At Gujranwala in Pakistan, my destination was the mansion of Mahan Singh at Purani Mandi where Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the lion of Punjab was born.

As the mansion is accessible only by foot, we moved through an alley via a crowded fish market to arrive at a dead end. Many illegal shops that have sprouted all around the premises have blocked the access to the mansion. Peering through the space between the awnings in front of the shops selling fish, I got a glimpse of the red brick of the mansion’s façade. Besides the shops flanking its main facade, access to the mansion was further restricted by a narrow gate, which was locked. Not able to find any other way to proceed, my excitement turned into disappointment. Just then, a shopkeeper came forward and much to our amusement, also called his friends to help him scale the wall. Within seconds he jumped inside the mansion and unlatched a window from inside through which I was able to access the premises.

In that moment, I was reminded of the song ‘Gotta one way ticket to the blues’, signifying a journey towards melancholy.

The lion of Punjab, who for the first time in thousand years of the history of invasions across Punjab, had offered a secular empire to the native Punjabis but today his birth place remains inaccessible, indeed a one way ticket!

The sad outcome of partition of India in 1947 has been that seven decades later, we are shy of owning our collective heritage only because of different faiths!

Photographed in Oct 2014, during the research for the book “LOST HERITAGE The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan”