LIFE ( CHE AND KHAN)

Che and Khan 

By: Nasser Yousaf 

Khan Bhai selling some kind of a glitzy piece of cloth wrapped in plastic bags for fifty rupees each in his van on a busy road in Abbottabad knows nothing about Che Guevara other than the latter's gender from his visage. Khan from Khost in Afghanistan and living in Pakistan as a refugee sells his products as a roving salesman. He is unlettered, and perhaps has never heard of what a revolution might mean, ironically not even after what his motherland has been through. But in another sense he could be the harbinger of a revolution, no matter howsoever fraudulent it might be, by selling both stitched and unstitched pieces of cloth for a mere farthing at a time when people in Pakistan are finding it difficult to buy very basic vegetables due to a spiralling inflation. Here, we see his van parked in front of an auto decoration shop. Apparently, after a bumper sale, he was tempted to profusely decorate his van with a variety of stickers including that of the Argentinian doctor turned rebel. His facial topography exploded into a broad grin when asked if he knew whose visage the sticker carried.