Why I’m proud to be a Pakistani

Bilal #87

I have to disagree with the point you raised.

When ethnic violence was at, at its peak in Karachi, Edhi`s ambulance would be there in case of emergency. People would leave unwanted babies at his ``jhula`` instead of killing them. The list is endless and heart moving.

Considering the way Edhi started, his mission. Considering the passion, when he was at his social work at his wedding night. etc etc.

Although, it is controversial these days. But I remembered the lone voice in widely read newspaper of Irshad Ahmed Haqqani against Zia`s Martial Law, when everybody was selling the conscience for thousands of rupees.

The people like Adib Rizvi, Ansar Burney etc whose commitment to their mission is beyond any doubt.

With our life revolving around our family and personal interest, these people are a beacon of light and if not worshipped, but are to be kept in high regards.

For appreciation of their efforts and as a beacon of light to others who want to tread a path of self sacrifice.

sheesh-nag:

push-factored?

care to elaborate?

we may learn a thing or two!

rgds

t

aaf#92

What do we guys think? I do not know about the other ``guys``, but this guy thinks that the Kamal ka aadmi is better read and informed than you are.

Electricity plays the same part in your country that T.V. played in the United States and the U.K. Not all of it, mind you, but do some stepwise analyses.

He even knew his his his history better: He remembered the great ``New York Black-out`` and the ``standing room only`` in the New York Hospitals` obstetric wards and related facilities nine months later.

In contemporary society [beginning with 1968, when I first saw, nay, experienced, a vibrator in Tokyo], the drop in fertility [measured in terms of all contemporary indices and measurements] is inversely related to the availability, sale and use of vibrators in these countries.

Since from your post it appears that you are attempting your ``hand`` at comedy, the following may be of some use to you:

Q: With the availability of the best possible vibrators, [including the Shiatsu], why do women still marry?

A: Because the vibrators don`t mow the lawn!

[Also, while talking over the cellular telephone, to your driving girl/boyfriend, if the volume of the sound become faint, don`t panic or be surprised!].

* * * * * *

To what heights of self-elevation were you attempting to raise yourself, by referring to the speaker as one with heavy Desi accent, by changing his name from Kamal Ahmad to ``Kamaal ka aadmi hai[!], and you, the bonafide Desi, so sophisticated as to be listening not to any WKRP radio, or, WXBT, or KXLX, but to the National Public Radio. You can take...

Oh, man, what a hoity toity people, we the push-factored immigrants try to be to overcome our status inconsistencies !

I searched the site for the Magsaysay Awards and found the following people from Pakistan recognized for their service:

Abdul Sattar Edhi 1989 Public Service

Bano Bilquis Edhi 1989 Public Service

Sir Henry Holland 1960 Public Service

Asma Jahangir 1995 Public Service

Akhtar Hamid Khan 1963 Government Service

Shoaib Sultan Khan 1992 Community Leadership

Syed Adibul Hasan Rizvil 1998 Government Service

Tasneem Ahmad Siddiqui 1998 Government Service

well.....i coulnot agree more dear shandana:)

i couldnot agree more.

i m glad that u replied to that ``sentence`` in a positive way which was sensible. take care

Asim,

Thank you for the info, I stand corrected.

jay.

Having returned from Kerala after attending a wedding where the contract for the `pandal/shamiana` was given to a muslim, where the catering was done by a muslim, where I could take photos of a few muslim women in hijab having food in banana leaves in a temple precinct, I cannot but wait to sink another dagger into the TNT and the correlates of it.

I recognise the need for the articles of this type where an attempt is made to infuse some pride and purpose to a confused nation of bigoted versions of a religion. But politeness, platitudes and chivelry should not mask stating the underlying reasons for this pride steroid.

Pakistan guided bt the TNT has created a version of history following the narrow trail left by islam in the indian peninsula and in that process has pilloried the civilisation at Mohanjedaro and the institutions at Taxila. TNT has abbrogated any pakistani claim anything pre-islamic.

In a society where ancient names of cities are changed to `Faisalabads` and the good old `Imran Khans` are changed to Ismail bin al Mohammeds``, there is nothing much left for the pakistanis to be proud of from their history. In that context, attempts to present the fairy floss of Asma Jahangir as steel wool is commentable and so are the efforts to push straw men on to pedestals. But in the searing heat, in the incessent rains and the dropping from the internet, none of them will remain a source of pride for a generation.

Look for results, look for achievements, however small it might be, in ones own personal lives for a source of pride. A pakistani, proud of pakistan, gene splicers are still at work....

....``reach into a listener’s heart and play *ping pong * (?) with its beats`` ?!??!?!

great stuff nonetheless. as they say, ``keep writing``!

re. rooster-blues # 88

I laughed till I cried. Such are the ``chosen ones`` who officially represent Pakistan abroad. Going by such twisted logic, one can say we are perhaps the only breed of humans on earth who use electricity as contraception! Another reason to be a proud Pakistani!

