A day at Niagara Falls... as one among the many tourists, all drenched despite the quintessential yellow ponchos

 By Awais Manzur Sumra

I stood on the top deck of the Maid of the Mist, closed my eyes for a moment and allowed myself to get soaked from head to toe. A few hundred metres in front, thousands of gallons of water plummeted every second from the heights of the appropriately named Horseshoe Falls, forming layers of white foam just above the swirling waters before easing out downstream on its journey towards Lake Ontario. Never before had I observed so closely the force of nature. The sound, though hardly deafening, was persistent. Water was everywhere as it drenched me and others who had boarded the ferry Maid of the Mist.

On the last weekend of my three-week trip to the United States, I was at Niagara Falls, deep in the north-western corner of the New York state. My parents had visited the falls in 1985 and, upon return, had brought back numerous photographs that showed them standing on the misty deck, wearing coloured overalls. As a teenager at that time, I remember my mother recounting how it was one of the most enjoyable days of her trip to that part of the world.

Almost a quarter of a century later, I spent the first two weeks of my first trip to the US exploring the East Coast, from Lake George in the north of New York. On a crisp Friday morning I left Albany and travelled west past the verdant Mohawk valley, traversed by the Mohawk river, to Syracuse, a sleepy town in the midst of low, rolling hills known for its harsh winters and heavy snowfall. The quiet Friday evening was spent visiting the peaceful Onondaga Lake Park just outside the town, enjoying an hour-long tourist train ride past well-manicured lawns and jogging tracks along the tree-lined, tranquil shores of the lake.

Refreshed after the night in Syracuse and content after a hearty breakfast of chocolate doughnuts and coffee at a renowned donut chain, it took me less than three hours to drive further westward across the expanse of New York to Niagara Falls. Black clouds hovered overhead but the rain stayed away thankfully. I got my first view of the falls from a point just short of the observation tower that hovered 200 feet above the Niagara gorge. The place teemed with tourists from almost everywhere, Asians being particularly conspicuous.

The Niagara Falls actually consists of three different falls straddling the international border between the United States and Canada. The two major falls, separated by the Goat Island, are the Horseshoe Falls, lying mostly on the Canadian side of the border, and the American Falls on the American side. The much smaller Bridal Veil Falls are also located on the American side.

The falls are the product of a geologic process that continues to this day. That process is moving the falls upstream even now. Geology had particularly interested me as a first year subject when I joined the UET Taxila years ago as a civil engineering student. In fact, I vividly remember being introduced to the subject by Professor Yahya on a cold, rainy February day back in 1988. He had then proceeded to distribute his meticulously prepared notes amongst the aspiring engineering students and instructed them to learn those by heart. I had no need to remember any of those notes to understand the process that formed Niagara Falls.

Simply put, Niagara Falls were formed when glaciers receded at the end of the last ice age, between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago. At that time, water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean. It carried different mineral solutions with it that resulted in the formation of different types of rock layers. Three types of layers were formed in the Niagara region -- soft, iron-bearing Queenston shales at the bottom, sandstones and shales interspersed with harder layers of limestone in the middle and hard magnesium-bearing limestone called dolostone on the top. With the passage of time, the river eroded the soft layers at the bottom, undercutting the hard rocks above, which eventually gave way in great chunks. This process repeated countless times, eventually carving out the falls.

Due to this continuous geologic process of erosion, the falls are said to have moved more than eleven kilometres upstream from their original location since their formation. The movement continues even today, albeit much more slowly owing to the diversion of water upstream for electricity generation as well as other engineering works that have slowed the erosion rate.

As I descended in an elevator inside the observation tower to board the Maid of the Mist -- which first began service in the mid-19th century -- I could see the neat and trim Canadian skyline across the Niagara gorge, with an array of hotels and casinos obstructing the vastness of that country beyond. Up above to my right a bridge connected the United States and Canada, flags of the two countries fluttering at its mid-point. To my left, a few ferries were at various stages of their 30minutes' return journey to the base of the Horseshoe Falls beyond the American and Bridal Veil Falls.

I boarded the ferry and it moved slowly away from the base of the green tinged steel and glass observation tower. Within minutes, the American and Bridal Veil Falls were to my immediate left. Peering through my by now wet glasses, I could make out a stream of people in bright yellow ponchos gingerly making their way up a wooden staircase across the boulders close to the Bridal Veil Falls. The ferry left them behind moved on towards the Horseshoe Falls and for a few minutes stopped virtually under gushing white foam in the middle of swirling water currents. We were as close to the Horseshoe Falls as was possible without compromising safety.

The Niagara Falls have long been a source of inspiration for explorers, travellers and visitors. Jerome, Napoleon Bonaparte's younger brother, is said to have honeymooned at the falls in 1804. Still, access to the falls had become severely restricted by about a century and a half ago. In the 1870s, sightseers had often to pay for a glimpse of the falls and the entire area was threatened with industrialisation and commercialisation, with mills and factories sprouting everywhere. This state of affairs led to the conservation movement 'Free Niagara' that ultimately succeeded in the 1880s with the creation of the Niagara Reservation State Park. The Niagara Reservation State Park is the oldest state park in the United States and under its charter, the New York state purchased land from developers. The landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed the Central Park in New York, designed the state park.

