Romantic Vagabonds, With Dreams Delirious.

One of the clauses of the 'Life List' I wrote a couple of years back was to travel from Multan to Lahore on a bike and finally, after several set-backs and postponements, I managed to fulfill it, on the fateful Sunday of 16th of January, 2011, with the help of my partner-in-vagabonding, Tariq.

We left at 10 am. They day, unfortunately, was a bit cloudy but we couldn't postpone the plan any more. Our first stop was Mian Channu, the city famous for it's special 'burfi', which we had decreed upon ourselves to savour. I had recently learned about the shrine of a highly revered religious figure, Hazrat Baba Mian Channu, whose biography had really interested me - A renowned dacoit who later turned into a saint after being inspired by the famous saint of his time, Bahwud-deen Zakariya Multani. The city is named after him. After asking from the locals at a few points, we arrived at the shrine. It presented the usual atmosphere of a shrine, being surrounded by the devotees and having an adjacent mosque and a graveyard. After spending some half an hour there, we were back on the road.

After Mian Channu, a resort that emerged in my mind while being on the road was Harappa, the site which contains the ruins of a Bronze Age fortified city. So, with all our eagerness we arrived at Harappa ruins, only to be disappointed. Although the place was interesting, we couldn’t find any ancient curiosities there. The tiny museum contained a few ancient handicrafts but the collection was very limited. The site, however, contained some ancient landmarks like graves and exquisitely constructed wells, but a major portion still remained undiscovered. After departing Harappa, we tried out a short cut for Sahiwal, a deserted and bumpy country road. This proved to be quite an adventure when our bike got punctured in the middle of nowhere. So we had to walk some three miles, accompanied with music and eventually figured a workshop. After learning about our endeavor, they were kind enough to offer us some tea and lots of folk talk.

By the time we left Sahiwal, the Sun was setting and it was a pretty good sight. An idea the struck me was to take the photographs of the country-side beauty surrounding us from both sides while being on the bike - which meant photography at the speed of seventy-odd km/hour. This proved to be a pretty good idea and made some fine photographs. We made a stop at a petrol-pump after Okarah to capture further enchantment of the dying sun. By then winter evening was closing in it’s chilly paws and it required quite an effort to ride a bike.

Anyways, with running noses and chilled bones and above all, with an ardent sense of fulfillment, we continued with the adventure and after another hour or so, we entered Lahore and the first thing after raiding the flat was to sip away hot coffee and narrate the cherished journey - finally accomplished.