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| This week was a busy one. Thanks to full uninterrupted nights of sleep my work was
a pleasure again. However thanks to a very hectic social calendar my notes have not
been as good as they should be. Among others things this week brought my first tractor
lesson, great deal of information on family history and sadly a rather unpleasant
encounter with an urban police officer. Malik Asif Nawaz decided one day that it was time I learn how to drive a tractor. I suspect this may have been part of the secret instructions that my friend Mr. Alan Bicker gave Malik Asif when I arrived (Alan is a former farmer who believes firmly that if one studies farming one should be prepared to get a little dirty-- I agree). So Malik Asif sat me down on the tractor and showed me how to start it and where the gears were. In fact driving a tractor in the conditions I drove it is quite simple. It is larger and more exposed than the vehicles I'm used to but it handles much like some trucks and jeeps I've driven. However when we got off the main road and onto the dirt road leading out to Malik Asif's irrigated lands it became more complicated. The physical part of making the tractor move was simple but the judgement of how much of an angle the tractor could drive at without tipping over is not something one can be taught in fifteen minutes. I intend to occasionally drive Malik Asif's tractor throughout the year but I think I will never drive his tractor through the ravines and gullies around his irrigated land. If I were to have an accident and damage his tractor at the worng time of year (in the middle of sowing or harvesting) I could have a devestating impact on his income for that season. Tractor breakdowns during the critical times of year are extremely costly-- not only the cost of parts and repairs but the cost in lost time in the fields. Malik Asif produced, to my great joy, a family genealogy going back 43 generations. This pedigree indludes the pir buried on the top of the small mountain on the periphery of the village-- Baba Sher Dau. It's utility is limited to some extent since it has only a single male name per generation until 6 or 7 generations back when it begins to include more brothers, however I am delighted to have it. It was made in 1915-1918 for the revenue office. One of my major interests in family genealogies is to know the incidence of extra-zat or extra qaum marriage so this is not helpful for that but it at least gives me a means to calculate roughly when Baba Sher Dau lived (perhaps 1000-1200 years ago if I arbitrarily calculate a generation to be 30 years). In addition it gives me a comparison to the genealogies I have collected for the past 6 generations to help clear up some confusing mysteries. Finally I will end this week's update with a complaint. I have up till now found the Pakistani police to be easy going and courteous. I realize this is not their reputation in all circles but it had certainly been the case for me up until my last trip to Rawalpindi. A policeman wearing no uniform on a motorcycle with no identification stopped me on the road in Pindi. After my initial refusal to even think about showing some strange person my passport I agreed to show him my identification across the street in the presence of other people and in the light (it was not late but it was quite dark). Once we crossed the street I asked him to produce identification (which he did but having never seen police ID I have no idea whether it was real or not). After realizing that my passport and visa were all in order he then proceeded to try and pressure me into converting to Islam then and there. He kept me on the spot for about forty minutes explaining to me that I would go to hell and the world was ending soon so I needed to adopt Islam that day. Finally one of the bystanders chided him for hassling a guest of Pakistan and he was persuaded to let me go without converting. I include this event mostly because it made me very angry and it was so unusual. This is the first time I have EVER had a hassle with the police that lasted more than 10 minutes and the first time anyone has EVER tried to coerce me into converting to Islam (which is frowned upon by all other Pakistanis I know-- there is even a passage in the Holy Koran which forbids it). It briefly occurred to me to go to the police station and make a formal complaint but in the end decided that my purpose here is research not trying to cause trouble for other people-- no matter that they waste forty minutes of my time. Finally, although I feel very safe in Pakistan I have resolved not to travel alone at night outside the village. I feel confident that nothing serious will happen to me but minor annoyances like this are always possible and it's helpful to have a Pakistani friend nearby to vouch for me and guide me out of potential trouble spots. |
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