"have you considered immigration? ", "are you guys applying anywhere to immigrate?". Immigration is a topic that often pops up in conversations around me. Reasons are simple, few and very obvious. Security, Political and Economic instability, rise of fundamentalism and the very poor or increasingly expensive education and health system. perhaps for the very rich and the very poor, life seems to be the same. but for those who dwell in the middle , life is getting perpetually difficult. my tutor once told me that all the moralities and cultural values are retained and held together by the middle class in the south east Asia. and i agree with that. people of the middle class seems to be the ones who cant let themselves fall down to the pits of begging or cleaning others houses. and they are the ones who are trying to safe face end up suffering from all kind of psychological and heart diseases. so if you look around you'll observe that there is a big number of young people from this strata of society that are opting for moving to other countries , anticipating to live the American Dream. and ever since the late, sorry "last" (i wish) prime minister of Pakistan , Mr. Gillani outrightly stated in an interview to a foreign tv channel that WHO IS STOPPING THEM? them being the young generation of Pakistan who wants to move out of the country as they don't see a good future here, i have been really doubting my dreams of a revolution bringing about a good change for good in this country! i still can feel goosebumps whenever i think of that rotten interview of his. i mean, how can a person on such an important post not care about keeping the youth of the country stick there. shouldnt the job of these ***holes be to provide an environment of Hope if nothing else, for the young people in the country so they can at least Try to build this a better place? no? i should just Let It Be? i should just sit and keep blaming everything on America? (yeah..America. that is another popular thing going on in the conversations here. people , especially those who trust everything that the media tells them, tend to blame everything on America! i dont understand why. ) i should just keep whining and hope that the next elections are going to bring a change? will Imran Khan actually be able to reform this country ? will he even be able to win the next elections?
i dont have answers to any of these questions and you have no idea how frustrating that is unless you are experiencing this first hand. i remember when i was a kid i could go alone to the grocery store near my house to buy a pack of crisps , but i cannt even imagine sending my daughters out alone to do that. there are no clean play parks near my house where the children can go play on swings or slides without the fear of dengue or security. the chickens are fed with god know what, that from the dermatologist to the gynacologists are all telling the patients to stop consuming chicken and specially not to feed it to young girls. i have stopped watching news channels for almost 6 months now and if by chance i do encounter them they never sieze to depress me.
Depression is another buzz word. it hardly misses a conversation. "i am so depressed these days.", " my mother is going through a depression you know", "how is that friend of yours who looked so depressed in the party?". well i am not saying that depression is something of a speciality here that the rest of the world is not experiencing, but here somehow there are so many agents to trigger off this state that it seems inevitable. the other day my husband asked me to count faces on the road that appeared happy. and i was depressed to find none. No Happy Face on the roads of Lahore! how very sad. In the markets, the buyers and the shop keepers are sternly busy. Behind the driving seat, all the drivers are stressed out because of the crazy traffic. in the cafes most of the people are dicussing politics or the matches we are loosing. at Mcdonalds the mothers are bitching about in-laws and the children are whining for more ice-creams. i looked at my husband and smiled before we go off the car and i said, "here. this smile should mean the world to you love." and he smiled back at me.
and that is how i ignore everything hapenning outside the bubble of my little world and think , "when people immigrate outside Pakistan, do they smile more often?"
i dont have answers to any of these questions and you have no idea how frustrating that is unless you are experiencing this first hand. i remember when i was a kid i could go alone to the grocery store near my house to buy a pack of crisps , but i cannt even imagine sending my daughters out alone to do that. there are no clean play parks near my house where the children can go play on swings or slides without the fear of dengue or security. the chickens are fed with god know what, that from the dermatologist to the gynacologists are all telling the patients to stop consuming chicken and specially not to feed it to young girls. i have stopped watching news channels for almost 6 months now and if by chance i do encounter them they never sieze to depress me.
Depression is another buzz word. it hardly misses a conversation. "i am so depressed these days.", " my mother is going through a depression you know", "how is that friend of yours who looked so depressed in the party?". well i am not saying that depression is something of a speciality here that the rest of the world is not experiencing, but here somehow there are so many agents to trigger off this state that it seems inevitable. the other day my husband asked me to count faces on the road that appeared happy. and i was depressed to find none. No Happy Face on the roads of Lahore! how very sad. In the markets, the buyers and the shop keepers are sternly busy. Behind the driving seat, all the drivers are stressed out because of the crazy traffic. in the cafes most of the people are dicussing politics or the matches we are loosing. at Mcdonalds the mothers are bitching about in-laws and the children are whining for more ice-creams. i looked at my husband and smiled before we go off the car and i said, "here. this smile should mean the world to you love." and he smiled back at me.
and that is how i ignore everything hapenning outside the bubble of my little world and think , "when people immigrate outside Pakistan, do they smile more often?"
well i dont know if people smile more often but im sure the issues are much less trivial, i would want this mess of a country to work but sadly no body really cares any more.. one shot of happy and two shots of sad keep us all going on till we really drop.
ReplyDelete