Page 7 - Pakistan Link - August 13, 2021

OPINION AUGUST 13, 2021 – PAKISTAN LINK – P7

n By Dr Akbar S Ahmed Days of Blood and Rage aged for the future. The paradox

American University is that when Indians, Pakistanis,
Washington, DC and Bangladeshis meet outside
of South Asia, the relationship

f late I have recurring is invariably positive and often
dreams, ominous and warm and affectionate. It is time

Odisturbing, which in- to construct a South Asian para-

volve trains. They appear in the digm to build peace and harmo-
early hours when ny across religious and national
I am neither fully divides.
asleep nor fully Perhaps then I will no lon-
awake. I continu- ger see ghost trains in my sleep.
ously miss my (The writer is the Ibn Khal-

train or I am on dun Chair of Islamic Studies at
the wrong train American University, Washing-
and watch help- ton, DC, and author of Journey
lessly as my family goes by in into Europe: Islam, Immigration,
another train in the opposite and Identity, Brookings Press,
direction. I can’t speak or move 2018).
and my cell doesn’t work. The

trains are not in themselves TRANSFORMATION FROM P4
threatening - there are no an- Pakistani shoppers find purchas-

gry mobs around with swords ing products or services online
and guns - but there is unspeci- easy, while 66% find it convenient.

fied menace in the air. I know I Another 54% find that online

am not safe. I need to get to my shopping websites or apps give
destination with my family as personalized product recommen-
soon as possible. dations, which answer common
Perhaps these dreams are questions. Two-thirds of consum-
returning me to the events of ers believe that online shopping
August 1947 when I found my- is the way forward. They say they

self in a train compartment on will continue to buy products or

the way from Delhi to Kara- services online after the COV-

chi through the killing fields of ID-19 pandemic.
the Punjab. I was a mere boy of Faraz Azhar, Industry Head,
four accompanying my parents Performance, South Asia Frontier
escaping the violence against people living in every room, in family made it to India safely. time, refused to leave her arms. Markets, Google said: “With half

Muslims in Delhi to follow the corridors and even in tents on Where, as Aroon recounts, The rest of the family reasoned of its population on the internet -

Quaid-i-Azam to the new ideal- the lawns and tennis courts. “My father received them in that they had no choice – they Pakistan is now online! This is the

ized land of Pakistan. The sheer Unknown to me at the time, Bangalore only to find they had HAD to leave us behind because first time Google and Kantar re-

arbitrary nature of events and Khalid Salam, my class fellow we would have jeopardized the leased study to understand more
the violence of people of every in the late 1950s in Burn Hall, safety of the entire family by de- about Pakistan’s internet popula-
persuasion impressed itself on Abbottabad, had a similar ex- Now in the autumn laying their departure another tion. But it’s not only about people
my boy’s mind. perience in the same month in day as no one could be certain of getting online, this research has
We were booked on a train the same year. We never talked of my life, I wonder another opportunity to flee the uncovered new insights and be-

from Delhi which in itself was about this at school but recently how those passions city safely. haviors that show how COVID
a small miracle as millions of we discussed our boyhood sto- Daddy rushed back to Kara- is impacting online behavior and
people frantically escaped the ries and compared notes. Khalid of hate and prejudice chi hoping he would find us alive the digital opportunities waiting

violence in North India on either comes from a noble Sayyed fam- can be dissipated into – his wife, one-year-old daughter to be unlocked.”
side of the future borders - Mus- ily with links to the great saint of and the new baby. He had loyal “More people are coming
lims escaping to the new land of Ajmer and this is his story: friendship and peace. employees who received him in online in Pakistan, creating a great
Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs “We crossed rivers of blood secret and assured him his wife opportunity for e-Commerce
heading to India from the other in August1947 in a Refugee train Surely this is what and daughters were alive and businesses - if they are ready to
side. All sides were involved in a bound from Delhi to Lahore un- Quaid-i-Azam and hidden. However, they told him seize it. As we see more explora-
mad communal frenzy. der the charge of my late father. not to go to his home because tion of the internet beyond social,
My mother, I overheard He was then a Major in the Brit- Mahatma Gandhi, Jinnah’s people were waiting for e-retailers can capture natural
years later, refused to travel on ish Indian Army. I was eyewit- the founding fathers him and dangerous plans had cross-category purchasing on its
the train booked for our fam- ness to escort of Army soldiers been prepared to entrap him. rise, but only if they have first

ily because of some intuition, with bayoneted rifles standing of Pakistan and India My father’s Muslim friends established themselves and their
insisting to my father that she in front of each carriage; dead smuggled mummy and her two product offering in an online

had to buy some provisions. She bodies on the platform; Sikhs respectively, envisaged babies to a ship in the harbor, marketplace,” he said.

