A Temple's Tale

While passing through the Tando Wali Muhammad Khan area, Hirabad, I witness a lot of modern buildings and British era buildings, but in between those structures I found a yellow temple, which has shikhara (spire) and a small umbrellaesque structure right beside it, which immediately caught my attention. Just below the spire I found a really long name of temple, i.e. Goswamiparshotam  Gir Chela Goswaminihal Gir. It was not an ordinary temple it carries really deep history.

Shiv Temple, Tando Wali Muhammad Road, Hyderabad

Goswamiparshotam Gir Chela Goswaminihal Gir Temple was initially built a way back in 1895, making it more than a century old. However, it was rebuild in 1945. When I started entering the

Entrance to the worship area

temple, I found really narrow entrance, a bit lower than a street level, and so was its ceiling. I also found an old water-tap on the left, and a small door which was leading to the small room on the right side. Just beside that door, I found a staircase which was leading to the sanctuary. When I looked up from there, I found that spire which was giving actually pleasing look, indeed it was beautiful in its own regard.

As soon as I reached inside that temple, where worshipers do worship, I found there the statue of Hanuman, according to some worshipers and caretaker, this Murti (statue) was brought here by the
worshipers, otherwise this Mandir (Temple) is Shiv Mandir, known as Shiv Shanker Mahadev Temple, and caretaker pointed at Shiva’s Murti, which was right in opposite room of Hunman’s Murti.

The door through which I entered in the room, where Shiv ling were placed, was decorated with green leaves and flowers. When I entered the room, I found the Sculpture of Bull, which is called Nandi. According to some Gurus and Scholar of Hindu religion, “Nandi was the guardian god of Kailasa, the house of Lord Shiva.”

Murti (Statue) of Hanuman Lord

This temple is being taken cared by Ashok Kumar Menghawar and by his elders. The story of Ashok and his family is too absorbing. He, his family and his elders are taking care of this temple for a while as they couldn’t leave during the partition. The rising of communalism violence in the neighborhood, forced Hindus to leave their houses and properties and homelands, and  migrate to India but Ashok’s elders couldn’t. Ashok says, “There was a sudden death in the family and the series of the other events, which actually made our elders to stay in Hyderabad. My baba was quite young when he witnessed all these.”

According to worshipers, this temple was used as an Ashram, but lately it was encroached by some organizations and agencies. Consequently, today, modern structures can be found in front of temple, what used to be the property of temple. According to some sources, the temple remained closed for a long time after the partition. Some cast and communities like, Bheel, Kolhi and Menghwar, played vital role in restoring the temple once again.

They also mentioned that after the restoration of the temple, a few high class communities (Brahmans) made an issue, that is, the lower class communities don’t have any right to own gods by themselves, because they are poor, they can’t take care of holy places.

According to the caretaker, after the few years of the reopening of temple, Auqaf, a department of the Government of Sindh, seized the ground floor of temple, later on, where an Imam of nearby Masjid opened Madarsa there, which was causing a lot of conflict between the worshipers from the both religions. According to temple worshipers, minority leaders approached them, to help them in getting out from this trouble, but unfortunately, until this day, none of those high profile ministers and minority leaders took any action on this matter.

Caretaker also told about the Satsang, a hymn session that occurs in that temple on every Monday and an annual Maha Shivratri Festival which is celebrated by every hindu community across Pakistan and beyond, and this always becomes the reason of blocking the road.

I lamented when I saw the historical heritage in such condition. This tale is not only of this temple but also of many historical buildings and other heritage sites, which are being ignored by the Government. It is important for all of us to protect these heritages, otherwise our generation would be the last generation who will be seeing these historical buildings.

Photowalk can help Cultural Heritage of Sindh getting promoted among general masses

Cultural heritage is the one of the most important aspect of society which represents the people of nation and the same goes for the Sindh Province as well. Sindh is not a new born province, it has a deep history. This land has been ruled not only by middle eastern rulers but also by the western rulers, which include Muhammad Bin Qasim, Raja Dahir and many other rulers like them have ruled over Sindh, and still there are stand some buildings and tombs and other architecture in different cities which represents those rulers and their presence in Sindh. However,due lack of interest, we are unable to take care of these, and we are losing it slowly and gradually. Journalists have written hundreds of reports until now regarding these magnificent cultural monuments, but nowadays only few people are reading about them newspapers in details.

Nowadays photography is getting trendy among the people, every 3^rd or 4^th person owns a DSLR, or any camera phone. Besidesthat, photography is also a part of Journalism-  Photo Journalism - which has hardly been taught by the Public Sector Universities in Sindh, and this can be the most important and intriguing part of Journalism, only if we work on it, because, visuals effects more than words.

Photowalk is an activity which is mostly performed by the Photographers, in which they walk through any specific area or city, to capture pictures for a purpose. This purpose can range from exhibiting architecture to any specific culture or lifestyle. In this activity, Photographers capture that specific area or city with their unique style, and exhibit it for the general public, to show them what the photographer saw there at particular area or city. Till now, more than 10 photowalks have been organized in Sindh, from which one was organized in Hyderabad, two were organized in Tharparkar and rest of them were organized in Karachi, where hundreds of photographers participated and walked through the areas of those cities, and captured the cultural heritage and architecture. They also exhibited those pictures in galleries of those cities, and invited locals and the professionals from different areas, to tell them tale of their city through those photographs. Those photographers got appreciated by the guests and by the locals for doing these efforts. But due to the lack of awareness of Photo Journalism and Photowalk, people are unable to organize such kind of walks in other culturally rich areas likeTando Muhammad Khan, Tando Fazil, Tando Jam, Shahdadpur, Achro Thar,Brahmanabad (Mansoora). Besides these, there are still more cities in interior Sindh that carry cultural architecture which really deserves to be promoted among the general masses and people should be aware of. Due to the lack of awareness of the value of those buildings and streets, we have already lost lot of buildings, which are either ruined by Land Mafia, or some of them are already illegally encroached by immigrants since the partition in 1947.

If we start spreading the awareness among our public sector institutes and Universities, regarding the importance of the subject of Photo Journalism, only thenwe can create many photographers, who can explain the real situation just in one picture to the readers visually in a more effective way, and when such journalists will go on the field, they can organize such kind of events in their hometowns and cities, and exhibit the beauty to the general masses, by explaining them the real background of that particular location, through which they have walked, and captured, and tell the tale of that cities to the general masses and create awareness about it, and tell them the value of that area as well, so that it can easily be promoted among the general masses.