Owais Mughal
These photos are all from the daily Dawn and were posted there in the past two to three weeks. Each photograph is a story in itself and we would love to hear your comments or titles for them.
(1) This photo is from Lahore. A monkey; unable to find one of his own specie; is seen busy collecting lice from his master’s head. This photo reminds me of the sher:
teray zanoo pe meiN sar rakh kar abhi sota hooN
inqalaab aaye to mujh ko bhi jagaana saaqi
(2) A physcally challenged person on a roller-board in Rawalpindi is seen here taking a free tow from a suzuki pickup. A title sher that comes to mind will work fine here if the word ghoRa is replaced by Suzuki and the word nathia is replaced by steering:
kis cheez ki kami hai khwaja teri gali meiN
ghoRa teri gali meiN, nathia teri gali meiN
(3) Rani Kot fort in Sindh. Some contrator hired by the archeology department has criminally used portland cement plaster while restoring a domed room to its original era. We had a similar post earlier here, when modern day mortar reportedly got used to preserve buddha era stupas. A title sher that comes to mind could be:
pooch beTha hooN meiN tujh se teray koochay ka pata
teray halaat ne kaisi ye teri soorat kar di
One more for the above photo could be:
hazaar baar zamaana idhar se guzra hai
nayee nayee si hai kuch os ki rah-guzar phir bhi
(4) The King Maker MNA and the minsiter of railways having dessert from the same plate. In Urdu we call it baahum sheer-o-shakar hona. This photo also reminds me of a couplet by Rafiq Mughal (not my relative) who recited it in a mushaira in Hyderabad some 5 years ago:
hum bhi kash jalali hotay
beNgan hotay thaali hotay
haath kabhi na khali hotay
Chaudhry ya Jamali hotay
[…] We had an earlier post on Ranikot here. S.A.J Shirazi now brings a very detailed historical post for ATP about this great fort. Clicking on photos will take you to their source and larger image sizes. […]
About the third photo; The restoration work on Rani Kot fort has been stopped since last week after people demonstrated against the contractor and their substandard practise of restoring historical heritage. The photo of people demonstration infront of a press club to save Rani Kot fort was posted on Dawn website. I forgot on which exact day. Definitely in the past two weeks.
Dear Reader. thanks for pointing out ‘toe’. I’ve corrected my mistake
A free toe? I sure hope he can get any other missing body parts as well. Or maybe you meant ‘tow’?
Dear Malvolio. thanks and I stay corrected. I will change the text in my article accordingly. I am also partly right because the cement I meant in my write-up was the Portland type and its use started in 1800-1825 A.D.