The Disguise
In the good old days not long
ago, say twenty years ago life was bit simple, relaxed and worth living for
most of the people. What went wrong then? The answer is we all lost focus and
ignored our prime responsibilities partially or completely.
In the 60's, 70's and to some
extent 80's parents were the biggest influence we would get in the making of
our character. A child was taught how to talk, how to behave and how to get and
give respect from the early age which resulted in a better character building
and then a better reflection as a nation in the long run. The biggest plus point
was basic religious knowledge was transferred to children and parents had time
to follow the activities of their children till they become adults and useful
citizens of the country.
Late 80's marked the end of
Dictatorship rule which was a very healthy sign for improvement in all areas
starting from better economy, improved living for everyone, better human
rights, rule of law etc but on the contrary what happened was beyond our dreams.
A total shift from our end with
an inclination towards materialism. We used to lead a simple life whether poor,
lower middle class or middle class, am leaving out upper class Elites as they
have to maintain a King's life style to retain their presence in Elite class.
Democratic governments were supposed to be bringing in a revolution to improve
common man's life but it never happened to the scale which was largely
expected. The well wishers came in the disguise of honest political, religious and
military leaders and what they did was totally opposite and not hidden from anybody.
We made a big mistake as a nation
during that time, we remained busy in following our dreams and were in the rat
race of gathering wealth either by fair or unfair means, those who got success
were able to crush the ones who were far behind in this rat race.
Parenting suffered the most in
this era, elders who could afford had left the responsibility of character
building to play group schools, house maids and to modern educational
institutes. Those who could afford that they were struggling to find two meals
a day for their children already so were not able to focus on their kids well
being and character building as for them survival was most important. A lot was
said and observed that there would be a bloody revolution cause of social
injustice, poor living conditions, a major gap between have and have nots, limited
employment and when available it was not provided on merit, educational
institutes were not giving education they were focused on selling the degrees.
Every aspect of life became business, all relations became fake and every move
we made in life was considered as a business transaction, production facilities
focus became profit and not their work force, our leaders focus was to loot our
resources rather than enhancing our growth potential, our armed forces mis-used
the trust of common man and got indulge in lust for power again and over a
certain period of time we all became more mean, selfish, greedy and almost
inhumane to win in the rat race of retaining our fake outlook, our disguise,
our standing in the society and above all a mask on faces to cheat people
around.
Then a new generation of
reformers and revolution makers came on board, the media giants which brought a
lot of new kids on the blocks as "Gurus" in making Pakistan a better
place to live for common people. Later on after a decade or so now suddenly the
whole Nation went in to shock to realize that these private channels were not
there to improve a life of a common man, these were there as businesses and
individual profit centers.
It brought an invasion of Western
and Indian media influence and with some channels total funding as well to
eradicate the basic true spirit of our religion, our social taboos and our very
identity as a Pakistani. On the name of improvement in educational system, text
book boards re-visited the text books and took out material related to our
history, our heroes and our heritage.
Planned terrorism was executed in
our country in which 99% damage was done to common man and we fought somebody
else's war against terror in which we compromised integrity and safety of the
whole nation and gave a way to Political parties to have militant groups within
their lines and execute terrorist activities and blame foreign terrorist
element. We were introduced to suicidal bombings, Drone attacks, target and
Random Killings which resulted in a wide spread fear for life for common man
not everywhere in Pakistan but more in some major cities.
In the recent days, major
channels which were supposed to be major reformers, suddenly came out as worst
enemies of the our Nation as evidences were made public they were behind major
conspiracies against the Nation. When I was a kid, competitions were held on
National Songs singing, Qirat, Naat Khwani and Ramazan's month was special with
Television reflecting religious programs..... Alas! that spirit is gone and
most effected is our younger generation who are confused as they are not being
told that Justin Bieber is not their ideal, their ideal is Prophet Mohammad may
peace be upon him, His companions and Historic leaders who were part of
expanding Islamic Empire. Again not their fault, we have exposed them to negativities
of life, wearing a vulgar dress means to them being a style icon, misbehaving
with elders to them is taken as right of free speech, not taking care of grandparents
to them means they cant interact with an old and obsolete school of thought,
being rude to servants to them is talking to paid people, not helping friends
and family to them is remaining focused on their dreams, roaming around with
boys and girls and staying from home to them is cool and in thing for them,
misbehaving with parents to them is to do the same thing their parents did to
their own parents, joint family system to them is a joke and going to mosque to
them is becoming a fundamentalist and a backward person.
We have given our religion in the
hands of quacks (not all of them as we do have excellent renowned Muslim
scholars but majority of our people do not have direct access or not literate
enough to read their published books and articles) thus our masses are exposed
Imams of Mosques and to invasion of negativity from the print and electronic media.
The worst part is every day we
see the real face of someone or some organization, a hue and cry is raised for
a week or ten days and then it is forgotten. Worst part is when we are given a
chance to change our fate through electoral process, we do not choose wisely or
the election is rigged where people made the right choice and again the same
rulers are back in business of making their own lives better.
We have seen that we cannot rely
on system and our ruling elite as both are in majority very corrupt, so an
effort has to be made from our home first by making an effort on our kids to be
trained and guided enough to choose a right path. Our priority is bank balance,
house, land, luxuries, finest available education, modern living and we remain
busy in lust for more and more of this to provide a secure future to our kids
but again our religion states that biggest Asset of parents is their honest and
pious children. Even trillions of dollars are less if genuinely compared to the
worth of a son and daughter and family who is on the right path to earn from
fair means and are helping out the needy around them silently. This is
something we can do as parents and would not need governments help, NGO's aid
or some hifi educational institute.
