Good Morning from Karachi :)

My day has begun with the struggle to uplift myself from the bed and finally after a lot of unnecessary self talk I succeeded to reach the park that is just a few minutes walk from my house. It's a wonderful morning Or so it seems to be, when I sense a feeling of accomplishment. May be that is equally true for Life, in the bigger scheme of things; often what keeps us alive and moving is our achievements which we find credible and they become a source of energy to carry on!

The conditions in Pakistan tend to feed on one's pessimism very well and I believe that has unfortunately become true throughout the world today, if one chooses not to be blind to the many superficial and feign developments taking place around us. 

Anyways I must make a detour from this thought because this morning's message is meant to be positive and how, I think getting ourselves rid from the dangerous feeling of 'helplessness' can become a vital tool to feel 'happy' and optimistic.  So, recently I have been attending classes for central superior services exam (I don't know why it's named superior cause we are meants to become public servants - anyways) and we the aspirants have been given three big No No's if we wish to succeed. They are:

- Do Not question the ideology of Pakistan (a religious state)

- Do Not question the role of Jinnah (the founding Father of the Nation)

- Do Not question the intervention of military establishment in Pakistan 

Tricky .... I found myself quite puzzled cause I seem to question all of them - that too fervently many a times. Thus I discussed with the instructors and sought to find ways of not messing with these No's but at the same time being able to critically analyse the history of Pakistan - its emergence and the over stretched dictatorial rule at intervals. I didn't find many satisfactory answers until I got my hands on the book 'Vintage Cowasjee - A selection of writings from Dawn'. Ardeshir Cowasjee, involved in his ship-owning firm during entire youth and ventured into the field of column writing in late 80's. His writings exposed the many evils of nepotism, intolerance, corruption and greed among others that have derailed any constructive progress in Pakistan. I always remember watching  his television interview where the anchor asked him, if he is so displeased with Pakistan why does he not leave the country. To which Cowasjee responded 'I have been here before Pakistan and if someone has to leave then it's Pakistan and not me.' ..... Sometimes we really forget crying our jingoistic slogans that modern nation states in their present form have only been carved out in recent history!
Moving to the point I wished to make: I read Cowasjee's articles titled 'statesman' talking about Jinnah's vision of Pakistan. And to my surprise unlike taught in our history books or not taught at all, Jinnah's speech to the soon to be created nation on the 11th of August 1947 stated as follows:

"You are free, free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the business of the State. As you know, history shows that in England conditions some time ago were much worse than those prevailing in India today. Even now there are some states in existence where there are discriminations made and bars imposed against a particular class. Thank God, we are not starting in those days. We are starting in the days when the is no discrimination, no distinction, between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are citizens and equal citizens of one state....'

This particular passage was distorted only in the beginning days of this country. An official biography of Jinnah commissioned by the Government of Pakistan, published in 1954 read it as: 'You may belong to any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State.'

Such distortions and more have found sizable space in our texts and today this country stands at an edge where intolerance and bigotry is the order of the day.

Cowasjee, with his diligent research and prolific writing has unearthered many such cases of twistedness and I feel such facts will help me pave the path of critical analysis using facts and avoiding the No No's :p

I had used the word 'helplessness' before because at many times post graduation I experience such feelings due to reasons known. But somewhere the Sufi thought correctly entails that 'happiness is within' and we need to stick on to the magical word 'hope' and continue our journey without remorse :) we might find many answers on the way and / or many more questions !!!

Miss you all !!

Ajay