My Pakistan Diary: Roots! A Spiritual Journey

Interesting, as usual.

Good to see you were able to find your roots. Long journey from Kussak to Ottowa......and from Sargodha to Ottowa. Although as someone who lived in Sargodha for a few years, and now lives close to Ottowa, I can relate to the second one........

P.S. ``sohni dharti`` not ``dharti sohni.`` The oringinal, ironically sung by Shahnaz Begum from Bangladesh, and composed by Sohail Rana (born in Agra).......

dost-mittar

A google search comes up with Kussak in a US Geological survey report:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/b2208-b/b2208-b.pdf

There are 5 mentions of Kussak in the above interesting document, though perhaps not in the sense you want :)

And here, too:
http://www.gsp.com.pk/pakistan/

[The oringinal, ironically sung by Shahnaz Begum from Bangladesh, and composed by Sohail Rana (born in Agra)....... ]

...and written by jamiluddin aali...born in agra... does it say something?

Dost-Mittar,

Good job, a very well written article.

Hope you had a good time in Pakistan.

oh wow!! incredible sir, brilliant stuff :) count me a fan.
here`s hoping that more will follow in your path from both sides of the border and that it all leads to a long, long overdue healing.

Dost mitr ji,

I read all of your travelogues and everu one of them was good reading. However the last one really did touch my heart. I have always wanted to go and see the land where our forefathers came from. However every passing day is taking away a little bit away in time. My grand parents passed away long time ago and they couldn`t stop talking about their land when they were alive. My parents also have since passed away and if I can not go in the next few years, there will be no body left who remembers anything about it over there or in India.

My family had moved to India well before the riots, because my father saw the writing on the wall. However the other people who had stayed went through a harrowing time.

dost-mittar ji,
...cavalry to your help...to locate your tiny village...courtesy resident Raw operative on chowk...;)

#7
Instead of whining about unwanted Indian posters and our unwanted posts, it would be better if you losers put in some effort and make this a limited access website. Until then, keep whining.

Nand ji, as always, a keen write-up, thanks.

Did you get a feeling of achievement, something like that of getting past a crossroads finally, after your visit?

Dost Sab

As usual, an interesting flowing story.

Just a little correction. That was my wife`s village - only about 70 year old, more peaceful and more presentable. This was a good functioning village for a stop-over.

My ancestoral village, about half hour from there, Maangnee, is much older and much chaotic. Not very presenrable but I guess, very original. Till two generations back, my father`s side was hustling cattle across the Chenab river. Until the British persuaded them to leave the profession of cattle lifting and settle down in agriculture and offered land on the newly dug canal. My father was the first one to get educated and then become a police officer during the Raj. I rarely visit this village.

My father had migrated from this village, bought land at Davis Garh (named after some British revenue officer Mr. Davis), about one hour drive from here - near Sahiwal of Heer-Ranjha (not the big Sahiwal - earlier called Montgomery - named after General Montgomery) - I do not visit this village often either. My agriculture land, just about 80 acres, is on rent and I just collect the annual rent.

It is not only you. My father never lived in his father`s house. I have never lived in my father`s house. And I do not think my sons will ever live in my house. I guess the old rural society of these areas has been and will continue to be in a phase of transition for some time.


NHK

In her last years my grandmother used to yearn to go to India and see what has become of her village, to see if her home was still intact. She used to tell me the stories of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs living in relative peace and harmony. Her village was somewhere near the tomb of Mujaddad Alif Sani in Sirhind. Since then I developed a secret desire to go to India and visit the vilage of my Grandparents, the village where my dad was born. Likewise she used to tell me how one fateful day they left their village with tears in their eyes. They left behind almost everything. The mayhem, the massacre, the rioting; she used to narrate everything in detail. What I found so strange was thast she used to curse Jinnah for bringing this calamity on them. She believed they would have gone on to live in peace forever, had this Pakistan thing not happened to them. Their bitterness was compunded by the fact that in migration they lost almost everything, they came to Pakistan as paupers and had to start afresh. It was not easy. Their problems were compounded by the scramble that began soon after the migration. Unfortunately, this scramble has`nt yet come to an end in this land of the pure.

Dost-mittarji:

What a wonderful way to conclude a journey...roots, of any kind, always have sentimental value. I think the quotation you used in the beginning and your mother-in-law`s assumption that after all these years things would not have changed both make telling statements. And then that last line -- like a little strange twist!

I missed a couple of the earlier pieces. And what is this? I believe some people have been forwarded pix (even those who were not around you at the time) aur humein kuchh nahin??:(

Yahaan hamari ghair-maujoodgi mein sab ulta-pulta ho gaya! Need to catch up on so much.

Regards,
F

Dost-Mitter

(Alam said, “your grandfather used to read from Guru Granth Sahib to the veiled Khatri women of the village``)

This is interesting.

Covering the head (veiling) with Dupatta has been and is part of the culture of these areas - as I see even now on the Indian Punjab TV - Dupatta being handled exactly in the same manner as here. Even Sonia Gandhi puts the Pallu of her Sari on her head. This cultural modesty is across the fault lines of religion.

Whereas Niqab or Hijab is purely an Arab cultural tradion - the Arab women used this attire even before the advent of Islam. I have seen the Beduine women in different styles of Niqabs in UAE. Niqab or Hijab is part of the Arab culture and is wrongly linked with religion.

Dost Mittar: Upon reading the concluding piece to your Pakistan Diary, I think it is fair to say that the Diary itself serves as a fitting epilogue to the terrible days of 1947. It reflects the emotions not just of those who had to leave behind their roots and their memories as the fled for their lives eastwards from Pakistan, but also of those of us (like my family) that had to flee for their lives westwards from India.

As I mentioned before on chowk, my brother made a similar journey last September to our ancestral village in india where he visited the place the house my family had lived in, and about which we had heard stories from childhood (my parents were married in that ancestral house). Our older generation, largely gone now, of course had many fond memories. So, I can understand the emotion you must feel at going back to your roots. Welcome home!!

At last one can bid goodbye to this terrible soapie, hopefully never to return again, noting the response of the pka govt with missile firings and the claim for the largest killings in kashmir by zalauddin from his base in islamabad.

The travelogue did nothing to inform an outsider about pakistan of today. All of the crap about history could have been written from an armchair.
The jihadis, the madrassas, the posters in the streets, the honour killings, the k for kafir books..that is what makes pakistan an interesting place. This is what one does not read in dawn, this is what only a foreigner can see, and that is what is about travelogues, ones that cannot see in catalogues.

Zay #15,

``The jihadis, the madrassas, the posters in the streets, the honour killings, the k for kafir books..``

You forgot the J for Jaalim, sweet cheeks.