At Okara district in Pakistan, I visited the remains of an institution that was established in the early 18th century by the Udasis, who were the followers of Guru Nanak but their syncretic inter-religious belief systems spanned across Sikhism, Hinduism and Sufism.

As I peered into the desolated congregation hall through the cemented palanquin where the Sikh scripture would have once been placed, I could still hear the diminishing echoes of ‘Waheguru’, ‘Ram’ and ‘Allah’! The hustle and bustle of the open-minded spiritualists who once gathered regularly in this hall to seek immortality, ceased with the fateful event of the partition of 1947!

Politicians finally succeeded in fracturing ‘Waheguru’, ‘Ram’ and ‘Allah’!

Suddenly, the diminishing echo stopped and a loud sound reverberated through the hall, “In your aspiration for immortality, for centuries, I selflessly provided you shelter. I believed myself to be immortal to serve the needs of mortals but in abandoning me, you the mortals have made me realize my own limits that I too am mortal – destined to death!”

It was the congregation hall speaking aloud to me!

Was I hallucinating or going insane?

Photographed in Jan 2017, during the research for the book “THE QUEST CONTINUES: LOST HERITAGE The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan”