city
Revisiting glory of The Mall

A glimpse of “Victorian Lahore” from 1870-1970. Old pictures of Lahore’s Mall Road give a sense of peace, calmness and discipline to the viewers
By Waqar Gillani
If you wants to see  peace and calm at The Mall or an exhibition of assets, arms and arsenals given to Pakistan after the Indo-Pak partition or the historic Mall Road without the Punjab Assembly building, rush to National College of Art’s Zahoorul Ikhlaq Gallery exhibiting one hundred years old (1870-1970) pictures of the road. 

MOOD STREET
A walk down the road

By Sardar Hussain
When I came to live in the city about a decade ago, I was already in love with the city for all that it stood for — beauty, romance, art and culture. This image of Lahore I had culled out of books. I was particularly fascinated by the Walled City and The Mall. If the old city was said to be citadel of old traditions and values, the road was mentioned as some very romantic place where lovers met and where literati strolled in the evenings.

Town Talk
*Exhibition of Drawings & Paintings by Ali Abbas in Ejaz Art Gallery on Thursday, Dec 22 from 5–9 pm. The exhibition will remain open until Dec 29. *Exhibition titled Conch Curve Creation by Ali Asad Naqvi at The Drawing Room Art Gallery till Dec 26. 

development
On solid grounds

Punjab CM promises above 100 playgrounds for city. The plan enjoys public support and faces criticism at the same time
By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed
The Punjab government’s plan to set up a network of playgrounds in the city has received mixed response from the public. Though on paper things seem quite simple, the reality is different. The initiative which enjoys extraordinary support of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif envisages development of above 100 playgrounds in the city on a public-private partnership basis. Corporate and business sponsorships have also been invited to cover the cost of running these grounds. 

A longing for birds
With the shrinking of open, green spaces in Lahore, common birds are on the decline
By Salman Ali
Not a very long time ago, Lahoris woke up to chirping of different birds. But in recent past these sounds have been silenced by unchecked and unsustainable development and human settlement — compared to 240 bird species recorded in Lahore in 1965, only 101 bird species were recorded in 1992. Ornithologists estimate there are currently only 85 bird species left in Lahore, including resident and migrant species. 


city
Revisiting glory of The Mall
A glimpse of “Victorian Lahore” from 1870-1970. Old pictures of Lahore’s Mall Road give a sense of peace, calmness and discipline to the viewers

By Waqar Gillani

If you wants to see  peace and calm at The Mall or an exhibition of assets, arms and arsenals given to Pakistan after the Indo-Pak partition or the historic Mall Road without the Punjab Assembly building, rush to National College of Art’s Zahoorul Ikhlaq Gallery exhibiting one hundred years old (1870-1970) pictures of the road.

The exhibition, based on more than 100 unique pictures of The Mall, gathered from different archives and scheduled to conclude on Sunday showcases the British era constructed over 160 years old Mall Road now considered the heart of historic city of Lahore. This display is the sole effort of Rao Javed, a Lahore archives lover who has collected these pictures from door to door in the past 11 years.

The exposure of the old Mall Road through these rare collections paints quite a different culture and glimpses of the “Victorian Lahore” as compared to The Mall of today. It presents a peaceful, and pollution-free environment in black and white background.

“It is fantastic and fascinating,” says Masud Akhtar, a sixty year old pharmaceutical by profession who was engrossed in these rare photographs and took some pictures through his cellular phone. “I am a lover of old Lahore and there are a few pictures which I have never seen in my life,” he tells The News on Sunday (TNS) while pointing out to a picture in which the then British Governor General is handing over the Punjab Assembly building keys to a Sikh contractor in an impressive and formal ceremony. “I feel that was a beautiful time,” he says, adding, “We can see discipline over all while looking at these pictures.” He was highly moved while seeing a picture showing Nedous Hotel at The Mall in the beginning of 20th century. The hotel was replaced with Park Luxury Hotel at the same place and later it became Hotel Avari, Akhtar recalls.

