Nankana Sahib and Harrapa

1. Nankana Sahib: Nankana Sahib is the birthplace of Guru Nanak the founder of the Sikh faith. It is situated in the district of Nankana in Punjab province and is around 2 hours drive from Faisalabad. In the morning of 26th September I, Anjali and our driver Imran drove to Nankana Sahib. We arrived there around 12. As this place is sacred to the Sikhs world over and many of them visit here, the entry was only after our passports were scrutinised and recorded by the security. Sikhs are a minority in Pakistan and they do face various kinds of discriminations.The place is well kept and is constantly under improvements. After visiting here we left to Harappa via Sahiwal district. We stopped on our way at the bank of the Ravi River and had our lunch of fried fish and roti.

Rajesh and Imran

Tree on which Sardar Lachhman Singh was hanged by Hindu Mahant in 1921

The Sahib 

Fish kiosk

2. Harrapa: After a long drive of almost 2 hours we reached Harappa at 5 PM. Luckily the Museum was open till 5:30 and the excavations site was open for visitors till 7 PM. We first visited the Museum that show cased artefacts from excavation from this site as well as its sister site from Mohan Jo Daro from Sindh. Along with Mohan Jo Daro, Harrapa developed a civilisation that was socially complex and advanced around 4000 to 3000 BC. These are actually the cradle of world civilisation. At that time they were already using not only earthern (fired) pots and pans but also iron and brass utensils. They had toys, jewelery, weapons and tools. The made houses of fired bricks with well, washing platforms, drains and soak pits. We can see mounds upon mounds of ancient bricks, remains of broken pots lying around. Although WWF seems taking some efforts to conserve the local unique vegetation the site as whole seems to be mostly benignly neglected with the adjoining village of Harrapa (especially its ever expanding cemetary) is not only encroaching the ancient site but also the ancient bricks are being pilfered.

An interesting event here was when we went in, I went to the ticket counter and asked for 3 tickets. The guy asked me where was I from. I told him that I was from Faisalabad and then he gave me the 3 tickets for 10 Rs each. Exactly at this time Anjali had a fancy to speak to me, while they heard a strange language, they now noticed that the lady was not covering her hair/head and also had a "tika" on her forehead. This prompted them to follow me and ask me whether I was a foreigner. I said yes. I was then requested to pay the foreign price of 200 Rs per person, which I gracefully did!

Excavated settlement

Anjali in front of one of the settlements

Walls of houses, drain, well and washing platform

Very old vegetation being conserved 

The travel back was tiring as the road was broken and we reached Faisalabad at 10:30, not a very safe time to travel through dark and desolate "dehati" roads.