November 8, 2003

When the archaeology department set up a documentation centre in the Lahore Fort in May this year, it may not have been fully aware of its usefulness. Now that it has become almost completely functional, they certainly seem fascinated with the idea of developing a database of not only the Shah Burj (Shish Mahal), for which the centre was primarily set up, but a whole lot of the country’s cultural heritage. So they have shown a strong will to begin recording other monuments, particularly those listed by Unesco as world heritage.

The idea of a documentation centre was first mooted by the adviser on Shish Mahal conservation project, Yasmin Lari. She has been able to develop an NGO culture of sorts within the rigid federal government employees. Funded jointly by Unesco, the Royal Norwegian government and the federal government, making the centre a success has now turned into a passion for them.

As they progressed on Shish Mahal’s documentation using the database, they found how attractive its sordid old drawings were and what wonders they could work with them, thanks to software development. No one had bothered to lay their hands on these drawings all these years, but now everyone is digging for in the dusty pile of records lying among decaying fixtures.

Hundreds of drawings and photographs, architectural and decorative and the construction material used by the Mughal-era masons have already been documented. The record of the Shish Mahal marble columns is fascinating. Paperwork pertaining to every inch of this pavilion gives minute details of the piece from more than one angle, magnifying its petra dura and gilding work, giving each piece a serial number, portraying the latest picture of the structural decay; this kind of documentation was certainly beyond anyone’s imagination.

The new emerging culture at the centre seems to have energized the department. People working there now use terms like ‘sustainable development’, ‘resource mobilization’, ‘capacity-building’, etc. And this by no means is a small change in the attitude of the public servants. One only has to thank the NGO helping them with this important task.

The exhibition of Dr Ajaz Anwar’s paintings, 76 in number, seems to be the only feast for art lovers in the month of Ramazan, which usually does not see much in terms of exhibitions. The teacher-artist has painted Lahore, particularly its old parts including the walled city, which are fast disappearing. Already, some mohallas painted by the artist have vanished. If the old city’s decay continues at this rate, what may survive of it in another few decades will probably be the images and paintings that have been captured and preserved. So Lahorites, and some also from other cities, throng the gallery at National College of Arts to have a closer look at the city which they may not see in real life for too long.

City legends and portrayals of lifestyle, like kanjiwala selling his brew, a tonga in a narrow walled-city street, the sky dotted with colourful kites as it looked from the rooftop of a three-storey house inside Mochi Gate, a bullock-cart laden with several maunds of merchandize and passing through the narrow lanes of the grain market, are simply fascinating to look at.