Thirty-eight year old Rao Javed, the exhibitor and collector of these archives from different sources, is fond of unique collections of Lahore’s historic buildings and sites. “I started this work in 2000,” he tells TNS, adding, “I have set up a private museum at my house full of Lahore’s rare pictures.” He developed this passion of collecting pictures and taking interest in the historic sites and places when he visited Lahore Fort while coming from his hometown Rajpoot Nagar, a village in district Okara. “I came to see my uncle in Lahore and then we went to Lahore Fort. After that I developed this interest of taking pictures of sites,” he says, adding, “I have written a number of books and booklets on Lahore’s historic sites giving some unique and rare pictures and facts.” The sole purpose is to exhibit the old culture of Lahore and show the changes, which the city has gone through with the passage of time.

A bunch of young first-year students of University of Engineering and Technology, who were also keenly looking at the pictures, highlighted the peaceful aspect of The Mall. “These pictures exhibit peace, discipline, pollution-free environment and calmness,” one of them, Osama Najam gave his opinion. For the first time in their life they were seeing a very different, serene Mall Road, now crowded, congested and heavily encroached. “The photographs also bring out the architectural beauty of the buildings on The Mall, the student commented.

The exhibition’s closing has been extended seeing the interest of general public, till Sunday (today).

 

  MOOD STREET
A walk down the road

By Sardar Hussain

When I came to live in the city about a decade ago, I was already in love with the city for all that it stood for — beauty, romance, art and culture. This image of Lahore I had culled out of books. I was particularly fascinated by the Walled City and The Mall. If the old city was said to be citadel of old traditions and values, the road was mentioned as some very romantic place where lovers met and where literati strolled in the evenings.

Having lived in the city for over ten years now, I know this is not the ideal that I came hankering after. The cultural heart of the subcontinent is inundated with noise and pollution; ugly urbanisation seems to have mutilated its traditional face.

As a student, I would reserve my off days from the university to see the old parts of the city and famous archaeological sights. Those visits were eye-opening to say the least; the city portrayed in history books and Manto’s stories was now full of narrow, filthy streets; poverty-stricken faces; cracked buildings, ready to fall any moment. The area carried a deeply wounded air around it. It was as if one went to see a wonderfully beautiful tawaif but what one witnessed instead was an ailing prostitute, deserted by her lovers and left to rot in sickening poverty.

Disillusioned, I stopped going to the area.

I was always fond of long walks but nerve-testing noise mocked me whatever road of the city I set foot on. There were no footpaths along a majority of roads and those which had some footpath-like pavements were either encroached upon by vehicles or stalls or garbage.

Except for the wee hours, what defined the city was noise and pollution and billboards, advertisements and posters across the city walls.

I missed the serenity of rural life. Early morning walks in the city parks like Lawrence Garden and Race Course calmed my noise-infested mind and soul. But how fleeting those moments were! With the sun a bit high in the sky, the monstrous sounds of shrieking vehicles would distort the soft morning calm.

If other city roads disappointed me greatly due to their aesthetic dryness, The Mall was not unkind at all. In a bus, or sometimes in some friend’s car, travelling on the road was never without its rewards. Green trees and historical buildings along it were always a feast to the aesthetic sense. The main artery of the city stood the wear and tear of times. Though it too was not without noise and rush during day, late night strolls along the way were mesmerising.

On my way to office, situated near Charing Cross, I would look forward to the time when I would have all the late night stillness, quiet melodies and sparkling semi-darkness on the way back to my hostel in Anarkali. At that time, the city seemed to be almost asleep and the road would echo its glorious past. The night would somehow hide the ugliness of modernity and bring forth its hidden past glory. Once again, I could imagine the road on which “girls in jeans would go to the Government College on bicycle in 70s’’ and “the English ladies would stroll in the evenings back in 30s.”

Images and words form our memories, connecting us with the past, both at a personal and collective level — this is what a photo exhibition at NCA ‘Revisiting The Mall’ did. The black and white photos of various buildings took us back in time. It was a hundred-year history of the road. Wrapped in past traditions, the old city and The Mall of the past have come alive in the pictures. It seems to wear the look of a culturally rich and well-organised city. A speaker at the exhibition was right to term it “a city as great as Paris, Prague, and Barcelona”.

