Of Music and Movies

Sept. 20, 2010

It’s hard to believe I’ve been here a month and two days already. I was able to fast the six days of Shawwal after Ramadan and continue in the same elevated spirits as during Ramadan. Now there is the resolve to fast on Mondays and/or Thursdays and/or on the 13/14/15th of the month, as the Prophet(pbuh) did. Inshallah!

The nights have gotten much cooler. Soon it will be time for blankets and quilts. I’m already wishing I’d brought my winter pajamas! But we do have hot water and that is a blessing. When I return in January, I will know what to bring: CEREAL, herb tea, something to make coffee in, potholders, my warm cashmere shawl (chador), among other things. And dvd’s, lots of them, especially movies from the 80’s and 90’s. Tahera loves them and Asad and I have been enjoying them with her. So far, we’ve watched Thelma and Louise and Dances with Wolves. She loved them both. The first was great because she has never seen women in roles like that (i.e. bank robbers and killers on the run). She thoroughly enjoyed the chase scenes and the scenes where men are shown as fools and the women are the heroes. Asad did a lot of explaining for Dances with Wolves but I know she enjoyed the story line, scenery and Native American lifestyle. We also watched Avatar, but Asad and I were both very surprised to find out she had already seen it on cable four or five times! In Pakistan! That was a surprise.

We are doing some cultural exchange. Tahera has already asked someone to get a bunch of Bollywood dvds to show me. I’m also acquiring a taste for Indian music. Asad likes the classic ghazals recorded in the 50’s and 60’s. There are modern remakes of the same. Ghazals are a genre of poetry. They are love songs that can be appreciated on more than one level. The singer is usually yearning for his lost love, or beloved. The Beloved can be a woman or man, or it can be a yearning for Allah (SWT). The lyrics are heart-rendingly beautiful and sad. I’ll include a sample at the end of this entry.

And then, there are the ever popular qawwalis of Nusrat. Last night we listened to a fascinating fusion of sixties rock sounds and jazz played on classical Indian instruments and electric guitars. These were absolutely wonderful, intricate masterpieces of music. I thoroughly enjoyed sitting on our charpoy, outside in our courtyard, drinking tea, eating nuts and dates and listening to this magical music.

Now that Ramadan and the heat are over, we take walks in the village. Tahera and I go to the corner grocery, the phone card store and the fruit and vegetable stalls to get daily essentials like milk, bread, eggs and cell phone cards. Chatta Backtawer is essentially a village with just a few stores and stalls along one or two streets in town. The rest of the area are houses. I have noticed one school so far, two masjids and one shrine. In the early evening there is often a means’ volleyball game going on at one end of town, or a cricket game

When you walk the dirt paths or streets, it’s not uncommon to run into chicken and goats. Yesterday Tahera and I discovered a herd of water buffalo at one end of town. They were grazing behind one of the old homes and a boy was herding them. Asad tells me these buffalo are considered cattle here and are the main source of milk and other dairy products. Behind the homes on that end of town is a vast area of land with rock formations and a river. We have identified it as a potential place to walk one day, as it is very scenic.

I have been treated to some surprise evening excursions lately. These were Tahera’s ideas to entertain me. She is a sweetheart. She usually has to talk Asad into joining us, as he’d often rather stay home than take public transportation and taxis are expensive. But lately he’s been persuaded and we went to two prime places: Margalla National Park and Lake View Park. In both places, Asad was pleasantly surprised to see how much these areas had changed in the last 30 years, when he’d last visited them as a young man. Back then, they were places of natural beauty and relative solitude. Now they are public vacation spots with carnival rides, food stalls and picnic areas. Still beautiful, but commercially developed. With no admission fees, they are popular recreational places for families in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. There is a sprinkling of tourists, but just a few.

Margalla National Park is up in the hills and we took a taxi there. We went in the early evening after maghrib. This park offers wonderful panoramic views of Islamabad. The city fans out to the east and west from a central sector called the Blue Area. Since it was dark, all the lights were twinkling and it was a pretty sight. No less pretty was the sight of the nine days moon as seen through the pine trees that abound through the park. We walked some paved and dirt areas and told ourselves we’d come back during the day.

There were many attractions in the park as well. Near the parking area, we saw a trained monkey. As his owner told a story of visiting the in-laws, the monkey acted it out, complete with gestures and facial expressions. As one point, he monkey sat on a small chairs, crossed his legs, clasped his hands on his knees, and swung one foot back and forth, just like a proper son in law. It was fun to watch, especially since the monkey himself looked healthy and well taken care of.

An older man sat playing the rabab, a classical Indian string instrument. We stopped to listen and gave him a few coins. There was also a man sketching portraits. The most interesting display to me was a man selling paan. He had set up a stand consisting of a large chest, or pan box, with all its accoutrements. He himself was dressed in green with a special hat. He had dolls on exhibit dressed in native costume, doing common activities, like spinning wool, riding horses and reading Quran. The funny thing was these were American dolls, both Barbies and baby dolls, dressed as classic Pakistani characters. I really liked the spirit of enterprise this guy showed. It looked like he was doing a pretty good business, too, as people were lined up to buy his product, a cone of pan filled with various ingredients. Tahera and Asad enjoyed these but I have never developed a taste for paan, a combination of a leaf, covered with a paste and filled with various herbs.

Lake View Park is another example of a scenic place that has recently been developed into a major recreation area. When Asad last went there, about 35 years ago, it was just a lake, named Rawal Lake and a dam which had been built to supply clean water to Rawalpindi, the twin city of Islamabad. That is a story in itself, as the dam was built without machinery, using only donkeys and manpower. A wealthy contractor from the tribal areas commissioned the project and actually built a village to house the laborers and their families. It is sort of like what Henry Ford did in Dearborn.

When we got to the site, we found it had been re-named Lake View Park. There is a wonderful stone boardwalk and promenade leading down to the lake. It is lined on either side with restaurants, snack stands, carnival rides, an aviary and an ATV race track, of all things. There are beautiful trees, shrubs and flowers lining the walkways. Down by the lake, there is a well-designed rotunda with plenty of seating areas and trash cans, a rare sight in Pakistan. There are gazebos and other structures looking out over the lake as well. It was evening, with a bright moon shining in the sky and reflecting in the water and music playing in the background, quite a lovely evening.

Here is the translation of a ghazal sung by Makesh and translated for me by Asad:

I gave my heart for you to keep.
You set it on fire.
Fate gave me love
And you put my heart in agony.

The beetle, who loves the rose
And hovers over it,
Cries all the time.
The rose is always smiling.

The pain the world is so afraid of,
The heartache they so fear
You, with your first glance,
You buried it all in my heart.

So I kept you in my heart
And lit the lamp of hope
One blow of fate
Extinguished it.


I think that serves as a good example of the romantic soul of Pakistan. One may hear the athan blaring from a hundred microphones five times a day, but the soul of the people has been captured by ishq. And what will convey the true meaning of ishq? Ask your own heart and then let me know!