PHAGWARA Part 2 : Shane Punjab and more

'Shane Punjab', on a Rickshaw at the Railway Station

Having successfuly visited the exact place of my birth and met my cousin after two  decades i was mighty happy.  So the next day was spent  at a relaxed pace, discovering the town of Phagwara.

On our seconda day in Phagwara, the town greeted us with a light shower of rain .  

And we spotted school boys cycling to school in their colorful HOUSE T Shirt, as it was a Saturday.

The G T Karnal road runs through the town and two old and still important landmarks on this road ate the Sugar Mills

JCT  building on G T Karnal Road

and the yellow facade of the JCT Mills.

Two more landmarks on the G T Road are the St Joseph's Convent and as mentioned earlier, Hotel Cabana.

The surpsrise on the G T Road is an outlt of none other than SAGAR RATNA!

I began with a visit to Ramgarhia college. Sure enough, there were students today.  Boys and girls.  Phagwara does nort receive any visitors, so my daughters and i were the target of stares, in the college and everywhere else we went.  The situation was made even more curiosity prone for the locals as i was continoulsy clicking pictures to capture the mood of the town.

Ramgarhi college was established in 1942, and is one of the oldest.  A peek into the canteen made me realize that time had stood still here. Modernisation was perhaps two steps away.

I would have liked to meet the Principal and told her bout my mother, but that meant waiting for an appointment.  So i skipped anddwent to the next venue.

Also in Satnam Pura is the  Ramgarhia school

A sign board on the main Iron gate says:

Punjabi Paddhen

Punjabi Likhen

Punjabi Bolen

There is also a Ramgarhia Institute of Engineering and Technology.

There is a tiny Shiv temple in Satnampura,

 near to the Gupta Book store.

another shiv teple in Satnap pura is a fairly big size one.  Interestingly the pandit there hials from Mathura.

Post visits to the temples, we went to the Bus Stand

A sign in Punjab which says : 'Puchh Gichh'

A Bus, ready to go at the Bus stand

. Once again there was a flurry of activity here and i quickly took som pictures and headed to the Railway Station.

The Railway station of Phagwara is once gain very spacious.

 

Waiitng Lounge at the Railway Station

I was surprised to see Phagwara railway station sensitive towards The Phyically challenged.

More surprise came in the form of an Apahaj ghar, near my Hotel Resort:

The visit to the Railway Station was sheer nostalgia for me, as we would always travel to Phagwara from
Allahabad or Delhi via train.  But more than that, the fact that my  Nana worked here as the Staion Masterhel held special significance  for me.

Ignoring teh curious stares of the onookers i kept clicking pictures.

We once again  passed by Hargobind nagar where i stopped at  the park.

There is a statue of Shri Ambedkar there.

We then poceeded to Gandhi Chowk and the inner  market

Right oppiste to the shop is the city Police Station.

Here is  located my cousin's shop,  MANOHAR  Opticlas,

a prominent and one of the oldesrt shops of he market. But it is very modernown.  a typical home thw

We visited Model town which is the elite are of the town.

A typical home in Model Town

Our last stop for the first  half of sightseeing ond Day 2 was my sister's college,  KAMLA NEHRU College for Women.

We went back to the hoteourl for lunch and rsted for a while..

I  wanted to visit the biggest temple and Gurdwara of the town.  The Reception at the  hotel told  me about three venues:

Gita Bhawan in Model Town

Hanuman Gadi near Bus Stand

and Sukh Chain Gurdwara at banga Road, which runs across the inner market.

The Gita Bhawan is a nice spacious well maintained temple. But it was partailly closed .  So i still managed to visit some of the moortis like Shivji and the Shiv mandir which were in the open.


Hanuman Gadi has a huge gigantic size moorti of Hanuman ji along wii of all other Hindu Gods.


Our last stop was at the Sukh Chain Gurdwara.  Located at the far end of  Banga road, it is right im the midst of green fields, running into acres.

It is built somewhat on the lines of Banglr Sahib in Delhi, With a sarovar with fish where devotees can be seen offering food to the fishes.  It has a Prasad counter form where you can buy prasad and offer to the the main Hall... which is the satsang hall.

It also has a huge langar romm where we tasted the dal, achaar and prasadde as part of the  langar.

One more building is probably the residential area.

I shall post pictures of these in part 3.

With that we finshed our Phagwarra darshan.  Except that ther was a surpsrise in store for us. In the form of my daughter's friend Amit Chawla. The most intersing and exciting part of the trip.

Read about that in part 3 :)