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feature Bottlenecks Taal Matol suicides At least in
Thar... Lines from Kolkata .
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feature The hills around Katasraj have been quiet for a long time. On February 16-17. 2007, they suddenly reverberated with sounds long lost to this verdant corner of the Chakwal district. 'Har Har Maha Dev', 'Jai Bholay Nath' cried a bunch of mostly old Hindu worshippers, all come from India, as they dipped into the pond in front of the ruinous temples nestled in the hills. Before 1947, when the
partition of the Indian subcontinent took place, this was a routine affair at
Katasraj, as the complex of the temple is known. On one fateful day that year
all Hindus living in the proximity of the temples It took close to 60 years and many twists and turns in the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan for the Hindus to be able to come back and resume their long-suspended worship at Katasraj. It has in fact become a symbol of the willingness of the two countries to improve their ever-strained ties as well as attempts by the Pakistani regime led by General Pervez Musharraf and hobbled by its deteriorating international image to project an enlightened and moderate Pakistan where minorities are helped rather than hampered. The two-day worship at Katasraj began with pilgrims, all from India, dipping in the holy pond in front of the temple complex and shouting in the praise of their gods. (Some of them were complaining that disuse had rendered the pond uneven causing them trouble during dipping and bathing but most of them took it as a punishment Lord Shiva had ordained for them for being so forgetful about the temples for so long.) The bathing was followed by chanting of Sanskrit hymns and the worship of of Lord Shiva at night. Security was tight around the
temple complex, in yet another reminder that Katasraj temples are considered among the most sacred Hindu temples on the earth. Dedicated to Lord Shiva, they are constructed on a site believed to have been visited by the Pandava brothers of Mahabharata fame. Apart from the temples, the sacred pond at Katasraj also has mythical association with Lord Shiva. According to the legend of the Mahabharata, when Lord Shiva lost his wife Parvati, he felt so upset that the ponds at the eastern and western ends of the temple got filled by his tears. In Sanskrit the complex is also known as 'Katak Sheel' which means flow of tears. The temples are of great
historical significance too. Al-Bairuni wrote an interesting history of the
temples in his Kitab-ul-Hind. He says he learnt Locals say there were more than 100 Hindu temples around the site of the Katasraj complex but most of them have turned ruins. It's not without reason that L K Advani, the leader of the opposition in the India's parliament and a senior leader of Bharatiya Janata Party, wrote a letter to President Pervez Musharraf thanking him for restoring the temple complex and letting the worship take place. It was Advani who laid the foundation stone of the restoration work carried out by the Punjab Archaeology Department when he visited Pakistan a couple of years ago. -- Photos by Rahat Dar Bottlenecks Different people may be affected differently in case the government decides to legalise alcohol... bootleggers are one example By Ali Sultan It is dark. Ahmed is sitting, comfortably in what looks to be a very old sofa. On the television the cricket match between New Zealand and Australia is coming to a close. Ahmed is hurling animated insults at the television, waving his arms like some madman. He had laid a bet on Australia and now he has lost. Ahmed's mobile rings, he picks it up and answers, he goes into another room gets two small bottles and puts them in a white wrapper and then ventures out into the night. 25-year-old Ahmed is a professional bootlegger. He started out when he was 15
years old. The son of a shopkeeper, he was devastated and ultimately
unemployed when his father suddenly died of a heart attack. "I lost my
father's shop, when I couldn't pay the rent," Bootlegging, the illegal supplying of alcohol started in Pakistan somewhere after 1977, when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto banned its supply and consumption. But alcohol's demand never diminished, therefore, the smuggling of alcohol started into the country, bankrolling the influential smugglers who were bringing it in and an opportunity for their minions to distribute it. But all has come under discussion and scrutiny after a ruling party MNA Ali Akbar Wains voiced his concerns that the ban on the supply and consumption of alcohol is causing the youth to take other drugs like hash and heroine. The MNA suggested that the government should legalise the consumption of alcohol by all citizens within the privacy of their own homes, and in private clubs. This, he said on the floor of the legislature, will help curb smuggling, limit opportunities for police corruption, harassment of otherwise law abiding citizens, increase customs duty on imports and above all wean the youth away from heroine and hash. This could happen simply by recognising the reality that alcohol consumption is an individual choice of conscience. "Tourism will also get a welcome boost, more so by this measure than any other the govt could take," he added. Many people think this is a positive step. Jamil Hussain a student of FSc says: "This is a very good suggestion. Bootlegging should be abolished because there is no warranty of the quality of the alcohol they distribute; so many youngsters are killed or suffer from the consumption of the stuff they sell." Natasha Ijaz a student of Economics thinks that the step towards legalisation of alcohol which would abolish bootlegging as a consequence may benefit the economy. "A Rs.1000 excise tax on an imported bottle of Scotch could easily net additional daily revenues of perhaps a crore of rupees," she says. "It would also check the black market trade and the accumulation of undocumented wealth earned by influential persons who benefit from the current state of affairs. Undoubtedly some of this wealth also serves to corrupt the political system." Others see much more than commercial and social benefits in legalising alcohol. They perceive the ban at being the heart of the debate that Pakistan is going through so violently about the role of religion in the society. A gentleman working in an NGO who does not want to be named says: "Since the imposition of the ban on the people of Pakistan in the late 1970's the case for challenging the legitimacy of this prohibition has been a muted one. In other words, since the 'dragging in' of religion into the realm of politics and every other sphere of our society, the moves to counter this encroachment have been non-existent. Religion has since become the 'sacred cow' of the status quo, with the so-called 'secularist-liberals' confining themselves to a permanent back-seat on the issue, lacking the strength and the initiative to be vocal about something certain to be controversial." Another element here is that of a sociological nature. That of the bootlegger and the client. Anjum Ali a student of sociology has this to say: "This talk about lifting the ban and it in turn demolishing bootlegging is somewhat untrue. Yes it will decrease the number of bootleggers but there is the tendency of human contact. Bootleggers have made contacts that have been established for years. People want that human contact." Ahmed is the lowest denominator in this circle of commerce, religion and the upper class of society who will consume this alcohol but he has simpler reasons for doing what he does. "Bootlegging supports my family," Ahmed says. He feels that if the ban ever lifts his business will suffer. "I just think that if the government does lift the ban, then people like me should also be given a licence to do what we do," he says. Ahmed knows that this may take a very long time and till then, he will travel from place to place, from one quiet street to another, carrying bottles into the night.
By Shoaib Hashmi For goodness sake will someone tell me precisely what we are doing with 'Basant'! Actually, on second thoughts, don't tell me. I know! It is a dead horse, which we ourselves have killed with great effort over the past years, and now that it is good and buried, we are beating it again in the hope of bringing it back to life. It's not going to happen! As things stand, by the time you read this it will be the 25th, and you will have had your vaunted festival, and I will have egg all over my face; but somehow I don't think so! We should have seen it
coming. After all I have flown kites, or watched Then there was the Shab-e-Tanaavaan' which was the night before Basant when you stayed up most of the night threading your cache of kites for the big day. No there was no floodlit flying because there were no floodlights nor enough power, and it was a stupid idea anyway. You started flying at the crack of dawn, and by the time the kite was ten yards away it was entangled with a hundred Paichees and never destined to come home again, but that was part of the game. The whole day's ritual was known. The food was always Qeema Wallah Naans with a Koondah of fresh Dahi to be followed by Gajrela and never anything else. You flew all day -- serious Patangs once the wind settled in the late afternoon -- then as dusk came you set fire to your Jhangree, and so did everyone else, and you could see the small fires all over the rooftops, and that was it! Then it all started to go sour. The first thing one noticed was that groups of Yuppies had taken over the surrounding rooftops, and instead of Dahi and Naans elaborate feasts were laid out complete with cases of beer and booze. The party turned up at noon, and by the time we were getting ready to fly the Patangs their party was already over with wall-to-wall vomiting and all over their fancy kites. The 'nationals' and the 'multinationals' joined in next and there were huge parties on the rooftops of all the big hotels, and wherever they could find a big rooftop. All the beautiful people came; the beautiful women to run their fingers through their hair, and the handsome young men to look at the beautiful women running their fingers through their hair. Nobody gave a damn about flying kites! Each of the multinationals had one party and then called it a day -- but not before the parties had turned into floodlit galas and they had singers and dancers to keep their bored guests happy, and some of the guests had taken to trying their hands at flying, and mucking around with that too. They strung their string on charkhis and started using unbreakable thread. In sixty years we had never got beyond a cheerah on the forefinger; they started killing kids at the drop of a hat! It all happened because we haven't the wisdom to let well enough alone, and now we are at it again! We are trying to get the courts to take back their ban on the pretext that the trouble was all caused by the Charkhis which is the stupidest stuff I have heard