Peshawar to Lahore on GT Road
Monday, March 31, 2008
So much has changed since Kipling's description of the GT Road, which he saw "brimming with all manner of travellers -- rich merchants with elephants and camels laden with merchandise, guarded by retainers. The aristocracy on colourful horses and elephants with gilded howdahs for the ladies, their silk drapes fluttering in the wind, the raggle taggle of the gypsies roaming from one village to the next in search of food and work." The old identities have steadily defused by the common objectives for prosperity and development. Since partition, the new social and economic objectives have been the major engines of change. The only thing that still remains on this strategic, economic and cultural artery of Pakistan is that it is "the river of life."
Kabul-Calcutta GT Road runs through many of Pakistan's most historic places starting from Khyber Pass: Peshawar, Lotus Valley of Ghandhara civilization, Attock Fort (built by King Akbar in 1581), Hassan Abdal, Taxila, Potohar Plateau, Fort of Rohtas (built by Sher Shah Suri), Gujrat, Gujranwala, Lahore, and Wagha. It and passes over great rivers. The most interesting portion of the road is near Margala Pass that was used by Babar in his evasion. Near by is the oldest portion of the road. This section remained preserved because it did not come in subsequent alignments of the road. Some of the holes along this portion are being used as living quarters. During these alignments and widening the old banyan, shisham and acacia trees have also vanished and eucalyptus trees are coming up all along. A few banyan trees can be seen around Mandra but no body seems having time to sits under their shads.
The road looms in minds of local commuters as well as foreign travellers on a scale comparable to the K 2 or the Northern Areas or the Shalimar Garden, not least because it has been around for several thousand years. Its angles have been yanked and diverted by history. It has witnessed the march of Aryans and victorious advance of Persian and Greek armies. It also saw the Scythians, White Huns, Seljuks, Tartars, Mongols, Sassanians, Turks, Mughals and Durranis making successive inroads into the territories beyond Peshawar Valley and Indus. It is this road through which the subcontinent was invaded time and again by conquerors like Timur, Babar, Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali. Geography rather than history has fated the GT Road to play a role in the history in every age. Since the Aryan invasion of the subcontinent, the natural route that starts at the Khyber Pass and sweeps east, has served as a corridor for the movement of travellers, goods, armies, cultures and ideas. For hundreds of years, great camel caravans travelled through this road. These ancient merchants and traders brought luxurious silks and fine porcelain objects from China to the Middle East.
It was Sher Shah Suri who built the GT Road, originally called Gernaili Sarak till the British changes its name. The Afghan King built the serais (inns) and watering points, Kos Minars (mile minarets equivalents of present day milestones), mail horse-changing posts, planted trees and provided it with the basic amenities. Though, the construction of the GT Road is assigned to Sher Shah Suri but some historians and researcher say that it was already there and Sher Shah Suri only improved it in consonance with his own long-term strategic plans. A random question comes in my mind whenever I take spanking new Lahore-Islamabad Motorway: whose name will be associated with the Motorway in times to come?
Whatever mode of transport one is using, travelling on the GT Road does not exhaust, neither it alienate the spirits. It is one place where Pakistan proves so easy to appreciate. It is living all along every time of the day or night. For one, the road is a great bazaar from Peshawar to Lahore: food and other things are available right on the roadside. The public transport stops at different points, away from habitats, and the passengers can fresh up either in modern hotels or open eating joints serving every thing to satisfy the taste of cross section of the commuters. Even those using their own transport stop by to have a deal on dining in the way.
There is a plenty of choice on the road for shoppers too. The vendors all along the road selling ceramics and furniture of Gujrat, kitchenware from Wazirabad and Gujranwala, marble and stoneware from Taxila, plants and flowers every where, basketry from Soan valley or fresh fruit of the areas from where the road happens to be passing and even carpets hanging high. This suites the commuters well. They park their cars, haggle and make purchases on much cheaper prices than they would in the city markets. Even some factories have opened their showroom on the roadside.
Most of the road is two ways and bypasses have been made to avoid passing through cities but it still passes from some cities. The passion is also required when the road has to pass over the railways crossing around train timing but mostly the road runs parallel to the Railway Line. We in our society have a social trend to live near roadsides. Which is why one can see ribbon colonies coming up all along the road and the bypasses. Same is the reason for large number of smoke emitting factories on both sides of the road. Remember the pungent whiff near Kala Shah Kaku. And, near a village Momdi Pur Madina between Kharian and Lala Musa, a vender who sells tea in a cubby-hole stall has kept a large number of ducks in a pond on the Highway Authority Land. He has also constructed a small inconspicuous mud hut near the pond. The ducks lay egg in that hut and he sells them to bakery owners.Wall chalking - political, religious and or commercial slogans -- is another very telling thing that one notices all along the road. Every object that is standing is painted, and painted very crudely, very harshly. Dr. Muhammad Anwar, a social scientist and researcher says, "Majority of the advertisement on the road between Gujranwala to Lahore is about Najumis, Aamils and those who claim to treat the 'hidden' diseases."
The road taken once is never enough. Next time it will look different. That is the speed with which some of the things including physical environs are changing.
posted @ 11:44 PM,
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Caravan Road
Saturday, March 29, 2008
The souls that pave the way for the modern tarmac road known as the Karakorum Highway (KKH) still seem to flicker amongst the sharp moving shadows of the unstable rocks and the almost countless but crumbly semi-transparent glaciers that constantly threaten its existence. There has always been a long pass into, and out of China and Pakistan over what is sometime called the "Roof of the World" but in ancient times it was a very hazardous passageway. One wonders how Alexander might have crossed the Karakorum Mountains in 325 BC or how early travellers like Marco Polo, Hieun Tsang and others might have tracked on the route without backpacks, four wheel driven powerful vehicles and even the roads, till Pakistan Army engineers spread asphalt through one of the most difficult terrain in the world and created this great engineering feat called as the eighth wonder of the world.Northern Pakistan has some of the most beautiful and mightiest mountain terrain -- Hindu Kush and Karakorum -- in the world.
