Akhtar Balouch, also known as the Kiranchi Wala, ventures out to bring back to Dawn.com’s readers the long forgotten heritage of Karachi. Stay tuned to this space for his weekly fascinating findings.

Read Part 1 of this blog here.

In her book, Malika-e-Mashriq (Queen of the East), Mehmooda Rizwiya writes about a museum in the Burns Garden which was shifted to Frere Hall due to the war. She goes on to paint a picture, writing that the museum stores stuffed animals, artifacts from the Mohenjo-Daro, statues of people of Hind and abroad, portraits, paintings and pictures of famous people from around the world, and two human skeletons.

Well, all else was sweetness and light, but the question remained: Where had the Victoria Museum gone?

A friend of mine, Aijaz sahib, told me that the address of the head office of a well-known gold trading company, which also owns a private television network, says it is located on Zaib-un-Nisa street, opposite a ‘museum building’.

Wondering how an old, famous and, considering the name, probably extravagant museum be lost in time so easily, we went to Zaib-un-Nisa Street the same day. The signboard of the company could be seen on an old building. Aijaz sahib was of the thought that it was the museum building. I reminded him that the address said the gold traders were located opposite the museum, not inside it. We both looked in the correct direction now. Sadly, there was no sign of the museum. Instead, we could see the Ideal Life Insurance Corporation’s signboard on the building. At least I ignored it all as if I had not come for it at all and went into the street on its left. There was another old building there. And like most of such buildings in Karachi, it, too, had a signboard nailed into its forehead. It read: Furniture Mart. We then went for the gold traders’ office. A man there told us the address we had followed was of the old office, which was located in front of a garment shop that is still there. Of course, I had to go for the shop. Even though the building we thought so gladly of had disappointed us by not being what we wanted it to be, I still had high hopes. Not for long, though.

The owner of the shop told us there was no such museum in the vicinity. However, there was another garment shop in the same building which was called the Museum Cloth House. The place was shut down years ago, he told us. He was right, as we confirmed by asking around.

So, once again, we were still searching for the Victoria Museum. In his book The Memories of India, published in 1936, author S. F. Markham writes under the title Victoria Museum: In the summers, the timings of the museum were 8:30am to 11:30am and 3:00pm to 6:00pm, while in the winters it was from 9:00am to 12:00pm and 3:00pm to 6:30pm. On Fridays, the museum was only open to women in purdah and children of age 12 and under.

The cornerstone of the museum was laid by Sir Bartle Frere. In 1870, the museum was no longer the responsibility of the Bombay government, and was handed over to the Karachi Municipal Corporation. The building constructed in 1928 was also the municipality’s responsibility. The book suggests the museum is located in the Burn’s Garden. Apart from the central hall, the museum building has three rooms and many corridors, stretching up to 15,000 feet.

S. A. Naqvi writes in one of his books published in 1970, “The museum is located in the heart of Karachi, where everyone from the city can easily reach it.” He goes on, telling us that the museum stands inside the premises of Burns Garden, a public park. The place where the museum is situated becomes a square since the Angel Road, the Strachan Road, the Shahra-e-Kamal Ataturk, and the Kachahri (Court) Road all meet here. The central public entrance faces the Shahra-e-Kamal Ataturk. The entrance charges for an adult are 12 paisa, while for children of age 12 and under the fee is six paisa. However, on Saturdays, there are no charges for the people visiting the museum.

One of my journalist friends, Ashraf Solangi, who reads my blog regularly, suggested that I write something about the Supreme Court Registry building in Karachi, which, he said, is another of Karachi’s heritage sites. To divert my attention from the search that had yielded no results so far, I said I will write about it. Suddenly, it occurred to me that the Supreme Court building is also located near Burn’s Garden. I thought to give it a try, hoping that I might find something about the mystery museum, too.

The next day, Ashraf sahib and I went to the Supreme Court Registry, Karachi. We spoke with Shams Farooqi, the Registrar, who regretted that he did not have any information about how old the building was. However, he does know that after the birth of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah inaugurated the State Bank of Pakistan in this very building.

Farooq sahib said he has written to the State Bank authorities many a time, but no one seems to care about it. As soon as we took leave, I called my friend Aijaz sahib. When I told him all that had just happened, he adopted the typical didactic tone of a teacher who only speaks in true gentleman’s fashion and said, “My dear friend that is so naïve of you. The building you just told me about is, in fact, the Victoria Museum building.”

I softly inquired, making sure that I was in no way coming across as cheeky, “But sir, you said the building was located somewhere at Zaib-un-Nisa Street?” He replied, “That I had said considering you are searching for the artifacts that Charles Napier had stored here somewhere.

What happened with the Victoria Museum is way better than what happens to most of the heritage sites and buildings in our country. At least, it never lost the history track. From a museum to the central bank of a newly founded country to the branch of the highest judicial center of the same country, the building has probably seen enough of our history and deserves the respect of an elder. When you go to the Victoria Museum now, a mosque can be seen standing tall in the front yard, with a minaret taller than that of the museum.

Photos by Akhtar Balouch
Translated by: Ayaz Laghari

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