Its a Bugger

A squirrel at the Farm, I'm still away from the city and it took me 20 mins. to upload this re sized image of 115 KB. I will try my best to keep uploading pictures everyday but it will be hard. Thanks for visiting and your patience with my sporadic postings.

Paan

Paan is an ethnic Indian chew usually served at the end of a meal and ceremonies such as weddings, receptions. Paan can be bought in nearly every street corner in Pakistan. They are believed to help in digestion of curried foods and also act as mouth fresheners.

Emarti a sweet meat

These are Emarti's a sweet meat, they are fried and then dipped in sugar syrup, at a road side stall at the food street.

Hindu Deities

A display at Cuckoo's Den depicting Hindu deities.

Gola Ganda

An assortment of colored syrups to pour over crushed ice in what is called a "Gola Ganda" and enjoyed by Kids.

Tile Painting

Painting on ceramic tile at Cuckoo's Den Lahore.

Statue at Cuckoos Den

I've mentioned Cuckoo's Den before its a lovely Art Gallery and Restaurant situated in the Old City, owned and operated by one of the most famous and controvercial artists of Pakistan Iqbal Hussain. The restaurant is in the vicinity of Lahore's red light area and has a similar theme. With amazing food and views of the Fort and Badshahi Masjid it is one of the best restaurants in the City.

Gawal Mandi / Food Street

Part of the old city which used to be called Gawalmandi is now the food street with every imaginable Pakistani food available in one place.

Old City

This is a building in the old city, several years ago the government decided to restore some old buildings to their former glory and establish a food street to show visitors what the city was like in the olden times. If you are in Lahore the Food Street is a must go!

Clay pottery

Some clay pottery on display outside a closed shop at the Food street.

Friends I am headed to my farm in a rural area, the GPRS internet access there is not good enough to upload pictures or even browse properly I will be away for about 10 days and will get back to you when I return. In the mean time I have scheduled 10 posts to be published everyday, Take Care.

Meet Ashar

 

Lahoris have a deep love for food, This is Ashar a connoisseur of food happily posing in front of a food stall on Lahore's famous food street, a street in the old city with restored buildings and all kinds of heart attack inducing food on the street. Hygene is not particullary looked at in these types of food places and Ashar reffers to it as "Duurrtyy Food". This particular food is called Sajji, the chicken is roasted  all day in an open fire place over slow burning coal and is served with rice.

Shahi Majid

This is another one of the Badshahi Mosque Also known as the Shahi Masjid, Taken prom the main entrance this captures the whole courtyard and the mosque structure.

Closeup Badshahi Mosque

Another picture of the Badshahi Mosque taken from the courtyard.

Badshahi Mosque

This is the view of the badshahi mosque taken from the Lahore fort right before sunset, Tomorrow I'll post a closeup taken from the courtyard of the mosque.

Fresco Closeup

A  Mughal era floral fresco at the Badshahi Mosque.

Minar-e-Pakistan

This is the Photograph of one of the most famous monuments of Pakistan taken from the Lahore Fort, It is called Minar-e-Pakistan literally the pillar of Pakistan. It is built on the site where on 23 March 1940, seven years before the formation of Pakistan the Muslim league a political party passed the "Lahore Resolution" demanding the creation of Pakistan as a separate state for the Muslim minority of the Indian sub continent.

On another note, today was a bad day for Lahore, A series of bomb blasts shook the city starting a couple of hours earlier (aprox. 21:30 local time) till now we have had reports of at least 5 maybe 6 low intensity blasts, reports of casualties are said to be low but unconfirmed. Security Agencies and Police are telling people to be vigilant as more bomb blasts are possible.

Shame-e-Ghariban

(Click to enlarge for better detail)

Today is the 10th of Muharram, Sham-e-Ghariban or literraly the evening of desolation is observed. The grandon of the Prophet Muhammed and his small but brave band of 72 followers fought a much larger (20,000-30,000) army of the tyrant Yazid. Water was denied to Imam Hussain's caravan which included small children and women on the 7th of Muharram on the orders of Yazid even though they were camped on the banks of the river Euphrates. The camp now had no supply of water and the enemy hoped to force Husayn to surrender on account of thirst.

