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- An ancient corner building
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- Ancient building amid the choas of Rawalpindi
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- Still functioning ancient balcony
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- The Hindu Temple, sitting unnoticed on the corner
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- Totally in disrepair, but still beautiful in my eyes
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- The entrance to a beautiful mosque tucked away in the city centre
I have been going quite regularly right into the inner parts of Rawalpindi city in the past few days, where the streets are tiny and contain remnants from hundreds of years ago, all chaos and confusion.
The streets are so small for todays standards, but I’m sure when they were built hundreds of years back they would have been considered luxuriously wide — two donkey carts could pass each other, and still do, however trying two cars passing each other? not so easy, but people still try!
The most amazing thing is that there are still these ancient buildings, which are in totaly disprepair, but which still contain that beauty from a time when even the smallest of features where intricately carved and made beautiful — I would love to be able to go back a couple of hundred years to see how the place looked when it was all these kinds of buildings, it would have been quite something I’m sure. Still, it inspires the kinds of imaginings (for an over romantic mind like my own) where beautiful maidens glanced down at handsome passers by from their ornately carved windows… Arabian Nights kind of stuff… but now the only thing gazing out of the windows is a stray alley cat or a family of mice or something. Still, I let my mind wander!
I even found an ancient Hindu Temple standing solemnly amidst the chaos, untouched for all these years and reminding of the shared past India and Pakistan have. Its one of my favourite things to go driving in the crazy inner city, because there is always so much to see, so many faces and so many crowds — and the convenience of a car window to give a bit of distance!! I’ve put in a whole bundle of photos taken over the last three or four trips into the city… because they give a better description than I can!
