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imran

@meemainseen

5 Sep

Second Battalion The Sikh Regiment
Raja Litta Raja Ditta
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With Gibraltar infiltration tackled India decided to push and attack Bedori Bulge on Cease Fire Line dominating Uri Poonch road
'Raja' was a formidable height south of bulge
An attack on this ridge had already failed

Lt Col Khanna to his Brigade Commander, '2 Sikh will give you Raja'
On ni 5/6 Sep, his unit crossed Forward Assembly Area, twin trees named Bhai Bhai at 0300
Later into the day, at Bhai Bhai trees, Hav Ujagar Singh will hand over lifeless body of the Colonel to Battalion Hav Maj

Raja was a formidable height and Col Khanna decided to go three company up
Everything that could go wrong went wrong that night Time of attack delayed to almost first light
Artillery rounds at max range fell short of objective & assault engineers carried nothing to clear the wire

Read 12 tweets

imran

@meemainseen

31 Aug

Heroine of the City Legend
Anarkali of Lahore
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A little down south from where The Mall leaves Lower Mall, in the backdrop of Anarkali bazar is an octagonal building with a dome
Plastered in plain white (when I visited back in 2008) it did not appear to be a Mughal era edifice

Tomb of Anarkali, "Pomegranate Bud" of Akbar's darbar within the confines of Punjab Civil Secretariat was an unexpected find
In a place cluttered with archival records there was no grave, but a marble sarcophagus tucked to a side
we, dear reader, will come back to it in a moment

I visited the place having watched Shoaib Mansoor's Supreme Ishq-2 eloquently sung by Shabnam Majeed
The building lost its Mughal grandeur when the British plastered and lime painted it white converting the place into a church
this short clip narrates these transitions overtime

Read 24 tweets

imran

@meemainseen

24 Aug

*City Secret*
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Maharaja's Bloodline
A Queen's Grave on Jail Road
A Princess' Collection
and other stories

Where Jail Road meets Zafar Ali road, there in Gulberg Christian Graveyard is a tombstone in three languages
English, Urdu and Persian
A princess rests here in peace

Bamba Sofia Jindan, later Bamba Sutherland was the eldest daughter of Duleep Singh, the youngest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Sher e Punjab
Outliving all her siblings, she died on Mar 10, 1957 at Lahore and was buried in Gulberg Christian Graveyard

We have more to our story

A little south west of Thetford on the fringes of County of Suffolk, in the cemetery of Elveden Estate once owned by Duleep Singh C.C.S.I. our exiled Maharaja of Lahore now rests in peace with his wife Maharanee Bamba and younger son Edward
He breathed his last on Oct 22, 1893

Read 15 tweets

imran

@meemainseen

19 Aug

The Hidden Gem of Masti Gate
Maryam Zamani Mosque
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South-East of Lahore Fort a tiny street leads to Moti Bazar, here once stood Masti Gate
Kanahya Lal tells it's named after Masti Baloch, the for-life guard at the gate
Syed Latif differs, it's a used up form of Masjidi Gate

If we keep our heading, upon reaching Moti Bazar chowk just where the grand Akbari Gate of Lahore Fort appears on the right, there's an easy to miss entrance to what appears to be a mosque
This low profile entrance hides within its confines a gem
The Mother of all Mosques

A Persian inscription on the entrance tells us that the building was completed "under the auspices of His Majesty" and that "The founder of the edifice, the place of salvation, is Queen Maryam Zamani"
We also deduce the date of construction from the couplet 1023 AH i.e. 1614 CE

Read 10 tweets

imran

@meemainseen

17 Jul

a Sultan, a Wazir & Storytellers
A Colorful Tale of a Romance
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Mahmud, our king of Ghazna from 10th century was an ardent collector of stories, we are told
He got the wind of Saiful Muluk, the fairly tale of love
and announced a thousand dinars to anyone bringing him the story

Onsori a poet in Sultan's court was quick to pen it & claim the reward
Hasan Maymandi, the learned Wazir had objections both on quality & authenticity
Sultan then challenged his Wazir to bring him the authentic version and win an estate in Khorasan

From here diverge two versions

Hasan then dispatched his men around the globe in search of the tale who got a trace in Constantinople
Having heard the story firsthand, a copy was arranged for the Sultan
Some say money; a lot of it was paid, others hint on agreeing to the conditions set by the storyteller

Read 19 tweets

imran

@meemainseen

5 Jul

Legend of Vitāsta
Ever poetic Rājataranginī
A Saint who composed Saiful Mulūk
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In Mandala 10 of Rig Veda Hymn 75 called Nadi Stuti, 9 couplets sing to the glory of our rivers
This immersive poetry gives goosebumps to a present day reader of Vedic Hymns
meemainseen.com/2019/12/rivers/

Verse 5

इमं मे गङगे यमुने सरस्वति शुतुद्रि सतेमं सचता परुष्ण्या |
असिक्न्या मरुद्व्र्धे वितस्तयार्जीकीये शर्णुह्यासुषोमया ||

imaṃ me ghaṅghe yamune sarasvati śutudri stemaṃ sacatā paruṣṇyā |
asiknyā marudvṛdhe vitastayārjīkīye śṛṇuhyāsuṣomayā ||

Through this verse I praise you, O Ganga, Yamuna, O Sutudri, Parusni and Sarasvati
With Asikni, Vitasta, O Marudvrdha, O Arjikiya with Susoma hear my call

moving on from this couplet of typical interest, dear reader, we shall, through this thread talk a bit more about Vitāsta

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