Cities are like human beings. What is soul to the latter, greenery and culture is to the former. With high structures and machines encroaching upon it, no wonder the city and its dwellers find it hard to breathe.

 

  Town Talk

*Exhibition of Drawings & Paintings by Ali Abbas in Ejaz Art Gallery on Thursday, Dec 22 from 5–9 pm. The exhibition will remain open until Dec 29.

 

*Exhibition titled Conch Curve Creation by Ali Asad Naqvi at The Drawing Room Art Gallery till Dec 26.

 

*Exhibition at Grey Noise of Bani Abidi’s works in collaboration with Green Cardamom, London till Jan 13. Gallery timings: 5pm-9pm.

 

 

*Weekend Cycle Ride to start from Neela Gumbad parking lot today at 10:30am.

 

 

 

development
On solid grounds
Punjab CM promises above 100 playgrounds for city. The plan enjoys public support and faces criticism at the same time

By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed

The Punjab government’s plan to set up a network of playgrounds in the city has received mixed response from the public. Though on paper things seem quite simple, the reality is different. The initiative which enjoys extraordinary support of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif envisages development of above 100 playgrounds in the city on a public-private partnership basis. Corporate and business sponsorships have also been invited to cover the cost of running these grounds.

Many chunks of the land on which these playgrounds are being built have been recovered from encroachers and land mafias. Besides, there are those also which are owned by the government itself and the ones existing in housing schemes developed by Lahore Development Authority (LDA). Furthermore, citizens have been asked to identify illegally occupied lands so that they can also be used for the same purpose.

The playgrounds according to the plan would be custom-made for sports like cricket, football, hockey, volleyball, baseball, tennis, badminton, jogging etc.

There have been a couple of cases where the residents of the area have objected to the plan on the basis it would disturb their privacy and security. Their major concern is that they have not been taken on board and their opinion not incorporated while making decisions like constructing cricket grounds in residential areas.

Haji Muhammad Javed, resident of Gujjarpura Housing Scheme developed by LDA contests the planned conversion of a 20 kanal ground in C1 block into a cricket ground. He tells TNS the area is too small to be converted into a cricket ground as it’s surrounded from all four sides by houses. Even a child can understand that in such a case the surrounding houses will suffer immense damage due to the nature of this sport, he says.

“We have no objection if they make a play area for children, jogging track etc but cricket ground is out of question.” He says even the practice nets are non-viable as cricket ball hit hard can smash windows, injure the residents and damage vehicles standing there.

Javed, who is also the president of Gujjarpura Housing Scheme Welfare Society (GHSWS), tells TNS it’s strange they are setting up this ground despite having two sports complexes in the same area.

Chaudhry Azhar Manzoor, secretary GHSWS, claims under LDA law land allocated for a purpose cannot be used for some other purpose. Under this law, the Lahore High Court stayed conversion of a public park into plots in Journalists Housing Colony Harbanspura. “We also seek relief on this ground,” he says adding conversion of a park for locals into a commercial venture is totally unacceptable.

Azhar complains the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) has dug the park in front of their houses and cut dozens of trees surrounding it. The park which once used to be a garden full of flowers is now a devastated place. “Many of us bought expensive plots here as there was a beautiful park exclusively for residents’ use.” Now the prices have plummeted as nobody wants to live on the edge of an under-sized cricket ground.

 

PHA response

Javed Shaida, Deputy Director at PHA tells TNS many people are worried about things which are not going to happen. They are approaching courts and raising hue and cry as they are used to getting cheated in the past. “I want to assure them that this time the government under the leadership of Punjab CM wants business. The only objective is to provide the citizens best possible recreational and sports facilities.

Shaida says they will definitely ensure that cricket grounds are only constructed at places where there is sufficient distance between the wicket and the residences surrounding it. The grounds reserved for women will be used only by women and those for children by children alone. He also contests the allegations that the locals are not being taken on board while taking these decisions. “How can we ignore them? They are the ones who will have to look after the affairs of these playgrounds and ensure no unwanted elements are seen there.”

