Identity crisis - how do we fix this?

[Indus Pakistan]

So my family have come back from holiday in Rome, Italy. I could not go because of some business demands. In Rome after few days they yearned for Pakistani food. So they found a nice place which served good, simple Pakistani food. The restaurent owner was incredibly nice and gave personal service once he found out they were of Pakistani origin. So no complaints there.

The guy was about mid 40s and had migrated from Eminabad, Pakistan about 5 years before. So he had done good for himself. From nothing he had worked hard and now ran a small restaurent eve if the inside decor was gaudy and heap. The food though was good.

To recap this he was over the moon to see fellow Pakistanis even if they were from UK. He asked them where they were from in Pakistan etc. Being in his mid 40s he was born at least 25 years after Pakistan became independant from British rule. To sum up he was a full product of Pakistan and had only left as migrant 5 years before. He had never been anywhere else then his native Pakistan and Italy. Below is his card for his restaurent.

Notice he has decided to brand and sell his restaurent as "Indian" and just as after thought added "Pakistan". No Indian ever on mother earth would add "Pakistan" on anything. Yet a 'pucca' Pakistani is branding himself as Indian. This is sad and tragic. Pakistan now is a elderly country and one of senior members at UN. Most UN countries came about in 1950s, 1060s, 1970s. UAE is from 1970s. Singapore is from 1960s. Yet after 70 years this guy has a weak sense of identity or conflicted indentity that he needs to prefix his identity with "Indian". This exposes something terrible and deep malaise in the very notion of being Pakistan and identity as a nation.

Is there any hope for us out of this befuddled idea off who we are?

 

[Goenitz]

bhai same story for Pakistani (pachistani) restaurants in italy... italian/arab when called me indiano (al-hind), i seldom corrected them bcz my italan was weak to explain them....

 

[SQ8]

Simple reason is branding. Identity isnt part of this issue. Like it or not, to most in the target market Pakistan is this guy

India is this

Who would you rather have food from?

In addition, Indians carry their hatred of Pakistan with them.. so if he labels Pakistani he also loses that section of the market which is fairly large.
So you are misreading a lack of self respect and being able to justify business with background versus actual identity crisis.

Pakistanis overseas are vehemently “patriotic” leaving aside the extremist homegrown UK crowd of ISIS and Hizb ut tahrir sympathizers.
But when it comes to making money, they are ok with bending over and kissing the floor.

 

[BHarwana]

I think he is branding food as Indiano Pakistani and not himself.

This could be the second migration of his family first from India and then from Pakistan to Italy. He might have branded it so because of food origins.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Simple reason is branding. Identity isnt part of this issue. Like it or not, to most in the target market Pakistan is this guy

You summed the cause of this malaise in one meme. However I must add there is a identity crisis also playing out because this problem pre dates the extremism issue which only began to gain wide perception post 2000 but the branding problem I felt it back in 1980s when I was a young man.

 

[Imad.Khan]

So my family have come back from holiday in Rome, Italy. I could not go because of some business demands. In Rome after few days they yearned for Pakistani food. So they found a nice place which served good, simple Pakistani food. The restaurent owner was incredibly nice and gave personal service once he found out they were of Pakistani origin. So no complaints there.

The guy was about mid 40s and had migrated from Eminabad, Pakistan about 5 years before. So he had done good for himself. From nothing he had worked hard and now ran a small restaurent eve if the inside decor was gaudy and heap. The food though was good.

To recap this he was over the moon to see fellow Pakistanis even if they were from UK. He asked them where they were from in Pakistan etc. Being in his mid 40s he was born at least 25 years after Pakistan became independant from British rule. To sum up he was a full product of Pakistan and had only left as migrant 5 years before. He had never been anywhere else then his native Pakistan and Italy. Below is his card for his restaurent.

Notice he has decided to brand and sell his restaurent as "Indian" and just as after thought added "Pakistan". No Indian ever on mother earth would add "Pakistan" on anything. Yet a 'pucca' Pakistani is branding himself as Indian. This is sad and tragic. Pakistan now is a elderly country and one of senior members at UN. Most UN countries came about in 1950s, 1060s, 1970s. UAE is from 1970s. Singapore is from 1960s. Yet after 70 years this guy has a weak sense of identity or conflicted indentity that he needs to prefix his identity with "Indian". This exposes something terrible and deep malaise in the very notion of being Pakistan and identity as a nation.

Is there any hope for us out of this befuddled idea off who we are?

I once asked a restaurant owner the same thing and he said that its a marketing strategy to get more customers. Remember there are over a billion Indians and you find them around the world and people have an understanding what kind of food to expect as its so similar.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

I think he is branding food as Indiano Pakistani and not himself.

That is his business. No Indian owns or is co-owner. And while he might have been originally from India which I doubt as he was from Eminabad but this "Indian" tag is used everywhere by Pakistanis even in UK. In fact where I live there are almost no Indians but most busineses are tagged "Indian" but the owners are Pakistani. Very few establishments sell themselves as Pakistani. Other contrived synonyms are used but 'Pakistan' is generally avoided like as if it was a dirty word. Things like 'Indian,Desi, Apna, Asian, Muslim' are the rage.

