On Pakistan

Madeleine contemplates. Do note her "buddy" placed purposefully in the photograph.

From the airport the other day, I meet a Pakistani (who I will call Iqbal) and we discuss the Punjab and being a foreigner in the UK, which he has been for thirty years. Iqbal has strong features BTW and a large mustache - like our famous Jauquab Shaw. Iqbal moved to the England to earn a better life and repatriate funds - which is common - and eventually moving his wife to London. He has two children, born here, who attend University; he has extended family in Asia Minor. Iqbal and his family spend several weeks to several months in Pakistan each year, and he informs me that he believes himself "to be Pakistani-British" while his children are "British Muslim." They wear jeans and trainers to school or outside but in home they are mindful of the family customs including how they dress "though sometimes they do not care" he says. The Punjab BTW a region between India and Pakistan where the "Five Rivers" meet: Beas, Ravi, Sutlex, Chenab and Jhelum which are each tributaries to "the mighty" Indus. It is also a religious cross-roads for Sikhism, Hinduism and Islam. Iqbal tells me that people "get along and are happy" in this region despite religious differences, and further: there are more muslims in India than Pakistan and a large Hindu population in Pakistan. His greatest lament is "the younger generation" who no longer listen to their elders. "We muslims respect others and our world. We are not selfish, we do not do only for ourselves. The youngsters today have a different view." I ask him about sex, drugs and rock and roll, and Iqbal says "we are in Pakistan each year so our children know what are values." And how do they feel about attending Western Universities? "Well, they are now British. Pakistani, for sure. But British too."