It was almost 1:30pm, and I was idling at the Seasons’
Chowk Lahore, waiting for the signal to turn green so that I could pick my mom
up from P.U., when I noticed a transgender beggar asking the car driver in
front of me for money. I started to look away, knowing this was a common sight
on the roads of Pakistan, when I saw the driver snatch the beggar’s “dupatta”.
Now that was something I’ve never seen before. However, before my mind could
process it all, the driver got out, and in quick succession, slapped the beggar
and delivered a hard kick to the groin. After that, all that happened is a
blur, but I do remember being the only person who got out (or off) his vehicle
to break the fight. The driver took off as soon as I freed the beggar’s hair
from his fists, and left the poor victim to sink on the floor and sob while a
crowd looked on.
If you were expecting something more dramatic, dear
reader, then I’m sorry to have disappointed you, for I’m only hoping to shed
some light on how apathetic we’ve become. We began as a nation which stuck to
its roots, and now we’ve become a bunch of people who, in order to show our
‘modern’ spirit, and bent upon defying everything our culture and religion
expects from us. We term our culture suffocating, but what has following others
brought us besides a (now embedded) inferiority complex?
The dilemma, my fellow countrymen, is that on one
hand, we scream for change. We highlight the irregularities in our governing
bodies and vehemently demand a ‘naya Pakistan’, and on the other hand,
we turn to zombies whenever we face the mirror of our conscience that demands
we change ourselves first. We, my dear readers, have become the epitome of
hypocrisy. Take me, for example. Here I am, preaching about the faults in our
character, but come tomorrow, I’ll be out on the roads, violating traffic
signals just to show my friends how cool I am.
“Why write this article then?”, some of you might
ask. A fair question, but then again, the only thing we are good at these days,
is raising questions. So while you’re at it, go ahead and ask yourself
something too. Ask yourself if your life exists beyond your favourite food and
shopping haunts. Ask yourself if your sympathies are aroused for anyone other
than your immediate family or friends. Ask yourself if your money has ever
found a way out of your pocket for any cause which had nothing to offer you in
return (except maybe prayers). And when that familiar face in the mirror
answers you in negative for all these queries, don’t despair. Do not try, in
vain, to search your conscience amidst the debris you have accumulated inside
yourself. Do not attempt to wipe the ego off your eyes, for the world beyond is
very bleak. Do not pluck out the weeds of hatred and self-righteousness from
your heart, for my dear reader, you are not alone. You are surrounded by a
country full of people just like yourself. Accept your destiny, and let the
country run. Follow the footsteps of that old man who stepped out of his car
only when I had stopped his driver (presumably his son) from beating and
abusing a defenceless transgender. Be like him: obnoxious and haughty,
untouched by any worldly law as he drove away after that heinous deed. Be the
same, because to be different is to be condemned by the society. But if you
feel a stirring inside you, a hand of hope reaching for the light, don’t crush
it. Nurture and guide it, for if we want this country to be a place worth
living in, we have to be the change we want to see around us.
And this, my faithful reader, is where you laugh
inwardly at my optimism and open your Facebook to plan the next holiday with
your friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment