Friday 2 November 2012

Amrita Sher-Gil


Through countless centuries, the women of Punjab nurtured many an art and craft with their loving hands. They embroidered phulkaris with bold floral designs bathed in golden and crimson hues, painted the mud walls of their rural homes with amazing colour combinations, drew the chowkpurna (Punjabi word for alpana or rangoli) designs on their thresholds for the well-being and prosperity of their family members as well as to welcome the visitors. They made clay pottery, toys and dolls. In short, they gave expression to their innate aesthetic urges and instincts in a hundred and one ways. Every woman was an artist and contributed to the centuries-old tradition of arts and crafts in her own way.    
                       
With the advent of the British on the Indian scene, a number of changes took place in our social milieu and economic set-up. Our traditional way of life, socio-economic-cultural set-up and values received a rude jolt.

The situation in the field of art was no less dismal. The days of traditional schools were over. The art schools set up by the British government imparted instruction that was neither related to our past nor to contemporary European art that burgeoned with the spirit of new experiments; the emphasis was solely on outdated academics. Painters not only of Punjab but all over India were wallowing in a state of utter hopelessness for lack of direction and guidance. There were two dominant schools of painting in India at that time. The Bengal school whose adherents were turning out maudlin imitations of ancient Indian styles, aiming at a kind of romantic revival of India's glorious artistic heritage and the Bombay School of Art mainly engaged in poor imitations of western academic painting. The painters of both these schools could hardly play the role of torchbearers. At such a critical period of transition, a powerful personality was needed to show the light to painters groping in the dark. Art forms were clamouring for a powerful expression. This void was filled not by a man but a woman painter of Punjab. Amrita Shergil who, soon after her arrival on the art scene, took not only Punjab but also the entire country by storm.

Amrita Shergil was not a product of Indian or Punjabi socio-cultural milieu. She was the daughter of Sardar Umrao Singh Shergil and Antoinette, a Hungarian lady endowed with considerable artistic talent. She was born in Budapest in 1913, and spent the formative years of her life in Europe. She dabbled in paint from her early childhood. Her intelligent mother detected the talent latent in her, and encouraged her to paint. She took her to Italy and Paris, the hotbeds of artistic activity and the birthplace of many a historic art movement in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Amrita had the good fortune of studying at the best art school at Paris, the Ecole des Beaux Arts, under the competent guidance of great masters. Besides, living in Paris, she had the added advantage of visiting art galleries, museums, salons, etc. She studied the works of contemporary and ancient master painters in the original.

Amrita's work done during her stay in Europe till 1934 was largely academic, consisting of still-life, nude studies, portraits and the like. Her genius was to flower only after her return to her fatherland, India. She came here not as a foreigner attracted by the 'picturesque' India, and the exotic sights and smells; she came here as an Indian in feeling and spirit and with a mind to make this land her home. Despite her training in western art, she had complete awareness of and deep respect for India's artistic traditions. When she set foot on Indian soil for the first time in November 1934, she was haunted by the faces of the unhappy and dejected, poor and starving Indians whom she saw first around Simla, then in the South and finally in Punjab, where she was to spend the last days of her life (She died in Lahore in 1942). After settling down in Simla in early 1935, she took an important decision of interpreting "the life of Indians, particularly the poor, pictorially." This, she said, she would do "with a new technique, my own technique" and "this technique though not technically Indian, in the traditional sense of the word, will yet be fundamentally Indian in spirit." These words suggest that she had a clear idea of what she was to accomplish in the near future.

 All her paintings portray incredibly thin, emaciated starving men and women. She painted the Pahari villagers whom she encountered around her Summer Hill residence in Simla, in her works captioned Hill Men and Hill Women. Then followed more works painted in the same style such as Bride's Toilet, Fruit Vendors, The Brahmachari, etc. All the figures painted by her, especially those of women, have lackluster eyes, an expression of resignation and despondency writ large on their drawn faces. Being a woman, she was naturally more interested in painting women and their activities. Since she was completely unfamiliar with their milieu, both social and family, she was fascinated by them; their cloistered shackled lives through which they moved like shadows. This mood of sorrow prevails in all her paintings.

Insofar as her achievements as a painter, rather as the first modern painter of Punjab as well as the entire nation, are concerned, Amrita had come a long way from her days in Paris. Despite her remarkable stylistic affinities with Gauguin, she was moving more and more towards an individual style of her own, that is, towards greater simplification of form and elimination of unimportant details. By 1936, she had seen the Ajanta frescoes that were to leave a deep impression on her style and colour schemes. In Fruit Vendors and Bride's Toilet, this influence is palpably discernible. Here we have the same Ajantesque simplification of physique and the same reliance on clear outime and firmly moulded form. This style marks almost all her paintings executed between 1935 and 1937. By this time, she had achieved that perfect blending of western techniques and Indian spirit, which no Indian painter had been able to achieve till then. She had laid the foundation of modern Indian art.

Then began the second and last phase of her artistic career (in 1938) that ended with her death in 1941. In the works done during this period, she moved further away from naturalistic shadows and relied more on imaginary treatment. Earlier, in Hill Women she had experimented with the use of shadows to create rounded forms; in her later works such as Red Clay Elephant there are hardly any shadows. She was endowed with an extraordinary sense of colour.

Amrita guided her contemporary painters not only by her works but also through lectures and articles in which she urged them not to cling to "traditions that were once vital, sincere and splendid and which are now merely empty formulae", nor to imitate fifth rate western art slavishly. She also told them to "break away from both and produce something vital, connected with the soil, something essentially Indian."

Amrita Shergil and her paintings created quite a stir in the field of art not only in Punjab but all over India. Many men painters came under her influence, but not a single woman painter emerged on the art scene of Punjab until the '5Os. This shows that an individual genius, with however towering a personality, cannot change society. The social set-up in Punjab remained more or less unchanged and the middle classes continued to remain culturally impoverished, due to lack of aesthetic awareness. No one, not even painters encouraged their daughters or sisters to take to painting. It needed a great deal of courage and a spirit of defiance against social norms -for women to come out of their cloistered existence and play a vital role in the field of art. This was true not only of painting or sculpture, but also of practically all forms of art - music, dance and drama. In the post-independence era, some liberal families, mainly from the affluent or upper middle class strata of society, started sending their daughters to schools.

Tuesday 28 August 2012

Kuldip Singh Kular


Dr. Kuldip Singh Kular, (born December 12, 1948 in Ludhiana, Punjab, India) is a physician and former MPP in Ontario, Canada. He represented the riding of Bramalea-Gore-Malton in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, for the Ontario Liberal Party.
Kular was born to a Sikh family in Punjab, and received a medical degree from Guru Nanak Dev University. He moved to Canada in 1974, and completed two years of residency training in paediatrics at the IWK Health Centre at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. He then worked for two years at the Canadian Armed Forces Hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia before starting a family practice in Campbellton, New Brunswick in 1978.
In 1986, Kular founded a family and sports medicine clinic in Brampton, Ontario, a city which has a large number of recent Indo-Canadian immigrants. He was also a founding member of the Northern Indian Medical and Dental Association of Canada.
In the 2003 election, Kular defeated incumbent Progressive Conservative Raminder Singh Gill by about 4000 votes in Bramalea-Gore-Malton-Springdale. He was a member of the Speaker of the Ontario Legislature’s multi-party delegation in June 2005 to the 43rd Canadian Regional Conference for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in St. John's, Newfoundland.
In the 2007 election Kular was re-elected in the newly reshaped Bramalea—Gore—Malton, defeating the closest candidate, Progressive Conservative Pam Hundal, by about 6,000 votes.
In the 2011 election he was defeated by NDP candidate Jagmeet Singh by 2,120 votes.
Dr. Kular served on the Standing Committees on Estimates, Social Policy, Regulation & Private Bills and the Select Committee on Electoral Reform through his three terms. He was parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Minister Responsible for Democratic Renewal, and to the Minister of Health and Long-Term in order by period of service.
Dr. Kular is an avid jogger and enjoys skiing, gardening and traveling.

UK former minister's daughter living life of Sikhs warrior


Spear in hand. Check. Dagger (slung over shoulder). Check. Turban. Check. Flowing white tunic. Check ... this is Uttrang Kaur Khalsa or, at least, that is the name she goes by in India where she lives in an ashram (spiritual hermitage) and begins each day at sunrise.
We know her, of course, by a rather different name and reputation. Behind the ‘warrior chic’ uniform is former It Girl Alexandra Aitken.  Complete with a bag of bananas.
It was only last year that news emerged that Miss Aitken, 32, daughter of former Tory jailbird Jonathan Aitken, had married a Sikh warrior and was converting to Sikhism. 
Not surprisingly, the revelations were greeted with bemusement and scepticism in society circles.
Apart from anything else, Miss Aitken’s nuptials were announced in Hello! magazine, hardly in keeping with Sikh traditions. 
Nor, more pertinently, was Miss Aitken’s former lifestyle which consisted mainly of falling out of nightclubs in revealing dresses and, on one memorable occasion, posing naked in GQ magazine.
Could there be a more unlikely transformation? Miss Aitken, photographed striding along an Indian country road, is staying with a sect of yoga Sikhs in the Punjab village of Bani.
The Sikh customs she has adopted could not be further removed from her old life. Miss Aitken is no longer allowed even to cut her hair and uses only a wooden comb.
The woman often seen in the company of royalty at polo matches now spends much of her time in prayer, apparently, often helping to scrub the temple floors with holy water at the end of each day. 
She is also, by all accounts, learning Punjabi and studying Sikh religious history.
Why the spear and dagger? Well, her husband, Inderjot Singh, is a so-called ‘warrior’ Sikh (or Nihang Sikh). 
However, few Sikh women carry  ceremonial weapons, still less own an iPod (in the photograph, headphones can be clearly seen tucked beneath Miss Aitken’s white-and-purple turban), which has left many in the village puzzled.
It is not the only source of intrigue.
Miss Aitken, it seems, has not be seen with Mr Singh of late and locals say he is no longer with her at the ashram. Neither did Miss Aitken attend the recent funeral of Mr Singh’s father, leading some to wonder if the couple might have split up. 
Cross-cultural marriages, after all, bring their own particular strains and difficulties.
They met at the Golden Temple of Amritsar in 2009 when Miss Aitken was on a trip to India.
Speaking about that moment in an interview last year, she recalled: ‘I was sitting on the roof of the Golden Temple at about 3am, and the most beautiful man I’d ever seen in my whole life walked in. He seemed 100 per cent man, gentle and intuitive and poetic and sensitive, but also extraordinarily strong and manly. And you don’t see many of these around. So I was like: “Oh wow!”’
Miss Aitken described falling for a devout man who spent his time helping to feed and clothe the poor. 
She painted a picture of someone so religious that, when the two were married the following year, in the temple where they had first fallen in love, dozens of holy men left their caves to attend the wedding ... Or did they?
Flashback: Alexandra Aitken before her transformation, pictured with her father, former politician, Jonathan Aitken
The truth, as ever, is more complicated. For some of Mr Singh’s friends and family have cast doubt over his religious credentials and his involvement in the devout Nihang sect.
It seems that, in fact, until his mid-20s Mr Singh used to enjoy the party lifestyle, drinking, smoking and flirting with girls.
His upbringing in the industrial city of Ludhiana was quite conventional, born to a civil servant father and a mother who was a clerk with the local electricity board. Apparently, he found religion after a trip to — of all places — Australia, where he went to college for a year.
‘When he was there he met a saint and became very religious,’ said an old friend. ‘Before that, yes, he was not so religious; he did like parties.’

Marriage: Alexandra Aitken on her wedding day when she married Inderjot Singh in India
So perhaps the former party lovers were kindred spirits in that regard? They certainly were quick to marry. Friends were informed of Miss Aitken’s new life by email, with the following subject line: ‘I am a happily married devoted mrs wife and new contact details!’
The accompanying message read: ‘Hi, heavenly friends. A very funny forgiving huge hearted saintly hero was adventurous enough to marry me! We’ll have celebrations in London and LA soon. Hope you’ll join us.’
In fact, the wedding was arranged with such haste that Miss Aitken’s parents were unable to attend, leaving them understandably upset.
They were not the only ones. While Mr Singh’s parents appear to have been happy with their son’s choice of bride, not everyone in the family shared their delight. Relatives believed Mr Singh had polluted their pure bloodline by marrying a British girl.
Either way, Alexandra Aitken’s story is an extraordinary one, even judged by the standards of her family’s colourful history. Her father, a former Cabinet minister, famously vowed in 1995 to use the ‘sword of truth’ against The Guardian when he sued the paper for libel in a row over his dealings with Saudi arms traders, but was later jailed for seven months for perjury.
At around the same time, the Aitken sisters Alexandra and her twin, Victoria, discovered that Petrina Khashoggi, supposedly the daughter of millionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, was their half-sibling. DNA tests established that she was conceived during an affair between Aitken and Soraya Khashoggi, the ex-wife of Mr Khashoggi.
Until their father’s trial — he was bankrupted by the legal costs of the libel case — the Aitken girls enjoyed the luxury of live-in staff at an imposing town house in Westminster and a home in Kent.
Their father’s fall from grace put an end to all that. Victoria embarked on a ‘career’ as a rap artist in the U.S. while Alexandra remained in London.
She attended parties, contributed to Tatler and became part of the early Noughties Sloaney set, which included Tara Palmer-Tomkinson. Aged 21, along with Petrina, she posed naked for that now famous GQ photoshoot.

