Unquestionable Changes?

I saw a Pakistani program on T.v here in Wash., D.C recently.The participants were performing a bhangra dance wearing ``Tehmeds``.

Amazing ! Is the shalwar destined to take a backseat in the future? Lets see...

Sobia,

Enjoyed the article. Where did the sehra go? It faded away to the background like countless other trends. Maybe it will re-emerge as something that is ``Retro cool`` in a few years! Kinda like how bell bottoms are now cool again.

Personally one current fashion trend of dulhas that I wouldn`t mind seeing disappear is that turban with the big Looooooooong peacock tail that juts upward. It`s so ugly and clownlike!

One dulhan trend that I would like to see disappear is spending 6-8 hours in an Ugly Parlour oops! I mean Beauty parlour prior to the rucksati. The dulhan`s family could save a lot of money and just buy that cheap white makeup and glob it on her face themselves. Then just get the reddest blush, along with the bluest eyeshadow and Voila! We have a dulhan that would rival any beauty parlour creation...

Cheers

Fozia

Sobia,

It was indeed very refreshing to read your post.It made me happy particularly happy that your composition had a Pakistani flavour to it and therefore I can relish the thought that at last our youth are getting liberated out of the western slavery.

It may be difficult for you to realise Sobia but it is almost a truism that the people of Northern India & those Of Panjab in Pakistan & Mohajirs are the most slavish people in the world.Even when they are kicked & trampled upon they enjoy grovelling to their masters.The Black race in these countries although they were really physical slaves but these never became mental & spiritual slaves of the west.They fight the police here & never give in.Similarly the chinese,the sri lankans,the sikhs and almost everyone taking pride in their language,culture & cuisine live a full and honourable life here and so the west does`nt mess with them.

Is it any wonder that about Pakistanis the Americans said ``they would even sell their mother fo less than this``(upon the kidnapping & shanghaing of the great Baluch who dispatched 5 cia operatives to hell, outside cia headquarters in broad day-light).

Keep it up and enlighten & educate your peers more & more about the value of living with dignity by retaining our culture,language and religion.

The western society is a very demonic society and we must seek Allah`s help in countering it & seek refuge from its evils.

Sobia: You have done a good job. You have the courage to say what ever your opinions and mindset dictates you. Let your imagination fly and just be sure that your opiniion do no harm to others. Also keep your opinions flexible, because as you grow even smarter than now, it will be easy to mold them to the new and ever-changing circumstances. The future belongs to those who are smart, sharp and flexible. Keep up the good work.

This paragraph does not really fit with the rest but I have to respond to Farangi_Kush for some of his outrageous comments. He says the following in reply #5.

[It may be difficult for you to realise Sobia but it is almost a truism that the people of Northern India & those Of Panjab in Pakistan & Mohajirs are the most slavish people in the world.Even when they are kicked & trampled upon they enjoy grovelling to their masters.]

This is what happens when you fail to defend your land and people from the onslaught of homosexuals and thugs. They impose their values and culture forcefully and in few hundred years down the road, Punjabi will fondly name their children after the homosexuals like Sikander( Alexander) and Babar and after thugs like Mahmud Ghaznavi and Ahmad Shah Abdali. To hell with any kind of slavishness be it western or Turkic-Afghan barbarism. The Punjabis fought and died against Turkic-Afghan barbarism and now they are fighting and dying for it. You get killed when you were non-Muslis and you get killed when you are Muslims. Stop this stupidity and keep talking about sehra, moustaches, bhangra and tehmed. At least none of these thing will kill you.

Sorry Sobia, I have to respond.

SameerJB:

Thank you for supporting my viewpoint so eloquently and adding the names of a few of your favourite thugs.

If we did not learn any lesson then it doesn`t mean we cannot do it now.The western thug is here & now.

We all want to protect our sehras,shehnais,kulahs,mehndis etc etc on our own terms & find ways to keep the maddonas out of our cultural frontiers.

Thank you SameerJB again.

Hi! I`m the Sobia who wrote the essay!...I`m using a different nick right now.

First of all, I would like to thank all of you for being so encouraging. I guess I was feeling a bit apprehensive when I posted the essay and your suportive comments really helped. :) Thanks also for the suggestions, temporal...I`ll keep them in mind!

I agree with Farangi-Kush and Sameer JB when they say that it is we who are introducing the `evils` in society and I guess that`s what my essay was all about. But I would like to add another thing: I did criticize change but to some extent, isn`t change inevitable? I don`t mean that all positive aspects of a culture should be buried ten feet under the ground and the negative points of another should be adopted, but isn`t it a reality that things have to change? What I`m lamenting is that whereas in other countries and cultures, positive changes are coming about, we seem to be only adopting those points which will ruin us.

I know so many young people who turn to the worst possible addictions in order to be associated with the young, hip and happening `Western` youth. I wish they would adopt one habit which youngsters in the West have...hard work, self reliance and independence. Just a thought! :)

What about homosexuals with moustaches?

sac # 11:

When in 1857 the British surreptiously introduced the Enfield cartridges with lard &/or tallow and failed to be considerate to the sensitivities of the Hindus & Muslims then the cultural frontiers were crossed.

