Last week, I went to Washington DC on personal business. I stayed at the Marriott Hotel on Woodley Road off Connecticut Avenue.
When I arrived at the hotel, and was taking out my luggage from the car, I could sense a commotion in the hotel — the sort of benign commotion that you see at Penn Station in New York during the rush hours or, if you are not familiar with New York, at Islamabad Airport during the Hajj flights. People were milling around, dragging their luggage behind them, going up and down the escalators and lounging around in the lobby of the hotel or wherever one could find a seat. There were Pakistanis all over the place —men, some of them in their ethnic dresses, women in their usual colorful dresses, and a lot of children, from toddlers to teens. I soon found out why.
The Association of Pakistani-American doctors, APPNA, was holding its annual get-together at the hotel. Hundreds of doctors of Pakistani origin from all over the US, along with their families, had descended upon the hotel. They do this thing once every year in different cities.
Khalid Hasan, in one of his columns, describes APPNA gatherings as mela-i-mawaishiaan (cattle show). Even though the impact, initially, is a bit overwhelming, I don’t quite agree with Khalid Hasan’s description. On the contrary, I quickly got over the initial impact and started enjoying the energy and dynamics of the scene.
Majority of the families who had converged at the hotel came from small-town-America where, in some cases, the total population of their town did not exceed the number of people gathered at the conference. Therefore, the exuberance of the delegates and their families at the sight of such a large gathering, in such a large city, in a large hotel, was understandable, even though it seemed to spill over at times.
Among the many helpful signs installed in the lobby that directed the guests to different areas and meeting rooms there was one indicating the timings of the 5 daily prayers.
Presence of religion in the hotel was palpable.
While I was walking down the corridor in search of my room, a Pakistani man, with a sparse beard, emerged from his room, his trousers rolled up above his ankles, water dripping from his hands and arms, and droplets of water hanging from his beard. It was maghrib time. He asked me if I knew which way the qibla was. Without a conscious thought I pointed to what I thought was the west. (In Pakistan the qibla is always to the west.) He thanked me and quickly retreated into his room presumably to say his maghrib prayer.
It occurred to me a little later that I had misled the good doctor. In the US the qibla is always toward the east. I felt very guilty. But then I consoled myself by telling me that I had given the information in good faith. To further pacify my conscience I also reminded myself of the verse that says something to the effect that to Him belongs the east and the west; so, whichever way you turn your face doesn’t really matter… 2:115
The APPNA managers had also arranged a delightful bazaar in the basement of the hotel, which catered to the needs of the delegates and their families not only in this world but also in the world hereafter. There were stalls selling clothes and jewelry, and stalls selling spiritual books and advice on cleansing the soul as well as the body. There were also stalls selling property in Dubai, and advice on managing your money. The variety of products and services on sale was amazing! The women folks thronged the bazaar most of the time.
On the second day of the conference or the mela, there was a political forum to discuss the ongoing ‘judicial crisis’ back home. APPNA had invited prominent politicians from Pakistan for this purpose. These sessions were open to everyone. Panelists included: Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed, Ahsan Iqbal (PML-N), Farooq Sattar of MQM, and Pakistan’s new ambassador in Washington, Mr. Husain Haqqani. The hall was full. All seats were taken and many people were standing in the back and on the sides of the hall.
From the response of the audience to the different speakers one could see that the crowd in the hall was clearly a microcosm of Pakistan. Not only their views were divided along the political lines drawn so deeply on the political landscape of Pakistan but they also expressed their views with the same emotions, bordering on anger, that have been visible in Pakistan since March 2007. A large and vociferous section of the audience was for the restoration of pre-November 3 judiciary.
Aitzaz Ahsan was heard in pin-drop silence and received a standing ovation from the audience both before and after his speech. He was even hailed as “Obama of Pakistan!” by someone in the audience.
Ahsan Iqbal of PML(N) was heard patiently. Farooq Sattar was occasionally heckled but managed to say what he had to say. However, all hell seemed to break loose when Mr. Husain Haqqani spoke.
Mr. Haqqani is a smart man. He speaks well and writes well. I have heard him speak on TV and he always impressed me with clarity of his thought and coherence of his speech. He has written a great book, Between Mosque and Military, which, according to Stephen Cohen, is ” brilliantly researched and written book that should be required reading for anyone who wishes to understand this increasingly important state.” But on stage, in front of a crowd, Mr. Haqqani looked and acted more like a fighter rooster. He would try to put down his “opponents” with a sharp rebuttal or repartee. This technique might have won him points in a school debate but did not win many friends among the APPNA doctors in the hall.
