Owais Mughal

The debate of Yamaha 100 versus Honda 70 in Pakistan is probably as old as the date of Aug 14, 1947.

While I belong to the Yamaha club, I have to admit that Honda crowd is steadily increasing in number. Therefore today I will offer an olive branch to all the Honda 70 community out there. You should also appreciate that it has taken me 20 years since I rode my first Yamaha to come around and write following lines in praise of a Honda.

Honda 70’s Amphibian Qualities

This is a true story guys. The year was 1992. Karachi got hit by one of its famous monsoon rains where mother nature dumped the whole year’s rain quota within few hours – and got done with it. After few hours of rain, nothing moved in the city because the whole city had became a large pool of stagnant water and stranded humanity.

Owais Mughal

Walking down a street in Singapore, I came across this poster. If you are going to say ‘yeah – so what?’ or what is the maqsad (purpose) of this post then my answer would be imagine if you are walking on a street outside Pakistan and you see this poster – then won’t you get stuck for few moments? That is what happened to me. I got stuck on this poster for few seconds and took this photo. I was not expecting a Pakistani promotion on a street in Singapore. I also didn’t know that Pakistan is the 2nd largest exporter of clothing in the World. After looking at the poster, I saw a world of potential. Do you?

iFaqeer

“…there are very few things that you can hold up as truly and purely Pakistani artifacts.”

It often times gets lost in all the noise and fury of these interesting and fast-paced times, that we are blessed with a melting pot of rich history and culture from the Islamic and the wider South Asian civilizations. We have deep roots in the land within our borders. But we come from a tradition that, for the major part, is open and accepting of outside influences and implements; be they the treasures of other venerated cultures, or the ever changing offerings of technology’s bleeding edge.

Partly because we are too good at adopting and adapting, there are very few things that you can hold up as a truly and purely Pakistani artifact. But the “Dollar Pen”, or “_Daalar Pein” as most of its users would refer to this writing implement of choice, for most of us ordinary work-a-day citizens, is something that is our very own.