Amrika Chalo

If the international press is to be believed, then Americans and Pakistanis have a toxic relationship. As a Pakistani living currently in America I have often found it difficult to reconcile this perception with the beauty and richness of both cultures and countries. At a personal level, connecting with people from other cultures is a greatly rewarding experience, which is what has often made me wonder – is the foreign policy of a country really reflective of its people? Does soft culture really matter and to what extent is it more powerful than politics?

This week in Washington DC reminded me in more ways than one of the importance of being able to connect with people across different cultures. Culture provides a basis for seeing the world and deciphering it. The troubling events unfolding in Paris this month have strikingly shown how it can divide people. In my mind, it can also do the reverse – uniting people in the most unexpected ways.

Recently, I found myself at a dinner party which was an impromptu high school reunion of old friends. The group included Syrian, Pakistani, American and French women and men. They regaled us with stories of high school exploits and crushes on beautiful elementary school teachers, of late night parties and long bonding car drives around the city listening to loud 80s music. Their common experience had been as students in an international high school in Pakistan during the 1980s.

This group was bound together by a set of experiences where Pakistan featured in the forefront. We often have vivid rose-tinted memories of our formative teenage years and this high school reunion was no different. Their anecdotes were peppered with references to Nazia and Zoheb Hasan’s music, school road trips to Nathiagali and their love for kebab rolls and local chai. Pakistan, they agreed, was their best posting (most were diplomat offspring who lived in several other countries). One American gentleman described how hard it had been to re-integrate into an American high school in Virginia after the wonderful years he had spent in Islamabad. For me it was poignant to see them describe their youth in Pakistan and how much love and nostalgia the country evoked. Living in Pakistan had transformed their image of it.

At an institutional level, this was reinforced by Georgetown University’s recent screening of “Amrika Chalo” a play showcased at their theatre. This brilliant satire of American-Pakistani relations was conceived and written by Ajoka’s talented founder, Shahid Nadeem.

The play was screened as part of the Myriad Voices program at Georgetown and designed to increase cross cultural awareness and understanding of Muslim societies through the performing arts. Cynthia Schneider, Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy and Co-Director of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics which hosted the performance, stated “Artists hold up a mirror to society and politics, and so provide different perspectives from the political and policy focus that dominates Washington. Artists challenge conventional thinking.”

Shahid Nadeem’s hilarious and satirical play really did challenge conventional thinking and stereotypes Pakistanis and Americans have of each other. Showcasing this play in Washington DC is a powerful symbol of open cultural exchange at a time when borders seem to be so difficult to bridge politically.

The screening was designed as a collaborative process, with actors from Ajoka’s troupe in Lahore working alongside dancers, actors and a production team from Washington DC. Even the role of the American ambassador was played by Ms Schneider, an ex-American ambassador to the Netherlands herself. As she wryly observed at the end of the play: public diplomacy and acting have a lot in common.

The play is set against the backdrop of the American visa application process in Pakistan. Those who have gone through the rigor of this process, this is usually no laughing matter. One has to remember each country visited in the last 5 years with specific dates and dig deep into family archives to remember birth dates and reveal political affiliations.

The series of characters applying for a visa in the opening comprise the voices who make up contemporary Pakistani society – a young female student, a jaded businessman, a corrupt politician, a young aspirational illegal immigrant, a puppeteer with two voices and finally a maulvi on a quest to convert people to his cause.

Satire is often cutting edge and culturally specific. In this case, the maulvi motivated by his dream to sell Islamic style square samosas in America is hilarious until one realises that this is based on a true story. Al Shabaab, a group in Somalia, had actually banned triangular samosas as being too reminiscent of the Christian trinity and promised punishment to locals who would continue to make these samosas. So much for the ancient Spice Route bridging cultures....

Likewise, the visa process is also shown to be completely random – lining up people by heights or the actual interview which is set like a musical boxing match between the applicant and the US Visa Officers. Raymond, the American security guard, takes extra pleasure and interest in patting down male applicants while the puppet is deftly used to voice critical comments about American foreign policy and its effects on Pakistanis. Though the visa quota is four people per day, by the end visas have been handed out to all the applicants as well as the Arab speaking terrorists who take over the Embassy.

The 90 minute play is a skillful portrayal of the love and hate that characterizes American and Pakistani relations but also comically lampoons both. It shows the pull of America beautifully in the qawalli  “Obama, Obama, bulao Amrika mujhe” (Obama, please call me to America). All the applicants, even the terrorists, are united in their desire to visit America and to experience it for themselves.

The Washington DC response to this screening was overwhelming. Both performances were sold out instantly and a third matinee was added in response to ticket sales. The local community opened their homes to the actors during their stay and others worked tirelessly to fundraise to showcase Ajoka’s brand of folk art and Pakistani theatre to an American audience. After the play, the actors were surrounded by an appreciative multicultural audience. Ironically, the mullah was an unexpected hit with women who thronged to have their photos taken with him.

Ajoka is not the only play about Muslim characters making waves in the US these days. “Disgraced”, by Ayad Akhtar won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2013. This play profiles a Pakistani American lawyer who tries to distance himself from his immigrant past, changing his surname from Abdullah to Kapoor and by declaring himself an apostate. He distances himself from his childhood identity to reinvent himself as a slick, fast-talking lawyer but with little success. As the story unfolds, others still regard him very much a symbol of Muslim intolerance though he himself does not. It’s a troubling insight into religion, politics and post 9-11 polarization. The play has received rave reviews and critical acclaim. Akhtar himself comments that “A play is a blue print, a workman’s plan drawn for a group of collaborating artists, and it must contain the seeds for inspiration, the insinuations of truth that will spur the actors and the director and the designers handily to tell the playwright’s chosen tale”.

Akhtar’s words resonated deeply with me as I walked through the rainy Georgetown University campus that night after seeing “Amrika Chalo”. We are all myriad voices and to reach a meaningful co existence, one must understand that differences and diversity can provide inspiration for creativity and understanding of cultural differences, rather than driving us apart.