 

[HannibalBarca]

For most Foreigners a SOuth Korean is a Chinese... a Japanese is a Chinese...Whatever In that part of the World is Chinese...
Same for the Sub-Continent... whoever come from that region...is Indian...

For Lambda Foreigners...Saying Pakistani cuisine it's equal to "Nothing"...While saying India...they will think about all those exotic/spicy dishes...

You have to get to the level of those who feed you...

 

[Corona]

My Italian is rusty (read non existent) but it seems the card refers to the type of cuisine available rather than where the owner is from.
Maybe his shops sells Indian cuisine as well or some dishes that are common to both countries.

 

[Khan_21]

So my family have come back from holiday in Rome, Italy. I could not go because of some business demands. In Rome after few days they yearned for Pakistani food. So they found a nice place which served good, simple Pakistani food. The restaurent owner was incredibly nice and gave personal service once he found out they were of Pakistani origin. So no complaints there.

The guy was about mid 40s and had migrated from Eminabad, Pakistan about 5 years before. So he had done good for himself. From nothing he had worked hard and now ran a small restaurent eve if the inside decor was gaudy and heap. The food though was good.

To recap this he was over the moon to see fellow Pakistanis even if they were from UK. He asked them where they were from in Pakistan etc. Being in his mid 40s he was born at least 25 years after Pakistan became independant from British rule. To sum up he was a full product of Pakistan and had only left as migrant 5 years before. He had never been anywhere else then his native Pakistan and Italy. Below is his card for his restaurent.

Notice he has decided to brand and sell his restaurent as "Indian" and just as after thought added "Pakistan". No Indian ever on mother earth would add "Pakistan" on anything. Yet a 'pucca' Pakistani is branding himself as Indian. This is sad and tragic. Pakistan now is a elderly country and one of senior members at UN. Most UN countries came about in 1950s, 1060s, 1970s. UAE is from 1970s. Singapore is from 1960s. Yet after 70 years this guy has a weak sense of identity or conflicted indentity that he needs to prefix his identity with "Indian". This exposes something terrible and deep malaise in the very notion of being Pakistan and identity as a nation.

Is there any hope for us out of this befuddled idea off who we are?

Not all Pakistani's exhibit this. For example, Pashtun's have an extremely strong sense of identity about themselves. They know their history/background they came from and are generally extremely proud of their roots. Some sections of Punjabi's do show identity crisis in a sense that they would start associating with Arabs and Turks and generally donot prefer to identify with Punjabi culture as much as A Pashtun would which results in him getting confused about himself.

Also, he might be doing this for the money to bring in Indians because there are 1.5 Billion of them.

 

[Corona]

Alternatively, since his restaurant is called 'Himalaya's Kashmir', is this his attempt at portraying a reunified Kashmir's cuisine as a blend of Indian and Pakistani styles...cause you know....we have half and you have the other half

 

[BHarwana]

That is his business. No Indian owns or is co-owner. And while he might have been originally from India which I doubt as he was from Eminabad but this "Indian" tag is used everywhere by Pakistanis even in UK. In fact where I live there are almost no Indians but most busineses are tagged "Indian" but the owners are Pakistani. Very few establishments sell themselves as Pakistani. Other contrived synonyms are used but 'Pakistan' is generally avoided like as if it was a dirty word. Things like 'Indian,Desi, Apna, Asian, Muslim' are the rage.

I cannot deny your mentioned problem. Yes that is valid but many such cases can appear in restaurant business. Like in Pakistan my friend owns a good Chinese restaurant now there a receptionist is from Philippines and the cooks and rest of the staff are all local Pakistanis. It us just to give it an authentic look. A marketing thing

 

[AUz]

Lol, it's just marketing.

Ask that guy if he considers himself indian...he'll puke.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Is this important? Yes very much so. Why? Well think about it this way. Think of a ledger account with positive and negative.

• Positive - all things that instil or give a positive image/perception to Pakistan. The aggregate of this is called "soft power"
• Negative - all things that give or create a negative image/perception of Pakistan.

All countries have both. UK has teenage pregancies, drugs, drink problem, domestic violence, chavs but all that is eclipsed by queen, royalty, British history, London, British education and administrative excellence etc etc. What I mean is it is terribly important for any country to create as much positive narrative or image as possible and try to reduce the negatives as much as possible.

Pakistans tragedy is the negative list is filled up with terrorism, misogyny, extremism, poverty, chaos but as far as postive attributes there is nothing. Zilch. Zero. Because our people do not sell any attributes as under the tag 'Pakistan'. And if we keep using 'India' or other synonyms we will never get of this vicious cycle in a 100 years.

If a bomb went off I would rather tag that as 'Asian terrorist' but a restaurent as 'Pakistani'. Not the other way around.

 

[lastofthepatriots]

Some Pakistani places like this exist in NYC, but a lot of them don't. Funny story, I once went to a taco place being run by Chinese people.