Reliving Memories
Thursday, 9 January 2025
This article appeared in Daily The Nation
There are lessons in the first landscapes of every one's life. Mine is a vista of green paddy fields, smoking with Salt Range mist, against a setting of ribbon of River Jhelum which from distance looked like a shore of another land altogether. The rough, rugged hill range appears very inviting against a sky withering with the morning, interrupted by the dawns’ red and blue brush strokes. My first learning in life is also rooted in my village.
There are lessons in the first landscapes of every one's life. Mine is a vista of green paddy fields, smoking with Salt Range mist, against a setting of ribbon of River Jhelum which from distance looked like a shore of another land altogether. The rough, rugged hill range appears very inviting against a sky withering with the morning, interrupted by the dawns’ red and blue brush strokes. My first learning in life is also rooted in my village.
In rural areas, people still live without accessible roads or other civic amenities of this modern age that are taken for granted in the urban areas. No telephone or the Internet, (in our village) even electricity is a recent phenomenon; so many villages are still without it. You see one village and you have seen all. This was the setting where I spent the first twenty years of my life savoring the freedom of adulthood. It is where I decided what (and how) I wanted to do with life. It is where my mother, brothers, and friends live. It is where I return whenever my active life allows me to. It is where I want to settle and spend my future.
My village is awe-inspiring -- pollution-free and quiet. Different shades and colors of waving crops and trees - solitary, in groves or avenues - beautify the landscape. The scene changes after the harvest. The air is always fresh and fragrant with the smell of earth. The only sound is the singing of birds, the ringing of cowbells, and the sighing of wind or some youth loudly singing Heer Waris Shah, Sassi Punun, or Mirza Saheban at night. One sees butterflies fluttering, ladybirds creeping and squirrels jumping around and you can see people partying with squirrels. Relics of some dilapidated temples and dharamshalas are also hanging out indicating the antiquity of the village. To me, the place feels like a paradise.
Guests of one family are shared by everyone at the time of marriage (or death). Hospitality is like one of the cultural benchmarks, as villagers strongly believe that a guest comes with the blessings of Allah Almighty. Pull a hay cart into the shad, to rest, to dream. You shall be served with hooka (Hubbell-bubble), water, and food. Cooing crows are still considered a symbol of the arrival of guests in my village.
Dr. Senta Siller (left) and Dr. Norbert Pintsch (right) with my mother and the clan
My roots are in the village where nobody seems to be in a hurry. Every time I go there, from the different cities where I happen to be living, I take small things like candies and toys for the kids of neighbors and my own extended family in the village and they are so happy that the words cannot explain their delight. From the village, I bring everything, and more than everything I bring a lot of love.
"I help my neighbors and my neighbors help me", is the philosophy of life in our village. Faith, sharing, contentment, grit, hard work, and humor are a few others. There are no marriage halls or other renting places. Daaras (community centers where cultural diffusion takes place) are very useful 'institutions' for functions or for elders to sit and teach irreplaceable heritage of ideas to the younger generations. The learning that was passed on to me in Daara in my village turned out to be very precious: it was the legacy of the fable. Tandoor (oven for backing bread) is still a meeting and talking place for women.
Guests of one family are shared by everyone at the time of marriage (or death). Hospitality is like one of the cultural benchmarks, as villagers strongly believe that a guest comes with the blessings of Allah Almighty. Pull a hay cart into the shad, to rest, to dream. You shall be served with hooka (Hubbell-bubble), water, and food. Cooing crows are still considered a symbol of the arrival of guests in my village.
From our village, a group of students used to go to a nearby town (Mandi Bahaud Din) to attend school (and then college). Murad was my buddy in the group. After completing my education, my dreams became out of control and took me on the darker roads of the life whereas Murad, equipped with ten years of education (Matric), stayed back and started farming in the same village. He was a hardworking, gentleman, economically very sound and not very ambitious. Murad’s father married him early and now his son Aslam has grown into a very find young man. This time I went to my village and happen to meet Aslam. I was so amazed to learn that Aslam Murad knew so much about me. This is a sort of friendship (call relationship) that still breeds in the rural areas.
This time, when I was coming back from the village, lot of people - family members, peers and neighbors came to see me off, as always. My mother had packed my vehicle with vegetables (fresh from the farm), atta (floor), husked rice and even a few live chickens. Everybody was advising me to consume everything back in the city, as "they are fresh, pure, nutritious and desi". On my way back, a question kept coming in my mind: how much time this simple society will take to become complex and when will 'development' change the outlook of the villagers to life?
A cluster of memories - some overlapping, some isolated of 'the village boy' I once was - is a shadow of my life. I am a result of my childhood experiences. After having knocked on all the doors of opportunity that came in my way in life, I still cherish those shadow memories. Which is why I love to visit my village whenever I can?
Labels: In Print, Nation, Traditional Culture
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Thursday, January 09, 2025,
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