Music transcends barriers
Music transcends geographical barriers and defies all paradoxes.
While Indians get an emotional high singing Pakistan's national poet Iqbal's "Sare jahan se achha Hindustan hamara", Pakistanis are filled with patriotism at the Attari border singing "Sohna Pakistan" - written and sung by a 32-year-old Pakistani Sikh singer Jassi Lyallpuria.
Even as the young singer stirs up national pride among Pakistanis, Jassi pines for Indian Punjab and this overwhelming feeling is reflected in his song, "Jat da truck ...Chandigarh".
What's more, his icons are Bhagat Singh and Udham Singh. Their heroism has touched the singer so deeply that he has named his sons Bhagat and Udham "to pay tribute to them".
Jassi's dual passion for Pakistan and India's Punjab makes him an ideal torchbearer for campaigns like Aman ki Asha**, promoted jointly by The Times of India and Pakistan's Jung group of newspapers.
While his Bhangra pop rocks Pakistan and enthuses Punjabis across the globe, he remains away from the land of his longing - Punjab in India. He has not been able to perform in India and puts Indian poets and singers like Labh Janjua, Nachhatar Gill, Shardul Sikandar, Lata Mangeshkar and RD Burman on a high pedestal.
A singer, composer, painter and poet rolled into one, he keeps alive the glorious Punjabi culture in Pakistan. From a film poster-maker, Jassi turned to portrait-making. One of his most acclaimed paintings was that of Guru Arjan Dev.
Jassi, whose original name is Jasjit Singh Randhawa, dances to Bhangra beats and adds more vigour into the steps while performing on stage and singing "Jat naal karle compromise" and "Soni kudi Southall di".
Talking to TOI, Jassi appealed to great Punjabi poets to write for him so that he can sing their songs. He nurses a wish to pay obeisance at the Darbar Sahib in Amritsar for the fame he has attained. He is also very keen to sing in Bollywood films too.
Born at a place just 15 minutes away from the birthplace of Bhagat Singh, Jassi Lyallpuria prefers to put the city's name with his own. He is penning a book on the great martyr, who was hanged in the Lahore jail, and it is likely to be out in a few months.
Asked why his songs draw an imagery of Chandigarh rather than an old Punjab town, he said, "I am told the people of Chandigarh are modern, educated, civilized and above all very loving. Everyone aspires to be among such people and natural beauty associated with India's first modern city."
His dream to see India and Pakistan become friends is so strong that he was instrumental in arranging a meeting between three Pakistan-based Muslim sons with their India-based Sikh mother a few years back.
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**A dream that can come true ……
Jang Group of Companies and Times of India have initiated a fresh campaign 'Milne Do' under the banner of Aman Ki Asha. The aim of the initiative is to get the governments of the two countries round to take steps towards removing the irritants in issuance of visas as well as allowing the citizens of Pakistan and India to visit cities of their choosing besides getting rid of the unnecessary practice of reporting to police. Moreover, the condition be withdrawn that requires these citizens to set off on return journeys through the same mode and from the same place they had entered into the country.
The visiting citizens are allowed visas only for specific cities. Why is it not made possible for peoples of both the countries to welcome and receive their guests in all parts of the countries? As a normal practice in other countries, visas are issued to visit the entire country.
If a Pakistani or Indian citizen plans to visit their neighboring country their first stop is always a police station. This practice is witnessed nowhere else in the world, so what is it that makes India and Pakistan to continue to have it? Could the citizens of both countries not be liberated of this useless and tormenting practice?
Similarly, restrictions on tourism are also uncalled for, as highest number of visitors to any country is usually of tourists. But, this is definitely not the case for Pakistanis and Indians because you will simply be denied a visa if applied for it as a tourist.
Just imagine the day when our doors and hearts will open widely for each other; when all hurdles will vanish and the disputes will be replaced by amicable talks; when bilateral trade and tourism will be abound; when there will be no unnecessary restrictions. When the whole world will witness that it is possible for two neighboring countries to live in peace and harmony.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/blog/blog_details.asp?id=744
An Idea Whose Time Has Come
part in a candle-light march at the Wagah border.
Peace between India and Pakistan has been stubbornly elusive and yet tantalizingly inevitable. This vast subcontinent senses the bounties a peace dividend can deliver to its people yet it recoils from claiming a share. The natural impulse would be to break out of the straitjacket of stated positions and embrace an ideal that promises sustained prosperity to the region, yet there is hesitation. There is a collective paralysis of the will, induced by the trauma of birth, amplified by false starts, mistrust, periodic outbreaks of violence, suspicion, misplaced jingoism and diplomatic doublespeak. Hypnotized by their own mantra, the two states are reluctant to move towards normalization until certain terms and certain promises are kept.
In this perennial season of inertia and zero-sum calculations prejudices continue to fester, stereotypes are entrenched and myth replaces reality. Tragically, opportunity knocks unheard on doors bolted on the inside. Opportunism, that appeals to atavistic passions, elicits an instant response to every single knock. It is one of history's ironies that a people who share so much, refuse to acknowledge their similarities and focus so avidly on their differences. We believe it is time to restore the equilibrium. Public opinion is far too potent a force to be left in the hands of narrow vested interests. The people of today must find its voice and force the rulers to listen. The awaam must write its own placards and fashion its own slogans. The leaders must learn to be led and not blindly followed. Skepticism about the given is often the genesis of faith. This skepticism has been brewing. It can be unleashed to forge a new social compact between the people of this region. A social compact based on a simple yet powerful impulse - Aman ki Asha. A desire for peace. ...