Besides raw natural beauty, the territory is very difficult for men and machine to work even in this modern age. The road is in fact reflection of man's incessant struggle against transcendental power.
What one sees while commuting on the highway? Extinct writings, Chinese traveller's diary and quoted in the North West Frontier Province Gazetteer that reads, "the path is certainly narrow, and often clung to the sheer faces of the many deep resonant gorges that confine their turgid, animated rivers. A traveller along the path sees at one glance the shadowy valleys from which a shiny mist columns rise at noon against a luminous sky, the forest ridges, stretches fold behind fold in softly undulating lines -- dotted by the white specks which mark the situation of Buddhist monasteries -- to the glacier draped pinnacles and precipices of the snowy range. He passes from the zone of tree ferns and endless colonnade of tall stemmed magnolias oaks and chestnut trees, fringes with delicate orchids and festooned by long convolvuluses to the region of gigantic pines, junipers, firs and larches. Down each ravine sparkles a brimming torrent, making the ferns and flowers nod as it dashes past them. Superb butterflies, black and blue, or flashes of rainbow colours that turn at pleasure into exact imitation of dead leaves, the fairies of this lavish transformation scene of nature, sail in and out between the sun light and gloom. The mountaineer pushes on by a track half buried between the red twisted stems of tree-rhododendrons, hung with long waiving lichens, till he emerges at last on open sky and the upper pastures -- the Alps of the Himalayan - field of flowers: of gentians and edelweiss and poppies, which blossom beneath the shining store house of snow that encompass the ice mailed and flouted shoulders of the giants of the range."
Get off the Grand Trunk Road -- main social as well as economic artery of Pakistan -- near Hassan Abdal; travel northeast through plains of Hazara and you are already in tourists' zone. Cyclists riding trendy machines and cellular phones even with local are commonly seen and almost all commodity items for the use offoreigners are available with vendors right on the roadside. Lucky ones may also have the pleasure to watch performance of Chinese artists at Silk Rout Festival that moves from place to place and gives spectacular performance.
Passing through outskirts of Mansehra, the road starts winding and climbing through forested hills, with houses climbing to the contours of hills and countless eateries lined up along the road. The travellers here are introduced to forbidding nature of the terrain. The river Indus gushes below and cliffs of bar rocks soar above as the KKH begins to cut its way through the gorges of Kohistan. After dipping into, and out of the Indus's wide bed the road also seem vying for the right of way with Gilgit and Hunza Riversbefore it heeds direct to the historic Khunjerab Pass into China. Voluminous traffic and rather unpleasant riding conditions becomes lighter after leaving Mansehra and remains so almost to Khunjerab Pass and beyond (to the end of the highway in Kashgar, China.)
Before crossing on the Chinese side of the Khunjerab Pass, the road passes through Hunza Valley. The intricate terraced fields, held in places by dry stone or wooden retaining walls and the complex system of irrigation channels leading down from mount Rakaposi or Ultar are testimony to the skilled labour of the locals who are famous for their different culture, friendly nature and long lives.
While the entire Hunza Valley is breathtaking in its splendour and beauty, one of my most enduring memories of this place is watching the sunrise over the hills. And, when you devote enough time to look at the mountains, it becomes a bit chameleon -- clouding over, changing colours, cliffs turning into convex and concave according to the slant light.
At night, lights glow in this tiny isolated villages. But, the village women still do not know the use of simple electric appliances of modern age. Community hydroelectric system has been installed on torrents. The system allows only few bulbs per household. Men and women are found working together in the fields, homes or collecting woods from hills in conical wicker baskets. They are welcoming and seem to be living at peace with themselves.
The highway is also called the "Silk Road" because it approximates the trail of what was once one of the many silk, jade and spice carrying caravan trails that congregated somewhere near Xi'an, in China, and terminated in the vicinity of modern Syria on the Mediterranean sea coast. Like long lines of exploring ants, determined traders, merchants and adventures wore a path through narrow gorges, high grass sheathed valleys, across waterless deserts, around higher mountains, and over ranging rivers in pursuit of bargains.
The passage of time has not altered any of these geophysical conditions. Rest every thing in the area has changed though. The developments found their is greatest physical manifestation with the construction of the KKH, built along the path of the caravan routs of the Silk Road, a joint venture between china and Pakistan (which is why it is also called as Pakistan China Friendship Road). Work on the mammoth project, which is said to have cost one life for every kilometre of road constructed, was begun in 1966 and completed in 1982. With commissioning of the road, the entire area has been laid open to trade and tourism. The resulting progress is undoubtedly causing a great deal of visible societal change.
While regular bus service ply the KKH to Gilgit, Hunza and the Khunjerab Pass, and the route eastwards through the Indus gorge to Baltistan, four-wheel drive powerful vehicles can only negotiate many of the remaining roads dissecting the region. There are lots of rough tracks leading to off road habitats on both sides of the road. For the adventurer who wants to go beyond these to really explore the mountains there is a highly developed system of trails built up over thousand of years by the tradesman, nomads and herdsmen, all granting access to some of the most magnificent mountain scenery on earth.
Pictorial: This is Pakistan (Slide Show)
posted @ 2:05 PM,
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A Servant Leader
Dr John Fleming is married to his wife Cindy for 29 years and the father of four adult children. His background as a Medical Officer in the United States Navy laid a path for his future small business medical practice. His accomplished background as a family physician awarded him the Louisiana Family Doctor of the Year in 2007.
John Fleming has served as a Deacon, Sunday School teacher, and School Department Director at First Baptist of Minden. His medical practice, which is a small business, and several non-medical businesses that he owns provide over 500 jobs to Louisianans.
Author of "Preventing Addiction” What Parents Must Know to Immunize their Kids Against Drug and Alcohol Addiction." Fleming's call to serve others is the fuel that drives his heart to become a U.S. Congressman. Unlike many so-called politicians today, John Fleming for congress is one of the best choices.