When they do not allow a sikh to wear a turban in the US/UK/Canadian/Euoropean police and army then the cultural frontiers are crossed.

When a suit is necessary to keep a job and get promotion then cultural frontiers are crossed.When it is demanded of you to speak english in your country where your mother tongue/national tongue/regional tongue is not that then the cultural frontiers are crossed.

When you are willingly enslaving youself to become Bollywood/Lollywood/Follywood then you are allowing your cultural frontiers to be crossed.

In short when you start despising your ancestors/parents/families/religion/culture to welcome something/some-one from far off,the alien creatures,and ask them to join you in this orgy of despisement of those who have nothing but love for you.THEN,my dear sac,CULTURAL FRONTIERS HAVE DEFINITELY BEEN VIOLATED.

Thanks for asking.

Sobia;

Well, that was a sweet narrative! Though do not you think that the unquestionable changes are equally applicable to women as well ?

I think there were times when women won`t show their faces as well and wore a reasonably long Ghoon`gut that hid their faces ? Have you seen anyone doing that anymore ? Or that was only a picture in Bajya and Haseena Moen`s Plays?

I have also noticed that the wedding ceremonies have a different flavor now and then. Some old traditions are brought back and new are added.

I have recently gotten back from a wedding(one of the prettiest one in ages I have attended)in Lahore and I observed that nowadays the bride and bridegroom plan and participate in the organization of the events. unlike in old days.

The wedding I attended was quite traditional and had some old ways of performing certain events, rukhsati being one of them.

At the time of the rukhsati the bride sat in the doli and the brothers/cousins carried that to her decorated car. The bridegroom just followed the Karwaan`.

A comment on the Moonch Thing:- I think it is a lot to do with the fact that men perceive/ or used to perceive Moonchain as a manly thing and the poor ones who are clean-shaved get the criticisn for being sissy and girlish. :-) (No offence meant to any reader)

Lastly, let`s wait for the questionable changes as they may surprise us more :-)

Take Care

Sobia: Yuor comments about culture and values system are interesting and show your open-mindedness. It is true that culture should keep evolving through natural processes. All the incoming new ideas bring freshblood to the culture. Whenever a society opens up to the new ideas, there are always going to be some degenerating and destructive influx of the ideas alongwith the good ones. The poor and weak grafts to the culture are taken care of by the process of natural selection and die out in time. For example, if learning and speaking English was for the sole purpose of mimicking the colonial masters; it was bad. However, in modern times, English has become the language of science, technology and communication and one has no choice but to learn it and use it to get ahead in life. Many of the well admired leaders including Jinnah, Choe Enlai and Ho Chi Minh were after all the product of English and French schooling.

There are several aspects of a culture. A culture only exists because of the people who choose to live by it, more like a religion. The language and the land are lot more important than the fashions or trends. There will always be people with moustaches without beard and those with beard and no moustaches. Similarly among ladies, there used to be V shaped dopatta which is out of fashion now against inverted U on one shoulder. There might be supporters of V-shaped, inverted U-shaped, moustaches and beards without moustaches. Niether of these fashion changes hurt any one from becoming a doctor or engineer or whatever and do not hurt the society or culture. But if one of these groups chose to carry Kalashnikovs and AK-47 and force there fashion on others, it is destabilising and destructive to the society. There have always been foreign imported ideas and fashions and we have accepted them slowly to such an extent that they have become part and parcel of our culture. Do you know that shalwar-kameez is Afghan in origin, yet fully blended into the north Indian cultures. Similarly, Punjabi women do occasionally wear saris, on weddings for example, without even thinking about its origins.

The changes should not be imposed from the top, especially from the people who do not have any right to impose markhor or chakor as the national symbols.

As you know Basant is around the corner and Lahoris love to celebrate it by flying kites. This is equivalent to new year or fertility festivals for renewal in almost every culture and signal the arrival of the spring. Again following the beutiful and unique Lahori tradition for a day in no way stops any one from aspiring for a good education or better future. Now there are plenty of people who detest it on religious grounds and would like to see it disappear. However, a Nauroz which is basically the middle eastern equivalent of Basant, will be quite acceptable to these folks because of the several centuries of low self-esteem on part of these people who generally consider everything persian or arabic superior to their own home-bred traditions.

Maybe you should write an essay about Basant in about three weeks and I bet it will generate lot more responses particularly if you choose to add some sharpness when describing it as a distinct Lahori tradition. Any introduction of Lahore without the mention of Basant and Gang Bakhsh will be incomplete. For bearded without moustaches but with Kalashnikov and AK-47, Lahore may be known for Badshahi mosque and the Mogul rule only.

I don`t like mustaches. They are uncomfortable; my masculinity derives itself from things stronger than hair. I wear Pesahwari chappals with my suits, and a shawl with my overcoat. I am proud of my heritage and would challenge anyone who says that wearing a shalwar will not get you a job. It`s not what you wear, but how you wear it. One of the best dressed men in Lahore - and I don`t take my directions from the sartorial dictats of Lawrencepur`s ``list`` - is Yousaf Salahuddin, and you`d be hard pressed to find him in anything but a starched white shallu.

