Malignant Leprosy…

Hakeem Irfan

Sitting at a Dhaba outside the University campus with a teacher, as usual conversing and debating on issues of common priority. In the middle of hot tea, cakes and ideas an elderly person interrupted with a disclaimer right in the beginning that “he is an illiterate person knowing nothing” but he wanted to say something (perhaps he had overheard our multilingual conversation). He said you were discussing different problems faced by us as a nation. He added with a humble submission that the basic and root cause of our problem is that we have mottled our character as a nation. Our systems: from family to the broader governing units (of every side) are in a final phase of leprosy of all kinds that too is malignant and fatal. He added with the earlier disclaimer that “yaeth gache waen aasmeney gooley wasun” means only a supernatural bomb from sky is the final solution to the problems here.

Have we ever taken such comments from a common man seriously? Whenever we move in the bus, go to some public place or are in some function, we hear a lot of problem solving ideas of the same sort like “Only an Earth Quake is the final solution or the Valley should be overturned by Almighty for the final solution of problems or we have degraded so much that only some big disaster is what we deserve. These are not only the solutions but indirect prays to Almighty. If we peep a little further I think it speaks of how we are expressing our incapability of solving the problems or even facing the crisis in the first hand. Or it can be taken as an indicator of the grave scenario in every sphere of life in the Valley.

If I am allowed to make comparisons, isn’t dying Dal lake an excellent example of deteriorating collective conscience of us as a people. Anchar lake has not died but it is the soul of the section of society that has lost its living characteristics. Are we as a nation casing our personal discrepancies, incompetence and wickedness under the garb of conflict? Our religion has guided us how we have to behave and act during the crisis of any kind and dimension. We have to be humane (muslim) even if the worst situation arises. We as a nation need a collective prudence that is necessary for our struggle to be won.

We have to ponder over the fact that why our long cherished goal is getting distanced from us by the every passing day. Have lost hope as a nation and that too at a very crucial juncture of the history? When we are fighting for some cause: first and foremost thing is that civil society has to be an integral and indispensable part of that. But isn’t it getting parted from the struggle in an engineered way? We as a civil society have blasphemously tolerated the blasphemy of our belief and conviction. What else can be the height of things? How can we be the elements of change? Our next generation is so much involved and impressed with the materialistic approach that they think of personal benefits at every decision. Our columnists pray every now and then that Edward Said should be born once again for Kashmir, but is our society ready to accept him or are we in a position to produce such brains. Our new generation thinks with tummies and tunnel vision. They are so much into self centralized and individualized cocoons that any cause or collective problem of a society is meaningless for them. Was the elderly man right with his suggestion?

Our nation has offered sacrifices of every kind. Our sons and daughters have given their blood for a goal, but it needs well organized, focused and honest machinery that can count on those sacrifices and take the struggle to its logical and only end. Are we after so many years of sufferings trying to take shelter in the self imposed confusions for our personal benefits? This unspeakable confusion is everywhere weltering within. Even our intellectuals till now are coming up with criticism only without focusing on the suggestions for our future (May be because of so many pressures). We have to be clear enough with the fact that who we are fighting against and what we are fighting for? We may know the former but there are some deliberate delusions in the later. Our situation demands some national qualities without which it is impossible to see the dawn of the long desired destination. We are not living in the “normal” situation, so we have to have some extraordinary characteristics for our future feats.
Arash Hejazi once wrote to Paulo Coelho “Today, I got caught in a heavy shower while walking on the street .Fortunately, I had my umbrella and rain cape; however, both were in boot of my car, which was parked some way away. While I was running to get them, I thought about the strange signal I was receiving from God: We always have the necessary resources to face the storms that life throws at us, but most of the time, those resources are locked up in the depths of our heart and we waste an enormous time trying to find them. By the time we have found them, we have already been defeated by the adversity.” Let us, therefore always be prepared; otherwise, we either miss an opportunity or lose the battle.