Style of this article is a little bit different, more like in the format of a story, a story of a family who is Pakistani, lives abroad and visiting Pakistan after quite some time. First time visit for the children.
FAISALABAD
Living abroad, I always wanted to visit Pakistan as I had heard a lot about its beauty and significant cultures. I finally had the chance last year to visit some of its cities and there on the list was Faisalabad. This city was not just a really beautiful place on its own but also had some amazing places that had a good rich history about them.Faisalabad was one of the historically planned cities in Pakistan under the rule of great British India. The city, Faisalabad, is known to have a great population that is it said to be the third most populous cities in the country. As I and my family were having the tour of the place, we were assigned with a person who would take us through the whole of the city and would tell us about the enrichment of the place.
We got to know that the actual place was named Lyallpur until the end of 1979. At the end of 1979, Pakistani government of time changed the name of the city from “Lyallpur” to "Faisalabad" to honor its relationship with the King Faisal of Saudi Arabia for his financial and other supports in many categories of life and government for Pakistan. During the mid of the eighties, the city went through an expansion and because of the King Faisal’s support, more Faisalabadis (people born and reside in the city) started working abroad, particularly in Saudi Arabia, foreign currencies started coming in the city and reciprocally improved the development and facilities inside the new territory. This prompted progressively money related finances coming back to the city supported the advancement of the region.
The city is divine because of its historic culture other than being the first of the planned cities during the British rule. Many constructions of British era can be seen in the city.
Another one, which is now being used as a library building.
The person who was our guide (one of our relatives) his name was Noor, he had a very pleasing personality and was very welcoming. People of Faisalabad are famous for their hospitality and well manners, which also shows some colors of their cultural values. You can also experience this even you don’t have any ties there.
On our first day of the city tour, Noor told us that this city was restructured in 2001 because of its geographical importance. Roads, railroad tracks were improved and constructed. Later highways were constructed as well, transport system of the city is one of the finest system in the country.
Not only, Faisalabad is a central distribution hub in the region, it is industrial and textile hub of the region as well, or more accurately, of the country. There are many famous clothing brands in Faisalabad which are also being exported to other countries.
Our guide, Noor, also told us that this city holds great importance in the generation and production of the Gross Domestic Products in the country, as the city tends to have most of the industrialisation in it. For example, we were taken to some of the industries that were safe to visit for non-working persons, we had our eyes on the tanning and dying industry, and also the food processing and packing industry where all the food material, such as the junk food, was being processed, packed and transported to other cities. We were also taken to the warehouses where the sports goods coming from Sialkot (another city of Pakistan, famous for its sports goods in the world, Sialkot’s footballs have been used in many of the football world cups) were being kept for safety before sending them to their actual destinations.
Throughout the whole province, Faisalabad is the city that generates approximately 20% of the whole province’s gross domestic products.
Faisalabad is also famous for its educational institutions, especially agricultural and textile universities. University of Agriculture, Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology and National Textile University are most famous among them in the country.
We were taken to have a look at the educational side of the city by our guide, The very first university of Faisalabad was built in 1906, way before Pakistan's independence and it was even existed on the world map The city also had its great speeches at some specific places such as one shown to us named ‘Dhobi Ghat’.
The major agriculture university of the country ( as was mentioned above, ‘University of Agriculture’, ranked number 1 in the list of the universities for agriculture in the country) lies in the boundaries of Faisalabad as the agriculture in the city is appreciated and is excelling. The exhibitions of any agricultural item or object that helps in the agriculture sector are also being kept in the same university/ies to keep the farmers informed and educated about the advancements in the field of agriculture to make them more efficient and productive in order to achieve better and increased production.
Furthermore, for the food such as daily groceries, till the time we were going to live there and also, the most obvious tradition, to bring something as a souvenir from a traditional place. As Pakistan is one of the countries that are famous for their clothing and little things such as handcrafted material and local shoes and slippers, we bought some of the items to take back for our relatives living abroad with us and did a lot of window shopping as well which was also quite the fun, the markets there were fully loaded with the stuff that anyone could only imagine, those sparkling clothes and magnificent khussas (a traditional shoe).
The market, named as “Ghanta Ghar”, was the most amazing and reasonable market to shop for goods for the locals and for the tourists. I and my family also bought little presents such as the shawls and the name crafted key chains for our friends and family. It was a wonderful experience, we were treated well and politely. Many shop keepers personally our guide and many of them offered us chai (tea) and Pakistani fried snacks (Samosas, pakoray, namak-paray).
Other markets had different names such as “Rail Bazar” that was only dealing with the purchasing and selling of Gold and cloth. Whereas the other market, Katchery Market, was the one having all sorts of used mobile phones for the locals and anyone who would want a second hand (used & slightly used) phone in a very less amount. I went inside and had a look at the phones as I was very amazed by the idea and wanted to see the condition of the phones myself to be sure of their reliability.
The food markets, on the other hand, were bigger than the confectionary item's one. The “Jhang Bazar” named after a sector in Faisalabad as we were told by our guide that this Bazar dealt with the fresh vegetables and fruits, meat and fish and all sorts of edibles that we need in a grocery where he showed my dad the types of traditional fish and how they were cut and sold. It was an exciting yet an hour of fish smell, but who doesn't love exploring so it was worth it.
In addition to that, the local cinemas also add to the beauty of the city.
We also had a tour of the famous hockey stadium before we explored the local food shops.
The places for dining in such as Portobello restaurant was a very great dine in and we had a great family time over there enjoying a great desi touch in the Italian and American food.
Whereas on the local side for the food vendors, the most famous Hafeez Halwa Poori Dhaba was our favourite spot for breakfast with the family, where they provide you with lightweight inflated flour bread (poori) with the gravy and it would make your mornings even amazing with the side of the beverage that is a must in their tradition named as Lassi (buttermilk) with a lot of raw cream on the surface.
The one exciting thing and which gave us the feeling of home was that the cars driven in the city were left-sided unlike the usual right side like in other cities of Pakistan. The city has wide roads and a lot of vehicles on it but yet a clean one. The longest road that we were told was that GT road or the Grand Trunk Road that connects the city to other cities of Pakistan for all sorts of transport, incoming or outing. The most exciting part on one road was the inter junctions M3, M2 and M4 which connect the north side of the country and the south side of the country through just a bridge.
Sometimes we sat in the uber to go to a specific place but sometimes we would try on new adventures by riding on the rickshaws that are always available on the road. Rickshaw was a bumpy ride but the most amazing one as we were enjoying the speed and pressure of air on our cheeks all the time, it was yet another unique experience of my life.
It was a great time and a great experience for the whole family and all the places that we went to and all the things we bought hold a great place in our memories and hearts. They were such good moments that we still cherish them whenever we see the pictures we took while being over in Pakistan.
If I get another chance to be in that country, I would love to go back to Faisalabad but this time may be in winters so the heat would be less and I would get to try their winter special foods and clothes. Overall, my experience was wonderful and I would recommend everyone to at least give the city a visit once in a lifetime and enjoy their wholesome hospitality and amazing traditions full of culture.