Our subcontinent needs to follow the footprints left behind by the great poets, sufi saints and the bhakts who preached and practised love and inclusiveness. This is the land of Tagore and Ghalib, of Bulleh Shah and Kabir, of Nanak and Moinuddin Chisti. It is their spirit that will guide us in this journey. The one and half billion people of this region await the dawning of an age where peace, equality and tranquility prevails. This will happen when every heart beats with Aman ki Asha. ….
Panchee nadiya aur pawan ke jhonke, koi sarhad inhen na roke;
Sarhad to insanon ke liye hai, socho tumne aur meine kya paya insaan ho ke
(Birds, rivers and gusts of wind, no border inhibits them:
Borders are for people, think about what you and I have obtained by being human)
This couplet by Javed Akhtar from a Bollywood blockbuster entered my ears and shook my soul. Wow! Javed Akhtar knows how I feel each time I go to the Indian consulate in Pakistan to apply for visas for my family to visit my parents in New Delhi.
"In January 1990, a girl in her mid-twenties in New Delhi ties the knot with a Pakistani man in his late twenties. Happy, but quite unsure how the things in her life would unfold after that. She wasn't a poor small-town girl getting married to a well-off cousin in Karachi in compliance with her parents' decision. She was a typical city girl, who made it to a premier medical school in Delhi and was full of patriotic fervour for her homeland. Her parents did not agree to the match until she approved of it herself. It took her four painful and paranoid years to come to this decision. The young man across the border, putting aside his ego in the face of repeated refusals, convinced her that they could make it."
Twenty years on, I can confidently say that we have made it. Our life together hasn't been all tulips and roses of course. We've had our share of ups and downs, in addition to the usual hurdles any couple faces. Both of us being passionately patriotic about our respective homelands, it hasn't been easy. What helped us was the erasing of psychological borders, knowing that humanity on both sides of the border has the same needs and aspirations. We promised to uphold sanity in our heads and not spew patriotic venom against each other. Not that outsiders spared us. Any bitter comment against the other side by a "patriotic acquaintance" from either side affected me more than my husband.
At times I would be reduced to tears after such taunts, to be comforted by my husband with a "mitti pao" attitude. It is not easy when someone passes a snide remark about your homeland. Any news of a bomb blast or riots in my city, would have me sitting paranoid, glued to the TV, wondering about the safety of my parents and siblings.
In kindergarten our children faced questions from curious friends - like, did we have fights at home during a cricket match between India and Pakistan? My son would come home crying that his friends teased him about having an Indian mother, saying, "Your mom is a traitor!" It took him some years to feel confident that his mom wasn't a traitor.
But the only time I really, if ever, regretted my decision was when I had to queue up outside the visa window at the consulate of a country I called my homeland. Miserable is an understatement of how I felt when the man behind the counter looked at my children, asking for details, as if I was taking little terrorist recruits with me to my beloved city.
And then on our return to Pakistan, my husband would be pulled aside by the airport security, questioning him about the frequency of his visits across the border. One has to live it to feel it.
My siblings and I grew up with our eyes open to the world issues, with parents who taught international politics at a university.
We were trained to look beyond our boundaries and feel for the suffering of others be it in Palestine, apartheid in South Africa, or Gen Zia's martial Law in Pakistan. I salute my parents for raising us as "human" beings with a wide horizon.
Some attribute my "Indian roots" to my comments on news blogs or facebook regarding political matters in Pakistan. Yes, I am proud of my roots. But I also have a husband and two kids who are passionately patriotic Pakistanis. They love both places.
And so do I. I claim that I own both countries, and love both too. Karachi is mine as much as Delhi is.
We know there is good and bad on both sides. We don't indulge in mutual blame games. We have erased the psychological borders at home and we respect our political borders. And we love this feeling.
What if the one and half billion across both the borders could also erase the psychological borders? After all, people on both sides of the border are made of the same flesh and bones, we share the same genetic pool. I wonder if I will live to see that day.
Dr Ilmana Fasih is a gynaecologist and health activist of Indian origin, married to a Pakistani. Contact her via [email protected]
In Humanity's Name
An Indian Supreme Court judge and a group of eminent citizens of India, approached by the Aman ki Asha initiative of the Jang and Times of India groups, have moved into swift action to try and secure the release of Dr Muhammad Khalil Chishty, a Pakistani prisoner in India. He is 77 and in failing health at Ajmer Prison Hospital. The story of Dr Chishty, once a well-respected virologist in Karachi, is an especially tragic one. He had been implicated in a case that is widely believed to be false while he was visiting Ajmer in 1992 to care for his sick mother, and after a quarrel with neighbours. (An inquiry by Indian citizens "reveals that he was falsely implicated"). He was finally convicted by a sessions court in Ajmer last December, nearly 20 years later. Throughout this time, held in detention and under strict surveillance at his family house near Ajmer, he had never missed a hearing or failed to follow court orders.….