The Last of My Forefathers

History has always interested me, visiting places with historical values is a spiritual bliss. I try to take in as much as i can when visiting a place as such, when all the sight seeing and exploring is done then comes the best part. Placing myself in the time that the place represents. In this particular post, it happen to be the house of my forefathers and also the place where my father grew up. Due to family disputes and crude relations the real victim was this house, the lack of attention, the lack of maintenance and utter carelessness. Its funny when you think that people would rather spend time on petty issues rather than save something which has provided shelter and has the sentimental values that have no monetary equivalent.

What must have it been like? How did the air smell ? Who were the people that lived here? What did they do ? How were the rooms decorated? What was the original color of the paint?

Questions like these help me recreate the past and give me a chance to walk through it. I hope the images do justice.

Upon walking the street of old Lahore, Pakistan, you will come across a neighborhood that dates back to the 1930's. This neighborhood is a small city in itself. People have known each other through generations, the person living 10 houses away from you will be very well informed about your life and vice versa. There is a certain bond that is shared among the people who live here. A bond of unity, a bond of family or a bond of trust? Its hard to pin point, but the inter connectivity is very strong here.

Among these houses lies this structure of art .

Decaying but still willing to tell its story to ones who listen

Past the front door and into the history I step, when I stumble across this.

To whom does this chair belong to? What did they think of while they sat in that chair? Was there music playing on an old record player in the background? What were they going through in life as they sat there?

I go up a fleet of steps and this grabs my attention immediately !

Now my brain is riddled with questions again. Whose room was this? How did it look like in its days? I got to see some color in this room, there was a slight hint of an apple green on the walls that could barely take their own weight now.

Here is a view of the entire courtyard from the top floor, It has the element of openness and ventilation. No matter which floor you were on you could always look into the courtyard and know whats going on around the house.

Sadly these are all the pictures I could get of this beautiful historical family monument, I hope to visit back soon and get more pictures for another post. But i shall leave you with this. ...