A Burden for Generations

It was a mild winter day, as it should be in Karachi, I was standing in line to enter to the University, we were almost daily ordered to enter only from a particular gate from four or five at the front side facing University Road, it was done in the name of security, but it was more like a psychological trick to teach who is in control, and that was Pakistan Rangers. We were not allowed to use any gate to enter our Alma Meter but the one chosen by authorities each day, it could have been the same gate as of yesterday or different, it was more like going to a labour camp. And it was a sight to see people running from one gate to another, as sometimes order was coming late and one gate was closed and another one opened for entry.
So there I was in the line, my turn came, Rangers’ Jawan (Soldier) checked my university ID card (not sure if he knew how to read it, he could have hold it upside down if there was not my photo on it), looked at it, then looked at me and asked “Hindustani ho?” (You are an Indian?). Well, for few seconds, blood stopped in my veins, I felt a cold running through my body and I looked at him with so much anger that he took two or three steps back. I did not say a word and he handed me my card back, I took few steps forward and then came back to him, “I am a Pakistani” he smiled nervously and looked at his senior for help who was standing few steps away, but he preferred to look away as well, that was a mistake which could cost them heavily and best way for them was to ignore as nothing happened. Students any way were challenging and unexpected for these human machines trained to obey and follow.
This was not first neither the last time I was called a Hindustani, Muhajir (migrant) was the usual identity I had to carry since I started to go out into society, in school, in hospitals, in bank or to any social event and gathering, I was and I still am a Muhajir, though I was born in Pakistan, though I have never been to India, but strange how many generations have to carry the burden of this decision.
Strange that decision to divide India was not taken by any of them, but millions had to carry that burden as well, I am sure a majority in those millions who were affected did not even understand the meaning of partition and so as their leaders and those who actually took the decision or agreed to it. And that is the tragedy of that partition, it was a decision taken on assumptions and fabricated realities, and its after effects were not even considered, no one was able to see how generations to come will pay the price of this decision, how whole region will be compromised, and billions of its inhabitants will be forced to adopt a psychology of hate and war and will be asked to sacrifice on their progress, health and education to defend this partition.
There is this story of Ghulam Ali in a book by Zamindar (The Long Partition by Vazira Zamindar, 2007 OUP, Karachi) ; a soldier in British Army who chose to join Indian Army at the time of partition, but he was not stationed in Chaklala which was to be Pakistan, for one or another reason he was not able to go back to India till the time his service was terminated by Pakistan Army on the grounds that he opted for Indian Army, they sent him back but by that time Permit or Passport had been devised and Indians refused to accept him as he was not an Indian ID holder, back in Pakistan he was imprisoned as an Indian without authorised papers to be in Pakistan. Then he was thrown on both sides few times till he ended up in Hindu camp in Lahore. I am not sure how his life was ended, no detail of it in the book and may be nowhere else, in no papers or documents.
I want to step in his shoes for a moment and understand how must be his feelings till the last of his breath, but I cannot, it is perhaps impossible for me and anyone else as we have long passed that historical drama, but is it the reality? If that episode of partition is over, why people are still haunted by it? Somewhere deep in sub conscious of every Indian and every Pakistani, there is this ambiguity, a psychological issue, a challenge of identity which expresses itself in our behaviour towards each other.
If it is thought that statement given in above lines are an exaggeration, kindly look at the treatment we give each other, browse through newspapers, check the headlines, listen to the politicians, check what scholars say, go to the cricket field to watch a match between Pakistan and India, do a research on the literature written on both sides which is mostly based on hatred and bias and a conscious attempt to justify what happened (and it is here problem lies, why we want to justify? why fabrication is required?). For instance take the syllabus taught in Pakistan; by calling Hindus and Sikhs murderers and impostors and omitting the crimes made by Muslims, what is really the objective? Why truth is a problem? Surely because truth comes as a challenge and raises questions which cannot be answered easily. This partition is used by extremists and religious bigots on both sides as an excuse and a reason to convince people on militancy and violence. Indians and Pakistanis do not realise that the demons of religious extremism in this region are fed and brought up by this partition dilemma, and as such the debacle of partition is not over. It is not over, not for our generation neither for the generations to come, unless we understand what mistakes were made and agree to resolve them.

Once again...................

Now it is dargah of Baba Fareed, he is called ganj-e-shakar. Who has thought that we will see people dying on the shrine of one devoted to love and peace.

فکر کیجئے نہ ذرا ، بات ہے معمول کی

وہ دھماکہ اور تھا، یہ دھماکہ اور ہے

یہ پڑا اس گال پے، وہ پڑا اس گال پے

وہ طمانچہ اور تھا ، یہ طمانچہ اور ہے

Tanboor

اور طنبور ساز ہے ان لوگوں کا جو سنگلاخ پہاڑوں کی گود میں رہتے ہیں جہاں پر شور چشمے بہتے ہیں، بپھرتا دہاڈتا پانی چٹانوں سے سر ٹکراتا ہوا بہتا چلا جاتا ہے، یہ پتھر اس کی قدر نہیں جانتے، ایک بوند بھی جذب نہیں کر سکتے اور پانی بر انگیختہ ہو کر... اور جوش میں آ جاتا ہے، آگے اور آگےان میدانوں کی تلاش میں جہاں پیاسی مٹی رہتی ہے ، سیراب ہونے کی آس میں بیتاب ،مٹی جس سے زندگی آغاز ہوتی ہے ، کونپلیں پھوٹتی ہیں. تو صاحب کچھ لوگ بھی ان پتھروں کی طرح ہوتے ہیں اور کچھ مٹی جیسے ، کچھ جو کنویں میں رہ کر پیاسے چلے جاتے ہیں اور کچھ جو دور صحرا میں رہتے ہوے بھی بارش کی ایک بوند سے سنور جاتے ہیں . یہ طنبور اتنا برا بھی ساز نہیں ہے , دیکھو کہاں کہاں خیال کھینچتا چلا جاتا ہے اس طنبور کی تان کے ساتھ ، سنگلاخ، بے مہر، بے فیض چٹانوں سے کھلتی کونپلوں تک
------------------------------------

Again!!!

Once Mushtaq Yusufi wrote that "worst about bad rumours coming from Pakistan is that they turned out to be true", things never improved but further deteriorated, now it is not just rumours but almost every other news which comes from the country, it hurts.
Blasts at Mazar of Abdulla Shah Ghazi Karachi, after incident on Data Darbar in Lahore; Ah, one after another, all symbols of tolerance and peace for the masses are targeted. The message they want to give us is clear, we are to be driven towards extremism, the land of Sufis has to give way to hard core narrow minded intolerance. People specially masses from lower classes are still aloof from sectarian and religious hatred and most of extremist groups have their roots in middle class which has comparatively higher education rate and competition for economic resources and power, hence a good recruiting ground for hate mongers.
Moreover, these shrines, they are easy targets because it is hard to carry out security measures, most of the visitors are from lower classes and hard to be disciplined and controlled.
It is very sad to be a witness to this situation, too much to be lost within a life time, I can not believe this is the same land and same people where I was born and grew up.

On Chanakya

There were comments on a blog of mine which need some more arguments, I am writing it as a separate blog because it had nothing to do with the topic of Ayodhiya verdict of yesterday.

It is about Chanakya, and to share my opinion on him as I find it very often that people abuse that name and interpret him and his thoughts to be evil, and worst they call it a mentality and then try to impose it on Hindus as a nation or sect which is evil or cunning.

I think both approaches are wrong and mischievous and used as a tool by hate mongers who try to distort history by false claims and follow likes of Hitler and Goebbels (speak lie so regularly and with so patience and force that you yourself start to believe them) and people follow them without understanding and mostly without bothering to know more about that personality, his age and thoughts.

Chanakya was a worldly scholar, someone who was in a position of political command and manoeuvring and who did not told his thoughts from lips of a deity (as Hammurabi did), instead he presented them as of his own as teachings for those who are involved in worldly politics and power broking.

He was not the first, neither the last man to do so, Machiavelli is an example, Nizam ul Mulk Tusi wrote his Siyasatnama on same lines, Zia ud Din Barani has written Fatwa-i-Jahandari on same lines. So can we call all of them followers of Chanakya? were they all presenting a mean, cruel and cunning nation? And what about politicians and power brokers of today? do they all present their nations as a whole? is everyone in those people's nations is alike? Was every Muslim of Seljuk period was a Nizam ul Mulk? are those who live in that area can still be called Nizam ul Mulk? or all politicians of that part of world are Nizamis, following Nizamism? were all Sultans of India during time of Zia Ud Din were Ziai?

