Independence Day in New Murree and Mai Mari da Asthan
Durriyah Balkhi Asghar CPA, Class of '91, is a Tax and Financial Consultant. She began her career with PriceWaterhouse, New York and is currently on a sabbatical.
Shameelah Balkhi (her sister) has an MS in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from Yale University and is currently a homemaker.
Perched on the side of a mountain with pine trees all around, the sunroom sat on top of the front porch in the home we had rented for our Independence Day holidays in Patriata. Three of the sunroom's walls were glass and clouds floated in through the open windows. The sunroom looked down into the forested valley and at the mountain range running across our line of vision. Sitting in the sunroom felt like floating between clouds and trees.
When night set, pitch black darkness enveloped the room. Little dots of light, like fireflies, showed up on the mountains in the distance. This informed us of the presence of houses and habitation in the hills. Luckily, deforestation hasn't occurred to an extent in Patriata to have made these houses visible in daylight. Instead of sleeping in the bedrooms, some of us chose to camp out in the sunroom to experience a safe, close to "sleeping under the stars" experience.
Our rental home, Summer's Hut, was situated between Gulehra Gali Bazar and Patriata Top. In the bazar is the PTDC run chairlift and cable car ride that takes an hour to complete its ascent to Patriata Top and return. We preferred to go hiking instead. Walking uphill from Summer's Hut, we left the main road that led to Patriata Top and took the steep and winding road up to the rest area where people get off the chairlift and hop into the cable cars.
While the bazar area is crowded and dirty, the walk uphill after it is entirely refreshing with cool breezes, clear air, mountains and pine trees. Few cars pass by and tourists in their chairlifts sometimes cross overhead.
On the way up we came across a rock jutting out of the ground that looked exactly like it was a bed made of stone. At the top of the mountain was a man with a falcon that he had taken as a baby and tamed. For a little money, we could have the falcon perch on our arms and have our photograph taken. There were also some horses for anyone fancying a horseback ride and of course, some drinks and snacks. We asked about mountain streams and were led by a boy to water seeping out of a rock and collecting in a small pool. Our young guide filled our water bottle expertly from the pool without muddying the water source.
Pariata is just 15 km south-east of Murree and is also known as 'New Murree'. Both Patriata and Murree are located in the Pir Panjal Range within the Rawalpindi district of Punjab. Murree was the summer headquarters of the colonial Punjab government until it was shifted to Shimla in 1876. There are interesting stories about how each town got its name.
Patriata apparently got its name when a foreigner asked an old woman, who was carrying flour on her head, what the name of the place was. As she couldn't understand what he was saying, and assumed he might be asking about what she was carrying, she replied, "Puttar aata" (Son, this is flour). Thus was born the name Patriata.
Murree is another story altogether! There is a grave at Pindi Point in Murree which is supposed to be the resting place of Maryam (alaihis salam)! It is known as "Mai Mari da Asthan" (the grave/shrine of Mother Mary)! According to the teachings of Islam, Muslims make their graves perpendicular to the direction of the Qibla (Makkah) so that when the body is placed in the grave and turned over to its right side, it faces the Qibla. In Murree, this would correspond to a grave in a north-south direction. However, the grave known as Mai Mari da Asthan faces east-west, according to the custom of the Bani Israil. It's interesting that the word "aasthan" in Urdu means "door" or "threshold", as when one enters one's grave one enters a new realm, hitherto unknown to their experience.
Some people claim that the name of the town Murree is taken from this grave. It was only in 1875 that the spelling was changed from Mari to Murree by the British when they made it their hill station.
Contrary to both Christian and Muslim beliefs, that Eesa (alaihis salam) is alive in heaven and will come to earth for a second time, Mirza Ghulam Ahmed claimed that Eesa (alaihis salam) would not return to earth. Rather, in a famous lecture delivered in Ludhiana, Punjab, in 1905 Mirza Ghulam Ahmed claimed to be the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. As this is purportedly the tomb of the mother of Jesus, members of the Ahmadiya community renovated it in 1950.
The Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem is well known to be the burial site of Maryam (alaihis salam). In addition, another tomb of hers is located in Mary, Turkmenistan, a town originally called Mari. However, the idea of Eesa (alaihis salam) having spent many years in the Indian subcontinent is not without its adherents. The documentary 'Jesus In India' investigates these claims. So in Murree, we have a third site claiming to be her final resting place.
To a baby about to be born in Patriata or Murree, neither the word cloud, nor pine tree, nor rainbow nor stream can mean much. The baby has eyes and ears and a mouth in the womb too, but these do not work in the way that they will when the baby is born. Its world is confined to a cramped, dark place and the world that it enters when it is born is so much bigger! When it enters the world of butterflies and rainbows, sees blue skies high up and green valleys down below, its experience of these words will be very different from having heard them, to some extent, in the womb. It has entered another realm!
The baby was a part of a bigger universe but it didn't know it, confined as it was inside a body. When we enter our aasthans do we also enter through these doors into realms we are in but not aware of, to that prepared for us by our Lord which "no eye has seen, no ear has heard and what has never occurred to the human heart"?
Booming cannons announced Independence Day and freedom to live by our own beliefs.