Alexandra Aitken pictured at the The Times London Film Festival during her days as an It girl
Could she have imagined then that one day she would be scrubbing temple floors in the Punjab and wearing a turban?
That tortuous journey, it seems, began in 2002, with the first of her re-inventions. Miss Aitken earnestly insisted that she wanted to be a serious actress. Although she did appear in some short films, the career change failed to ignite. 
Eventually, she left London, moving to Hollywood to offer psychic readings and teach yoga.
Along the way, she had  dabbled in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Kabbalah.
Explaining her conversion to Sikhism in that newspaper interview last year, Miss Aitken said: ‘I don’t really think of Sikhism as a religion, more a path for anyone who is looking for something more spiritual.
‘We live in a computer age where life is increasingly stressful . . . people are desperately trying to find a way to relax, to escape from everything.
‘As I see it, you’ve got one of two options: you can either find a drug dealer, or you can find something that’s going to give you a natural high. Everyone is looking for something. I’ve found Sikhism.
‘But I didn’t just jump on the first bus going. I did my homework; I’ve read just about everything.’
However, she admitted: ‘Frankly, if someone had told me ten years ago, when I was living the party girl lifestyle in London, that a decade later I’d be a teetotal vegan [living in an ashram], I wouldn’t have believed them.’



Wednesday 22 August 2012

When Sikhs conquered Delhi


Nadir Shah's brutal offensives and the eight invasions by Ahmed Shah Abdali had made the Mughal Empire fragile and weak.
Sikhs had emerged as a strong and powerful force in northern India, and eventually halted Abdali's invasions. Under the leadership of Dal Khalsa chief, Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, the Sikhs refused an alliance, and instead challenged Abdali for battle.
They were anxious to avenge the killing of over 20,000 Sikhs, mostly women, children and old people, and also the destruction and desecration of the Golden Temple. Sensing defeat, Abdali called it a day, and finally returned to Afghanistan, never to come back again.
The vast area of the Indian subcontinent lying between the Indus and the Yamuna thus became free from foreign rule.

Sikhs Control Greater Punjab


With no enemy in the North, and Shah Alam II at the head of the decaying Mughal Empire at Delhi, the powerful 12 Sikh misls had a free run in increasing their influence, from the Indus to the Yamuna, seeking rakhi (tribute, protection money) from various small chiefs, nawabs and rajas.
The Marathas, after their defeat by Abdali in the third battle of Panipat in 1761, were marginalised, and the Rohillas were a spent force and the English were in the process of finding their place at Delhi.
It was easy for the Sikh misls to cross the Yamuna and make forays towards Delhi and beyond. The misls did not owe any allegiance to each other, except when the Sarbat Khalsa, through a Gurmatta, resolved to attack a common target.

Sardar Baghel Singh


Baghel Singh's Karor Singhia Misl was operating in south-east Punjab. He was a very able leader, a good political negotiator who was able to win over many adversaries to his side. The Mughals, the Marathas, the Rohillas, the Jutts and the British sought his friendship, and, above all, he was a devout Sikh; amrit prachar was his passion.
Karor Singhia was one of the strongest misls with 12,000 well trained horsemen. The combined strength under Baghel Singh, including soldiers of a few sardars who joined him, was well over 40,000.
He captured territories much beyond Delhi to include Meerut, Khurja, Aligarh,Tundla, Shikhohabad, Farrukhabad, Agra and many other rich townships around Delhi, collecting tribute and rakhi from nawabs and rajas. He captured Saharanpur and overran the Rohilla territory in April 1775.

Sikhs March Towards Delhi


In March 1776, Baghel Singh's forces gave a crushing defeat to the Mughal army near Muzaffarnagar; thus Sikhs extended their influence on the whole of the Yamuna-Gangetic doab.
Baghel Singh invaded Delhi on January 8, 1774, and captured the area up to Shahdara. The second invasion was on July 17, 1775, when the Sikhs captured the area around the present-day Pahar Ganj and Jai Singhpura. Bulk of the fighting took place where present-day New Delhi is located.
Sikhs temporarily withdrew due to shortage of supplies, but they kept the agenda of the Red Fort alive, and continued domination and intrusions into the Emperor's territory surrounding Delhi.
By early 1783, the Sikhs commenced preparations for the capture of the Red Fort.
A force of 60,000 under the leadership of Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia and Sardar Baghel Singh assembled at Ghaziabad, continuing their attacks and capturing rich towns around Delhi.
Enormous booty was collected by Sikhs, which was sent to Punjab with an escort of 20,000 soldiers. One-tenth of this booty was sent to the Golden Temple as offering to the Guru.

Sikhs Forces Capture Delhi


On March 8, the Sikhs captured Malka Ganj and Sabzi Mandi. Prince Mirza Shikoh, on orders from the Emperor, tried to stop the invaders but suffered defeat, and fled. On March 9, they captured Ajmeri Gate. There was a panic in the city; many took shelter in the fort.
Jassa Singh Ramgarhia joined the Sikh forces at the last moment with 10,000 soldiers. As many as 30,000 Sikh horsemen of Baghel Singh's army were camping at a place now known as Tees Hazari, location of the Delhi High Court.
The Sikhs attacked the Red Fort on March 11,1783. The Emperor and all his guards, in fact every one in the fort, hid themselves. The story goes that an insider informed Sikhs of a weak spot in the wall of the fort, where the soldiers made a hole by ramming it with wooden logs; the place is now named as Mori ('hole') Gate, the location of Inter State Bus terminus (ISBT).