Explore his site to learn his opinion about various issues and vote for him.
posted @ 10:27 AM,
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Education Beyound Class Rooms
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Getting Online Degree has not only become possible but it is easy now. Thanks to centers for learning like the Regis University College for Professional Studies (CPS) that they offer adults both classroom-based and online degree program choices in higher education. Regis provides convenient learning formats and options to serve adults who wish to advance in their careers, change professions, or update their knowledge and skills. Today, Regis serves more than 13,000 adult students world-wide, in the classroom and in online degree programs. The claim of CPS to fame is their faculty at that is made up of experienced practitioners with a minimum of a Master's degree, and many who hold Ph.D. degrees. Students gain first-hand knowledge of current practices and trends using a unique mixture of theory and practice. That is why their graduates excel when they get Online MBA from CPS.
posted @ 9:34 PM,
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What Color Is Your Jockstrap?
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Gil wrote, “Now I enjoy a story about projectile vomiting or chronic diarrhea as much as anyone, but I was falling off my chair while reading this outlandish collection with a new twist — stories from men.”
While reading, “Eavesdrop on Jim Benning’s phone call with a Chinese prostitute in “Lust and Translation”, spend all your money shooting off heavy weapons with Eben Strousse in “Guns and Frivolity in Cambodia”, hit on a smoking hot Argentinean with Elliott Hester in “Love and the Bad Empanada”, or fight a mob of Nepali taxi drivers with Rachel Thurston’s mother in “Mama Chihuahua, World’s fiercest Travel Partner.” Jockstrap stories include:
- Dare to kiss a woman of Elliott Hester/s dreams in Argentina.
- Qquestion Tamara Sheward’s sanity as she vacations in war-blasted Chechnya.
- Discover that adventure king Tim Cahill has a fear of freshwater lakes?
- Begin your marriage with a sick-off like Julia Weiler did in Mexico.
- Grimace with Sean Presant as you flesh is eaten by fish in Turkey.
- Hide behind Rachel Thurston’s mom as she takes on taxi drivers in India.
- Have “fried rice with crap” for luch in Thailand with Rolf-potts.
- Enjoy 900 holiday photographs from Laurie Notaro’s parents.
- Spend you cash shooting machine guns with Eben Strousse in Cambodia.
- Conquer your fear of flying with Susan Orlean and Skymall magazine.
I recommend reading What Color Is Your Jockstrap?. It just might be the perfect travel companion because it packs light, never questions your judgment, and makes you laugh.
What Color Is Your Jockstrap? Funny Men and Women Write From the Road
Edited by Jennifer L. Leo
Publisher: Travelers’ Tales
$14.95, paperback , 232 pages
Tags: Jen Leo, Jennifer L. Leo, Jen Leo's Traveler's Tales, Traveler, What Color Is Your Jockstrap?, Travel Books, Sand in My Bra, Whose Panties Are These, The Thong Also Rises, Tim Cahill, Elliott Hester, Julia Weiler, Rachel Thurston, Laurie Notaro, Travel Writing, Adventure Travel, Travel Books, Adventure Books
posted @ 11:54 PM,
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Reminiscences
In villages, people still live without assessable roads or other civic amenities of this modern age. No telephone or the Internet, even the electricity is the recent phenomenon; some are still without it. You see one village and you have seen all. This was the setting where I spent first twenty year of my life savouring the freedom of adulthood. It is where I decided what (and how) I wanted to do with life. It is where my mother, brothers and friends live. It is where I return whenever my active life allows me to. It is where I want to settle and spend my future.
My village is awe inspiring -- pollution free and quiet. Different shades and colours of waving crops and trees - solitary, in groves or avenues - beautify the landscape. The scene changes after the harvest. The air is always fresh and fragrant with the smell of earth. The only sound is singing of birds, ringing of cowbells and sighing of wind or some youth loudly singing Heer Waris Shah, Sassi Punun or Mirza Saheban at night. One sees butterflies fluttering, ladybirds creeping and squirrels jumping around. To me the place feels like a paradise.
My roots are in the village where no body seems to be in a hurry. Every time I go there, from the different cities where I happen to be living, I take small things like candies and toys for the kids of neighbours and my family in the village and they are so happy that the words cannot explain their delight. From the village I bring everything, and more than every thing I bring lot of love.
"I help my neighbours and my neighbours help me", is the philosophy of life in our village. Faith, sharing, contentment, grit, hard work and humour are few others. There are no marriage halls or other renting places. Daras (community centres where cultural diffusion takes place) are very useful 'institutions' for functions or for elders to sit and teach irreplaceable heritage of ideas to the younger generation. The learning that passed on to me in Dara turned out to be very precious: it was the legacy of the fable. Tandoor (Oven for backing bread) is still a meeting and talking place for women.
Guests of one family are shared by ever one at the time of marriage (or death). Hospitality is like one of the cultural benchmark, as villagers strongly believe that a guest comes with the blessings of Allah Almighty. Pull a hay cart into the shad, to rest, to dream. You shall be served with hookka (Hubbell-bubble), water and food. Cooing crows are still considered as a symbol for the arrival of guests in my village.
From our village, a group of seven students used to go to nearby town for attending school (and then college). Ghulam Muhammad was my buddy in the group. After completing the education, my dreams become out of control and took me on the darker roads of the life whereas Ghulam Muhammad, equipped with degree from Faisalabd Agricultural University, started progressive farming in the same village. He was a hardworking, gentleman, economically very sound and ambitious. Ghulam Mohammed's father soon started getting proposals for the marriage of his son from many wealthy landlord families of the area. But, my friend married his cousin: uneducated daughter of one of his poorest uncles and is living happily ever since. Village society is still simple, cohesive and based on similarities.
This time when I was coming back from the village, lot of people - family members, peers and neighbours - came to see me off as always. My mother had packed my vehicle with vegetables (fresh from the farm), palsies, atta (floor), and husked rice and even live chickens. Every body was advising me to consume every thing back in the city, as "they are fresh, pure, nutritious and desi". On my way back, a question kept coming in my mind: how much time this simple society will take to become complex and when will 'development' change the outlook of the villagers to life?
