Alive and well

For a slice of honest-to-goodness heritage experience I recommend Golra Sharif railway station to west of Islamabad

To read some of the gloomier prognostications as to the future or current state of those slightly diaphanous qualities ‘heritage’ and ‘culture’, you might be forgiven for thinking that Pakistan is both a cultural desert and a wasteland of heritage sites fast crumbling to dust. Not entirely so, and after a hectic five days in Islamabad I am happy to report that there is much that is thriving on both fronts.

For a slice of honest-to-goodness heritage experience I recommend a railway station to you. A proper fully functional railway station with the jolliest of stationmasters, polished brass, heavy machinery, a chance to get hands-on and a bundle of fun for the inner child in all of us. Take yourselves off, ladies and gentlemen, for an afternoon at Golra Sharif railway station to the west of Islamabad. About 10 years ago so I am reliably informed somebody in the depths of Pakistan railways recognised just what a good idea it would be to preserve some of the artefacts of a railway era that in parts is long gone, but in other parts very much with us today.

The fruits of this outbreak of common sense and civic responsibility are there for us all to enjoy today. There are helpful staff to explain the exhibits (which really are overdue to be re-labelled) and you can reach out and touch a piece of history. There is the carriage that the Mountbattens travelled in as they went around what was then Imperial India and later the fledgling Pakistan. A mailbox that came from South Africa on the side of a carriage and that very busy stationmaster who is more than happy to pose for photographs looking suitably important and stationmaster-ish.

The waiting rooms are frozen in time, all polished wood and steamer chairs and there was a collection of almost ghoulish surgical instruments that puzzled me. An amputation saw? At a railway station? The answer was at hand — the instruments were kept there in the event of an accident in which case a ‘railway doctor’ was called who picked up his kit and went to work. All very sensible when you think about it.

This was heritage being cared for, indeed nurtured, in the best possible way. I am told it is rightly popular with school parties. Take your sandwiches and a flask of tea and sit on a bench under the ancient banyans that line the platform.

Tuesday evening at the better of the two five-star hotels in Islamabad saw the Asian Study Group (ASG) serving up a large slice of culture in the form of a presentation on his family history by a member of the royal family of Swat. No longer royal, but with plenty to tell of a time before partition. It was hugely engaging, holding a packed venue rapt for an hour of concentrated but toothsome — history. The ASG have quietly fettled away at the presentation and protection of the diverse culture of Pakistan for donkeys years, and they are not the only group so engaged nationally.

Meanwhile in Karachi the musical ‘Grease’ is playing to packed houses, there is something of a boom in the art world as galleries gently tick over and you can barely move for literary festivals, food festivals, tea festivals and for all I know festivals dedicated to the preservation of ancient bus tickets.

‘Ah but’ I hear you say as you point to Moenjodaro which is so neglected that the option of reburying it is being actively considered, and Derawar Fort in the depths of the Cholistan desert really is falling down almost as one looks at it. Buildings of heritage value are being torn down to make way for new mass-transit systems in Lahore and will be also in Karachi. The Philistines are busy wherever one looks. Green spaces are under threat everywhere and yes, on the face of it both culture and heritage are at hazard — but as instanced above all is not lost, indeed far from it. There is a lively diversity of groups and individuals — even state institutions like the railways, hardly noted for their competence in anything — that do preserve and cherish the jewels around us. Enjoy! Tootle-pip.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2016.

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