Red Fort is Captured


The Sikhs entered the Red Fort, hoisted the kesri Nishan Sahib, and occupied the Diwan-e-aam, a key location in the fort, where the Emperor, sitting on the throne, used to have audience with the public. In a symbolic gesture, Jassa Singh Ahluwalia was made to sit on the throne, which made him the Emperor.
His old rival and his name-sake, Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, joined by some other chiefs, opposed Ahluwalia's sitting on the throne. Before the event took an ugly turn, Jassa Singh Ahluwalia gracefully vacated the throne and, thus, avoided a controversy amongst the chiefs at a critical moment.

Emperor reconciles with the Sikhs


The Emperor was quick to reconcile with the Sikhs; he offered a treaty and accepted their terms. The Emperor agreed to pay Rs 300,000 as Nazrana. The kotwali area was to remain the property of the Sikhs.
Baghel Singh was allowed to construct gurdwaras on all sites connected with Sikh history. Baghel Singh was to retain 4,000 soldiers till his task was completed; the Emperor was to pay all expenses. The Sikh army left the fort after the treaty.
The Sikhs conquered the Red Fort, but they missed a great opportunity and failed to exploit the advantage of being the strongest force.



Sunday 19 August 2012

Hero of forgotten war



Lt.Col. Abjit Singh Sekhon never approved of escort vehicles. Nor did he permit gun toting bodyguards even when he was deployed in an insurgency ridden Naga town. The infantry officer didn’t think his rank made his life more valuable. “Why should I risk their lives? They also have mothers,” he would chide his wife Kanwaljeet Kaur, or anyone who dared to suggest that he should get an escort.

Commissioned into 7 Madras, Sekhon considered himself very fortunate when he was chosen to command it. Those were turbulent times and the battalion was part of the IPKF in Sri Lanka but the Lt. Col was upbeat about his assignment. 

Soldiering was in his genes. His grandfather in the pre-independence Army was decorated with the Order of British Empire (OBE) while his father, a civil services officer, had earned the title of “Sardar Sahib” for participating in World War II.

Sekhon’s entry into the armed forces was a foregone conclusion. The tough conditions in Lanka suited him just so. On April 13, 1988 he received a tip-off about the presence of some hard core militants at Vannerikulam. He took a calculated risk, reached the unmapped area and took the LTTE militants by surprise. Leading the action, Lt. Col. Sekhon killed two Tigers, one of whom was an area leader. Again on April 21 when information came about the presence of militants at Urithirapuram, Sekhon led two platoons and got out of his vehicle to shoot down a militant. But his luck was running out. A LTTE sniper close by shot him through the chest. The man who believed in leading from the front died on the spot. Later, he was awarded Vir Chakra for his exemplary gallantry.


But the shock of his death was too much to bear for his father Gurdial Singh who passed away a year later. 

It’s been 18 years but Sekhon continues to inspire his beloved battalion, 7 Madras. Kanwaljeet says it’s the affection shown on her by the unit that gave courage to her and her two young sons during those traumatic years. “In all this time never once have they forgotten to invite me to his martyrdom anniversary. And even though it’s a Madras regiment, they hold an akhand path on this occasion.” Sekhon’s two sons, one a commercial pilot and the other a management graduate, are equally fond of their extended family. Their father would approve. The bonds of OG, he believed, are thicker than blood.

Saturday 4 August 2012

Asma Chaudhry


Asma Chaudhry is the Anchor Person OF Dunya News and hosts the famous show Insession. She has  been associated with the field of journalism for the last 10 years. She started my career as Sub Editor in Jang Group of News papers. Later on she got associated with the state television and served there as a Producer. She was the recipient of PTV Award for program Vision Pakistan in 2003. Since then, she has worked with the top rated channels of Pakistan as a Producer as well as an Anchorperson. She presented the program Parliament Cafeteria live from parliament with prominent political personalities of Pakistan, in her earlier career. As a special diplomatic correspondent she also covered the AGRA Summit, SAARC Summit, US Presidential Elections 2008 and also visited USA, UK, India, Germany, Srilanka, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh for special assignments. She also participated in IVL program arranged by state department of USA on Documentary Productions and Film Making. Currently, she is serving as a lead anchor person and hosting a popular program- In Session on Dunya News TV. Recently, She is awarded with the Best Anchor Current Affair Female Award in 2nd Pakistan Media Award. 2011

Awards


She was the recipient of PTV Award for program Vision Pakistan in 2003. Recently, she awarded with the Best Anchor Current Affair Female Award in 2nd Pakistan Media Award 2011.


Source : http://www.awaztoday.com/singleprofile/136/Asma-Chaudhry.aspx

Sunday 29 July 2012

Ayesha Omar


Ayesha Omar (born October 12, 1980) is a Pakistani actress, model, singer, former MTV Pakistan VJ and painter. She is best known for portraying the character of Khoobsurat in ARY Digital's sitcom Bulbulay.
Born on October 12, 1980, Ayesha graduated from the prestigious National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan, where she mastered the art of painting fine art. She acquired fame with two of her hit singles, "Aao" and "Koi To Ho".
Since her early days at school, Ayesha had been keen in theater and charity work. She was a president at her arts school and managed theater productions along with doing costumes and conceptual creative work. She would dedicate her summers at the Rising Sun School for special children. At the age of eight, she started hosting a show with Muneeza Hashmi called Meray Bachpan Kay Din in which she would interview celebrities about their early days.
However, it was her break in the light teen comedy Kollege Jeans that prompted her career in television. The show was directed by another NCA graduate Jawad Bashir and cast her alongside Ali Zafar and other prominent TV personalities. Soon after she was invited to host a show called Rhythm for Prime TV where she interviewed musicians from all over Pakistan including veterans like Arif Lohar and Shazia Manzoor.
She would even act with Nautanki, NCA’s drama group, even before she joined the college whence she gathered that a formal training is required. The National College of Arts (NCA) provided her every other reason to indulge into any prospect of performing arts. During her tenure at the institution she also modelled 18 fashion shows held as well as perform in seven plays with Lahore’s amateur theater groups.
In 2003, a set of paintings that Ayesha created for her final NCA thesis generated excitement and controversy when exhibited. The controversy surrounded her submission of two semi-nude self portraits, also a part of the exhibition. Asked, Ayesha would say that the Pakistani society has forgotten the integral preciousness of life and quoted that “the human body is the purest of all natural forms, it’s chaste, it’s innocent, but you have to see beyond the apparent to perceive the metaphysical.
Ayehsa Omar hosted ‘Hot Chocolate’ on ARY Zauq. She is now hosting a morning show 'Ye Waqt Hai Mera' on CNBC Pakistan and Samaa tv (Source: Wikipedia)

Friday 27 July 2012

Salima Hashmi


Salima Hashmi (Urdu: سليما حاشمى; is a PoP), Pakistani artist, cultural writer painter, and an anti-nuclear weapon activist, served for four years as professor (of arts and dance) and the head of the National College of Arts. She is the eldest daughter of one of Pakistan's most renowned poets, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, and the British-born Alys Faiz.

She represents the first generation of modern artists in Pakistan, who carry an artistic identity different from indigenous artists. Known for her condemning the Pakistan's and Indian nuclear programs, she is among one of the few Pakistani intellectuals who condemned the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan in 1998.

Family

Hashmi was born to Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Alys Faiz. She has one sister. She is a maternal cousin of Salman Taseer, the former Governor of Punjab, Pakistan. She is a cousin of the architect, Yasmin Cheema from her father's side.
She is married to Shoaib Hashmi. Her son Yasser Hashmi is in final stages of his doctrate at McGill University Canada and teaches Psychology at Lahore University Of Management Sciences. Her Nephew Adeel Hashmi is a well known young director, Actor and model in the world of media in Pakistan.

Academic career

She is currently the Dean of the School of Visual Arts & Design at the Beaconhouse National University. Salima is famous for her quick wit and ability to read and analyze artwork with effortless ease. She is a respected patron of young artists known to have the capacity to make or break a career. Formerly known as "Art-Shart", Rohtas-2 is the gallery set up by Salima Hashmi at her house in Lahore Model Town. Shoaib Hashmi, her husband, retired from a teaching position at Government College University, Lahore, and was also a popular co-star with Salima in comedy television shows in the early 1970s.

Bibliography

Salima Hashmi also authored a critically lauded book titled "Unveiling the Visible: Lives and Works of Women Artists of Pakistan" in 2001. In 2006, Salima Hashmi co-authored a book with Indian art historian Yashodhara Dalmia titled 'Memory, Metaphor, Mutations: Contemporary Art of India and Pakistan', published by Oxford University Press. Her latest work, a series of illustrations to accompany English translations of her father's poetry by her husband Shoaib Hashmi, is in process of publication.

Education

She has been the Dean at the School of Visual Arts, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. In addition, she is an activist, a painter, art educationist, writer and curator. In recent years she has been working on developing closer links with India and working towards a unity group. She was educated at the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore, the Bath Academy of Art, U.K., and the Rhode Island School of Design, USA.
In addition, Salima taught for 30 years at NCA, Pakistan’s premier art institution, and retired as its Principal. Her work has been exhibited, and she has traveled and lectured extensively all over the world. She has also curated numerous international art shows in England, Europe, the USA, Australia, Japan and India.Salima Hashmi is a recipient of The President’s Award for Pride of Performance, Pakistan.

Arts career

Salima Hashmi is one of the most well-known artists of Pakistan. Besides being an accomplished painter, she taught at Pakistan's prestigious National College of Arts (NCA) for about thirty years and served as the Principal of NCA for four years. In 1999, Salima Hashmi received Pakistan's Pride of Performance award. Today she is the Dean of School of Visual Arts at the newly established Beaconhouse National University in Lahore and she also runs her own art gallery featuring works of young artists.

Political Views

Salima Hashmi comes from a socially and politically active family. Her father was the legendary Pakistani poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, and her mother, the British-born Alys Faiz was a respected journalist and peace activist in Pakistan. One of two daughters, Salima was always active in the arts, performing in plays before taking on painting professionally.
Salima was about eight years old when Faiz Ahmed Faiz was imprisoned for his political views. She remembers visiting him in jail. Later, during the repressive years of General Zia-ul-Haq rule, Salima's father had to go into self-exile as a result of the harassment he faced by Zia's government. Therefore, Salima grew up in a politically charged atmosphere. Painting became her outlet.

Voice for Women

Zia period is considered one of Pakistan's most repressive era especially for women, implications of which are still prevalent in society today. Salima's work focuses on the suffering of women in a highly patriarchal society especially under Zia-ul-Haq's. Her paintings usually include abstract figures of women depicting their struggles. They are a reflection of Salima's thoughts and feelings regarding the political and social uncertainties under which people of Pakistan have lived.

Nuclear Tests Response

Salima deplored the nuclear test conducting by India and Pakistan in 1998. In an interview with Humsafar magazine she talked about her series People Wept at Dawn which she says is in response to the nuclear tests. Salima expressed her frustration at the India and Pakistan nuclear test by saying:
"It would be so much more fruitful if these energies could be used in producing food to eat, providing shelter, freedom from disease and education for all."
Salima Hashmi has also been active in the human rights movement since the early 80s when she was one of the founding members Women's Action Forum, an organization dedicated to promoting women's rights though it has been criticized for being limited to the elite class of Pakistan.


Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Date of Birth: February 13th, 1911 Place: Sialkot (Punjab), Pakistan Faiz's mother was Sultan Fatima. Faiz's father died in Sialkot in 1913. Faiz's father was a learned man and enjoyed the company of well-known literary persons. Wrote the biography of Amir Abdur Rehman. Faiz was therefore, born in a respectable and literary environment and was a very promising student with a religious background.  Primary Education: Started memorizing the Holy Quran at the age of four and in 1916 started his formal education in the famous school of Moulvi Ibrahim Sialkoti, and learnt Urdu, Persian and Arabic. Was admitted to the Scotch Mission High School in 1921 in Class IV. Passed his Matriculation Examination in the 1st Division from Murray College, Sialkot and during this period learnt Persian and Arabic from Allama Iqbal's teacher, Shamsul Ullama Moulvi Syed Meer Hasan.  College Education: Passed his B.A. (Honours) in Arabic from the Government College, Lahore and then M.A. in English from the same College in 1932. Passed his M.A. in Arabic in the 1st Division, from Oriental College, Lahore.  Employment: Lecturer in English at M. A. O. College, Amritsar in 1935 and then at Hailey College of Commerce, Lahore. Joined the Army as Captain in 1942 and worked in the department of Public Relations in Delhi. Was promoted to the rank of Major in 1943, and Lieut. Colonel in 1944. Resigned from The Army in 1947 and returned to Lahore, where, in 1959 appointed as Secretary, Pakistan Arts Council and worked in that capacity till 1962. Returning from London in 1964 he settled down in Karachi and was appointed as Principal, Abdullah Haroon College , Karachi. Editorship of the monthly magazine Adabe-Latif from 1947 to 1958. Worked as Editor under the Progressive Papers Ltd, of the Pakistan Times, the Urdu newspaper Imroze and the weekly Lailo-Nihar. In the 1965 war between India & Pakistan he worked in an honorary capacity in the Department of Information. Acted as Editor of the magazine Lotus in Moscow, London and Beirut.  Marriage & Children: In March 9th, arrested under Safety Act and charged in the Rawalpindi Conspiracy case, and having borne the hardships of imprisonment for four years and one month in the jails of Sargodha, Montgomery (now Sahiwal) Hyderabad and Karachi, was released on April 2nd, 1955.  
Legacy
Faiz was acknowledged long ago as the greatest Urdu poet after Iqbal. Even those who were critical of his progressive social and political beliefs could not deny him that position, although they always qualified their praise of him by regretting that such a good man should have fallen among the Communists. 
He was a keen student of various traditions of classical poetry in Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi, Arabic, Persian, and English among others and had realized at an early age that it was the content and not the form which was basic in the art of poetry, that originality had little to do with formal experimentation and was primarily a matter of a profound understanding of human existence in its totality and wholeness. 
His Critical essays, written mostly during his formative years, are a testimony to the fact that he had arrived at, and formulated clearly the essential elements of the poetics necessary for our age, the age of the masses. 
Iqbal had sung poems of glory to the fact of revolution and given out a clarion call to the people to rise up against the master-classes and tyrants. Faiz, having joined the people in their rebellion, and having adopted the collective cause as a poet of the revolution, made the transformation of the individual human being and his passage through the infinite variety of situations and moods in this process, the subject of his poetry. He is concerned, above all, with the experience of the individual human soul in the long and arduous journey of revolutionary struggle. 
And yet love is the leit motif of his poetry. Faiz is one of the great lyricists who seems, from one point of view, to have sung of nothing with greater passion than love. 
Faiz takes Ghalib's plea for a deeply philosophical coordination of the poetic profession as his premise to refute the arguments of the aesthetes of his time for whom poetry was merely peripheral activity. But he goes further and comments that Ghalib's definition of creative vision is incomplete, because the poet is not only required to see the ocean in the drop, but also has to show it to others. 
That is why, apart from being a great revolutionary poet, he was a great love poet, and there was no distinction between the two, love and revolution had become identical in him. 


Publications

• Naqshe Faryadi, 1941
• Daste Saba, 1953
• Zindan Nama, 1956
• Mizan, a collection of literary articles,1956
• Daste-Tahe-Sang, 1965
• Sare-Wadiye Seena, 1971
• Shame-Shehr Yaran, 1979
• Merey Dil Merey Musafar, 1981
• Nuskha-Hai-Wafa, 1984
• Pakistani Culture, Urdu & English

Guru Nanak


Guru Nanak Dev
(1469 to 1539)


Full Name :Nanak Dev
Personal Details
Birth :On Saturday 15 April 1469 at Rai Bhoeki Talwandi, Pakistan (Nankana Sahib)
Guruship :1469 to 1539
Joti Jot :On Monday 22 September, 1539at Kartarpur
Family
Parents :Mehta Kalu and Mata Tripta Devi
Brother/Sisters :Sister Bebe Nanki
Spouse :Mata Sulakhani
Children :Sri chand and Lakhmi Das
Other Details
Bani in GGS:974 Shabads in 19 Ragas,Gurbani Includes Japji, Sidh Gohst, Sohilaa, Dakhni Onkar,Asa di Var, Patti, Bara Mah
Other Info:Four Udasis
Guru Nanak (Gurmukhi: ਗ੝ਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ) (Saturday 15 April 1469 - Monday 22 September, 1539), the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Gurus of the Sikhs, was born in the village of Talwandi.
Also called Rai Bhoe-ki Talwandi, the village now known as Nankana Sahib, is near Lahore in present-day Pakistan. He was born, according to all ancient Sikh records, in the early morning of the third day of the light half of the month of Baisakh (April - May) in the year 1469; this is believed to be Saturday 15 April 1469. However, the Sikhs now celebrate this auspicious event each year on the full moon day in November; consequently, the date in November changes from one year to another. See
Before Guru Nanak departed for his heavenly abode in 1539, his name had travelled not only throughout India's north, south, east and west, but also far beyond into Arabia, Mesopotamia (Iraq), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Afghanistan, Turkey, Burma and Tibet. As Guru's Birth Anniversary (also called "Guru Nanak Jayanti") is lunar linked, it celebrated on the full moon in November. The event was celebrated on 15 November in 2005; 5 November in 2006; 24 November in 2007; 13 November in 2008; and will be celebrated on 2 November 2009, 21 November 2010, 10 November 2011 28 November 2012, 17 November 2013 6 November 2014, 25 November 2015, 14 November 2016, 4 November 2017, 23 November 2018, 12 November 2019 and 30 November 2020.
The name "Nanak" was used by all subsequent Gurus who wrote any sacred text in the Sikh holy scripture called the Guru Granth Sahib. So the second Sikh Guru, Guru Angad is also called the "Second Nanak" or "Nanak II". It is believed by the Sikhs that all subsequent Gurus carried the same message as that of Guru Nanak and so they have used the name "Nanak" in their holy text instead of their own name and hence are all referred to as the "Light of Nanak."
Guru Nanak also called Satguru Nanak, Baba Nanak, Nanak Shah Faqir, Bhagat Nanak, Nanak Kalandar etc. by different people of religions and Cults.

