but Waste Disposal is the biggest problem over here. We are the kind of people who only want to move forward by hook or by crook. We progress at the cost of leaving a trail of mountains of garbage. In short we might say that we produce the source to spread diseases and after that we make hospitals and receive a round of applause from the patients and locality.
Let’s get back to our Yakki Gate. I was talking about the havelies. Haveli Mian Sultan, Haveli Alf Shah, Haveli Nadir Wali, Lal Haveli and Haveli Raja Endar Naat are the remaining havelies of the Walled City situated in Yakki Gate. Most of these havelies are turned into the katries (a common dwelling place of more then one family). Haveli Mian Sultan was owned by Mian Sultan the founder of Lahore Railway station. Nowadays this haveli is being used as a residence by a family. Haveli Alf Shah of the Mughal era is now an Imam Bargha. A big part of the Haveli Nadir Wali has been demolished and the remaining section has been turned into a house with a little modification. Lal Haveli is a beautiful piece of architecture which was gifted by Raja Ranjit Singh to his munshi Gulab Chand. Currently the once magnificent Lal Haveli is in a particularly deplorable condition. It is still standing, but it’s hard to imagine that a building can deteriorate to this condition, with walls cracked and semi-blackened, broken stucco and portions collapsed. Haveli Raja Endar Naat is now called the Katri Raja Endar Naat.
The temples of the area have now vanished from the scene or maybe have been turned into houses. Luckily I found one but I failed to be able to trace its whole history because of the hostile welcome I received from the resident. He did not want to talk to me because he thought I was from the revenue department. So I tactfully moved on. Further I was quite stunned to see a building just like the leaning tower of Pisa. Italy is lucky to have a wonder of the world, but we’ll be very unlucky if we do not remove this dangerous structure from there. All I want to say is that the situation in these narrow lanes and streets is quite dangerous. They are open invitations to hazards like fire or short circuits of the electrical wires overhead and there is always the threat of some venerable old building falling down.
Yakki Gate, like all the other gates, needs our attention, not only to make it safe to live in but also worth looking at. This is one of the heritages of the world. We should preserve it. It is very strange that hundred years ago when people did not have modern devices and a consciousness of preserving our historical character, they managed to run such a big city fairly satisfactorily, but we with all our scientific and space age technology have failed to maintain it?

Published By: Sunday Magazine EyeCandy Daily The Post, (A Khabrian group Of Publications)
Written by: Zohaib Saleem Butt
Date: 21-01-2007

Third Planet: Sheranwala Gate

In the walled city of Lahore, Sheranwala is one of the twelve gates. It is also known as ‘Khiziri gate’, and in olden times the River Ravi followed by the city walls and the ferry was near this part. The gate was, therefore, named as Khiziri after the name of Khizzr Elias, the patron saint according to the Mohammedan belief, of running waters and streams, and the discoverer of the water of immortality.

Ranjit Singh kept here two domesticated lions in a cage, and the gate came to be called as ‘Sheranwala gate’ or ‘Lion’s gate’. It is an old crowded area with all the needful facilities including markets and schools. There are two major schools, Government Islamia High School Sheranwala Gate for boys, which is the oldest school and the best training centre for the youth of the vicinity. Then there is the Government School for the Deaf and Dumb Khizri Mohala, which is a mannequin school and also and a banquet hall. There is a Madrassa (an institution for religious studies) established by Moulana Ahmed Ali Lahori, and the Anjuman Khudamu-ud-Din (a great name in the Islamic religious revolution in the sub-continent). There are also many higher secondary private schools in the area to educate the coming generation of this historical soil.

This is the same hinterland where people used to live in joint families sharing their happiness and sorrows. The whole mohala was like a family, and everyone was close to each other and respected each other. However everything has changed now, there is no mohala, people have migrated to other places. Now, you go there and you’ll find a big market of Press Calendars (a heavy machine to iron unstitched cloth). I am not saying that people don’t live there; they do, but the way they are living is worse than anything. Poverty is a big ugly vampire sucking the blood of dwellers.

The rich are getting richer and poor poorer. People don’t want to talk about culture, the poor man wants shelter and the rich man wants to invest his money, buy land and make sky high plazas with two or three basements (where parking is virtually impossible) and consequently destroy heritage. They don’t care about the heritage and architecture; they want money to eat food or on the other hand to make a huge plaza, which is an open invitation to the investors, to come there, earn money and destroy the heritage. The biggest example of their negligence is when a rich resident planned to build a plaza on the ‘Bangla Ayub Shah’ site where a monument was found when workers were digging to make a basement for the intended building. The owner had to pay a fine for violating building laws, which require permission before digging a basement inside the Walled City. The Archaeology Department has disallowed digging or construction in the area without permission and owners of residential plots need the department’s permission to commercialize their land.

