Haseena is my cousin’s old maid. Yesterday, hours before Aftaar she is frying The Pakoras while I in the kitchen stand over the chopping board with a knife in my hand and a packs of imported carrot, olives, radish, cucumber, chilies, and other food items. i am chopping, dicing and preparing them for the salad, snacks and dip sauces (Chathnee and Raita) to be served to over a quarter hundred close relatives for an Aftaar and dinner.

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A flurry of pompous and showy displays by leading student political groups marked early celebrations on the 13th of August, 2008 ahead of the 61st Independence Day here at the University of Karachi. Celebrations centered on at least three major points, one each for the three major political student groups at the university. Read more

14th August is just round the corner and we’ve decided to have some of the wonderful memories of partition related here by the authors and commentators. Stories which you have been fed by your grandparents or your parents, who migrated from across the border to begin a new life here in the country made for democracy and equal rights for ALL citizens. Stories my grandparents tell me often, follow:

My grandparents (father side) lived in Bahunagar and then Bombay. My grandfather used to have a tea stall which he used to run along with his elder brother, Ahmed. British army was their regular customer and when they came they came in droves and all the war chat would take place there, albeit in English, a language my grandfather never really understood except for the morsels. He also tells me, whenever in good mood, that Hindu banyas were also his prized customers and they would be very rich and very tidy in their manners and style.

Then they came to Karachi, Pakistan.

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Photography Credit: Jawad Ahmed

This entry could be about any of our localities, where we spend our days and nights. The same path we trudge regularly to get home after long hours in school/university/office.

In Karachi especially, when we build/buy our houses, there’s always that personal touch, some extravagance on our part done to be different from the rest of the houses around the area. It is when we like to extend our lawns a bit more by encroaching outwards; make stretched parking slopes taking main footpath’s space. In such fervor some forget that they are building on the land which is not really theirs.

Then KDA comes in and during their drive of amnesiac building/re-building of roads and you see nothing but rubble when you wake up one fine morning. I found a live example in North Karachi, Sector 8 to 10. I investigated to discover that the concerned authority had issued prior warnings and were instructed to shift their electric & gas meters but nobody paid heed to the notice and on 31st May at 6 o’clock sharp, bulldozers came and did what they are made for.

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The events of 1971 were a part of the history long before I was born but even years later in the mid 80s as a primary school child I could smell the stench of the vicious broth we had cooked to suppress, degrade, demoralize, dominate and disgrace our very own people, the people of Bangladesh.

I remember being a student of class 4, one day I heard a fellow student use the term “Bhookay Bengali” as a derogatory remark to another fellow student of a slightly dark complexion. That day when I got back home I asked my mother why Bengalis are called hungry? And why the term Bengali is considered a derogatory remark ? It is when she told me how we over powered them used them to our advantage, made them work hard for us and paid them less then half of what they deserved and in terms of respect we gave them none.

It was this day this I first realized how in human we had been to these people. But as time passed and as I grew older historic events, stories and accounts of the events of 1971 kept coming to my knowledge. The picture kept becoming more and more gruesome, the scale went up to a level where it literally became a haunting scene. It painted an undeniable picture narrating the shear brutality we showed towards our Bengali sisters and brothers.

yesterday an evening of literary reading was held at t2f, a local café and the book which was read from was “Fault Lines” an anthology of stories of 1971 by noted authors from both Bangladesh and Pakistan and a few others from this same region, compiled and edited by Niaz Zaman and Asif Farrukhi, both of them eminent writers and noted literary figures from Bangladesh and Pakistan respectively, who were present for the evening along sides with noted writers Intizar Hussain, Asad Mohammad Khan and the editor Books and Reviews (DAWN) Saima Hussain to read out their contributions and share their stories, views and thoughts with the audience.

The event started with the Urdu version of “Fork Lift No. 352″ a story by Asad Mohammad Khan. Which followed by a thoughtfully placed question by Asif Farrukhi: “Do we yet have any competent “driver” for the faulty “fork lifts”, to run them smoothly, and how would we know if the drivers are competent or not ?”. We may blame the faulty fork lift or the driver for his incompetence to trace the fault in time, but form the damage that has already been done have we yet learned something or not ? Was the question which instantly popped up in my mind.

The event continued, Intizar Hussain shared his views of the time and Asif Farrukhi  read an excerpt of his writing from the book while Niaz Zaman followed by sharing her story of those years in history, and her views and expressed her grieve for the unjust sad and later much regretted events which effected the common people of both the sides. 

By looking at the whole picture specially with the prospective I hold, it was not too difficult to see that we had pushed the people of Bangladesh to a point where they were actually cornered and were left with not many options at their hand.

