THE SURVIVAL OF PAKISTAN IS NOT AT STAKE
CRISIS AFTER CRISIS HAS QUESTIONED OUR SANITY

The distress of the citizens of Pakistan

Can you imagine what every Pakistani feels? Forget about those whose father and forefathers were nurtured by foreign lobbies. Forget those who lick the boots of foreign lobbies. Think of those from whom the Pakistani Idea never went out of favour. It is difficult for them to even survive. To nurture their families, to pay their utility bills, or indulge in even financially free games. You have gradually deprived a large segment of the society everything. And now you want to take even God way from them.

Dr Allama Iqbal cannot be contained. So you created meaningless organizations to confuse the world even further. A journalist continues to rave meaninglessly that we have to outgrow Dr Allama Iqbal to move forward. But who was Dr Allama Iqbal? Merely a voice of our Islamic Ideals. Allah who taught us egalitarianism and Dr Allama Iqbal who even in simple language tells us to think of the poor. And how many rich people of ours think of the poor in their twenty four hours period? To mock them as they buzz the streets in their Land Cruisers, shop at exclusive arcades, get their faces pruned regularly at parlours, or dine in artificial surroundings? The difference between rich and poor is now at bursting point of multiple revolutions. But revolutions are sprung by FORCE. Latoan kay bhoot batoan say nahin mantay.

Unity, Faith and Discipline. Just watch the traffic anywhere. Like a fully mad person, lunatic under any account, is trying to outpace everyone else in a race, which leads nowhere but death and hospital,. Why hurry to go there? There is madness to it? The fringe of unreality. Unbelievable. But then it comes to my mind? The whole race was never perfected. Few people were, and they were leaders. And those leaders set the pace for learning. Where are our leaders? Morons of the worst kind, who are criminals mostly. What concern do they have for the people of their country, les of the world. And Allah is bearing all this with patience. To teach us something! If we learn we are the saviours of tomorrow, of mankind itself. If we don’t, hell awaits us here as well as in the next world.

Tactics work differently at different places. The whole world is a powder keg that which we do not care will flash into nothingness. But we are not doomsday scenario prediction makers. We are the NATION BUILDERS. We love to see children playing wonderful games, not adults at money making tactics. We love to feed the hungry. Even the animals. It is so satisfying to put water in a bowl and see a hungry bird drink it. The bird is praying for us, for our sanity. To help a deprived family, meet their needs for the day. These are the satisfactions no money can ever buy. It makes us closer to Allah. It gives us happiness today and tomorrow. To do for others, we are doing for our nation. Allah blesses us plenty!

WOULD YOU ALLOW YOUR SON TO INTERMINGLE,
WITH A NAKED HOMOSEXUAL IN DELHI CROSSING ALL LEVELS OF DECENCY

The story of Said Sarmad Kashani the Armenian Jew

We have little knowledge about Sarmad Kashani. Suffice that he was a merchant from Armenia and he travelled to Hindustan, and came to the city of Lahore. Writers write about him having a place near the Badshahi Mosque Lahore, not realizing that there was no Badshahi mosque at that time. From there he once travelled to Thatta and fell in love with a Hindu boy Abhai Chand. In his passion for the boy, he started roaming around naked (flashing in modern terms). In today’s America he would be charged for sexual harassment, and sent to a long term jail spell. Here he started growing his hair, to give himself a wild look. In a contemporary miniature we find a bullish over grown barbarian. But the real thing is that he ridiculed religion. He made fun of all religions here, including mocking our sacred KALMA. I was surprised to hear from someone that he was the second high profile freemason to come to India. Abu Fazl was the first one. Their aim was to destroy faith here and they came in garb of being saints. Only a LOW IQ region like ours could accept such a depraved man as a Saint. His diwan is full of homoerotic verses (it is said that there are 321 Persian rubaiyyats) in praise of his lover boy. Obviously there could not be one alone. A trail of homosexuality was behind him.

