What fun to watch so heart wrenching ‘Political Rudalis’!

Islamabad: ‘Rudali’ is an old, or to put it more appropriately, ‘ancient’ tradition practiced in Rajhistan of India. Some say that the same tradition was practiced in parts of Middle East and Africa tool.

Somebody even went to the extent to tell me that the tradition of ‘rudali’ was practiced during Pharaoh’s time too!According to this ‘Rudali’ tradition, when somebody dies and there is nobody to traditionally mourn his death, a group of people, men, women and children, are hired to come over for wailing, crying and chest beating to impress the people around as to how much the deceased was loved and how much he/she would be missed by the mourners.

Unfortunately, the ‘Rudalis’ are hired or engaged for a person who may not been much loved or liked by the people immediately around him. Obviously the family members, who may be feeling happy deep down in their hearts but have to show to the public that they loved and cared for the departed soul and they are hurt, sad and shocked.

Quietly mumbling ‘good riddance’ inwardly!

So, one can assume with pretty much surety that those who needed these ‘rudalis’ were either the ones who were at least disliked if not hated out rightly by those who were supposed to be crying and be saddened on their death.

And because it is a social necessity to present a show to the public that the ‘dear departed’ was a popular and loved person and his mourners were really hurt and in pain over the tragedy, that is why so many people, men, women and children have gathered outside, screaming, crying, swearing and putting dust in their heads over the loss.

The bigger the ‘rudali show’ is, the happier are the heirs! The social status of the family is protected and preserved and their heads are held high as their pride remains intact because there are so many people out there who are mourning and agitating so vociferously for their dead.

Some busy narrating the deceased’s wisdom, some screaming about his philanthropy, some moaning about his kindness. All trying to portray the deceased as one of the best person ever walked the face of earth!

I confess that I know nothing, or at least very little about our current politics. The only period I covered political activities, covering the Senate and the National Assembly, the Interior Ministry, the office of the Prime Minister and others was from 1991 to 1993.

I developed differences over a story with my Chief Reporter, Mohammad Yasin sahib (May God bless his soul). We presented ourselves before Altaf Gohar (May God bless his soul), who at that time was the chief editor. After hearing the two of us out he eventually told me to obey my senior. I obeyed and quit political reporting! I switched my focus of reporting to education, health and civic issues.

It was a few years back that I started taking a little interest in the political activities anew. I assure everybody that the Panama Leaks has nothing to do with stirring up my interest in politics. I started paying attention to political activities and developments much before that!And now what I feel is that there are so many ‘rudali shows’ going on in the political arena around us every day! Each performer striving to beat the other to emerge a better ‘rudali’!