most residents express surprise that ludhiana has several historical sites to visit how would they know most of these places are abandoned and in a state of disrepair it took a movie like rang de basanti to highlight one fort with the punjab government doing precious little to promote tourism in the states biggest city ludhiana even as the punjab governments tourism website acknowledges the fact that ludhiana was founded by the lodhi sultans in the 15th century using that information to introduce the city the 5000yearold lodhi fort fails to find space in the website meant to guide tourists visiting the city this is just one example of the same on the eve of world tourism day toi takes down instant notes quizzing people about historical places in the city and asking for their suggestions manish bindra a lecturer in a city college says we are committing a huge mistake by not teaching our children about the city its history and culture for a child to be rooted to his culture and his place its very important that they learn and understand how the city was formed ludhiana might be seen as an industrial city today but it has not been the same in earlier times the city has historical roots too when toi spoke to a few residents about historical sites in the city the response was surprising while the elderly still had some knowledge about places like lodhi fort bhir quila raipur etc the young seemed very ignorant and had hardly any idea that such places existed in the city i have never heard of it is it somewhere in ludhiana asked 19yearold richa dogra a student from brs nagar when asked about a 150yearold monument flame of memory a war memorial built by the british in memory of the last anglosikh war the battle of aliwal mitul gupta businessman from civil lines said observing tourism day in the city sounds like a joke really the ancestral home of sukhdev thapar and lala lajpat rai are in a pitiable condition they deserve to be in the columns of punjab heritage ishan kalra college road businessman i think satluj river too should be added as a major attraction in ludhiana that place is heavenly and someone visiting the city must spend some quality time by the riversideharpreet singh businessman brs nagar instead of having nehru rose garden in the list they should rather have the old city area as a must visit in the city that area is historical in itself besides it is the base of ludhiana from where the city expanded its roots saaz baweja student dugri the only historical places i know of in the city are clock tower and rdb fort the fort because it was featured in the movie rang de basanti the other places sound so alien anyway abhishek sood businessman vikas nagar there is this village sunet surrounded by bhai randhir singh nagar my dad had once told me about how