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The
city of Allama Iqbal Medical College
is
LAHORE
"LAHORE
LAHORE HAI"
Lahore!
They say you can
never get tired of wandering through the streets of Lahore.
They also say it's the "Paris of Asia". Ask any Lahori today
what Lahore is, what it is all about. You will only get
a warm smile, his dark black eyes shining with mischief
and a blunt statement with an air of unquestionable certainty"Lahore
Lahore hai"(Lahore is Lahore) .
Since ancient times,
thousands of years ago, brave and merciless conquerors have
taken control of the Punjab, their powers waxing and waning
through the ages. But one thing remained endlessly through
the centuries: their lust for Lahore....be it Alexander
of Macedon...Akbar the Great...Jehangir..Shah Jahan, or
Maharaja Ranjit Singh..the love for Lahore was there...is
there and will be..in all its beauty...
The Lahore of Kipling, Salim's Lahore,
Anarkali's Lahore, the Lahore of Shah Jahan, of Dara Shikoh,
of Aurangzeb...
" ...a glance tugs at the heart's
skirt, saying...this is the place...!"
Emperor Jehangir's exclamation upon
visiting Lahore
" Ah, if I could behold the face
of my beloved again... I would give thanks unto my God till
the day of Resurrection.. - The Bereaved Salim, Son of Akbar
"
Inscription on the tomebstone at Anarkali's tomb,
by Prince Salim
What is it then, about this magical City,
this magical City of The Thirteen Gates, the City about
which countless epics, legends and romantic lores abound....the
City where the legendary Fort was built, the City where
Akbar used to hold his Deewaan . The lovely city
Rudyard Kipling called home. It was this City wherein the
mysterious Naulakha was erected, the City where
Shah Jahan laid out the great Shalimar Gardens, the very
City where Prince Salim romanced the beautiful Anarkali...the
latter still resting in her tomb, the tomb from where, to
this day, the lively Anarkali Bazaar sprawls towards
the Gates....
That remains unanswered as yet, for the greatness of Lahore
is a culmination of centuries of happenings, experiences,
the integral culture, and the people..combined with the
physical form of the City. All of which has been preserved
with great austerity since the olden times, and is, to say
the least, awe-inspiring.
As one enters Lahore from the north along
the ancient Grand Trunk Road, the changes to the senses
are all too evident, even at a distance of more than 10
miles from the Outer Boundary of the City. The dense presense
of the tall eucalyptus and cypress trees lining the Grand
Trunk Road is all too noticeable, and as the afternoon sun
casts the long, frail shadows over the Road, the heart rejoices
in natural anticipation of the experience to follow(of course,
a just prelude to the greatness to come.) 
- Dawn over the Badshahi Mosque
Later, the Outer Boundaries of Lahore are
encountered...and one winces at a tall, faint Minar
that rises in the extreme distance, trying to see
what it is, whether it is one of the minars of the Badshahi
Mosque, or something else. About half an hour later, the
giant white marble, onion-shaped domes of the red sandstone
Badshahi Mosque are visible, and as the whole of the mosque
comes into view sooner or later, one desperately starts
trying to peep through the trees to get a better view of
the marvel.
-Morning prayers at the Badshahi
Mosque
As if the magnificence
of the Mosque wasn't enough, the corner of the eye catches
sight of the massive Lahore Fort, and the beautiful Iqbal
park between the two great architectural marvels, in the
center of which stands the Minar-e-Pakistan , the
monument of pivotal patriotic importance to all Pakistanis....
The site where the
Minar-e-Pakistan was built is the site where the Pakistan
Resolution of 1940 was passed in that historic session of
the Muslim League, where millions gathered in what is now
known as Iqbal Park(named after Dr.Allama Muhammad Iqbal,
the great poet and leader of the Pakistanis, one of the
greatest supporters of The Two Nations Theory). "May
God keep the Punjab all flourishing! May He preserve the
country of the saints! May Lahore be always full of bliss!
May death and plague be always far from it!
Prince Dara Shikoh's poetic verse
- Minar-e-Pakistan
By now the circular main center of the
city is reached, and the hustle and bustle of Lahore is
now to be experienced. With the Mosque, the Fort and the
Park surrounding it, this is the place from where the different
roads take you to the various parts of the City, radiating
from this awesome center like the spokes of a wondrous wheel
of integrity and spontaneity, each road, in fact, possessing
a particular aura, each part of an ancient legend, but those
are different stories altogether...
Lahore is just so great, so wonderful,
so very fabulous, that every nook and corner of the city
speaks of a certain vibrance, a certain zeal, a spirit of
life, which cannot be found anywhere in the world. Perhaps
it is the awesome maturity of the city, which manifests
itself (sometimes whimsically) in the various parts of Lahore.
It is present in the monuments, in the bazaars, in the old
buildings lining the Mall, or in the vast expanses of the
sports grounds in the Cantonment. But most vividly, this
great Lahori spirit is visible
in the people of Lahore, the Zinda dilan-e-Lahore
(The Zealous of Lahore).
Lahore is a city of culture, of history,
of an unrivaled charm that sets it apart from every other
city on Earth. It seems that great Lahori Spirit has invaded
and saturated this city over the centuries, to the effect
that Lahore today is not just a city, not just a place in
one corner of this planet, but a whole universe in itself;
what to say of similarities to other Mughal cities...the
average Lahori is that same old Mughal prince of bygone
ages, one only has to get to know him. There is an old saying,
that in every Lahori, there is a Mughal prince. This saying
has been verified more than once by the author.
The description of the pure Lahori spirit
conveniently evades the mind, adding to the mysteries of
this city. At best, it can be said that this Spirit pervades
the citadel and the slum alike. The city has known ages
of cultural, intellectual, musical, literary and humanistic
evolution, which has consequently led to the fermentation
and over fermentation of this rich brew we call Lahore.
Few cities of the world, if indeed any, can lay claim to
such a wonderful past or present.
All this makes Lahore a truly rewarding
experience. The buildings, the roads, the trees and the
gardens, in fact the very air of Lahore in enough to set
the mind spinning in admiration. Many a poet has written
about this phenomenon one experiences in the environs of
Lahore. When the wind whistles through the tall trees, when
the twilight floods the beautiful face of the Fort, when
the silent canal lights up to herald the end of another
chapter in history, the Ravi is absorbed in harmony, mist
fills the ancient streets and the havelis come
alive with strains of classical music, the spirit of Lahore
pervades even the hardiest of souls.
It is said that maturity of age brings
about a certain beauty in an object. It may well be true
in the case of a city. It seems as though that ancient spirit
lingering on through the ages is behind all the wonderful
beauty of Lahore. One would strongly oppose such traditionalistic,
abstract ideas, ideas that can be conveniently labeled as
the classic sub continental stereotype, if one hadn't been
to a "newer" city in the West.
The Lahori spirit cannot be defined, as
definition is confinement, and confinement is unknown to
the spirit.
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In
the name of Allah, the beneficent,
the merciful