A cluster of memories - some overlapping, some isolated - of 'the village boy' I once was stay with me. I am a result of my childhood experiences. After having knocked on all the doors of opportunity that came in my way in life, I still cherish the memories of my village. Which is why I want to settle and spend my future in the village?
posted @ 11:40 PM,
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Marvi Love Story
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Previously, one only chewed over and thought of such far away places, or read about Thar's unusual life, of people, who sang and danced with exciting rhythm and melody, radiant colours in dress, Manik Chowkri, a beautiful and intricate design on ajraks and chadars and colours of rolling miles of desert sand. The remote area on the Southern edge of Pakistan, which is devoid of the basic infrastructure necessary for life or development, is a tourists' attraction.
Antiquity is the first message. The scenery is attractive in its own way. Goths (villages) and hills quaintly intersect the desert soil, open all around. The roads, wherever they are, swings and curves up and down. The vehicles bump up and down the roads and sandy track, giving fleeting glimpses of a rougher, more elemental existence. Villages pass by, with trees surrounding them and beautiful birds swashbuckling on the branches, like crows on a rainy day. The vegetation is reduced to the undergrowth and thorny shrubs. Cows move silently, hordes and hordes of them, jingling cowbells around their necks, and doves flutter in front of the moving vehicles, which may be struggling in the fourth gears. Fine waves of sand with bright silvery particles sparkle in the sunlight.
Sea was here in the past but it has now moved further south. That is why one still finds salt lakes along the roads. People of the area get the salt for their consumption from these lakes. Small mounds of salt are seen on the banks of the lakes. At places, crushers are seen working refining the salt and processing it into a powder form in the old fashion way.
British functionary Parker did so well in south-east Sindh that the district of Thar was renamed Thar Parker. But the things have not changed much since then in Thar region. The refusal can be felt everywhere. Whatever development has occurred in the other parts of the country, has bypassed Thar? The round mud dwellings with thatched conical roofs look good in photographs but may not be as comfortable to live in. Thar is supposed to be one of the most densely populated deserts in the world. If nothing else, one should remember how certain parts of the Thar had become the scene of battle during the previous wars with India. Once again it has become a political battleground these days.
Major attraction and one of the claims of the Sindh folklore to fame is the village Bhalwa where my curious sense was at its peak. Marvi -- Sindhi heroin famous for her chastity and patriotism -– lived in village. Just on the periphery of the village is a shed where it appeared that a tea stall had been set up during Marvi's melo (festival of Marvi). A few steps away is the "Marvi jo Khooh" (the well of Marvi) from where she used to provide water to her goats and sheep and where Umar Soomra had caught a glimpse of Marvi and had become so head-over-heels that he held the girl against her wishes. Lost in the magnificent stronghold, Marvi's longing for her native terrain gave birth to one of the most moving folklore of Sindh. Her tale has been immortalized by great Sindhi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. It is an integral part of our oral and folk heritage. Most Sindhi girls know all about Marvi. Ironically, Marvi is credited only with a dilapidated and poorly written sign in Sindhi and English languages.
Marvi has been treated in a manner as any other national legendary character. There is nothing inspiring about the village these days. The physical venue -- old well -- had been plastered over and totally replaced by an unmarked cemented structure, an absolutely uninspiring job. At the moment, the well is dry and no Marvi can come there and have her pitcher filled. All that is seen left of Marvi is her undying desire and ache for what is no longer there.
A mela organized here in her name has become one of the biggest social and business events in the Thar area. Local cultural committee organises the annual mela of one of the celebrated figures of Thar, with traditional zeal and enthusiasm. But the committee has no resources. Thousands of Tharis participate in the two-day mela. Scores of camels and horses are brought to the mela from various villages to take part in races. Malakhro (wrestling) also is held on the occasion. The stalls under shamyanas or in huts made of straw are set to do the business. One resident of Bhalwa said, "We Tharis realize that a nation which loses its connection with history soon loses its identity. Hence, we gather here to pay glowing tributes to Marvi, the legendary woman." Sadiq Faqir, Karim Faqir, Ustad Hussain Faqir, Yousuf Faqir, and Jeendo Khaskheli among other vocalists of Thar mesmerize the fans of the mela with their folk songs.
Further on the way from district headquarters Mithi to Nagar Parkar, Virawah is another important historic town. It used to be a seaport in the past. Remains and relics are scattered in and around this sleepy little town. But one notices the town afterwards. It begins just like any other typical dust and flies town on the roadside anywhere in remote Sindh, and it ends just as abruptly too. Before one could decide if this is the best place to explore, one is almost out of the village. The abrupt change in the landscape tells that village is left behind. Climb the nearby Karunjhar Hill and you can see landscape intersected by conical huts. At night I saw a series of lights from the hillock. Haloes of iridescent lights glowed in conical huts all around. This would be the place to come and take a look on Diwali nights when Hindu living in the area lit earthen lamps to mark the festival of lights I thought.
A segment of a wall existing there in the form of mountain of debris and some engraved stones give an ancient look in town that I photographed though the veracity of the wall's association with the past is yet to be discovered. But the site does give evidence of its distant past.
How do you people survive?" asked one of my more urban companions. "The greatest contribution of us Tharis is that against all odds we have kept the place inhabited for Pakistan," the answers came from one of the locals.
If those who are at the helm of affairs in the government have taken for granted that Thar does not occupy a significant place in the geography (and history) of the country, then they should read the Sur Marvi of the Risalo of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. For the record sack!
posted @ 10:38 AM,
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Khyber Gateway
Friday, March 14, 2008
It is 8:00 a.m. on a sunny Sunday at Peshawar cantonment. The Steam locomotive number 2216, which was built in 1916 by Kitson and Company of Leeds, UK is all set to start on yet another journey. The driver and fireman give one final inspection to the engine vitals and with a long whistle the number 2216 coupled to a tourist train pulls out of the station. Today the destination is Landi Kotal via Khyber Pass.
The train gains speed and soon passes through Peshawar localities of Notia Gate, Swati Gate and Bara Gate. Since the track is now seldom used, there are vehicles parked very close to the track. Many children run along and clap as they see the approaching train. After crossing Bara Gate the train slows down and ultimately comes to a full stop. In front of the locomotive lies the 9000 ft long runway of Peshawar International Airport. The train now waits for clearance from the airport control tower before it could move. Peshawar is the only international airport in the world where a rail track crosses the main runway. The photo to the left is the satellite image of Peshawar airport's main runway. The diagonal path crossing the runway is the Peshawar - Landi Kotal rail track. After clearance is received from the control tower, the train chugs forward.
