The wonderful way families kept in touch with Pakistan before Whatsapp and phone cards were invented
manchestereveningnews.co.uk“Brother, I had a bad dream and it was terrible,” a distressed voice in the Indo-Aryan language of Potwari says over the distinctly familiar fuzzy sound of a wearied-down and repeatedly-played cassette tape. “I don’t know why but I dreamt that you were ill.” Zareena Darr, the voice heard on the tape, recorded the message sometime back in the late 70s and early 80s whilst living in Canada.
The tape was then sent to Zareena’s sister Halima and brother Yaseen, who were living in Ashton-under-Lyne at the time. “The things I want to tell you from the heart have to stay in the heart," Zareena continued in the recording. “I couldn’t tell you everything and I have a lot of things to talk about.
I don’t know when I’m going to meet you, and God knows when these locks on the heart will be broken – it looks impossible…” READ MORE: Tiny restaurant with 'intriguing' menu where everyone feels 'like an old friend' crowned best in Manchester The recording was unearthed back in 2017 - offering a rare capsule of a difficult period of time for the family.
That cassette tape, alongside a collection of others, now takes centre stage in a special exhibition in Greater Manchester that looks further into the practice of recording and sending voice messages on cassette tape in the British-Pakistani in the 60s and 80s. “There wasn’t that many people from our community that we could talk to – I was alone and dejected,” Zareena later recalled. “Anyone who suddenly moves over to another country feels alone, especially if they don’t know the language. “It was really difficult for me to accept that I was illiterate and couldn’t read and write because although I had the desire to study, I couldn’t.
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