AMAN KI ASHA

i just went through shaukat siddiqui's magnum opus khuda ki basti. roughly translated it says god's own slum. but the translator named it much more romantically, "god's own land". now, that might be romanticism on part of the translator who, by the way, has done an amazing job on the translation, but the book in itself has no traces of romanticism. unless, of course, you are the types that links reality with romanticism.in fact, his novel has amazing parallels to some of our own great authors. take sarat chandra chattopadhyay for example. now, this novelist may have plied his trade in bengali, but thanks to devdas, he need no introduction to most indians. he is one of those authors who reveled in reality and his works brought out the contours of rural bengal to great effect. so does shaukat siddiqui in this novel. in parts you can actually get lost, almost like you were in a crowded room and you had no idea what you were supposed to do. there are so many characters spinning off in their lives in so many directions that all your guesses are bound to go wrong. its so real that its almost frightening because just like life you can hardly second guess what's about to come. the main protagonists go through an amazing number of tribulations and hardships and, yet, as is supposed to in most novels, their hardships never come to an end. the kind of situations they go through we, in today's india are hardly able to relate to, same as some of the situations some of the kids in slumdog millionaire go through are impossible to believe for the europeans.

that brings me to the most fundamental point in my blog today. pakistan is our next door neighbour and, yet, we know lesser about that country than we do about united states of america, for example. i am sure that almost 99% of us, if asked, would say that all they knew about pakistan is that its a breeding ground for terrorists. i am an officer of the armed forces. i am one of those men who people simply expect to know all about pakistan. yet, all i know is that it has 5 important ports- jiwani, gwadar, pasni, okhra, karachi. i remember that we were taught that pakistan is made up of the following states- punjab, sind, balochistan, north western frontier province(NWFP), and FATA(Federally Administered Tribal Areas). well, and i also know that most of the terrorist camps are located in FATA. and that's about it. yet, there are almost hundreds of ways in which we can read about pakistan, talk to pakistanis and see some of that country, online that is. however, to put it straight, we never will. we will go and find out that new zealand's indigenous population consists of maoris, who originally travelled from australia about five thousand years ago, after having made a pit stop at some of the pacific islands. we will know all the stories that revolve around the original invasion of the white man of the americas. we know how they fought with the red indian tribals and how many us presidents there were. we know which counties of UK Boycott and Beckham come from. we also know all that is there to know about the great lakes of Scandinavia. yet, we know nothing about our next door neighbours. i mean, that i know that those countries provide us with a lot of employment and its bread and butter for some to know all that stuff. its also true that our media gives us so much more exposure to the western countries than pakistan.

yet, is there a little more to it than meets the eye? i am not trying to suggest any conspiracy theories at any cost. but the fact that no pakistani channel is ever broadcast on our cable television (by the way, is there more than one pakistani channel?), or anything other than how the pakistani government is trying to sabotage our best efforts at peace. i bet that's exactly what the pakistani people get to hear from their government and media? but what's the big deal with having a free democracy if dont get to see whats the reality? for that matter, we should get to read more pakistani authors in our school texts, authors like shaukat siddiqui who can give us a whole new outlook on that country, make us realise that ordinary people with ordinary needs exist as much in that country as they do in ours. we should get more exposure to people from that country so that all the mistrust and confusion are dispelled. it might also be a good chance to for us to realise that we have much more in common than some caucasian half way around the world. all this makes me realise that this recent venture at peace between the two neighbours isn't just an exercise in futility. its much more real, and is very important for our future. who knows if we learn to trust each other and get our own house in order we might be able to share a lot more than some cold vibes over the non-selection of pakistani players at IPL auction. who knows it might even pave the way to newer frontiers being scaled.

by the way, bipin your community aman ki asha is as great an idea as any other. good show.