in a long time. And we have the authorities making up even more stupid rules to ensure it won't happen any more. Not only the few thousand makers and sellers of kites and string, but also the millions who might want to fly are required to get licences by promising not to do a million things. It is not going to work! I am damned if I am going to go, cap in hand, to some piddling bureaucrat to get a licence to do what, for sixty years I knew as my birthright. The horse is dead, let it be. Rest in peace! suicides Dead end Majority of the people attempting to take their own lives do so out of sheer poverty. Here's facts, figures and analyses from the city of Karachi By Xari Jalil When Faraz Ehmad, a student of Karachi University, killed himself by jumping off one of the highest buildings in the city, his friends, though deeply saddened, were not surprised. They all knew, in fact had known for a long time, that Faraz was suicidal and could kill himself any day. Faraz's reasons for killing
himself, even if they were brutal, fall under the There are others, however, in the dusty, mournful city of Karachi, who have other reasons to do away with themselves for good. In Karachi, there are several problems, especially for the unemployed, or the poor, and those who fall under the poverty line. According to the statistics of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Hospital (JPMC), in 2006, there were 1,620 cases of attempted suicide, with a five to 10 per cent death result. In Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, there were 1,200 attempted cases, whereas in the Karachi Civil Hospital, there were around 800 to 1000 cases. Dr Bashir Sheikh, the Central Police Surgeon, Karachi, says that the main reason for suicide in the city is unemployment and poverty. Poverty in the country has increased to such an extent that the number of people who live under the poverty line, have increased, and their conditions are debilitating. He says there are also many who kill themselves over unrequitted love affairs, as well as adolescents who have been found hanging from the fan, only because their parents have scolded them over their school grades, or they have not consented to buying them what they want, such as cell phones. But Dr Haroon Ahmed argued in a press conference in early 2006, that such causes are not the actual reasons for the mishap. Stress in fact is only the trigger cause. In actuality, suicidal tendencies have been developing over a period of time. According to a study conducted in 2006, by Murad Moosa Khan, who is the head of the department of psychiatry in the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), there is no official data on suicide from Pakistan, in national annual mortality statistics. But there is accumulated anecdotal evidence, that the suicide rate in Pakistan has been gradually increasing over the last few years. There is also a general lack of trained mental health researchers in the country, which is partly to blame, and those that are there, are so costly that many do not regard mental health treatment a necessity. Suicide and attempted suicide are termed criminal offences under the Pakistani law, and are punishable with a jail term and a heavy financial penalty. Every case of completed or attempted suicide is to be legally taken to one of the Medico-legal Centers (MLCs), which are usually located in the government hospitals of the city. In Karachi, these include three hospitals, namely the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, the JPMC, and the Civil Hospital. Because of this, people usually take patients of attempted suicide to private hospitals, to avoid having cases filed against them with the police. Private hospitals themselves may save the person from death, but do not address the underlying issues related to the suicide attempt, or the suicide itself. A talk with Dr Amin A. Gadit, one of the top psychiatrists of Pakistan, the former chief of the Pakistan Psychiatric Society, and a Professor of Psychiatry in the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, exposed that the incidence of suicides in Karachi has definitely been growing over the past few years. He, too, says there is no official data regarding suicides in Karachi or Pakistan, but he has managed to accumulate information concerning mental health from 1947 to 2006. The most recent statistics are of 2005, where completed suicide among males was recorded (unofficially) as 2,700, while around 1,700 females killed themselves the same year. These include cases that have come in from private hospitals as well as government hospitals. Dr Gadit says the main cause for this is major depression, followed by schizophrenia and then epilepsy. The latter may itself be a neurological condition, but it tends to isolate its victims, thereby inviting depression. He says there is also an inheritance factor, which is linked with the secretion of a neuro-chemical called HT2. Also, he says, those who are suicidal, are found to have a very different brain structure, as compared to others who may be depressed but not suicidal. There is only one per cent incidence of schizophrenia in Karachi, which includes hallucinations (voices in the head, directing the patient to carry out an action), paranoia, etc, going towards a complete deterioration of personality. These are the mental health causes for suicide. As far as social factors are concerned, Dr Gadit says that the inner city of Karachi, in other words the Central district, as well as all the underground areas, have the