November It Is

Week 44	October 27, 2014	November 2, 2014

We have moved into the month of November but mums (Chrysanthmums) birth flowers of this month are still not there to be seen and appreciated. During the current Moharram break, we (ourselves together with Saads) came over to Lahore to be with Hasans (our eldest son and his family) where it is somewhat warmer than our farmhouse in Taxila/Khanpur and the enchanting flowers of the month are more out of season here than there. We may not therefore talk about them, as I planned to do earlier. We now have been away from our farmhouse for more than half of the week and would stay in Lahore for at least one more day while the week itself has come to an end and the deadline for floating of this blog is over and gone. We may as such try to see a bit of Lahore while we are still here. There is of course no way of doing that better than through the lense of my iPad camera, which is always on my side, wherever we go. 

2.     With Hasans in Lahore:

3.     At Bagh-e-Jinnah:

Lahore is a city of gardens as much as it is the city of grand architectures of the Mogul period. We spent one day with Saad's (Inaya and Ne'ma) and Hasan's (Eemaan and Avizheh) children at Bag-e-Jinnah, which is one of the oldest and amazingly well kept gardens right in the centre  of the city. The garden boasts very old Alstonia Scholaris trees, also known as the Devil Tree. The trees are a glabrous evergreen, native to the Indian subcontinent. They may have been planted long ago and since have acquired gigantic sizes, some 50 to 60 feet high. They have furrowed greyish trunks, oblong stalked leaves upto 6 inches long and four inches wide, dispersed in 4 to 6 whols round the stem. The trees surrounding the similarly large white palace of a building, housing a library gives a serene and exceedingly impressive look to the area adjacent to the Lahore Zoo. 

The day was well spent and the children enjoyed if not more just as much as we the adults did.

4.     At Fortress Stadium:

Before winding up the day, we went over to the nearby Fortress Stadium, which is popular open space consisting of shopping centres, restaurants, cafes and entertainment areas besides a sports stadium. The Stadium is the site of the famous ‘National Horse and Cattle Show’ which is one of the most famous festivals of Lahore, which includes a display of livestock, but also many spectacular feats of horsemanship, tent pegging, dressage, camel dancing, racing, folk dances, pomp, pageantry, mass-band displays and grand fireworks in the evening at the advent of spring each year.

5.     The Bedan Road Amritsary Sweet Shop:

This time around, our sojourn to Lahore lasted three days, which besides spending a day outdoors was also consumed in enjoying the company and hospitality of Hasans and watching (on TV) the Pakistan cricket team scoring a test series win against Australia in Dubai. The sojourn ended but not before buying Patissa (Gram Flour Mithai) from the famous Amritsari Sweet Shop on the Mall/Bedan Road intersection. This particular sweet shop is famous for a very special variety of Patissa, which is very different from any other preparation of the kind.  It comprises layers of Patissa interspersed with brittle Gond (edible gum), which makes the sweet very crisp and tasty. When ever our Nana Abba and later all our elders including my father came to Lahore they used to buy Patissa from this shop. It as such goes into the tradition of our family never to return home without Patissa from this shop.

With sweet and at that very agreeable taste of Patissa in our mouths, it is a hearty good bye to Hasans and Lahore.