Wednesday, January 19, 2011

AN ODE TO THE RESILIENCE OF OUR PEOPLE



Standing amidst the glittering lights of the city, with throngs of people queing for purchases, shopping as if it were their last day on the Earth. Or is it?
With larger-than-life plazas mushrooming everywhere and with the latest models of SUVs, with barely enough parking space, people wearing gaudy clothing with flashy accessories, it is hard to conceptualize this place brnaded as the most dangerous place on the planet today.
True, these upscale places represent only a fraction of our populace and paint a rosier picture of the present state of affairs. But taking all that into account, the state of affairs potrayed by the media makes one skeptical of the present situation.
"9/11 was horrible". I remember my friend telling us. "I was near that place at that time." The rest of us stared stolidly back at her. Any attempt at empathy was unfruitful at this point. "We have a 9/11 everyday." was all I could muster in response. That was the time when schools were closed for an indefinite period of time after receiving death threats and we did not know when our children would be able to go to school again.
And, there was a time when people working or living near the sensitive areas would be dealing with terrorism on a daily basis, wondering whether they'll be able to make it home alive. My way to work and back would bear semblance to finding my way in a fieldmine, jubilant at having crossed another barrier.  While working near the Mall in Lahore, I personally had to go through similar experiences. With every key road from the One Five building to the FIA building to the High Court being targeted, calling my loved ones to assure them of my safety and being stranded at the workplace till late in the evenings was getting to be a normal routine.
In Karachi, our "city of lights" (pun intended), where statistics show target killings on a daily basis now, a sense of irony prevails when there is no news on this front. Reminds me of the no-death parties we had in our Neonatology Department where the day was celebrated when no child lost his life.
But, amongst suicide bombings almost on a daily basis, target killings, inflation, unemployment and insecurity, we still manage to trudge on. Life goes on with the same, if not more fervor for us Pakistanis, or so it seems. Is it because we have so many problems that we have become immune to them?
Amidst all this chaos and mayhem, we still continue to celebrate, 'life' if you will. We have new restaurants, fashion weeks, galas, weddings on a larger scale than observed before. Every public place is brimming with activity, traffic on the roads heavier than ever before. No situation can be 'dangerous" enough to dampen our spirits. Would, I wonder things be the same on 5th Avenue if 'they' were facing a similar situation?
But as they sat, all is not lost when u have hope. True, there is an impending sense of doom, an apprehension on the horizon, about our personal and collective futures. Although it is not without a sense of irony and sarcasm that I observe when I start something new like buying a new car, re-decorating my house, my son starting his school, it is refreshing to see people who still believe in this homeland and believe their progeny have a future here and plan for them. People who, despite the circumstances came back to this country to offer their services to it and who have decided to stay back. Looking at them, one still feels hope for this country and the feeling that it can survive and exist despite all odds, thanks to its stubborn people. Hats off to them!




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