highest suicide rates. Factors include violence and economic disparity. "There are only two per cent of people who actually enjoy all the privileges of life. The others are burdened by financial and economic issues," he says. Only about 0.5 per cent kill themselves with the preference of being better off dead than alive. This relates to the philosophical cause of suicide. Some also feel that they should rather die than suffer from an incapacitating illness, but they do not actively work towards a 'suicide', because they are tied down by religion. However, as Dr Gadit says, ties with religion are slowly weakening if not breaking down, and at a certain point when an individual is suffering to an extreme level, and actually does wish to end his life, he is not prevented by any kind of religious factor. For males, marriage acts as a preventive measure, because they feel socially secure, but the opposite is found to be in females, because they are usually found to lead unhappy married lives. That is the reason, Dr Gadit explains, why it is single men who tend to kill themselves more as compared to married men, and married women who want to end their lives as compared to single women. Dr Gadit says the suicide rate figures in Karachi have started to slowly resemble those in New York City, which are one of the highest in the world. The lowest are in the countries where there is less economic disparity such as Sweden, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. Shockingly, the incidence of suicide among children is also slowly increasing. The age range is from nine years to 12 years. In order to prevent or keep the suicide rate in control, perhaps one of the first few steps would be to decriminalise the law that terms attempted suicide as a crime. As a result, the victim of attempted suicide will be taken to a psychiatrist instead of being transferred to a jail. Proper organised clinics or bodies should be established which deal with mental health problems, specifically those that lead to suicide. The government's budget for mental health should be increased. In Karachi, there is no structured medical plan, instead there are out-of-pocket expenditures by some bodies, while one or two provide free service, but most doctors who treat at low rates have a dubious medical experience. In Karachi there are only 44 psychiatrists, only 184 psychiatric beds, in a population of 14,000,000, where at least 17 per cent people suffer from depression, not counting other mental illnesses. Unemployment benefits should be given to those especially those below the poverty line. The government often says that economic benefits are trickling down to the lower socio-economic classes of Pakistan, but this is not the case in reality. It is indeed a sad scenario where a person is forced to take his own life under circumstances that are beyond his control.
Vulnerable categories According to Geo Stone, the author of Suicide and Attempted Suicide: Methods and Consequences, those who kill themselves or attempt suicide, generally fall into four main categories: • Rational people, who face an insoluble problem, generally a fatal or debilitating illness; • Impulsive people, frequently young, truly but temporarily miserable, sometimes drunk, who wouldn't even consider suicide six months later; • Irrational people, often alcoholic, schizophrenic, or depressed; and • People trying to make a safe gesture as a 'cry for help' or to get someone's attention.
At
least in Thar... By Shahid Husain Sindh's Tharparkar district is unique. In times where aggression has penetrated deep in our collective psyche, it offers a role model of a peaceful and harmonious social order. And this despite the fact that 40 per cent of the population comprises of Hindus and schedule castes. After becoming conditioned to
see violence in the urban centres of the "We have lived like this for centuries. Muslims and Hindus have the same culture. We have common customs as well and there is no clash in economic interests that usually pave the way for rift and antagonism. People have converted from Hinduism to Islam but their traditions are the same. Just imagine that the mother of our Chief Minister Dr. Arbab Ghulam Rahim is a thakkur," says Rathi Gotam, 65, a resident of Chachro in district Tharparkar. "Hindus don't mind marrying their daughters with Muslims. And there is no purdah amongst them." He rejects that there have been cases of forced conversion in Tharparkar. "Yes conversion does take place in upper Sindh but during a span of 60 years I have seen only two or three cases of conversion from Hindus to Muslims in Tharparkar," he says. "Muslims and Hindus participate with equal reverence in the Moharram processions. I remember people would ask a young Hindu named Ravi who mourned in Moharram that why did he not convert to Islam? He replied that he only felt it right that he should mourn in Moharram and even his family never stopped him," recalls Gotam. Ravi, a former secretary of the union council in Chachro, has now been transferred to Mirpurkhas. "Culturally, we are a
