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Introduction, History & Activities: For official PANA website, please visit www.panareunion.com. Founded in 2003, the Petarian Association of North America or PANA is the
official representative body of Petarians living in the USA and Canada. It started out with the first gathering of Petarian families at Niagara Falls in the summer of 2003 upon the invitation of Adnan
Karim Qureshi 8326/L. PANA stands for creating and promoting brotherhood between Petarians living in North America and joining them under one umbrella so that they can network, communicate, enjoy each other’s brotherly love with respect for elders and care for youngsters, and provide and receive assistance whenever needed. PANA also stands to support the Alma Mater, Cadet College Petaro, according to our abilities. PANA also stands to support and provide assistance to any Petarian in need within North America or elsewhere in world according to its abilities and resources. All Petarians living in North America can become members of PANA without paying any fees or dues. Petarians on student or training visa can also become members. PANATalk Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/panatalk/) is the official online tool for connecting PANA members. PANA holds its annual reunion on the last Saturday of the month of June each year. Of the more than 450 Petarians living in North America, so far around 150 have become members of PANA. Seven annual reunions have successfully been arranged so far. The first six were in the beautiful city of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada while the seventh one was held in the vicinity of Washington DC in Maryland. Regional reunions are being held in other cities. PANA has also been helping other Petarians through various means and guidance in trying to help them settle in Canada or the USA. A new website www.panareunion.com has been set up for PANA activities. The site gives details of activities and photographs of recent get togethers. PANA is headed by the "Chief Coordinator", who has been chosen through mutual consent over the PANATalk group or at the annual reunions. The following Petarians have held the position of Chief Coordinator over the years:
Other Petarians have played a significant role in organizing the functions in North America. PANA Reunion 2010 - Mississauga, ON, Canada by Ishrat Hasan, 7110/Latif There could have been no better place for an informal gathering of Petarians than the beautiful Erindale Park in Mississauga. The park is a small valley in the middle of the city with beautiful huge grassy playgrounds and the Credit River flowing through the valley. After a long search and many weekends of driving through Mississauga and adjacent cities, the reunion organizing team selected this location last year. A place like this has to be booked at least six to eight months in advance. On the day of the reunion, the organizing team members were there by 9:00 AM to make arrangements, decorations and layout. The tables were covered with Petaro flag colours of red and two shades of blue. The banners, flags of Petaro, Pakistan and Canada added colour to the place. The guests started arriving on dot at 10:30. Aftab Ali Baloch(8511/Iqbal), Shaharyar Jami Ansari (7111/Iqbal) and Abdul Rauf Chaudhry Bhai (6974/Liaquat) were amongst the first guests to arrive. By around 11:30 most of the guests were there. They were served with the warm welcome of Petarians and hot Tim Hortons coffee. Tim Hortons is the symbolic brand name for coffee in Canada same as Starbucks in US or Pathan ki Doodh Patti in Pakistan. As the Petarians and their families kept coming in, the enthusiasm of Petarians kept going up. Meeting old friends after a long time or giving face to a name on the talk group meant a lot for all. One word kept coming up from everywhere and that was Bhaijan. This word means everything in the Petarian spirit of respect for elders, love for youngsters and brotherhood for all. We were fortunate that Sir Iqbal Haider, Physics teacher in Petaro from 1962 to 1968 joined us in the reunion. He is now retired and lives in Cambridge, a small city about 50km from Mississauga. Although he was in Petaro for only 6 years and left 42 years ago, he still had Petaro so dear to his heart that he accepted the invitation to be there. Our original program was to have some sports events in the morning pre-lunch session and stress out the bulging bellies