Candid Corner
- For we have stared deep into the alley at death itself
“Or, else, I’d try to force myself to fall in love. In fact, I did it twice, and I suffered, gentlemen, I assure you I did. Deep down in your heart, you don’t believe in your suffering. There is a stirring of mockery, and yet you suffer – in the most genuine, honest-to-goodness way.”
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Mornings, afternoons, evenings– we seem to be caught up in an unending trail of malicious fabrications, signifying myriad emotions echoing a change that may be desired. But, let this be said that if all fabrications were to prove right, there would be no space left for truth, reason and logic to flourish. We shall, forever, be doomed in the maelstrom of desires which would only serve a certain branded form of objectives.
So, let’s partake of the palette of emotions, but let’s also not forget that we live in a world that is not solely dictated by the desires of an individual, or a comity of individuals. In the larger scheme of things, everyone’s desires matter and are relevant irrespective of whether they are realised, or they remain starved in the wilderness of pain.
But, one cannot survive amidst perpetual gloom that we seem to be engulfed in. One loses the zest for life. One’s creative sparkle is dulled as does the ability to cope with hard times. Let’s not, therefore, be lost in the sprawling sands of the desert. Let’s find some time to look up at the vast canvas of skies covered in layers of clouds some of which may be laden with droplets of water to drench people who have lost their hope, and whose desires may be parched.
Words are expressions of thoughts. Words can do magic, rekindling dormant hopes and acting as trailblazers for revolutions. Words have helped traverse new vistas and define new genres. There have been outstanding weavers of this magic, but none could express it more powerfully, more eloquently and more poignantly than T S Eliot– that quintessential craftsperson of lacing words with meaning:
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
“Breeding lilacs out of the dead land” and “stirring dull roots with spring rain” are gems which are carved through a matchless devotion to developing a ripe imagination to soar beyond immeasurable distances. But, at the heart of it all is a raw thought that not only cultivates one’s faculties to confront immense challenges, but also generates a drive to pursue them with strength of passion and purity of soul. This is the way to getting somewhere high and above and beyond the ordinary.
In the historical context, Pakistan seems to be perched on the cusp of time. From here on, it is either moving up and above, or be doomed to a bottomless pit from where there would be no path to salvation. Such has been the fate of this forsaken country that a few have prospered lavishly from its riches while a preponderant majority have continued surviving on the fringes of life, feeding on the dredges thrown their way by the beneficiary elite. There has been much in terms of meaningless words and fickle promises, but nothing signifying any substantive gains for those who don’t have a school to send their children to, or a hospital to take care of their sick, or hope that they would be able to move on to a better future. They survive, like their elders did, in utter penury, just as their children would when their time comes. The poor of the country have been the victims of generational deceptions unleashed by those who have their coffers full with illicit billions and their egos bloated with the venom of keeping everyone hostage of their vile fancies and indescribable cruelty.
Pakistan needs justice. Pakistan also needs a healing touch that would diminish its pain with time. Healing begins with prognosis as reconciliation would with truth. But it is truth that no one is willing to face. Instead, the trick that the guilty work by for making it irrelevant is by plunging deeper into the pit of depravity from where there is no retrieval
But, how does one untangle the knot? Much against logic rooted in good sense, the state has been forced to carry unnecessary burdens which stymied its growth potential and rendered it discriminatory in dealing with its own citizens. Instead of celebrating its natural diversity and strengthening it to bring about cohesion, harmony and multifaceted development, it created divisions which have scarred its ethos and held it back from exploiting the true and full potential of its people. Over time, the state became an unbearable weight unto itself. Be it the Objectives Resolution, declaring the Ahmadi community non-Muslim, the Blasphemy Law, or such other strictures, the state has had to carry this unwieldy load which impacted it internally and exposed it to intense international censure. This started happening in its very infancy which has only become more gruesome with the passage of time. It is virtually untenable now. It has grown to becoming a monster which is the very antithesis of the enshrining foundational dream of the Quaid for turning the country into a liberal, enlightened and egalitarian entity.
Simultaneously, it has not been able to deal effectively with a number of abominable social and religious rituals and practices. Two recent incidents concerning the stoning to death of a nine-year-old girl, Gul Sama, in District Dadu of Sindh province on the pretext of ‘honour killing’, and the absolutely disgraceful manner in which the sitting Assistant Commissioner, Attock, Jannat Hussain Nekokara, was made to apologise for a comment she had made earlier against artificial divisions along religious lines and calling for granting equal rights to minorities in Pakistan, are indescribably ugly blotches on the face of the state. Can a nation survive this collective shame? These are not odd cases, but part of an organised, systematic and barbaric attitude addicted to inflicting a myopic and degenerate mindset on the entire population and eliminating any residual space for constructive dialogue that may still be available.
Pakistan has transited from enslavement by the foreigners to enslavement by its very own. To move forward, it must remodel the system that is crafted to work as an exploitative tool for the benefit of those who don’t need its beneficence, and detriment of those who do but are always confronted with its malfeasant face. The essence of this system must be redirected to uplifting the poor and the marginalised, not perpetuating the stranglehold of the usurpers.
Pakistan needs justice. Pakistan also needs a healing touch that would diminish its pain with time. Healing begins with prognosis as reconciliation would with truth. But it is truth that no one is willing to face. Instead, the trick that the guilty work by for making it irrelevant is by plunging deeper into the pit of depravity from where there is no retrieval.
But, let me say no more. Let’s banish the demons for now. Let’s stir some hope for all may not be lost yet. Let Faiz Sahib take over with his inimitable passion and candour which reverberate with a resounding message for those who hold the sword:
Let the clarion call go forth to the mighty
To stand sentinel to the measure of their deeds
When the wretched of the earth shall surge
Entreating for vengeance
None shall come to the rescue.
Reward and punishment shall be dispensed here
For here shall be enacted hell and paradise
Here shall be raised the call for the hereafter
Here shall be the doomsday.