Legend has it that Khan-e Khanan was informed of a master chef who specialized in cooking daal maash. Considered sufficiently intriguing, the chef was invited by the nobleman to the court and asked to prepare his dish. He politely replied that he needed an advance notice of two months in order to cook daal for a particular meal. In addition he requested that once the dish was ready, and the time was right to serve it, no time should be wasted and people should proceed to the dastarkhwan immediately. Khan-e-Khanan agreed and the chef became occupied in preparing his dish.

Two months passed, and the time for the serving of the dish came. Khan-e-Khanan was busy in his office work with some people when the chef sent a message that the dish was ready and everyone should proceed immediately to the dastarkhwan. Khan-e Khanan was in the middle of some things so he asked the chef to wait for ten minutes. Ten minutes later, the message came again. This time too the chef was informed to wait. Ten minutes later, the message came a third time. "Sire, time passes", and again the chef was asked to wait. After finishing his work, Khan-e Khanan proceeded to the dastarkhwan, a good hour late. Upon reaching the dastarkhwan, he saw no signs of the famous daal. "Where is the daal?", he asked. "The chef took it from the dastarkhwan and threw it away". "Where is the chef?", he roared. "He left, sire". People were sent out to search for the chef, but he was not seen again. It has been said that the tree under which he threw away the Daal, was evergreen afterwards, and it lives to this day.

Maybe this is a fantastic legend of yester-years. It may even be partly true. But here is another legend. Rather, I wish that it was just a story: it is a brief narration of a tragedy that happened in Lahore last year. A truck carrying Chlorine gas was destined for some factory. The driver, on his way out, decided to pick something up from a particular mohalla. So quite naturally he took the truck right into the mohalla. It was late at night. Upon his way back to the truck, he smelled something funny and discovered that an irritating gas was leaking from the truck. Fearing for his health, he abandoned the truck in the mohalla and made off. Slowly as the gas spread, people were jolted from their slumber by the asphyxiating fumes. Sadly there was no escape. Heavier than air, Chlorine settled on the neighborhood like a deadly cloud (remember the Germans used Chlorine as a chemical weapon in World War I to clear out Allied entrenchments). Some people managed to run away and informed the authorities. The police and the fire brigade, upon arrival could not figure what exactly was the cause of the problem. Therefore, they quarantined the area while the fire brigade tried unsuccessfully to figure out a way to counter the menace. Finally the leaking canisters were buried in the ground and covered with dirt. At least the immediate threat of the gas had been diffused. Amongst conflicting reports, a figure of two dozen dead and many other injured was mentioned. The injured were taken to hospitals where the medical staff could not figure out the nature of the chemical. More than twenty four hours after the accident, it was still not known what had caused the tragedy. Finally, someone had the brilliant idea to look for the driver, who was then arrested some time later. He finally divulged the nature of the gas. In addition, upon inquiry, it was discovered that he had no idea about the safety procedures that one had to observe in transporting chemicals through an urban area. It still escaped him that taking and abandoning leaking canisters of chemicals in a residential neighborhood was, to say the least, not justifiable. The story does not end here. After the accident, the police issued a warning to the local people, not to use any of the food-stuff that had come into contact with the chemical. Inevitably though, there were additional cases of people who suffered from eating the tainted food.

So my question is this: Both of these stories deal with the same people. People of the same race, the same culture and the same ancestry. In the first case, it produces individuals who, through a life-long dedication, perfect a skill to almost magical proportions. In the second, the descendants of the same people, seem to lead a life which is a journey from one tragedy to another. Even to an informed insider, their actions do not constitute more than a succession of short-term decisions devoid of a respectable semblance of planning or foresight. Indeed, it would have been some consolation if the tragedies had not been self-inflicted.

I remember once when I returned home after spending some time in the U.S. I was asked by an elderly acquaintance of mine: ’Are the Westerners more intelligent than desis?' And my answer to that was a resounding "Heck no!" Of all that I have seen and experienced, I have not been able to affirm the subconscious fear that seems to be lurking in the minds of many native Pakistanis, that somehow, the success of the West is attributable to their inherent mental superiority. Actually on the contrary, I have seen my Pakistani friends out-perform their peers in all fields. I have interacted with people from different walks of life, both desis and westerners, and I can proudly say that we are at least as capable as any other. So wherein lies the difference? Why the two faces, one capable, and one inept? Why do two people, endowed with similar potentials, lead lives that are staggeringly different?