Barrister's House, Gurdwara Galli, Abbottabad

by Ilyas Khan

In Abbottabad town, in the hills of the North-West Frontier (KPK now) , in Pakistan, there is a famous old street called 'Gurdwara Galli' (lit Temple Street) .

In the pre-1947 days, when lots of Sikhs and Hindus used to live here, this street had a 'Gurdwara' --a Sikh temple (hence its name) -- and also a Hindu 'Arya Samaj' sect temple. In addition, it had residential houses of some prominent Sikh and Hindu residents of the town, both notable businessmen and professionals, such as lawyers, doctors and such. Unlike the majority of local Muslims, the Sikhs and Hindus of Abbottabad were well-to-do, prosperous and educated, and they tended mostly to live in urban areas.

One well-known , and still somehow surviving, house in Gurdwara Galli, is the small but quite quaint looking house that once belonged to the lawyer/barrister Madan Mohan, and which used to be called 'Barrister's House'. This house was built in the early 1930s, and was coloured a delightful azure hue.

By some miracle, this house, still coloured a nice blue, continues to survive in Abbottabad today, where most of the old houses and buildings have either been knocked down or are in the process of being knocked down, in the mad quest for 'development' i.e.  modern tasteless but commercially viable construction. Money is the local god now, for the so-called 'Muslims' of Abbottabad town. Nothing else matters.

It's only a matter of time before Barrister Madan Mohan's house also goes the way of other old houses here. It doesnt matter who lives there now, or if it is lying empty- it's on valuable commercial land in the heart of the town and that's that. So, enjoy this sight while you still can.

              View of Barrister Madan Mohan's house, Gurdwara Galli, Abbottabad. By Ilyas Khan, also shared with engineer Mehmood Aslam at 'Environmentalist' online 

Old Sindhi Havelis, Wehar, Sindh

Wehar is a sizable village near the Indus river, some few kilometres from Mohenjo-daro, in Sindh province of Pakistan. At one time, Wehar used to be a bog entrepot or depot, for riverine trade on the Indus, or 'Sindhu' as it is called here.

Most of this trade was carried out between Sindh, Rajasthan and Mewar (Jodhpur), Gujerat Kathiawar, Baluchistan (Kalat state and beyond) and even as far as Afghanistan and Southern Punjab areas of Multan and Bahawalpur, possibly even till Peshawar.

It is interesting that most of this trade was in the hands of local Hindu ''baniyas'' (business caste) from quite ancient times. In the 19th and early 20th centuries AD/CE the most famous of these business families in this place, were the family of Set Tehl Ram (who along with his brother Vidoomal had a big trading company) and the Sangat Rai family. Both these families built palatial red-brick 'havelis' (mansions) here, at which sites they lived and also carried on business.

Now, both havelis are in bad shape, although occupied and lived in by settlers from India, who came here as immigrants in 1947, at Partition. One wonders where the rich 'seths' went? Do they still have families and descendants living somewhere in India, who went there at that same terrible time? These present occupants have tried to maintain the old mansions as they were, although they are falling in places. According to the plates on the mansions, they were built in the 1930s, and with some love and care, can be easily restored to their former glory.