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The dense maze of a neighborhood named after shrine of a saint buried there
Of the days spent at University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, two names bring to life memories that are now lost to the mist of time and age
Ghoray Shah and Copper Store
The frequented rendezvous of the late night strolls that we took … Few of us from Sir Syed Hall, others from Sports Complex, the group of future electrical engineers and architects narrating, sometimes discussing Faiz while enjoying a cup of doodh patti and then heading back
Cooper Store was the corrupted form of Co-operative Store
A chowk that now stands where Victoria Road, Garhi Shahu Bridge and Grand Trunk road merge around the front gates of the university
Ghoray Shah stood on the opposite side towards the back alleys of U.E.T
The dense maze of a neighborhood named after shrine of a saint buried there
From the platform number 2 of Lahore Railway station if one takes the pedestrian overhead bridge turning due north would find Sultan Pura road that due north east merges with Ghoray Shah Road and leads straight to the shrine of Makhdum Bahauddin popular as Ghoray Shah Sarkar
People leave here toy horses, made of fired clay, sometimes wood even steel, some plain, others painted in fancy colours
People leave these گُھگو گھوڑے ਘੁੱਗੂ ਘੋੜੇ for they believe the child saint buried here (you heard it right, child saint indeed) would grant them their wishes
From inside the shrine, we get a name from the gravestone, Hazrat Syed Makhdoom Bahauddin Sohorwardi Bukhari
Who was this child saint of Lahore? The detail comes to us from our storyteller of Lahore (you guessed it right) Majid Sheikh
A tomb exists in the no-go area of Lahore Fort
Some theorists believe this mysterious tomb to be the actual resting place of the Saint of Lahore, Ali bin Usman Hajweri popular as Data Ganj Bakhsh
Majid Sheikh tells us it’s that of Syed Usman Shah Bukhari al-maroof Jhoolay Shah
A learned scholar from Uch who settled in Lahore around 15th Century CE
The title Jhoolay Shah does not refer to any miracles associated with the learned saint but the body shaking for he suffered from Parkinson’s disease
Syed Shah Muhammad inherited the seat of sainthood from his father Jhoolay Shah and it was this holy man who was then blessed with a son named Syed Bahauddin Shah Now Bahauddin was fond of swings and this somewhat inspired the devotees to title the little saint as Jhoolan Shah (the saint of swings) The miracles started showing up from early on as our child saint reached the talking age
In popular legend a 5 year old Jhoolan Shah developed a liking for horse riding
Of his fathers’ devotees whoever let the child ride their horse he would grant them a wish that was fulfilled
Now the others who were not as wealthy to own a horse but still had a wish our saint would grant them the same in exchange of toy horses (ghuggoo ghoray)
In a strange turn of events when his scholarly father came to know of the fame of the holy child he was disappointed in him
Our angry father Syed Shah Muhammad in scolding his child is reported to have uttered the words, that if Bahauddin could not stop granting people wishes in return of horses he better wish death upon himself
The child saint is said to have “wished” the same and dropped dead
The heart-broken father then sought Allah’s forgiveness and buried his child at the same spot where he died and the year, dear reader, was 1594 CE In the backdrop of U.E.T Lahore, in narrow confines of a neighbourhood called Ghoray Shah, people still leave the toy horses for Jhoolan Shah, the Child Saint of Lahore, grants them a wish in return, that is never turned down ___ In revisiting this tale from the past, I got reminded of a few more characters Tuttoo Sain of Ghoray Shah and the calligraphic jalebis (amartees) of Baba Rehmat Both characters from Baba Muhammad Yahya Khan’s “Piya Rang Kala”
Woh kahani kisi aur din kahenge, aur Urdu mein kahenge …
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The details in this thread are based on Majid Sheikh’s “If Wishes were Horses”
Pictures are from Google Photos
