Hundreds of people gathered at the Janj Ghar (wedding house) are getting ready for a marriage ceremony. The women — all dressed up amd wearing their finest jewellery — are sharing gossip, while men are busy in giving the finishing touches to the arrangements. Of the older boys, though helping out the elders, many are dreaming of a day when they too will get a life partner. So are many of the young girls who are dancing and singing. Outside in the street, children are playing and having fun. A farmer is trying to drive his bull-cart past them, but the children are oblivious to his efforts.

Ah! The honking of a Qingqi rickshaw brings me back from my reverie. I realised I was standing in front of a three-storeyed Janj Ghar, in Toba Tek Singh, while dreaming of the pre-1947 era. The building, constructed in early 10th century, was used by the Hindu community as a guest house for wedding guests from the surrounding villages. It not only consisted of a banquet hall (Langar khana) and a huge open yard but also rooms, bathrooms and a kitchen, so that the would-be bride and groom and their relatives would lack for nothing before the big day. Many used to stay overnight as travelling on bull-carts from the villages was a cumbersome exercise, especially in the scorching summer heat.

Visiting the place after years and aware of the changing times, I was expecting to find at least one neighbourhood or street in the town exemplifying the pre-partition era. But unfortunately, this is not the case. A few old houses — scattered here and there — are still intact as new constructions have replaced old structures.

Adjacent to Janj Ghar was the temple, Sri Snatam Derham Sabha Mandir, where marriage ceremonies were conducted. Now an Auqaf property, the government established a primary school in the building in 1948 which was later attached with the Government Model High School, the primary section of which is still functional in the ground floor of the Janj Ghar. The high school is functioning in the two buildings of gurdwaras located nearby.

“There was a mandap (wedding stage) made of marble that was used for performing all the rituals involved in vivaah sanskar (wedding ceremony). It was removed to provide more space to students. There was open space in the Janj Ghar. Now this wall separates the two properties,” says Muhammad Latif, a retired government teacher, pointing to the wall erected to separate the temple and Janj Ghar. The Janj Ghar is not an Auqaf property; it was sold to a local trader after Independence who renamed it Bilqees Mahal and use it for personal residence.

Like any other town in rural Punjab, Toba Tek Singh reflects the ‘revolution’, which Gen Musharraf was proud of, i.e. the thousands of motorcycles and Qingqi rickshaws roaming on the roads. With an improved rural economy and easy availability of cheaper motorcycles, the two-wheelers have become people’s choice of transport as they brought mobility for those who could afford it amid complete absence of transport system in rural areas. On the other hand, the Qingqi became the sole public transport service (and a source of noise pollution), not only within the town but also connecting the rural population with the market places.

So how the residents of the town which was featured in Manto’s story in the mid-50s satisfy their intellect?

A visit to the largest bookshop in the town revealed that perhaps Islamisation has had a great effect on the local population’s reading habits. According to the salesman, the top three writers in demand are Wasif Ali Wasif, Naseem Hijazi and Parveen Shakir (more than 150 books of each writer are sold per month). The top four books sold (more than 100 copies) are also religious ones. On the other hand, it didn’t come as a surprise that only 65 copies of English newspapers are sold every day (Dawn tops with 35 copies). On the other hand, 1,550 copies of top four Urdu newspapers are sold in the town (400 of these are of an ideological media house). And again, the top monthly with over 1,000 copies sold is Ubqary — a magazine covering issues related to spirituality. A reminder: Toba Tek Singh cannot remain isolated from the rest of Pakistan.

Like any other small city or town, women and girls wear traditional chadar or burqa. The markets open early in the day and close around sunset, as most of the customers and traders come from nearby villages. Unlike the big cities like Karachi and Lahore, where shutters open after 11 am, the peak business hours here are between 10 am to 2pm. Thus, Toba Tek Singh goes quiet soon after sunset. Certainly, not peculiar to a rural society based on agriculture.

I won’t go into the details of local economic dynamics, as these are very interesting and require a separate article, but I will share an economic opportunity which can ensure sustained livelihood for people like me who, from time to time, find themselves unemployed. I was enjoying a walk after dinner when suddenly I noticed an owl perched on the steel beam of an overhead pedestrian bridge and then vanish in the dark. Where’s the economic opportunity in it, one may ask?

Here goes: All you have to do is to consult an expert, spend a few nights in open areas where owls are a common commodity, catch a few and sell them to the spiritual healers. A single piece gives you Rs25,000 to Rs30,000 in Lahore with the most rewarding buyers waiting for you near Minar-i-Pakistan. Karachi is also a huge market. You see, we are strong believers.

Now back to T.T. Singh. Though it is a sleepy town, there’s one place near the railway station on Shorkot Road where you can have a cup of tea and sweets 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In fact, it has never been closed for a moment since in 1963.

“My father, Muhammad Siddique, established the tea stall-cum-sweet shop. I started helping him in 1981, and am running the business on my own for the last one-and-half-year as my father now stays at home,” says Manzoor Ahmed. His three uncles also shared the setup, but later they separated and opened their small restaurants.

Manzoor is assisted by one helper, who makes various varieties of traditional sweets, and his eldest son — a student of grade 10. “My son runs the shop from 2am to 8am,” Manzoor said, while serving tea to his customers.

The story of this tea stall also reflects the journey the Pakistan Railways has gone through. “Around 400 to 480kg of milk was consumed in 1980s, but it is now reduced to 80kg because less people travel by trains,” Manzoor explained.

Gul Arshad, in-charge of Toba Tek Singh station which now gives a deserted look, says that only two trains — Pakistan Express and Millat Express — now stop at the station as the number of passengers has been reduced to 7,000 a month. In the 1980s, 11 trains were providing service to the local population.

Although the leftists always attached the railway network with British imperialism, it has been the lifeline for the people. In 1901, the railway station was established in the town, which is still mentioned as Chak No 326/JB in the Revenue Department’s record; it was originally just another settlement of migrants from the present-day Indian Punjab who were allotted barren land for cultivation after the British developed the canal system. There were a total of 16 railway stations on the Lyallpur (Faisalabad)-Shorkot Section out of which only eight are in use now.

One thing that must be appreciated is that the people haven’t forgotten Teko Singh after whom the town is named. He used to serve the passengers with water free of cost from the pond located outside the railway station, as drinking water used to be a precious commodity in the area. To honour the local hero, a park was established in 1982 and named Teko Park at the venue.

At the end, one last thing about the temple associated with the Janj Ghar. The upper floor of the temple houses a seminary, Jamia Madnia Hanifia, with the signboard showing it to be affiliated with the Wifaq-ul-Madaris Al-Arabiya Pakistan. This authenticates Saadat Hasan Manto’s description of Partition in Toba Tek Singh.