There was a time when there was just a small round tuft of grass surrounded by a hand span high wall of concrete and that marked the unnamed round about that led from the garden town model town area to the liberty side of the Lahore world. That’s it. No complications. Nothing. Just an intersection of the main boulevard extending into the nameless road and the great Ferozepur road. That’s that.
One fine Sunday morning on our way to dada jaan’s place we saw cranes, those pole-y structuires they put up right before building anything and all that jazz. Some people were trying to build something there. Controversies followed. It’s in the shape of Tahira Syed’s hand, Nawaz Sharif meant it to be designed this way. To me it was cool coz it had the first kalma written on it and you could see it if you go all around. Secretly I always wished we had to go the the extreme other side so we’d drive all around it and I could read it and go “whoopieee” inside.
Courtesy : JZakariya
We grew up with Kalma chowk being an integral part of our every day route for a very very long time. It was just there. Just like the sorry ass politicians of our country, the beautiful GPO building, the Lahore Museum, NCA, it was just always there.
Every telling-your-way- around- the-city would include “so you go straight from Kalma chowk…”
It’s a part of Lahore. It is a part of my Lahore. I haven’t read up on why how or who approved the flyover. I don’t care either. something was definitely needed for the crazy traffic there. I agree. That still doesn’t lessen the pain I feel knowing they uprooted THE Kalma chowk alphabet by alphabet last night, like an unwanted weed.
I don’t know why things like this have to happen. Some things in life just sprout up, out of nowhere, you don’t quite need them at the time but slowly they grow on you. You get used to them and then they’re snatched away in such a grotesque manner that you’re left with a void in your heart. Yes this may seem extreme in case of a building or a structure but when over the years it becomes a landmark you can’t just take it away. You cannot just take my home town away bit by bit and turn it into something I will fail to recognize when I go back because I will. That spot, I will not recognize.
I find this graffiti of sorts, the way it washes away part of our heritage. Or what perhaps would’ve been part of our heritage one day. It had the potential to become part of history but before it could get even close to that we had to get rid of it.
Kalma chowk took a bit of my home away with it. Bas.
My friend jst directed me here and i had no idea that kalma chook don't exist no more. he thinks i don't care, coz thats what happens when you move away from home and friends. but, i do.
ReplyDeleteyou know how a picture gets stuck in your head from different stages/points in your life and thats all there is to define that period. well i have something of that sort, getting out of beaconhouse(i hate that school) standing on the crowed bus-stop in scorching heat and looking over KALMA CHOOK. And i watched it everyday of my school life, don't ask me how many days, but it was a long time going to school and knowing that place. RIP
Sigh. I miss Kalma Chowk. Seriously. Of all the things I thought I'd miss, this remains the most unlikely, yet it's true.
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