But the danger was much greater. His attempt was to seduce Dara Shikoh himself and the Royal Court felt the threat of this happening. Today besides low IQ depraved people, so called civilized highly educated people try to seek meaning in this meaningless PERSON. He personified Satan and that was his mission. It is to the credit of Emperor Aurangzeb that he sent the case of Sarmad LONDAY BAZ to the Courts and had him tried. The foolish people think of him as a Shaheed, which he was not. It is people like these who come and mock our WAY OF LIFE and we end up making these ZEROS our HEROS. In his own words, he said that he doubted Allah’s existence, and yet we are happy to send him to heaven ourselves. Enough of this mockery, let us call a spade a spade. Here a perverted person, spreading his perversion in our region. Thanks Allah that men of intelligence were there at that time, and showed him his place in history. I am told that a secret society nurtures his grave to this day. Certainly a Shaheed for them!

AERATED WATER COMES TO LAHORE
NABI BAKSH DEHLAVI FACTORY 1851

Lemonade good for digestion

Every day we see advertisements on our media. Girls and boys frolicking over a bottle of Pepsi and Coca Cola. But they were not always there. An obscure advertisement in the newspaper Kohinoor Lahore of 1851 tells us that Nabi Baksh of Calcutta, had come from Delhi with an aerated bottle factory and ready to sell lemonade in Lahore. Very simple news. Who could have imagined the end results? The funny thing is that the factory was of Muslim origin and the Hindu population refused to partake this aerate water of the Muslims., Can you believe that?

The earliest aerated water in Lahore as we remember was the one sold by beverage shop in the bazaar of Hira Mandi. It is sold to this day. Not only was it good for digestion, it was also used to mix with locally made alcoholic drinks. Drinks and prostitution went hand in hand. To those who regularly visited Karachi, Pakola could be found there. A long time back Coca Cola found its way into Lahore. The bottle was for 5 annas each. Then Seven-up came to Lahore and was much loved by the city guys. Digestion made easy with them, for all these drinks brought burps to the drinker easily. In fact Lahoris were very suspicious at that time that a few drops of alcohol had been introduced in every bottle of Coke. That was common sense then. Nobody denied that.

But where aerated water was concerned, there was need for Iced bottles too! When did ice come to Lahore? It is reputed that Ranjit Singh used to get carts laden with ice all the way from Kashmeer. The icepits were situated in a large ground near Training College Lahore. The method of freezing some ice was to lay kiaris on which a layer of rustic straw was spread. Then pans of burnt clay were placed, all leading to some freezing of ice during the night. This ice collected used to be sold. Then in 1870s a regular machine factory was installed to make artificial ice but also at the same place. Then the same was shifted to the ground opposite the Commercial Buildings in Lahore. Regular market for same particularly in summer. Today traditional barf khanas are at many places in the city but one of the oldest was opposite Mochi Gate Lahore. Ice cream also started with these barf khanas and one of the oldest was SNOW FLAKE in Lahore. All in all, the history of Lahore is worthy of being recorded for the future.

THE BACKGROUND OF GENERAL POST OFFICE LAHORE
WHEN, WHO AND WHAT? UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

The Architect M. Starmer Hack of London and Bombay

It is usually heard in circles that the GPO Lahore was designed by Sir Ganga Ram and completed in 1887. Fine, but is that all to it? If we look at the History of Lahore by Judge Latif, he has this to say about the GPO Lahore, that is in 1892:

“The General Post Office is in Anarkali near the Museum. It was built in 1849, but considerable additions have been made to it since. There are three branch Post Offices.”

It may be kept in mind that he is not talking of the present GPO at all. Old views exist of the Post Office. Then we have a design published in the magazine ARCHITECTURAL in 1902 and it is worthy of note too. It says design for the new entrance to the GPO Lahore by none other than by Mr M. Starmer Hack of London and Bombay. It has intricate designs in it. Was this merely a design idea that never came into being? Or was the design modified with time. We do not know. But it is worthy of being researched. It is fashionable to attribute everything in Lahore to Sir Ganga Ram and Bhai Ram Singh. Is that really so, or we are merely paying lip service to a Hindu and a Sikh person, to discredit all others who contributed to Lahore, too. It is not for us to judge. Find out!