of Petarians. Cricket bat and soccer ball could not come out of the covers due to heavy down pour and everyone stayed under the shed. As we can say that "Barish nay sharam rakh lee" but it also provided extra time to the Petarians to talk, network and recall the good old times. I will not do justice to this report by not mentioning the ladies, who were equally active and participating. After seeing each other in last 7 reunions, most of them know each other very well and had a lot to catch up since they last met. However, the rain was not able to restrict the children in the shed. The beautiful grassy field was inviting enough for the children to go out and play soccer, cricket or simply run in the rain and get soaking wet. After zuhr prayers the lunch was served at around 2:00 PM. It was already a little late and the stomach was crying for food. A Petarian Syed Sajid Hashmi (69122/Qasim) is the Sales Director in a popular Pizza chain and Hashmi Bhai has been sponsoring pizza for the Petarians since we started these gathering. Warm and tasty pizza was served to the children. The food was catered through a locally famous Pakistani chef and was simply excellent. The pulao, quorma, chicken roast, veggie curry and other side dishes were very delicious. No complaints were heard from anyone; in fact quite a few appreciated the food, the taste, the quantity and variety and above all the setting. Lunch was followed by tasty baklava from Michigan, kheer and cake. The cake was to celebrate the 24th wedding anniversary of Shoaib Alam (N-55/Iqbal) and his wife Shehla which falls on 26th June. We started the formal part of the occasion after lunch with tilawat of Surah Ma’un and translation by Abbas, son of Rauf Chaudhry Bhai (6974/Liaquat). In the words of welcome, on behalf of the organizing committee I thanked all the Petarians who attended. Special thanks to those who came from places like Tennessee, Dallas, Atlanta, Wisconsin, Maryland, To extend the message to all Petarians, the surah reminds us to remember the day of judgment, treat the orphans with love, urge to feed the poor, remember the prayers and not to withhold the necessities of life. In order to act on the message of the holy book we need an organized effort and a platform. Petarian forums provide us that platform and our collective efforts to help the victim of natural calamities or to help individual Petarians or otherwise is following the teachings of Quran. May Allah bless those who step forward to actively support those in need. All Petarians introduced themselves and their families. It was a relaxed and fun-filled activity. Interesting remarks were heard from many as the introductions went on and everyone enjoyed the comments. We had a large number of prizes that were given out through lucky draw. There were 6 boxed prizes for Petarians, 8 bags of 10 lbs rice sponsored by Falak rice, 4 special prizes for the Petarian wives, pizza coupons and gift bags for all the children. Thanks to the Petarian Association in Karachi, who arranged and sent polo shirts for the participants with Petaro logo. Certificates of recognition and thanks were given out to Ilyas Dhami Bhai 217/Latif for being the senior most Petarian in the gathering, Kashif Khan of 9998/Liaquat being the junior most and Rifaquat Cheema Bhai (722/Liaquat) for attending all eight reunions so far. In the closing comments, Abrar Mani (7181/Ayub) thanked the participants, read a letter of invitation from Shahid Mian Bhai (666/Iqbal) who will be the host for the reunion in 2011 to be held in Minnesota on Saturday Jun 25. Rifaquat Bhai (722/Liaquat) spoke on behalf of Shahid Bhai endorsing the 2011 offer. Abrar thanked his team for making the event successful. We ended the formal part of the day with a group picture at the end. Some Petarians left at that point while others stayed back to continue more gup shup. It was a simple ceremony, no formalities and equal participation from all. The smiles on the face of the Petarians, the relaxed and ever chatting ladies and above all happy mood of children was the take away from another memorable event of PANA. The efforts of the organizing team was commendable. Special thanks to the following who spared their time to attend several meetings on the weekends to plan the event, Fahed (7942/Qasim) who travelled almost 100 kms to Mississauga many times to attend these meeting and Abrar's wife who cooked delicious breakfast for the committee meeting attendees.
In total 47 Petarians attended, with house wise distribution of
Batch wise distribution was,
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PANA Reunion 2009 - Gaithersburg, MD, USA
PANA 2009 - Meeting for a Purpose by Shabieh H. Zaidi, 7102/Liaquat In Persian there is a saying: aamadam, nashistam, khordam, barkhastam! (They came, they sat, they ate, they dispersed). And so, under the garb of reunions, we continued meeting and greeting for years; sometimes in small groups and at others times under a banner of loosely tied organizations that mimicked an alumni organization. Those of us who have chosen to make this side of Atlantic our home, each year getting together has become a ritual akin to a pilgrimage. Those who travel, undertake air and road journeys that take them across many states, while the ones who play host plan the event for months and invest substantial times, talent and treasure to make these reunions a reality. After years of letting the Canadians play host, this year Petarians from the Capital area and Northeast organized the 7th Annual PANA Reunion in Maryland on Saturday, June 27th, 2009. The day included two separate events; one was the traditional Picnic at the Seneca State Park and the second was a Dinner and Musical evening at the Damascus Community Center. The day started a day earlier with out of state Petarians flying in on Friday. This meant a great deal of coordination and hospitality by the host families. Early morning on Saturday, an advance team arrived a the site to set up a sound system, display flags and banners, lay out the table covers and prepare for the event. I arrived ahead of most others but shortly after all the work had already been completed, however making certain that tea was still hot and bagels were still in the bags…Nadeem Sahibzada’s (7851/LF) son recited a selection from Sura-e Zaariaat which was followed by yours truly welcoming everyone to their own event. We were fortunate to have Petarians from many states, including overseas participants. Some of the senior most Petarians included brothers Hameed Anwar Arain 12/L, Anwar Memon 48/LF and Capt. Bashir Vistro 50/A. Abdul Aziz Bhai 6922/LF represented PASA, while the contingent from Canada was led by Ishrat Hasan 7110/LF. The group was addressed by
Naeem Saroya
Bhai 504/L who emphasized the need to define our mission and purpose. He built
upon the ground prepared by me, for us to think global and act local and for
us to seek out a better articulated role for our organization. This was
followed by distribution of certificates among senior Petarians (given away
by Affan Syed 95142/LF, being the youngest Petarian present).
Bashir Vistro
Bhai 50/A took this
opportunity to tell us about the history of Petaro briefly and reminding
everyone of the contribution of Nizamani Saheb who was then the Director of
Education for Sindh in his role as the catalyst behind the formation of CCP.
Ishrat Hassan 7110/LF then accepted the Chief Coordinator- After that we paused for a group photo before being treated to a wonderful lunch. Later in the afternoon Falak Sher 7393/I and Samir Shah 79140/Q organized games and activities for children which were a great success. The evening venue was wonderful but we started fairly late since guests had to go home and change before showing up in suits and evening dresses. Almost everyone donned the neck ties that were brought back from Petaro by Ishrat Azizur Rehman (7144/L). Recitation of the Sura-e Aala was performed by Ali Abdullah (son of Naeem Saroya Bhai 504/L) and numerous awards were given out to recognize members of the organizing committee for their efforts. This was followed by a presentation given by Rifaquat Cheema Bhai 722/L who advanced some concrete recommendations for PANA to consider as it moves ahead. Some of the ones I remember very clearly were to keep it free of petty politics, make sure it remains a fun group, and build it so as to become an extension of TPA. He wanted us to prevent PANA becoming the flagship for every good cause under the sun. He suggested that PANA create a small sub group to consider these recommendations and follow up on the implementation. This was followed by a video compilation created by Affan Syed 95142/LF. It helped create a visual image for the many non Petarians (like our families) for the place we love and brought tears to our eyes as it carried photos of some friends who are no longer with us. Shaharyar Jami Ansari (7111/IQ) attended the function in the uniform of Canadian Navy where he now works. He took this opportunity of acknowledge his mother’s contribution toward his success and stressed on the next generation to honor parents for their role in our life. Hameed Anwar Bhai 12/L introduced two charitable causes and invited everyone to participate in this