For Granny and the Begum.
You made this possible and gave life its masala.
You dont travel in order to deck yourself with exoticism and anecdotes like a Christmas tree, but so that the route plucks you, rinses you, wrings you out, makes you like one of those towels threadbare with washing that are handed out with slivers of soap in brothels.
NICOLAS BOUVIER, The Scorpion-Fish
This is the reason that in the insane asylum, all the lunatics whose minds were not completely gone were trapped in the dilemma of whether they were in Pakistan or Hindustan. If they were in Hindustan, then where was Pakistan? If they were in Pakistan, then how could this be, since a while ago, while staying right here, they had been in Hindustan?
SAADAT HASAN MANTO, Toba Tek Singh
(Trans. from Urdu by Frances W. Pritchett)
Countries, like people, are loved for their failings.
F. YEATS BROWN, Bengal Lancer
Contents
Azan | the call to prayer |
Betel nut | seed of the Areca palm, chewed as a stimulant |
Bhang | marijuana |
Bhangra | an upbeat pop music of Punjabi origin |
Bindi | a red dot worn on the centre of the forehead |
Biryani | a rice dish, often with meat |
Bohreen (Ir.) | a narrow lane |
Burqah | an all-enveloping outer garment worn by women |
Chaat | a savoury snack, of which there are many variations |
Chador | a large piece of cloth wrapped by women around their head and body, leaving the face visible |
Charpoy | a bed upholstered with string |
Chummcha | a follower to the point of sycophancy |
Dervish | a Muslim Sufi ascetic, whose search for God follows a path of poverty, love and service |
Desi | an adjective meaning local to South Asia |
Dhobi | washerman/woman |
Duenna (Sp.) | an older female chaperone |
Durbar | a public reception, originally held by a ruler or prince |
Fakir | a wandering holy man |
Farang(hi) | a foreigner (foreign) |
Feudal | a landowner |
Gora | white, European, slightly derogatory |
Gurdwara | a Sikh place of worship |
Haal | a formalised greeting and sharing of news |
Haveli | a traditional townhouse or mansion |
Hijra | transgender individuals, born male |
Hookah | a water pipe |
Hujra | space where men gather and are entertained |
Hur | members of the Sufi community following Pir Pagara |
Iftar | sunset meal which breaks the fast in Ramazan |
Jalebi | deep-fried sweets soaked in sugar syrup |
Jihad(i) | the fight(er) against the enemies of Islam |
Kurta | long shirt/jacket over trousers, worn by both sexes |
Lassi | a yoghurt-based drink |
Lungi | cloth worn by men wrapped around the lower body |
Madrassa | an Islamic religious school |
Masala | spice |
Mehtar | title given to the rulers of Chitral |
Memon | an ethnic group, originally from Gujarat, united in their use of the Memoni language |
Mughal | empire, started by Babur in 1526, which continued to rule the Indian subcontinent into the 19th century |
Mujra | an erotic dance, originally performed by courtesans |
Mullah | a Muslim trained in Islamic law and doctrine |
Nullah | a watercourse, dry riverbed or ravine |
Pakora | deep-fried vegetable snack |
Paratha | a flat bread |
Pathan | an ethnic group in the North West Frontier Province, Pashto-speaking |
Pir | a saint |
Punkah | large cloth fan suspended from ceiling |
Qawwali | Sufi devotional music and its performances |
Ramazan | the month of fasting performed by devout Muslims |
Sardar | a tribal leader |
Shalwar | a combination of long shirt (kameez) and baggy |
Kameez | trousers (shalwar) |
Sharia | Islamic religious code of law |
Sherwani | a long coat with a high collar |
Shia | branch of Islam which believes that Muhammad designated Ali as his successor |
Sufi | person who follows the mystical tradition in Islam |
Sunni | branch of Islam which believes Abu Bakr, appointed by the consensus of the community, to have been the successor to Muhammad |
Tabla | musical instrument consisting of a pair of drums |
Takht | a low, four-legged wooden platform for sitting on |
Tamasha | a fuss or commotion |
Wahabism | a fundamentalist Sunni religious movement hailing from Saudi Arabia which is vehemently opposed to more moderate, mystical forms of Islam |
Wallah | a person concerned with a specific thing/profession |
![A GALE WAS BLOWING from the north Gusts of rain drummed down the chimney on to - photo 1](/uploads/posts/book/110226/map_online.png)
A GALE WAS BLOWING from the north. Gusts of rain drummed down the chimney on to the smoking peat fire. From a window in my grandmothers house, deep in hilly Irish countryside, I watched thickly fleeced sheep rampage across the wintry garden, searching for refuge among clumps of rhododendron. Poor sods, I thought.
Soon Id be out in the foul evening too, trudging down the bohreen with my bag to wait on the road for a lift that would take me from the hearths cosiness to Pakistan. God. All week my mood had trapezed between zeal and cowardice. Why on earth was I going back?
I was struggling with a quandary: on the one hand I wanted to become a proper journalist, advance my career and lead an exciting, heroic life; on the other, the thought of returning to that part of the world summoned fearful images of falling fatally ill or of foul-breathed assassins kidnapping and beheading me. The paltry side of my nature wanted to reach old age, but my past and a wavering professional ambition had caught up with me. Over the past few years Id asked my boss, the foreign editor of the Daily Telegraph, to move me from my comfortable billet in Madrid to somewhere more challenging. Now that he had offered me the job of correspondent in Islamabad, I could scarcely refuse.
It was January 2006, Washingtons so-called War on Terror was in full swing and Pakistan was its frontline. The millionaire Saudi fugitive, Osama bin Laden, who had masterminded cataclysmic attacks on America in 2001, was generally believed to be hiding in a cave in the AfghanPakistan borderlands, a sanctuary for Islamic militants waging global jihad and an insurgency that was beginning to overshadow the country.
Pakistan was on Western lips. Lavishly funded think-tanks recruited specialists who could locate it on a map; the American president slept with a book on the subject beside his bed; and London cabbies deemed it fit for nuclear destruction.
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