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antiques By Kristina Petrochenkova When you go to see the sights of London, hardly any tour operator misses the Victoria Embankment or Fleet Street. Have you ever wondered what the old buildings hiding between them are? If not, you are going to discover a true ultimate destination, which you will recommend to all your friends and family. Walking along the Victoria Embankment from Waterloo Bridge to Blackfriars Bridge, to the left of Cleopatra's Needle and the sphinxes you will notice a garden and a stone wall looking significantly older than their surroundings. This is the Temple.
antiques This small state near Kot Samaba is a museum of industrial and agricultural machinery By Salman Rashid If it is anything, Isakhel Estate near Kot Samaba in
Rahim Yar Khan district is a museum – a museum Outside in the open is scattered such a variety of farming machinery that even experienced farmers would not know existed. Here are curiously shaped ploughing machines to turn the soil up from a depth of a metre below the surface. Here are antiquated sowing machines; and reapers of the kind called cutter-binders that harvested wheat and bound it into sheaves. These are implements scarcely known to most other farmers in Pakistan. To one side is a shed with a padlocked door that contains rack after rack of replacement parts for John Deere tractors as well as for the variety of farming machinery, some of them still wrapped in butter paper and smeared thickly with grease. Here one can find brand-new alternators, ball bearings of all sizes, crank shafts, clutch plates, axle half-shafts, that is, every possible spare part that can keep the machinery in good fettle. Despite their mint condition, many of these spares are forty years old. The estate, in what was then part of the State of
Bahawalpur, was purchased in the second With a mere twenty rupees in his pocket and no farming experience other than having grown up on a farm, the young man set of from Isakhel. He named the estate after the ancestral village and set to with a small band of workers. His dream was to transform a land of sand dunes from a liability to an asset. The fourteen-page history of his endeavours that Ghazanfarullah Khan left behind does not mention it, but there seems to have followed a twelve-year period of great struggle trying to turn this land around with traditional farming methods. With a view to changing his farming methods, he purchased two John Deere tractors with "one single-action harrow, one double-action harrow, one integral cultivator and one disc tiller." The year was 1948. Keeping a thorough record of inputs in running and
maintenance of the mechanical fleet and his In 1952, Ghazanfarullah Khan came up with the idea of establishing a repair and manufacturing facility at Isakhel Estate. Beginning with a few auto-mechanics to fix broken machinery, the facility expanded virtually within weeks of its advent. Agriculture then being largely animal-assisted, the most one needed was an ox-drawn wooden plough with steel-tipped share or a wooden harrow and other simple winnowing tools. There were few farms that required threshers or multi-blade ploughs. Established in 1953, General Tractor Machinery Corporation (GTMC) at Isakhel Estate became the first ever firm in Pakistan to manufacture agricultural implements. Within no time at all, the corporation began catering to an expanding market of users all across East and West Pakistan. Shortly after beginning operations, the manufacturing side at GTMC went into overdrive working three eight-hour shifts six days a week with each shift employing no fewer than a hundred and fifty skilled and semi-skilled workmen. At the same time the remarkably perceptive Ghazanfarullah Khan saw the need to create his own bank of spare parts in order to minimise periods of inaction owing to breakdowns. This repository was so well-stocked that mechanised farmers from around the country began to resort to it for their needs. Meanwhile, so diverse was the expertise offered by it that the 1965 war with India found Pakistan Army tanks of locally engaged units resorting to GTMC for minor repairs. This success on the engineering side did not relegate agriculture into the background however: by the mid-1950s, owing to its low-cost high-yield working the government acknowledged Isakhel Estate as the Demonstration Farm of Pakistan. Things went so well for it that despite the so-called land reforms of Ayub Khan and Zulfiqar Bhutto, the Isakhel Estate was worked by no fewer than forty-five tractors in the 1970s. In 1994 Ghazanfarullah Khan passed away and with him the glory days of Isakhel Estate came to an end. The passing of this remarkable man who was trained neither as an agriculturist nor an engineer but who by sheer dint of acumen yet excelled in both fields was the death knell for GTMC. The firm closed down that same year. Nearly five hundred trained artificers moved on to set up their own businesses and the machinery in the sheds at the estate fell silent for the first time since installation forty years earlier. It is easy to create something new, impossible to revive a dormant function. Also, with the manufacture of farm machinery having become a virtual cottage industry across Punjab, GTMC now may well be redundant. And then again, those who have inherited the set-up may not be up to revitalising it. The establishment that provided daily bread to five hundred skilled workers and which in its forty-year lifespan trained several thousand more has finally come to the end of its road. Today the silent, rusting equipment, some of it already museum pieces, is a tribute to the good sense and initiative of Ghazanfarullah Khan.
