MY PAKISTAN
Dear Child,
I want to apologize to you for bringing you into this world
as a citizen of this country because of all that is going around. In its defense I have the following to say so
please bear with me as it was not always this way… In my time Color Television / Penicillin / Polio
shots / Frozen foods / Xerox Contact lenses / Frisbees and The pill were something
very new and no one knew if they would catch on.
We were innocent because there were no Credit cards / Laser beams
or Ball-point pens. Man had just
invented Air conditioners & Dishwashers / Clothes dryers were unheard of and
the clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air and man had just taken his
first footsteps on the moon.
In Karachi when I was a child the entire family lived
together. Every family had a father and a mother. As a kid, I called every man older than me,
"uncle" & every woman older than me “aunty”. As a teenager I respected policemen and this
was before gay-rights, computer-dating, dual careers, daycare centers, and
group therapy. In my time if you had a
problem you talked it out with your family who supported you by giving you all
the time you needed.
From what I learnt as kids our lives were governed by the basic
Islamic principles and we were always told to avoid the seven deadly sins, in
school we respected our teachers & we were taught good judgment, and common
sense. Our parents did not leave our
upbringing to the teachers and at home we were taught to know the difference between
Right and Wrong and to stand up and take responsibility for our actions.
14th August parades were so much fun. Serving your country was a privilege; living
in Pakistan was A bigger privilege. We
thought fast food was what people ate in America. In my time having a meaningful relationship meant
getting along with your cousins and class fellows where a birthday party was
something where everyone would forgive and forget and rejoice together and it
cost nothing compared to today.
Time-sharing meant time the family spent together in the
Evenings and weekends — not purchasing gift vouchers of dealtoday or on olx. We never heard of MP3s, google glasses, drones,
frozen yogurt, or tongue piercings or guys wearing earrings. We listened to real music that consisted of
guitars and drums and actual singing and Tannhaiyan and Fifty / Fifty when on
air cleared the roads. When the street
lights came on we came home and our parents always had dinners that included
their friends and families. On the
weekends we went to the beaches and we did not know that there was a beach with
a foreign country’s name to it.
If you saw anything with 'Made in Japan ' on it, it was
junk. The term 'making out' referred to
how you did on your school exam. Pizza
Hut, McDonald's, and instant coffee were unheard of on the streets of Karachi. Our lives were in and around the clubs where
there was no politics and no radical school of though was pressed upon you.
When we went out Tung Fong or Bundu Khan was the place to go
if not Spinzer for its club sandwiches or Mujeebs for its burgers & Kaybees
Ice-cream cones were 5 rupees, if you wanted to talk to anyone you had to use a
land phone line and Coke & Pepsi were only 3 rupees a bottle which we
thought was expensive. In my time life was
honest and food tasted good. And if you really wanted to you could send a
letter or a post card to someone you knew in another country or city for 50
paisa.
My father was a taxi driver at one point and actually got
married in a cab, the big cars were
expensive but who could Afford one? I
remember Petrol not having an octane rating but being for 16 rupees a liter and
now how I wish we had one of those 8 cylinder monsters on the road. In my day "coke" was a cold drink, "pot" was something my mother cooked
in and "Aids" were helpers in
the Principal's office, "chip"
meant a piece of wood, "hardware" was found in a hardware store and "software"
wasn't even a word. We were the last
generation to actually believe that a lady needed a husband to have a baby.
We volunteered to protect this precious country unlike today
where we stand in line to run away. There was a sense of freedom on the streets
and corruption did not run through the country’s veins. My generation has complicated so much by
trying to simplify things to an extent where the simplicity is complicated to a
point of no return. Today we believe in
one God in this country yet we fight over the correct way to worship Allah. We
slaughter our Muslim brothers and sisters and we terrorize our women. In a religion that we follow which forbids
idol worship we have created demi-Gods who not only have monetary reasons to pretend
piety rather they have vested political interest that go against patriotism.
The reason I write this apology to you is also to ask you to
be the last ray of hope that exists to make a difference and stand up for what
is right. Fight what you do not believe
in and do not let your soul get corrupted to a point of no return where your
child will have resentment for being born in this world. I am confident that you will make the right
choice!
Your Dad!
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