Ibn Battuta intended to be a judge. After studying Islamic law, he decided to perform Hajj (before presumably taking up ‘the job’). Makkah was far away from his homeland, Morocco, and the journey was going to take him more than a year. After 16 months he did reach Makkah but was so fascinated by the places he visited and the sites he saw during the journey that he decided to become a traveler for life and vowed ‘never to travel any road a second time.’
I’m no Ibn Battuta but our stories are kinda similar. Two years ago, I took a month out of my busy life to travel across Punjab on my motorbike. “30 days, 30 cities, 5000km, one hell of a journey,” that’s how I summarize it now. But I feel like it was just a glimpse of the heights and depths of the places I visited and the people I met. I now want to “live” at places, not just travel through.
You have probably got an idea why this post is being written but hold that thought, there’s more.
I make my living writing computer software for people/companies from around the globe; been doing so for the past 7 years since my graduation, though a little differently. I quit my day job around 4 years ago to freelance full-time, after feeling that working 9-6 is not my thing. Generally, it takes your two to three hours a day to make more than the regular day-job (which means, you can work for a few days a month and still make the same). I could use the free time doing things I’m passionate about, I thought. Studying the folklore of my homeland and figuring out how it relates to the people at present, for instance, or writing that second novel of mine.
Why not merge these two, I have been wondering. You can’t just sit around thinking about the amazing things you can do. You have to take the step. That’s what I’m doing. I’ve decided to become a full-time traveler who sometimes does freelance work.
I’m going to live in one region for around a month or two and then move to the next. The idea is to travel and earn the living on the go. (Internet + Freelancing, FTW).
And that’s why I’m selling everything I own.
—-
PS: There’s a twist to this story. I’m working as CTO at a tech startup called Jumpshare for the past 8 months. We are about to release limited beta of the product. (It’s awesome! I tell you.) I’ll be staying with them till we release the beta. So you have got a couple of months to buy my stuff or say ‘Hi’ to me.
I just got back from Lahore. It was a short 2-day trip to attend the Festival of Lights but gave me a much needed lesson in traveling. Let me share it with you:
Day 1:
• Broke my glasses.
• Forgot the iPhone charger at home, and the phone died at the end of the day.
Day 2:
• Got ready to leave for Islamabad, took a rickshaw to the bus station.
• Didn’t have much cash with me because, you know, ATMs are everywhere. But apparently the banks in Lahore really don’t want you to withdraw cash. I checked every ATM on the way, most were powered off, some were out for maintenance, one gave up right in the middle of the transaction.
• Just when the rickshaw was about to reach the bus station, I realised that I’ve forgotten my home keys at my mamu’s place where I stayed for the night. That’s another round-trip back to their place. It took 3 hours to finally get at the bus station, with keys.
• After I paid the rickshaw-wala, I was almost out of cash.
• There I was. Without cash, with broken glasses, unable to find any working ATM, trying to find a thin wire so I could fix my glasses, couldn’t ask anyone to easypaisa me because, you know, iPhone cannot save you in emergencies, it dies a day before. My dream to become a vagabond had come true.
• Irony: the nearest place I could go to was my ex’s home.
Lesson:
When you’re traveling, if something can go wrong, it will. Don’t panic when it happens.
“Let us begin with a very general question. What, exactly, is the anthropology of Islam? What is its object of investigation? The answer may seem obvious: what the anthropology of Islam investigates is, surely, Islam. But to conceptualize Islam as the object of an anthropological study is not as simple a matter as some writers would have one suppose.”
“I want to begin with a prior question, one which I’ve addressed before, might go over some of the points: What is religion? How has it come to be defined in the ways it has. Why is belief so strongly emphasized in so many different issues. I’ll then go on to speculate about its connections with politics, mainly through a discussion of perspective in the anthropological study of ritual and religion. But I’ll also discuss Charles Taylor’s recent magnum opus, Secular Age, that draws strategically, but very importantly, on anthropology, on victorian ideas about primitive mind as well as on recent ideas about ritual.” » Read more
Just came back from a Sufi poetry event, held around Safar-ul-Ishq (Journey of Love, popularly known as Saiful Malook), the magnum opus of Mian Muhammad Bukhsh. The book tells the story of the journey of an Egyptian prince, Saiful Malook, to win the heart of Badi-ul-Jamal, the princess of Kohkaaf. Mian Muhammad Bukhsh uses the story as a metaphor for divine love and creates a masterpiece of Punjabi poetry full of Sufi wisdom.
The weekly recitation and comprehension session around this work is an initiative of Professor Saeed Ahmad, the writer of Great Sufi Wisdom series of books, on the lines of Lahore’s most-respected literary gathering Sangat Shah Husain, run by the great Najm Hosain Syed since the 70s. Everyone present was given a page with around 20 couplets from the poem, which was first recited by a Punjabi poet, Mohammad Ilyas, and then a few couplets by all of us. This reading-aloud brings the audience into the language and atmosphere of the poem. An explanation/discussion session then followed lead by Professor Saeed. It was only the second sitting, the format will probably change a little as these gatherings mature. But overall, this was a good experience. I’ll sure attend the future sittings.
There’s more. At the end of the session, after I introduced myself as the founder of Folk Punjab, someone from the audience came to me with a BIG surprise: “I’ve collected some 70,000 Punjabi folk songs in text; was looking for someone who could manage and and preserve this treasure, think you could be the one.” You can imagine my excitement! We exchanged numbers and I’ll be visiting him soon. I’m sure this is what they call ‘godsend.’