After clearing runway the train passes through the localities of University town, Kacha Garhi and Hayatabad. The famous 1756 km long Karachi-Torkham highway N5 comes closer to the rail track and both start traveling in parallel towards Jamrud. 
Located 18 km west of Peshawar, Jamrud is the gateway to Khyber Pass. The train reaches Jamrud in a less than an hour and and after a short stop continues its journey westward into the Khyber Pass. The photo to the right shows the arrival of a tourist train at Jamrud station
While the train is slowly steaming through its 3 hour journey towards Landi Kotal, how about if we take a detour of about 150 years and cover the history of railways in Khyber. We will catch the train again as it will be entering the Landi Kotal platform around noon.
History of Khyber Pass Railway
Let us go back in time to the year 1857. The ‘Great Game’ is being played between the World powers on the chess board of central and south Asia. Russian influence is present in Afghanistan and British think there is a big possibility of Russian invasion into India. The most obvious routes for this possibility will be through Khyber or Bolan Pass. Therefore it is suggested that strategic railways be built in both of these passes to thwart any Russian invasion in to India.
The black and white photo to the left above shows a train through Khyber Pass in 1970.
In 1878, second Anglo-Afghan war (1878-1880) takes place and it makes it all the while more important to lay a railway track through western passes of India. In 1879 a reconnaissance survey is conducted with an aim to find the feasibility of laying railways through Khyber Pass. In 1880, a British engineer named Victor Bailey is entrusted for making plans for laying a meter-gauge (1000 mm) railway through Khyber Pass. Many years pass without any action on the ground. Finally the construction starts in 1905 from a place called Kacha Garhi between Peshawar and Jamrud. The track makes progress westwards and 32 km of track is laid by 1907.
The photo to the left shows an engine through sequential tunnels in Khyber Pass.
International situation changes soon and an alliance takes place between Russia and Afghanistan. Russia agrees to consider Afghanistan out of its circle of influence countries. British now considerRussia as no longer a threat as it used to be. This stops the work on Khyber Railway. In 1909, several kilometers of permanent way and bridges are uprooted from Khyber Pass and sent to other areas of India to be used there.
As it goes with the World politics, international situation changes again and the third Anglo-Afghan war of May 1919 brings life back to Khyber Pass Railway project. 
Colonel Gordon Hearn is now assigned the work to survey and recommend the best route through Khyber Pass. Until now all surveys recommended a meter gauge (1000 mm) track. Gordon Hearn proposes and demonstrates by a masterly survey that broad-gauge (1676 mm) line can be laid through the pass.
Who drove the first train in Khyber Pass?
Construction restarts in 1920 and the section from Jamrud to Landi Kotal, opens on November 3, 1925. Next day on November 4, Mrs. Victor Bailey, wife of the British engineer entrusted with the construction of Khyber Railway drives the first train through Khyber Pass. There are two stories as to why Mrs. Victor Bailey drove the first train through the pass.
- It was decided by the British government that Victor Bailey will run the inaugural train as recognition of his great work at the project but he died three months before the inauguration. His wife then honored the driving of train on her husband’s behalf.
- According to second version, as the track was being laid, the locals of the Khyber Agency did not allow the train to move on it. However, knowing the traditional respect the Pathans have for women, Victory Bailey, asked his wife to drive the first train in the Khyber Agency. It has been reported that she drew long hair so that she could be identified as a women from a distance.
On April 3, 1926 another portion of 8 km track is opened up to Landi Khana which fall just 3 km short of the actual frontier post of Torkham. The photo in sepia to the left is from April 27, 1932. It shows a tunnel on Khyber Pass railway alongwith (now highway) N5 which runs alongside the track. On December 15, 1932 the Landi Kotal to Landi Khana section of railway is closed down at the insistence of Afghan Government.
The Cost of Construction
Engineering Features of Khyber Pass Railway
The Khyber Pass railway has a ruling gradient of 3 percent between Jamrud and Landi Kotal. There is a rise of nearly 2000 feet in 34 kilometers, and a drop of 872 feet in the next 8 kilometers to Landi Khana, where in many places the gradient stiffens to 1 in 25. There are 4 reversing stations, 34 tunnels with an aggregate length of more than 4 kilometers, 92 bridges and culverts, and 4 locomotive watering stations. And during the construction, three million cubic yards of materials mainly rock, were moved in the cuttings and embankments.
Reversing Stations and Catch sidings
Reversing stations are an important feature of Khyber Railways. Since it is not easy to bend a train here due to tight space, trains switch tracks and engines change direction at the reversing station. The Khyber Railways is the last of the great railway constructions undertaken on the frontier during the British Raj. Besides reversing stations, track at numerous places is also provided with the runway train catch sidings. One such catch siding is shown in the photo on the left.
From 1947 onwards, Pakistan Railway has continued a weekly passenger service through Khyber Pass. The service runs free of charge simply as a gesture to prove to the fiercely independent tribesmen that the line, in-spite of them, is open and the Pakistan Government is the boss. The regular service in Khyber Pass stopped in 1982 due to the lack of commercial patronage.
Khyber Steam Safari Schedule for 2006
Due to axle load limitations, diesel engines cannot run on this track. Therefore Khyber Pass railway to date is served by steam locomotion only. At present a tourist train called the 'Khyber Steam Safari' is operated here by a privately owned tourist company. The train runs few times a year on scheduled days as well as it can be chartered too.
