A "Disturbed yet Proud" Pakistani

The 14^th August marks the partition of the subcontinent, it marks its distribution into three countries (initially there were 2 now its 3) Pakistan, India, Bangladesh.  As one would expect, this is a day for us the people of subcontinent to rejoice the birth of our respective countries. Decorate our houses, cars, streets etc with green stuff, hoist the Pakistani Flag on our homes and cover the bonnets of our cars with it too, take it out on a long drive and just have fun, blast the stereo with those classic national songs that we all used to sing along back in our childhood days, yes that’s exactly what we’ll be doing tomorrow.

Ah yes we the people of Generation Y and X have had the time of our lives back in our days (make no mistake about it). But this is not about us, it’s about the forthcoming generation, the kids of the late 90’s and the 2000’s, the Pakistan that they have grown up to see is full of chaos to be honest. Suicide attacks, bomb blasts, lack of everyday resources, law and order situation, sense of insecurity and what not. We can recall the old days just to distract ourselves all we want but the fact remains the same, where is this country headed?

With the passage of time, more people are inclined towards leaving Pakistan and settling abroad and they cannot be blamed, after all no one wants to leave their home for good, the circumstances force us to consider this option. What disturbs me personally is that since I have joined a few forums and while telling each other about the place where we come from, whenever I mention Pakistan I always expect something like “Whoa” “Oh” and occasionally, “O, cool” but the name of the country does shake people up a bit (honestly speaking). On the bright side there are people that do ask me questions like “How is Pakistan” and even call me “Pak-Man” (derived from the game Pac man) and also there are those few that are sorry for what we have become (don’t know what they actually think) and some want to visit Pakistan one fine day but I personally am not in favor of this decision right now, reason we all know.

Despite all these negative views about my homeland, I am still proud of who I am. I am proud of the fact that I am a Pakistani, proud of being a Muslim, proud of living in a place full of such brave and talented people, proud of the fact that no matter what, when disaster strikes we all unite to help, proud because no matter how much we are pushed against the wall we always come back strong and we never give up. I am proud of the fact that we are blessed with record holders in miscellaneous fields of life. The passion the will to perform and send a message to the entire world still lives within and this is something that has kept us moving forward in spite of numerous internal and external challenges we face.

No matter if we live or move abroad, our hearts will always remain here. And let’s also not take this living abroad thing the wrong way; we can use that platform to make the image of our country better in our individual small ways. People would love to comeback to Pakistan but again the circumstances force to think otherwise for now. But again the kind of people we are, we know that we will be back on our feet for real in the future In Sha Allah.

On this Independence Day, apart from remembering the numerous sacrifices laid down for this country, let’s all remember the Pakistan that was and let’s hope that we go back to what it used to be, the feeling of enjoying the Independence Day the way we used to especially the way we celebrated the Golden Jubilee. We maybe lucky to have seen what we call the “Good Ol’ Days” but our children may not be. The intentions are loud and clear, we all want that Pakistan back. 

Happy Independence Day and Pakistan Zindabad