Your Mushroom Cap Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

The poem is basically a critique of the attire of Pashtuns in tribal areas and Afghanistan, that how an attire affects your attitudes and behavior.

1. The first stanza refers to the Chitrali cap or pakol, religiously worn by the tribes and in Afghanistan.
2. The second stanza is about the turban and its potential benefits. Something the hunter guy is wearing above.
3. As wearing a cap is a must, so it has social implications. The native /local is recognizable by his cap, which he should wear always.
4. The officers, who socially belong to lesser cultures and are generally lower middle class, come to tribal areas as rulers, so ‘their no-sole shoes' and ‘sodden too', but they are ‘capless' so they enjoy a social status. The reference to Scots is, that the Scots let go of quilts, and the music refers to bagpipes which is sung by scouts in the camp-where the government officials live.
5. Chuch was father of Raja Dahir, who fought Bin Qasim, the Arab invader in eighth century. He had ordered that his subjects, mostly Sindis and Jats in southern Pakistan shall not wear shoes and shall be accompanied by a dog.
6. No one could and can go to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, who remained in splendid isolation and totally ignorant. Foreigners are strictly prohibited.
7. The last stanza is about Atatutrk's decree of prohibiting Fez, the Turk's cap. The last two lines are a story/fable taught to us in schools in primary classes that how a clever merchant from whom monkeys had stolen caps, retrieved them by throwing his own and monkeys followed. Symbolism.
The gist of this writing is that dress code affects the attitudes and conscious efforts are needed to change it otherwise people tend to stick on to old rotten thoughts and ideas.


The kausia (Ancient Greek: καυσία) was an ancient Macedonian flat hat.
It was worn during the Hellenistic period but perhaps even before the time of Alexander the Great and was later used as a protection against the sun by the poorer classes in Rome.
Depictions of the kausia can be found on a variety of coins and statues found from the Mediterranean to theGreco-Bactrian kingdom and the Indo-Greeks in northwestern India. The Persians referred to the Macedonians as Yaunã Takabara or 'Greeks with hats that look like shields', possibly referring to the Macedonian kausia hat.
A modern descendant of the hat may be the Pakol, or 'Chitrali cap': the familiar, and remarkably similar, men's hat from the mountains of Afghanistan.

A pakol (Pashto/Dari/Chitrali: پکول) , or the Afghan cap, is a soft, round-topped men's hat, typically of wool and found in any of a variety of earthy colors: brown, black, gray, or ivory, or dyed red using walnut. Before it is fitted, it resembles a bag with a round, flat bottom. The wearer rolls up the sides nearly to the top, forming a thick band, which then rests on the head like a beret or cap. It is seen as a hat of all ethnic groups of Afghanistan. @ Wikipedia

Boy wearing a cloak, boots and a kausia (Macedonian cap) . Terracotta, made in Athens, ca.300 BC.