Those who went in pursuit of knowledge
Soared up so high, stretched the edge
Were still encaged by the same dark hedge
Brought us same tales ere life to death pledge.
It is the beginning of the Hijri year. A time that matters to me for two reasons: remembering Hussain’s determination and the Sufi festivals that will be held throughout the year across Pakistan. And this year I want to do something special: to attend all the Sufi festivals and document each of them! Wish I had undertaken this project earlier in my life when the festivals were held without any fear but I wasn’t mature enough to see what they mean to the people. I, like others, considered them ‘stupid’ and ‘superstitious’ but that’s so untre. Let’s see how:
The people who actually go to the Sufi festivals don’t really call them by their urban name, Urs. They call them “mela” and it includes all kinds of activities, not just paying salam to the dead Sufi. They are *festivals* for the people, occasions to rejoice.
Last weekend, when I was on a field trip in a remote Punjabi village, a girl told me, “If you were here a couple of weeks ago, you could see our dance, Sammi; there was a wedding. We are the best in Punjab in Sammi dance! Oh, you can come to the mela next month.” Now this place, Danabad, is a small village. They remember the Sufi festival as the time they will have dance, musical concert, and what not.
On a similar visit to Chakwal, when I asked a young boy about their activities, he was so excited about this race and kabbadi they have each year. When: “during the mela”!
You see, to the people the Sufi festivals do not mean “worshipping the graves”, as some conservatives would like to put it. It is the time people await to shop, play, dance, and attend live concerts. And that’s what I would like to document because they are the events that matter to the people and keep them going. Wish me luck!
Last weekend, I was traveling down a small road near Lahore to a place I had never seen before. It is the land that lives in the our folk sayings, music, and literature. It is Danabad, the village of Punjab’s heroic martyr of love, Mirza Jatt. Here’s a video montage of the photographs from that trip:
I am planning a tour-de-pakistan in March 09. It will be a carvan of bikes that will roam around Pakistan for 3-4 weeks. We’ll feel the air and touch the land of real Pakistan. Details will be coming here soon. Read more about how the dream started.
I am having this dream for quite some time now: to wander all around Pakistan once before getting married…
And I hope to turn this dream into reality any time now. I am planning for it these days: getting things done, finishing client projects, and buying necessary stuff. It will be quite an experience. I have got a special domain ready to post pictures, videos, and text about the places where I will visit during the tour.
I still haven’t decided by what means I will be traveling. What about a motorcycle?
I dont think any of my friends will be ready to go with me. So most probably I will be alone. Lets see. I will keep you updated!
Once upon a time, I had a 5 word faecbook status “make developers network of pakistan”. I would have changed that status and ahead the next day. But Fariha saw it and started bugging me We discussed and groomed the idea with each wall-post. Better put, it was she who groomed the idea, I was simple replying to what she was throwing at me . And I felt what we are discussing is important and should be shared with the world. And more people should participate in the process. So I setup a rough version of Ideas Hut and sent her the link.
That started yet another brainstorming session over IM. We made a road map for Ideas Hut, how it can benefit everyone, what features it should have to be really useful and all that. I was impressed by her planning abilities and vision. The first idea we have at Ideas Hut (IT-Professionals-Network) is in fact a result of her brainstorming. To be faithful, she has bigger part in start and growth of Ideas Hut than I. And that makes her our CEO.
Ideas Hut is very dear to us. We have big dreams about its future. its not really launched and is still in beta. Many things from our first board meeting’s minutes still need to be addressed. Stay with us, you will see something very interesting from the two mad Pakistanis. May be you see us on Wired’s cover some day for the startup we launch taking an idea from Ideas Hut
Yesterday I was passing by shakarparian and thought to visit Lok Visra. (“Lok Virsa” is an organization for preservation and presentation of pakistani culture with its headquarter near Shararparian woods, Islamabad. Its director is Uxi Mufti a great folk lover and son of the renowned fiction writer Mumtaz Mufti.)
Lok Virsa had a museum in shakarparian that had a collection of “all things cultural” from all over pakistan. Many have already visited it. It was good. But Just like any other museum.
But what I saw yesterday was just “WOW!!” They have improved everything. From the main gate to the administration offices. Its “only culture” now. And the best thing I saw was the “new heritage museum”. Its not a mere collection of cultural goods now. THEY HAVE RECREATED CULTURE OF EVERY PART OF PAKISTAN. yes, recreated. The museum is not a rectangular room now. Its a safari into different parts of pakistan. you see a white travel line where you walk and you are shown how vilages/people/things are at different cultural division. You see people{artificial} wearing cultural dresses. You see bazars. you see Traditional Love Stories of pakistan recreated. You see the dresses. you see the doors/ how the front of homes look. In fact, you are having a virtual tour of pakistan. And an important thing is cultural-relations with other countries over the past. How and what came into pakistan from Middle East. you “see” that with your eyes. everything re-created again. While you roam around in the museum, the construction/format of walls change as per the region you are in.
SO, ALL OF YOU, DO VISIT LOK VISRA NEW HERITAGE MUSEUM. IT IS WORTH VISITING. AND BESIDE MUSEUM THEY HAVE MANY MANY THINGS IN THEIR TERRITORY. UXI MUFTI WILL MAKE YOU RE-THINK!
. And I felt what we are discussing is important and should be shared with the world. And more people should participate in the process. So I setup a rough version of