For the remaining part of 2006, Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) in collaboration with PRACS and Sehrai travels will be running the Khyber Steam Safari trains on October 1, November 5 and December 3, 2006. For reservations you can call the UAN 111-366-366. Telephone number of Sehrai travels in Peshawar is 92-91-5272084/5
Locomotives Serving the Khyber Pass Railway
As of summer 2006, Peshawar shed is maintaining 3 HGS steam engines which are used on this tourist train called the Khyber Steam Safari. All of these are in working condition (as of 2006) and their details are as follows: 
- 2-8-0 HG/S Serial # 2216 built by Kitson and Co, of Leeds UK in the year 1916
- 2-8-0 HG/S Serial # 2277 built Vulcan foundry in the year1923, and
- 2-8-0 HG/S Serial # 2306 built Vulcan foundry in the year1923.
This completes the brief history of Khyber railway. It is around noon now. Let us now go to Landi Kotal station where our train which we parted in Jamrud is arriving. The station gives a festive look. The trains in Khyber Pass run seldom now therefore many locals have showed up at the station to welcome the train. Landi Kotal station is built in a very unique fortress like architecture. There are no windows or doors on the forbidding facade facing the platform.
Distance and Altitudes on Khyber Pass Railway
Considering Peshawar Cantt as 0 km, following table gives a view of distances and altitude of different landmarks along Khyber Pass Railway.
- (0 km) Peshawar Cantt 1048 ft
- (18 km) Jamrud 1496 ft
- Bagiari 1837 ft
- Medanak (1st Reversing Station) 2086 ft
- (34 km) Chagai (2nd Reversing Station) 2270 ft
- Shahgai 2265 ft
- Kata Kushta 2799 ft
- Zintara 3114 ft
- Sultan Khel 3293 ft
- (52 km) Landi Kotal 3494 ft
- Tora Tigga (3rd Reversing Station) 2876 ft
- (60 km) Landi Khana (4th Reversing Station) 2622 ft
The photo above shows the arrival of Sunday passenger at Landi Kotal in 1975.
Chronology of Khyber Pass Railway
As an appendix, I want to give the chronology of important dates regarding Khyber Pass Railway in the following.
1857: Chairman of Scinde, Punjab and Delhi Railway Company, Mr. William Andrew proposes rail routes through Khyber and Bolan passes.
1878: Second Anglo-Afghan war takes place
1879: Sir Guilford Molesworth, an English Civil Engineer who was consulting for Indian government considered a survey of meter gauge (1000 mm) railway through Khyber Pass.
March 27, 1880: A news appears in the Morning Post newspaper announcing the construction of Khyber Pass Railways. An excerpt from the news goes like this: "After three and twenty years of apathy the necessity has been realized and now these railways are being constructed."
1880: An engineer by the name of Victor Bailey is entrusted with the actual construction of Khyber Pass railways.
1885: Another survey was conducted by Captain JRL McDonald up to Landi Kotal.
1890: Captain JRL McDonald surveys another route to Khyber Pass following the gorge of River Kabul.
1898: One more survey was conducted to lay railways through Khyber Pass.1901: Broad Gauge (1676 mm) track is completed from Peshawar to Jamrud.
1905: Work started on laying an alternate meter gauge route following River Kabul into Mullagori hills.
1907: 32 km of broad gauge track was completed from Kacha Garhi to west of Jamrud into Loi Shilman valley.
August 31, 1907: Britain and Russia decide on an accord in St Petersburg. According to this agreement Britain will not annex or occupy Afghanistan and in return Russia will not consider Afghanistan a country of influence.
1909: Kabul River Railway is abandoned as threat from Russia is considered very low.
1919: Third Anglo-Afghan war takes place. Col Gordon Hearn plans a broad gauge Khyber Pass railway from Jamrud westwards.
1920: Construction of railways restarts west of Jamrud
November 3, 1925: Khyber Pass railway is inaugurated up to Landi Kotal.
November 4, 1925: First train runs on Khyber Pass railway. Train is driven by Mrs Victor Bailey.
April 23, 1926: Khyber Pass railway is extended to Landi Khana.
1926: Tracks were laid from Landi Khana to the border post at Torkham but a train never traveled on them.
December 15, 1932: Landi Kotal to Landi Khana section is closed on requests from Afghan government.
August 14, 1947: Pakistan gets independence and a weekly Sunday service to Landi Kotal continues
1982: Regular service to Landi Kotal is suspended because of lack of commercial value.
mid 1990s: A tourist train called ‘Khyber Steam Safari’ is started by a private enterprise in collaboration with Pakistan railways. This train is still in operation as of 2006. It runs on designated days a year and can be chartered too.
Video of Khyber Steam Safari 2004
An amateur video of Khyber Steam Safari 2004 is here. Copyrights belong to the link owner.
Photo Credits
Mr. Peter Patt, Mr. Zakir Khan and Mr Rana Rashid, Dr. Roland Ziegler and Mr. Nick Lera
References
- Couplings to Khyber by P.S.A Berridge, 1968
- Hundred Years of Pakistan Railway, M.B.K Malik, 1962
- North Western Railway Time Table, November 1959
- The Imperial Way by Paul Theroux, 1985
- Andrew Grantham's page here
- Dr. Roland Ziegler’s page on Pakistan tour of 1996 here.
- Khyber Railway preservation Society of Pakistan here
- Dr Ken J Walker at here
- Mr. Rob Dickinson here
- Pakistan Railway Newsgroup here
- Illustrated Book of Steam and Rail by Colin Garratt, 2002
posted @ 12:53 PM,
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On the Edge
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Gateway to the South Asia, the Chitral valley has been center of activity since ancient times. Macedonians advanced through this region in fourth century. In 1338, Timur subdued the area on his way to the plains of Punjab. Mughal King Akbar garrisoned here in 1587 and the British in 1897 in Chakdara on Dir side of Lowari Pass. Among soldiers who served here in Chakdara then was young Winston Churchill who later became Prime Minister of Britain. So far about the past importance of the valley but the little hamlet got the international fame during Soviet occupation in Afghanistan. It remained in the news and was commonly called as 'BBC Baby'.
Arrandu is set up on the bank of Kunar River flowing into Afghanistan. Terraced fields of wheat, barley, maize and fragrant orchards of walnuts, apricots, grapes, apples and mulberries are strung up the valley like flags, at the feet of bare or thinly forested mountain walls.
