The First Breath

An answer to…sacrifice. Now how did I come up with that? Well, I looked around me and saw some very nice people doing good deeds to others. And it isn’t that rare, either. Daily you can see a myriad of people helping each other out in everyday life.

The incident which forced me to write on this topic may seem to be very small in nature, but its true essence lies in the underlying sentiments involved. While traveling in a bus today, I saw an elderly person climb up. He was carrying a lot of stuff with him and was fully perspiring. Seeing this, another person instantly gave up his seat for that man to sit down and unwind himself from the intense heat outside.

I am not trying to promulgate the good intentions of the person who gave up his seat. Neither am I trying to make you realize the plight of the elderly man. What I am trying to say here is just that raw emotions are very hard to nurture. But if developed properly, they could very well lead to a considerate cause (do not imply at any point that this is a debate between nature and nurture). Today, we seem to have lost faith in the future and have developed antagonistic feelings regarding the present. We see our future either in another homeland or in a sovereign ruled by someone else. Why is it that we are unable to comprehend the significance of us living in an independent state?

The answer to that lies in the singular most important part of every act performed by us, i.e. the first step aka the initiative. Without the first act, any play is incomplete. An education is pointless without the first grade. A journey is no more a journey without taking the first step out of your house.  It has become a custom in most Pakistani households to criticize political leaders as well as Army chiefs. Every discussion/argument starts with the pretense ‘the problems in our country are due to….our borders are not being defended properly’ etc. What we fail to realize here is that this is OUR country, not someone else’s. We are responsible for everything that happens here, not some political leader. And by us, I mean all 169 million Pakistanis.

It is high time that we start doing something on our own for our homeland rather than sitting idle and gossiping around. Be proactive. Take responsibility for your acts, instead of blaming someone else. Take the first step and ask others to do so too. If we don’t make the sacrifice ourselves, how can we expect someone else to respect us? I beg you to please stop holding our leaders liable for our present circumstance and do something before our demise is unquestionable for good. There is a lot of good in us. All that’s required of us is to realize it. All hope is not lost yet, my friends.

Cheers,

Faheem