Shaida says it does not mean PHA will not look after the affairs of the playgrounds. It will take the responsibility of maintenance but the management must be the responsibility of the locals who practically own them.

He tells TNS it goes to the credit of the present government that it recovered encroached lands from mafias and instead of selling those for billions used them in people’s interest. There were lands owned by Auqaf department where people were illegally cultivating for generations. Similarly, there were areas like Kamahan village near Ferozepur Road where illegal occupiers had kept cattle, donkeys and other animals. When government challenges them they raise hue and cry and approach courts. They may get interim relief but when PHA explains real situation in the court they have to suffer.


 

A longing for birds
With the shrinking of open, green spaces in Lahore, common birds are on the decline

By Salman Ali

Not a very long time ago, Lahoris woke up to chirping of different birds. But in recent past these sounds have been silenced by unchecked and unsustainable development and human settlement — compared to 240 bird species recorded in Lahore in 1965, only 101 bird species were recorded in 1992. Ornithologists estimate there are currently only 85 bird species left in Lahore, including resident and migrant species.

The city has expanded immensely in the past six decades. Because of people coming in huge numbers from surrounding areas in search of better livelihood, the housing increased rapidly, and is still growing. Additionally, local businesses paved way for conversion of previously protected areas, such as parks and open public spaces, into business zones.

Along with these modern additions, ancient monuments, old gardens, bungalows with attached gardens and old roadside trees (some of them can still be seen) are gradually disappearing. The few remaining are places like the Lahore Zoo, Lawrence Garden, Mayo and Jinnah Gardens, GOR, Jallo Park, Kinnaird College, Aitchison College. These old endemic trees of Lahore are home to many resident bird species as well as many summer, winter and transit migrants.

In the absence of proper development strategies haphazard constructions have taken place. Local leaderships have further allowed felling of trees, filling in marshes and levelling parks. The situation is not just aesthetically unpleasant; it is a challenge to the environment and ecology.

The most visible of Lahore’s birds today are the common house sparrows, grey hombills, yellow-footed green pigeons, bulbuls, doves, spotted owlets, mynas, woodpeckers, crows, kites, ashy prinia, redstarts and oriental white eyes etc. Birds migrate here from southern parts of the country in warmer months for food and breeding purposes and in colder months in search of food. They feast on small insects, spiders and soft seeds from moist soil which is becoming rarer now as Lahore has less agricultural land.

Abid Ali Chohan, a student of Environmental Sciences says, “To maintain and to increase the number of bird population in Lahore, Ministry of Environment, government departments like Parks and Horticultural Authorities ( PHA) and NGOs like WWF need to plant trees and vegetation like bushes and thickets so that they can attract birds.

“There should be strict implementation on the Punjab Wildlife Act 1974. A solution would be to create widespread awareness and bring back the horticulture of the 1940s on a municipal and district level in new colonies to give a chance to the original bird species to flourish. City District Government should play a key role in this regard. Local authorities should adopt procedures that require ecological surveys and urban environment surveys which will minimise damage to not just birds but human health as well,” he says.

Z.B Mirza, author of Birds of Pakistan says, “I have seen cranes in the wetland of Keeran village west of Model Town. But where man has taken away, nature has given. Some birds have successfully adapted in the face of urbanisation becoming resilient against change and this is ensuring their continued breeding and sustenance.” 

Ornithologists confirm that bird species which rely on endemic flora of Lahore are still at risk as there is a dangerous trend towards replacing indigenous plant species with exotic ones. “The important thing is that trees such as pipal, kikar, bair, jamun, mango, saru and neem in which these birds used to inhabit are being cut to make space for modern developments, thus threatening the survival of bird species.”

Just as most of our national treasures go unnoticed, the birds of Lahore also garner little or no attention. With new technologies, we might as well watch a red- vented bulbul and a rosy starling on our computer screens, rather than venturing outside. It is time for all to rethink our lifestyles and find ways to co-exist with nature’s finest creations.

 

Salmanali088@gmail.com

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