Cooking chawal, old Hyderabad, Pakistan

Cooking chawal, old Hyderabad, Pakistan
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

Via Flickr:
Biryani is perhaps the single most popular dish in Sindh and Punjab provinces. Off course, the dish was popularized by people living in Delhi and Lucknow and who then immigrated to Pakistan on the eve of partition of British India in 1947. This man was checking for the right quality of rice, known as basmatti, for using in the cooking of a sumptuous biryani. They say that the best biryani is that of mutton. In fact, there used to certain cooks who refused to cook biryani using chicken!

Please also note one more thing here: Hindu Brahmins of past never ate or even touched meat or eggs. So it is highly unlikely that this man, if he had been here before 1947, would be cooking biryani or any other meat related dish. It is to these Urdu-speaking Mohajirs of India (Urdu speaking is a wide ranging term employed in Pakistan to encompass everyone from Delhi walla to Lucknow walla but not Gujratis) that the popularity of Biryani may be traced. Even today, after 60 years of partition, no other ethnic group can cook a better biryani than Hyderabadis or Delhi wallas. Some say Memons (from Gujarat province of India) also cook good biryani. Sindhis, the traditional inhabitants of this province - hence the name Sindh - are also not good cooks of this culinary delight.

[Now, Biryani is part of Pakistani culture along with Karhai ghosht. I mention this man and his deghs here because his business is now essential part of living in Heerabad area of Hyderabad, Pakistan.]

Hindu heritage of Hyderabad, Pakistan

Hindu heritage of Hyderabad, Pakistan
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

Via Flickr:
Real name: Unknown.
Now named: Kashan-e-Amjad, Heerabad, Hyderbad, Sindh province, Pakistan.

Hindu banyas, as the Brahmin caste is known in Urdu and Hindi, knew little while constructing such beautiful entrances that their time in up-coming Pakistan was running short. In 1947, British litrally ran away from British India, dividing the country into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, jumbling up the borders to their own likes and dislikes, putting to sword the lives of millions. Many died in Punjab bloodbath and Pakistan's founder, Mr. Jinnah, wondered whether he done it right by creating a homeland for Muslims of India? He, like millions across the border, were dumbstruck by the results. The results were understood long before blood letting was allowed by the British but to no avail. Rapes, looting and murder were the order of the day. The peaceful Muslims in newly created India were either killed or forced to relocate. Same thing happened to Hindus, people who'd lived here since last 4,000 years or so. But they were to move enmasse. Even personal appeal from Mr. Jinnah was unable to stop Hindus of Sindh from vanishing overnight. But something good also happened here: As against thousands of killed daily in Punjab province hardly anyone was killed or maimed here in Sindh province. It remained largely peaceful except for some isolated incidents in Karachi and elsewhere. Even Parsis, followers of Zarathustra, felt insecure and left for greener pastures. Their places were eventually filled by Delhi wallas, Hyderabadis and Lucknawis, people who claimed big properties in India and who now got such beautiful havelis in return (see this and other photographs).

How sad is our history! But only if we knew.

Langhar deghs at Shrine of Shah Yaqiq, Sindh

Langhar deghs at Shrine of Shah Yaqiq, Sindh
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

Via Flickr:
All shrines across Pakistan feed poor people. This general feeding is known as Langhar and the place where the food is cooked is known locally as 'Langhar Khana'. Thousands of people are fed daily at each of the major Shrine of Pakistan. This helps greatly in a country where food may be expensive for quite a lot of people.

Here, the empty deghs (in which food is cooked) are waiting for the food to arrive at the Sufi Shrine of Hazrat Shah Yaqiq (RA).