August 16, 2006

The "i" in Pakistan

This year (as often is the case) I forgot the Pakistani Independance Day, August 14th. It celebrated 59 years and is now the 6th most populous country in the world.

I read a bit about the etymology or word origin of Pakistan and found the following:

The name "Pakistan" (IPA: /paːkɪst̪aːn/) means "Land of the Pure" in Urdu and Persian. It was coined in 1933 by Choudhary Rahmat Ali, who published it in the pamphlet Now or Never[5] as an acronym of the names of the "Muslim homelands" of western India — P for Punjab, A for Afghania (the Afghan areas in the Northwest Frontier Province), K for Kashmir, S for Sindh and tan for Balochistan. An "i" was later added to the English rendition of the name to ease pronunciation.

-Wikipedia

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I for India :d

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

lol! good one

Anonymous said...

:) glad to see anything about pakistan coming from you...

azadi mubarak!

Baraka said...

You forgot? Shocking!

;)

Jashn-e-azadi mubarik (belatedly) :)

iFaqeer said...

Actually, as I like to point out, at its foundation, Pakistan was the 6th largest nation in the world and the 2nd largest Muslim nation. Along the way, we lost half the country--yet today, again we're the 6th and the 2nd.

So the "now is..." really should have been "again is...", no?

iFaqeer said...

Actually, as I like to point out, at its foundation, Pakistan was the 6th largest nation in the world and the 2nd largest Muslim nation. Along the way, we lost half the country--yet today, again we're the 6th and the 2nd.

So the "now is..." really should have been "again is...", no?

Destitute Rebel said...

Interesting information, hadnt heard it before. lol adnan I for india.

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

I know baraka, shame on me... lol azadi mubarak to you as well!

ifaqeer, welcome! Well good point indeed. :)

D Reb, adnan is funny ain't he? lol

Anonymous said...

Actually i often here from Indians and their politicians about "United" India by saying that this land should be merged with India.Sahe he fine but why dont we go for reverse?that is, India gets
merged with Pakistan and become part of it?:d

nzm said...

adnan: so what you're saying is reverse the result of partition?

bloody hell - my mother's family wouldn't have had to leave India, and I mightn't have been born! lol

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

adnan, seems like you need to write a political manifesto!

nzm: are we pulling legs here or? You of indian descent? wouldn't that be fab!

nzm said...

SS: not of Indian descent, but my mother and grandmother were born in India. My mother speaks fluent Hindi, but of course she hasn't done so for a while, so she's a little rusty!

Mum and my aunties have wonderful stories about growing up in Calcutta, school in Darjeeling, and of their life in India. They were devastated when they had to leave after Independence.

Still, some good things came of it - my mother met my father in Fiji, and then I came along! lol.

I was practically brought up by my ayah in Fiji for the first 18 months of my life. I was a confused child - I didn't know whether I should speak hindi, fijian or english, so I didn't speak at all for the first 2 years of my life! Then, when my mother stayed home when she was pregnant with my brother, I began to speak English!

Boo! said...

D Rebel - are you serious that you never heard it before? I mean... did you not have to take Pakistan studies from the 6th grade till college or something?!??

The 6th most populous country is definitely news though. I always thought we were a little lower on that list! O well... I'd like to see population density of Pakistan and see whre we are on that list.

Boo! said...

and now for a bit of sectarianism... Punjab wins because we get to start the name of the country. All others are losers! hahahaa...

(can you tell i'm from punjab yet?)

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

NZM, and I thought I was mixed...well I have met my match or is it maker? lol How utterly fascinating. Well I am glad you started speaking again... lol

But hey, it would be great to have coffee (actually tea for me, perhaps darjeeling lol) sometime. Let us meet up on one of the travels around the world. I am sure our paths will cross some day.

Boo, I think D Reb is very serious. However he has just written a manifesto, so one never knows, he might even suggest a name change, no?

Well from an Arabic point of view, where P does not exist, all you are is B... lol majorly lame of me I know...

You? from Punjab? Nooooo...can't be..

Adnan Siddiqi said...

Shaira:I am happy to be remembered as an "IT guy" rather something else:D


@Boo:P wins due to "P" in pakistan.hehe pretty ironic but I dont disagree with you:>

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

an "it" or IT guy? lol big difference

Adnan Siddiqi said...

These days IT in caps is considered Information Technology.

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

Well I beg to differ :) These days, an IT guy or girl is not necesserily working with information technology, but could be, as is often mentioned in pop culture, someone with an IT-factor, as in the word "it".

Adnan Siddiqi said...

:).OK ok you won;D

but you reminded me something.When i started my career 5 years back.There was a guy in my dept named Irshad.acha he was very fond of girls,in a way that he liked to talk about them and stare office girls.So we named him "IT" that is "Irshad Tharkee".