good cause. During the entire evening, we paused and recognized various individuals, including members of the organizing committee. Rifaquat Cheema Bhai 722/L informed us that Commodore Aslam Rana (7179/J) had sent his best wishes and apologized that he could not come owing to visa formalities taking more time than anticipated. However, he sent a plaque that was presented of the organizers on his behalf. A tradition of Sindh was revived with the presentation of an ajrak and topi to Bashir Vistro Bhai 50/A as well. Besides presentation of awards to the winners among Petarian children, we also got an opportunity to hear the perspective of a Petarian spouse when Naeem Saroya Bhai’s 504/L wife took moment to praise her husband. A sumptuous dinner followed the program and although we started a little wait, it was all worth the wait. The evening ended with some great music and songs by Rimi Basu but the place really rocked once Mansoor Qureshi 89132/Q, Bhibs 7837/J, Faraz 8798/L, Affan 95142/LF and many others joined her on the floor in dance and song… But like all good things, the day came to an end, with an announcement requesting folks to take whatever food they could with them! Photos of the event are already on the web, with more expected from Khursheed Khan Bhai N-26/Q. And I end this rather long monolog with a simple comment – It sure was a memorable day! PS: The event could not not have been
possible without some major work by a whole lot of folks who were recognized
during the event...I have therefore left out that
part intentionally. PANA 2009 - The Petarian Reunion Saturday: By Wasif Malik, 7402/L Finally the big day arrived, that was to be the exciting zenith of this vacation trip. The program was to start at 11 am. Adil 7993/Ayub had promised breakfast for anyone showing up earlier. I got to the Seneca state park around 8:30 am, while my family was still fast asleep. As promised, Adil and more importantly the breakfast were present with hot coffee. Slowly the great volunteers of the managing committee started to show up. The natural setting was lovely with the pavilion surrounded by huge trees all around and not permitting any of the hot sunlight. I grabbed a cup of coffee and walked amongst the thick forest for few minutes, while trying to muster my energy and senses. Some of the sun rays were filtering down through the leaves and kept the place well lit. The dew drops on the leaves shone like little crystals. We all went to work. Banners were nailed to the walls. Tables were re-aligned. Podium was set. The rental vendors started arriving and setting up their facilities. There was a cotton candy machine, kids moon bounce and a fresh pop corn machine for the kids. Many single Petarians were arriving to do the work. Wasim Khan 84147/Latif from Dallas showed up soon. By the way, congratulations to Wasim who flew to London to watch the T20 final live at the Lords. The highlight of the morning was to meet Syed Aziz bhai 6922/Latif for the first time. For years and years we have been communicating on the forum, but this was the first live meeting. Syed Bhai’s magic continued literally in the afternoon, as he captured the undivided attention of all children by presenting a magic show. It was a real pleasure to meet this gentleman. The Petarian youngsters including Affan 95142/Latif, Faraz 8798/Liaquat, Kamal 88125/Ayub were having fun while working hard. Soon it was 11 am and people started to show up. I had to get back to the hotel to bring my family to the venue. When I got back, Shabieh Zaidi bhai 7102/Liaquat was performing his favorite act. You guessed it right, he was hogging the microphone but that is alright with me. As always it is a pleasure to listen to him speak. I will spare all the details of the program as you have already seen it in the write-up by Zaidi bhai. The senior most Petarian, Hameed Anwar bhai 12/Liaquat took the mike and switched to Urdu to everyone’s delight. When he joined Petaro in the first batch in 1957, his monthly fee was Rs. 150 and his father earned Rs. 450 and was unable to pay his fee while supporting a family of 11. Nizamani Saheb realized the potential of Hameed Bhai and offered him scholarship after hearing about his financial difficulties. Hameed Bhai’s speech was funny and witty with some serious moments. He was from a remote village (Tando Bago) of Sindh who had never dressed Teddy (western pants/shirts) in his life, neither he possessed any before he got to Petaro. He had to borrow his elder bother’s pants and used the college tie to hold it in place. This highlighted Petaro’s significant contribution to polish the hidden and raw talent of Sindh and produce leaders in every echelon of life. People who had never dressed teddy or watched a movie in a theater, were prepared to graduate the