Yes I live in Peshawar, not the one you’ve heard of!
Posted by Khushal Khan on January 31st, 2008
4 years back while I was living in Tarbela Dam, a friend of mine asked me to accompany him as he wanted to have a computer upgrade, geek that he thought I was, I couldn’t say No to a close friend and said “Fine, let’s hit the road to Peshawar tomorrow”. The more easily I replied positively the harder it was for me to digest the response he gave”Oh no, I am not allowed to go to Peshawar, between me and you even my dad is afraid to go there, you know the people there and the city itself….” (For those who don’t know Peshawar, it’s the city that gave shelter to nearly 3 million Afghan refugees after the Soviet war, lies in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan and capital of the very province). Why my friend made that response is a different topic to debate on, but anyways let me tell you first I belong to a Pathan family from NWFP and my friend was from Okara, Punjab. Despite the cultural differences we have in NWFP and Punjab, there is a complete change in lifestyles as well, although we lived in the same colony that fall under my province but the place was quite a developed town with mostly educated people around so they were ok with that. Apart from that when it came to shopping around for stuff, Pathans would prefer Peshawar while the Punjabis preferred Rawalpindi although both cities were at equal distance from our town but that was just the priority and culture that mattered more to us since Rawalpindi was a modern city of Punjab and Peshawar being the capital city of my province who Punjabis think is very rural and backward. Anyway coming back to the start, he had his computer upgraded from some vendor in Rawalpindi rejecting my offer to go to Peshawar and later that year I shifted to Peshawar for educational purposes while my friend took admission in a renowned engineering institution of our country.
What he said to me four long years back is still something that is stuck to my mind, not only did that line meant his own views about the city or the Pukhtoon culture but the views of the entire Punjabi community. I am sure they are not much aware of the situation in Peshawar now since I can really tell a lot about the city having spent 3 good years of my life over here. It’s getting modernized and civilized not to forget to mention even getting educated on a massive and advanced scale. Peshawar as in the eye of my friend would be nothing but a backward area with hardly any sign of people getting good education, but well that’s just there point of view without having seen the place even, apart from education the city is well developed enough to have good roads and efficient transport system, also having from the most basic to the most advanced facilities a modern individual would desire and not as you hear from people, but women are equally getting educated as men are. This however is the only sneak peek of what I wanted my friend to know. The culture is rich and preserved yet getting innovative, yes and I think I am just a single example of that culture which others think is backward.
I study business in a renowned school of Peshawar and I live in hostels, we have all what it needs to be modern(at least enough modern in Pakistani point of view) , all the basic facilities from furnished rooms to TV, newspapers and a high speed broadband facility (not that you’ll see too common in my country though), games facilities and a beautiful yet under-construction campus but well that is not going to be a big wait till it gets completed using the state of the art engineering techniques and design features. I have a good company of friends around me who are from well educated families and know how to talk well, dress well and act well. We hangout mostly on the weekends hunting for good food mostly landing over in Pizza Hut, KFC, Italian and local continental food inns as well as the traditional tikkas and barbecue restaurants where i see many families, couples and gangs roaming around as well, we have parties and functions occasionally and they are modern yet reserved, my friends occasionally smoke but none of us is a victim of drinking, we listen to good music be it western or eastern but its of a class (not to forget to mention even the underground bands of Peshawar out of which Sajid and Zeeshan happen to be my favorite that sing English), am fond of good movies and TV series and I have a huge collection of movies in my computer’s hard drive, I can sing and I recently started taking Guitar lessons which happens to be a part of the course offered in my university, I have access to news and information of all types, I have a good knowledge of internet and computers and I often spend my leisure time in Orkut and Facebook while online. I don’t have a private car of my own, no one in my hostel does except a few but than its all about the afford ability yet time, we don’t have time to look well after a car and as far as conveyance is concerned, what are friends for. I can shop for any product I want, be it a needle to a Jeep or even a Cannon, the latter one though just doesn’t fit with me and I can get anything repaired yet again from the city, the thing is all about the perception and trust. I trust my city and community which they don’t, although I feel comfortable even when am in Punjab.I dunno why i feel so weird saying all this though i still think am missing many things that even some of the modern people can learn from us but well i just want my word to be heard and I can even freely say “Yes I live in Peshawar, not the one you’ve heard of…. Or shown on the TV how it is” cos that’s my next story….
