My village

Name: Kotla Arbalikhan also written Arab Ali Khan or Arwalikhan (Starting with alif and not ain). "Kote" stands for a "walled city" and so its smaller version is Kotla or Kotlah.
They say there are many "Kotlah's",( for example another one "Kotlah Qasim Khan".). Kotla A.A.Khan is located about 19 miles from Gujrat city in Panjab  by road,(to north) and 9 miles  from it to south is Bhimber in Azad Kashmir. It used to be a small village without electricity when I arrived there in 1944. It had two 'mohallahs' (and two masjids) the Gujjar's Mohalla and "Non-Gujjar" mohalla (for lack of other name) and the road connecting it with the city of Gujrat was non-metalled. There were a few shops in our street but most of the bazar was further down in the village (One street, and on it we had one Mandir, part of that building is still there) Most of the persons were Muslims with some Hindu and a couple of sikh families. Many Hindus were well-to-do and had "Pukka" houses (also called "chobaras" when they had two stories, like our own house).
There was one distinguishing feature of our village, a "sarai" which was looked after by one villager. and it had a few rooms, one with a "ceiling fan" (Non-electric old variety) . It also had some buildings suggestive of where horses could be held and probably servent quarter type. It was probably built as places of sojourn enroute to Kashmir (Mirpur and Srinagar) and the road belongs to those mughal times or English times also. This "sarai"assumed great importance after partition as it was transformed into a new (Pakistan Army) camp. Pak. Army was posted to (save) and monitor the Kashmir border, because the Indian Airforce jets when they started bombing etc. in Kashmir area they did not respect the Pakistani border. Also after 1947 as more everyday things were in demand so the shops and bazars increased rapidly. As Hindus and Sikhs departed Muslims coming from Kashmir took over many houses and started their own businesses and other locals also started businesses with the result that the village mushroomed into its double size in a short period of time and also extended to the next smaller village called "Pahara". All those empty grounds of sarai and adoining pieces of land were used for new buildings, houses and streets springing up in places of crop fields.
I had left the village in 1948 for further studies and now the village having grown so much, has a large bazar, bustling with activity, big businesses, hotels, a bank or two etc. and most recently I hired a taxi from my village for Rawalpindi, (pretty impressive, hunh!) the road from Kotla going west to Ladian-Kharian-Sarai Alamgir-Jhelum-Islamabad/Pindi.
Going east from the village first you cross the Nala Bhander (the same one that continues toward Gujrat and Lalmusa) and first village is Sahontra next the two Sidwaals (S. Kalan and S. Khurd), some north to them is Pindi awan and next "Aachh-Gocch) the village of the well-known Panjabi folksinger, Aalam Lohar who during the time I was there was known as "Aacch-Gocchia Lohar" (And of course "Jugnee" was a popular folk song which he sang with his "chimta") A little further up north and west were Cchamb-jaurian and further was the city, Jammun though I never visited there. Direct north from Kotla were other villages before the Kashmir border.
A mile or so southward was "Kakrali". There was more business in Kakrali before partition and It was more important village, so much so that Kotla was also known as "Kotla-Kakrali"
There was a middle school in Kakrali which I attended and it was updated to High in 1946-7 so I am one of the 16 first "graduates" of that school.
This is my village KOTLA ARBALI KHAN today.