Share Our Heritage with the World

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If this sounds like an over-the-board observation, come and visit The Mama Parsi Girls High School on Bunder Road (now M. A. Jinnah Road). A dialogue awaits your participation.

The boundary wall of the school is not something that was originally there more than 90 years back. It has been erected for understandable reasons. But it does not give the complete picture of the awesome sight which can only be beheld once you view it up close.

The instant you go through the gate after the necessary question answer session with the gatekeeper, you're struck by an astounding view. The portico supported by classic columns with plants all around them is just the beginning of a journey back in time. A few steps into the building and a hall right before the staircase immediately provides a sense of history.

Some tablets and a couple of statues point to the generosity of the people responsible for the construction of the school. One tablet reads that it records the munificent donation of rupees three lacs contributed by Ardeshir Hormusji Mama towards founding The Mama Parsi Girls High School in pious memory of his father Khan Sahib Hormusji Khurshedji Mama and his mother Bai Homlibai Hormusji Mama in Karachi on Jan 26, 1925. The two busts of the great men stand on right and left of the entrance hall.

It is terribly hard to imagine how just a single institution contains such immeasurable wealth of information collecting which can help you piece together different parts of history. The individuals who contributed to the construction of the Mama Parsi Girls High School in its early days and those who are still looking after it as a continuation of the great tradition are no ordinary people. They are history unto themselves. And in order to know that, you just have to engage them in a dialogue. Rather, engage yourself in that exercise. Try it. You will only be enriched.

[Source: Karachi Legacies of Empires by Peerzada Salman]

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