Thursday 2nd April 2009
UNIVERSITY OF GUJRAT
Sprawled over 100 acres in serene agricultural outskirts of Gujrat city, lies and oasis of knowledge, showing remarkable courage in boldness of design development. The oasis emerges as a fleet of seven titanic ‘ships of knowledge’ firmly anchored in a circular configuration. the focus of this configuration is a huge whirlpool, the nexus of wisdom. The ‘ships of knowledge’ are multistoried academic blocks. The UOG will have an open air amphitheatre, swimming pool, sports stadium, residential enclave, students hostels, community center, administrative blocks, auditorium, cafeteria, central library and many more facilities. At the moment the university has over 6000 students.
On the invitation of the Dr. Nazim-u-Din, Vice Chancellor of The UOG, members of Business and Professional Women’s Organization (BPWO) and members of Picasso Ladies Club, gathered at the Quaid-e-Azam Library in the Lawrence Gardens, Lahore on a beautiful spring morning to start their two and half hour journey to Gujrat, via the GT Road.
The once famous GT Road, built by Sher Shah Suri almost 300 years ago, is now undergoing major expansion, as a result the ride to Gujrat was like being ‘shaken but not stirred’ ! but fun all the same. The constant chattering and laughter kept us and the driver entertained.
En rout we passed the industrial town of Kala Shah Kaku easily identifiable by the pungent smell of the several chemical plants on the main road, on to Muridke the largest rice growing area in Pakistan. The next small town was Gakhar Mandi, followed by Wazirabad once famous for its beautifully handcrafted pen-knives. After Wazirabad we cross over river Chinab arriving at Gujrat famous for crockery, furniture, ceiling fans, and small household electrical items manufactured in this city.
We arrived at UOG at 12.30 and were welcomed by the senior faculty members, taken to a conference room, where the Vice Chancellor himself gave a very impressive slide presentation on the UOG, its past, present and future. It is important to mention here that BPWO President 2009, Ms. Zahra Ashraf Chief Architect Government of Punjab and her team were the architects of this grand and much needed university project.
We were then given an extensive tour of the campus by Professor Faud Khawja, who had returned from the USA to ‘give back to his motherland’ Prof. Faud Khawja must be an amazing teacher, because all over the campus we say posters saying “we love you Prof. Faud” To me he came across as a highly motivated teacher, bursting with ideas and wanting to change the world. I wish we had more professors in our universities like him.
Prof. Faud Khawaja, head of the Mass Communication Department. He proudly showed us the latest state of the art equipment and teaching tools he had personally chosen and brought to Pakistan from the USA for UOG, making his department the best equipped in Pakistan.
The 35 odd ladies and the UOG faculty were served a delicious lunch of ‘murgh qorma’ , ‘murgh biryani’, raita, naan and kheer for desert. After the heavy lunch, we boarded the busses for our return journey on the way stopping to see two famous ‘havali’s of Gujrat.
KIDAR NATH HAVELI (PALACE)
This beautiful ‘haveli’ has now been renamed and turned into the Fatima Jinnah Girls College. Unfortunately, it has not been maintained even though it is now a functional college.
RAM PIYARI MAHAL
Just a short walk away from Kidar Nath Haveli, stands the Ram Piyari Mahal, it must have been a beautiful mahal in its days of glory, but like most historical monuments in Pakistan, this small palace is also lying abandoned and in need of repair. There seems to be an effort on the part of the government to turn it into a museum, but there is evidence of that effort being abandoned half finished. It was sad to see this, once beautiful haveli in such a sorry state.
Why is it that we have no respect or love for our culture, heritage, and art be it Hindu, Sikh or Muslim ?
Could it be that we as parents lack this quality and therefore don’t pass it on ?
Could it be that there is something seriously wrong with our education system ?
When will we learn ? when all our heritage sites have been flattened ?
Very Nice trip report… seems like a great time!
By: Taimoor on April 16, 2009
at 9:54 pm