The acrimony generated in the political debate, however, seemed to disappear in the evening when, during a musical show, young Amanat Ali sang some fast paced songs and the doctors did a wild bhangra in the hall.
I checked out of the hotel a day before the APPNA mela ended.
I was going up to my room to collect my luggage. When I got into the elevator there were already a few, ‘non-Pakistanis’ (Americans or Europeans) in it. Just when the doors of the elevator began to close, an exuberant Pakistani mother, in her colorful dress, accompanied by 3 or 4 excited kids, ranging in age from about 7 to 12 or 13, rushed in. We squeezed ourselves and pulled in our tummies to accommodate the woman and the kids. When everyone was in and had pushed his/her destination-floor buttons (the children having pushed more than one buttons) the doors closed, and that usual awkward silence fell in the elevator. The mother broke the silence by loudly asking the children in Enlgish, like a schoolteacher would ask a class, “hey, let’s sing Pakistani national anthem”. The children bashfully looked at their mother with question marks on their faces. They didn’t seem to think it was a great idea to sing in such a closed space with strangers around. But the mother wasn’t deterred. Like the conductor of a choir, with one hand raised, she raised piped up with a full-throated ‘Paaak sar zameeen shadbaad … The children simply stared at their toes in embarrassment. The strangers in the elevator, more perplexed than bemused, slipped out of the elevator at the first stop. I listened to her solo performance in silence. Had she not been so out of tune I would have possibly joined her.
I guess patriotism, like nostalgia, affects you at odd times and at odd places.
Overall, it seemed that the doctors had a good 3 days of R&R. Recreation and Religion, that is. What they need to do, I guess, is inject a bit of Renaissance and Reformation into APPNA to make it a really meaningful organization both for the country of their choice as well as that of their origin.
Photos for this post are by the author himself and the full collection can be seen here
Good points Kashmiri Sahab. Now that we have completely ruined the original post by MQ, let me get off here before Owais and Adil come after us with sticks.
@PMA,
In your second para, I am sure you referred to Mysticism,
rather than Suffism, I remember I had discussed on
Suffisim with historical references, on Sialkot’s new airport’s
blog on ATP.
I agree with your point in the third para, the vacuum been
created by epoch of darkness, post-Mughals, when the
subconti muslims thought wrongly that ijtihad’s doors were closed. So the socio-cultural vacuum increased by large,
and they kept on filling it up with superstitious believes,
I call them extra-terrest batman, then emerged the true
conflictual, paramount differences between the two, i.e.
Monotheisim and polytheism(pantheism) and unfortunately,
we could’nt gain the same scenario that history witnessed,
the total conversion of Roman civilization to Catholicism.
Must remind you that just 80 years ago the civilized world
believed in the formula
Arabs = Muslims and Muslims = to Arabs
today the Arab religio-cultural world represents less than
27 % of the total Muslim world ( according to UNO about
1.5 billion muslims )
I would’nt say there is a cultural stagnation in Pakistan,
61 years of “survival” from major agressions by ‘outsider’
neighbours, and our own disregard of the value of our culture, brought a certain lull in the advancement to
achieve more or less a ‘healthy culture’ or even ‘ cohabit’ with it.
Indian (Hindu) culture always resisted and opposed
Islamic ‘ culture’. One should ask, is the cultural transition
has already ended or its just the begining of a new battle for
survival, I think Pakistanis are not willing to give up.
Cohabitation is never eternal.
There is nothing wrong with healthy cultural exchange,
Islam has no fixed cultural dimensions, it simply does’nt
impose any. It revendicates decency and respect in any
society,colour, region, continent, religions.
Rafay Kashmiri:
I tend to agree with you on certain levels. I agree with you when you say that “the Muslims in the subcontinent speak, eat, wear, traditions, music, art, grammar, living style, sufism, ALL IS INFUSED”. I look at this phenomenon as earlier ’synthesis’ of Hindu-Muslim cultures that was bound to happen once the two cultures were placed next to each other. Purist Hindus of India do not like this ‘fusion’ any more than the purist Muslims do.
Early Sufism, not just in the Indian Subcontinent, but in other traditionally non-Muslim lands as well, was a product of this synthesis. However today’s ‘Sufism’ is of a different brand. We could discuss this at an other time at an other post. May be we could invite our friend Raza Rumi, whom I respect very much, to join in at that time. But I do agree with you when you say that ‘Secularism is presenting Sufism as an alternative to Islam’. Such efforts are true or honest neither to secularism nor to religion. On the other hand Talibanisation, Al-Qaidaism, Islamism are the reactions to the other extreme.
