The Internet has yielded some interesting job possibilities for Pakistan’s recently deposed President and the ex-Chief of the Army Staff, Pervaiz Musharraf.
Though we don’t want to give any time to this person, we however, post these photos as a tribute to their Maker who was able to picture Musharraf in the garb of some of the ‘men of the land’ that Musharraf never stood for.
The Photo Artist has captured some creative professions that are common in Pakistan but are looked down upon because of being low in financial returns. The self-employed vendors, beggars, transporters, small traders; their postures are so endearingly theirs that the face of a Military General appears humane in their environment, and on their bodies.
A Fresh Vegetable Vendor
A Mountain Man
A Trader
Monkey Dancer
A Disabled Beggar
It was to avoid such speculation that Mush did not want to take it off in the first place!
In its ’sweetness’, if i may be allowed to say so, this set reminds me of the after-retirement possibilities imagined by the UBC Punjabi language students for Teacher/Poet Sadhu Binning in Vancouver. View it here:UBC Students of Punjabi Literature, Delightful Performers!
(Most) Images sent by Anita Mir.
Fauzia Rafiq
amarjitc
rubya10
chitrkar
hoorin
ijazsyed
ouraim
saahir103
[...] Post Retirement Positions for Musharraf [...]
Dear one, i was amused to read the way word ‘marxist history buff’ has been used by the professor.Where does marxism come into to the picture?.It was a matter of ‘taste’ or should one say “distiction of taste”-which i was trying to ubserline. Why seek the creation of a ‘certain type of satire’ by placing photos of poor and excluded in apposition to something…., i could not understand.I did not know the ‘author of this text’, therfore, no homlies were intended…..
I’d like to share the views of my friends and my son Sukant re Musharraf’s photos that also support the opinions expressed in ‘Post-Retirement Positions for Musharraf’ at Uddari.
From Professor Bhagwan Josh. Historian. Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi.
From: Bhagwan Josh
Date: 2008/8/29 07:58
Dear Chandan,
I am not amused to see these photographs. The underlying emotion which frames these photos is a sense of contempt in which we hold the people on the margins of society. It is clear that the person who framed these photos is ignorant of the fact that in actuality he is revealing himself in this attitude and telling about his own social position of elitism. Such an individual has no sympathy with poor human beings who are forced to earn their honest livelihood with the help of a donkey or a monkeys. Do you think they are figures inviting amusements? Should these poor individuals be caricatured in this way? Kindly send these lines to that ‘feudal lord from my village’ who expects me to laugh at these scenes.
BJ
From: Visho Sharma. Professor Emeritus Social Science and Sociology. Michigan University.
From: Visho Sharma vishosharma@yahoo.com
to Amarjit Chandan
date 29 August 2008 15:35
Comrade Amarjit,
A Marxist history buff myself, I was amused to read Professor Josh’s reaction; but I’m grateful to him for raising our consciousness on the issue.
First, I am an American; we pride ourselves in our openness. But it goes deeper. My family – from my parents to our fourth child – have served the common weal with humility and rare dedication. My father was first among Kenya Indians to line up to claim citizenship when almost every Indian was not willing to throw in her or his lot with the wretched of the Kenyan earth. My mother was the only non-bhumiputri (though a natural citizen on account of being born in Nairobi) to be awarded the nation’s highest award: Freedom Fighter.
An anecdote will illustrate our value system. My younger sister, Sushma, when told by my father that the workers building a house for his nephews ate at the end of the day, insisted, at the tender age of 8, that she should bring them lunch! So, I don’t need a reminder of the dignity of labour. My elder sister, Sheila, as you well know, eschewed the wealth that attended most Barristers from England, tirelessly worked in the workers’ cause; she was among the 1000 Women Leaders (the world over) nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.
The Musharraf cartoons I sent you – and to my dozen Pakistani friends et al. – were seen by a vast, global coterie of intellectuals in context – in apposition to pictures of the obscene palace he had had built for himself. (The path to it was paved through Kargil, let us not forget. He shouldn’t be allowed on the streets, to rub shoulders with hard-working humanity; he should be tried at the Hague.)
My Hyderabadi Muslim taxi-driver, for example, would have relished the depiction of the come-uppance of the dictator. Moreover, monkeys and donkeys are not the issue, the opposite of apotheosis is the point – clumsy but appropriately funny.
For one rooted in the hard scrabble of the Shivaliks, I don’t need a homily in workers’ dignity. Professor Josh has had his 2-annas’ worth; mine is no more than that. I’m smiling, rest assured.
From Sukant Chandan. Editor: Cultures of Resistance and the website of the Organisation to Understand Radical Arab and Islamist Movements (OURAIM)
From: Sukant Chandan
to Amarjit Chandan
date 27 August 2008 20:56
Isn’t it an insult to these working people? I would actually like to see those photos in their original.