Adil Najam
New York City’s annual Pakistan Day parade is one of the largest Pakistan day festivals held outside of Pakistan (the one in London is reputedly much larger) and has been held annually for at least 25 years. I have always wanted to attend one of these, but never have. Till now.
As it turns out, Geo TV’s North American channels are to telecast the parade live this year and asked me to come over to assist in the broadcast. The thought of Pakistaniat running amuck on the streets of New York – from 26th to 41st streets on Madison Avenue, with over 10,000 people expected to attend – was too enticing to miss out on. Typically, and not surprisingly, there is lots of good Pakistani food, colorful Pakistanis dresses galore, bhangras good and bad, dhols and music all around, and good-natured chaos and frenzy. What, then, is not to like!
This year’s Pakistan Day celebrations kick off amidst much bad news. But that too has become a pattern in recent years. All the more reason to use this occasion to think about Pakistan, our own Pakistaniat, and what both mean to us and to what we are and are viewed as by the world. Behind all the noise and festivities, that must be the biggest reason for such a celebration. I hope those at the parade will not let sad events dampen their Pakistaniat or their expression of it; but I also hope that we will all also use such an occasion to think about what we can give back to Pakistan, especially to those being displaced by the current rain and flood havoc hitting Pakistan.
Also, it seems like a good opportunity to try out this “Live Tweets” thing. Lets see how that works, I will try to update regularly on Twitter and here is a live feed to all tweets with the hashtag #PakDayParadeNYC. If any readers are at the parade, or wish to add to the Twitter chatter, Tweet away with hashtag #PakDayParadeNYC and it will show up in the window below (I hope!).
Pictures from earlier Pakistan Day parades in New York City:
Dear Siyasi Admi,
Thank you for the kind words. Let me just respond to your last point. You are right! Although I probably used the word Pakistaniat much more like 12 or 15 times at least!
In my own defense, however, I never once used it in the context of plugging the blog :-) I had agreed to do this simply because I really believe that such events are an expression of exactly that: our Pakistaniat. In fact, mid-way through this I thought I was using the word too much and tried hard to think of an alternative, but just could not think of one, because what I wanted to talk about was our “Pakistaniness” and that is our “Pakistaniat.”
I really mean this honestly, and I hope that you will take from this fact that I really really believe in this concept of Pakistaniat, which is why I named this blog what it is named. It really was not a cheap plug for the blog :-)
It was good coverage on GEO and I enjoyed seeing Adil Najam doing the discussion.
I think such events are far more powerful than any diplomacy in actually showing the human side of our image.
Loved the pictures of the colorful Pakistani dresses everywhere.
Great to see you Adil doing commentary on the event. Although a lot to be desired since you were cutt off by either breaks o concert singers but anyway it was great show.
Couple of issue that I would like to point out.
I agree there were too many shields and guess what almost all of those were presented to the same organizing comittee members. One member was presented a shield because he arranged for the singer “Anniee” , wow.
Also the whole presentation ceremony was more of a photo opportunity for the committee members, distribution was so dis organized and at one point they had 12 people on the stage and all those were so called community members who only show up on these events :) , I would like Adil Bhai to comment on it.
The only one deserving girl who was a pakistani student who received a shield on her remarkable achievement, the compere ended his statement by saying this “Iss Larki nay hamara Sir Gharoor seh Buland Kar diya hai “:)
Adil , I think you were needed on the front more than the back.
Also did anyone counted how many times Adil Bhai mentioned the word “Pakistaniat” in his talk. I think the count is 5 atleast : )
Wasn’t there. But like the “twitter thing”. Interesting way to cover a live event.
It wasn’t 10K today! Reportedly in years past there were many more attendees, but not this time.