Padamshri Surjit Pattar pens lyrics of “Attari Junction” documentary/ GREATER JAMMU/ Rashmi Talwar

Padamshri Surjit Pattar pens lyrics of “Attari Junction” documentary

Indo-Pak Last Rail Connect

Padamshri Surjit Pattar pens lyrics of “Attari Junction” documentary

Documentary to release in August to mark 76 years of Independence

Rashmi Talwar Attari – (Amritsar) 13th June 2023…..

Famed Punjabi Poet Padmashri Awardee  Dr. Surjit Pattar penned the lyrics of the upcoming documentary film “Attari Junction” based on India’s last rail connecting Attari with Pakistan on the Lahore side. Meantime it is seen over the years that a mammoth crowd of over 20,000 People visit the Wagah-Attari Border on the Indian side on average, daily, to watch the Beating Retreat Ceremony of the lowering of the flags; but, none visits Attari Railway Station, a 161-year old Heritage rich building and space that witnessed the Best and the Worst of human emotions, especially during partition and for decades later. Now it stands lonely, stupefied, and mute to the animosity between the economically disparate neighbours.

As the shooting began today, it came as no surprise -how both warring countries sitting side by side, simultaneously witnessed a common sunset. The manmade lines drawn did not dim the musical winds or the birds from crisscrossing, the melodies and drumbeats on both sides had an unhindered passage and audience beyond partitions. But the people of both countries are locked-in and are made to conjure up images of demonic forces across borders, by respective powers on both sides and the stakeholders in the continuation of this animosity.

Punjab’s eminent Author, heritage promoter, nature artist, and Director of the film- Harpreet Sandhu while talking to Greater Jammu said – “This short film will portray historical rich architecture of this 161-year old Attari Railway Station, which is a blend of Indo-Islamic and Victorian architectural styles. Its arches and ornate facades showcase an aura of grandeur and elegance of the architecture of the bygone era. Given the eyeball catcher- the Wagah Attari Retreat ceremony, this vital heritage of Railtrack has seldom been highlighted.  The Documentary film under the patronage of Sewa Sankalp Society has been scripted by Atul Tirkey, IRS Deputy Commissioner Customs, Attari. No one could do more justice to the film’s lyrics than the Internationally renowned Punjabi Poet Dr. Surjit Pattar. The film whose shooting will be wound up in three days at Attari will be released to mark the 76th year of Indo-Pak Partition”, he added.

Shooting the film “Attari Junction” –began with the clapboard Mahurat shot by MP Amritsar Gurjeet Aujla, and Deputy Commissioner Amritsar Amit Talwar, in the presence of a battery of IRS, IPS, and IAS officers.

The director further revealed  –“The film in trilingual languages are juxtaposed just as during those times. It will have the Deputy Commissioner Customs Atul Tirkey, as an actor speaking English, and I, Harpreet Sandhu, as Director, also a former Additional Advocate General, Punjab and Chairman of Punjab Infotech, would try to do justice to the film in Punjabi while retired Chief Commissioner Income Tax and Author Parneet Sachdev would be using Hindi.”

Is the purpose to only highlight heritage, even as all top officers are involved in this documentary? I asked –“We never wanted to it have a flimsy and commercial touch by bringing in famed Punjabi actors like Daljit Dosanjh. We have done a detailed script for nearly 8-months on how many kilometers was the stretch and at which times it was discontinued between the countries, the history behind it. Besides this, we looked into the outcome of this railway junction on the measurement of tourism, culture, trade exchange, and several other aspects. So I personally will not use the word that it’s a ‘big documentary’ but it is surely meaningful, compact and being made to solely highlight this 161-year old heritage of rail junction. My purpose and what I hope to achieve, is to spread awareness, about this last railway station that has witnessed the worst of Partition days. We all are putting in full effort. We have done extensive shooting of key actors playing commoners and have canned a fabulous train shot with a train arriving from Qadian to Attari. We also went up until the last gate and shot there as it was locked .” What did you do about the horses that used to gallop alongside the train on the Indian side?  No, we haven’t looked into that.  The necessary permissions for shooting the Documentary film have been obtained from various government agencies including the Northern Railway, New Delhi and Land Customs Attari, and the BSF authorities.

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 Writer’s Journey in the Samjhauta Express

In the year 2007, a land passage through the road route between India and Pakistan was denied to the Hindu Jatha to Pakistan on the occasion of the Maha-Shivratri annual celebration at Katasraj shrines in Pakistan. The Hindu and Sikh Jathas as well as Muslim Jathas to Ajmer Shrief came under the Indo-Pak Agreement of Pilgrimage to visit shrines in each other’s countries.