Concerned residents protested against building plazas in the Walled City, ‘at the cost of the national heritage’ and said that most commercial site owners did not get a No Objection Certificate from the Archaeology Department.

The discovery triggered a debate over the monument’s importance. An Archaeology Department report said that the mehrabs, paka kali plaster and paintings hanging ten feet above the floor suggested the building was from the Mughal or Sikh era. Now, you decide whose fault it is that we have lost another architectural heritage just because of our greed and negligence.

The Ravi Town Municipal Administration (TMA) has earmarked 506 buildings and 1056 basements as dangerous premises, and the lives of the people residing or working in these buildings are perpetually in danger. 485 out of the marked 506 buildings and all the dangerous basements are located in the Walled City, which could cause a tragic mishap during the coming rainy season.

The TMA has carried out a survey of dangerous buildings on the directive of the Town Municipal Officer Usman Anwar. It has got registered cases against 22 persons for constructing illegal basements, while legal notices have been issued to all the owners for vacating dangerous buildings and having new ones constructed. Sadly, in the Walled City money speaks louder then any legal notice. The survey team has pointed out 75 dangerous basements constructed inside Sheranwala Gate, Azam Cloth Market, Dabbi Bazar, Moti Bazar, Chetram Road, Bhaati Gate, Kot Khawaja Saeed, Koocha Shah Wali, Bazar Sadakaran Rang Mahal, Nawaz Sharif College Road, Masti Gate, Circular Road, Kanari Bazar, Chowk Saurgan Singh, Barood Khana Road, Kashmiri Ghaati, Akbari Mandi, Soha Bazar Rang Mahal, Shah Alam, Kashmiri Gate, Choona Mandi Chowk and Darbar Baba Sher Bukhsh.

I have no words to explain my grief regarding the current situation of my historical neighborhood; this place seems like a haunted citadel, preoccupied by human phantoms. It is my humble request to all of you to preserve this heritage as well as the humanity that remains in our souls!

Published By: Sunday Magazine EyeCandy Daily The Post, (A Khabrian group Of Publications)

Written by: Zohaib Saleem Butt

Date: 14-01-2007

Second Planet: Kashmiri Gate from the Universe Name Lahore

There are thirteen gates around the inner city of Lahore, and as I mentioned previously in my article; all these gates have their own history and specific lifestyles. There are thirteen different but complete worlds surrounded by a wall in a universe named Lahore. Right after Masti Gate in clockwise order there is Kashmiri Gate...It is so named because it faces the direction of Kashmir and in the olden day’s caravans leaving for Kashmir left by this gate. This gate is one of the seven gates of the Walled City that are still standing. Join me for a walk through this glorious gate, but keep in mind that today will not be a typically historical journey. I want you to comprehend the present situation of this historical city by understanding its past, and through that, maybe help create a better future. Towards that end, allow this humble wordsmith to be your guide beyond the historical picture of the Walled City.
As you enter the Kashmiri gate, on your very right is a school named Government Islamia High School for girls, ChunaMandi. This school is the only source of secondary education for the female population of the area, and is a blessing for the locality. Sadly it looks more like a trash yard than a high school, thanks to our local government. Don’t go far I have another thing to show you: a fine model of our current ‘illegal architecture’ —- an eight story high plaza right on the boundry wall of the old city, between Kashmiri Gate and Sheranawala Gate, which can be seen all the way from Badami Bagh. This very Gate has become mini Manhattan because of Asia’s biggest cloth market, Azam Cloth Market, the pride of Pakistan. This mini-Manhattan has lots of high rise plazas which are all illegal, but owned by some influencial people, so the law can’t do them any harm. Here you have ‘survival of the fittest’. Rarra Telliyan is the victimized area of this destructive construction. People are building plazas just to earn money without thinking about the land laws and its effects on the architectural heritage.
Another beautiful thing about this gate is the amazing combination of the rich and poor people living together. There are many small katriis (common dwelling places), where people live a single room with their whole families. This is the kind of place where even poverty cries on behalf of the people and alongside the katriis runs the boundary of a huge plaza within which money runs like water. A noisome mixture of poverty and callous wealth is destroying the beautiful architectural heritage of the old city. Haveli Kabli Mal is a living example of the ignorance of our authorities.
Kucha Kudi Garanh holds the priveldge of containing the last standing prehistoric house but I am afraid that it too will soon be demolished. Chowk Chuna Mandi is one of the oldest mandies (markets) of the Walled City, now in the centre of Azam Cloth Market, and I am sad to report that it has become a junk yard, around which people are comfortably eating or transacting business. Dirt, garbage and trash, these are the things which can also be found along with tasty food, lively people and architectural heritage, within the walled city. It pains me to say that the future of the walled city is endangered. We claim that we are preserving this heritage and raising funds from the world, but there are no results. Whatever that actually gets done is only the done because of selfishness and greed. The reason behind telling you all this and bringing the truth in front of you, is to preserve our heritage and to wake our authorities. If we let this happen, our future generations will never see our rich culture. All we will be left with are some trash yards and pseudo-skyscrapers. Please do not commercialize this world vestige of our past. Preserve it as you promised to do...

Published By: Sunday Magazine EyeCandy Daily The Post, (A Khabrian group Of Publications)
Written by: Zohaib Saleem Butt
Date: 07-01-2007

masti gate is name of a planet from a universe named Lahore

There are thirteen gates around the inner city of Lahore, all these gates have their own history and specific lifestyles. These are thirteen different but complete worlds surrounded by a wall in a universe named Lahore.

Let’s visit the first world in clockwise order: ‘Masti Gate’, located just behind the Lahore Fort. The name ‘Masti’ is a corruption of the word ‘Masjidi’ (mosque). A few steps from the entrance is located what is said to be the oldest surviving mosque in the city, the Mosque of Mariyam Zamani Begum, who was the sister of Raja Bhagwan Das, the mother of the fourth Mughal ruler Jahangir. Her mosque was completed in 1614. This brick structure is celebrated for two very important features: the double domes with which the prayer chamber is crowned and the exquisite fresco paintings on the interior surface. The mosque’s dimensions are 135.5 by 127.5 feet, and it is compared with paradise in a Persian inscription on its northern gateway. Like other Mughal mosques in Lahore, it has no garden courtyard, but it does have exquisite floral fresco decorations that remind one of the vegetal imagery associated with the gardens of paradise. This mosque is also known as the Masjid Begum Shahi.

The unfortunate story of this gate is that it is one of those that were demolished by the British, during the Raj. The remaining wall of the gate can still be seen right before the police station of ‘Masti Gate’. At the entrance there is a big shoe market called ‘Motti Bazaar’. This huge wholesale shoe market connects ‘Masti Gate’ with ‘Kashmiri Bazaar’. The one most important thing about ‘Masti Gate’ is the Havali of Asif Jah, brother of Noor Jahan and brother-in-law of Emperor Jehangir,. This Havali was used as a jail during the colonial rule, but now it is a college for women, established by the Ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and sometimes also an exclusive party venue for the elite, apart from being a major tourist attraction. A little ahead of it is a temple called ‘Mai Ka Mandar,’ which is now used as a dwelling place by a score of homeless families.

Once you have entered the gate, it’ll be an injustice not to meet its residents. One can never feel the true essence of a place, without getting to know the people there. Do try the special recipe for ‘murgh chaanay’ in this area, from anyone of the innumerable and various dhaabas scattered around ‘Motti Bazaar’.

On one side of the gate there are huge six to seven story high plazas with people earning tons of both black and white money, and at the same time just around the corner are people who don’t have enough to buy a decent meal. For example, in the shadow of a grotesque plaza there lies a poor man’s home which consists of just three walls. Right before the entrance of that ragged gate you can see cars costing millions of Rupees parked. People from all over Pakistan come here to invest money in dubious ventures that can instantly double their money, because of the poor law and order situation... However if you point out this disparity to the natives there, they will give you a rather brave and nonchalant answer; “Happiness and sorrows walk hand in hand together in life.”

The rich tradition of the Walled City is still there, but has been tainted by our confused modernized western culture. Few boys now go to watch Dangal (wrestling matches), preferring gyms instead. Men no longer wear the traditional lacha kurta, preferring jeans and shirts. The women too have begun preferring scarves or duppatas to the traditional burkhas. It’s not just the dressing that has changed, but also the language too, like merging English with Punjabi

On a brighter side, the education level has improved, providing equal opportunities for women, which was a phenomenon unheard of before. It is evident that competing with the global economy has influenced the culture and tradition of these people’s way of life. Hopefully once they are more aware and equipped to deal with a world light years ahead of them, they will be able to strike a better balance between the old and the new and the good and the bad. For now, we all know that one has to crawl before one can walk, and sadly the once glorious gate is currently at that stage. However with the stout hearted attitude its people show towards life, it seems it might not be too late for them and those concerned about them, to reduce the deterioration while preserving their heritage.

Masti Gate

Published By: Sunday Magazine EyeCandy Daily The Post, (A Khabrian group Of Publications)

Written by: Zohaib Saleem Butt

Date: 31-12-2006