This photograph is of a private imambargah setup in a house during the month of Muharram, it displays representations of Imam Hussain's Army's standard known as the "Alam". The standard bearer of the Imam's Army was Hazrat Abbas. Hazrat Abbas could not bear the outcry from the chidren and finally got the permission to get water keeping in mind that he was not to engage in combat of any sort.Abbas ibn Ali alone marched towards the Euphrates river in broad daylight. He succeeded in filling his water skin but on his way back, he was struck from behind and one of his arm was amputated then he was again struck and his second arm was amputated, he was the water bag in his mouth but an arrow struck the water bag and water poured out of it. The water blockade continued up to the end of the battle on Muharram 10 nigh.

Zuljana Shab-e-Ashour

Today was the 9th of Muharram (9th and 10 being National Holidays) the eve before Imam Hussain's Martrydom. Tonight processions known here as Jalous could be seen all over the city with thousands of devotees taking part in them. This Particular picture shows a decorated horse. It is known as the "Zuljana" and is part of almost every procession that takes to the street tonight or tomorrow afternoon. The Zuljana is a representation of Imam Hussain's loyal horse which the Imam rode all his life and during the Battle of Karbala, The Imam had inherited the horse from Prophet Muhammed.

Matam

This and the following few posts will be a series of educational posts, about something many of you have probably never heard of and will give you an insight into a people very emotional and devoted to what they believe in you can click the links in the post for further details.

Today is the 8th of Muharram the first month of the Islamic calander, Muharram is a very importnat month for Shia Muslims because on the 10 of Muharram Imam Hussain the grandson and family (consisting of 72 people) of the Prophet Muhammed were killed by an army of between 20,000-30,000 at the Battle of Karbala on the orders of Yazid because Hussain did not accept him as Caliph and was not willing to take the oath of allegiance. The next few days I intend to post pictures from Lahore which will show how the Shia mourn their Imam and his death, a celebration of justice over evil.

This picture shows devotees doing Matam.

I agree with wikipedia's description of Matam which is "Many of the male participants congregate together in public for ceremonial chest beating (matam) as a display of their devotion to Imam Husayn and in remembrance of his suffering. In some Shi'a societies, such as those in Bahrain, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Iraq, some male participants incorprate knives or razors swung upon chains into their matam. This practice is permissible by major Usooli Ayatollah such as Muhammad Shirazi and Sistani, however some major scholars such as Khameini have banned it in Iran temporarily, while others such as Fadlallah deem it permanently impermissible. In general however, the act is controversial."

Badshahi Mosque Entrance

This is the grand entrance leading into the courtyard of the Badshahi Masjid (Emporor's Mosque) , The whole entrance and a lot of the interior of the mosque is decorated with beautiful floral frescos. Built by Mughal Emperor Aurengzeb in 1673 The badshahi Masjid can accomodate 55,000 worshippers and is the second largest mosque in Pakistan.

Note: For some reason most of Pakistani's are facing blogger issues for several days, Once you open a blogger page, it does not refresh for several days, in essence I can not view the latest posts on most of the blogger based blogs most of the time. I have tried clearing my cache, histories and even flushing my DNS, It could be Blogger or it could be the ISP storing pages on its servers, and serving them stale, if any of you know a solution to such an issue please let me know.

Samadhi (Shrine) of Maharaja Ranjit Sing

This is the picture of the Samadhi (Shrine) of the great Sikh ruler of Punjab Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Allama Iqbal's Mausoleum

This is the mausoleum of Allama Sir Muhammed Iqbal who provided the vision of Pakistan as a separate state for the Muslims of the Indian sub continent. Famous all over the world as the poet of the East his works have been translated into several languages and are studied and taught all over the world. The mausoleum is located in a courtyard between the Lahore fort and the Shahi Masjid in Lahore.

If freedom depends on belief's bargain,
In any such deal not an iota you gain,

The soul and the body here face a great clash,
Modern culture has made of us beats most rash. 

Mughal Fountain

One of the hundreds of fountains that are located inside the Lahore Fort. Now defunct these fountains would have been beautiful in their time. The fountain is carved out of white marble used extensively in Mughal architecture.

Lahore Fort

This is the "Alamgir Gate" the main entrance to the Lahore Fort, also known as the Shahi Qilla. This fort was built during the reign of Emperor Akbar between 1556 and 1605.

Back Again

Happy New year everyone, I have been away from Lahore daily photo for quite some time. The reason is that I started farming full time and rural areas in Pakistan do not have very good internet connections. My GPRS was not letting me upload pictures. I will try my best to post everyday but it will be close to impossible so bear with me for a while.