GANDA SINGH BUILDING LAL CHOWK SRINAGAR, KASHMIR .

GANDA SINGH BUILDING LAL CHOWK

                                                                       
This building lies in Main lal chowk just opposite GHANTA GHAR.. Many shops used to be there . Some continue to exist while others have changed owners .I would buy medicines from the Unani medicine shop AL KOUSAR. This building also had shops like BROCA PRINTING PRESS, SHIV JI’S X RAY CLINC , ALI MOHD AND SONS BOOK SELLERS ,MOHINDER NATH JANKI NATH ,NISHAT WINES , STANDARD OPTICIANS etc.cte. The footpath path Market near this building had the Cap sellers , Pen sellers , Roadside Wazwaan shops and Tibetans selling woolens bought from Ludhiana . I vividly remember the Delicious kebabs. Butter Toasts and Tea served at Juniper Hotel inside Ganda Singh Building lal Chowk Srinagar .My friend Ramesh Trisal would go for eating footpath Kebabs in this area . He would order for Seekh Kebabs and stand far off from the Footpath . Once ready the kebab seller would signal him to come over to munch the preparation hurriedly lest he be seen by anyone .

I am informed by Tej Partap singh son of late S S Broca proprietor of Broca Press lal Chowk Srinagar as under

“ Ganda Singh was famous Civil Engineer from Punjab who designed and constructed old Amira kadal Bridge at a specific request from Maharaja of Kashmir . Later he built a Building for himself in lal Chowk on Land donated by His Highness Maharaja Hari Singh . That Building came to be known as GANDA SINGH BUILDING. Sardar Ganda singh also laid out the plan for completion of Maharaja Bazaar across Amira kadal Bridge . The family lived in this huge Building during summers and some relations of late Ganda Singh continued to live till 1989 . Entire shops in the building have been sold out   except our portion. In fact we owned our area by virtue of a proper sale deed . ”

I am not sure about what Tej Partap says. May be he is correct . There is no other source to check up at the moment .But then late Sati Sahni , a senior journalist from our state once told me that he bought his new Stewart Warner radio from a shop in Ganda Singh Building lal Chowk srinagar . In fact the first radio shop in Kashmir was opened in Ganda Singh Building only ..


Chaman pe ghaarat e gulchin se jaane kyaa guzri....
kafas se Aaj saba beqaraar guzri hai (faiz) .______


Nobody knows what befell the garden,
in the wake of flower gatherer's pillage_
so restlessly has the breeze flit past the nest today.








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