Islamabad is 15 kilometres from its twin city Rawalpindi and, its residents will giggle, 15 minutes from Pakistan. This week Islamabad is a base for varied forays into the country. India’s cricketers make a sanitised journey to and from the Pindi Cricket Stadium each day, Japanese tourists mill around its marbled hotels on the way back from the cherry blossom festival in Hunza. And Sikh pilgrims have come from India to do a Baisakhi round of some their most sacred shrines. Captain M.S. Kohli is glued to the cricket today. In a shaded aisle of the stadium he bears stories of an emotional homecoming. On Wednesday, he escorted his elder brother, Harkishen Singh, to their birthplace Haripur and Panja Sahib. Back to roots Partition separated the brothers, then teenagers, from this city founded by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Their forefathers put up a valiant fight at a mountain here in 1824 under the leadership of General Hari Singh. On Wednesday, Captain Kohli gathered schoolchildren around him in Haripur to take them through the bylanes of their composite history. Among them were grandchildren of the Singh brothers’ deceased friends. ‘‘It used to be such a beautiful and unique town’’, says Kohli, the first Indian to conquer Mt Everest in 1965. ‘‘There used to be running water in each and every street and bazaar. In the 1820s, in an engineering feat water from an Indus tributary, Daur, was carried by nine small canals.’’ Demography, he found on his return to his native town, has taken a toll. Then Haripur’s population was just 10,000, now it is 150,000. It has inspired him to initiate measures to revive Haripur. Incidentally, this patch of the Northwest Frontier Province’s Hazara district was also the birthplace of Field Marshal Ayub Khan. The reception however was immaculate, he says. Come home, have lunch, was a common refrain. Kolhi has been back to Haripur four times in the 1980s as a guest of General Zia, and found a discernible change in attitudes. ‘‘There was no bitterness’’, he says. ‘‘Everyone is fed up with conflict. They realise that for happiness and prosperity, peaceful coexistence is essential.’’ Trekking in theKarakoram But Captain Kohli’s main focus is trekking in the Karakoram. Pakistani programmes are being planned by his Himalayan Environment Trust. Baisakhi Day at Panja Sahib too inspired a desire to intervene and rehabilitate the shrine. A gurdwara near Taxila bears a rock with a handprint. Baba Wali Kandahari, a Sufi preacher, is said to have rolled down a boulder at Guru Nanak, who held out his hand, and the imprint on the rock is believed to have been the result. As we speak, Saurav Ganguly is run out. But India are still in a strong position, Rahul Dravid is driving towards a double century. For once, they at least require no assistance or prayer.
