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experience Satgarah’s
secret legend
experience The silver cables
of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link glistening in the sun juxtaposed with the clear
blue of the surrounding Arabian Sea, made for a glorious sight as I headed
towards the city of Mumbai last month. The city had completely
captivated me on my last visit two years ago. I was quite excited to be
reacquainted with old sights as well as seeing new ones. Mumbai’s cosmopolitan
nature is self-evident — foreign businessmen and tourists are a common
sight. Yet even more fascinating is the cultural diversity within residents
of the city. Walking down any street in South Mumbai, you can hear exchanges
in various languages; English, Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi are all spoken.
Yet there is an implicit sense of community, of different stories coming
together to form a larger narrative — 500 meters into the sea lies the tomb
of Muslim saint Haji Ali, while the colony of Cusrow Baug is home to more
than 500 Parsi families. Various churches are scattered throughout the city,
one of them in the same vicinity as a Jewish synagogue in the Kala Ghoda
district. The congestion and feeling
of over-crowdedness ironically gives the city a liveliness that is intrinsic
to its charm. Visiting the sandy Girgaum
Chowpatti beach, where vendors selling spicy bhelpuri and crushed ice golas
are aplenty, and sitting at Marine Drive at night in the faint glow of
streetlights, arranged in a curved sequence, forming the ‘Queen’s
Necklace’, I felt the cool sea breeze which provides the much-needed
respite from the summer heat. This time, I also got a
chance to visit the famous Taj Mahal hotel. One of the target locations of
the 2008 terrorist attacks, the hotel was restored and reopened on August 15,
2010 to mark India’s Independence Day. The view of the entire city at night
from the nearby Hanging Gardens was breathtaking. Mumbai draws me to its
unique architecture. Several landmarks and sites serve as reminders of it’s
overwhelming historical and commercial significance during the Portuguese and
British rule. I visited the Indo-Saracenic styled Gateway of India; the high
arch when lit up at night looked majestic. Built on the waterfront, the
monument commemorates the visit of British King George V and Queen Mary to
India in 1911. Chhatrapati Shivaji
Terminus railway station, another reminder of the tragic Mumbai attacks is a
Unesco World Heritage Site. It is built in the Victorian Gothic Revival
style, with its pointed arches, turrets and magnificent stone dome. The
station’s beautiful interior comprises an ornate ceiling and painted glass.
Interestingly, the station’s British architects worked with Indian
craftsmen to incorporate Indian architectural tradition. This intermingling of
European and Indian traditions is apparent in buildings all over South
Mumbai. One of the first things
that struck me was the stark contrast between the developed city centre and
its poverty-stricken slums. Whereas modern skyscrapers dot the city’s
skyline and international food chains and huge, air-conditioned shopping
malls are present in South Mumbai, its slum areas are marked by dark, narrow
alleyways that reek of rotting garbage and destitution. It was in one of these
slums, however, that I had one of the most memorable experiences. On first
sight, the sprawling slum of Dharavi, spread over 550 acres and inhabited by
a population of one million people, appeared to be like any other slum;
crowded, dirty and offering little hope or promise for a better future to its
people. On closer inspection, during a visit organised by the Acorn
Foundation, however, I discovered a unique model of entrepreneurship — a
recycling industry that deals with over 80 per cent of Mumbai’s waste in
15,000 single room factories. It was heartening to see
residents engaged in hard work to salvage materials that could be easily
recycled, such as glass and plastic. The industry provides jobs
to around 200,000 people. This spirit of hope and desire to improve their
conditions is emulated by the slum children. I met a group of children aged
between three and fifteen, some of whom took music lessons and played in a
band, while others played competitive football. All of them were enrolled in
school. This incident reminded me
of a similar one from my previous trip. As part of a team making a
documentary about the disparity in the standards of education in Mumbai, I
had visited the Sujaya Foundation, an NGO working to bridge the gap between
students from municipal schools and private schools. The organisation aims to
give underprivileged slum children skills they do not otherwise have access
to, such as using computers, dramatics and public speaking. The enthusiasm and
motivation displayed at the institute in Dadar by teachers and students alike
was laudable and I saw the same mirrored by the children in Dharavi. Pertaining to conventional
tourist attractions, Mumbai offers limitless opportunities for shopping,
ranging from inexpensive street shopping to branded stores in high-end malls.
