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in 2011, on January 2, The Express Tribune carried an article, Pak Tea House,
by Ayesha Siddiqa. In that, a reference was made to another article, Tea,anyone? by Ahmad Rafay Alam, published earlier on May 8, 2010, in the same
newspaper. I read both.
March 6, 2011
March 6, 2011
The News attempted a short history of the Pak Tea House also on this occasion. Link to A brief history:
Would the Nationalized Pak Tea House add to this corruption or not let’s wait to see!
As
I am an ardent lover of the Pak Tea House, as it has played an important role
in my intellectual training and so many other souls, and also as I knew quite a
bit of what was happening to the Pak Tea House then and to the owner of this
property through friends who were part of the management of the
Halqa-e-Arbaab-e-Zauq and attempts to save the Pak Tea House from disappearing,
in response to both of these of articles, I wrote Reliving Pak Tea House.
Actually,
I wanted to contribute to this debate, but was uncertain whether The Express Tribune
would carry this or not since I am a ‘non-entity.’ While emailing this to the
Express Tribune, I sent its copies to Ayesha Siddiqa and Ahmad Rafay Alam. As I
personally knew Ahmad Rafay Alam and had already met him twice or thrice, he
did reply to my email and regarding this we talked on phone also. I requested
him to recommend my article for the Express Tribune to consider for
publication. He did, but Reliving Pak Tea House did not impress the
editors of the Express Tribune.
[This
gave rise to an interesting story, which I would like to relate at another
opportune time.]
Then,
the same was emailed to almost all the newspapers. Some of them carried it:
Re-living
Pak Tea House
Viwepoint
online http://viewpointonline.net
February
12, 2011 - February 18, 2011
-----
Re-living
Pak Tea House
The
Frontier Post
-----
Re-living
Pak Tea House
Pakistan
Today (in Letters to the Editor)
-----
Here
is what I wrote:
Reliving
Pak Tea House
Sharing
the lament on the death of Pak Tea House in Lahore, this responds to Ayesha
Siddiqa’s Pak Tea House (The Express Tribune of January 2, 2011) and
Ahmad Rafay Alam’s Tea, anyone? (The Express Tribune May 8, 2010).
They
heap together those circumstances which they think hastened Tea House’s demise.
Ms. Siddiqa writes: ‘According to him (Ahmad Rafay Alam), the death of the
place was inevitable due to problematic urban development. I would just like to
add that the famous chai khana could not escape extinction because it had
become intellectually stale and unviable before it tuned financially
burdensome.’
It’s
debatable that the circumstances singled out by both writers added to the Tea
House’s downfall. Do such places which acquire symbolic significance die
“soulless,” as Ms. Siddiqa argues? This loses weight as both writers agree that
those who used to flock to and populate Tea House after its closure dispersed
and found new places, though not matching to Tea House’s symbolic status. Ms.
Siddiqa laments more than Tea House the corruption of intellectuals and men of
letters by Gen Zia’s dictatorship. To me, that seems to have nothing to do with
Tea House’s closure.
As
a matter of fact, when the business of Tea House’s proprietor suffered or he
thought of bettering his lot, he took to doing something else instead of
entertaining the literati. The known literary figures visiting Tea House at the
time intervened and the decision was sort of put on hold. Again as the
enterprise was not sustainable, a cut-off date was announced.
This
spurred a flurry of hectic efforts on the part of certain Tea House ‘fans’ to
save it from the hands of its business-minded proprietor. Significant is the
fact that litigation was also resorted to involving the proprietor. Whatever
the details of the Save the Tea House Campaign are, finally the Tea House, a
private business, and at the same time a historic place of literary
significance closed down.
Ms.
Siddiqa probes: ‘One wonders if the provincial government could think of buying
it from the owner and dedicating it to the intellectuals of the country.’ This
is where the present writer differs most. As some bureaucrat-writers were also
on board the Save the Tea House Campaign and they used their clout, but whether
such an attempt was made or not is not known to the present writer. However,
what came out of this Campaign is a place called ‘Chaupal’ erected in Nasir
Bagh to accommodate the displaced writers. No doubt, all this was done at
tax-payers’ expense. Also, there is a hall in Al-Hamra meant for them.
For
sure, such and other such ideas seeking government to act were floated and
tested during the Save the Tea House Campaign. Also, for sure, no such thing as
private initiative was witnessed then. Instead, the fans of the Tea House
trampling its proprietor’s right to use his property as he wished tried to
force him morally, socially, and legally not to put his property to any other
use but of their choice. They wanted the government to stop the Tea House’s
proprietor from putting it to no other use, as Ms. Siddiqa too wonders.
Couldn’t
the intellectuals and literati pool and offer the Tea House owner a price
lucrative enough to refuse? They could purchase it, run it as a trust or
partnership, and turn it into a tourist attraction by reinventing it as home to
intellectual and literary icons of the sub-continent! There should have been more than hundred
ideas which could save the Tea House and run it as a financially viable
business, if the intellectuals and men of letters had cherished and inculcated
an independent mind in their heads and a spark of private initiative in their
endeavors! Ah, the same had already been corrupted by their dependence on
government (and tax-payers’ easy money), as Ms. Siddiqa explains.
The
demise of the Pak Tea House is symptomatic of the crisis of intellectual
independence and private initiative in Pakistan. The premises is still there,
existing with its symbolic glory, waiting for someone with entrepreneurial
spirit to make use of its huge potential, who would turn it once again into Pak
Tea House? Let’s see who reinvents and relive the Pak Tea House!
