Few days back, we had a long conversation with Kazmi couples. We wanted to interview someone who knows this city and has lived here for a long time. We were told to contact Kazmi's and the couple not only agreed to talk but insisted that they would visit us in the Centre for Social studies, the place where I work.
During this conversation he suggested us( me and Prof. Das) to see Obara near I P Mission school. He thought that this might be the place to board ships for the Haz to Mecca and Madina. Surat was know as "Babul Macca", the gateway to Mecca.
It is too early to conclude the equation between this obara and the Haz pilgrimage. But, this bylane was full of history. Just behind IP Mission school, this narrow lane takes you to the river front of Tapi. There are old buildings, dilapidated and empty with court scriptures written on their old wooden doors.
On the river front the only functional building you find (apart from stray converted residential houses) is a Hanuman temple. The walls providing a frame to this riverfront and the entry gate all look like quite an old structures.
However, what caught my attention most was this old marble tablet dating back to 1934 informing us that a Parsee gentleman transferred this property to Surat Municipality. The warning comes alongwith this declaration prohibiting domestic animals' movement around this place.
Written in Gujarati, this begins with 'Shree' (a hindu religious marker) follows with 'Pak' and 'Ahurmajda' representing Islamic and Parsi traditions of writing. Is this a layered tablet along religious cum communitarian lines or is this a layered past that comes in this form of a marble tablet. There were other three longer tablets on the walls of the locked house. But the camera quality did not allow legible snaps of them. Probably next time.
I want to know the place, this lane, their inhabitants but also like to know more on the word 'obara' or 'obaro'.
During this conversation he suggested us( me and Prof. Das) to see Obara near I P Mission school. He thought that this might be the place to board ships for the Haz to Mecca and Madina. Surat was know as "Babul Macca", the gateway to Mecca.
It is too early to conclude the equation between this obara and the Haz pilgrimage. But, this bylane was full of history. Just behind IP Mission school, this narrow lane takes you to the river front of Tapi. There are old buildings, dilapidated and empty with court scriptures written on their old wooden doors.
On the river front the only functional building you find (apart from stray converted residential houses) is a Hanuman temple. The walls providing a frame to this riverfront and the entry gate all look like quite an old structures.
However, what caught my attention most was this old marble tablet dating back to 1934 informing us that a Parsee gentleman transferred this property to Surat Municipality. The warning comes alongwith this declaration prohibiting domestic animals' movement around this place.
Written in Gujarati, this begins with 'Shree' (a hindu religious marker) follows with 'Pak' and 'Ahurmajda' representing Islamic and Parsi traditions of writing. Is this a layered tablet along religious cum communitarian lines or is this a layered past that comes in this form of a marble tablet. There were other three longer tablets on the walls of the locked house. But the camera quality did not allow legible snaps of them. Probably next time.
I want to know the place, this lane, their inhabitants but also like to know more on the word 'obara' or 'obaro'.
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