The gypsy way of life
It is not a pastime or a result of certain circumstances — it is a chosen path
By Moeed ur Rehman Abbasi
At the beginning of every winter, 40-year-old gypsy Noor Mohammad from Upper Kaghan Valley, using main Karakoram Highway starts his journey along with his family and cattle on foot. He leaves snowbound Musa Ka Musalla Peak (4,100m) on the outskirts of Punjab for warmer plains as he finds it difficult to live in these areas due to heavy snowfall in every winter.

Walking through the diplomacy gate
No red carpet awaits
visitors inside Islamabad’s Diplomatic Enclave
By Naveed Ahmad
An appointment with a diplomat is never enough; you almost need a visa to enter Islamabad’s Diplomatic Enclave. You would be lucky if the guard at the gate has already been conveyed your name and vehicle registration number.

I got up early in the morning like a school-going kid, gulped down my breakfast and rushed to catch the bus. My excitement to see "different people," ran high.

On this sunny morning in Silver Spring, on the outskirts of Washington DC, I along with a group of foreigners took Route-83 for a two hour-thirty-minute-drive to Lancaster County in Pennsylvania State — where the Amish community lives.

"I am happy to have you," said guide Lois Wenger Jordan, who joined us in the Lancaster city, where we made a stop. A stout woman in her 60s, wearing specs and with greying short hair, would give interesting information about the Amish community.

"The Amish people don’t allow use of computers and cell phones," she said at one point. Bishop, she added, had the authority to allow their use, but he has banned them.

It sounded strange and unbelievable. We were after all in America where gadgets are a part of life. Go to university classes, gardens, waiting areas, airports and public transport, and you see people of all ages busy glued to the screens of their laptops and cell phones. A person without computer knowledge is prehistoric.

Jordan further disclosed that Amish people have banned television, radio and music. Now this in America! Remember Hollywood movies and Michael Jackson music.

On way to the Amish farms, we stopped in a village, Kitchen Kettle. This village, with a tiny market, remains abuzz with tourist activities. Annually, over 800,000 people visit Lancaster County to see culture and lifestyle of the Amish people.

"You can easily recognise members of the Amish community in the crowd. Men sport long beards with a shaven upper lip and wear a hat. Women cover their head and wear a full dress with an apron over it," explained Jordan.

A band of musicians, not Amish, was singing along the street for money. They were nestled in packed restaurants and shops selling toys, handicrafts and flowers.

The Amish handicrafts are famous with the visitors. Most popular are patchwork quilts and cushion covers crafted by the local women.

Across this busy market is a road which is lined with grey-colour buggies that are drawn by one or two horses. These buggies have become an identity of the local Amish community. It was an unusual site in the US but reminiscent of tangas in Peshawar. Tourists ride the buggies after paying a fixed fare.

This community’s faith disallows them to own or drive a car or travel by plane. But they can sit in cars as passengers. So, they use buggies and horses for visiting relatives in other villages or going to worship places.

In Washington, like the rest of America, car is a necessity. Roads remain clogged to Washingtonians’ annoyance due to a large number of cars. Certainly, the Amish people do not contribute to this motor vehicular congestion.

A shop displayed furniture handcrafted by Amish. This furniture is famous for quality and durability and has high demand in the market.

From Kitchen Kettle, we started moving towards the Amish farms and houses. With angelic faces and straw hats, I could see the neatly dressed Amish children playing near the clucking domestic hens.

Scenes of women diligently working in fields made me nostalgic about my country. There were clothes on the line to be dried under the sun. Jordan said, the community disallowed use of electricity and electricity-run machines, like washing machines and dryers.

Our group visited a typical one-room Amish school where the Amish people do not study further than eighth grade as advanced education is forbidden by their religion. Resultantly, most youngsters work in the fields. The violators of the ban are punished. "They are shunned, meaning they are expelled from the faith," Jordan said.

A one-room school accommodates 30 students and are taught by a teacher who has studied up to eighth grade. Mostly, the teachers are young women who resign after marriage.

Fifty two-year-old Sam said, "Education up to grade eighth is enough to understand the world. We can write and read."

Agriculture serves as the main occupation of the Amish people as mere middle-school education offers little job opportunities to them.

Scenes of horses tilling the land are common sight. They do not use tractors. They discourage modern farming and use traditional tools. The farmers harvest crops by horse-drawn machinery.

As we move on, Jordan warned, "Don’t photograph Amish people because their faith doesn’t allow them to be photographed. We respect their religious views and they respect ours."

In Leola, a shop run by a woman was selling handicrafts, cushions, books, toys and other items. "May I help you," she asked me. "Yeah, I want to buy these two books," I replied.

I wanted to talk more. But the lady would not talk much — as women are prohibited to work in shops. "Women mainly take care of their children and homes. They work on fields and can run businesses but cannot be employed in offices," Jordan said.

Women do not wear make-up and jewellery. Divorce is prohibited. An Amish couple usually have seven children.