For the former kind, I went to roadside stalls and small shops in the Colaba
Causeway area, a haven for those seeking affordable Indian crafts, decorative
and embroidered clothes, as well as cheap western wear. For the latter, I
visited the Palladium mall in the Phoenix area. It had a multitude of brands,
both Indian and foreign. Boutiques in the Kala Ghoda district sold heavily
embellished traditional Indian clothes and saris for weddings and other
occasions. I can safely say that I had
some of my best meals to date in Mumbai. Delicious, crispy dosas filled with
cheese and masala are a common food, as is the vada pav, a spicy potato
cutlet covered with chutney and sandwiched between a burger bun. There is a plethora of
cafes and restaurants in South Mumbai, each offering a pleasurable
experience, whether it is eating freshly baked pizza while enjoying a view of
the bay, or indulging in delectable, creamy butter chicken and spicy biryani. Another appealing aspect of
Mumbai is how easy it is to get around — transport is cheap, convenient and
readily available. That said, the high levels of traffic made even short
distances difficult to cover. My most common mode of transport in South
Mumbai was black and yellow taxis that seemed to be around the corner
whenever needed. I took the local train to travel to one of the suburban
areas, another expedient option since the rail network is expansive, although
travelling during rush hour was an experience in itself! Mumbai’s dynamic,
multi-faceted nature makes it a city for everyone. caption Mumbai’s unique
architecture. caption Chhatrapati Shivaji
Terminus Interior. — Photos by Sakshi Kapoor
Satgarah’s
secret legend As I walked in
front of the giant protective wall of the fort, I imagined scenes of war;
turbaned archers standing on top of the fort, shooting poisoned arrows at the
hordes of forces spread out in the plain laid in front of them. In reality, today, that
plain facing the wall is occupied by a variety of single-storey houses and
the fort is under threat by the residents of these houses, who often remove
the bricks from the structure to repair their weak links. This is the historical city
of Satgarah, now regarded as a village in the outskirts of Renala Khurd, a
few kilometers away from the Multan road in Punjab. During the second half of
the 19th century, before the rise of Maharaja Ranjit Singh once again brought
a uniform government all over Punjab, this land was tormented by civil war.
Various warlords had formed their own small armies and regularly raided other
areas in search of bounty. One such battle took place
here at Satgarah, then an important city. Led by two brothers Wazir
and Kamar Singh, the invading forces had forded river Ravi. The defending,
and eventually defeated, family was known as Syedwala Sardars. Satgarah fell
under the control of the Nikai family led by the Sikh brothers. The current structure of
the fort which is just one giant wall, covering the area from only one end,
was built after this victory. It replaced the old one. The Nikais, supporting
Maharaja Ranjit Singh and then the British, were able to keep their control
over the area till the time of partition, when the majority of their family
migrated to the other side. A branch of the family though chose to convert to
Islam and continued holding power in this region by supporting the government
of Pakistan. Before Satgarah fell to the
Sikh Nikai family, it was dominated by the Baloch clan that had moved here in
the 16th century along with their leader Meer Chakar Rind. Passing through a small
iron gate within the wall, I entered the tomb of Meer Chakar Rind, also known
as Chakar-e-Azam (one of the underpasses on the canal in Lahore recently has
been named in his honour). His shrine, an octagonal structure crowned by a
bulbous dome on the top, is a typical tomb from the Mughal era. Though the
exterior of the tomb was elaborate, the interior had a simple grave at the
centre, covered with a green cloth containing verses of the Quran. There is an empty ground
next to the tomb where a few men from the community were playing cards and
inspecting us suspiciously. “The fort has been ruined,” said historian
Iqbal Qaiser. “It used to cover the entire area. Now only a fraction of the
wall is left.” Despite losing political
control after the Nikai attack, the Baloch continue to exercise influence in
the area. They are believed to be descendants of the forces of Meer Chakar
that accompanied him from Balochistan in the 16th century, when he promised
to help the beleaguered emperor Humayun to take back his throne in Delhi from
the Afghans. Having succeeded in doing so, the Baloch were allowed to settle
in the area. “Meer Chakar was accompanied by seven different clans. All of
them settled here. This is why the city came to be known as Sat-garah (the
seven houses or clans),” said Mubashar Baloch, the numberdar of the
village, adding, “There is another folktale about the name of Satgarah.
Satgarah in Hindi means a place of peace. It is said that when the Baloch
settled here they brought peace to the Hindu population living here.” Baloch’s analysis might
be devoid of historical accuracy but then all folk legends are. They are
important in encoding the essence of a particular event. It is believed that
Satgarah was an important city before the Baloch took over, dominated by
Hindu temples. Down the river from Satgarah are three important Hindu
pilgrimages; Seeta Gund, Ram Chauntra and Laxman Chauntra. It is believed
that the most sacred of these temples was at Satgarah. We walked around the
village and found two abandoned Hindu temples standing in the middle of the
lush green fields. Walking the narrow path that divided these fields of rice,
we headed towards the temple. It’s lonely cone-shaped structure welcomed
us, we being the only serious tourists it had received in years. It showed us
the pitiable state of its pool, which now contained muddy water, no longer
possessing the spiritual power to cleanse the profanity of its pilgrims. A
small section reserved for the women devotees blinked in the scorching heat
and shared with us its tales of pain. “Do you know that the
ancient temples of Katasraj are also known as Satgarah. This is because seven
temples were constructed there during the seventh century when the area was
under the control of Kashmiris,” said Iqbal Qaiser. “That strengthens the
thesis that there were ancient temples here too. Maybe this temple was a part
of them and was reconstructed over time.” “There is another theory
about the origin of the name Satgarah. It is believed that when Alexandar
attacked India, some of his injured soldiers decided to settle here and named
this place after their home town, Stageira. Stageria is an ancient city of
Macedonia, the birth place of Alexandar, where Plato educated him. Satgarah,
some believe, is a corruption of Stageira,” said Iqbal Qaiser. caption The lonely temple and the
ruined fort wall of Satgarah. — Photos by Rida Arif |
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