part of Rajasthan. Prior to partition in 1947 we would Ali Nawaz Khoso, 80, a resident of Nagarparkar, is greatly respected for his folk wisdom and knowledge of Thar. "Tharparkar has never been under the influence of Mullahs or Brahamans; therefore, there has never been any communal violence in this area. In fact, Thar has been more under the influence of Sufis," he says. "Historically, Tharparkar has also been influenced by Buddhism and Jain religion. You can find many Jain temples here. We have a temple that is 5,000 years old," he says. "It's true that with the advent of metalled roads, Mullahs are also coming to Thar but nobody cares about them. We believe in humanism. If a Muslim dies, Hindus join the funeral; if a Hindu dies Muslims mourn. If there is a case of theft, both Muslims and Hindus try to find the culprit." Gotam agrees that the number of madrassas in Tharparkar have increased but he attributes it to frightening poverty. "People don't have anything to eat and the madrassas ensure provision of food to students. But we have friendly relations with madrassa people as well." Except a few people from upper caste Hindus, not many people from the schedule caste decided to permanently migrate to Rajasthan. "About 20 per cent of the affluent Tharis have migrated to Rajasthan during the last 20 years but the majority likes to stay here and likes Thari culture. This is evident from the fact that people from the schedule castes who were forced to migrate to India during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war returned home after there was peace between the two countries," says Dr. Sono Khangharani, Chief Executive Officer, Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP), a non-profit, non-governmental organisation. "In 1971, India captured two tehsils of Tharparkar namely Nagarparkar and Chachro and white-collared Hindus migrated to India. They mainly belonged to the upper castes. These were the people who were literate. But their migration was a boon to low caste Hindus who filled the vacuum and started asserting themselves," says a Thari physician who requested not to be named. "Thar is different from the rest of Pakistan. Muslims residing in Thar don't slaughter cows out of respect of the Hindu community," he adds. In fact, the communal harmony in Tharparkar reminds one of the famous speech of the Founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, which he made while inaugurating the constituent assembly on August 11, 1947. Said he: "If we want to make this great state of Pakistan happy and prosperous we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor you are free -- you are free to go to your temples, mosques or any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the state in due course of time Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims -- not in a religious sense for that is the personal faith of an individual -- but in a political sense as citizens of one state." Lines from Kolkata There is no point By Bodhisattva There is no point. I mean there is no point with so many things that it is hard to start with one. So we will start with two instead. Because let's be frank, I don't think a lot of us here are clever enough to handle more than two variable factors at the same time.
For example I would have been a Nobel laureate if the award was given on the
basis of the depth of understanding in any discipline achievable in first 20
milli seconds. After that it all gets a bit blurry for me to be honest. I am driven to believe by every passing moment that I should have slapped the man who said, 'All roads lead to Rome'. Because the lazy malingerer of a self-obsessed complacent lout, who probably had arthritis and a nice villa in Via Sacra and too many affairs to metaphorically disentangle, probably did not know that all the roads actually lead to my office. My office is a very smart place. No joking. Beautiful people behind glass panels everywhere, discussing business strategies concerning branded shirts, imported jeans, latest results on Formula One test drives, share markets, discounts on shampoos, nursery schools, servants, dodgy relatives, neighbours and defective washing machines, film stars and their current just-good friends. They presumably debate on the best possible ways of getting rid of everyone not taking part in that debate or stupidly smiling and waving from outside the glass doors. Surely they are discussing other nuisances such as beggars, drivers or electricians. There is no need of any cynicism, they must be sparing or a nice word or two in praise of the nice Chaywala because he has been selling a cuppa for Re 1/- ever since Lord Wavell came to town. The chaywalah also multitasks as an enthusiastic messenger to the dhobi representing public interest. Voluntarism is such a widespread ideal. The office is all a very smart place, only that the telephone and the network and the chair and keys of the desk drawer don't work, and mostly don't work at the same time. They share their vacation planner with our locksmith and our carpenter and the receptionist but they do never share it with me or my client, poor kid. The clients feel a bit left out no wonder. This is high quality proletariat conspiracy locked in solidarity with anarchist office furniture. But my computer works all the time, and my senior partner is such a technical wizard that he finds it too challenging to understand why one cannot work without the computer network. No wonder he is serving on the international consultative committee for strategy on e-governance in emerging economies. He also does not understand, bless him, why one cannot work without the fat technical manuals especially when one is focusing all attention and intellect on one's bums, always careful which square inch on the chair to put a semblance of one's weight. Because if you miss the target, the chair might break down or worse the spring might suddenly begin to be hell bent on proving Newton's third law and throw you up heavenwards with a mighty start. It