(Farah Deeba)
Each year New Year comes wearing vibrant dress of new hopes, fresh faiths, novel confidences and new-fangled expectations. As it walks down the lane, it with its serene breath rejuvenates all that is dead and decaying. It brings smiles sealed across its lips that need a joy to open up.
It prison terms the previous year in the room of memory with the promise to meet it after a span of exact one year. The previous year has no option but to pack its baggage and join his ancestors and there await his new heir.
Nonetheless every now and then it also brings with it spells to feel down about. 30 years from now the calendar of 1985 went in the wheelie bin and in place 1986 came to take charge of the approaching 300 and 65 days.
Thus came the year 85 to its close that along with itself it brought an end to his innings of 70 years. It was the occasion of New Year and the only new thing about this New Year was that it sent his soul to rest in peace. It snowed like on no occasion in the past. Snowflakes sailed down from the sky as if free souls wandering in trance.
GhulamNabi Mir was his documented name but people of Bandipore know him by Gul Mir. He was the elder son of Mohammad Munawar Mir, born exactly a century ago from now. In his mid-teens he was married to Aisha Begum owing to the loss of parents at a very tender age.
The young couple had everything to keep themselves happy but what stole the joy of their heart was the longing for a child. For one more than 15 years they had no children to own. The pair conjointly agreed to bring home a new young bride who could bless them few broods. The new partner did not steal the place of the co-wife but only performed her job for which she was betrothed.
As destiny had in store the new spouse over a period of time gave the couple six flowers to plant in their garden.
At a mere age of 12 he became a member of BandiporePanchayat and in due course of time ascended to the level of Chairmanship for a good number of years during which he bejeweled Bandipore with some eminent landmarks. Bandipore still craves for such an administrator for since his departure it rests paralyzed like a widowed bride. After the great fire that engulfed Bandipore in 1963, he was the man who gave the first ever Master Plan of J&K for Bandipore under the reign of the then Prime Minister G M Bakshi.
In the heart of the Town stands Nishat Park as an ever standing symbol of his architectural awareness. Under his direction it is a garden made in six steps which pleases the eye of aesthetic nous. The splendid ‘chashm-e-Firdous’ gives out jets of ice cold water that renews the flavors in mouth. The once functional fountains were a luxury enough to freeze the senses in ecstasy. The island park in its third step still has the power to heal the hurt in the hearts. The water hoses were once home to countless fish which with time disappeared slowly. During his period in office the uppermost floor of the park was home to white pigeons in a towering turret, but as they say, time indeed is the thief of all dreams. The dreams shattered and the pigeons soared high and vanished in thin air.
He hungered after developing an artificial lake guarding houseboats over the other side of the road to give the audience in the park that look of other heaven. However, this dream of Nishat Park remained half done.
The lane lights that are now visible to no eye used to keep the light of his eyes alert in nights. He used to come around late to give them the once-over.
Noted writer Mr Mohammad Shaban from KunanBandipore carves in his book “Tameer e Gulshan”:
(Behta;ate dachunkeun thaw gulshanuk hoesh
Che taem jantiyaan laegmeth jantaek poesh.
(Sit there, in right, and thus mark the garden
The man of Heaven has implanted flowers of Eden)
Foelesaeyyeuscheleukenfoelnaava
Chesaryuwmanzbandepoorjaanshooba
(Who he superfluities others so blooms himself
Of all beauties Bandipore shines so fine)
Mei boozim GulMeer enyeumisharaat
Kemyuw jamsheedh awenesyeum tilsimaat
(I some signs heard of Gul Mir
Who of the great men gave him such charms?)
Mei gaczheyhawun be kerhaasserqurbaan
Chesaryuwmanz bandepoor jaan shooba
(Show to me n would I bow my head
Of all beauties Bandipore shines so fine)
Adjacent to Nishat Park is EidGahBandipore, for which the poet thus puts his pen to paper:
Alaako manz wuchtow seun Eidgah,
Banomuth cha keune jaaite euth janthaa
(Of all areas visit here the Eidgah
Has any being made any such place! )
Che boon’ee taath menz goeth maaran,
Che saryuw manz bandepoor jaan shooba
(There in the Chinars are thus bopping,
Of all beauties Bandipore shines so fine)
As Shakespeare rightly speech marks, “Woe, destruction, ruin and decay; the worst is death, and death will have his day.” this lover of landscape too passed from nature to eternity. He had for many years survived on single kidney, the significant other of which rests buried in his orchard of apples. He in his final years, however, became a victim of Alzheimer. On 1st January 1986 at 2:20 pm he breathed his last at SKIMS Soura due to pneumonia and thus came the end of a man who left behind Bandipore as a basket of parks to bloom.
