Something about my country of Origin, Pakistan
Pakistan (means The Land of Pure in central Asian/Persian language) is a country mainly consisting of central Asian people (known as indo-Aryan from region belonging to former soviet union) mixed with some 10% Indian indigenous people (some European studies state only 2-5% are indigenous people in Pakistan, the rest are indo-Aryan). The country was formed by immigrants as far as from Europe (i.e. kalasha tribes from Greece) to Turkish (i.e. northern Pakistan), to Russian (throughout in pockets) to Arabs (i.e. southern Punjab, Sindh etc) and some earlier indigenous people. As a result Pakistanis can look like Arabs, Chinese, Indians, and European just as easily and often. Pakistan has no racially well defined structure.
The racial origin of Pakistan, namely the central Asia comprises parts of Russia, and countries such as Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, basically all the countries with suffix "stan" much like as in Pakistan.
The region of central Asia does NOT include India. Northern India mainly their Punjab state, and the occupied Kashmir are the only people ethnically close to Pakistanis. The rest of India is racially, linguistically and culturally distinct. While its true that modern Pakistan absorbed around 7 million Indian and 2 million Bengalis (from Bangladesh), which many foreigners mistakenly assume to be ethnic Pakistanis.
Remarkably Pakistanis have their own views about their racial origin regardless to what researcher claims.
The ethnic Pakistanis consists of central Asian tribes. While European anthropologists in their studies classify Pakistan solely as indo-European (a distant cousins of Europeans themselves), most Pakistani families/tribes see their racial connection somewhere in middle east and NO WHERE ELSE. So its not uncommon (including in my own) for many Pakistani (and Afghani) family trees beginning from middle east particularly Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Pakistanis even see national dress originating form parts of Middle East (called Kurdistan).
Researchers usually dismiss such claims often stating that due to religious reasons and sense of holiness associated with Saudi Arabia, many Pakistani see their racial connection to Saudi Arabia. Studies including done after human genome project (by Belgium and turkey etc) dismiss this and continue to classify Pakistanis as indo-Aryan. However, despite these so called DNA and linguistic studies, for an outsider it is good and perhaps respectful to allow Pakistanis see themselves as related to Saudi Arabians and some way to Arab holy lands. In fact it can be extremely offensive for many Pakistani families (such as seyads) if they are not considered belonging to Middle East. Most Pakistani families including my own family (Awans) do not see themselves as central asians at all, despite occasional presence of sandy hairs and blue eyes in family members as well as having facial anatomy more resembling some parts of central Asia.
Same is true for Afghanistan where most tribes see themselves (despite what researchers say) as descendant of Saudi tribes.
I am belong to a group of tribes (known as Malik or Awans) which migrated to Pakistan from Tajikistan around 700 years ago (like most Pakistanis I am therefore central Asian). We entered with an invading central Asian army (as usual invading India) and initially settled down in central Punjab known as Sargodha.
Pakistan is an emotional and a warrior nation by nature (as central Asian were), extremely sensitive to its independence and freedom. Due to absence of any common racial origin, Pakistan is really is a mix of peoples of 50 languages mostly of central Asian origin (i.e. Punjabis, pashtuns etc). As a result Pakistan is remarkably diverse in thought, customs, and in people. That is what makes Pakistan really special. Its was the first nation in the world which was formed based on an ideology (and not race etc.) and united to form a country from extremely diverse groups of people. (Israel was the second nation formed on such lines).
Modern pakistanis are consist of three kinds of people. Urban, which are highly sophisticated, educated, with western like life style in many ways. Country side, with kind of cowboys like attitude, where GOD, GUN and GIRL (i.e. 3G driven) matter, along with farming. Tribal people, which are energetic and remain extremely traditional, with highly warrior like nature.
More on Pakistan's culture, music, and other aspects will be uploaded soon.
My childhood Photograph below:
My another childhood Photograph shown below:
below: My more recent Picture (age 28) .
I am a very kind person, its just I woke up in the middle of night.
below: My Mother and Younger sister ( I have 5 sisters) .
Below On right side in blue suite My uncle (mother side)
with his one Pakistani (man in the centre)
and two Korean co-workers.
Below: In Pakistan, my sister singing a song in her school in
traditional pakistani dresses.
Below: Me as a Baby.
Below: Me in Pakistan (the middle big boy), just before moving to australia
with my little friends.
Below: Uncle (from Father side) with grandmother and cousines.
below: My cousines (mother side).
The three tall ones, have remarkably unique green eyes (not visible), I have nevers seen elsewhere.
Below Sister with her friends (she is a doctor)
below:The youngest most sisters when little (going to be a doctor).
Below: Sister with cousine.
Below: cousine.
click: For one of these pictures in PDF format