Bhai Gurdas ji's summary


ਸ੝ਣੀ ਪ੝ਕਾਰ ਦਾਤਾਰ ਪ੝ਰਭ੝ ਗ੝ਰ੝ ਨਾਨਕ ਜਗ ਮਾਹਿ ਪਠਾਇਆ || ਚਰਨ ਧੋਇ ਰਹਰਾਸਿ ਕਰਿ ਚਰਣਾਮ੝ਰਿਤ ਸਿੱਖਾਂ ਪੀਲਾਇਆ || 

ਪਾਰਬ੝ਰਹਮ ਪੂਰਨ ਬ੝ਰਹਮ ਕਲਿਜ੝ਗ ਅੰਦਰ ਇਕ ਦਿਖਾਇਆ || ਚਾਰੇ ਪੈਰ ਧਰਮ ਦੇ ਚਾਰਿ ਵਰਨ ਇਕ ਵਰਨ੝ ਕਰਾਇਆ || 

ਰਾਣਾ ਰੰਕ ਬਰਾਬਰੀ ਪੈਰੀ ਪਵਣਾ ਜਗਿ ਵਰਤਾਇਆ | ਉਲਟਾ ਖੇਲ੝ ਪਿਰੰਮ ਦਾ ਪੈਰਾਂ ਉਪਰਿ ਸੀਸ ਨਿਵਾਇਆ || 

ਕਲਿਜ੝ਗ ਬਾਬੇ ਤਾਰਿਆ ਸਤਿਨਾਮ੝ ਪੜ੝ਹਿ ਮੰਤ੝ਰ ਸ੝ਣਾਇਆ || ਕਲਿ ਤਾਰਣਿ ਗ੝ਰ੝ ਨਾਨਕ ਆਇਆ ||੨੩|| ਵਾਰ ੧ || 


The Provider Lord listened to the cries, Guru Nanak descended into this world. 
Washing His feet and praising God, he got his Sikhs to drink the ambrosial nectar. 
In this Dark Age, he showed all gods to be just one. 
The four feet of Dharma, the four castes were converted into one. 
Equality of the King and beggar, he spread the custom of being humble. 
Reversed is the game of the beloved; the egotist high heads bowed to the feet. 
Baba Nanak rescued this Dark Age; read ‘satnam’ and recited the mantar. 
Guru Nanak came to redeem this Dark Age of Kaljug. Bhai Gurdas - Vaar 1 pauri 23

His path


It was a dark and moonless night; the clouds were heavy with rain as it was the monsoon season. Suddenly lightning flashed and thunder sounded as a few raindrops started to fall. The village was asleep. Only Nanak was awake and the echo of his song filled the air.

Nanak’s mother was worried because it was pitch dark and day break was far away. The lamp in his room was burning. She could hear his melodious voice as he sang, restraining herself no longer she knocked at his door. “Go to sleep, my son, the sun is a long way ahead.” Nanak became silent. From the darkness sounded the call of the sparrow-hawk. “Piyu, piyu, piyu!” it called.

“Listen, mother!” Nanak called out. “The sparrow-hawk is calling to his beloved; how can I be silent, because I am competing with it? I will call my beloved before he calls his – even for longer because his beloved is nearby, perhaps in the next tree! My beloved is so far away. I will have to sing for lives upon lives before my voice reaches Him.” Nanak resumed his song.



Guru Nanak’s path was, is and will ever remain decorated with endless rows of true flowers; he realised God by singing virtues of God and following a life of true deeds. Guru Nanak did not practise normal Hindu austerities, meditation or yoga; he only sang in the beautiful poetic forms of the time. Singing, often extemporaneously, with all his heart and soul, so much so that his singing became his meditation, his purification and his yugam (yoking ones self to the almighty, to Satguru. This was Nanak’s path; decorated with true flowers of song, songs of glory and praise of the Almighty Lord.
Whatever he has said was said in verse straight from GOD. His blissful and mesmerizing songs are not those of an ordinary singer; they have sprung from within one who has known. There is the ring of truth, the reflection of God within them. It is these songs, songs of love and expressions of truthfulness and worship, along with the songs of Guru Nanak's nine successors, that form the eternal Guru of the Sikhs, the Guru Granth Sahib.

Background



His father was Kalayan Das Mehta, also known as Mehta Kalu, and his mother was Mata Tripta ji. They were Hindus belonging to the Vedic Kshatri (Khatri) caste. Guru ji had an older sister called Bebey Nanki, who was the first to recognise Nanak as an enlightened Soul. Guru Nanak from an early age evidenced a questioning and enquiring mind. He soon mastered the Vedas and Sanskrit and was enrolled into a madrassa to study Persian and Arabic. Picking up both languages quickly, he surprised his teacher by composing an acrostic on the Persian language. When it was time for Nanak to be invested with the twice born thread the “sacred” thread, called the Janeu, he refused to take part in the ritual. When the priest continued to insist that the young Nanak done the string he went into a trance and sang:

Let mercy be the cotton, contentment the thread,

Continence the knot and truth the twist.

Oh priest! if you have such a thread,
Do give it to me.
It will not wear out, nor get soiled, nor be burnt, nor lost.
Says Nanak, blessed are those who go about wearing such a thread.
(Rag Asa)

Guru Nanak's Life at Sultanpur
Nanak married Sulkhni of Batala, and they had two sons, Sri Chand and Lakhmi Das. Guru ji's brother-in-law, the husband of his sister Nanki, obtained a job for him in Sultanpur as the manager of the government's grainary. One morning, when he was twenty-eight, he went as usual down to the river to bathe and meditate. It was said that he was gone for three days. When he reappeared, filled with the spirit of God, it was apparent to all that he was a changed man. He would say nothing, he quit his job and distributed all that he had to the poor. Accompanied by his childhood friend, a Muslim named Mardana who had always played the Rebab while Nanak sang, they left town. When, after a few days, he spoke saying "There is no Hindu, no Musalman." It was then that Guru Nanak began his missionary work and travels.
As a householder, Guru ji continued to carry out the mission of his life – to lead people on the true path to God, to dispel superstition, to bring people out of ritualistic practises, to lead them directly to follow Gurbani without the need for priests and clergy, and to restrain and guard against the five thieves within – Pride, Anger, Greed, Attachment and Lust.

The three basic guidlines


Guru Nanak founded and formalised the three pillars of Sikhism:

1. Naam Japna Guru ji led the Sikhs directly to practise Simran and Naam Japna – meditation on God through reciting, chanting, singing and constant remembrance followed by deep study & comprehension of God’s Name and virtues. In real life to practice and tread on the path of Dharam (righteousness) - The inner thought of the Sikh thus stays constantly immersed in praises and appreciation of the Creator and the ONE ETERNAL GOD Waheguru.