There had been Mir jafar and Mir Sadiq in Muslims, is every Muslim of India like them? if so, who was Tipu Sultan then? who was Bakht Khan? who was Sher Shah Suri?

I find it a very idiot argument to interpret whole nation or whole people on thoughts or actions of one personality. Most of the decisions made are based on the circumstances and interests of decision makers. of course decisions can be wrong and disastrous but we must not try to interpret everything as a conspiracy and preach hate and sectarianism.

Law and Justice

I was told by a judge "law not necessarily provides justice, it is not the function of law", I have been thinking over it since then, yes; law is to protect interests, factions, and people in society, and it has to keep the balance so that harmonics in society are not impacted, and we all can survive. Justice on the other hand is achieved by collective will of the people in a society or state, when people say nay to a practice, it has to be abolished by state and introduced as law to keep the balance.

I can not see collective will of people of Pakistan to produce what they think is just and right into laws effectively. Problem is that when you demand justice to be done, it has to be done blindly to all; then no Shia no Sunni, no Hindu, No Muslim;all must be equal in eyes of law, and it looks like that we are not going in that direction.

Until we realise, what is justice and how to make effective laws; what we see happening around us will continue.... I do not want to point to any specific event, as all events, every single one in which a life is lost, in which an innocent is brutalised, in which power is abused, they are all related, one and same........they show our inability to rightly demand and provide justice, we all are responsible for this...........if it continues the way it is going...if we won't learn, everything will be destroyed.

Message to those who think Pakistan is doomed

Ashamed or not, fact remains that you are Pakistani (please do not use the word Paki). Now that everyone is condemning the incident, how much time will we take to go back to normal? I need to say what are the real actions taken? what is ana...lysis, why such incidents occur in our society? what are actions required to curb such incidents?
let me know:
What is education rate in Pakistan? more specifically in the rural areas?
What health facilities are provided en mass by state or private sector and at what cost comparing average income of a Pakistani?
What is situation of democracy? what say people have in the direction of their government? let me know how many of us know what is democracy?
What recreational facilities people are provided? what statistics say about such facilities per capita? What is status of our media and entertainment industry?
What are we teaching people? what are our primary and secondary education syllabus? has any one tried to compare them with other countries?
Last but not least, few of us are modest, tolerate and educative? how much time are we willing to invest to serve our people? can we talk about a mass contact movement to start dialogue with common Pakistanis which do not enjoy such facilities as electricity, telephone or internet. If we can talk, how many will be willing to get involved?
How many of us go to vote? how many of us dare to challenge the establishment? how many of dare to challenge our leaders? how many of us dare to challenge our civil servants? how many of us say no to bribes and corruption? how many of us stand with those who dare to say no?
when an accident occurs? have you ever tried to come forward to help injured?
You people are the power, realize that and come forward, get united, do not complain. There are many subjective arguments and conflicts, they can get resolved. Do not complain about system and people, complaint about yourself first, its our inabilities which become inability of the system, it is us whose mirror are our leaders, do not be ashamed of yourself, that is what you are.
I am very optimistic that if we really start to think what role we can play, and start playing it as soon as possible, we can change the situation.

Paid for Resignation

CEO which causes shame and harm to reputation of company will be paid so that he can go, along with losses in the market. Who will pay? Employees and Shareholders. This industry practice needs to be reviewed immediately.

"Hewlett-Packard fell $4.31 to $41.99 in extended trading. The shares, down 10 percent this year, dropped 5 cents to $46.30 earlier today on the New York Stock Exchange."

"Hurd will get a severance payment of $12.2 million, plus other benefits that include a prorated vesting settlement of 330,177 restricted HP shares. He received $30.3 million in compensation in 2009 and $42.4 million the year before."

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-06/hp-s-mark-hurd-resigns-after-sexual-harassment-probe.html

My Poetry

May not fit on the standard of poetry, but this is a try, not sure how well I have done.

