For years those flowers at the Liberty roundabout had heralded the coming of Basant. How many times have I driven down that road and smiled at the beauty of the Lahore spring and in better days read colourful banners announcing 'Jashn-e-Bahaaraan' and all manners of fairs and festivities. They all slowly watered down and ultimately completely disappeared in the past few years leaving in their wake a country fast turning into another Afghanistan. Blasts at the Rafi Peer, sporting events cancelled due to security fears, Basant a distant memory and now an attack that had been long feared and anticipated. Strip a country of its culture and entertainment and all you will be left with is murder, rape, gore and violence as the only outlets for frustration and self expression. Convince human beings that laughter and fun are sins. Give them a sense of purpose with jingoistic platitudes, religious inflammation and a bogey enemy and voila the job is done.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Khaak Mayn Lithray Huay Khoon Mayn Nehlaae Huay
For years those flowers at the Liberty roundabout had heralded the coming of Basant. How many times have I driven down that road and smiled at the beauty of the Lahore spring and in better days read colourful banners announcing 'Jashn-e-Bahaaraan' and all manners of fairs and festivities. They all slowly watered down and ultimately completely disappeared in the past few years leaving in their wake a country fast turning into another Afghanistan. Blasts at the Rafi Peer, sporting events cancelled due to security fears, Basant a distant memory and now an attack that had been long feared and anticipated. Strip a country of its culture and entertainment and all you will be left with is murder, rape, gore and violence as the only outlets for frustration and self expression. Convince human beings that laughter and fun are sins. Give them a sense of purpose with jingoistic platitudes, religious inflammation and a bogey enemy and voila the job is done.
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7 comments:
My first thoughts went out to the men of the 'Elite' section of the Punjab Police who lost their lives while defending the cricketers.
Some of the force's men had been deployed to protect the Sikh Jathha visiting Sikh Shrines in Pakistan that my family and I were a part of, in 2006.
They did an excellent job and my brother and I had some very interesting conversations with some of them. Being fellow Punjabis and in the same age-bracket, besides being fellow Jatts as well, in some cases, we could connect easily.
Although loss of any human life is bad, I wished that none of those guys were among the dead.
Having said that, the kind of terrorism we are witness to in the sub-continent at present appears to have become a self-sustaining phenomenon and gone far beyond the control of the government agencies that reared it for their own so-called strategic purposes initially. God only knows what direction things are going to take in the future!
BTW, I think that nahiN reesaaN Lahore shehar diyaaN and fervently hope that such incidents shall not recur there.
Strip a country of its culture and entertainment and all you will be left with is murder, rape, gore and violence as the only outlets for frustration and self expression. Convince human beings that laughter and fun are sins.
Rightly said.
Whole country is turning into Zia's dreamland with help of damn Jamatis and extremist Army.
Well written. I concur.
Sad, sinister and scary. Well written and aptly quoted.
thought twice about commenting. but better sense prevailed. what can one add to such a succinct post?
A very good post bringing the whole of Pakistan's dilemma on one line:
Strip a country of its culture and entertainment and all you will be left with is murder, rape, gore and violence as the only outlets for frustration and self expression. Convince human beings that laughter and fun are sins.
Very well written indeed. Plz visit my blog www.usamalali.blogspot.com
It was really a sad and indeed a moving tale of those who gave their lives in order to safeguard the lives of our guests and the way this hideous attempt to ban any international event in pakistan. The doers failed as all players were saved yet they succeeded in isolating our country as far as hosting any maga sporting event is concerned, as we have seen in the case of venues of world cup matches being shifted from Pakistan. I opine that govenment should have been more serious about the security arrangments of our guests as the threats were already received. I am really sad to read Talha`s innocent questions about the probability of not being able to watch any match live in the Gaddafi.
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