Live from Green Street
This from Anu on today's show....
Well, today's programme came to you from my beloved neighborhood here in London. Green Street always puts a smile on my face. I buy the best Alphonso mangoes in the summer from Mr. Patel who runs one of the many greengrocers...my favorite place for Lahori biryani is Ruby's, where they cook their naan bread in a real tandoor (clay) oven and the decor is definitely dhaba (canteen)! There are several mosques, a Hindu temple and a Sikh Gurudwara, all within a quarter of a mile of each other. You can buy pistachio kulfi (ice cream) on the street and finish it off with a nice hand-made paan (filled betel leaf). Green Street is Delhi... and Lahore... and Dhaka. It's filled with the patois of Jullundhar, Karachi and Sylhet. It's a burst of home away from home with its piles of sequined leather sandals, dancing Sikh dolls (like Santa, but in turbans), snacks cooking on the sidewalk in vast, blackened vats.....and piles of pink Lux soap.
What better place (besides of course the subcontinent itself) to discuss the legacy of 60 years of Independence?
My own family was deeply affected by the events of 1947. My father's father gave up his shops in the cantonment area of Rawalpindi (in today's Pakistan) and fled to Delhi. My mother's mother lost all her family in the violence. Her hair turned pure white and she never spoke about Partition again. She settled in the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir, which has been claimed by both countries ever since.
A few years ago, I had the privilege of going to Pakistan to interview President Musharraf and took the opportunity to go back to Rawalpindi, where my father was born, but has never seen in his adult life. I interviewed a Muslim woman there who had lived in Amritsar. She sang me her favourite Punjabi folk song and told me how she and all her school friends would gather in 'Company Bagh' to talk about the politics of the day and dream about the future. She left Amritsar late in the summer of 1947 as a precaution, convinced she would go back once the violence had died down. But it was not to be. Like millions of families, she found herself cut off from the place of her birth. Her family eventually took over an abandoned house near Rawalpindi. Incredibly, the name on the house was 'Anand'......what a small world!
Has India done better out of Partition?
Wednesday.....
Lots of you have been responding to the debate about a return to a Muslim caliphate, which the group Hizb-ut-Tahrir has been discussing at a conference in Jakarta, Indonesia. Supporters say it's the best way to unite the Muslim world and would also be a way to circumvent corrupt leaders in Middle Eastern countries. What do you think? We'll probably have a crack at this tomorrow, so if you want to contribute, let us know.
Speak to you soon,
Anu
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