But let me point out some thing to you. The Hindu influx and the Arab influx into Pakistani society are still very much ‘local’ phenomenons happening due to the cultural vacuum created by us. On one hand we have failed to develop and promote our own culture and on the other hand we have shut out all other cultures to reach us. Our lethargy makes us to copy what ever vulgarity next door Bollywood dishes out and our reactionaries try to look towards Arabs for answers to our social problems.
This is why I say there is a cultural stagnation in Pakistan. There is a wide open world out there beyond Hindustan and Arbastan. Why we do not reach out, and by that I do not mean only West, to newer vistas and have cultural exchanges with the world beyond these self imposed limits. We have lot to offer and our capacities to learn are limitless. Let some fresh air in.
Adnan, glad to see you back. We desperately need some good poetry here. I thought perhaps you had migrated to some other ‘birdbath’.
Yes, I read that Faraz is recovering somewhere in Chicago. He looked quite good in the Musharia in DC, and was the last one to recite his poem, after Aitzaz Ahsan, at around 3 in the morning — barely short of fajar time. I really marvel at the stamina of these poets.
@PMA,
Jenaab,
Sorry, may be I missed your point,
lets stay with the nearest, period, say, Mughals !! as
you talked about last three hundred years,
- you think it did not infused enough ? Akbar ?etc.
Din-e-Ilahi, any founder of new religion was never hanged.
- the Muslims in the subconti, speak, eat, wear, traditions
music, art grammer living style, suffism ALL IS INFUSED.
what else you want ?
Pakistanis are just following ” others” since the departure
of colonials.
- Military defeats, conquests, invasions, crusades, inquisitions,
forced conversions to evangilism, Catholicism, Marxism,
Socialism and now Secularism presenting Suffism as
alternative to Islam, Americanism etc etc. what not !!
- ” Talibanisation, Al-Qaidaism, Islamism ” is it not bringing
back that ‘ infusion’ you are referring to ??
Why opposing only, exclusively, ‘ ARAB’ infusion ??
- lets move further, yes colonialism was collosal !!
“Ahmad Faraz stumbled out of the mushaira..”
I can imagine that.. :) suna hey rubtt hey uss ko kharab haaloa’n sey– so apney aap ko barbaad kurr key daikhtey hain.
I heard he is not feeling well these days and is admitted in a hospital.
I enjoyed your question about the lack of use of science when citing moon. Perhaps Dr. Israr or someone like him standing on the roof with doorbeen is more credible than weather.com.
May I butt in with an additional tidbit about the convention that I forgot to mention in the post? (And, by the way, the post, if you look below the title, is filed under humor — not religion.)
Ahmad Faraz stumbled out of the mushaira, which was going on in a different room parallel to the bhangra show. It was way past midnight and the mushaira had just ended. He went up to his room and after a few minutes came down to the lobby, looking totally lost. One or two ‘attendings’ asked him if they could help. He said he couldn’t find his room. After some enquiries and explanations, it turned out that Faraz Sahib was looking for his room in the wrong hotel. He had checked in at the Omni, across the street!
PMA, I appreciate your arguments, but I think this discussion might have run its course. But, let me just add this. I’ll agree with you that most Pakistanis don’t hold views similar to mine (i.e. no secularism) if it was true and a reality. Here is an extensive survey done by Gallup: http://tinyurl.com/6bxg98 The results belie what you have to say on the views of Pakistanis. I’ve results of other surveys as well (Pew Research), but don’t have the links for them. You can also check out a new book called “Who speaks for Islam”, which is basically the results of different surveys and shares one of the pollsters from the Gallup survey. It also supports the Gallup results. An overwhelming 80%+ dismiss secularism. And, I am understating this number. In fact, the results read: 60% for shariah to be only source of legislation; 21% for shariah to be the source of legislation but not the only source; 15% refused or don’t know and 4% only called for secularism. If we split the 15% down the middle, it will read: Only 11.5% calling for secularism vs. 88.5% dismissing it. And, this is giving a lot of benefit of doubt…I’m certain majority of those 15% won’t fall on the secularism side. I’ve been around in Pakistan and I think these number are close to reality.
You might be extending the views of people you associate with to all Pakistanis. To avoid this pitfall, I actually try to talk to all sorts of people to know what’s the reality. I’m on ATP, aren’t I? You should do the same. If you already do, then I’m surprised how you could’ve said what you said. So again, the sooner people realize what the reality is the better.
It gives me immense pleasure that people like Sceptic and Lal can only make small talk, pray against “Islamist” (orientilist-coined term) views and make fun. This proves it that they have nothing to say. Nothing.