Fasting in times of load shedding
Past Shab-e-Barat, brace yourself for the month of fasting. Actually, Shab-e-Barat is a festival in name only. Its real significance is to usher in Ramazan. The halvas you are treated to, point to the imminence of thirty testing days followed by thirty rewarding evenings. The mandatory fast, requiring that one neither eat a morsel nor take a sip of drink for a whole day, is a test in itself. It’s a vivid reminder of the nature of hunger and thirst. It is only at the end of a day of fasting that one fully appreciates food and drink as God’s great ...
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Who cares? Not me
I am a Pakistani. Don’t confuse me for an illiterate, poverty-stricken person. Or a displaced one in that case. Not at all! I can assure you, I live quite comfortably. I did my schooling from one of the best institutes in the country. I speak English very well, and I only wear branded clothes. I buy them from the US or Europe during my annual visits abroad. It’s annoying how people assume I’m needy just because I’m from Pakistan. Oh no! I’m a first-grade citizen, albeit of a third world country. Apparently the fact that our power generation is less ...
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Fighting over Rs130
On a recent visit to a market in Gilgit, I witnessed two men beating up a vendor. When I inquired about the cause of the fight, I was told it was a result of bitter haggling over the price of a jacket. The two men had offered Rs100 for a jacket while the vendor insisted that he couldn’t give it for less than Rs230. The mere difference of Rs130 triggered a verbal debate, which then culminated in violence. While many may find this shocking, I thought the incident wasn’t unusual. We have come across similar cases of a much more serious ...
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Pakistan’s hungry children: The struggle to survive
On a recent visit to the house of my aunt’s friend this week, I realised the severity of helplessness some of us are subjected to as Pakistanis. Being a university teacher and living in a respectable neighbourhood, I assumed – rather took for granted – that my host lived a comfortable life like many of us do. However, what I witnessed in reality was far from my initial judgement. During the visit I couldn’t help but notice that her sons who had just returned from school would not eat lunch; rather they stayed away from the dining room completely. Her two daughters, ...
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Hungry for some rights
The fundamental right of the citizen to food, shelter and water is enshrined in the constitution. With an increasing number of people falling below the poverty line – without any social safety nets in place - the number of hungry men, women and children has rapidly increased in the last decade. The extreme disparity between the rich and poor, a lack of employment opportunities and a serious shortage of skilled labour has caused a rise in the number of hungry people in the country. The cost of living Factory owners hire workers on a contractual basis and avoid offering them benefits awarded to full-time employees, especially in Karachi. This forces ...
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Are you going to pig out today?
One billion people are hungry and I am so angry! Next time you are having your favorite meal at a restaurant, remember that 1 billion people around the world are facing chronic hunger. When we eat more than we need, we are making someone, somewhere starve. The plate is half empty It is extremely heart rending to know that more than 18 million out of 1 billion figure belong to our own country. Half of our country’s population is facing food insecurity. Can we even imagine how that feels? I felt sorry for such people before, but the recent flood has bought who ...
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Photo Essay: Surviving with a smile
I am a traveler. When I was six years old I was flying to the moon in a make-shift cardboard space ship now I travel to Rome, Marakesh and Indonesia in the span of one year. I try not only to immerse myself in a village, city or country but also its soul. This week end for the first time in my life, I felt like I experienced the soul of Pakistan. At a camp in Sehwan Sharif for internally displaced persons (IDP) I witnessed need, desperation, anguish and pain but also laughter, smiles and gratitude. In the West we associate the ...
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The man at the the puri shop
One morning, we went to a Halwa Puri shop to have breakfast along with a group of old friends. It was here that my eyes fell upon an old man sitting on a footpath nearby, completely lost in his thoughts. I was trying to read him. He looked nervous as if he lacked something. He was quiet with his hands over his head deeply lost in thoughts. Talha, one of my friends asked that old man if he needed something, “Baba Ji Purian Khayen ge?” The old man nodded saying, “Paisay Nahi hain.” We managed to get him breakfast that morning but that incident never got ...
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Plight of Punjab, plight of Pakistan
A protest movement by teachers and students’ unions, political and religious parties and community organisations across Punjab has been launched against the decision of the Punjab government to privatise 26 public sector colleges and to further the creation of a Board of Governors for the implementation of its decision. The board of Governors will comprise ten members including parliamentarians, experts from the education and social sector and a relevant commissioner who will head the board. This body will be independent to employ teachers, take managerial and administrative decisions and will be authorised to furnish projects. But how will students of poor ...
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Hunger knows no friend but its feeder
While a minority, born with a silver spoon living in their palatial havelis, luxurious farm houses and bungalows, can talk about the problems being faced by the country such as fake degrees, terrorism, the presidency and target killings on their dinner tables, with generators on standby and water tankers at their disposal, there are millions in this ‘land of the pure’ who survive on one meal per day and it is nearly impossible for them to make both ends meet no matter how hard they try. They are the deprived class, peasants or the masses that are being continuously exploited ...
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