Karachi and Houston were declared sister cities at a ceremony held, at City Council Hall of Houston. The day of the ceremony was well chosen, March 8 happens to be International Womens Day. We Karachi women are delighted but the men are not very pleased, judging from the reaction to the news of my menfolk, my cousins, nephews and colleagues.
Said one who is quite a ladies man, "Dang! Now I will have to strike off Houston as a potential hunting ground." Then he quoted Jamiluddin Aslis verse "Hum tu gaye the chaila bun kar, bhaiya keh gaye naar." (I had gone to woo, but the girl called me brother.) He recited the verse with all the dramatic heartbroken style typical of an accomplished flirt who has been snubbed. "An entire city of sisters. This is bad news, very bad news," he moaned.
City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal and Mayor of Houston Bill white signed the agreement, making Karachi the 17th world city entering into a sister cities relationship with Houston. At the end of the ceremony. Mayor White expressed the hope that this relationship would prove successful.
"How can the relationship succeed when all the ladies of Houston are now my sisters?" moaned another Karachi male who is about to leave for Houston for higher studies. He looked daggers at his sister by blood who said "At least now we know you will concentrate on your studies and not waste your time running after girls."
Mayor White, it seems, has a lot to learn about cultural constraints of males of a Muslim city . The wildest flirt will keep his distance from girls who are sisters by blood or adoption or those who call him brother, whether they are his friends sisters, or his sisters friends. Once a girl calls a boy her brother their association automatically becomes above board. People in the West do not comprehend this fine point of our culture. But our Nazim ought to have explained it to the Mayor of Houston.
The sister-brother relationship is a sacred one in Pakistani cultural. But it is most -typical of Karachi culture where the -title of brother, that is, bhai or bhaisaab is bestowed not only on male relatives and friend but on sundry males with whom one has some association or the other, such as the grocer, the gardener, the butcher or even a man in -the street of whom one enquires -the location of a place or asks for a little help to lift up the shopping parcels into the waiting rickshaw.
This typical Karachi cultural -thing is our way of evoking friendly cooperation since those who are called automatically feel they have been endowed with a responsibility -to protect Or help those who are their temporary sisters and brothers. Politically, the title bhai was first used by leaders of the MQM Azim Tariq and Altaf Hussain. However, it is strange that another Karachi leader , Afaq , of Mohajir Qaurni Movement, is not called bhai; he is addressed by his followers as chiefsaab.
Now that Karachi and Housto are sister cities, it means all the males in Houston are our brothers and the females our sisters and vice versa. Nevertheless, if some Karachiites, male or female, was to declare to Mayor White that he was his or her brother, the Mayor is likely to look suspiciously and conclude that the person calling him brother is crazy.
In -the West, it is one thing for cities to become sisters and another thing for the people to think of themselves as each others siblings. The type of relationship the Houstonians will adopt towards Karachiites is falls in the category of Public Relations, a rather businesslike relationship, somewhat cold and somewhat calculated.
A point to note is that it is not Karachi which desired to be Houstons sister city. It is Houston which invited it. And we are supposed to feel honoured. If Karachi had invited any city in the world -to be its sister, it would mostly probably get a snub , particularly if it was an American city. Houston is not the first American city to have adopted Karachi as a sister. If I recall correctly, New York was, and may be still is, another of Karachis sister cities.
Houston seems to have made quite a hobby of acquiring sisters. It has a Sister Cities Board with Mike Hier as its Chairman. Karachi is the 17th world city Houston has adopted as a sister city. Our Nazim in his speech at the ceremony adopted an apologist attitude. Although he described Karachi as the "face of Pakistan and the biggest city of the Muslim world," it was rather pitiful that he should have added, "Today, we and -the entire Muslim Ummah are the biggest victims of our own bad perception."
Is Karachi a victim of her own bad perception? Except for the terrible 1980s when a civil war like situation prevailed in Karachi because of -the fighting between MQM factions, for the rest of -the 60 years Karachi has been the victim of other peoples bad perception. Karachis industry, culture and prosperity has been an eyesore for every leader from Ayub Khan to Benazir Bhutto. The greatness and vitality of Karachi has been deliberately tampered. Even internationally Karachi has been demonised.
Now the question is: will the Karachi-Houston sister cities relationship be one of big sister-little sister? doubt if it is a status of equals. A young Karachiite asked "Whats in this for us?" So even the youth feel that if someone is being kind to Karachi, there has to be an ulterior motive, and Karachi will remain lower in the pecking order of sister cities. Will the sister cities status of Houston and Karachi change the condescending attitude of American officialdom? Financially speaking, they are the donors and we are the receivers.
It is this which forms the basis of the condescension. But may be there is to be a softening of the attitude. That is what I hope, since Houston has adopted Karachi as her sister city at a time when Karachis reputation is at its lowest. It is seen as a haven of every terrorist organisation , especially the Taliban The al Qaeeda and now the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Salaam Houston! For extenuating a sisterly hand to Karachi in these trying times.