It was a time when a popular Pakistani actress had flouted the rules of specific city-based visas to visit Agra without a visa for the city of the Taj Mahal and was apprehended by Indian authorities. This took a toll on Pakistan over the Indian reprimand to the Pak embassy. A petulant Pakistan thus resorted to tit-for-tat retaliation denying the easy land-crossing to Indian Hindu Jatha, to divert it to the cumbersome rail journey on the rail Samjhauta Express.

Samjhauta Express was started in 1976 as a bi-weekly and was a symbol of a ‘train of emotions’ to help bridge the gap for the separated families of both countries.

So we arrived at the Attari Railway station at 8 o clock for the train of emotions, after much emotional trauma of being diverted at the last minute from the Wagah road route to the Attari rail route. The train arrived hours late. In the meantime, we explored the heritage rail station and absorbed the mechanism, of how the trains operated through an exhaustive hotline system of giving or holding back clearance to the train as per the whims and fancies of authorities of both countries. This time the special treatment of delayed clearance was reserved for the Hindu jatha. The old system of Red and Green flags to indicate stop and go were used. The bogeys were all 3^rd class and non-AC 3-tiers with iron bars on windows just like the ones before the partition of 1947.  Finally, after an exhaustive procedure of processing hundreds of cross-country travellers and loading baggage, most of us found ourselves sitting on sacks of luggage as the loaded train finally and painfully groaned out of the Attari station.     

Although overjoyed at its finally starting to move, the train journey conjured up images of the year 1947 bloodied trains during partition which reached Amritsar and Lahore with dripping blood of cut-up bodies. My attention was diverted soon as I watched horse-mounted BSF personnel galloping alongside the train on the Indian side up until the gates opened up to no man’s land, and I caught the scenes in my portable Sony camera.

The train went into a deep sleep after every 15 minutes, as if its old bones felt tired under its heavy weight. In an interview with BBC, I told the channel how a distance of 3Kms stretch between the two countries took 12 hours to cross! This fact was highlighted as the catchword in every other channel.

Just a few days later in the early hours of midnight on 19^th February 2007, a bomb blast took place in the Samjhauta Express at Chandni Bagh in Panipat Haryana India, in which 68 people were killed mostly Pakistanis. We, as the Hindu jatha of 175 people were still in Lahore after visiting Katasraj shrines in Pakistan.  I had got a little ‘Palm Plant’  packed in Lahore, as a take-back memory home to Amritsar -an emotional keepsake of the soil of Pakistan and Lahore that once was the soil of the land of my paternal grandmother and my Multan-based grandfather.

However, we were rushed before the schedule to return to India due to security issues following the Samjhauta Blast.  But I wouldn’t leave without my green plant. So while sitting on sacks again on the return, my little greenie also sat with me. My husband who waited for me at Attari railway station for nearly 4-hours before arriving at Attari was pointed out by a fellow also waiting for his mother arriving from Lahore that “People have picked up trees from Pakistan to bring to India!” My husband gaily pointed out that the person who could bring a tree from anywhere could only be Rashmi Talwar, his wife.

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We saw Hitler in person….. Met Dhyan Chand & Hockey Team in Berlin Olympics 1936 / Rashmi Talwar / The Tribune

‘We saw Hitler in person…’

This nonagenarian looks back and shares with Rashmi Talwar memorable snapshots — some historically significant and some evocative and personal

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‘We saw Hitler in person…’

This nonagenarian looks back and shares with Rashmi Talwar memorable snapshots — some historically significant and some evocative and personal

‘We saw Hitler in person…’ This nonagenarian looks back and shares with Rashmi Talwar memorable snapshots — some historically significant and some evocative and personal full of memories PICTURE P.C. Mehra I hollered ‘India, India!’ into the hooter that I had made to cheer the Indian team and watch the finest dribbling the world had ever seen of Indian hockey wizard Dhyan Chand. This was at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Our coat lapels flaunting the Indian National Congress flag (there was no Indian flag then), 25 of us Indians had the rare opportunity to watch sports history being made as India drubbed Germany 8-0,” recalls 92-year-old Parkash Chand Mehra, who was then 22. PICTURE: SIGNIFICANT CHAPTER IN HISTORY: Adolf Hitler along with other dignitaries coming down the stadium to inaugurate Berlin Olympics in 1936 “Only days earlier we had sat in the Berlin Olympics stadium, where we saw Adolf Hitler in person. We saw him descend the steps of the stadium in his military uniform and inaugurate the games. The dictator had literally made Olympics-1936 a showcase for extolling the ‘greatness’ of Germany under him. Towards this end, he instituted a torch-carrying ceremony in parts of Europe under Nazi rule. “Berlin was swamped with uniformed Germans and Nazi flags flying right next to Olympic flags. Photographs of the Fuehrer sold like hot cakes, while soldiers marched through the streets of Berlin — all this lent an unnerving feel to the place,” remembers this resident of Amritsar, whose business of dyes and chemicals took him to different countries. PICTURE: Hockey Wizard Dhyan Chand PICTURE: Indian Hockey team that defeated Germany in the Berlin Olympics in 1936 Excitedly showing rare photographs of Dhyan Chand and the then Indian hockey team clicked with his camera (Roliflex model) in Berlin’s Olympic Village, this nonagenarian said: “The visit was made possible by one Swami, manager of the Indian hockey team, who was from our Forman Christian College, Lahore. In fact, even before the Olympics, the masterful jugglery of Dhyan Chand had become legendary.” A prosperous businessman, Mehra reminiscences two highlights of the Games: Dhyan Chand’s jugglery that defeated the German team and Jesse Owen’s (a Black) impressive victory that dented Hitler’s propaganda about the ‘superior Aryan race’. Mehra, born in 1914 in Amritsar, incidentally shares his year and place of birth with Field Marshal Sam HFJ Manekshaw — who led India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war. They were classmates for a while at Hindu Sabha College. Agile and with a sharp memory, Mehra recalls the aftermath of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar in 1919. Just five years old then, he admits that he didn’t hear the booming gunshots ordered by General O’Dyer as they (Mehra’s family) lived in the congested and noisy Sirkian Bandan Bazaarwhere the sound may not have carried. However, he recollects standing near a large window and seeing men loot textile rolls and running helter-skelter. “Later, I saw troops coming to the bazaar. Our locality was agog with talk of people returning to their houses by crawling on their bellies at gunpoint. My father had left Jallianwala Bagh just 15 minutes before the firing started. A 12-year-old cousin Jai Gopal was untraceable for some time and his return brought relief.” A year later, Mehra went to DAV school, Lahore, where he used to see freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai, a strong proponent of DAV institutions, almost daily in his house opposite the school. Then one day the headlines in Urdu newspapers Vir Pratapand Milap screamed of a barbarous attack on Lalaji by SSP, Lahore, J. A. Scott, during a silent protest on October 30, 1928, to boycott the Simon Commission. Eighteen days after this assault, Lalaji succumbed to his injuries. Angered by the brutality, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev along with other freedom fighters decided to kill Scott. Recalling the assassination of JP Saunders by Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and others, Mehra reminiscences, “It was a chilly day on December 15, 1928, the last day before winter break in DAV School — where Bhagat Singh had also studied. Saunders was shot outside the police station just opposite our school. Hidden behind the boundary wall grill in DAV College, adjoining the school, they fired shots from there and then escaped. Troops surrounded the police station soon after, while some chased the shooters. Our entire hostel was searched. The next day the confusion cleared — ASP JP Saunders was killed and not SSP JA Scott.” Looking back, Mehra smiles at the recollection of the most magnificent moment when he watched the royal procession for the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London. George VI was the last to hold the title of ‘Emperor of India’ when India and Pakistan became independent. On May 12, 1937, the coronation was the first televised event in the history of Britain. Only about a handful of people could watch as the relay was limited. The live scene, however, held one spellbound. Describing the royal spectacle, Mehra said: “As I stood as part of the crowd outside Westminster Abbey in London, I saw the King and Queen ride in the Grand Gold Coach. I saw little Princess Elizabeth (the present Queen, she was 11 years old then) with Princess Margaret Rose, wearing identical gowns with flowing trains and little coronets resting delicately on their heads. The event was a spectrum of activity with a galaxy of men in military uniforms, hundreds of troops — mounted and on foot — and scores of bands playing martial tunes. The address of the new King was broadcast on radio. Days ahead, London was bathed in gossamer lights. Churches, banks, hotels, stores and private places were illuminated; gardens and parks were most enchantingly decorated. The Royal Canadian mounted Police looked bright in crimson coats, while as many as 600 Indians in turbans had come with trumpeters and drums. Ten years after this event, Mehra witnessed the trauma of Partition in his hometown Amritsar, when riots broke out. Looting and hooliganism went on unabated as rumours ruled and truth became a casualty. Hordes of refugees came across the newly created Radcliff Line. “We kept an ‘open house’ where anyone was welcome. Half a dozen families stayed with us. They related stories of the maar-kaat. My family’s flourishing raw silk business was temporarily affected.” Mehra, called Angrez by friends, talks of the holy city’s Civil Lines that literally developed before his eyes. The Thandi Khui outside the summer palace of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was ironically ‘partitioned’ between Muslims and Hindus even before Partition. They went in for separate pulleys, buckets, and glasses, but drew from the common (sanjaaha) water. Mehra’s is moved as he turns the yellowed pages of a letter in a photo-album. It has been written by a German girl, Hildegard Susmann, who he has been trying to locate for the past 50 years. This Angrez, whose fitness invites envy as he takes no pills and even walks without a walking stick, says he was in love with this German. Her family had suffered immensely during World War II. However the family — half-Jewish — carried his portrait made by Hildegard’s artist mother when they were forced to abandon their house during a bombardment in 1943. “I did not leave ‘you’ behind,” wrote Hildegard to Mehra after fleeing Germany. Family constraints made them drift apart. They met for the last time in 1957 in Rome. In a letter thereafter, she wrote: “A lovely dream, paradise on earth still lingers`85.” That was the last he heard from her. Despite the tragedy of losing his wife Kamlavati, daughter Rajeshwari and daughter-in-law Mini in quick succession — and all to cancer — Mehra prefers to stay alone but looks forward to the visits of his son Prem and his family. At the end of each day, Mehra quietly lays back on his rocking chair to listen to World Space Radio to update himself on the latest happenings in the world.