All too often the people we are really proud of rule little more than our hearts.

Since we are talking about pride and stuff… I just came back from lunch and I had to share this with my fellow chowkies .. I was listening to public radio (in Chicago) and I detected this heavy desi accent slamming US over Kashmir ? guess who he was .. Ambassador Kamal Ahmed ( I think that’s his name ) .. Mr. Ambassador in more or less words summarized the whole problem as the ‘unwillingness of US initiative’ in the region … Mr. Wonderful kept repeating ‘the ball is US court’ .. how could it be a US concern when India denies any reference of Kashmir in Pakistan-India relationship and Pakistan insist that the only part its playing is ‘moral’ .. ?

I can make this a long post but it will end up ….. .. you know where

When asked about the problem of the population in Pakistan , Mr. Kamal (Kamal ka Admi Hai!)

Said .. that we did bring down the rate of population growth and the main reason behind that is electricity … and I said wha?? What ? .. and Mr. Kamal Ka admi explained that since most of the villages in Pakistan did not have electricity in the past ,.. the nights use to be longer and that was the main reason behind population explosion ! .. now if I am interpreting it correctly (keep in mind that I am analyzing sales numbers all morning) Mr. Ambassador blamed ‘horny village population !

What do you think guys??

Bilal: #reply 87

You have veered towards idealism. But isn`t a person Great because others

are/were not so Great? So even if we cannot emulate them, isn`t acknowledging their

achievements and their greatness, in itself a service to society? Albeit a small

one.

I read the article on the day it appeared but I could not relate to it. After I read

read your reply, I could feel the pain,anguish and disappointment over things that at times seem beyond our control.

I suffer from the same feelings of frustration whenever I think of my native state of Bihar.

There is a nice incident that happened in one of my rare journeys to the ``killing fields of the east``(bihar). The train was packed with people and so was my coach despite it being a reserved one. It was one fast moving caravan.

There was this young bihari who was studying Law in Lucknow and was entertaining strangers around him with his witty statements about Law schools.

Just when the train was aprroaching Bihar, he got up and shouted loudly, `` Welcome to the Country of Bihar``. And all of us broke out in a huge laughter.``Country because``, he continued, `` the writ of the Indian constitution does not run here. Rules of Law and Order are separate and our politicians here a few notches above of even the Indian politicians.Aur samaj ke baare mein kya

kahein, Hum aur app hi tho hain.``

There was silence all over and he was smiling.



This sums all that I feel and share bilal with your reply and Shandana`s article.



``There is little to talk about its future,

There is nothing to talk about its present,

Here I am, with a dead past in my lap;

Bihar, where tears run dry,

And sorrows run deep;

A widow whose sons have died young.``

until next time,

pullu

Shandana-

Now how can one be proud of a failed state? a state that has denied basic human rights to its citizens??

Since we are talking about pride and stuff… I just came back from lunch and I had to share this with my fellow chowkies .. I was listening to public radio (in Chicago) and I detected this heavy desi accent slamming US over Kashmir ? guess who he was .. Ambassador Kamal Ahmed ( I think that’s his name ) .. Mr. Ambassador in more or less words summarized the whole problem as the ‘unwillingness of US initiative’ in the region … Mr. Wonderful kept repeating ‘the ball is US court’ .. how could it be a US concern when India denies any reference of Kashmir in Pakistan-India relationship and Pakistan insist that the only part its playing is ‘moral’ .. ?

I can make this a long post but it will end up ….. .. you know where

When asked about the problem of the population in Pakistan , Mr. Kamal (Kamal ka Admi Hai!)

Said .. that we did bring down the rate of population growth and the main reason behind that is electricity … and I said wha?? What ? .. and Mr. Kamal Ka admi explained that since most of the villages in Pakistan did not have electricity in the past ,.. the nights use to be longer and that was the main reason behind population explosion ! .. now if I am interpreting it correctly (keep in mind that I am analyzing sales numbers all morning) Mr. Ambassador blamed ‘horny village population !

What do you think guys??

RE: Reply #: 86 gymnosophist

``Re Abdus Salaam, how has India treated any person of Indian origin before he received the Nobel Prize? I remember Hargobind Khorana being denied a readership in Biochemistry at some University in Madhya Pradesh on the basis that his undergraduate degree was in Chemistry``

The fallacy in the argument put forth is this: in the case of the stepmotherly treatment meted out to Khorana et. al., it is clearly a case of bureacracy/babudom reaching the exquisitely absurd heights that is only possible in the sub-continent whereas, in the case of Salaam, it is the result of a pogrom initiated by the state against a community in effect trying to exorcise them off the face of Pakistan for their beliefs.