[This
article was completed on January 2, 2011.]
-----
Then
last August, I received a call from the Herald; they wanted my opinion on the
revival of the Pak Tea House by the provincial government. I replied in earnest
to all the questions the Herald put to me. The gist of that was made part of
the feature, “Not everyone’s cup of tea,” by Abid Hussain, in its issue of
September 2012.
Here
is what the Herald used:
“Others
believed that reviving heritage might be a worthwhile objective but that the
government has no business running cafes. “It is not for the government to
spend the taxpayer’s money on such projects,” observes Dr. Khalil Ahmed, who
heads Alternate Solutions Institute, a policy think tank.
[Herald,
September 2012]
Here
are the questions from the Herald and their replies:
Revival
of the Pak Tea House
Q:
Is it viable for Punjab Govt to undertake such a project in first place with
Taxpayers' money?
A:
No, not at all! It is not for the government to spend taxpayers’ money on such
projects; it is just that some of the influential literary figures who have got
a say in the government and bureaucratic circles that they get away with such
things.
Years
back when the PTH was closed down by its owner, under the pressure of
bureaucrat-writers, the Punjab government set-up a niche, “Chaupaal,” in the
Nasir Bagh. But it did not sustain. There were other ideas seeking government
to act throughout the Save the Tea House Campaign. Now once again some such
scheme has been implemented to revive the PTH with the citizens’ tax money.
It
seems like lawyers, doctors, and a number of other well-knit communities,
litterateurs and intellectuals are also demanding their share from the “Loot.”
Otherwise,
there is no justification that such ventures be financed in this manner.
Also,
conspicuously absent is any private initiative in this regard.
Q:
Does this not go against the tradition of PTH which has been a bastion of free
speech and freedom of thought, for it to run under govt patronage?
A:
Yeah, it is against that tradition of free speech and freedom of thought! As
Intezar Husain has narrated in his autobiographical ventures, even under the
worst phases of dictatorships, the PTH remained an island cherishing
independence and freedom of thought. The way the PTH revival is going to be
“financed” by the government may affect its flagship status, and under the
circumstances it is evident that unless government is prepared to finance it on
permanent basis, this revival is destined to fail.
Q:
Do you think that in the current day and age, with evolving scenario in Lahore
in general and Mall Road in particular, PTH will be able to revive its lost
glory?
A:
As stated above, I think there are more chances the PTH will fail than regain
its lost glory. As it has already been demonstrated, two such initiatives,
Chaupaal (Nasir Bagh) and Adabi Baithak (in Al-Hamra, The Mall, Lahore), proved
unsuccessful. But this can’t completely be ruled out that the magic and
nostalgia of the place may help the PTH populate once again!
Q:
Any additional comments, opinions you may have on this venture and Pak Tea
House itself.
Additional
comments: I would like to share the following from one of my pieces on the
revival of the PTH:
“Couldn’t
the intellectuals and literati pool and offer the Tea House owner a price
lucrative enough to refuse? They could purchase it, run it as a trust or
partnership, and turn it into a tourist attraction by reinventing it as home to
intellectual and literary icons of the sub-continent! There should have been
more than hundred ideas which could save the Tea House and run it as a
financially viable business, if the intellectuals and men of letters had
cherished and inculcated an independent mind in their heads and a spark of
private initiative in their endeavors! Ah, the same had already been corrupted
by their dependence on government.
“The
demise of the Pak Tea House is symptomatic of the crisis of intellectual
independence and private initiative in Pakistan. The premises is still there,
existing with its symbolic glory, waiting for someone with entrepreneurial
spirit to make use of its huge potential, who would turn it once again into Pak
Tea House? Let’s see who reinvents and relives the Pak Tea House!”
All
through these years, no such private initiative emerged; and as has mostly been
the case in Pakistan, the initiative was left to be taken by the government.
Isn’t this a sign of Pakistani intelligentsia’s dependence on doles by the
government! The fact is that they have always been dependent on the government,
be it in the form of Writers Guild or be it Academy of Letters, or be it the
latest Revived Pak Tea House. These intellectuals must be asked how they are
going to assert their intellectual independence, then?
Also,
the lost initiative in the form of a PTH revived by the government funds is
tantamount to weakening the already frail Civil Society of Pakistan!
-----
Now
the Pakistan Muslim League (N) ruling party in the Punjab has renovated the Pak
Tea House, and it has been inaugurated by Nawaz Sharif himself.
Here
is the link to the coverage by The News:
Here
is the link to the coverage by The Express Tribune:
Coverage
by Roznama Express:
The News attempted a short history of the Pak Tea House also on this occasion. Link to A brief history:
Also,
once again has appeared another article, The end of Pak Tea House in The
Express Tribune (March 7) by Ayesha Siddiqa. She writes:
“I
wonder if we realise that the end of the Pak Tea House is not about closing
down of a shop. It is symbolic of closing down of a window to a rich legacy of
art and literature.”
-----
The
debate continues: how the state subjugates the civil society; how it corrupts
its intellect; how it tempts and how it bribes this intellect.
No
doubt, the Writers Guild and the Academy of Letters have contributed in
corrupting the men of letters and intellectuals in Pakistan!
Would the Nationalized Pak Tea House add to this corruption or not let’s wait to see!
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