The writer of NUQOOSH LAHORE has more to say. He says the Post Office existed near the Lahore Museum (a barrack sort of building) along with the bungalow of the Post Master General. And straight way tells us that the present GPO was constructed in 1912. It was constructed under the guidance of Director Telegraph himself. No mention of who designed it? Although we see a 1902 design by M. Starmer Hack which looks very much like the present GPO. We get more clarification from the Lahore Gazetteer itself, which tells us in 1916, that the building was completed in 1904 and occupied by the Post Office the same year. This shows us that the 1902 design by M. Starmer Hack was there and modified into the new building. The case rests on is own merit.

Our problem is that we are not research oriented nation. Whatever is fed to us, we gulp it down, uncensored, un-moved by other conflicting claims. As said before, research is required before we make claims about anything at all.

MAKING ZEROS HERO, HEROES LITERALLY ZERO,
VESTED LOBBIES TRYING TO UNDO OUR UNITY

Holding on to Quranic Ideals make NGOS zero

I often talk about Secular and Religious bodies as two sides of the same coin. A friend sitting in front of me talked of the dangerous interlude of another related lobby. THE ATHIEST GROUPS TRYING TO DEFAME EVERYBODY ELSE. It was amazing for me to read many books announcing shamelessly that SATAN himself is the proclaimed hero of humanity. I could burst out laughing, but this is no laughing matter. Elimination of all religions their aim in life. Obviously religions have picked up flaws with time that can be easily exploited even on a rational level. They do not realize that ISLAM ITSELF IS A CHALLENGE TO RELIGION (another blog required). They believe that Islam can be ridiculed to the point, where no modern thought can allow it to continue in existence. Morons with all their so called wisdom!

Questioning the wisdom of Allah is slowly creeping in our media. A TV thing has penetrated now even respectable newspapers. Worldly wisdom considered superior to Divine one. Obviously when nothing Divine is considered to be there. Of course there is question of Ijjtehad and things can be changed by consensus. But there are permanent values given in the QURAN and QURAN alone, which cannot be changed till eternity. Obviously Hadis(s) are actually there which contradict each other, so we do not rely on those, nor give a value of a reliable or unreliable Hadis, with our personal judg’ment. The standard of judg’ment is always the QURANIC VALUES itself. Nothing else!

If someone wants to believe in an existence without a DIVINE force, let that person be welcome to his views. Why should he enforce his own whims on us? There is no proof required for God’s existence. The proof is in existence itself. The beauty of life, in it evolution is proof of a force behind creation, of which we only know 99 attributes. The rest Allah has hidden from us. The Quran itself is proof of Divinity. No faith required here. The Quran tells us to think and ponder all the time, and it is this capacity to think itself, is proof enough of God’s existence. It may surprise people to even know that Allah does not ask us to believe on our own. Allah has asked us to think and ponder over everything. Without reason, without science, without knowledge, accept nothing as absolute. Life and its set of values is itself proof of Divine existence.

The silliest part is to create a set of VALUES based on negative perceptions only. From where does SATAN comes from? From our irrationalities, our destructive forces, our emotional demure, yes, in fact, everything that tends to destroy the very fiber of life. Making Satan a hero is the most irrational concept conceived by man in any time. In these times such conceptions mean the indulgence of rationality on foolish thoughts. Allah is creation; Satan is destruction. Very simple two and two. Who are the imbeciles who cannot understand this? Plenty in reality. Moneyed people, buying naïve people (the easiest encroachment is addiction to alcohol, drugs, or plain sexual inducements) and building up NGOS for them to destroy the world in to oblivion.
Stopping this nonsense is our faith in life built on thought itself.