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Magnificent 180-year old Panj Mandir screams for help/ Rashmi Talwar / The Tribune SPECTRUM

Magnificent 180-year-old Panj Mandir screams for help
Rashmi Talwar

Panj Mandir in Fatehgarh Churian, Gurdaspur, is a jewel of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s reign. It is the maternal hometown of Rani Chand Kaur, wife of Kharak Singh, son of the Maharaja

Straddling streets of New York, seeing the ancient melt so smoothly; antiquated churches virtually like “flowers” amidst sky-scrapers, I was gripped by shame. The scene reminded me of our callousness towards our rich heritage in India. Where graffiti defaces marvellous frescoes, a crude nail has gouged out an eye; a paan-spit splashed red blob is the depths of apathy towards our glorious past.

Glorious Panj Mandir

If the enthralling grandeur of Amritsar’s GoldenTemple is credited to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Panj Mandir is another marvellous jewel, ingloriously unrecognised of the Maharaja’s reign. It is some 30 km from the GoldenTemple, in Fatehgarh Churian Gurdaspur, the maternal hometown of Rani Chand Kaur, wife of Kharak Singh, son of the Maharaja.

Attributed to Rani Chand Kaur, the Panj Mandir’s structure below the dome is a unique zigzag, created by precision laying of specially made bricks, inspired by Solanki architecture and Baoli art of step-creation. Indo-Mughal, Sikh architectural confluences have amalgamated in this marvellous structure with four mandirs marking four directions and a sanctum sanctorum.

The inner and outer fort-like walls and the temple entrances are studded with jharokhas in bas relief, reminiscent of Rajasthani architecture. Remarkable, rare frescoes tell stories of yore in exquisitely carved niches, so resilient as to stand bright till today. “I am too scared to step on the brick flooring as I feel my shoes may erase some traces of rich heritage”, an American’s remark disgraced me once.

Our magnificent heritage could not only be made self-sustaining but its optimum utiliSation could accrue prosperity and income. “Tourism is created with ideas and here we sit on a virtual mountain of treasure and let it be robbed or crumble,” laments an expert.

Beautiful artwork

Heritage experts believe the temple may have been built around 1830 and is thus nearly 180 years old. Much of the lower portions of frescoes is white-washed, and the present caretaker Pt. Mohinder Kumar, who religiously cleans and secures it from encroachment, may beautify it with bathroom tiles and multicolours, out of sheer ignorance. The temple’s foundations are already being dug for new housing, emerging adjacent to it.

