| October 20, 2002 | Sunday | Sha'aban 13, 1423 |
A pleasant gathering
While realistic and dream-like scenarios of the ultimate formation of the federal and provincial governments are being argued and advocated by all and sundry, including the media and drawing-room pundits, let us focus on one of the few questions that are being repeatedly asked: Is there going to be an improvement in the workplace ethics in particular, and a quality of life, in general?
Put another way: Will the life of the common man improve? For example: will public transport or public utilities work better?
It is both so dramatic and fluid, the way in which the political parties and their leaders go through necessary mileage on the journey, which the common man hopes will bring about a desperately-needed change in his life. A change for the better, wherein he will get peace, security, and progress, decency, self-respect, and a fair deal and justice. The common man is weary and tired, and often down in tears and humiliation, in a society where prejudice and poverty has grown with times.
A naive citizen of Orangi said to me on Thursday night that he was hoping that his life would improve in the days ahead. There was no caution in his optimism. In fact, there was in his attitude a certain insistence, and a definite certainty which was noticeable. How would it improve? and he answered thus: “at least the police will not harass me when I return home late at night, and I will not be subjected to disgraceful body searches”. We talked for a while and he said that after a day’s hard work, for the last 30 years, he reaches home around 11 pm — only to realise that he has not received water for three days! How he has been shoved into the bus (changed twice at least) is another story, he underlined, meekly.
Citizens like these, in millions all over the land, wait in suspense and curiosity as the due democratic process unfolds, and peculiar explanations and excuses, in a somewhat enigmatic context surface. These hapless citizens, in many many instances, wonder whether the quality of their lives are set to improve. And how soon will they begin to see the fruit of all that has happened on the 10th of October.
Whether citizens have voted or not, in some instances, there is an underlying fear that relates to ghastly incidents like the parcel bombs that exploded in government offices in the city on a hot Wednesday afternoon. For quite some time, now one fears post offices and their working will not be the same, and the public will suffer again. In this post-election scenario, as the country inches towards democracy, citizens wonder, in vain, whether Karachi will remain a provincial capital whose anxiety profile will deepen with time. Will a democratic dispensation be able to manage things as quickly as it is required? Purely on a day-to- day basis, take the fact that mail needs to move swiftly, and keep in mind that at this time of the year, as Ramazan comes, and the year draws to a close, the volume of postal mail alone rises umpteenth times.
The subject of work and ethics mentioned at the outset was one that was under scrutiny during the week at a dinner where journalists and corporate professionals were in a majority. Most people either had no response to the question: will democracy bring about an improvement in the work ethics in this society? One chief executive said casually, but seriously, that in this society there was neither the right attitude to work, nor was there the required ethics. That was one way of dismissing the very concept. That was another way of saying that we should not ask for the moon. That was yet another way of reflecting a certain cynicism.
And yet while one sees ample basis and justification for such skepticism, as news of political dissent filter through the plethora of opinion and information on what is happening in the lobbies of political power (read economic power in particular), there is the welcome undiluted optimism of the common man. He has faith in democracy and appears to be breathing better; a point reflected in the way a bookseller (who carries a pile of books on Urdu literature and religion from office to office for his selected clients) responded: “I think this democracy will do me good”, a statement he could not substantiate at once in real terms. He is old, weary, ill and one is often amazed that he has not collapsed.
There is something else that amazes one about Karachi, and in particular with reference to the general elections held last week. Rigged or not, the allegations and the arguments on this count continue. But on this count the Sindh capital is peaceful, and that is a relief. Is this a maturing of our public attitudes and political perception? Or should one read that now the city’s electorate is somewhat cynical about complaints, about rigging. We have heard them for so long?!!
Let me tell you what one is referring to here. It was amazing to see the “normalcy” with which the city was functioning on Friday — the day after the polls. And as each day moved on, one citizen remarked that there were almost no signs that the elections had been held! Disinterest or maturity? or a combination of both.
And contrast or harmonise this image with all the high-profile politicking that is going on in Islamabad — with what I saw outside the Pearl Continental Karachi on Friday night around 9 pm. There were scores of cars parked (government cars, and private cars) in the hotel, around the PIDC House, beyond the Commerce college; some double parked as well!!
There was a festivity in the air, and all the signs that our VIPs were in the area.
It is this merry-making(?) that somehow doesn’t get with the unemployment, the poverty, the illiteracy, the malnutrition, the crime, and the long list of sorrows that we have, that give to this democracy of ours a certain gravity, a certain grimness.
“This election is not party time, nor partying time. This democracy we have bargained for is no laughing matter and citizens hope the leaders realise the grim challenges that lie ahead. For a while, even our post is deadly or rather can be”, said one Karachiite.
PS: One citizen who sends out Eid cards generously is worried about the Eid cards that he will have problems with, while another Karachiite is thinking about the sending of diaries through mail (or courier) and the delays that may arise. Quality of life issues and its relationship with democracy. Think, dear citizen.
