THE UTOPIAN ENIGMAS

Hira Mandi is a cacophony of voices – azan (call for prayer) from the mosque, the sound of tabla (traditional musical instrument) played by the ustad (teacher), the clinking ghungroos (ankle-bells) worn by the concubines, the sound of the children playing, and shopkeepers selling their goods in the bazaar.

While men pour into the heart of the marble-domed Badshahi Mosque, five times a day, following the call for prayer forming straggly lines, the young boys play cricket on the streets, and some individuals sit under a tree, smoking hookah, engulfed in a political or religious debate. The women gossip, sitting on their ramshackle rooftops, under the scorching sun, drying spices, heroin addicts insert syringes in their bodies under the shelter of a low-lying tree – enjoying their intoxication alongside the view of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lahore Fort. The prostitutes decorate the streets at night, under dimly-lit oil lamps, embellishing themselves for the tabooed subculture. The crumbling ghetto of three- and fourstory buildings is a unique example of contrasting inhabitant co-living in the once Royal district of Lahore. This is Hira Mandi.

Perhaps, recognizing prostitution as one of the many trades in the Walled City could provide a sense of security and, possibly, a choice to the many marginalized women working in the dark. Sensitizing the trade of these women as just trade and not as their existence would humanize them.

I imagine a utopia in which these dancing girls of Lahore were treated like humans. Their existence was as recognized and accommodated as the tourist, residents, and bazaar activity around them. They were acknowledged as stakeholders of the Walled City and did not have to belittle their trade of once art and performance to grotesque sex behind bamboo blinds. Maybe then, the dancing girls of Lahore would sing to the enthralling tunes of tabla again.

THE ENSEMBLE OF BAZAARS

Hira Mandi is one of the many bazaars decorating the Walled City. Once upon a time, they were a harmonious tangle of markets pumping life into the streets. These bazaars are not just an engine of economic activity, but in essence, are the tangible and intangible culture of Lahore.