 It was Only three days back when I came across this link, a link which narrated an incident of a horrifying war crime committed against some innocent women. the people we deliberately rendered poor and helpless we victimized, just because we could and yesterday’s event left me with a heavy heart, I had always been ashamed to meet the eyes with any Bengali, although I was not a part of the brutality which was unleashed upon the innocent people to favor just a handful few but still I feel the guilt. For these Crimes and incidents I do not blame the army, I do not blame the foreign elements, I don’t blame anyone else but my self. Me, and the people who took advantage of them, who never stood-up for them, who never raised their voice against the unjust, We never talked to our children about it, we never told the stories we should have been telling. Was this not our responsibility ?

But it is yet not too late to began correcting what we have done wrong in the past and to start with we should first realize and accept our own faults and not to repeat them, We should also bring the stories which were either censored at the time or remained unpublished and unknown and for that matter this book “Fault Line” published in Dhaka and being distributed here locally by the Oxford University Press is an excellent progressive step and hopefully more such books and anthologies will follow. Also as Bloggers, writers and journalists it is time to use the mediums we have in our reach to bring out the true stories images and events of the history with a neutral stance. Not to derogate one another but to make our people realize of their mistakes and the best way to do it is to find our own faults.

In relation to the topic (As someone mentioned yesterday) a group has been formed on facebook to submit our apologies to the people of Bangladesh, I have joined this group and I would suggest that all of us should do so as it will help us sort out our deference’s on a more public level.

1971, was bitter year for both Pakistan and specially for what now is Bangladesh, but now lets take lessons from our own mistakes and try not repeating our selves with the same mistakes again and again in history.

One fine day you are passing by Karachi traffic as usual. However, something catches your eyes and you gape in astonishment to find out more.
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When I first saw Zong’s ad, I was really fascinated with the brand and liked their campaign style and execution. I even went to the extent of finding out which company made this for China Mobile; its Adetude. However, a friend of mine pointed out a video which opened my eyes. Their TVC is a total rip-off of Dolphin Telecommunication Provider–an old UK-based company–which initiated with specific Services to Corporate Sector. See for yourself:

So, are we that dry in coming up with creative ideas that sell?

Hint by Farnaz Shama

Previous links: Zara hat ke, Cellular Appetite

Thanks to our (all) governments whose incompetency in providing basic necessities of life one of which is clean water we have seen tremendous growth of companies selling mineral water and they are using the indifference of the gov. for their profiteering. As one of KMB author said “if our gov. doesn’t do anything NOW there would be a DAY when WE WOULD BE BREATHING OXYGEN by paying to companies”. His comments seem like a joke for now but so did the mineral water issue 100 years back that was considered free along with oxygen ever since we heard it.
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Almost 2 years back i wrote this on KMB & i didn’t know i had to repeat something similar in 2008, that the DONKEY example still holds relevance.

First of all thanks to Cowasjee (not updated yet on DAWN website) & Mr. Mansoor (KHI) & JC (Express, Feb 26) for addressing this issue in papers. I always wonder if our print/electronic media had not been highlighting issues (especially their role in recent times) we were doomed to be lost with available leadership. In the midst of BIG political battle these issues seem so minor but this is where the mistake lies.

While the social divide keeps on increasing alarmingly & just yesterday an inevitable increase was gifted in oil/diesel price our dear PM Mr. Soomro (interim gift by Mr. Musharraf who has been expert in bestowing us with thieves for 8 years & whose eyes were too weak to find a person sympathetic to people & their miseries from 170 million souls) has finally decided to make the most of limited time he has. After knowing our earlier masters had left no blood to suck from its people earlier he has now decided to go for the bones.

The chaudhries are in Karachi & are(will) try(ing) to persuade MQM on their side but will MQM learn some lessons from past & try to form a coalition with PPP for the betterment of this city. While make/break continues in political circles i just wonder if anyone (MQM/PPP in Karachi’s case) really gives two hoots to such an injustice to the exchequer with public money? Will MQM/PPP now do an ehtijaaj on this plundering (couldn’t find an advance version of this word) when there is no daal,roti,makaan,aata,tail,cheeni & inflation is in double digits?

Will Mr. Soomro follow just 1% of his own words delivered few months back if he really knowns the definition of corruption, as, once again, ironically, he is an highly educated professional. And will someone convey this message to him?

[image :fahimsiddiqi ]

Yesterday I followed a link to this blog which narrates a horrifying accident on Bahadurabad/TariqRoad roundabout.

The narrative brought some thoughts to my mind which are worth a mention here :
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