college and become world leaders. The speeches and presentations were followed up by lunch with dessert and hot chai. The atmosphere was totally festive. So many Petarians were present meeting each other either the first time or after 10, 20, 30 years etc. But neither the time span nor the unfamiliarity mattered in establishing the instantaneous Petarian connection. So many friends and brothers were present that it was hard to find time to talk to everyone. The sound of laughter, slogans, and warm emotions filled up the air of the Seneca State park. Falak Sher bhai 7393/Iqbal gathered all the children and organized games among them. The names of all winners and runners up were noted for a prize distribution during the dinner banquet. Soon it was time to leave because everyone had to get back for the dinner banquet around 6 pm. It got quite hectic as everyone had to rush back to their residence or hotel, freshen up, get dressed and be back to the venue for the dinner banquet. This time we had to drive to the city of Damascus (sounds quite exotic), Maryland. The stage was set for another memorable evening. All of the Petarians were smartly dressed with the Petarian ties which gave a formal color to the setting. Shaharyar Jami bhai 7111/Iqbal was the surprise package of the evening when he showed up in his Canadian Navy uniform. He is a serving lieutenant in the Canadian Navy after having retired from the Pakistan Navy. He looked very sharp besides being funny and witty as always. A true Officer and a Gentleman. Cheema bhai 722/Liaquat presented a slide show with his vision for the Petarian Alumni association. I whole heartedly agree that it must be a fun organization, and then build up once the fun starts. For me the highlight presentation was done by the youngest Petarian present, i.e., Affan Syed 95142/Latif. I have become his fan now. In a short span of time, he had to develop a presentation on Petaro. He had collected memorable pictures of teachers, sites, occasions, landmarks and the martyrs of Petaro. The presentation was professional with great music selection and editing. The starting sequence with the pipe playing in the background, was mesmerizing and any Bollywood producer would be proud to produce this presentation. If someone has not seen it yet, please check it out at the Youtube. When I watched, I had a lump in my throat by the time it was done. Many others felt the same too. Affan, I recommend to quit your job, go to Bollywood, and become a movie director. There is much nicer material to work with, if you know what I mean. Adil and Raheel can only fantasize about Katrina, but you might end up some day as her director. Remember that when you become the director, please hire me as your agent. For both lunch and dinner we had delicious food, dessert, cake and hot chai etc. The menus were carefully selected. There was food for everyone’s taste, even Bhibs 7837/Jinnah. Adil had arranged for a small musical program with a singer/DJ. I have a feeling that Adil did not select the singer because of her singing prowess. Still she was not bad after receiving some moral support from fellow Petarians like Bhibs 7837/Jinnah and Mansoor Qureshi 89132/Qasim. The best was yet to come. This was the first time in a long time that we saw Petarians dishing out their dancing moves. Everyone got to the floor as ordered by Naeem Saroya bhai 504/Liaquat. These people have some serious moves be it disco style or bhangra. Most of us let our guards down and let it all hang out on the floor. We made trains, we made circles with someone performing in the center, and we pulled out all the tricks in the books. This was a first in any of the reunions I have witnessed in North America. I have a warning for everyone. I have access to secret video taping of this event which will soon be posted to Youtube. If you wish to be excluded, send me a message with a small contribution in US currency. Too bad, the evening came to a screeching halt at 11 pm, since we had to cleanup the hall and vacate it by 12 pm to comply with the contract/city requirements. In Damascus they don’t like to party late night. The party had to be stopped pre-maturely just when the real fun had begun and the cleanup operation started that included folding all tables, pickup/dispose all trash, rack up the chair, sweep and mop up the floor. Everyone pitched in and the hall was ready within the hour, spotless and shining. The Petarian teamwork was demonstrated. Gradually everyone started to leave with goodbyes, hugs, and promises to meet next year. There just was not enough time to talk to everyone, spend time with everyone, as I would have liked. It was over very quickly. Of course time flies when you have fun. As the poet said, Maheenay wasl kay ghariyoun ki soorat urhtay jaatey hai.n. Inevitably, we