Thursday, August 5, 2010

Some Day..

Today would have been a day not unlike any other for me a few months ago.

I am trapped at my grandmother's place, unable to go home due to the ongoing law and order breakdown in the city of Karachi. I woke up at noon, ate, drank, and wasted time on the net. It was the television which was the only source of information for me about what was happening outside the walls of the suburban house I am staying in.

The streets of Karachi were deserted, there was sporadic firing all around the city, attendance in schools was low, shops were closed while those that were open went up in flames. The reason as we all know it - the assassination of a political figure a couple of days ago in an episode of a series of target killings which have paralyzed the City of Quaid for the last many months.

The news at midnight on TV have prompted me to pick up a pen and put down my thoughts in writing.

The events of the past few days have been some of the saddest for our nation. There are incoming news of the catastrophic deluge which just wreaked havoc in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, and which is fast approaching Sindh. As if that was not enough for our already augmented miseries, we hear today of yet another bomb blast in Peshawar which left four people dead, including the Commandant of the Frontier Constabulary.

What the hell are the political leaders doing, going on official tours abroad when they should be here with the nation at a time when it needs them most? It is painful and infuriating to see their apathy, merely contenting themselves with staying in cheap hotels on their foreign tours to save money for the people. So much for their duties to the nation.

What makes this day different than others for me is an unprecedented level of troubled and guilty conscience. It is excruciating to see my almost total helplessness in this situation, restlessness at being unable to do anything, at not being able to think of a way to bring ever-green prosperity to my society, my people, my country. Added to this is a new realization that out there, there must be others like me; other young minds, slowly awakening, frustrated, dejected, yearning to scream out loud at the rulers' indifference; people who are unaware of how best to channel their energies in to correcting the political and economic system of the country, for only then can we have a society which we, at present, can only dream of.

It is almost dawn as I write on and on, write down something which is only a wave from a treacherous sea caught up in a tempest, a sea of thoughts which have now been bothering me for the past several months; a leaf of a tree perilously swaying in a blowing storm.

Writing is becoming but a way for me to take out my frustration. I know I am somewhat becoming a changed man.