This is not to deny the subtle and not so subtle attempts at discrimination that you describe that occur on a daily basis in India (and, I`m sure, in Pakistan). Those that are ``proud`` of their motherland, be it Pakistan or India, have obviously not gone through the grindmill of eking out an honest living there. I have immense respect for people like Asma Jahangir, Edhi, Azim Premji, Narayanmurthy etc. who have maintained a straight path where the temptation to short-circuit the system to get ahead is such an easy and viable alternative.

nostalgic and nationalistic....nothing innovative in this peace of writing.

....these warm, fuzzy thoughts are probably present in the hearts of all Pakistanis who grew up there but lets not beat the drum to ourselves. Who are you talking to? The disillusioned degree holders paddling from office to office looking for jobs - or to the disabled beggars who are looking for food and shelter? Does this elite population of Pakistan, who reads the internet and newspaper articles, need to be old why Pakistan is such a worthy country?

...our problems are immense and the few people you mention would prefer more hands on help than singing praises in their honor. unfortunately all of us have always been used to singing praises for others, perhaps wishing that someday somebody wil do the same for us.

....Our praises for people are not going to change our lives and our futures. The meritorious deeds of Asma Jahangir and Edhi have to be integrated as a part of our everyday lives, and not story book tales. I have always heard people sign praises of Edhi. How many of them have ever tried to emulate and create another Edhi? Shandana - Have you? We need to move away from idolizing the few people among us who have seen the ``light`` of civic responsibility. We need to educate ourselves that we all need to see the ``light`` soon or there is nothing but darkness for us.

-B

p.s. About taking private tutions in Karachi. While you spent your dad`s money listening to flute instead of learning Math, did you ever think of those students in your class who could barely pay the tutions of St. Pat`s, KGS etc but could never afford those private tutions even when they could have learnt so much from them?

I just watched the interaction to see when an Indian would jump in and say something nasty. I am delighted to see that my compatriots unfailingly meet the low expectations I have for them.

Re Abdus Salaam, how has India treated any person of Indian origin before he received the Nobel Prize? I remember Hargobind Khorana being denied a readership in Biochemistry at some University in Madhya Pradesh on the basis that his undergraduate degree was in Chemistry -- as if there were any BSc degree programs in India in Biochemistry when Dr. Khorana was studying for his bachelor`s degree. On the other hand, once somebody wins the Nobel Prize, the Indians show a level of reverence that practically amounts to butt-kissing. Look at the positions offered to Khorana or to Prof. Chandrasekhar after their Nobel prizes. Why is it that they had to leave the country to be appreciated for their work? It is because you have screwed up your entire university system with caste-based politics. If Abdus Salaam was mistreated in Pakistan because he was an Ahmadiya, at least the Pakis are consistent. (I know that consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, so don`t you go searching for Bartlett`s Book of Quotations.)

Has it ever occurred to you folks that there has not been a single Indian-born Nobel Prize winner who received his award for work done in India since Independence? (Don`t trot out Mother Theresa -- she is Albanian by birth.) Everything has been done to snuff out creativity in our school system so that we can turn out single-minded drones who can goose-step from kindergarten through Grade 12 and move on to a degree in engineering and a career in talking in tongues (such as Java and C++). And they do it with not a care for the poor. With their billions, do they endow a single elementary school in a backward region? No, they give millions to their alma maters so that they can get their picture taken with Vajpayee. I have far greater respect for that cab driver in New York who has started a school in his hometown in UP and spends every penny he earns on that school.

So, shut up already and let Shandana celebrate what she finds worth celebrating while the rest of us techno-geeks can take pride in our nukes, missiles, and IITs.

Asim Hayat #81

``He died a Pakistani.``

Isn`t it ironic that a lot of Pakistani intellectuals take pride in A. Salaam kept his citizenship till his death? No intellectual had the guts to say that while he was alive. Asim, yes all the GOPs were to blame but the ultimate responsibility rests with the society. Can you show me one concerted effort, demo, civil action in support of Salaam, or for that matter against the constitutional injustice to the very community that actively fought for the creation of Pakistan?

FYI, today`s Dawn is reporting that a religious organization has asked that the 10th grade textbooks should remove all references to Salaam, or state that he was an apostate. The daily also reports that the Education Ministry has already given instructions to the authorities. Wonder all those proud ones will respect the dead Salaam as much as they did the live one! A.H., please this is not intended for you personally.

This article must belong to the category of the very best writing not only at Chowk but on all of the Net. I am not a Pakistani. I am an Indian, and proud to be so. But reading this spirited lyrical-radical affirmation of patriotism by Shandana Minhas, I too felt proud of the Pakistan she has described.

SK