Buta, Pattey and Allah Chowrangi

To all those who commented on this piece, thank you. I have little idea how to explain this, simply because it derives from the panorama in front of me, which I have tried to depict-

The story is about the Karachi I have lived in most of my life, about the religion I have grown up with, and the people I know. My explanation for the story is mine own and frankly if someone likes theirs, please throw this out of your PC.

Allah Chowrangi is a signal roundabout on the intersection of Shahrae-Quaideen and one end of Tariq Road. It is a relatively affluent and well constructed part of the city. The Allah is a three pronged Arabic ``allah`` with a fountain playing under it. Square ``Pepsi`` plaques are pasted on the rim of the fountain at strategic intervals. Karachi suffers from a constant and chronic shortage of water. However, it is one of the prettiest sights in the city during a drive.

There are three or four major issues in the article. I explain them as follows:

God/Allah
The first is God/Allah and how we understand the concept. As much as religion teaches us that God defines us, it is but logical to think that we also create the concept for ourselves (this idea has been used by Iqbal to name one) God stands for retribution, and God is fear and power. Through the ages people have searched for God and depicted him in many forms. In our religion, the concept of stone gods is considered primitive, wrong, heathen and false. Real Allah is depicted as warm, kind and responsive and singular. It is my opinion that each human defines his own god via his actions, through his priorities and not just his professed beliefs/labels. By that token, this nation`s Allah is callous and mean (made of stone) and of many forms not very nice. In this way the concept of God is used to justify and legitimize our lesser actions, our inhumanities, our lies and our corruption. He is an extremely important symbol in our priorities.

Butta and Pattey
Buta stands for the human plant of our nation. Ignorant, simple, poor and macho. Pattey is the human, educated(?) section that derives from this base. People usually imagine that there is `real` difference between the classes. Education is supposed to bring enlightenment but it cannot because what we call education (a degree, social class) is defective in its prejudices.

Buta and Pattey have killed their consciences. They are puppets and products of the system. It is only when they die and are condemned to spend retribution helplessly in front of the stone Allah that they talk to each other and themselves. Their conscience is awakened but they are helpless. Their life was as death in its ineffectuality and like hell in its empty passivity.

Women
The Afghan women are the left-overs from the tribal clashes in Afghanistan-as you all know the fight is about which/whose God will get power. Women and children-the supposed beneficiaries of Islam`s patriarchal-macho culture, for whom young men are schooled to earn a living, the `family values` that conservatism is supposedly about, beg with empty milk bottles on a traffic island.

Pepsi
Other details like Pepsi, sajda, wife, aging, cars passing through Buta and Pattey are symbols we can relate with. Pepsi is related to ``Allah`` because it is universal, senseless and an exploitation of our need to belong. Pepsi is a sugar and caffeine high (a drug) sold to us through mass conditioning just like the popular concept of ``Allah``.

Re Afrasiyab

Will look it up one day. Thanks for the appreciation.

Moving. With logical amendments, this could well be Bombay/Mumbai, too. Thank you for the groundlevel views of life.

Wonderful imagery woven around very powerful ideas. Buta and Pattey confessing, crawling and arguing around a Chowrangi gives me the shivers. The symbolism hits like a sledgehammer.

There is no shortage of symbolism and allegories in this article. Pepsi can stuff made me think of the role and power of the media in defining our perceptions.

Dear Saima Shah,

I really don`t know what to make of this piece at all. I am at a complete loss. Aside from some pretty good discriptive writing i`m not sure what else to take from this piece. I don`t know what you the author intended to convey to us, but i hope at some point later in the discussion (if there is one) you`ll step in and enlighten us!

Frankly, I don`t see JACK.

OMAR

Saima:

AT this point I am totally ambivalent. Perhaps later?

Confession: These sentences stood out sorely. ``It was day. It seemed as though the day dawned too quickly. In his first sajda almost.``

ambivalently,

Saima, nice one here. Gotta hand it to you. You have your own unique way. Short, simple yet complicated.

``Somehow he had never though that hell could be so like Karachi``

I remember this from Mushtaq Yousufi`s book, Aab-e-Gum where he mentions a character`s remark on another when the latter mentions the analogy that you have alluded to in your article.

The comment was something like this:

``Agar Mirza iss Daar-ul-Mahan say kooch ker kay waheen punhunch gayey jis say Karachi ko tashbeeh diya kartey thay toa irshaad hoga, `Hum to samajhtey thay kay Karachi chhota sa jahannum hay, jahannum toa badda sa karachi nikla.`

I would certainly recommend this book, by the way.