Main bada hokar truck banoonga....

A heavily embellished Pakistani truck

Rani Mukherji's free road show in Pakistan

We've survived quite a few lows on this side of the border thanks to the Pakistani sense of humour. This doesn't stop with the many Omar Sharif jokes (provokes actress Meera to prove that she is 20-something and Meera asks him to check library records for the same) or with the still hot-and-happening "Hum sab umeed sai hain" show on Geo TV (Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar's proposal to give India the Most Favoured Nation status because bags and cosmetics are cheaper there) or with the many trends on Twitter (Its Halloween all over the world; in Pakistan its just another scary day!)

There's much more humour on the road -- mostly on Pakistani trucks and rickshaws which is miles ahead of of our boring and overused Indian "buri nazar wale tera moonh kala". Today, I stumbled upon a  Facebook group that is dedicated to listing truck and rickshaw poetry. Here are a few samplers which are quite a commentary on Pakistani society and also its politics.

Parhoge likhoge banoge vakeel
Jo jaahil rahe tou shayad vazeer


Jinay apni maa no satiay
Onay sari umar riksha he chalaiy


Bus-on main, coach-on main, wagon-on main
Bay hisoon ko hamsafar sath paiay
Jin ko mardaangi ka daawa tha
Un ko bhi ladies seat per paaiy


Driver ki zindagi ajab khel hai
Maut se bache to central jail hai


...and my personal favourite
Main bada hokar truck banoonga!

The extraordinary tradition of decorating trucks has its roots in the days of the Raj when craftsmen made glorious horse drawn carriages for the gentry. In the 1920s, the Kohistan Bus Company asked its master craftsman Ustad Elahi Bakhsh to decorate buses to attract passengers. Bukhsh employed artists from Chiniot in Punjab province whose ancestors had worked on palaces and temples dating back to the Mughal Empire, according to state-run APP agency.

This art is so Pakistani, that the freight trucks which are built by Ford, General Motors, Hino Pak are first retrofitted with very Pakistani style bodies and a special viewing deck at the top of driver's cab. The view deck is a multipurpose extra space -- used by cleaners to sleep at night and also to load extra luggage when needed. These truck bodies are then immaculately painted by street artists in brightly colored patterns.
 
Unfortunately, of late a lot of religious messages are being painted on the trucks. According to Jamal J. Elias, author of "On Wings of Diesel: Identity, Imagination and Truck Decoration in Pakistan", the colourful, hand-painted trucks in the last few years have been hijacked by religious groups trying to spread their beliefs.

"Traditionally, the decoration with religious significance is talismanic, in that it protects the truck, its content and the driver from misfortune. But in 2003, a religious Sunni group by the name of Tablighi Jama’at started shifting the syntax of truck decoration to advertise their particular message. This activist attitude is pushing other religious groups (Shiite and other Sunni groups) to respond, thus creating the concept of ‘missionary trucks’,” Elias wrote.

No wonder Rani Mukherji is still going strong on Pakistani roads!

Our special rescue: Cocoa

Cocoa was born in our backyard to Chicklet, a 10-month-old stray.

Cocoa

Like all kittens, he loved playing with his littermates Chocolate and Wheezer.

Sometimes he perched on this window sill for a nap.

When Cocoa was three months old he was poisoned along with some other cats.  While the others died, Cocoa lived -- with first a temporary loss of vision and then a permanent damage to his motor coordination. Cocoa could no longer walk. Or meow. He was diagnosed with Cerebellar Hypoplasia or the Wobbly Walk Syndrome.

A year on, Cocoa has learnt to live with his disability beautifully. He no longer needs to be carried around the house. He has fun wobbling around the house or watching other cats play.

Cocoa wobbling in the greens

Our rescues and other stories (II)...

This is Rocco. Left outside our house on June 26, 2011. The vet refused to board him because of the severity of his infections (scabies and fungal). When he failed to respond to treatment we even considered putting him down.

Rocco

Two months later we consulted a vet in India and also carried a bagful of medicines to Pakistan. Within a week Rocco was cured.

Four months later, Rocco is a beautiful dog who keeps an eye on not just our house but the entire street.

I found Rocket wagging her little tail outside our gate on April 13, 2011. She was an extremely friendly pup.

Rocket

We soon discovered she had contracted the deadly Parvo virus. The vet said her chances of survival were slim.

Rocket survived the Parvo to battle a severe fungal infection for four months.

Rocket is now cured. And best friends with all our cats.

Rocket with Chammak Challo

When my samosa-wallah got kidnapped...

Bengali Bhai frying samosas (pic: Tribune.com)

When I heard about the kidnapping of Bengali Bhai, the famous samosa-wallah in my neighbourhood market, two insane thoughts struck me: a) finally someone known to me had been kidnapped; and b) the Taliban must be really short on money to kidnap a samosa-wallah!

Initial reports claimed that Bengali Bhai had been kidnapped by the Taliban -- the "bad" Taliban, if I may say so, because I often get to hear the distinction between the "good" and "bad" Taliban.

I have had the honour of speaking to Bengali Bhai, who crossed over from Bangladesh to Pakistan in 1971, on a couple of occasions. He would speak to me in accented Urdu, much like the way a Bengali would, till one day I told him that my husband could speak Bengali. He excitedly started speaking to me in Bengali but looked disappointed when I told him that my knowledge of Bengali began and ended with "bhalo".

Later, when I would queue at his shop to buy samosas he would make sure that I didn't have to wait much. He would hand me my packet of samosas with -- "bhalo"?

Last year when my father-in-law was in town he had a long conversation with Bengali Bhai, who talked about his business among other things. He said on an average day he sold samosas worth Rs 30,000. The business was brisk in the rainy and winter seasons and peaked during the holy month of Ramzan. He sent my father-in-law home with about a dozen freshly fried samosas.

Ten days after a ransom call for Rs 5 million was made to his wife, Bengali Bhai, who had been kept chained and blindfolded, was found by the police not from the "good" or "bad" Taliban but allegedly from friends of his nephew Afzal -- the mastermind behind the kidnapping.

A couple of days ago, after his shop reopened, I decided to go and buy samosas and also ask him -- "bhalo"? Bengali Bhai was missing from the shop and a relative was informing concerned customers that he was fine and resting at home. I also heard an oldish six-foot plus well-built man offering to be Bengali Bhai's bodyguard for free!

I hope to exchange "bhalos" with Bengali Bhai soon, but for now I am glad he is home and that neither the "good" nor the "bad" Taliban touched him.