Crusaders, Great Fire of London and World War II -- nothing could destroy the historical building hidden between London's famous landmarks By Kristina Petrochenkova When you go to see the sights of London, hardly any tour operator misses the Victoria Embankment or Fleet Street. Have you ever wondered what the old buildings hiding between them are? If not, you are going to discover a true ultimate destination, which you will recommend to all your friends and family. Walking along the Victoria Embankment from Waterloo Bridge to Blackfriars Bridge, to the left of Cleopatra's Needle and the sphinxes you will notice a garden and a stone wall looking significantly older than their surroundings. This is the Temple.
The Temple received its name from the Knights Templar, who in 1160s purchased
the land between The Knights Templar were soldier-monks, a combination unheard of before the creation of the Order by Hughes de Payens around 1119. "[A Templar Knight] is truly a fearless knight, and secure on every side, for his soul is protected by the armour of faith, just as his body is protected by the armour of steel. He is thus doubly-armed, and need fear neither demons nor men," says Bernard de Clairvaux, the ideological leader of the Knights Templar, who together with de Payens devised the code of behaviour for the Templars. The Knights Templar soon became the most favourite charity in Europe. As the Order membership in Britain grew rapidly, there was a need for establishing spacious headquarters, which could serve as the capital of the Templars in England. On the new site, the Knights built the Temple Church, residencies, military training grounds and recreational facilities.
Besides attending to the safety of the pilgrims and spreading Christianity,
the Templars were also The Temple of London became the property of King Edward II, who gave it to the Order of St. John, Knights Hospitaller, and they, in turn, rented it out to two colleges of lawyers, who later became known as the Inner and Middle Temples. After 1540, when the Order of Knights Hospitaller was abolished by Henry VIII and its property confiscated, the Temple belonged to the Crown again. However, the lawyers felt that their position as tenants was unstable and continuously petitioned the King for a more stable arrangement. Finally, in 1608 King James I granted the Inns a Royal Chapter allowing them use of the Temple in perpetuity on the condition of maintaining the Temple Church. On a rainy day, when the endless maze of the Temple yards is enveloped in thick greyness, it is easy to imagine that the Middle Ages still rule here. When the clouds suddenly disperse and warm rays of the sun touch the old stones, the sunbeams start playing in the stained glass, and cooing of doves is heard all over the Temple, you suddenly understand that simple pleasures of life can bring moments of unexpected joy even in the midst of London rush. During the past eight and a half centuries the stone walls of the Temple witnessed weather-beaten faces of the Crusaders, survived unscathed the Great Fire of London in 1666 and, although damaged, withstood the German incendiary bombs during World War II. According to a legend, supported by Shakespeare in his play Henry VI the red and white roses, symbolising the Houses of York and Lancaster during the Wars of the Roses in Medieval England, were plucked in the Temple Garden. Since 2002, honouring this legend, the Temple authorities started planting red and white roses again, and if you come while the flowers are in full bloom, you will smell the fragrance that enchanted Shakespeare himself. The heart of the Temple is the Temple Church. Many visitors comment on its beautiful and tranquil atmosphere. The Church is made of cream-coloured Caen stone and decorated with the first ever free-standing Purbeck marble columns. It was consecrated by Heracleus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in 1185, most likely in the presence of the ruling monarch, Henry II. Its round shape follows the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which was considered to be the centre of the Templars' universe. The Temple Church is one of the only three round Norman churches left in England today. Although the Temple Church survived the Great Fire of London, it was severely damaged by German air-raids during World War II. After the war it was restored and rededicated in 1958. Make sure you come during the hours the Temple Church is open, between 1 