Zaman, (Pseudonym employed), one of my dear friends, is one among the 65.4 million youth in the country who was provided with a promise based on religious optimism. And, for years he was someone who always came up with great hope for a brilliant future, which he used to envision in the future of this country. He always said, this country has indeed great promise to offer since the majority of its population comprises youth, who will engineer an era of progress. He was the one, with great ambition to build a future, which might be written in golden letters.
But, the last time I met the guy. He told me that he has decided to leave the country to make his way ahead for the future. I was terribly shocked at this strange (and what I initially thought) impulsive decision from a person who has always shared a glitter of hope during his conversation. And, who has always said to me that this country has great promise to offer? To him, it was a promised land to which his grandfathers migrated with immense hope for a future that was shared by a vision of progress, opportunity, and resilience.
But, I could not resist asking myself the question why do our youth have to leave the promised land for a painful exile in order to hunt for their living? Why has this country failed to live up to the promises which were seen with sharp courage of optimism? Why are here specters of doubts, where, once there was extreme hope?
So, the answer was very annoying, we created a great Frankensteinian monster, whom we thought would give us a future, which was “promised”. But, the monster indeed is eating the very soil which has watered its soul to bring existence out of it. The ideology upon which we cherished (the ideology based on conservative religious doctrine) has bred a ground for extremists to cherish their lively existence. The throats of innocent citizens were split in the name of a “merciful God”. We failed to give teachings of peace which were at the soul of our religion. We converted the land of “pure” into a land of vultures that thrive upon the blood of dying creature. We have corrupted our souls with greed and vices. We have created a discourse of hate in our consciousness which prevent us from getting the lines right for mutual progress alongside our neighbors. We are born with a burden of history, which we need to get rid of. We have divided society in the name of religion, casts, ethnicity, locality, and so on and so forth. We have lost touch with our super-conscience.
We have hardly done any introspection which was required. We have cherished the rhetoric of hate and created a polity that is polarized to the extremes at its core. We failed to determine our paths as a nation. We made policies that backfired against us. We have created a population that was beyond our ability to keep up with. I remember the lines by Syed Zameer Jafri:
“shauq se laḳht-e-jigar nūr-e-nazar paidā karo
zālimo thoḌī sī gandum bhī magar paidā karo”
“Do produce a generation of your beloved with great fondness
But, at least produce enough food to feed them”
One of my good-natured friends recently said to me. You have lost hope in this country. I replied with a cold sigh of discomfort that “it was not “I” who have lost it. It would have been great if it would only be me.” But, it is a story of 60 million, who have lost hope in the promised land. This was once a land of optimism, now there is great despair. It is a story of 65.4 million and a group of despicable political comrades who have cherished their departure because now the remittances will flow and revive the country’s economy. I would have been much happy if that optimism in the promised land might not have been lost. I would have been much happy if the land would have produced enough for the sustenance of his sons and daughters. I would have been much happy if my friend Zaman would not have to leave this country, for whom, once he had shared relentless optimism. Sooner or later, the departure is coming. And, it would not be one soul that would depart. It would be a departure from the hope which was born in the 20th century. It would be a new century where despair is overtaking optimism.
