Indeed, the rattling of bones is scarier than the silence of the graveyard. But that’s what I experienced on a holy Friday.
It was like a Grand Jirga. Many of the star-studded names from our so-called strategic community were assembled in a five-star hotel, to jump-start their brains and break the Indo-Pak deadlock. Like their memories, it was a forgettable experience – though very helpful to understand why our think-tankers cannot come out of their safe havens.
Former diplomats formed the majority of the group. During their service, they used to mince words for the sake of national interest. Now, even those whose personal views might have changed, double-spoke in unison — but did juggle with the words. The academia did marvellous work: stuck to the books they read in their elementary schools. A few fired cartridges refilled with dud explosives, provided enough proof that old soldiers who acquire a literary camouflage can only fire blanks. There must have been an odd old civil servant whose verses I mercifully missed. Politicians, as is their wont, said nothing of substance.
The financial experts were the most pathetic. They pleaded for a growth rate twice of India, but didn’t tell us how to go about it. They also conveniently ignored that our economy grew six percent and more annually for three decades; and if it burst like a bubble, it couldn’t be the main prop that helps a country keep its head high. One only has to look at the oil sheikhdoms to feel the depths they’ve reached to protect their riches.
There was also an upside to this farce — one could dose off whenever one liked. I had a good 30 minutes nap when a highly made-up dummy took the floor.
Our youngsters from the so-called backward areas are going around the world to show their mettle
The much-awaited good news came at the end. A professor at a prestigious house said that the youth now had no faith in people like us who go around pontificating what we couldn’t do anything about when at the helm. I always found that to be a good starting point.
In an event at the Peshawar University, a young lady from our tribal areas told the elders to go climb a pole (such keh doan aei brahmin gar tu buran na mane; terey sanamkade ke butt ho gae puraney). Our youngsters from the so-called backward areas are going around the world to show their mettle.
More than a decade ago in Kabul, in another jirga-like gathering, only a woman from a faraway village said something sensible. No surprise that the pragmatic peripheries have always prevailed upon the AI-generated urban unwisdom.
May Allah save our budding generations from their fossilised forefathers. Let’s only attend these charades if the younger generation took the front seat.
PS: Only a coincidence, perhaps, that on the same day, a man from a humble background drowned the British snobs in the Thames.