I Fell Among Doctors

Posted on July 7, 2008
Filed Under >Mast Qalandar, Humor, Pakistanis Abroad, People
72 Comments
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Mast Qalandar

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 — a kind of 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 they could find a seat. They were mostly Pakistanis — men, some in their ethnic dresses; women in their usual colorful dresses; and a lot of children, from toddlers to teens. I soon found out why.

APPNAAAPNAAPPNAAPPNA

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, but I don’t quite agree with Khalid Hasan’s description. On the contrary, after the initial “shock and awe”, I started enjoying the energy and diversity of the scene.

Majority of the families who had converged at the hotel came from small-town-America where the total population of their respective towns, in some cases, did not exceed the number of people gathered at the conference. Therefore, the exuberance of the delegates and their families was understandable, even though it seemed to spill over at times.

Among the many helpful signs installed in the lobby to direct the delegates to different areas of the hotel and meeting rooms, there was also one indicating the timings of the five daily prayers. Presence of religion in the hotel was palpable.

APPNAAPPNAAPPNAAPPNA

While I was walking down the corridor in search of my room, a man, obviously a Pakistani, with a sparse beard, emerged from his room. His trousers were rolled up above his ankles, water was dripping from his hands and arms, and droplets of water could be seen hanging from his beard. It was maghrib time. He asked me if I knew which way the qibla was. Without a second thought, I pointed to what I thought was the west, since 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 was a little later that I realized that in the US the qibla had to be generally towards the east. I felt a bit guilty in misleading the good doctor, but consoled myself in the knowledge that I had given the information in good faith. To further pacify my conscience, I also reminded myself of the verse that says “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. It catered to the needs of the delegates and their families, not only their worldly needs but also their spiritual needs. There were many stalls selling clothes and jewelry, and also many 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 of PML-N, Farooq Sattar of MQM, and Pakistan’s new ambassador in Washington, DC Mr. Husain Haqqani. The hall was full. All seats were taken. Many people stood in the back and on the sides of the hall.

APPNAAPPNAAPPNAAPPNA

It was clear that the audience was politically divided along the same lines that are etched so deeply on the political landscape of Pakistan. They expressed their views with the same emotions and anger that have been visible in Pakistan since March 2007, when General Musharraf sacked the Chief Justice. 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 got up to speak.

Mr. Haqqani is a smart man. He speaks and writes well. I have heard him speak on TV and was always impressed by his clarity of thought and coherence of 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 win 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 broke into a wild bhangra in the hall that lasted past midnight.

I checked out of the hotel a day before the APPNA mela ended.

APPNAAPPNAAPPNAAPPNA

While going up to my room to collect my luggage, I entered an elevator, which already had some people (apparently Americans or Europeans) going up. 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 our tummies in to accommodate the woman and the kids. When everyone was in, and had pushed his/her floor buttons (the children having pushed more than one) the doors closed, and that usual awkward silence fell in the elevator. The mother broke the silence by loudly asking the children in English, 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 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 is, I guess, 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 of their origin.

Photos for this post are by the author himself and the full collection can be seen here

72 responses to “I Fell Among Doctors”

  1. Aamir says:

    “An overwhelming 80%+ dismiss secularism.”

    How many of these 80%+ can actually read and write and know the issues involved?

    I rest my case.

    A survey of educated people is more relevant and as can be seen by the responses from countries with higher level of education they are less in favour of mullahism. No wonder it suits Mullah to keep public jahil.

  2. PMA says:

    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.

  3. Rafay Kashmiri says:

    @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.

  4. PMA says:

    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.

  5. MQ says:

    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.

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