I felt like a bridegroom who had come to pick out one of the three beautiful sisters. Sitting next to each other on a blue sofa, they blushed and coquettishly glanced at us.
An old woman with a straight back and shining-white hair sat down on the floor and talked of the heat and humidity. She had a firm, commanding voice that sliced and rebuked the air with the sharp tanginess of a most refined form of spoken Urdu.
Unlike the brightly-colored and intricately designed shalwaar kameeze (Shalwar are loose trousers and the kameeze is a long shirt) of the girls, the stern woman stood apart in an off-white dress and a white netted dupatta (a scarf or covering for the head and upper body worn by women), carefully adjusted on her head.
It seemed like a cultured Muslim family, but the girls were not sisters. They were prostitutes. The old lady was not a mother looking for suitable boys for her daughters, but a pleasure-house Madam.
We were in Heera Mandi — 'a bazaar of diamonds' — Pakistan's oldest red light district.
Crossing into the Red Light
Mian Naeem, a soft-spoken Lahore-based sculptor and art-critic, had agreed to take me for an excursion to Heera Mandi, a place I particularly wished to visit especially after reading an excellent book by the British author Louise Brown, The Dancing Girls of Lahore: Selling Love and Saving Dreams in Pakistan's Ancient Pleasure District.
I was in Pakistan to take part in a conference for a visa-free South Asia and was tied up with a series of seminars and speeches during the day. Night was the time to explore the city and Heera Mandi had to be a necessary pilgrimage.
A Road Leading to Sin
Mian Naeem parked his vintage car outside the periphery of Heera Mandi. It was past midnight, perhaps the right time to take a dip into the secrets of the flesh.
The evening had grown slightly middle-aged. The madams and their agents were likely to be more tolerant towards pleas for cheaper bargaining. The available girls were unlucky to be picked yet and hopefully more resigned in their choice for customers. Further, the shield of the deep-night darkness made it easy to imagine that Allah would be too sleepy to notice his faithful venturing out to make sinful transactions.
The streets were crowded with the revelers of the night. Restaurants, and only restaurants, lined both the sides. The blazing fire in the tandoors, the complicated smell of chicken curry and gutter stink, the cries of the cooks, and the laughter of the diners combined to create a blurred sensation in the mind.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Victor Lana
"On our way back we stopped in a mud-built shack to have sweet, milky cardamom-flavored tea with oily fried goat testicles."
Now, come on, if this doesn't get the public in what will?
Just kidding. I found this piece to be extraordinarily well-written, with the subtle nuances that indicate the depth of the writer's craft. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this piece and feel saddened that such a place exists.
Of course, I have been to every continent except Antarctica, and I have seen shadows of what you describe here in cities everywhere. Judging by what I have encountered, the myth of the "happy hooker" is far removed from reality. Your piece only lends credence to that perception.
Thank you for an amazing read!
2 - Monica Singh
Well "Mayank Austen Soofi" i m very impressed from this article. Really ! First thing is "the way u used to express the feelings of other people is amazing. I mean sometimes the character of your article speak thereself only" and the second thing "i get lots of information about "Heera Mandi" now i can tell anybody what exactly "Heera Mandi" is......! third thing in my opinion ur this article can catch anybody attention towards "what miserable life prostitutes are living........."
3 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
I have to echo the compliments you richly deserve for this finely written article. The subject is timely (sex, like death, is always timely) and the tragedies of both sex and death, along with life's painful truths await the reader of this article.
Kol hakavód!! All honors to you!!
4 - Sonam Tsomo
As usual..well written... You experiencing such things and having them put in words actually helps most of the people, like us esp. who are ignorant about these kind of facts.
Thanks for introducing the realities of life, it was just a fiction to me before i read this piece.
5 - Anshu Tyagi
I have always heard about prostitutes and red light areas vaguely from people, but never have I had such a close insight into a whorehouse of yesteryears.
Your experiences have put me into a dilemma. This flesh trade would indeed continue "Heera Mandi" or not with technological assistance of mobile deals and trademark of a call girl for a prostitute, but will it actually bring an improvement in the living conditions of the women involved in it or lead them further to their doom.