The wealth of resplendent frescoes comprises episodes of Krishan stealing bathing gopis clothes, Yashoda Maiyya churning butter with a madhani. Frescoes also show Guru Nanak with disciples Bhai Mardana and Bala, Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh, Saraswati-Lakshmi, Radha-Krishan, Shiv-Parvati-Ganesh, Kartikeya-on-Peacock, Ganga emerging from Shiva’s locks. Vishnu reclining, with Nag-chatri in ocean, Durga Mata aloft a lion, valiant horse-rider, episodes of Narsingh, Prahlad, Baba Balaknath, Hiranyakashyap. These splendid frescoes-artifacts are facing erosion, their ruination imminent, if timely protection evades them.

Tertiary temples are devoted to Surya, Durga, Shiva and Kartikeya. Inside the sanctum sanctorum, Lord Ram with Sita, Lakshman, Bharat and Shatrughan share space with Krishna-Radha.

This combination of gods goddesses on one pedestal is rare. Dr Subhash Parihar, an expert on historical structures, comments, “People were secular, many ancient gurdwaras-temples have frescoes displaying episodes of Hindu gods-goddesses.”

The frescoes resemble Chamba’s famed Rang Mahal paintings in Pahari style, ones in Sheesh Mahal near Ramnagar, Jammu, also seen in Dera Sahib Gurdwara, Lahore and temples around Katasraj in Pakistan.

The Baradari entrance with symmetrical twin Jharokas on both sides of angular walls open to the road, are in ruins. The rampart walls are embellished with exquisite Jharokas, geometrical patterns, flowers waves, carved canopies in bas relief complete with exquisite corbels. But the outer wall is wearing, as entire area is speedily coming up with housing.

Dr Balvinder Singh HoD Guru Ram Das School of Planning in GNDUniversity, comments: “The mandir resembles Konarkin Orissa and South Indian temples. The use of Nanakshahi bricks makes it unique.”

Mandirs are conjoined by a fort-wall with steps and walk-ways throughout the terrace, are peeling. One is covered with green climber and a syntax-watertank supplying water to a tiled bathroom constructed inside the ancient complex. Locals wait for a collapse, to grab the land. There were seven mandirs, two of which were outside the main complex, of which one exists in a dilapidated condition, locked and other, erased.

Panch-mukhi lingam

A rare five-headed or Panch-mukhi lingam in the temple represents five elements, five senses, five organs, five powers and the five temples of Panj Mandir. The five heads also signify the five aspects of Shiva corresponding to five holy places in Hinduism.

Ancient sarovar

About 120 yards from Panj Mandir stands a massive sarovar alongside Talab Wala mandir, believed to be built by Rani Chand Kaur to mark the birth or dastargiri of her son Kunwar Naunihal Singh. Some say, Nanakshahi bricks used for the mandir and sarovar were brought from Lahore via a human-chain. Almost 15 feet in depth, with 10 running steps throughout, the sarovar, 225 feet by 230 feet, has arched exit-entry water-points, and lies neglected.

FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE TRIBUNE ON AUGUST 25TH 2013 

URL:http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130825/spectrum/society.htm

”DARUU” KA ‘PARSAD’ ……BABA RODE SHAH MELA

RASHMI TALWAR

Rode Village (Amritsar) March 2009

In Rome –Bacchus the God of Wine may have countless lovers, bedfellows and followers through the ages, but nothing could quite beat his craziest fans …in a tiny hamlet of India.

As spring arrives, ‘Bhoma’ also Popularly referred to as Baba Rode village, just 20 Kms from Amritsar in Punjab prepares for its annual cocktail. With huge drums some even fitted with indigenous taps and stirring ladles, to be filled with the fiery liquid to be poured in steel glasses for devotees.

Strange as it may sound, liquor finds its way as a holy offering at the ‘Samadh’ or ‘Mazar’ (tomb) of Baba Rode Shah in this tiny village. Not only, is it the only offering acceptable at the shrine but is also given as ‘Parsad’ (return offering) to devotees.

It is one of the strangest sights in the world perhaps, to watch women, children, share glasses of spirit with men in their sozzel-ed worst in a 3-day soiree from March 22 , during the Baba Rode Shah Mela (fair), as guzzlers are consumed by the spirited cocktail.

While consuming liquor is considered the ultimate sin in some religions, it hardly finds any respect in societal acceptance due to Health Issues, but flows in merriment at Mehfils, pubs, clubs or fashion parties and Page 3 dos.
However undeterred by its notoriety, the liquor has found an iota of acceptance and even ‘reverence’ during the 3–days of its unabated flow in “holy -glory”.