Naseem, is a six year old girl. When I met her she was sitting on the charpoi with her mother and constantly clapping but without any mirth. Her hair was cut almost to her scalp. I was told that she was a miracle child, she had been suffering from severe acute malnutrition and her family and relatives had almost given up hope that she would survive but she had proven all stats wrong and was sitting right in front of us. Physically, she was on the mend but her mental growth had been irreversibly stunted. She did not respond to any movement, any gesture or sound, her mind was somewhere else...
A little boy, hardly seven, sitting on the curbside on an otherwise busy junction but at 0100AM he seemed so out of place on that dark, deserted road. As we stopped at the traffic signal, on the road perpendicular to where he was sitting, my attention was drawn to his posture. His slumped back was towards me and as I watched, two cars stopped on the lanes furthest from him. He made an effort to stand but seemed uncertain and sat down again but in the very next instant he got up as if being prompted by an outside force. He walked slowly to the car closest to him and knocked on the window. That is when I noticed the wiper in his hand. He was turned down, I prayed internally that it was done with kindness, and then I saw him move to the other car. By that time lights changed for us and we sped away. I looked back to see what happened to him but getting a glimpse of him on that forlorn road I could see that lights would never change for him...
When I asked a mother who gave birth 7 times how old she was, she rushed to her small room and returned with her ID card. The year written on that card was 1981. I was amazed to see that these years did not show on her face. As I started talking to her, one of her brothers came to talk to me as well. I asked him how old he was and he said he was a year older than his sister and was born in 1995. That put his sister's age at 16 and she had already been married for eight years! The first three babies had all died within two months of being born and her oldest surviving son had drowned recently at the age of 4. She was her husband's second wife who was old enough to be her father. He had married her because his first wife could not conceive. Now he had three young children. The saddest thing was that it was not a unique story but almost every home I visited there was some such story. Early marriages, when the mother herself had not completely developed physically almost always resulted in infant mortality and morbidity in the surviving children...
These things should not exist in our country. These are unacceptable, tragic and criminal! But when I sit down to watch TV all I see is news that is far removed from what is the reality for 99 percent Pakistanis. Whether it is Zur-dari, Gill-ani or Ass-ruf, reality for us hasn't changed and cannot change-or at least not for the better. Seeing how our people live in this country even the most optimistic person will tell you that hoping that their fates will change in our lifetime is an impossibility. There is nothing more to be said!
Screw you all sitting in the National Assembly and Senate!!
A little boy, hardly seven, sitting on the curbside on an otherwise busy junction but at 0100AM he seemed so out of place on that dark, deserted road. As we stopped at the traffic signal, on the road perpendicular to where he was sitting, my attention was drawn to his posture. His slumped back was towards me and as I watched, two cars stopped on the lanes furthest from him. He made an effort to stand but seemed uncertain and sat down again but in the very next instant he got up as if being prompted by an outside force. He walked slowly to the car closest to him and knocked on the window. That is when I noticed the wiper in his hand. He was turned down, I prayed internally that it was done with kindness, and then I saw him move to the other car. By that time lights changed for us and we sped away. I looked back to see what happened to him but getting a glimpse of him on that forlorn road I could see that lights would never change for him...
When I asked a mother who gave birth 7 times how old she was, she rushed to her small room and returned with her ID card. The year written on that card was 1981. I was amazed to see that these years did not show on her face. As I started talking to her, one of her brothers came to talk to me as well. I asked him how old he was and he said he was a year older than his sister and was born in 1995. That put his sister's age at 16 and she had already been married for eight years! The first three babies had all died within two months of being born and her oldest surviving son had drowned recently at the age of 4. She was her husband's second wife who was old enough to be her father. He had married her because his first wife could not conceive. Now he had three young children. The saddest thing was that it was not a unique story but almost every home I visited there was some such story. Early marriages, when the mother herself had not completely developed physically almost always resulted in infant mortality and morbidity in the surviving children...
These things should not exist in our country. These are unacceptable, tragic and criminal! But when I sit down to watch TV all I see is news that is far removed from what is the reality for 99 percent Pakistanis. Whether it is Zur-dari, Gill-ani or Ass-ruf, reality for us hasn't changed and cannot change-or at least not for the better. Seeing how our people live in this country even the most optimistic person will tell you that hoping that their fates will change in our lifetime is an impossibility. There is nothing more to be said!
Screw you all sitting in the National Assembly and Senate!!
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