I was driving to tampa to visit my mother my nani ammi was in the passenger seat to my side, she turned to me and said: "eik qissa sunati hun," in udru, the only language she will speak in. Though my brother in law always replies to her in english, adding that he knows she is only pretending not to know english.
Anyways, she wanted to relate a story to me.
There was a man who had a considerable amount of fame during her childhood. He was reknown journalist and author and also devotee of the famous sufi nizamuddin awliyah in delhi, thus he was called so and so nizami from delhi. He came to visit her father the grand mufti of hyderabad.
During the visit, nizami made a comment about how a man these days isn't considered much until he has property. To which my great grandfather responded, "well, I own this house. So I will be fine."
Nizami was surprised to hear the reply, so he added, "oh yes, cars, you are not anything unless you have a car." My great grandfather understood where this conversation was headed and replied "Yes, cars, I have one of those too... Oh yes, and I even have a radio."
A radio was a very rare thing to have in those days. Nizami had nowhere else to go with this conversation, "a radio?", he said in a surprised tone, " that is indeed a wonderous thing. You have one?" He asked, having to acknowledge that according to his materialistic standards, this simple looking religious man, was deserving of some respect.
My grand mother did not relate this story to tell me how privileged a childhood she had. she was not finished. She went on to say that regardless of the luxuries her father had in Hyderabad, serving as the chief religious advisor to the Nizam, he always felt at home and had no complaints when going back to their modest home in the mauvi muhalla neighborhood of Badaun. He remained connected to his roots, "his asliyath."
"Your father was like that too" she added.
This conversation had started much earlier in the drive when she remembered some sort of early mobile phone that my father had, and how these devices have changed so much. I noted how in her lifetime, communication had evolved so much, and she has been a witness to it all. She started with letters and telegrams, the rise of the telephone, then mobile phones; and she was there when a radio came into her house, then a television, then a computer, and now a portable laptop computer with the internet. All she needs now is someone in the family to get an iphone that brings all these things together. Transportation was the thing that evolved in the lifetime of her parents. Getting physically from one place to another, from animals to carriages to trains to cars to planes. While she had been a witness to how we get information from one place to another without physically going or sending a messenger. She had been a witness to so much. This had reminded her about the incident with nizami. And that incident reminded her of a piece of wisdom to share with me.
It is interesting how each of these useful tools
can become a symbol of status
for the small minded people
who choose to think that way.
And that despite how things change
or get easier with time and money,
I should, like my father before me,
be able to get by on the basics,
without feeling like we can't live without these luxuries.
Because the truth of it is that
we came from humble origins
and should not only be able to return to them,
and survive in them,
but be completely comfortable and happy when there.
Because it is who we truly are.
It is "our asliyath"
