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Kaleem Butt



People who come to visit Sindh think that Mohan-Jo-Daro is the only place to be visited in Sindh that is not true; in fact Sindh is the land full of places to be visited again and again, from the graveyard of Makli to the graves of Noori and Jamtamachi, from the Saadbala temple to the Minar of Masoom Shah, from the Mosque of Mujahid the mosque built by Mohammad-Bin-Qasim, or the graves of holy ladies at Sukkur and the shrines of the Soofis, and Choukandi give a unique example of the mastery of artists, this is Sindh, but the exciting place ever forgotten is the Gorukh Hill Station, as every place contains a unique story like the Taj Mahal of Agara containing the story of love of an emperor…….. I never thought Sindh is so beautiful.

It was our summer vacation when we friends decided to have a tour of hill station, the first name to come in our minds was Co-Mari, but the budget, it was out of our reach as it is always, one of us called our friend the son of wadero, he invited us to his village, he is from Dadu, now it was hard decision to visit Dadu in summer because it burns like an oven; anyways we were unable to refuse our friend after all he is wadero’s son who can refuse him; the date was given to him and on Monday we left for Dadu it was the starting of June; the hot wind loo, was burning our faces, we the four burgers and me reached to the son of wadero, his welcome was as warm as the weather of Dadu, he took us to his ottaq (the guest house), there were four five people already present talking about politics as our friend’s father the wadero belongs to the largest political party which was twice in power twice kicked out before completing both the terms; after eight years outside the country the leadership was returning back to home sweet home, the wadero was out for work welcoming his leadership for coming back, we were told by our friend proudly that his father has decided to take hundred buses on his expenses to welcome their leader at the airport, the crazy people were giving signs of their craziness, anyways we the four burgers and me never interested in politics were getting bored from their discussion, at eleven in the morning the sun was right in the middle of the sky throwing all its rays on us, the wadero’s son told us to wash ourselves, so we did and the funny thing of all was the light went away half an hour before we reached there, everyone was praising Wapda for that, before the scene could be set for the meal one of the guys gave us a big steel glass of cold lassi; so that we can get a relief from the hotness of Dadu, we enjoyed lassi and another glass for me, then came the meal, we had it. After the hospitality of wadero’s son, he took us to his fields and farms and to the pound of water where the four burgers went for swimming, they asked me but I refused because someone has predicted that I will die in water, keeping that thing in mind I don’t go near to water, but now that fear is going out from me because day by day the water is being decreased in Sindh, nowadays people are not finding it for drink, standing by the side of the pound I watched my friends enjoying swimming, after fifteen minutes they came out took towels and started moving on their bodies. The wadero’s son now brought his four wheel jeep and told us that we are going to the Gorukh Hill Station, with us there were two more boys the farmers of our friend to help us; we had our air guns and the donali of wadero, before moving to actual destination we decided for little hunting in the little jungle, after four five miss shots we found few birds, one of the boys ran towards the birds taking them in his hand pulling the sharp knife and started cutting their throats, the other boy snatched a branch from the Neem tree, and gathered the straw, the birds were cleaned the boy shaped the little sticks of Neem just like pencil and put the birds one on each in circle and gave fire to the straw, it was a new style of cooking, we waited till the birds were rousted, we enjoyed the half cooked and half uncooked birds and again starting moving, there started the incline of the Gorukh Hill Station, the four wheel jeep was given to the boys so the can safeguard it till we return, we started walking the only two ways to reach the top are by walking or by cycling there is no other way (now the Sewan Development Authority is working and zigzag roads have been constructed) and don’t come if you have no security you will be robbed, for the first time we realized how difficult walking was? Moving slowly and breathing, we saw the plastic bags flying, the packets of cigarettes, juice tins and many other things, after a long march we reached the top, suddenly the weather changed hotness changed into coldness, we were told about the history of this hill station, it was Major Hamburg an officer of East India Company; the faithful of the Queen of England who used to come here with his wife to spend his weekends, there were leopards, cherags, foxes, deer, and other wild animals on this range of Kher-Thar, we were told by the old man an employee of SDA, the major came here on his summer vacations and relaxed. Standing at the top and having the view of the world from the peak the world seemed very tiny; there were bushes and trees never seen before; we were also told that on one of the hills there is an ancient temple of Hindus on its entrance gate two lions are built when ever the air passes through their open mouths the stones make a sound as though the lions are roaring.

We really forgot the famous sights and hill stations as told by our friend, one of the burgers asked the little wadero: ‘why isn’t anyone taking notice of this hill station, if this can be made like Co-Mari, it can give a fair income?’
‘And who shall take notice?’ The little wadero asked.
‘The government and the Ministry of Tourism.’ Replied the same burger. The little wadero laughed.
‘You know what our problem is? We laugh things out.’
‘Who cares? We are the happy people of the happy world; we don’t like changes at all.’ The little wadero replied.

The SDA has been in charged to have the development work for this hill station, they are building tracks and resorts and one day this hill station will be a well known tourist place.

We were at the top we were singing, dancing, and visualizing the sights with our handicam, if someone would have noticed the Gorukh Hill Station, it would be a little better than it is today.