QUEEN MARY COLLEGE LAHORE 1926
SHYAMA ZUTSHKI’S AUTOGRAPH TO A FRIEND

The trail of the past is often not understood. However much we may say that nothing remains, some remnants always turn up to refute us. On the path of Zutshkis sisters, I was not even able to find an image for decades, and then an image turned up in a college student scrap book. A hidden lover no doubt as many others of that time. And then this Autograph book.

Strangely Queen Mary College was home of girl students from the best families of Lahore. Founded as Victoria May Girls High School, Lahore, in 1908, it was renamed after Queen Mary, in 1911. In 1926 Kinnaird College had also moved to its present site, but was of no significance at that time. As a School it existed near the Railway Station but not for girls from esteemed families. Very famous personalities got their education there, but so was a number of artists. We hear of Sughra Rabbabi, Razia Feroze, Razia Sirajajuddin, Jahan Ara Shahnawaz, Geeti Ara Bashir Ahmad , and so many others, attached to the place. This Autograph book contains Autographs of many teachers as well as many prominent students. Our emphasis was of course on Shyama and we have touched that alone.

If we come across anything new, we will refer to that too. It was as rich period in our history and intellectualism abounded in Lahore. The Paindos had not swept Lahore as well a the bigoted Mullahs. Lahore’s soul was as free as a soaring bird.

THE TREE OF CHUGHTAI FAMILY
MOVERS AND SHAKERS FROM MONGOLIA
Shook the World of their times

The Chinese girl came with a delegation to our museum. We talked of Chaghatai Khan. The way she pronounced the name was like a song YAGH TAI. Every time she uttered the word, a tremor ran through me. Just who was this Chaghatai Khan. Very simply, the second son of Genghis Khan, the Khan of his tribe from 1226 to 1242 AD. Yes the Chaghatai language as well as his clan takes the name from him and him alone.

Born: 1183
Died: 1242, Ghulja, China
Spouse: Ebuskun
Siblings: Ögedei Khan, Jochi Khan, Tolui
Parents: Genghis Khan, Börte
Children: Yesü Möngke, Baidar, Mutugen

The funny part is that Lahore was full of Chughtais, and yet we hardly see them. Why is there a dearth of Chughtais in the world? A compere on TV was rectifying the fact of the absence of the Mughals in Lahore. He said that Ranjit Singh hated the Mughals and had put a price on their head. This was in retribution to the price on the heads of the Sikhs in Mir Mannu’s time. The difference here was obvious. The price at that time was due to the dacoitry activities in Lahore, which needed to be curbed., But the head on the Mughals was due to vengeance alone and nothing else. Who said rationality wins all the time? Nothing like that. The result that most of the families changed their names and were not happy to be spotted as of a certain ethnic group. And the Sikhs were not alone in this. The English after Bahadur Shah Zafar and the War of Independence, hanged and executed whichever Mughals they could find with any kind of Royal links. Dwyer is reputed to have drunk the blood of Mughal Princes. So the Mughals went into hiding. And the hiding was so strong that their children even went absent from their roots. It was in the late 19th century, that families found their roots again. The upsurge of ethnicity had sprung and that too due to the English administration, who insisted the ethnic roots being written on any official form. But then fashion took over.

The Chughtais came back into fashion. The result that that everybody started acting, feeling and pretending to be a Chughtai. No harm done except to themselves. But a Chughtai can be recognized from the face itself. They are particularly different from the other Punjab residents here. Their habits are different. They were rulers of dynasties and this royalty springs from even the weakest of them. Our M.A. Rahman Chughtai brought fame to the city of his ancestors all over the world. Yes, indeed Lahore is Lahore, and nothing like it anywhere.

BY 2015 PAKISTAN NO LONGER ON WORLD MAP,
HA! HA! HA! ANYBODY LISTENING NOW

2015 ULTIMATE YEAR OF STRENGTH FOR PAKISTAN

From the last few decades we heard the same RATA TOTA (Clamouring parrot) say that by 2015 Pakistan will no longer be on the map of the world. I think by now most of these jackasses should eat their own crap, for Pakistan is now affirmed as the rising country of tomorrow.

