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Transfixed by specter of war
By BABITA PERSAUD and ALICIA CALDWELL TAMPA -- Right now, the Naviwala family of Tampa should be in Karachi, Pakistan, enjoying time with relatives they have not seen in six years. Tickets were booked two months ago. Departure was Sunday. But on Friday, Saleem Naviwala, the father, a local physician, canceled the trip. "My fear was that we wouldn't be able to come back if there was chaos related to war," said Naviwala, originally from Pakistan. The threat of nuclear war between India and Pakistan and a voluntary U.S. evacuation of the region has Indian and Pakistani families in Tampa Bay doing more than watching an overseas turmoil. They are altering traveling plans, phoning relatives, checking news Web sites, worrying and wondering. "Why do we have to fight?" said Naviwala. "We are very poor nations. We have limited resources." India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir; the region was divided between them after the last war in 1971. In the last four months, troops have been mounting along both sides of the border, up to a million soldiers. In recent weeks, skirmishes between the two countries over the territory have escalated. The U.S. State Department believes full-scale war could erupt between India and Pakistan, and there is speculation that one or both could use their nuclear weapons, killing millions of people. That worries south Asians in the Tampa Bay area. "I just don't want this to turn into an Israeli and Palestinian conflict," says Vibha Dhawan, a USF Indian student whose Hindu family fled Pakistan when it was separated from India by the British. The Lokesh family of Palm Harbor stopped packing for a trip to South India when they heard on the news that the United States urged 60,000 American citizens to evacuate India. Haravu Lokesh, a pediatrician, called Lufthansa: Will the plane be flying over troubled borders? No, the airline said. He called friends in Bombay. Is it safe? "Absolutely, there is no sign of any distress here," friends said. "We decided to go ahead," said Lokesh, who planned to drop off his Americanized teenagers with grandparents in India for a dose of culture. He wondered if the evacuation was just a tactic to pressure Pakistan's leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf to "do something about the warlords," militants who fled from Afghanistan. Other Indians wondered the same thing. Was the evacuation necessary for all of India? "I was surprised that the U.S. issued an evacuation," said Keshava Babu, a religious leader at the Hindu Temple of Florida. "When I called back home to South India, they thought it was an overreaction." Others didn't. "Precautions have to be taken," said Husain Nagamia, a local Muslim leader originally from India. Ram Prasad, who owns the Ramada Inn Mirage in St. Petersburg, said the escalating conflict might lead an outsider to think that people from the two countries cannot get along. That is far from the truth, he said. "Two employees working for me are from Pakistan," said Prasad, who came from India 35 years ago. "We don't care about those things. It's only the warmongers and undesirable people who want to stir things up." Najma Ghani, a waitress at Ajanta Indian Cuisine, a restaurant that Prasad owns, said her mother, sister and brother remain in Pakistan. She worries about them and watches cable television news whenever she can. "They are scared about what is going to happen next," Ghani said. There are about 12,000 Indians in Tampa Bay and 380 people from Pakistan, according to 2000 census figures. Indians have several organizations throughout Tampa Bay, including Gujarati Samaju of Tampa Bay, which organizes the India Fest every year at the USF Sun Dome. The primary Pakistan organization is the Pakistani-American Association of Tampa Bay, which consists of about 200 families. In India, Hindu is the religion practiced by the majority; in Pakistan, it is Islam. But there are many places in Tampa Bay where both Pakistanis and Indians come together, such as Apna Bazar, a grocery store on Fowler Avenue in Tampa, near USF. There, magazines from Pakistan are piled on a glass counter alongside Stardust, the People magazine of Bollywood, India. "I love both countries and I wish they never had any wars," said Rana Younas, owner of Apna Bazar. Customer Hema Maganti, 25, just came back from India last week. "When Sept. 11 happened, my relatives in India worried about us," she said. "Now, this is happening over there and we worry about them. It has been endless."
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