I can visit Lahore a hundred times and never tire of visiting its monuments and landmarks (hello Shahi Qila!). I have to admit though that of all previous visits this will stand out as particularly special.
For starters, it was a very damp endeavour.
Damp is actually a gross misstatement. It was a sopping wet sightseeing trip. We did Lahore Fort in unparalleled humidity that sweat-glued our kameezes to our backs. I usually perspire this freely on 5 mile runs in Sahara temps but there we were admiring Ahaata e Jahangiri and Sheesh Mahal and the Deewaans at a sedate pace while every mineral and trace element was leaving our bodies in a river of salt. By the time we got to the Feelpaa (elephant steps), I was in complete accord with Mughal emperors and their ranis who saw out the hot weather from the summer palace beneath the Fort. I too, wanted to retire to opulent coolness, borne on a howdah-ed elephant, preferably attended by an entourage of eunuchs who would have plied their fans with single-minded ferocity lest an errant drop of sweat bead my royal brow….ah yes, yes, Malika e Jahan will absolutely take another goblet of chilled arq e angoori…
Sigh. We proceeded in our personal puddles of bodily fluids to visit Shaair e Mashriq Allama Iqbal and then the Badshahi Mosque in all its red sandstone splendor. And then the rain came.
It started as a cool welcome relief that was pleasant to stroll in but soon turned into the kind of downpour that wrathful teeth-gnashing gods think is fun punishment. By the time we reached the parking lot, Malika e Jahan and her niece felt like “chai main doobay huway biscuit.” The niece is given to misplaced levity and unfortunate metaphors.
At least we weren’t sweating anymore. So what if we were receiving an unscheduled second shower of the day that threatened to bring on Noah’s flood? It is saavan bhaadon and Lahore!❣ Except our fully-clothed dunking was making our clothes transparent and we would rather not feature as the main attraction on Lahore streets. So glad we had our heavier khuli chaadars. A day may come when Malika e Jahan and her niece enact raindances from Bollywood B movies with wild abandon…this was not that day. After wringing out the ends of our kameezes – no joke, we were dripping water – we got in the car. The niece wondered if we should go home. I am not up for a repeat telecast of such sightseeing for tomorrow. We will get her bucket list done TODAY even if we drown in the process. Next stop: Masjid Wazir Khan.
The only way to keep your sanity when navigating traffic in a rainy Lahore is to pretend your car is a gondola, your driver the gondolier and Lahore’s roads an intricate watercourse that will not test one’s depth perception. We followed the tributaries to androon shehr and passed kids bathing roadside in the muddy water mixed with trash. The narrow alleyways were choked.
The rain, the ride, everything was worth it just to see the niece’s face when she enters Wazir Khan mosque for the first time. The slow widening of her beautiful bright eyes, the gradual dawning of a wonderstruck smile…It’s not “grand” like Badshahi but there is an arresting oldworldly-ruin gravitas that clings to it. It holds me every time I visit it.
We can’t get to Shahi Hammam. The road is virtually impassable in the rain and traffic. The time of day is such that Malika e Jahan has started thinking with her stomach. Come child, we must away, say I with rumbling tummy. On the way back we pass by Data Darbar and Bibi Paak Daman but don’t get off. This is as much of Lahore as I can handle in such weather. The roads have been replaced with rapids. I’m thinking dry clothes, warm food, hot tea…
I have seen Lahore sights many times and I will see Lahore sights for many more times to come but this wet, rainy sightseeing trip with my niece will always count as one of the most memorable.
Zakia R. Khwaja