At the crux is their commitment to conservative practices. Being Christian Anabaptists, the Amish people believe
contact with outside world will expose them to "vice and vanity".

At the beginning of every winter, 40-year-old gypsy Noor Mohammad from Upper Kaghan Valley, using main Karakoram Highway starts his journey along with his family and cattle on foot. He leaves snowbound Musa Ka Musalla Peak (4,100m) on the outskirts of Punjab for warmer plains as he finds it difficult to live in these areas due to heavy snowfall in every winter.

Noor’s life revolves around his cattle — mainly sheep, goat and donkeys. His family and other people of his tribe, mainly Syeds and Gujjars, lead a nomadic life. With the makeshift dwellings, these gypsies’ scanty possessions and rustic dialect make them appear to have descended from the Stone Age.

These nomads travel the countryside carrying their belongings and pitching tents wherever they stop. It is a deliberate, chosen way of life.

Resting on a roadside vacant area and puffing a cigarette Noor says, "We stay in RYK till the end of winter and start our journey back by April.

"We have no permanent house nor do we have any other source of communication. We have never used any means of transport for travel. I don’t know why people look at us with surprise. We are happy and satisfied with our lifestyle. We never beg of our living, we have meals three times a day and we rarely sleep on an empty stomach," he adds.

The gypsies, under the leadership of Noor, start pouring the various cities of Punjab including the outskirts of Rawalpindi/Islamabad. The gypsy families that inhabit the area continue to live life as they did years ago.

"We came to Islamabad from Balakot (Hazara division) and are headed down to RYK and Bhawalpur where we shall stay till the end of winter with some of our old contacts and relatives who work in the fields of some landlord," says Bostan Ali leader of another family hailing from Babusar.

"Usually, we sell honey, homemade edible oil and goats or sheep to earn living. We will come back in April or May to our areas located in the mountains of upper Naran and Kaghan as winter must have passed by then," he says.

Interestingly, these gypsy families which come from the hills of Kohistan and Mansehra districts, are quite different from the gypsies of Punjab and Sindh. Gypsies from Punjab and Sindh have primitive lifestyle. Their men usually spend their days sleeping and herd cattle by night. The women are often seen collecting twigs to burn or engaging in "entertainment" work even at the roadsides. People usually associate them with either music and dance or theft and laziness. As a result, they face prejudice. On the other hand, the gypsies from upper Hazara division don’t indulge in these activities.

Government and other social welfare organisations have attempted to help these gypsies to settle down, get education and conform to society’s norms, but ultimately failed because the gypsies themselves choose to continue with primitive traditions that have been passed down by their ancestors.

However, given proper facilities, they can be very useful for the country as they are not only the protector of old traditions but they also know a lot of medical treatments.

An appointment with a diplomat is never enough; you almost need a visa to enter Islamabad’s Diplomatic Enclave. You would be lucky if the guard at the gate has already been conveyed your name and vehicle registration number.

You can enter the main diplomatic enclave or its satellite offshoots across the capital without dogs sniffing your car or even your NIC checked against the guest’s name given by the respective embassy or high commission.

Your car boot may neither be checked with a scanner or a dog nor even by an exhausted, prematurely army-retired security guard.

"We don’t need to check his car as we can learn a lot from the guest’s body language." Such would be a standard response in case you dare question foolproof security arrangements at the entry gates of the Red Zone.

Yet Rehman Malik, celebrity interior minister for the Pakistani and foreign news channels, proudly boasts ‘fail-safe security’ amid unending incidents of target killings.

You may be forewarned here that no red carpet awaits you at the embassy doors. Behind the tall wall, you would meet the same genre of obese security guards, most seen in blue uniform. With a suspicious look on his grim face, he would uncompromisingly require surrender of your cellular phone, car keys and even steel-buckle leather belt.

Generally, after varied levels of protests, most ‘respectable guests’ follow the instructions. And mind you, the ‘guest’ here is not a visa seeker, who can be a potential national security threat. The poor Pakistani may be a retired scientist, an expert in international relations or a journalist reporting for foreign or local dailies or TV channels.

As you pass a walkthrough scanner, another lame duck security guard weighs his newly-acquired toy, strangely named mobile scanner.

He begins a second phase of ‘compulsory’ search operation with the raise-your-hands command. Soon after an instruction to turn around, he would rub the scanner with backside of your body.

Fear of being identified as a suicide bomber to-be or a Taliban-affiliate replaces the feeling of a respected guest.

After successfully clearing these three ‘vital’ security (ego) checks, your sigh of relief is short-lived. Now the guard would massage your entire body with his rough hands as he pleases. Sometimes strongly and often gently! Few may find this free service relaxing for strained nerves while most lose temper.

A few may prefer to cancel the meeting in protest but most ‘respectable guests’ hardly register mild protests with their host diplomat.

"Our culture forbids being rude with the host," was the answer by a professor visiting a high commission. One wonders, "What about the courtesy at the command of the host". The term ‘guest’ in this enclave is synonymous to being a potential suicide bomber.

Email: navid.rana@gmail.com