Outdated traditions, regaurdless of how quaint, are outdated; they do not carry currency today. I`ll stick my neck out here and say: The preservation of tradition does not matter. More important is how tradition is interpreted for the future. Take marriage for example. Should a woman be allowed to choose a spouse of her choice or should she let her family decide. If the strength of the tradition comes from some sort of male control over females, the ``tradition`` will never survive the forces of the social market, and it will die a well deserved death. However, if the force that motivates arranged marriages is NOTHING but parental good intention, then perhaps the ``tradition`` will continue.

--Disclaimer: I am personally against the concept of arranged marriages. What I write is without prejudice and solely to illustrate my point.

I appreciate your effort Sobia, but can you explain what ``when the little things in our daily lives start changing without our knowledge, we truly evolve from what we were to what we become but for a limited time before things change again`` means? A bit of constructive criticism: Don`t be afraid to drive home your points, especially the subtler ones, again and again; and never underestimate how stupid your readers can be - myself included.

Sincerely,

Rafay

Rafay, I agree with you on some of the points you have mentioned. What I was trying to say in my essay or narrative or whatever you may like to call it, is not that all traditions need to be preserved or that all traditions need to be done away with. I just believe that there are some which just fade away (like the sehra) which we don`t even notice...it`s not necessarily a change for the worse but it`s a change still...and what`s food for thought is that we don`t NOTICE the change. I just thought it was interesting, that`s all :)

As for the comment you asked clarification for, well, what I was trying to say was that when small things, supposedly unnoticable things, change, we ACTUALLY enter a new phase as a nation and as a people but that`s temporary because there is so much change in this world that we outgrow our new world and move on. Change can be progressive or regressive, that`s a different issue altogether.

SameerJB, thanks for the suggestion about writing on Basant. I just might take it up ;) Cheers!

Oh and Rafay, if it`s any consolation, I don`t like moustaches either! ;)

Dear SR: [You forgot to mention that Arab maurader, bin-Qasim. He did reach Punjab from the south. Babur, Ghaznavi and Abdali were mere passers by who stopped for re-fueling, checked their maps, asked for fresh directions and moved on. The Punjabis have always been good about lining up along GT road, flower garlands and ladoo, barfee in hand, displaying cardboard signs with an arrow pointing to the east and the caption saying “Panipat this way”. ]

Omitting bin Qasim or Taimur was not intentional. Just picked few example from top of my head. It will be a long list of mauraders, if all the attacks by their generals, commanders and Subedars are also mentioned. I would like to, kind of disagree with the later part of your post. It is probably true that Punjabis did not put up any resistance during Ghaznavi`s 17th attack(on his way to Somnath), Abdali`s 12th atttack (on his way to Panipat) and Babar`s 1526 move towards Panipat. If you only read about these three major events, your will come to the above mentioned conclusions. But you must realize that during the previous double figure attacks, both Ghaznavi and Abdali have plundered and decimated every possible resistance they could have faced from any tribe or city in Punjab. By the time they were heading to Somnath or Panipat, all the states along the way were already either ruled by their appointees or were client states.

Let me give you a brief example of Babar`s activities during 1519-1526. It was a Central Asian tradition dating back to Gehghis Khan to spare any city who surrenders without fight, and kill all the adult males in addition to burning down the cities who decided to put up fight. Babar crosses Indus and surrounded Bhera in 1519. They surrendered without a fight. Same year he attcked Gakkhars who as always resisted and met their fate in the glorious Central Asian Turkic tradition. In 1520 he took over Sialkot without a fight but Syedpur( or Saidpur) met the same fate as that of Gakkhars. In 1524, he burned the city of Lahore following resistance from the Ibrahim Lodhi`s appointed governor. Dipalpur met the same fate, same year. A defector from Ibrahim Lodhi, named Daulat Khan Lodhi conspired with Babar and handed him Jullundhur, Sultanpur and several other districts. So when Babar moved for the fifth time on Dec. 15, 1525, there was no resistance left anywhere in Punjab and, Lahore was ruled by his appointee and showed him the way to Panipat. It was anyway a war between Afghans and Turks for the control of India and there was no reason to support either of the two evils. The irony is during all of Babar`s, Abdali`s and Ghaznavi`s attacks on the Indus valley, no force from, let`s say, Ganges valley ever came to assist. Instaed they waited for their turn at the hands of mauraders.

Never mind; just a different opinion about some historical events.

#14,15,19

Basant has been a traditional kite-flying festival.Among muslims it became even more acceptable and fashionable because of the almost 100 years of dominance by the sikhs.

In the Oudh province of India,Muharram was observed by hindus & sikhs also for similar reasons.

The only difference ,in both cases,was that the elites & `shurfaa` didn`t become part of such activities;only the phlebians did.Just as they do it today all over the world.The rulers never take up the tradition of the ruled.It is & should be always the other way round.

This way it is always easy to figure out who has agreed to serve whom;even after the millenniums have passed.

I don`t think that sehra has totally dissapeared though.....I mean everyone still knows what it is.....its just that most of us find it way too cheesy to begin with! don`t you agree....