THIS piece should have appeared last week but when its writer was recovering from the shock of a midnight visit by three pistol-wielding desperadoes, he deserves a pardon for not being able to submit it on time. Well, that is all part of the game of life and one has no option but to accept it as something normal. Don’t we see so many similar incidents reported in the newspapers everyday?
Now let’s forget such sombre events and get down to something pleasant. First, about a gathering of literary heavyweights arranged in the Lahore Gymkhana by Shahid Ali Khan, chief editor of the literary monthly, Alhamra. Those responding to his invitation were Payam Shahjahanpuri, Murtaza Barlas, Dr Anwar Sadeed, Azhar Javed, Yunus Javed, Aslam Kamal, and Jafar Baloch and a single lady, Dr Attiya Syed. Yes, the former radio man, Khalid Toor and the youthful ghazal writers Saud Usmani, were also there. But going over the faces of all those present that evening I may well call it an evening with bankers. Shahid Ali Khan, the host, is a former banker and Khalid Shafiq, who ably conducted the proceedings, has retired after occupying a senior position in a bank. Then there was the poet, Shahid Wasti, again a former banker, and the short story writer, Adil Nadeem, who even lives in a bankers’ colony after retirement. And one cannot omit the name of another VP of a bank, Shahid Bukhari, who was seen taking notes of the proceedings for his next column in the weekly Nikhar of Islamabad.
There was no set programme for the function and Shahid Ali Khan preferred to call it a literary gathering and nothing more. However, as things progressed, Yunus Javed was called upon to read out a short story and so was Khalid Fateh Muhammad, a former army officer whom I met for the first time and was impressed by the story, Chawal ka Chilka, which he presented.
As always, there was a round of poetry as well in which some poets participated but not the seniormost, Murtaza Barlas. He just went on to deliver a mini-speech to impress upon us that literary meetings should be meaningful. It is not enough to sit and listen to outpourings, he said, but these should be followed by discussions.
But then a grey-bearded person was called upon to recite his poetry. He, I am told, produces a literary monthly by the name of Rash-haat. I was fascinated by the lines he recited. I cannot refrain from reproducing some:
Ajeeb lehja heh uskey kalam ka sahab
Kahin pe zeir-o-zabar ka pata nahin chalta
Hamarey shehr mein sab loag ahl-i-mansab hein Kisi ke nam se ghar ka pata nahin milta
Yun ban sanwar ke na aya karo sar-i-mehfil
Yahan kisi ki nazar ka pata nahin chalta
Heh khub shairi azad shairi bhi Sahar
Hunarwaron ke hunar ka pata nahin chalta
APART from being the author of about forty books on a variety of serious subjects, Kazy Javed, the local director of the Pakistan Academy of Letters, has not only taught philosophy at the Punjab University but has also been a research scholar in the department for a full ten years. He has translated over a dozen books from English into Urdu some of which have gone into many editions.
This month, he received an invitation to attend a conference in Beijing which had been arranged jointly by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a German foundation named after Konard Adenauer. The topic for the presentation of papers was “Dialogue of Cultures: Possibilities and Limits.”
The five-day conference was attended by delegates from Iran, India, Germany and China. Whereas only one scholar represented the other countries, there were 55 from China, mostly university teachers and 12 from Germany.
Incidentally, the delegate from India was a Muslim teaching at the Jawahar Lal Nehru University. The entire proceedings were conducted in English and it were only the Chinese who chose to use their own language. However, the facility of a simultaneous translation was available.
In his paper, Kazy Javed highlighted the rich-poor divide which has aggravated the economic problems of the poorer nations and led to the eroding of local and familiar concepts because of the process of globalization. He said as things were going, many oral languages of Asia and Africa are likely to disappear in another hundred years. Unfortunately, he added, “when a language dies, a culture also perishes.” All the same, the paper ended on a hopeful note. It said that there were many common elements in the thinking of various cultures and a clash among them could be avoided. The need was “to work out a pragmatic and future-oriented methodology for an intercultural dialogue. A new metaphysics is required to provide room for unity in diversity.”
THE late Dr Faqir Muhammad Faqir is popularly called Baba-i-Punjabi. Devoted to the cause of his mother tongue, he started the publication of a monthly with the apt name, Punjabi. However, his death brought an end to that magazine. It was much later that his maternal grandson, Junaid Akram, managed to revive it, first as a quarterly and then as a monthly. I have before me its issues for September and October, 2002, neatly printed and tastefully produced. Whereas the poetry section of the two issues can boast of top names like Hafeez Taib, Salim Kasher and Bushra Ijaz, most noteworthy is a detailed interview of the noted Punjabi progressive writer, Prof Afzal Tawseef. She has made no bones about how the Punjabi language is being treated in its home province.
IN the latest issue of the monthly Adab-i-Latif, Yusuf Imtiaz, who lives in Canada, appears once again with a very personal sort of article about Faiz Ahmad Faiz. It makes delightful reading and bringing to light many little known aspects of the great poet’s personality. — Ashfaque Naqvi