had, what my father would call brandishing swords howling for for the future. The and simultaneously smuggled With expanding Internet in-
reverentially, “a woman’s intu- blood outside the locked gates daddy through another route to frastructure and rapidly growing
ition.” The passengers on that of the station. Mother travelled paradox is that when the same ship, ready to sail to user base, Pakistan is now seeing

train were all slaughtered. Only with younger brother in anoth- Indians, Pakistanis, Bombay. robust growth in venture money
the train driver was allowed to er train hoping that part of the It was especially ingrained pouring into technology startups.
live; both sides made sure they family might get thru alive.” and Bangladeshis in us that all Muslims were NOT Pakistani startups are on track to
did not touch the driver wanting Khalid Salam trained to meet outside of South our enemies – that we would attract more than $230 million in
the other side to know the extent become a British Chartered Ac- not be alive had it not been for funding in 2021, more funds than

of their hatred and barbarity. countant in the UK and returned Asia, the relationship Daddy’s Muslim friends. They all the money raised by Pakistani
When we missed our train, we to Pakistan to join government had risked their lives to save us startups in their entire history.
were booked on another one and service. He did well but is not is invariably positive – Hindus. Killings, mob violence A recent example is Klein-

that is the train that somehow happy with how the Pakistan and often warm and and rampage were perpetrated er Perkins, a top Silicon Valley
survived. Even as a child I could story ended for him: “Travelling on both sides of the border – venture capital investment firm,

sense this was Russian roulette. to the shining city on the hill/the affectionate. It is whole trains of corpses travelled that led series A round of $17
On the train my first memo- promised land which alas has from the new Pakistan to what million investment into Pakistani

ries ever are of my gentle and turned out to be a mirage/a case time to construct a remained India……and vice start-up Tajir. The startup operates

compassionate father signaling of shattered dreams.” South Asian paradigm versa.” an online marketplace for small

to us not to speak as the train Like the millions heading to These are just three of the store merchants in Pakistan. The

would frequently come to a halt Pakistan there were millions es- to build peace and millions of such stories from announcement came via a tweet
and he stood with his ear close caping in the opposite direction harmony across 1947. I worry that the hatreds by Mamoon Hamid, a Pakistani-
to the door for any sounds of to India. In September 1947the engendered by the violence American Managing Partner
threat. He had a revolver in his family of Aroon Shivdasani, religious and national then has remained frozen in the at Kleiner Perkins who led the
hand. Later my mother would the Executive and Artistic Di- divides. hearts of the people of the Sub- investment. Last year, Tajir raised

joke that there were no bullets rector of the Indo-American continent and has continued to a $1.8 million seed round. The
in it. Arts Council and based in New Perhaps then I will no poison relations between faiths company’s revenue has increased
In Karachi, the capital of the York, had been living in Karachi. and cultures. by 10x since its seed round.
new country, my father was giv- Aroon’s father, who was a promi- longer see ghost trains Now in the autumn of my Here’s a video presentation of
en an important official position nent landowner in Sind was told in my sleep life, I wonder how those pas- Pakistan’s “Journey to Digital”:

and a huge house on Victoria candidly by senior leadership sions of hate and prejudice can h t t ps://y o u t u .
Street next to the Clifton Bridge. that he needed to get the family be dissipated into friendship and be/7mlSvA7MyWo

My memories are of a stream of to Delhi urgently as Hindu fami- left his wife and baby daughter peace. Surely this is what Quaid- (Riaz Haq is a Silicon Valley-
desperate refugees arriving at lies who remained were in grave behind!!! My mother had deliv- i-Azam and Mahatma Gandhi, based Pakistani-American analyst
our home and being warmly re- danger. Aroon’s father decided ered my baby sister Reeta that the founding fathers of Pakistan and writer. He blogs at www.ri-
ceived by my parents; there were to charter a plane to ensure the morning, and I, a year old at the and India respectively, envis- azhaq.com)
www.PakistanLink.com