Seizing the gold(en) opportunity

For years and years together, I’ve been intoxicated with the thought that since I have lived such an eventful, multifaceted life, I’m a book in myself and as such I don’t need to read a book whatever its contents. But now the democratic publisher (taking cue from his publishing house’s name), Farrukh Goindi, has proved that all that I had been thinking throughout all these years was mere self-deception.
Now the realization has certainly dawned on me, thanks to this learned friend’s consistent efforts that books and ignorance are in inverse proportion to each other and likewise, ‘where there is a book, there is no self-deception.’
I rather repent as to why I could not manage time to visit the bookstall of marvelous books at the famous Expo Centre in the city of gardens, books and zealots (‘Zinda dalaan-e Lahore).
But this was not the only event that I missed during the last few days. Another important event that I missed despite repeated invitations from the hosts to deliver my speech was a largely attended discussion on the topic of 18th Amendment and women development in Punjab. The organisers are known for ‘human development works’ and have held a good few discussions on the devolution and delegation of powers under the 18th Amendment. This time, however, the topic chosen for discussion was certainly better than many previous ones because, ‘women development is the key to human development.’ The organisers’ mentors, whether they belong to the West or the East (some say American friends of Pakistan happen to be the guiding force) seem to have understood the reality behind overall development and that of course is women development.
In my humble opinion, a lot needs to be done in this area. The fact is that talking about development is rather being over-ambitious because the womenfolk despite their empowerment in some urban centres, are still at the receiving end in our

society that has not yet come out of the yoke of male dominance and male chauvinism.
Nevertheless, the thinking process must continue unabated since it tends to clear the path of wisdom from confusion (and thus from injustice). However, I fail to understand as to how can a constitutional amendment or a legal modification change the socio-cultural ethos? With this question in my mind, when I carried out a little probe into this domain, I came across two lucid examples of transformation through external force as well as through the ‘force from above’. And this force from above is none other than the passionate governance of Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif who has brought about some massive changes in two hardened social patterns: one, the festival of kite-flying and the other is pomposity and waste of time and money in wedding ceremonies. Traveling through the cities and towns of Punjab, one comes across scores of hoardings declaring kite-flying ‘a serious crime’. Now who doesn’t know as to how much emotional attachment the people of Pakistan, especially Punjab have with kites and kite-flying? There was no likelihood of changing this impassioned social and behavioural custom through law since in most parts of the world, only those laws are obeyed willingly and widely which don’t stand in conflict with local traditions and passions. In this regard, however, one serious factor provided moral authority to the CM and that was the throat-slitting of many children through chemical-coated kite strings which also attracted the attention of superior judicial forums that too imposed restrictions in view of this peril.
As regards the area of austerity in weddings, Shahbaz Sharif did it all alone by himself and hit hard at two major social ailments namely ‘conspicuous consumption’ and ‘ostentatious effect’ that have been the salient features of our wedding ceremonies for decades.
In the midst of these two missed events (you might have read my column ‘Things gone missing, missing’ on missing factors), another important thing missed was the opportunity to view the precious metal/s in the hands of Prime Minister at Chiniot where prospects seem to be so much bright that the nation would at last be rid of the ‘begging bowl’ (‘Kushkol’), to quote PM Nawaz Sharif. The PM rather goes far beyond ridding the nation as he says that the begging bowl would be broken and dropped down on earth from heights (of prosperity and self-reliance).
One would like to remind Mr PM that the ‘breaking the begging bowl mantra’ had been the most trumpeted affair of the past eras of PM Sharif. That destination slipped out of hands during those times but now the Nature too is showering lot of kindness. It’s about time that we seized this gold(en) opportunity to restore the nation’s self-esteem with sound planning and good sense of timing.
(mianrehman1gmail.com)