After reading this article i feel I am stuck in a time warp.
6 - Tehman Lall from Lahore.
Mayank, exquisite and intimately written. The 'Mandi' couldn't have been described better in words. I do hear that its by far the most classically sustained and maintained red-light district in the country, keeping in-touch the 'darbari' heritage seen from the old alley-ways and tall sub-continental architectures. But I couldn't make the comparison from experience!
But you're right, it is a fading 'art' or artistic tradition, if you will. Now its gradually coming out of those overshadowed alley-ways and onto Lahore's main roads!
Come friday and saturday nights, one can witness(say once in two weekends) sickly sex-starved men on fancy wheels making deals on road sides in Gulberg and other densely populated commercial areas. Or the time-strapped lad could get the odd-job in his car seat on a dark residential street nearby!
What goes on behind closed doors in some social classes, I leave to your imagination. But make no mistake, that is the status quo.
Your observations and articles put alot of things in context for even a Lahore's resident, Mayank.
You should and will go places..
7 - Mayank Austen Soofi
Thank you Tehman. I have a blog called Pakistan Paindabad (at blogspot). I invite you to write for it. My blog needs persepctive on Pakistan from a Pakistani. You will be much welcomed. I assure you.
8 - ammar UK
its indeed a classic way of expressing the outcomes of the heera mandi.the author has depicted very nicely in comprehencisve words to show the glance of the red light district.
really lovely
9 - whore shud be banned
awsome man fuckin awsome
10 - Kaya
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. My recent visit to Lahore took me to the famou are but only during the daylight hours where we had halwa puri at PHAJA'S (Fazal Haque).
Having recently read the book TABOO, I am tremendously intrigued by the whole Heera Mandi set up. What is represented historically and what it is today.
Thankyou for a sensitive, insightful, well written piece.
11 - zain
wow what a great article!! you must publish it in some paper stuff! great!!!!!!!!
12 - Angie
i enjoyed reading The Dancing Girls of Lahore.Louise Brown did a FANTASTIC job.this the first book I have read that i cried at its close.
my heart cries to all of the oppressed women of the world who are able despite the suffering have
been able to maintain an enduring spirit
13 - Nancy
Another great article, Mayank. Very evocative; I almost feel like I've been there myself. This should indeed be published.
14 - none
Hello, U didn`t show girls rates in your book. Show each girl rate with her pic.
15 - zohaibb jan
well i didnt studied by the lake of time.but the comments shows that it was good.
16 - Ahmad jamal amlik
good but it is ery short,like fozia saeed written in "taaboo".
Its news that one idian director sanjay bansali has purchased the rights of ur booka nd will make movie over this,
Graete Job.
Ahamd Jamal.
17 - SALMAN
IT IS GOOD BUT
WHAT ELSE CAN YOU SAY ABOUT THE MANDI
18 - abid sultan form india
i am very sad to read that how much u people happy to.u know that its not reffer the socity level of the muslims.what is going on in india.the aids ratio is grater then pakistan and the indian film industry is the cause i think.here in india i saw lot of that like places,plz think twice before u talk
19 - shahzad butt
what i had the been a little bit of experience of these things i found that this heera mandi is an a point of callgirls instead of dancing girls you can say it dancing girls bazar at least 10 years ago .
20 - ali
i want to see full sex
21 - gma pk
sex is a need of every man
22 - Hassan Masud (from Lahore)
This is surely a good piece written in as many good words, sometimes bordering on the edges of no-mans-land describing things and events and thoughts in a way most would deem outrageous or simply obscure yet portraying the locality and its inhabitants in a light that deserves a read.
I am myself from Lahore yet never actually laid my foot in this so-called-which-so-many-want-to-believe- "Harem Paradise". Probably a family trip to the nearby Anarkali Food Street for a few classy chiken haandis was enough for me then.
Good Work Mayank.
Regards,
Hassan Masud
GIK Institute of Engg.
23 - umar
my LUN is very hot and sexy plz try my LUN one time cheeseeeee BUND
24 - khalid
goood good very very good
25 - unknown
Very well written!
keep up the good work!