is all a very delicate affair. But we started talking about roads, so I think I can be forgiven for getting a bit carried away. I do take carrying very seriously. All sorts of carrying that is. My friends were amazed by the first sign of my complete sympathy and identification with my wife's conjugal plight. Because during the winter in 1984 I called up my friend in Paris and nervously announced that I am pregnant. When my dad said, Thou shalt carry the grocery bags, circa 1966, presumably to help me understand the idea of carrying responsibility; I evidently etched postmodern meaning. I have always preferred Bulgakov, to the old master Tolstoy, you see. My way to work is the super highway. Honestly the road is very good and the traffic is smooth. The bus is airconditioned. I inevitably get to share a seat with obese people busy on phones and am reminded of the need of exercise while trying not to be thrown down the aisle. The landmarks along the way are wonderful and beaming with 21st century global confidence. The first is a great boy's hostel of our local red brick. The building has a reputation of housing slightly over confident young men led primarily by hormones or alcohol. They specialise in beating up new, thin students and sometimes even the skinny boys running around to help the canteen wala for a meal a day. I guess I need to write a monograph on demand and supply of post grad conscience. Next is a new shopping mall. Well shopping malls spring up like young chickens everywhere these days and they have a great variety of necessities such as greeting cards, plastic flowers and textured toilet tissues and toys costing more than my old two wheeler. It is so pleasant going shopping there, because you are always stopped by a teenager promoting a new shaving cream or the latest pedicure kit. You obviously need young people bunking schools to advise you on wellness and macho grooming! The society looks after me you see. On both sides of the road there are plenty of shanty towns primarily on reclaimed marshy land. We are privileged to see people living in shanties made up of plastic sheets. They finish doing the open air potty by the time we pass by. This is a good evidence of a very healthy community motto, finish the potty before the first posh bus passes by. I am damn sure somebody must have already mooted a proposal somewhere on starting an educational programme on roadside aesthetics and flower arrangement specially designed for the urban under privileged. The right to aesthetic education should be truly universal. I also pass by all sorts of ATMs except any belonging to my bank, the idea of consumer choice lives nearby but it is not really keen on meeting people. Then come a few open parks where kids play, mainly cricket. To be honest that is the only important thing in life, Cricket. The rest is mere details, as somebody said or should have said. Then there is a huge white building, which is named 'The sanctity and peace house'. I am not inquisitive but I would like to know whether the owners are former hash fans of 1970s. Then there is an array of food joints. They are all good. I am sensitive about food. Food cannot be bad by nature; it is a fundamental principle of my austere life. No matter if the cheapest available option is an 8" margarita pizza that costs more than my dad's pension. He does not like pizza or cheese. Old lefties are all too nationalistic you see. After all this, it is a small wonder that I do reach my work everyday. Your riddle for the rest of your miserable life is to now think when do I actually get out of building so as to come back next morning with new observations. Alternatively you could start an essay competition on the need of sleep in the 21st century. Just mention that we need real sleepy ideas and no metaphors. Think quick then, chop chop. Contact the editor for your queries:) |
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and most of the areas
falling in the newly created Pakistan left for India for good.
all is still not well between
India and Pakistan as well as for minorities within Pakistan. Any lapse and
things could go from bad to worse.
Sanskrit and science at Katas.
he says. "I had to
feed, myself and my family, and I couldn't find any job anywhere," he
adds. In some turn of luck, Ahmed found a contact in the bootlegging business
and started supplying alcohol.
kites being flown for nigh on
seventy years. For the first sixty-five it was a quaint ritual much
anticipated and enjoyed. The first part was hanging on to your elders fingers
while you mucked around inside Mochi Gate buying up supplies, and tucking into
the Barfee that went with it. The next few weeks were sneaking up to the roof
every chance you got to soak in the sun, and fly.
sociological category of
'philosophical suicide'. He chose not to live for personal reasons and
preferred death and his own obliteration over life itself.
country for more than two decades,
this is nothing short of a surprise. Muslims and Hindus have indeed been
living in peace and harmony since centuries in the impoverished land of
Tharparkar, bordering the Great Indian Desert. They participate in each
other's rituals such as Eid and Dewali. One could even find the minority
community amongst the mourners in Moharram processions.
trade with the Indian
state of Gujarat. In fact people of Thar have a distinct identity from the
rest of Sindh. Whenever people from here go out to other parts, and if you ask
them, they would say they had gone to Sindh, suggesting that Thar is not Sindh,
he says.
