The Rani’s Baoli
19 September 2016
The edifice is unpretentious. But the quality of construction is superior. So fine, in fact, that the building could only have been built for nobility. Nadia, my hostess in Palandri (Kashmir), said it was called baoli – the traditional subcontinental well with steps descending to water level – and I imagined a structure like the Mughals were so fond of building.
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| School in progress in the Rani’s Baoli. The rani’s room is in the background with the utility rooms on right |
As I was driven a few kilometres outside Palandri town, Nadia told me the building is believed to have been a watering place for the animals of passing caravans and nothing more. When we arrived, the fine architecture immediately told me that the structure was much more than what they believed it to be. Ell-shaped with the rooms fronting an open courtyard formed by a low wall on two sides, the building comprises six rooms of various sizes.
Read more »Labels: Heritage, Kashmir, Kashmir Diaries, TNS
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Baral Fort - forlorn and forsaken
07 December 2015
A rather scenic and winding tarmac road connects Palandri with Baral (pronounced Baa-Rull), 50 minutes away due south. Baral has not much to show for itself but 20 minutes south of the clump of houses there sits on a low eminence a tiny fort taking its name from the village.
A view of the exterior
Shaped like a fisted hand with a stubby thumb sticking out to one side, it is tiny — measuring no more than 40 to 50 square metres; the fisted hand being its square plan and the thumb its entrance portico. The corner turrets are octagonal and I at once recalled the forts of Muzaffarabad, Ramkot, Baghsar (near Bhimber) and Mangla — Baral and all these were apparently built from the same template.
Read more »Labels: Heritage, Kashmir, Punjab, TNS
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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My next travels through Pakistan
25 March 2013
Travel was indeed a very peaceful, enlightening experience until we became a frontline state. But let's take about two troubled provinces one at a time. That blessed land of Balochistan with its wide open spaces give such a sense of exhilarating freedom that you feel like a bird. Here, in this untrammelled, unexplored land, you make discoveries that educated you beyond your wildest dreams, far more than decades in some university. However, Balochistan did not fall foul because of the frontline misadventure. We abused the province - and this includes all of us, you me and everyone else. We are guilty because when the establishment was misgoverning this wonderful land, we all silently watched. We are guilty because we did not protest. My Baloch friends tell me I can still return to their land and travel with them and if there is trouble, they'll be the first to die for me. I trust them completely. But I joke that in that case there will be two of us dead!
Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa simply had to go that way after what we did in the 1980s. I recently learned that one Zahir Shah who was my guide in June 2003 on the trek to Pre Ghal (also Pir Ghar, Pir Ghal) is now a leading terrorist. I want to meet him, but friends in the civil service tell me that they will not risk taking me anywhere near Waziristan. It has been said that they will try to get him to come to Tank or Dera Ismail Khan for a meeting. But I don't know if that will ever happen.
Labels: Balochistan, Kashmir, Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan, Travelogue
posted by Salman Rashid @ 20:14,
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Journey into Kashmir by motorcycle
25 February 2013
The original plan was to drive east from Rawlakot all the way across the Haji Pir Pass, make a horseshoe turn and drive back to Bagh the very long way.
The attraction was a Mughal garden on the far side of Haji Pir.
Read more »Labels: Kashmir, Motorcycle Diaries
posted by Salman Rashid @ 14:51,
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