LAHORE: In the cultural heart of Pakistan –Lahore – few bookshops remain that can boast of having served generation after generation of booklovers. Until last week, the Ferozsons was one of them. It stood tall and proud on the Mall and boasted a legacy of countless books, both that were published in-house and others that were part of its century-old tradition of  housing great literature. The Ferozsons building was built back in the Colonial era (1894), as divulged by its high ceilings, old stone architecture, and the italicised font of its signage. The building had by now absorbed the wooden scent of old books, a dust-ridden, musty kind of smell, which is pleasant and familiar only to those who love to read.

Today, however, the building has been reduced to a burnt out shell. Its insides are a black mass: a funeral of ideas and emotions, thoughts and souls, which had resided in that haven for so long. Nothing of any value has been left inside.

A fire erupted mysteriously at the Ferozsons bookstore on Wednesday, May 30, breaking out on the ground floor of the building and slowly climbing its way upwards, determined to engulf the entire place. Onlookers described the scene as ‘horrific.’

“You don’t see fires like this too often,” says Rashid, who runs a shop in the vicinity. “That fire was huge! I have never seen anything like it.”

Others said that they were shocked that this huge store could have ever been hit by a fire of such magnitude.

“Ferozsons was a landmark,” says Majid Ali, owner of an electronics store at the nearby Hall Road. “For me, it has been there forever and to see it burn like that really stunned me. Even from across the road, I could feel the intensity of the heat waves.”

Rescue 1122 official Farooq Ahmed said that the firefighters had tried their best to stamp out the fire, but even until Friday, the place was still smouldering.

“It’s in a really bad state,” he says, his tone reminiscing that of someone breaking the worst of news. “I don’t know what will come of it. The three-canal basement has been destroyed. Their backroom was still burning, even though the flames had been diminished to a large extent and the sweltering heat isn’t helping stub the fire out either.”

In the 45-degree centigrade heat prevailing in Lahore every day, the fire seemed to have gathered its energy from weather. Even on the fourth day, the ashes were white hot.

Despite this, rescue workers have not given up and are carrying on with the monumental task.

While the financial loss has been huge, veteran writer Asghar Nadeem Syed’s thoughts linger elsewhere.

“It is not just a financial loss,” he says, his voice dropping into a melancholic note.

“It is emotional. On that day, it was people who died in the fire –people who lived in our memories and our consciousness…part of them is gone now.”

Syed is reminiscent of the time he spent in the area, especially when he used to visit the store with his friends and family. “Books are alive…they breathe for us,” he philosophises. “So many books written by my friends, who are no more, were burnt down in that fire. My memories of time spent as a young man…those too gone down in flames.”

Qasmi remembers the days of his youth, when he and his friends of the intellectual circles of Lahore gathered in the area.

“In those times, the area known as Charing Cross was the place to be,” he remarks. “Everything was on the Mall Road, from the beautiful Lawrence Gardens, to the tea houses. In fact, I remember how we used to troop down to Ferozsons, and flip through the books, and then afterwards we would down to the basement of the building to sit in a tea house called Regina Café. For everyone I knew, Ferozsons was the main attraction.”

According to the noted writer, the literary culture was quite unique in those days.

The publishing, printing and book selling company was established in 1894 by Maulvi Ferozuddin. Syed says it was antiqure, “a museum of sorts.”

“This particular branch was not just a shop. It was a refuge for the students. Unfortunately, we do not have such places anymore.”

Aamir Faraz, secretary general of a literary circle called 'Halqa,' which meets every Sunday, also has memories associated with the place.

“When I won a scholarship in after matriculation exams, I was given a prize of one thousand rupees,” he recalls. “Without informing anyone at home, I sneaked off to Ferozsons and bought books worth all the money I had. That was some day! I had never felt greater satisfaction then when I strode through that sea of books trying to find books of my choice.”

Great writers have been published by Ferozsons.

Respected writer Intizar Hussain, too, got several children’s stories published in the form of a book which Faraz remembers.

“I loved going through their fiction section,” he says, pointing out that this particular branch of Ferozsons was vast, had an eclectic collection, but at the same time their collection of fiction in both English and Urdu, and especially for children was magnificent.

Some book lovers, however, are begrudged over the fact that even Ferozsons may not have kept everything safely in their record.

“I had a story of mine published in their children’s magazine called Taleem-o-Tarbiyat when I was 11,” says poet Eruj Mubarak. “But I have tried so hard to find that issue at Ferozsons, only to find out that they have no record of these wonderful children’s magazines that they published. I had to find a copy from somewhere else. But I think that by ending the publication of these magazines, they lost the power that they had over thousands and thousands of young readers, who excitedly waited for a new issue each week.”

Eruj says he grew up reading Taleem-o-Tarbiyat and finds that it was because of these magazines that his reading habit and subsequently writing habit grew too.

“Ferozsons publishing house has printed some really good classics especially for children. Who in our generation can forget venerable Sufi Tabassum’s humorous masterpiece Toat Batoat?”

While writers and poets all remember the building and the contents it carried from their childhood to last week, when everything was running smoothly, there is another question rising among those concerned with the incident: What is next?

Aamir Riaz, general manager of ILQA Publications says that the question is not of recovering the loss that has ben occurred. Instead, the real question is how it will be rebuilt.

The ground floor and first floor of the store displayed the books while the basement was used to store the stock. The outlet in the Ghulam Rasool Building, or Number 60, The Mall, also functioned as the Ferozsons corporate office.

Outlet manager Shamsul Hasan Madni, estimates the financial loss at Rs150 million worth of books that have been burnt.

No one knows much about the cause of the fire. Confusingly, the fire had begun at a time when there was no electricity and there was no backup generator in use either. “There were no flammable materials where the fire started, except when the wooden roof caved in,” says Madni. “In fact no one was allowed to smoke inside either.”

Up until now, the Punjab Government, busy in its politicking, has not announced anything in connection with the burning of the building. However, according to a section of the law concerning historic buildings, no old building will be rebuilt except if it has been subject to an accident – a law that applies to the Ferozsons building. What will be interesting is whether the Punjab Government will carry out the rebuilding work in a manner that restores part of the bookstore’s original value? Or will it be replaced by an ugly modernistic contraption wiping out memories of an entire era?

The author is a freelance journalist.