Rose with many names |
IN the early 2000s, as a fresh MBA graduate from IBA, I began working at the HBL Corporate Centre on Mall Road, Lahore. The lush green road, lined with majestic trees and buildings, was a privilege to navigate.
A particular favourite of mine was the Lawrence and Montgomery Halls, then called the Quaid-i-Azam Library. Built in 1866 as a memorial hall, its interior was altered in the 1870s: the original curved roof was replaced, and a teak floor was installed for dancing. During lunch hour, its white, symmetrical, Victorian-colonnaded form, its balconies housing ageing books, and its garden setting would lull me away from the corporate banking environment for a while. I had a library membership and could take books out. I would often eat my lunch in the garden and explore every nook and cranny of the beautiful library.
A deep truth that this younger version of myself could not yet articulate but could feel at a very fundamental level was that identity lay in a clear awareness of a past full of names, places, narratives; of rise and fall. Indeed, our legitimacy requires a multiplicity of identities, which Lahore’s historical legacy provides us with. I was fortunate to witness this identity of the city emerging under Kamran Lashari’s watchful eyes at........