MY EXPERIENCE IN DURBARS: A Story

I’m sure my story would be hilarious for most of my readers but it has some serious complications to it as well. I am or I was an inexperienced visitor to these Durbars and now I realise that this is hardly a safe place for one to visit with family and children and well I was scared out of my wits. Dangerous is the right word here. Hard to believe as it may be that any Holy place can be dangerous! But then there you go. I post this blog here to share with you my experience on my visit to the shrines and would more than welcome yours. Here it goes. As you drive down to the road of one the most famous ‘mazarz’ in Lahore, the tomb of Hazrat Syed Abul Hassan Bin Usman Bin Ali Al-Hajweri, the famous Sufi saint of Iran, located just outside the Bhati Gate, you come across a rush of people all jumping at your car speaking all the different kinds of languages that Pakistan has to offer, most of what they are trying to say you hardly understand, especially when you are trying to figure out why are all these people jumping at you?. It is hardly a pretty picture. You find yourself wondering what these people want. Surely they are here to pay homage to the people in the tombs as is their custom? As I came to learn they are here for much much more. I was there for research purposes and to confirm what I had already heard about these Shrines. The real experience however, goes far beyond what you have heard and hardly fun.
First I found it’s very important to park your car in a safe place, park it anywhere and you might find it gone. Although they have an underground parking space but it is hardly fit for use, especially if you have family. You find all kinds of people lurking in the dark behind the cars, the drug addicts are in abundance. After that you wedge your way amongst the crowd to the entrance of the Durbar. The durbar is huge and has separate entrances for the men and women. I naturally went in to the men’s entrance. Here again was a haul of people either getting I or out of the mausoleum. The inside of the shrine was thankfully free from all such hassle and was clean. Most of the dirt was outside. I tried to interview some of them but they have gotten clever over the years and too experienced in their game. They hardly gave me any answers and when they did say it was very vague but it was beyond doubt that they were drug addicts that have wasted away their lives. There was a huge haul of people at the ‘Lunger’ too. That is the place they give food to all the needy people that come. There was a huge line and people were fighting over to get to the food first. It was a pitiful site. It’s hard to believe, these shrines are meant for something else and what goes on in their name is a completely different story!