We believe in Allah. We believe in making our destiny. A new group is emerging and all the carefully planned hanky panky for our country is no more. Soon the Mamas and the Chachas, as well as the Comrades and the kalay coats will go into hell. Even the usual money will stop and for failure, the outside hyenas will be after the blood of those who promised them much. We have a saying in our culture. When you start digging graves of others, your own grave gets dug up. Stop wasting your time. Pakistanis here to stay and with friends like China, who can stop us now?

TUM APNI KOM KA NAHI BANAY, HAMARI KOM KAY KESAY BANO GAY!

THE PORTRAITS OF M.A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI
HARDLY ANY EXIST IN LIFE, ONE CAN WONDER WHY?

People welcome to try their luck

M.A. Rahman Chughtai unlike other pygmies of art here, never attempted a Self-portrait. The closest he reached was a portrait done by Ustad Aziz in the Ustad Allah Baksh Studio, which was later signed by Ustad Allah Baksh himself. I was there when it was being made, and later even borrowed it once for a show of ours. I do not know where it is at present. In any case it was from a photograph made of the artist, but the artist had himself corrected it for Ustad Aziz, and that was as near as you could get to a portrait. No image with us.

There was an attempt at a pencil sketch by an artist from Gujrat, Ravishankar Raval in 1939, which was published in Bombay in 1946. I do not know if it exists at all. We have an image. Saeed Akhtar wanted to make one, but nothing was published for the Stamps series, for there was a certain lobby trying to undermine the Ideological impact of the artist. Even Stephen P. Cohen, the great American Pakistani expert, had noted this and we talked about it, when he visited us here. A Sindhi artist had made a Multani tile of him. We have it in our possession.

After the death of the artist, we noted the lack of this in the life of the artist. Incidentally we read about an art student, namely ANJUM HASSAN from Karachi in the Herald Magazine. And invited her here to do a portrait on the artist. The sample she sent is still with us. We had issues about the actual one, but she was adamant against changing anything, and we respect her for that. For us the sample brought more of Chughtai’s character, rather than the finished product. We are told that she is somewhere in the United States but we still remember her fondly. She was not only beautiful but had a lovely personality, very suitable for a portrait of Chughtai Artist. Her maternal uncle and aunt I met all the time here in Lahore, for he was managing an Airline office here. Mirza Baigs they themselves. Our best wishes to her ever!

Recently a SCULPTOR of Lahore has offered to make a portrait in STONE of the artist. We have welcomed him. Let us see how the same will proceed. I have done my best and doing my best in very limited resources. No one really cares, but we know the future of Pakistan is telling us again and again, not to give up. The future needs us. We stand free, for unlike others WE HAVE NOT EVEN TAKEN A SINGLE PAISA FROM THE GOVERNMENT, NOR EVEN ONE FAVOUR OF ANY KIND. This freedom let us soar high in the sky!

RESPECTING AND SAVING GODS OF OTHER RELIGIONS
A BURIED GANESH MADE IN LAHORE IN SULTANATE REIGN

A Hindu god of luck

The image of Ganesh is ever there in Hindu mythology. The strange part is that mostly the image is of a robust fat Ganesh. Like the Starving Buddha in the Lahore Museum, I have not seen a starving Ganesh. I am not familiar with the imagery associated with Ganesh, but there is a fish at his feet in our Ganesh Lahori.

Discovered deep down the earth, we nurtured it with relevant preservative oils. I often use pure ghee for this restoration, which actually is good for the clay work. The Head Crown, the clothes, even the handling is totally unique. I do not think Ganesh worshipper have ever seen a Ganesh like this. It is to the credit of the artists of Lahore to put the stamp of individuality in whatever they created in life.

In the symbolism of Ganesh it is said that a fat stomach is meant to digest all good and bad in life. But our Ganesh has a fat stomach. A fish like this is used in the imagery of the Chinese fish man. That is also a god of luck. In any case we wish our Hindu friends happy viewing of a unique clay work of Lahore.