Headline June 27, 2017/ ''' MIGRATION -MISTS- MOURNING '''

''' MIGRATION -MISTS- MOURNING '''

AT *PROUD PAKISTAN*  : The World Students Society mourns tears for pure and sacred blood, all just so spilled on to the mother earth, drenched and smoky and convulsing.

Joining me in the mourning are some of Proud Pakistan's best, and outstanding  daughters and sons.  All marked for future leadership: And by and large, all fearless and conscious of destiny.

Merium, Rabo, Zilli, Dee, Aqsa, Zainab, Haleema, Saima, Sarah, Eman, Hussain, Haider,  Zaeem,  Faraz, Ali, Umer, Wajahat, Waqar Gardezi, and Humayun.

*And now to migration. mists and mourning*:

MIGRATING TO CANADA is a choice, but in all truth, her heart aches for her home. Especially in the early years  -when enjoying the glamour and the summer fun of Toronto:

She years to  ''smell the warm earthy aroma arising from the from the pure first monsoon drops falling on the cracked and parched brown dust of Rawalpindi...................

SHE STARTED TO WRITE her book with the intention to record   -for the benefit of her children and grandchildren :

''How they came to be  *brown*  Americans''.

Thinking they might want to know why and under what circumstances the family left their homeland and their settled lives, not in the prime of youth, but well into the  middle age, to build a new life in distant land.

On a friend's advice the book expanded into its present form  ''for a wider audience''.    

The story being not only hers ''but a multitude of South Asians'' encompassing the family's tale and and its roots and history as well as commentary on the changing times that impacted their lives.

After having spent a full life, one often wants to sit back, relax and take a journey down the memory lane to reflect upon the highs and lows. Sometimes, these reflections results in a book.

The author of  Jasmine and  Journeys : The Life and Quest of a South Asian Women, Najma Shamsi, is an educationist and writer. A recipient of  Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal [2012]-  *for service to humanity'. 

She is the founding director and former president of the Canadian chapter of The Citizens Foundation, besides having established and managed several schools in Pakistan.   

*Jasmine and Journeys* is a fascinating political and cultural history of the subcontinent interwoven with all the story of Shamsi's own family. 

She offers her views on crucial events and that  makes her book an interesting observation on some aspects of our past.

We are taken on a journey through time from South Asia to Canada: A sample Excerpt from the book:

*It was a large and lucrative business and we employed over a dozen staff, but I must confess it was emotionally the most challenging period of my life in Canada:

I was not happy. I took charge of placing orders for stocks and communicating with the dozen or so companies which were suppliers, but it was just a job  - definitely not something I enjoyed.

I missed working in my own field and longed for the day when I would go back to it.  But I understood I would have to be patient. One business would have to be well established before we could risk investing in a second one.

I complained so often and so loudly about not enjoying  Bulk Barn  that a friend named it my   'Bilak'  Barn    in Urdu  bilak  means to cry bitterly. It was not quite as bad as that, but close enough*.

With flashbacks from the past. Shamsi begins her account with the history of the Punjabi Saudagaran  -the community to which she belongs   -and how they settled in Delhi, centuries ago.

She describes British rule in India,  the 1857  War of Independence  and its aftermath, the political unrest and rising nationalism,  Muslim alienation and the demand for a  separate homeland.

We read of the struggle for independence and  Partition, the accompanying bloodbath and mass migration.

Her family lived through the turmoil of 1947 and came out of it safe and sound to settle in Karachi, and later moving to Rawalpindi.

After her marriage  Shamsi went to live in Chittagong in Former East Pakistan, where she led a carefree and stylish life, attending parties and visiting clubs.

She was there during the tumultuous period before the war of 1971 and recounts the troubled leading to the secession, an event that caused another uprooting from the place she had chosen to make home.

The move back to Pakistan was not as difficult as the efforts to make a fresh start once there.

O'' the scent of home.

The Honour and Serving of the latest ''operational research'' on authors and writings continues, Thank Ya all for reading and sharing forward. And see you on the following one.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW!   -the World Students Society and.... Twitter-!E-WOW!  -the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Earth & Home '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless