Sheetla Mata Mandir visit- Lahore

MY VISIT TO SHEETLA MANDIR, LAHORE

Lahore! Lahore! Saadha Lahore!(Our Lahore) Pichhe reh gaya Lahore!(Lahore that is left behind) Lahoria.ay!(Citizens of Lahore) Lahore dian Galiyan!(LANES OF LAHORE).These words kept ringing in my ears, interjected my visual survey of the environment, at times blinding my vision, and shattering my concentration. All the buildings and traffic a visual muddle left behind by car journey, amongst a potpourri of my thoughts, until Nadeem, my guide, suddenly stopped the car amongst various tonga walas, rickshaw pullers, parked motorcycles, street vendors on trolleys and squatters on the dusty pavements.

He jumped out of the car asking me to follow. Hurriedly, with camera in one hand I jostled amongst the crowd oblivious of cacophony made by bustling traffic, and halted in front of a place pronounced as Sheetla Mata ka Mandir. It is on the left side of circular road on the way to Lahori Gate from Shah Alami Gate of Lahore.

This was my first step of eagerly awaited journey to seek my roots and see places where my ancestors lived, worked, worshipped, shopped, and strolled before the cruel fate of partition, did them apart from what they loved most.

I had to train my eyes so as to locate the familiar façade of a temple and found a dilapidated structure once Famous Temple that withstood the test of times and stayed with the great city of LAV-Lahore. Even the ravaging armies of Alexander who looted and plundered it many times over, could not decimate its soul and character.

Excitedly I said first take my pictures before this vanishing façade-as if it will erode any moment into oblivion. Janaab! Mandir nu Dha ta Twade Babri Masjid de jhagde wele.(The Mandir was demolished after Babri Masjid episode of Yours(India). Said a person in Lahori Punjabi, sitting as Dwarpals(Door keepers) at the entrance of the Mandir and selling cigarettes, cool drinks and popcorns for their maintenance and livelihood. We made further inroad to the temple through an old brick lined arch that had been lowered due to raised floor level. We had to bend to cross this arch-alike we waive our way through natural cave of Mata Vaishno Devi. It appeared that Sheetla Mata found her way of teaching these inmates a lesson for ravaging her abode. They surely have to bend over many times a day, a punishment for their barbaric act.

What I saw then was another shocker. In this small cave like entrance a box (shoe box) making unit was operational. It was a mass of cardboards and small children working. There was too little a space for the people living inside, yet they guarded their own as all Mohajirs or immigrants from neighboring towns and villages of Lahore have done to possess the properties of Hindus. Too many families lived (my wild guess 100 families), not so much in squalor but within confines of a single room, niche under the staircase; on the balconies or recesses (thada). Everywhere multitude of humanity and litter, bhangaar (scrap) broken furniture, charpoys (wooden cots with jute nettings) greeted me till I reach a place once inner sanctum of the temple. My God! Where are the idols? The inner sanctum now flushed with materials- a store room perhaps- screaming for fresh air. Where is the tower (burj/shikhar) a must in all Hindu temples of Punjab? Search! Search! My camera feverishly weaving around the eroded structures looking for famous hindu structures, carved pillars, zooming in zooming out, but to no avail.

We moved around the sanctum to at least follow the parikrama(circum ambulance) route but met with same resistance a sea of humanity, filth, broken furnitures, clothlines blocking our path and cockerels floating around objecting to my presence with their "cuckudu kudu" cackling. My secret desire, to follow on the footsteps of my elders, tread on their footmarks made by constant walking around, met with no success. As tears rolled out of the corner of my eyes I dug deeper into viewfinder of my camera.

Someone suggested going to the roof top for a look at the Shikhar (Tower). As we climbed the steps several small rooms and their doors made our movement quite difficult especially with curious looking inmates coming out. On reaching the top I asked an old man who accompanied my climb upstairs. Where is the Gumbad/Shikhar (tower)? “ Kee gal karde ho Bauji ethe 60 salaan ch bande mar jaande ne te Gumbad kithe labbe ga.”( What Sir! People die in 60 years and you come searching for Tower?) Came the reply in Lahori Punjabi-can hear him in the video.

How would they know the importance of this temple in my psyche?. I have grown up watching Bauji(Grandfather Mohlan Lalji) sitting opposite Chachiji(my Grandmother maimon) inside kitchen of Motinagar reciting Matas shlokas(verses) with regret that he missed his daily chore of going to Sheetla Mata Mandir at Lahore for his Paath and Puja(Daily prayers).Lateron I was told that Idols of most Hindu Temples (around 250-300 in Pakistan) have either been looted or missing or deposited in Government Archaeological Department.

In fact Doodhwali Mata Mandir between Shah Alami and Lahori gate has somehow managed to survive (amongst 3-4 dozen Hindu temples in Pakistan survived) in its dilapidated sanctum sanctorum. Most of the other surviving temples exist in Sindh (Karachi).A recent survey has revealed that Lahore has only one Hindu temple for its over a one thousand-strong Hindu population.The Krishna Temple at Ravi Road is not visited by many because of the distance that devotees have to travel.The temple has been named after Lord Krishna, but it is famous as Kali's Temple, and therefore, followers of Lord Ram and Krishna don't want to pray there. Some groups were making an effort for a temple that would be named after Lord Ram. Met one Hindu Agarwal a business man in Lahore who said "We are Pakistanis without rights of citizenship,"

A study conducted by the Daily Times reveals that city has no place where Hindus can be cremated.