Three decades after his departure when one looks at the state of his works done, one only sinks in a sea of remorse. Bandipore forlornly has gone from bad to worse and this is how my core in lament drips:
Gul so you left the gul to weep
You had of them to so much reap
Being is a roll of joy and sorrow
One from the other we are to borrow
Author can be mailed at farahwani123@gmail.com
Comments from people around:
- In Bandipore, Nishat Park is a scene to see. Late GhulamNabi Mir with much sweat soaking toil has got it erected. He has assisted Bandipora Municipality as a Chairman for many years. His artistic savors were festoonedvery clean which refresh in memory of Mughal edifices. May Allah forgive him his sins and accept his rightful deeds done in the cause of humanity.
-SAS Geelani. (WularKinarey)
- Whatever remarkable is in Bandipore belongs to his period only. He indeed has done a lot for Bandipore and regrettably other councils couldn’t keep his pace. He was a man of aesthetic taste.
–Mr Showkat Ahmad Deen (ZEPO Bandipore)
- You dreamt to see me in my own home. Today I have a home but no you. I have a roof over my head but the roof of you is missing. I search to see you but the wall of separation lies in between us. I pray you to rest in Jannah.
_M.Maryam (Daughter)
- You have parted only to leave my world incomplete. You left only to shatter me but you thus visit in my dreams that always assure me of your perpetual presence. You are an irreparable loss.
-Mehboob Un Nisa (Daughter)
- After your death, everything in life changed.Everyone was on edge and sobbingfor months.No one wanted to talk about what happened. Every time amemory isbrought up we laugh and then cry. Coconut cookies give a smile and tear in my eye for they always remind me of you. He used to get me always one or two from the market when I was a kid of 5. May your soul rest in peace Tathya…The people we lose will never be gone butthey remain with us in our memories forever .I miss you always.
–Sheeba (Granddaughter)
- I have not been in your company Grandpa but I wish to be like you. Your great disposition always hovers over me like my own shadow. I am here to carry forward your dream. May Jannah be the garden that in you repose.
-Mir Inaytullah (Grandson)
- Dadu
I have not in life though seen you
Deep down I feel a vacuum building
And in nobody I can thus confide
I know youare but watching
You each day are thus missed
So in our hearts you are ever living
_Mir Iqra (Granddaughter)
-
My Dear Dada ji
Clouds darkened and the sun sank deep…
When that moment of grief left us to weep…
Oh King of Hearts!!
I cry for the true great loss…
Being your blood is the only thing I won on…
I close my eyes thus to see you in trance…
But lights fade and I cry so alone…
I send you blessings and long for a meet…
With you along I always dream…
I see myself talking to you…
Asking you queries in a queue…
Tathya Can you see us from there?
Or do you often pay visits as butterfly in our homes?
Or are you that star bright which twinkles in my evergaze?
My eyes blink and I cry blood tears…
I find you gone; Gone forever…
Upset, I go out for a walk…
And rest in the Nishatpark…
I sit in my favorite island park…
Something blissful cherishes my heart…
I feel you around…
I see you touching its walls…
Smelling daisy and lavender white…
Humbleness in your eyes…
And an efficient bright smile…
You alone are my proud…
I see you eating fruits of heavens high…
Now I got the answer I sought…
My heart whispered you alive are…
Alive in the hearts of poor…
Alive in the hearts of rich…
Alive in the heart of friends…
Alive in thy every storyteller…
Oh Tathya you in me are alive…
Your every little deed is alive…
And make us, your blood feel so proud…
Oh clean great soul, Rest in Peace…
-Mir Tabinda (Granddaughter)
- Once we were in Delhi, Toeth bought some unique flower saplings with the idea to plant them at Nishat Park. He in those times gave the flower seller Rs 50 as a tip. At the railway station he asked me where the saplings were, which by absent-mindedness I had forgotten to bring along. We had to miss the train for the flowers to reach the land. He had great love for flowers. He was one with nature. His only aim was titivation of Bandipore.
_Mohammad RamzanBhat, (a close attendant of him)