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Friday March 29, 2024

Changing lifestyles

Children born on 14 August 1947, or a day after, are now 68 — which can be called most modern phase of their life so far. The heaven and the earth haven’t changed, but many of them and their children have changed their lifestyle. They drink ‘lassi’ from a coffee

By Zafar Alam Sarwar
March 17, 2015
Children born on 14 August 1947, or a day after, are now 68 — which can be called most modern phase of their life so far. The heaven and the earth haven’t changed, but many of them and their children have changed their lifestyle. They drink ‘lassi’ from a coffee mug; they speak English in Urdu and Urdu in English; and similarly educated rural and urban young women who had an opportunity to live abroad talk to babies in English.
How interesting, or better say ludicrous, it is when we say in Urdu ‘knowledge based city’ instead of ‘ilm
ka shahar’. Has this change occurred after the whole world was named a global village?
Common people of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, even other metropolitan cities, had expected peace and prosperity more than ever, but they have been facing poverty, unrest and uneasiness over the years in the wake of bread, vegetable and fruit price hike, shortage of clean drinking water, gas and electricity etc. The ordinary man can’t afford any luxury as most of our landlords and capitalists and well-to-do parliamentarians do: he complains of poor healthcare.
City olds in the present social, economic and democratic situation proudly say the lifestyle in the early period of the newly achieved Pakistan was comfortable, healthy and peaceful in an environment of friendship, brotherhood and neighbourhood.
At that time there were no pretensions and apprehensions, the spirit of equality, liberty and fraternity dominated hypocrisy. Hence, ‘roti’ of fine quality could be had from any ‘tandoor’ (oven) for an anna (six-paisa coin) and so were easily available pure milk, fresh butter and green vegetable at prices lower people could afford with a pleasant smile. That smile has long disappeared.
A multicolour change has come in our lifestyle which has eventually helped prices go up beyond the reach of the middle and lower, leaving aside the poor. We now have foreign brands of milk, butter, ‘dahi’ (yogurt) and so many food items. The so-called sweetness and taste of many branded food items costs a consumer two to three times higher than the original Pakistani food.
By the way, we are moving fast to adopt a very lavish lifestyle: we prefer to rebuild our house on an even more lavish scale than before. This reminds this scribe of a class fellow who turned a ‘burglar’ and used to eat lavish burger and one day he was seen in police lock-up in Lahore. He had to cover up his face with a handkerchief.
zasarwar@hotmail.com