[GOTFIVEONIT]

The Tragic Face of the Pleasure District

But of course Heera Mandi is a pleasure house only in its false description. It is actually a mirage that has the power to destroy the lives of both its residents and its visitors.

Attractive prostitutes like Saira might be able to hide their true age and be familiar with all the seductive charms for trapping gullible boys but they are done with once their bloom is lost. From there it is a downhill journey towards a life plagued by poverty, despair and loneliness.

Most of the Heera Mandi prostitutes share the same miserable end - these women who had once sold their virginity for thousands of dinars to rich gulf state sheikhs finally slip down to a stage where ten rupees is their demand price (which could be further bargained) for hurried services with poor vegetable vendors. There could not be more poignant irony.

Some prostitutes, fortunate to give birth to beautiful daughters, do live a luxurious life of rich madams, but still the melancholy of their old age could not be wished away.

The Twilight Days of Heera Mandi

Happily, the morally righteous have reasons to smile. These are the final days of Heera Mandi.

The place has started decaying like a rotten corpse. What had started off as a pampered district built next to a Mughal fort now lies uncared for in a filthy part of old Lahore.

Once upon a time Mughal princes courted its virgins. The wealthy culture-loving families, from the feudal estates of North India, used to sent their young sons to be trained under the guidance of the Heera Mandi ladies. They were expected to learn the style of fine Urdu conversation, to appreciate the nuances of Hindustani classical music and to get well-versed in the art of love making. Once upon a time the ladies here were more sophisticated than the women of the most respected and rich families of the land.

But now an eclipse has set in.

Times have changed. Heera Mandi is merely another red light district. Girls are patronized for quick sex sessions rather than for their poetry recitation. Courtesans have become call girls. Eminent people, with claims to middle-class respectability, no longer desire to be seen strolling in its streets. Even the ladies' chambers are shutting down. The pleasure ladies are gradually leaving Heera Mandi quarters for the modern secretive flats of Defense and Gulberg. The thrill of midnight cruising is being replaced by deals made over mobile phones.

A world is coming to an end, soon to be gone with the wind. Heera Mandi will become a fable - a fantasy, a dream house of the whores.

Epilogue

On our way back we stopped in a mud-built shack to have sweet, milky cardamom-flavored tea with oily fried goat testicles.

The night was growing old. The noise was quieting down. And the shadows were growing larger.