Amjad Ali: Continuing the Mughal Tradition of Kabootarbazi in America
"Amjad Ali"
While pigeon flying may not be popular in the West, it is a sport enjoyed by many in the sub-continent. Pigeon-flying or "kabootarbazi" was a sport popularized by the Mughal rulers in India. The craze still remains but is enjoyed only those who can afford it since it is an expensive hobby. But for Amjad Ali, owner of Shop $ Auto Repair shop in Queens, money is no object. Pigeon flying was his passion before he arrived in America 20 years ago.
Ali grew up keeping tipplers in Karachi, Pakistan, where the highfliers are immensely popular. High-stakes competitions are held all over Pakistan to see whose birds can fly high the longest. The best ones fly out of sight in the morning and return home to roost at dusk.
Just as any other new immigrant, Ali threw himself into work to realize the American dream. But a successful auto body business, purchase of a residence for his wife and three children in Flushing, could not put a lid on the passion of his youth and seven years ago he purchased 20 quality tipplers from a friend in Pakistan and paid $7,000 to meet various US government requirements so that he could have them shipped to America.
Ali feeds his birds a special diet, along with vitamins. "Everything stems from the stomach. If things are good there, the bird is healthy," he says. He feeds the birds food formulas he mixes himself, along with vitamin mixtures he makes from garlic oil, enzymes, vitamins, creatine, protein powder and a blend of spices his wife helps him mix, to aid the pigeons' digestion. Ali developed an expertise on pigeon nutrition from extensive reading about sports nutrition, biology and pigeon physiology, among "Feeding the Athlete Pigeon," and several others on sports nutrition and the physiology
of pigeons.
Walking outside the shop in Corona, Queens, one is transfixed at the hundreds of exquisite white pigeons with gray heads and outstanding pedigrees who roost in outdoor cages attached to the side of the repair garage, a part of which has become an indoor aviary.. Ali trains and flies Pakistani tipplers known for their ability to fly very high for long periods - all day sometimes - before descending to the coop. Ali carefully selects his top-performing fliers and mates them to breed better ones. His daily ritual begins with him opening his auto body shop, feeding his prized collection and then letting some of them out to fly. While he continues about his routine work, fixing and repairing cars, the birds fly out of sight for the remaining morning and start trickling into roost for dinner.
According to Ali, his birds are world-class fliers and can easily fetch thousands of dollars from tippler handlers. These precious birds are protected by razor-wire fences, coop side surveillance cameras and a ferocious dog in the yard. He reads Pakistani newspapers to keep up with the competitive circuit back home. From his research and experimentation, he said, he has found diets that have impressed the tippler aficionados he keeps in contact with in Pakistan, who have begun using his mixtures.
For now, Ali is content. But in a few years time, he hopes to hand over auto repair business to his graduate son and return home, maybe for good, and revive his old coops. "I'd like to go back with my best birds and race them," he says. "They will all have American names - American Dream, American Fly, like that - so the people in Pakistan will see how well you can breed their birds in America."