The 3118-meter Lowari Pass is normally open to vehicles from June to October. One can sometime cross the pass on foot in May or November, despite the snow. One can also reach this small hamlet from Peshawar to Chitral by air and then by road to Arrandu or from Afghanistan. Though taking flight to Chitral is not everyone's cup of tea because the Fokker Friendship can cross the Lowari Pass only if weather permits. It rarely does particularly once the valley is landlocked in winters. First time, I landed in Chitral after three attempts by Fokker. Flying above the clouds, I had a window seat on the West Side of the small and noisy aircraft and could see the sighs of Hindu Kush where clouds allowed. Chitral to Arrandu via Drosh along Kunar River is easily one of the prettiest drives in the valley.
Chitral Scouts have kept this post in a very good shape. And, when ever I happened to pass the post conducting 'travelers' from down country or alone, I was always given a warm welcome and send off by Essa Khan, a local who has the biggest store cum tea house in the village. He also has arrangements for Trout fishing in Kunar River near his store. After zig zagging on a difficult road, one can spend a good day at the riverbank fishing and relaxing, with supply of tea from the Pinion Shah's teashop. And, to me Pinion Shah used to present, every time I visited him, a gift of pure salageet (Shilajit) - an oozing black paste from rocks famous among men in this part of the world as an anti aging and sexual health. After Afghan refugees and occasional travelers, now this road is used by herd of goats lead by a lonely Gujars to and from greener pastures. That is the place, which I use as a retreat from the hustle and bustle of urban life and that is where "I go to reminisce about fairies."
While the entire Chitral Valley is breathtaking in its splendor and beauty, one of my most enduring memories of Arrandu is watching the sunrise over the hills. And, when you devote enough time to look at the mountains, it becomes a bit chameleon - clouding over, changing colors, cliffs turning into convex and concave according to the slant light.
Arrandu has red roofed grand mosque and some makeshift provision stores that are stocked in summers when Lowari Pass is open to road traffic. There is also a water mill for grinding grain. Lot of tracks interlaces the area that is frequented by Mazdas or pedestrians.
At night, lights glow in this isolated village. One finds men spending their quality time sitting on the retaining walls along the razor edged roads and tracks while women (mostly with enlarged thyroid glands due to lack of iodine) working in the fields, homes or collecting woods from hills in conical wicker baskets. Even in their fifties men carry guns along with a belt of ammunition. The fact is that I found them friendly and at peace with themselves.
There are side valleys that yawn on both sides of Kunar River for hiking in its upper reaches. Friendly people of Tajik origin who had came from Badakhshan in Afghanistan only a few generations ago, to manufacture matchlock rifles for the Mehtar of Chitral populate the area. Arrandu Road is an ideal place to study the effects of land erosion: how it ruins the land and clogs waterways. And, there are some beautiful geological formations along the road. Besides scenery, there are many well-used camping grounds on both sides of the road and river, which run side by side.
Isolated from the rest of the country because of the remote location, Chitralis live a primitive rural existence without any civic amenities. Even the TV transmissions, telephone and electricity only in some parts of distract are a recent phenomenon. "Why would anyone want to live in a country like that?" Pinion Shah smiled and said, "I guess we like it here because we like to be left alone. Oh, it is nice to have people visiting. And we like people all right. But we like them on our own terms." And, he was right. I could hear him, murmuring sitting on his old stool: a freedom that meets other people only on its own terms - and yet forces you to care about every one of your neighbors scattered across the hillocks. Most of the Chitralis whom I asked confessed, "We like and want our own way of life." That is what is keeping them there.
posted @ 11:30 AM,
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Where You Belong
Thursday, March 6, 2008
There are lessons in the first landscapes of every one's life. Mine was a vista of green paddy fields, smoking with Salt Range mist, against a setting of ribbon of River Jhelum which from distance looked like a shore of another land altogether. The rough, rugged hill range appeared uninviting against a sky withering with the morning, interrupted by the dawn's red and blue brush strokes. My first learning in life was also in the village.
In villages, people still live without assessable roads or other civic amenities of this modern age. No telephone or the Internet, even the electricity is the recent phenomenon; some are still without it. You see one village and you have seen all. This was the setting where I spent first twenty year of my life savouring the freedom of adulthood. It is where I decided what (and how) I wanted to do with life. It is where my mother, brothers and friends live. It is where I return whenever my active life allows me to. It is where I want to settle and spend my future.
My village is awe inspiring -- pollution free and quiet. Different shades and colours of waving crops and trees - solitary, in groves or avenues - beautify the landscape. The scene changes after the harvest. The air is always fresh and fragrant with the smell of earth. The only sound is singing of birds, ringing of cowbells and sighing of wind or some youth loudly singing Heer Waris Shah, Sassi Punun or Mirza Saheban at night. One sees butterflies fluttering, ladybirds creeping and squirrels jumping around. To me the place feels like a paradise.
My roots are in the village where no body seems to be in a hurry. Every time I go there, from the different cities where I happen to be living, I take small things like candies and toys for the kids of neighbours and my family in the village and they are so happy that the words cannot explain their delight. From the village I bring everything, and more than every thing I bring lot of love.
"I help my neighbours and my neighbours help me", is the philosophy of life in our village. Faith, sharing, contentment, grit, hard work and humour are few others. There are no marriage halls or other renting places. Daras (community centres where cultural diffusion takes place) are very useful 'institutions' for functions or for elders to sit and teach irreplaceable heritage of ideas to the younger generation. The learning that passed on to me in Dara turned out to be very precious: it was the legacy of the fable. Tandoor (Oven for backing bread) is still a meeting and talking place for women.
Guests of one family are shared by ever one at the time of marriage (or death). Hospitality is like one of the cultural benchmark, as villagers strongly believe that a guest comes with the blessings of Allah Almighty. Pull a hay cart into the shad, to rest, to dream. You shall be served with hookka (Hubbell-bubble), water and food. Cooing crows are still considered as a symbol for the arrival of guests in my village.