all had to grudgingly leave with a little emptiness but a lot of fulfillment. As an after thought, all of my initial apprehensions about involving my family proved to be baseless. I believe they had almost as much fun and fulfillment as I did. They got to experience first hand what petarianism and Petarian brotherhood is all about. They noticed that wherever we went, everyday a Petarian came to take care of us in any city. They realized that we could drop at any Petarians house on a moment’s notice and expect to be well received. They saw Petarians who never met each other in their life talk to each other as best friends on their first meeting with perfect chemistry. That the Petarian bond is independent of the age difference, time of separation and geographical spans. They understand now that Petaro is the only high school in Pakistan, whose former students have an annual get together in 3-4 foreign countries and people travel long distance to participate in those programs. In spite of all this I would still not take undue liberty with my laptop. I must maintain the right balance for my own well being. To keep things interesting, there was another rendezvous of about 10 Petarians in a hotel lobby where we were entertained by Atif Tanvir 78121/Liaquat. That was a hard core petarvi mehfil with loud laughter causing many heads to be raised in the hotel lobby. Finally I went to bed late at 4 am. The room was dark reminding me of the underground caverns with the absolute darkness. There was no sound neither an interruption like a cell phone, TV or ipod. There was just the sound of my introspection. Sometimes you need the darkness to see the light and the silence to hear the truth. I remembered the time tested saying, ‘the birds of same feather flock together’. After we leave Petaro, we are mostly separated from the other Petarians and get busy trying to establish our careers and future lives. Many of us move out to other countries in search of a better life. But deep inside there is always this yearning to flock again with our kind of birds. Just like the salmon who always returns to its birth place, our soul keeps looking for the lost home. Every once a while, when such opportunity presents itself, we achieve true satisfaction out of it. Before I finally went to sleep I started humming the theme song of the TV soap Cheers. Some times you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they are all glad that you came. Some times you wanna go where everyone ……….(loud snore). Good Night. Turn off the lights and listen to the silence. PANA Reunion 2008 - Niagara Falls, ON, Canada By Adnan Qureshi, 8326/L Yet one more successful reunion of North
American Petarians was held in Niagara Falls on 12 July
2008. Around 25 Petarians attended the colorful event along with
their families and friends. The day started by chit chatting and meeting /
greeting followed by a formal introduction by Petarians themselves. As
always Petarians flew and drove from all over to attend this event - people
came from as far as Wisconsin, Florida, New York and Little Rock, Arkansas.
Report by Dr. I. Zafar Hamid, 7272/Q It was a pleasure meeting and seeing so many old colleagues. Adnan 8326/L, Nasir 7729/A, Mani Bhai 7181/A, Anwar Memon bhai 48/LF, Asif, Kamal Qadri125/A and the team had done a great job. In my personal opinion, meeting was very productive as we were able to discuss the future happenings of PANA. Naeem Bhai was very instrumental in suggesting and guiding us through the meeting. Before, I go any further, I would like to wish Adnan the best with his future endeavors in Pakistan. Adnan has elaborated very nicely about the meeting and the minutes are well written. Obviously, everyone has been working for keeping the PANA alive and healthy but it is about time, as discussed, to bring some procedure and policies in its’ administration. Local meetings are great but to make our Alumni , the most vibrant unit, networking has to be more on the global level. May be, if we are able to streamline our Unit here, our central body will also work to get their act together. Arranging the Annual Meeting on a more professional pattern in different regions will bring a lot more Petarians together which will benefit the members as well as our Alma Mater. In the end, I will salute all those pioneer members who worked very hard beyond the call of their duty, to establish the foundation and give us the vision and opportunity to do what we are planning to do. Special thanks to Ikram 7236/Q and Bashir Memon bhai 63/LF with whom I had the privilege to work with in early eighties in the establishment of Petarian Association. |
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PANA 2006 - Niagara Falls, ON, Canada
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