ہاے کیا گل کھلایا جا رہا ہے
ہمیں الو بنایا جا رہا ہے

کبھی شرفا کو ملتی ہے حکومت

...کبھی زردار لایا جا رہا ہے

میری قسمت میں گننے چوپنا ہے

انھیں حلوہ کھلایا جا رہا ہے

ابھی سرکار اٹھے تھے یہاں سے

اٹھا کر پھر بٹھایا جا رہا ہے

درختوں سے اتر کے آے تھے نا

وہیں پے پھر چڑھایا جا رہا ہے

اسی پانی پے جھگڑا تھا ہمارا

اسی میں اب سمایا جا رہا ہے

عقل کے ناخنوں سے تھی عداوت

انہی سے سر کھجایا جا رہا ہے

Tribute

She never wanted to come back from Quetta, and she was never happy in Karachi. But both her sons were working in Karachi and most of relatives moved from Quetta as well after city started to become hostile for settlers (a term in use for people residing in Quetta which are not Pushtoons or Balochs. May be useful to mention this city was chosen by British as the garrison head quarters for the troops responsible to secure borders with Afghanistan and Iran, it was a strategic location and suited for British interest.  It was due to British interest and the garrison that the city prospers and attracted people from across India to start or extend their businesses to fulfil the growing demands and keep up with the supplies required. This was the origin of a large non native population of Quetta, and contributed with skilled man power necessary to maintain an urban centre.  A good example is famous Marker family of Quetta. These people (settlers) brought education and prosperity with them; they supported the local population and contributed in emergence of an educated middle class in Balochistan, most importantly they made Balochistan their home and never looked back.  This contribution is now largely ignored by the nationalists for whatever reasons they have; history here is a victim) and continues abuse and killings made people migrate from this dear city of theirs. It is sad to see people migrating twice or thrice in a life time, there is a huge human cost in all the events in history, which is always paid by those who are never mentioned any where and forgotten.

So she was forced to move from Quetta after she retired on the reason that there was nothing left for her there. What was forgotten was that the city was not separated from her; it was where she grew up and which gave her refuge and support always whenever she needed. They were inseparable, and it was apparent from her condition when she stayed in Karachi for a while. She was as independent and self sufficient as her city was; she did not need and knew no bounds. It was natural for her to be sad while away from where she belonged. It happens when people spent all their life in one place, when the place, its weather, its atmosphere, its places, its people, its markets, its roads are the only familiarity they have, when they come into peace with the place and become one self, inseparable. It is like you can not grow a cactus in a rainy forest, mushrooms only grow where there is rain.

So was natural for her to be happy when she got a chance to go back to the city, to her independence, to herself. She was really very happy, and this time she was going there for the last time, looks like she knew that for she met every one she knew since her childhood, all her friends and well wishers, all acquaintances and everyone to whom she had to ask for forgiveness. She arranged that the mosque in her neighbourhood in carpeted, she managed her bank accounts and moved the balance in to a single one.  She visited every place in Quetta and breathed to the fullest.

Quetta was once held by Khans of Kalat, and Kalat is considered gateway to Queta and a road is constructed which joins Karachi to Quetta via Lasbela, Khuzdar, Kalat and Mastung. It is near Kalat where the accident occurred and she breathed her last. She was fast asleep when a truck overtaking hit the vehicle on her side. It is not strange that no other passenger amongst the five (including the driver  of the Toyota 2D )was hurt; she was the only one amongst the five.  She was the only one who did not want to go away from Queta.

 What is a tragedy for some, can be fun for others; some people stolen the valuables while those with whom she was travelling were busy in managing the incident, taking care of the dead body and moving her to a safe place. But what she was taking for her loved ones was safe, cloths she sewed for her grand children, shopping she did for her family, documents she collected for her daughter; everything was safe, not touched by the greedy, may be they were not able to find it.

I will remember her for her simplicity, sincerity and dedication. Life for her was not a bed of roses, not at all, but what she managed to do for others despite all the hardships and difficulties is amazing. For her, unification of family was the biggest objective, and she went out of ordinary to do everything for her family, her children, her siblings, her nephews and nieces, their children and other relatives and friends. Most valuable asset of her personality was forgiveness, which demands a person who has vision and understanding beyond ordinary, who can understand the threads in society and social implications of decisions which destroy the very fabric of relations. Patience was her virtue, which enabled her to stand against all the odds. An extra ordinary life of a very ordinary person, and that is the reason why I am writing these lines, to bring forward some good virtues of her in light.

I feel sorry that she did not give me time. And I am left without serving her, but I have with me what is the dearest and best part of her, her daughter and grand children and I endeavour to take good care of them and preserve and transfer the good deeds and habits of their grand mother to my children; God Willing!