From our village, a group of seven students used to go to nearby town for attending school (and then college). Ghulam Muhammad was my buddy in the group. After completing the education, my dreams become out of control and took me on the darker roads of the life whereas Ghulam Muhammad, equipped with degree from Faisalabd Agricultural University, started progressive farming in the same village. He was a hardworking, gentleman, economically very sound and ambitious. Ghulam Mohammed's father soon started getting proposals for the marriage of his son from many wealthy landlord families of the area. But, my friend married his cousin: uneducated daughter of one of his poorest uncles and is living happily ever since. Village society is still simple, cohesive and based on similarities.
This time when I was coming back from the village, lot of people - family members, peers and neighbours - came to see me off as always. My mother had packed my vehicle with vegetables (fresh from the farm), palsies, atta (floor), and husked rice and even live chickens. Every body was advising me to consume every thing back in the city, as "they are fresh, pure, nutritious and desi". On my way back, a question kept coming in my mind: how much time this simple society will take to become complex and when will 'development' change the outlook of the villagers to life?
A cluster of memories - some overlapping, some isolated - of 'the village boy' I once was stay with me. I am a result of my childhood experiences. After having knocked on all the doors of opportunity that came in my way in life, I still cherish the memories of my village. Which is why I want to settle and spend my future in the village?
posted @ 10:07 AM,
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Fine Art of Printing
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Thanks to Wholesale Printing Direct - leaders in the evolution of print buying to a technologically advanced online system – that they have made printing easy. They offer full range of Printing Services at very affordable prices.
Their claim to fame is Cheap Brochure Printing. Marketers know the importance of a nicely printed broacher. A company broacher is one thing that represents any company and its products everywhere and that is one thing from where potential clients can form an opinion.
Wholesale Printing Direct offers quality, professional, and attractive Brochure Printing in many different types and designs. Approach them for your company brochure printing needs and they will take care of everything from conceptualizing to designing to printing a well-balanced brochure that can present your company image they way you want.
I suggest you explore their site, see what they are offering and how. Also go through what their satisfied clients say about them and depend on Wholesale Printing Direct for all your printing needs. They can do a best job for you.
posted @ 9:18 AM,
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Multan Club
Saturday, March 1, 2008
During the last fifty two years, sadly, the destruction of historic buildings, urban cultural property and distortion of historic signs have occurred at an unprecedented scale. Due to the pursuit of quick profits and inordinately large returns by a few and through the indiscriminate use of valuable urban spaces and structures, many humanizing features of our cities have been irrevocably lost.
In the garb of modernization, through the use of the dreaded bulldozer, many a valuable historic and much loved buildings have been atomised by one more anonymous multi-storey structure, our city districts, once conducive to human interaction and civilizing influence, have been converted into unfriendly, concrete jungles. A fraction of the blame for the violence, increasing brutalisation of society and diminishing respect for human values and human life -- witnessed in the last couple of decades -- must be laid at the door of today's harsh and anonymous environment of our cities. An example of the "misuse" of city space: once upon a time there were eight mango orchards within the municipal limits of Multan. Today, there is none.
But the spanking new look of the old building of Multan Services Club is one of the finest example of the heritage conservation, technical expertise of the architects and devotion of the users to keep the symbol of our past in its original shape.
The Services Club, standing in wide and lush green lawns, looks straight out of the storybook. The building is a strange combination of horizontal emphasis and curvatures: surprisingly original in style. Four sizes of domes have been used. One in the centre of the plan being the largest and the ones set between the cluster of five domes the smallest. Two domes set on the corners of front are larger than the smallest ones but smaller than the other two sizes. The domes seem to have been influenced by Buddhist stupas. Largest dome has lantern like kiosk, painted in red, in place of a pinnacle.
Amir of Bahawalpur got this edifice built in late nineteenth century as a symbol of his entry into the city of Multan. The structure originally was a classic baradari. In the well-lit and airy interior, at least two successive Amirs of Bahawalpur would have spent their time: getting the glimpse of Multan through its windows while contemplating their strategic move to consolidate their gains.
Early in the 1920s, one of the well-established Multani family owned the building before it was acquired by the British army for use as Officers Club for the new founded Multan Cantonment, the role that the building is serving till today. Only the passing years kept changing the face of this gem in the history of Multan. The British officers, oblivious of the heritage of one of the oldest living city of the world, added an ungraceful hall on one side of the building to serve as a dance chamber and bar. Moreover, repairs that took place in those days were of the makeshift type, without any attention to the conservation of the structure. Cracks were merely hidden, and dampness coated with whitewash.
In the past few decades, ground water began eating at the foundations of this splendid building. This was compounded by cracks in the domes that started collecting rainwater. Owing to these cracks, the outer walls also began to slant outward, splitting the roof of the verandahs.
After deliberate planning (series of presentations and briefings), the task of conservation was given to Mr. and Mrs. Qurashi; Lahore based architects who were then completing their assignment of Multan Arts Council. They did a fine job using original material of the building and keeping it in its actual shape as far as possible. The architects have certainly added years to the life of this historic building, which is serving as a very restful facility.
One sincerely wishes, that the Auqaf Department, Archaeology Department, city development agencies and modern developers all over the country start appreciating the importance of national heritage. Only then they can plan to conserve bits and pieces of our history we are poised to loose forever. All is not lost still. Though, this has not started happening yet.
posted @ 12:48 PM,
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What is Doodh Patti?
Tea is taken in Pakistan more than any other drink. You get a cup of tea made by boiling tealeaf (patti) in water and mixed with lots of milk (doodh) and sugar anywhere. Those who prefer more milk boil tea leafs in milk instead of water.
Doodhpatti is taken so frequently that even foreigners traveling to Pakistan know this and its taste (and ask for it). Hence the name of this blog that is showcase for some of my travel articles.
This is my cup of tea.
Pakistan
Pakistan is one of the best travel destinations in the world – desert expanses in Thar and Cholistan, Lush green plains in Punjab, mighty mountains in Northern Pakistan and Chitral, and many just to yourself places, what else. Start of the world history can still be traced down to Pakistan – Indus Civilization. Pakistan has a lot to offer to every one; not only to travelers, hard core adventurers, mountaineers, rural tourists, and vacationers but also to anthropologists, archeologists, and researchers?