and 4pm. Wednesday to Sunday and also between 11am and noon on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Inside, you will see nine effigies of knights and one trapezoidal sarcophagus lid. The knights are lying on their backs, some of them are holding swords and others are praying. The Norman door is decorated with gargoyles – carved stone grotesques of human faces and a goat. The altar screen was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Fortunately, during the World War II it was in Durham and could be preserved. The Temple Church figures in the best-selling novel by Dan Brown The Da Vinci Code, and it was also a location for The Da Vinci Code film. When Leigh Teabing, along with Langdon and Sophie, flew to London in their quest to decipher the mysterious poem on the vellum they fist came to the Temple Church. "A dramatic, circular edifice with a daunting façade, a central turret and a protruding nave off one side, the church looked more like a military stronghold, than a place of worship." This is how Robert Langdon sees the Temple Church. In fact, after the phenomenal success of the book and the film, Reverend Robin Griffith-Jones, the present Master of the Temple, has been asked so many questions about the history of his church that he wrote a book, The Da Vinci Code and the Secrets of the Temple. In his book Rev. Griffith-Jones deals with what in The Da Vinci Code is true, and what is not. He points out the facts Dan Brown got right, for example, that the Templars were the founders of modern banking, and the Master of the Temple used to have Parliamentary chair of Primus Baron (First Baron) of the Realm, and draws readers' attention to the facts, which are inaccurate, like "pagan shape of the primary structure" (in truth, round shape of all Templar Churches was based on the Church of Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, built by the Emperor Constantine) and orgiastic rituals held in the Round. He also mentions that he does not know the reason for Dan Brown to endow the Master of the Temple with possessing "foul temper, when anything cast this time-honoured shrine in anything but favourable light" and he feels upset about it. Since The Da Vinci Code has been published, the amount of visitors increased manifold and the Master of the Temple tries to answer their questions in his book too. His favourite question, asked by a small girl, is: "Are you a real-life Robert Langdon?" Whenever you are in London, visit the Temple, you will not regret it!
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of industrial and agricultural machinery. Here are sheds crammed with lathe
machines, steel fabrication presses, furnaces, shelf upon shelf of
die-cutters and dyes for the production mostly of farming implements and
allied spare parts.
decade of the 20th century from the Nawab of Bahawalpur by a well-heeled
Niazi landholder from Isakhel in Mianwali district. For nearly twenty years
it was farmed fitfully by the family until in 1936 this man's young grandson,
Ghazanfarullah Khan, heard of its impending leasing out by his father.
Thinking the annual lease amount was far too less for the four thousand seven
hundred acres, Ghazanfarullah somehow convinced his doubting father to let
him try his hand at turning it into a profitable farm.
farm outputs, Ghazanfarullah Khan had worked out the cost-benefit ratio
within two seasons. And so by the end of 1950 Isakhel Estate had a fleet of
twelve tractors. Now, those were days when the estate lay well beyond the
road network, consequently no auto-mechanics were to be found anywhere nearer
than the National Highway some twenty kilometres away. The breakdown of
machinery, therefore, spelled long lay-offs in which mechanics had to be
brought in against heavy payments.
the Thames and the road connecting London and Westminster (present-day Fleet
Street). The Order of the Knights Templar was established in a building on
the site of King Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem and their mission was to
protect European pilgrims and merchants travelling to and from the Holy Land.
the first bankers. Often the Knights held the deposits of the nobles, who
were in disgrace and feared expropriation of their assets by the Crown. Their
wealth, power and independence aroused envy, and in 1307 Roman Pope abolished
the Order. English Knights Templar were charged with heresy, blasphemy and
sodomy, incarcerated in the Tower and deprived of their possessions.
