SAID GRASS IS GREENER IN ANOTHER MEADOW;
ONLY WHEN YOU STOP NURTURING YOUR OWN.

People lose faith in their country. And believe that transporting themselves in another world will solve if not all, at least some of their problems. We get a chance to meet people from all over the world. And share their happiness as well as their anguish. I felt sharing the thoughts of Ahmed Humayoun, a Pakistani designer artist who migrated to Canada has to be shared with others. In Canada from 1965, he narrates all the vows there. Read and start taking your country seriously. Plenty of issues, but can be corrected by looking at them as a challenge. Not creating unimaginable issues for oneself. Sharing!

Dear ARC,
If you find paradise on earth, please let me know, I would also like to move  there. I visit Pakistan every two years. I see people eating better and living better there. All my colleagues without exception are part of Pakistani art history. Their names are mentioned and their work is published in books etc. and their names are going to be mentioned after they are dead and gone. They are well respected in the Pakistani society. They are financially comfortable and have no financial debits. All my colleagues including myself, without exception who decided to leave Pakistan, have no place in the art history and will never have one. I am quite sure, had I stayed in Pakistan, I would have been in the same company as my colleagues who decided to stay back. About 8 years ago I met an artist (originally from a very well respected family in Lahore) and later on found out that he passed away suddenly and was cremated by strangers and his ashes scattered somewhere.

My assessment is that only 10% of the migrants make it in the West, the rest 90%  don’t. The immigrants go through loss in 3 areas. One – loss of culture (that includes history, language, cuisine, appreciation of music, family ties etc.). Second – loss of family ties, lack of respect of elders, marriage into other faiths, loss of identity etc. Third – Religion (which to most people is extremely painful).
Police with all the riot gear burst into an Ottawa “desi” house at 3 a.m. three years ago and arrested a young man, born in Canada, who was suspected of terrorism. The case has not come to trial yet. When? No one knows. The cost to fight the legal battle is close to 2 million dollars. The family obviously does not have that kind of money. There is always fund-raising being done for it.

We have had at least two suspicious deaths in police custody of young “desi” boys as well as one case of suspected suicide. Some of the girls as well as boys marrying into “other faiths” is very common. The parents can not do anything about it. The children normally are “independent” after the age of 18 years.
I see two groups amongst the “desis” being formed – one group is extremely religious and the other is not. The not-so-religious people say that all the religions are good because no religion teaches bad things. Therefore, religion is not important and their entire attitude towards life is guided by it.
Today, I read an article in the local newspaper, that a family in Winnipeg (White mother and Somali father) was raided with riot gear when they were celebrating their son’s 5th birthday. The man sued the police for damages. The judge’s threw the case out and commented that he got better treatment here and he should feel himself lucky to be in Canada.

We have three children, two boys and a girl, all married off fortunately to “desis”. The children were born here and studied here. The children have different interests and capacity for education. Our older boy did not go beyond high school and he drives the city bus. The daughter excelled in studies and she is a dentist. The youngest boy did his masters in communications last year and is still looking for a full time job. I am sure, had they been in Pakistan, their attitude towards education would have been the same.
I do not have a brother. My sister in Pakistan has three daughters – the oldest one is an administrator of a famous school system in Lahore. The second one is a school teacher and doing her masters in languages at the same time. The third one is a doctor. The girls were born, educated, and working in Pakistan as well as managing their families and children.
My wife and I worked in Canada since 1965 and paid 60% of our income in direct or in direct taxation for 40 years and are still paying taxes. There is tax on the funeral also. I noticed that a vast majority in Pakistan do not pay taxes and still would like the same privileges as the West. A totally unreasonable expectation I would say.

Pakistan is no bed of roses, neither is the West. Bottom line is that one
ends up trading one type of problems with the other. I remember reading about a Bangladeshi fellow who won the lottery in US green card draw. His village collected money for his fare and sent him off with lot of fanfare. The poor fellow died in a construction accident a month after his arrival there.
I have made 16 visits since 1965. I have never been looted, pick pocketed, threatened there or harassed by the customs officers upon arrival. I have always traveled by bus, train and by car within Pakistan. If I happen to be a target on my next visit, I certainly am not going to blame the country for it. Same way I am not going to blame US if I end up with an unpleasant experience in a crime ridden city like New York.
I think selling all the assets and moving to a new land, where one has
nothing in common with the people – the customs, language, cuisine, lifestyle etc. and starting a new life from scratch – is an extremely personal decision. A decision which is going to affect the lives of the present and the future generations.
Please let me know if I have answered your questions.
All the best. With fond regards.
Ahmad Humayun

HAFEEZ JULLUNDRI AND M.A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI
POET AND ARTIST IN PERFECT HARMONY
A TALE NOT TOLD BEFORE ANYWHERE

M.A. Rahman Chughtai was a born Lahori and lived in this atmosphere all the time. But there were others who came from other places. One such name was that of the poet and writer Hafeez who came from Jullundur to Lahore a long time back. A literary group was already here and known as the Niazmandan Lahore, and were reluctant to allow entry to someone from other places. It was M.A. Rahman Chughtai who welcomed this young man into this literary group. A beautiful letter tells us all this in the words of Hafeez Jullundri himself:

“Please believe me when I say that out of all persons alive, your existence is one of which is the greatest source of pride for me, right from the start of my creativity to this day. You were the first to eulogize me, when I came to Lahore, by not only looking at me with favourable perceptive eyes but also concrete help as well as boosting of my morale. A writer can perhaps forget everyone, but never the first source of his encouragement and as far as Abdur Rahman Chughtai is concerned, a pulsating personality of the world, whose influence is spread all over, what can one say more, except that I long to see you soon.
( Translated from letter dated 1959).

A beautiful friendship emerged between the poet and the artist. When Hafeez Jullundri took out a magazine from Lahore, it was encouraged by Chughtai and we find the title as well as contribution of a painting for publication in it. The relation went deeper. When Hafeez Jullundri started his epoch making Shahnama Islam, he completed the first volume in Lahore, and it was read by Mian Nuruddin (known as Nur), a famous voice of Lahore, in the house of M.A. Rahman Chughtai, and there were at least 100 people who attended this reading, including Hafeez Jullundri himself. The wife of M.A Rahman Chughtai recalled how difficult it was for her to cook to entertain so many people at the same time.

The relation between the two touched at many points, including the design of the Pakistani flag, when catering to the idea of a SITARA HILAL, the artist penned down designs for the Pakistani flag for the Quaid e Azam with a rising Crescent in it. A number of people had actually sabotaged the design by having it tailored as a descending Crescent. The tailor Master was a Christian by faith and had no concept of rising and descending crescent and cultural saboteurs were at work to get it done wrongly by him.

The Poet and artist were in touch all the time. He would call at our house all the time. I remember one day I came from school and he was there seated in our drawing room with my father, and I saw an English woman with him. It was one of his wife and that wife held him in great love and reverence.

The poet Hafeez Jullundri was there first on the death of the artist on 17th January, 1975, and went with the funeral to the graveyard and he is seen standing in the front row of the funeral prayers in most pictures of same. On 17th January, 1976, he was there at the first death anniversary of the artist, and recited the national anthem there, while he cursed those in power, who were trying to even undo the National Anthem of Pakistan. Amongst tears Hafeez Jullundri cried and made many in the audience cry too. There he read his last QASIDA on Chughtai artist, entitled ‘CHUGHTAI, ABDUR RAHMAN’. He would pat me on the cheeks all the time and was very proud of me. We maintained a relation till his very end, and he introduced me to his wife and daughter. The daughter was reading the News on Pakistan Television. The family is still in touch with us.