“I am so sorry to hear about the situation in your country. Is your family alright?” is a common response I get when I introduce myself as a Pakistani to anyone here. Similar was the response from a barber who was doing my hair the other day. She was an old lady from an east European country who had settled down in Canada a long time ago. She, then, sprang a political conversation in a manner which is only typical to Pakistani barbers. During our conversation, she gave this remark (about people in our part of the world)
“Peace is a good thing. Once they have it, I am sure they’d like it.”
A simple statement yet posed several questions in my mind. Did we, as a nation, ever have peace to know how it feels like? How could we strive for something we have never tasted in our 60 years of independence? Do we need to have peace first to establish peace (an endless recursion) so that people fall in love with it and won’t let anyone (General/Punjabi/Sindhi/Balochi/Pathan or any external agent) take it away? Would we ever be able to get there? And, If we do, would we like it at all?
“Peace is a good thing. Once they have it, I am sure they’d like it.”
A simple statement yet posed several questions in my mind. Did we, as a nation, ever have peace to know how it feels like? How could we strive for something we have never tasted in our 60 years of independence? Do we need to have peace first to establish peace (an endless recursion) so that people fall in love with it and won’t let anyone (General/Punjabi/Sindhi/Balochi/Pathan or any external agent) take it away? Would we ever be able to get there? And, If we do, would we like it at all?