2. Kirat Karni He expected the Sikhs to live as honourable householders and practise Kirat Karni – To honestly earn by ones physical and mental effort while accepting both pains and pleasures as GOD's gifts and blessings. One is to stay truthful at all times and, fear none but the Eternal Super Soul. Live a life founded on decency immersed in Dharam - life controlled by high spiritual, moral and social values.

3. Vand Chakna. The Sikhs were asked to share their wealth within the community by practising Vand Chakna – “Share and Consume together”. The community or Sadh Sangat is an important part of Sikhism. One must be part of a community that is living the flawless objective values set out by the Sikh Gurus and every Sikh has to contribute in whatever way possible to the common community pool. This spirit of Sharing and Giving is an important message from Guru Nanak.

Contributions to humanity

During his his time on Earth Guru Nanak was revered by both Hindus and Muslims and even today many, outside of the Sikh faith, revere him. It is related that as he lay dying, his followers some formerly Hindu and others formerly Muslims argued whether his body should be cremated as Hindu tradition dictated or buried as in Islamic tradition. It is said that when they removed the sheet which had covered the Guru they found only beautiful flowers. The Hindus burned theirs, the Muslims buried theirs.


His main contributions were:


Equality of humans


When in the middle east, the west and the rest of asia slavery, varna/class and race discrimination was rife and respect between the different classes and caste was at a peak, Guru Nanak preached against discrimination and prejudices due to race, caste, status, etc. He said: "See the brotherhood of all mankind as the highest order of Yogis; conquer your own mind, and conquer the world." (SGGS page 6); also "There is one awareness among all created beings." (page 24) and finally "One who recognizes the One Lord among all beings does not talk of ego. ||4||" (page 432). He urges all the peoples of the world to "conquer" their minds to these evil practises. All human beings had the light of the Lord and were the same -- only by subduing one's pride and ego could one see this light in all.



Equality of women


In about 1499 when the world offered low to no status or respect to women, Guru Nanak sought to improve the respect of women by spreading this message: "From woman, man is born; within woman, man is conceived; to woman he is engaged and married. Woman becomes his friend; through woman, the future generations come. When his woman dies, he seeks another woman; to woman he is bound. So why call her bad? From her, kings are born. From woman, woman is born; without woman, there would be no one at all. O Nanak, only the True Lord is without a woman." (page 473). In so doing, he promoted women's rights and equality — a first for the 15th century!



Universal message for all people


It had been a custom at the time for religious leaders to address only their own congregation and for segregation of the different religions -- but Guru Nanak broke with tradition and spoke to all of humanity. To the Muslim he said: "And when, O Nanak, he is merciful to all beings, only then shall he be called a Muslim. ||1||" (page 141); to the Hindu, he said "O Nanak, without the True Name, of what use is the frontal mark of the Hindus, or their sacred thread? ||1||" (page 467); and to all he preached: "To take what rightfully belongs to another is like a Muslim eating pork, or a Hindu eating beef." (page 141).



The four journeys





History states that he made four great journeys, travelling to all parts of India, and into Arabia and Persia; visiting Mecca and Baghdad. He spoke before Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Parsees, and Muslims. He spoke in the temples and mosques, and at various pilgrimage sites. Wherever he went, Guru Nanak spoke out against empty religious rituals, pilgrimages, the caste system, the sacrifice of widows, of depending on books to learn the true religion, and of all the other tenets that were to define his teachings. Never did he ask his listeners to follow him. He asked the Muslims to be true Muslims and the Hindus to be true Hindus.

After the last of his great journeys, Guru Nanak tried a new experiment - he asked a wealthy follower to donate a large tract of land . Here he built a town calling it Kartapur (in Punjab) on the banks of the Ravi where he taught for another fifteen years. Followers from all over came to settle in Kartapur to listen, and sing, and be with him. During this time, although his followers still remained Hindu, Muslim, or of the religion to which they were born, they became known as the Guru's disciples, or sikhs. It was here his followers began to refer to him as teacher, or guru. The Guru told his followers that they were to be householders and could not live apart from the world -- there were to be no priests or hermits. Here is where the Guru instituted the common meal, requiring the rich and poor, Hindu and Muslim, high caste and low caste, to sit together while eating. All worked together, all owned the town. Here is where Lehna, later to be Guru Angad, came to be with Guru Nanak.

To this day in Gurdwaras from the Punjab around the world to California's Yuba City people of all religions and creeds can enjoy a wonderful evening of beautiful song, music and of course a hot friendly meal.

A well known legend, when Nanak met Babur (1483-1530) the Emperor of India offered him a shared pipe of [Bhang], Nanak replied that he had a bhang whose wonderful effects never wore off. Inquiring of Nanak where he could find such wonderful bhang - Nanak declined the emperor's offer, saying GOD the [SAT GURU] was his bhang.

The Guru leaves for his heavenly abode



Kartarpur (meaning: The City of God), was established by Guru Nanak in 1522[1]. On Asu sudi 10, 1596 Bikrmi [Monday September 22, 1539 AD] Guru Nanak breathed his last at Kartarpur. Since the Guru's followers had been raised as Hindus or Muslims (each of which had different methods of dealing with one's earthly remains), an argument arose over whether the Guru's body should be cremated or buried. Traditionally, Hindus cremate while Muslims bury the bodies of loved ones after death.


Ultimately it was decided that flowers would be placed by each group on his body. Whosoever's flowers were found withered the next morning would loose the claim. It is related that the next morning when the cloth sheet was removed the Guru's body was missing and both sets of flowers were found as fresh as when they were placed.

The two communities then decided to divide the cloth sheet that covered the Guru's body and together with the flowers that they had place, one burying it and the other consigning it to fire. Therefore, both a samadh (Hindu tradition monument of remembrance) lies in the Gurdwara at Kartarpur and a grave (according to Muslim traditions) lies on the premises as a reminder of this joint claim to Guru Nanak by both the communities.
The gurdwara is located next to a small village named Kothay Pind (village) on the West bank of the Ravi River in Punjab, Pakistan. The original abode established by Guru Nanak was washed away by floods of the river Ravi.
The Gurudwara at Kartarpur can be seen from another Gurdwara located across the border at the historical town of Dehra Baba Nanak in India (It is not Dera, as so many people wrongly call it. Dehra is derived from the word Deh or body). Both sites are one of the holiest places in Sikhism located in the Majha region.
Recently, there has been lobbying to open the corridor for Sikhs from India to visit the shrine without any hindrance or visa. It lies only 3 km from the border.