thank you sir, enjoy your meal. please come again.

It is common knowledge (though not as common as we would like to think) that before 1947, the sub-continent existed in one part not three or four. The sub-continent’s - or let’s just call it what it is – India’s, first religious scripture; the Rig Veda, appeared around 2000Bc (that’s almost 4,500 years ago for those of us who aren’t so good at math). After the composition of the Rig Veda came a significant portion of literature, a collection of philosophical speculations. This collection of writings began in 700Bc (that’s around 3,200 years ago) and was called the Upanishads, containing many of the themes that inspired the originators of Jainism and Buddhism, and provided the religious foundation for Hinduism.
A full pantheon of gods and goddesses can be identified in the earliest (vedic) literature, and is added to through the great epics, the Mahabarharata and the Ramayana and the texts of legendary stories called the Puranas.
The body of Hindu mythology is massive and is found in religious and literary texts as far back as 1200Bc to the present day.

Around 400Bc (2,900 years ago), a man was born by the name Siddhartha Gautama, more commonly known as the Buddha, in Lumbini (present day Nepal). Most of us are familiar with the gist of his story; that basically being one of a man, born as a prince. Married at 16, he had a son. When he was 29 he went out of his palace to visit his subjects and in spite of his father’s efforts to remove the sick, dead and dying, he saw an old man. He asked his chariot driver what it was that he saw, and he replied that everyone grows old and eventually dies.
He went on further trips and encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse and an ascetic. He became depressed by these sights and escaped his palace, an event known as ‘the great departure’. (Read the book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, its very short and wont trouble you at all)
He first began his ascetic life as a beggar, but, unsatisfied, he moved on and became a student of Udaka Ramaputta, and even though he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, moved on further.
Ultimately, after finding some companions and almost starving himself to death, he collapsed into a river while bathing and almost drowned, from which he realized that he must take a middle way, avoiding all extremes if he were to reach enlightenment. Then, sitting under a pipal tree, now know as the bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth. After 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he attained enlightenment.

Taxila was another great part of our culture. Just outside Islamabad, it was a one of the greatest learning centers in the world. A center for studying law, medicine, military science amongst others. Existing from the 6th century BCE to the 5th Century CE, it was know to the Greeks, Romans and the Chinese.

Another major event in the history of this region was the invasion of the army of Alexander the Great in 326Bc (any guesses as to how long ago that was?).
In 326BC, Alexander entered Gandhara (what is now a northern area of this cuntry - yes I noticed the misspelling – of ours, Pakistan) through Bactria (modern day Afghanistan). There he met Ambhi, the then ruler of Taxila.
Taxila, was also once governed by Ashoka (look him up), during whose reign, it became the center for Buddhist learning. Many believe that it was in Taxila that the Mahabarharata was first recited.

Then there are the people of Kalash, outwards of Chitral. Kalash mythology and folklore has been compared to that of ancient Greece, but they are much closer to Indo-Iranian (Vedic and pre-Zoroastrian) traditions. According to one of their legends, Kalash people are the descendants of Alexander the Greats soldiers who settled and ruled the area after the expedition.

And I couldn’t go on without at least a mention of Mohenjodaro. Its remains date back to 3,000Bc (that’s right people, more than 5,500 years ago!) it was one of the earliest urban settlements in the world! During its peak, it was probably the most advanced city in the world. I could go into the mythos that we have inherited from that place but that would take up quite a few pages.

But then some of you may say “well Mahabarharata and Gautama Buddha and Alexander and Ashoka and the Kalash and Mohenjodaro and all the rest are all very well, but what of us who suffer from religious intolerance/insecurity?” well if that’s the case then you have people like Bulleh Shah, Data Ganj Baksh, Baba Farid etc etc.

But then you may say “but we don’t care for the hocus-pocus, mumbo-jumbo version of islam, we want some good old, straight forward blood and guts.” Why then you have Mohammad bin Qasim and the story of how he and his great army of young muslim braves conquered sinned with their scimitars and fine arab chargers.

“But we know all of this, what is your point? And what is up with that title? It makes no sense at all!” you may say now, quite exasperated, after reading about 1000 words and not knowing why.

My point, well half of it, is that quite obviously, our country (yes I noticed I spelt it right this time) and our neighbors are the vessels for probably the greatest concentration of culture, art, literature, mythology or whatever that the world has known.

And now I will get to my point.

I’m fairly pissed off. I live in karachi, which is reason enough to be pissed off to begin with.
Now, the other day, I was going home. While driving along a street called “Zamzama”, a name which also has a great story behind it (and is just another reason to be pissed off),
I noticed a big red sign “chiCago – the musical”. That got me thinking of all the great events, people and places, that have occurred, past through and live in and exist in this lund of ours (yes I know, spelling right? Its all a matter of perspective I assure you)

The good people who are producing this performance of “chiCago – da musical” are probably the same who produced ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ some time ago, and probably some others whose big red signs – thankfully – slipped my notice.

What truly vexes me is the fact that those with the facility to really make a real contribution to a genuine revival (if not birth) to theater in this city, would rather focus on an alien culture, composed of cheese-burgers and fries and mickey fucking mouse, than this cross-roads of civilization that we’re all sitting on.

I know what some might say “but did you know, that theres a hilton hotel in mecca, right outside the kabbah itself? And that they also have a McDonalds there too? And they also have one right outside the sphinx in egypt?”

Yes consumerism is a bitch. Yes we are all confronted by it. Yes, we are all worse for buying into.

Its not as though our cultural inheritance has been magically hidden from us. Its just that its been slightly (ever so slightly) obscured by those “golden arches” at sea view. But, it seems we are more than willing to push it further towards the horizon and sink it to the bottom of the ocean.

I wont even bother going into the problem of authenticity. I don’t want to imagine what a bunch of karachites sound and look like while attempting to portray a musical courtroom drama taking place in chicago during the heyday of al capone.

If people here have the means to produce a version of chicago, that would cause one to assume that they have the means (and knowledge) to create a play based on the life of Bulleh Shah.

I would understand if they didn’t, after all, anglophillia is reaching epidemic levels amongst us lot. But that doesn’t mean they couldn’t do it in english.

Yes, I’m very annoyed. You would be too if you just thought about for a moment.

and now, Zamzama....

"He sat, in defiance of municipal orders, astride the gun Zam-Zammah on her brick platform opposite the old Ajaib-Gher -- the Wonder House, as the natives call the Lahore Museum.Who hold Zam-Zammah, that 'fire-breathing dragon', hold the Punjab, for the great green-bronze piece is always first of the conqueror's loot." —Rudyard Kipling, Kim

“thank you sir, enjoy your meal. Please come again” said the nice man at the window of the drive-through.