While tracing the remnants of the Sikh legacy in the making of the sequel book “THE QUEST CONTINUES: LOST HERITAGE The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan”, as I entered the deserted Jahman gurdwara, I saw hundreds of bats hanging upside down! Their screeches reverberated in the hall, where, before the partition of 1947, the spiritual sermons of the community would soothingly echo. This ironic state made me wonder why the world and the mind have to continuously strain against each another, unable to embrace. To me, the screeching of the bats represented the world and the soothing echo of the subsided sermons of the community represented the mind, in a continuous ‘tug of war’!
In departing, I asked myself that if history snatched these places away from us, then why should I continue to strive to still recognize them as ours? This obscurity suddenly made me realize that after all the darkness of these remnants still have the ability to throw a light on one’s imagination.
After all, what is the meaning of life, if we can’t feed ourselves with roses of illusions!
Photographed in Jan 2017, during the research for the book “THE QUEST CONTINUES: LOST HERITAGE The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan”
