Read the interesting comments I found on this, truly moving...there is truly more to life than just animosity.
Anu Wahi | December 20, 2009 at 10:38 pm |
This was my great, great, grandparents home. My late mother was born in this home. It is in Lohari gate, Matti da Chowk.
About 6 years ago, it was acquired by the Lahore College of Arts.
NA | July 24, 2011 at 4:13 am |
Hi Anu
What a great place it would have been for your great grand parents? Did they sell it off?
Anu Wahi | July 24, 2011 at 10:26 am |
Actually no, my great great grandmother left it at the time of partition and fled to India. I have been to Lahore twice – the first time when the Yunus family still lived there.
They were very gracious and showed me the entire home. The second time it was owned by the National College of Arts, and they hosted an amazing recital of Heer in the living room. Residents from the neighborhood were invited, and a couple of the older ones shared recollections of my great grand mother. Both trips were very heart warming.
Erfan Yunus | December 26, 2011 at 7:49 am |
Hi Anu, its Erfan Yunus my father Rana Mohammad Yunus owned this place after partition. My grand parents and parents kept this place in almost original condition. Mr. Arun Vohra also visited us two times in this house and once along with his mother a very graceful and kind lady. She was really excited to see place which belonged to her eldors.
I love this place very much where my grandparents and parents lived their whole lives.
Annu you and your family are same lucky as we are that we can still see this house in same condition and even NCA is looking after very well.
Regards to you and your family and Arun.
humayun mirza | January 17, 2012 at 8:27 am |
hi every one,when i saw that house on net,i became speech less for minuts. actully i was spend my childhood in this area.my house was in kucha laila majnon,just infront of this house.we left this area 29 years before but i still remember every thing.even i have image of mr.yunus,his vespa a decent lady sitting behind mr.yunus.i remembered another view of this house from my primery school class room which was saeeda iqbal primery school above the grocery shop of famous “bhai sahab”. what a nostalgic time for me now.
Erfan Yunus | January 18, 2012 at 12:30 am |
Hi Humayun,
Its really great to read your comments and to know that we are old neighbours. My name is Erfan Yunus. I am son of Mr. Rana Mohammad Yunus and and Katherine Yunus a decent lady you have mentioned in your note. I still go to visit my old house. Few old neighbours still live there. It was really very exciting to read the name like “bhai sahab” and “Saeeda Iqbal School”. Very good and old memories. The vespa you have mentioned was 62 model and very interesting thing to share it with you that when my father sold his vespa he was upset and there were tears in his eyes.
Anu Wahi | January 18, 2012 at 2:12 am |
Erfan and Humayun
I have to tell you this.
As you know, the house pictured here belonged to my great, great, grandparents before partition.
My husband’s mother lived with her parents on Kucha Laila Majnu (before partition).
Even though they were neighbors, my husbands family did not know my great great grand parents.
My husband and I met on our own in USA in 1981, and didn’t find out until 2001 that his mother and my ancestors lived
just 100 yards from each other, back in Lahore!!!!!
My mother in law was so happy to visit her old home with me in 2005. We requested the artist Iqbal Hussain to make a
portrait of her outside her old home on Kucha Laila Majnu
Erfan – Please convey my regards to your mother. I remember her kindness when I visited your home.
Erfan Yunus | January 18, 2012 at 3:33 am |
Hi Annu,
Its very kind of you for remembering my mother and your visit to our house. My mother died on 5th Feburary, 2011. I would like to share it with you that all credit goes to my late parents Mr and Mrs Yunus who kept this antique and a beautiful built house by your elders in a very execellent and its alsmost original condition since the time of partition. This house used to be visited by NCA students on request of NCA administration since the period of 1970′s. Further I would love to add that me and my wife Shumaila Erfan did a lot to maintain this house in its almost same condition.
Annu- Please pay my regard to your mother in-law I still remember the very gracefull old lady came along to visit this house along with her son Arun Vohra. Be in touch my email is
erfan778@hotmail.com
suroosh irfani | February 6, 2012 at 12:24 pm |
I visited the haveli this morning and was moved by the layers of life and history still palpable there. Since 2003, the haveli has been turned into the Center for Conservation and Restoration Studies of National College of Arts. When we visited the CCRS this morning and later the Pir Shirazi shrine adjacent to it,
Mr. Masood, an NCA architect spoke of Anu Wahi’s grand mother: she is still remembered as the generous Hindu lady who sat with a tray-full of sweets/ mitahi at the haveli’s door that opened into the the Pir’s shrine, distributing the mithai to visitors!
Having visited the Leila Majnun street this morning, and also Pir Shirazi’s shrine that also includes the graves of two lovers believed to be a couple in the tradition of Laila Majnoon, I was rather thrilled by the incredible account that Anu has given here of her meeting and marriage with her husband in the USA, without either of them knowing at the time that their ancestors hailed from the very same Laila Majnoon neighborhood of the haveli!
Suroosh Irfani, Director Researh and Publications, National College of arts.
http://lahorenama.wordpress.com/