Men from Peshawar

Peshawar is in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. It borders Afghanistan.

I had known the place on from history books as it was on the pathway of the Central Asian invaders, from Hindi films that extolled the virtue of the Pathans as strong, brave, honest men and also from a certain passage from ‘Freedom at Midnight’ that detailed out Lord Mountbatten’s visit to the region.

The passage stressed that the last viceroy had put himself in danger by obstinately insisting on holding the rally. Pathans from all around had gathered to see the new gora sahib. It was hot and Pathans who are supposed to be short tempered, violent men were getting agitated. The British governor of the region feared for Mountbatten’s life especially since an attempt on his life had been foiled just days ago in Karachi (the would be assassin had supposedly lost his nerve).

Mountbatten got on top of a mound with Edwina by his side and the crowd erupted into a volley of adulation. Lapeirrre and Collins (the writers) attribute this to the fact that Mountbatten had chosen to wear his military green – the colour of Islam. The Pathans took this as a sign of friendship and were bowled over by the white man in green who they immediately took as a friend.

Now that you are suitably impressed by my grasp of history I must confess that the only person whom I could name from the region is Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan. That was only till recently.

Out of the force of habit, I have been chatting up with Taxi drivers and a lot of them happen to be from Peshawar. Like the bhaiya taxi drivers in Bombay, they have chosen to leave their homes and families to come here to make a better living. They define 2,500 dhirams as a good monthly wage. Like the bhaiya taxi drivers they miss their homes and complain about how tough life has become here and still how worse it is in their hometowns.

I feel a sense of kinship with them.