Visited India & Pakistan Part - V: A Journey back to Roots

Los Angeles/Apr 29, 2024
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/A.Gary Singh

After spending a few days in Lahore and visiting some of the Sikh Gurdwaras in the area it was time to move out to Islamabad and its neighboring city Rawalpindi. After having breakfast, we set out from Lahore to visit both of these cities and other historical places in the area. The motorway (highway) to both cities is excellent. That made our five-hour journey to be quite pleasant and comfortable. Along the way, we saw a lot of large gardens laden with fruit. Also, it was great to see rest areas along the way. These rest areas had not only good washrooms but also decent shopping facilities and restaurants. At one of the rest areas we were pleased to see a tea stall selling almost twenty different varieties of tea. As we got closer to Islamabad, hills and mountains came into sight. The scenery along the entire route was also very pleasing. Finally, after couple of stops along the way and five hours drive, we arrived at our hotel in Rawalpindi.

Both Islamabad and Rawalpindi are beautiful cities. Islamabad, being the capital city of Pakistan, is quite a modern city with wide roads and lots of facilities. However, its neighbour Rawalpindi has a lot of history behind it. After enjoying a delicious dinner, we retired into our rooms for the night. Next morning, after having breakfast, we left quite early for Hasn Abdal, home of the Panja Sahib Gurdwara. The motorway from Islamabad to Hasan Abdal and on to Peshawar is also in very good shape. Between Islamabad and Peshawar lies the historic Indus Valley. This is the area. that reminds one of various foreign invaders who came through to loot and massacre innocent people of Punjab in particular and  India in general. Names like Alexander the Great, Mahmood Gaznavi, Mohammad Gauri and Babur etc. jump out. This area is also the cradle of ancient civilizations like Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. This area was also home to one of India’s ancient and prominent universities , Taxila. Also, this was the area ruled by Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Soon, we were in Hasan Abdal, paying our respects at Gurwara Panja Sahib. The Gurdwara management and volunteers gave us a very warm welcome and showed us around. The water coming from the spring on the hillside was very tasty. The Gurdwara has been kept in a very good shape by the management. All of us were very pleased to fit our hands (panjas) into the Panja carved in stone at this Gurdwara. Aimnabad and Peshawar are close by. Aimnabad is the same town where Guru Nanak ji was staying after his trip to the Middle East. It was the same time when Mughal ruler Babar had commenced his invasion of India and happened to be in Aimnabad. There was lot of bloodshed on the streets of Aimnabad. It was here that Guru ji called Babar , a jabar (Butcher) . After paying our obeisance at this Gurdwara and having langar we headed back to Taxila.

Taxila was a very prominent ancient university. Like the Nalanda University in Bihar, Taxila played a very important role in producing many prominent scholars. My wife Baldev and I had the honour of visiting Nalanda University a few years ago.  To its credit, the Archeological Survey of India has been doing an excellent job in restoring Nalanda university to its original form. However, in Taxila’s case, the government has collected all of the relevant artifacts, historical documents and other paraphernalia and placed it in a very impressive museum in Taxila. We were pleased to visit this museum on our way back to Rawalpindi. The chief curator of the museum was very kind to welcome us and share with us the history and other information about the Taxila university, the Archeological Museum, and Ancient Buddhist Monuments of Taxila, the Indus Velley civilization, and a lot more.  It made our trip very productive.

Balwant Sanghera
(Balwant Sanghera is a retired School Psychologist and Community Activist. He has just returned from a trip to India and Pakistan)