Needless to say, commercialisation has again returned to the region and in 2009, the sightseers, at least on the American side, are again required to pay a hefty sum to get a good enough glimpse. Yet there is now no end to the stream of tourists.

Back on firm ground, I boarded the Niagara Scenic Trolley for the short ride across the river upstream of the falls. My destination was the Cave of the Winds. The "cave" is said to have collapsed years ago, but an elevator still takes visitors deep into the rocks at the back of the Bridal Veil Falls. After waiting for almost an hour in the queue, dressed in a yellow poncho and wearing souvenir sandals, I finally found myself moving gingerly up the rickety, slippery, wooden steps perched precariously on rounded boulders to a point virtually underneath the falls. The point is called, quite appropriately, Hurricane Deck for its storm-like conditions. Thousands of gallons of water thundered down and pounded the rocks before joining the river below. It was impossible to stay there for more than a few seconds. The poncho I was given to wear was useless in the conditions and for a moment, the sheer force of water rendered all thoughts except those of safety unimportant.

Visit to Cave of the Winds was the high point of the trip. No other experience during the entire visit to the United States even came close. By the time I emerged back up from the elevator, evening was approaching. Yet many tourists seemed to be staying on, perhaps to experience the falls at dusk and to spend the night in one of the myriad hotels in the locality. However, I had a long trip back to Albany in front of me. I took the Niagara Scenic Trolley again for the short ride up to the parking lot to begin my journey back from the moving wonder.

  Email: amsumra@gmail.com

A saint known for his great love of dogs

 By Haroon Khalid

There are many practices in our society which are religious and have their origin in Hinduism. The Mazaar culture and the aura of the saint, his miracles, and other features of his life, represent a closer Hindu connection. One such mazaar is the tomb of Peer Abbas, situated in the heart of the Pattoki town. This is a huge building which is now under the Auqaf department. Completed recently with the help of magnanimous devotees, the edifice attracts people from all over Punjab.

Peer Abbas is also famous as Peer Abbas Kutteyanwala, which means one who has dogs. During his lifetime, the Saint kept company of dogs who followed him everywhere he went. It is said that whatever Peer Abbas was given to eat, he used to hand it over to the dogs. His nephew, Jafar Kazmi says, his uncle had named all his dogs but those names weren't conventional; they were derived from government offices, specially associated with the Department of Police. SP, AC, Commissioner, Havaldar, Inspector, Judge.

However, he could not tell, if there was any hierarchy within the dogs, if SP had greater significance than Havaldar. Such naming of the dogs, begun by Peer Abbas, ended with his death. Today, 40 years after the death of the Saint there are still dozens of dogs at the tomb. All of these dogs have a coronal around their neck, which sets them apart as the dog of Peer Abbas. No one chases away these dogs; neither does anyone refuse them anything.

Once Peer Abbas saw a bitch with puppies, feeding them in heavy rain. The Peer got a shelter built for the bitch. As a result of this act, the bitch became his loyal follower and along with her puppies started following him around. Peer Abbas embraced them. This is how Peer Abbas became Peer Abbas Kutteyanwala. The dogs of the Saint, living around the sanctuary today are descendants of that bitch.

After the death of Peer Abbas, it is said that a boy who belonged to the nearby village of Wan Radha Ram fell sick and was told to serve the dogs of Peer Abbas. Miraculously, the boy showed improvement, until he fully recuperated. After he returned home he once again stared showing signs of deterioration. At the same time, the brother of Peer Abbas, Syed Abid Hussain, also the Gaddi Nashin, had a dream in which he saw Peer Abbas asking him to bring back the boy, as he had been chosen to serve his dogs. When he reached Wan Radha Ram to bring back the boy, he found out that the boy and his parents were already inclined to do so themselves. So this boy came to the tomb and devoted the rest of his life for the service of dogs.

For the last 20 years Nawaz Dogar has been living with the family of Peer Abbas. He is passionate about the dogs. Locals, in order to take blessings of the Saint, bring bags full of milk and meat. The dogs of the Peer don't have to work at all to gather food. They just have to be present around the tomb to get it. Because of this easy access to food and continuous protection, the dogs have become extremely lazy. They eat and sleep all day. Last year, a group of powerful puritanical devotees of the saint complained to the family of Peer Abbas that the presence of dogs, inside the tomb, defiles his grave, which is why they should not be allowed to enter the sanctuary. So reluctantly, the family had to prohibit the entry of the dogs into the tomb. During the time, when the dogs were allowed to roam around freely inside the tomb, there was almost always a presence of around 30 dogs. Since then a few of them have moved away and come back occasionally.

Nawaz Dogar, a local, claims that during the three-day urs celebrations of the Saint on Sep 4, 5 and 6, the saint dogs do not eat despite plenty of food placed in front of them. They don't show any such refrain on other days. The dogs that died during the lifetime of Peer Abbas were buried in the graveyard next to mausoleum of Baba Jan Muhammad, near Adda Ghaziabad, Chichawatni.

This tomb is a Pakistani version of Karni Mata temple in Rajasthan, India. This is the famous temple of rats, whose documentary has been played several times on National Geographic. However, what makes the two sanctuaries different is the influence of the puritanical group in the former tomb. Our inability to embrace traditional, religious and cultural practices, have done harm to many such indigenous cultures. The valley of Kalash is one example, another testimony to this growing trend in our society is this tomb.

  Email: harunkhalid@hotmail.com