As usual, in the morning, when I opened the window, a strange but mischievous air current welcomed me in such a way as if it wants not only to shake hand with me but also desires to embrace me. I don’t know, the time from when the poor fellow was waiting for the window to be opened.
Sometimes, we get a feeling as if some invisible thing also becomes restless to get compatible completely with a visible thing and to embrace each other. When such a moment spreads, it causes Dante to write “Divine Comedy” Milton to write “Paradise Lost” and Dr. Iqbal to write “Javed Nama”. If you ask me, this air current for me was very strange but full of anxiety and unexpected. It was such an air current which bestowed my existence such an excitement that its touched shooked my body, changed the taste of my tongue, freshness to my heart, fragrance to my mind. Bewildered with this sort of unexpected situation, when I looked at the sky, I saw that the sky is clean, there is some brightness in the east. The pieces of the wandering departing clouds of the monsoon are flying along with some birds. Whatever rainwater the clouds wanted to shower on the surface of the Earth, they did it. Now the time has come for their departure. So to say, the weather is changing and this unexpected air current has arrived to disclose the good news to me of coming of good weather.
For the past crores of years, this is the routine of the universe. When a weather ends; another follows it. No conflict or collision takes place. Many seasons come and pass away after playing their moves of peace. Contrary to this, many civilizations continue to flourish initially but later human being goes on destroying it. When we consider the rise and fall of the Babylonian, Harappan, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Persian, Arabic and Turkish civilizations, a thought occurs in our mind that alas! These civilizations should have also continued the routine of coming and going without any conflict or collision exactly like the changes of weather.
Is it necessary that in the course of human history, whenever a Baghdad is seen to be progressing, from time to time, a certain Changhase Khan and a George W. Bush are essentially born to destroy it.
When I encountered this air current, I was surprised that what is the sense of this air current in coming to an ordinary writer of humour like me. It should have gone to a Dante, a Milton and somebody like Dr. Iqbal. If it comes to me, I may treat it in a trivial and ordinary humorous way and would bring disrepute to it. However, I have the long experience of being alive for the three-fourth part of the last cruel and brutal century. I have learnt many things and I have suffered a lot. This air current is nothing for me. It is said that the excessive use feelings makes the human being an automatically immune to feelings and I have been passing through this phase of excessive use of feelings. However, this air current had made the condition of my heart lively for a moment and it had made my spirit very tender and crystal clear. After sometime, when the newspaper came, I glanced thourgh it. I read the news items of firing in Communal riots, bomb blast in Delhi High Court, brutal killing incidents in Libya and Afghanistan, maintenance of law and order situation in connection with the ensuing festivals. The liveliness of my heart fizzled out and I became a normal human being once again. You know that today’s normal human being is the product of so many abnormal factors, situations and incidents. Half a century ago, in our time whenever there were festivals in our society, they used to fill the atmosphere with pleasures. Now that when we get our festivals, we get worried. It is also an accidence that we have so many festivals which perhaps, no other country has. So to say that it is essential to maintain worries all the time. You must have seen that whenever any festival comes to an end in a peaceful manner, some people feel happy and celebrate felicitation functions of police officers and garland them, although these officials get their salaries so that peace is maintained. Most of our festivals are celebrated to commemorate the victory of virtue over the evil, truth over falsehood or on the birthdays of our great prophets or their sacrifice. All these are related to peace, intense humanism, love and affection. It is a very strange thing that why is it so that fear and anxiety spread among the people when such festivals of love and affection are celebrated. I have a far-sighted friend of mine who believes in storing a huge stock of food stuff and drinks in his house on the occasion of every festival shopping. It is not known when something falls short.
It was a coincidence that the day before yesterday, it was a Government holiday in connection with some festival and the market was to be closed on the next day. I suddenly recollected that a certain medicine of mine has been exhausted and it has to be purchased today itself because there is a holiday tomorrow. I mentioned the tablet of that medicine to my friend Mr. Ali Zaheer. He brought his motor car. I met a friend of mine. He was also going to market to buy some articles. He accompanied us to the market. We got stranded in traffic jam for about one and a half hour. We went round the medical shops but we couldn’t get that tablet in search of which I had started from my house. My friend brought bread, sugar, butter and every other article which was available in the market. It seemed that he had started from his house with an intention to purchase articles for the entire week. It not only speaks of his far-sightedness but also the intensity of his fear and anxiety. Although, on the way, there was a shop where the articles of funeral needs such as ‘kafan’ etc were available. Mr. Ali Zaheer, making use of his personal far-sightedness, increased the speed of his car so as to prevent our friend from purchasing the articles which are useful in the life ‘hereafter’. The man of the past period, whenever he used to buy some things, he also used to include the needs of the coming generations. He used to think that he won’t be able to reap the fruits of the trees which he had planted. However, he used to be contented with the idea that the future generations will be able to eat fruits of this tree. But alas! The arena of today’s man does not exceed beyond the needs of a week or more. This is the maximum limit of his far-sightedness which his selfishness also warrants. But there was one difficulty with our friend. Somebody had knocked off his cell phone two days back and without which he was feeling himself handicapped. He used to take a long sigh of sorrow in memory of his cell phone after purchasing every article. He used to say that he is forced to buy more things because of lack of his cell phone. He thought that if something happens how can he contact the people in the rest of the world without the cell phone. After seeing his disappointment on the loss of his cell phone and after feeling his anxiety over the mortality of his life, I narrated this couplet of Dagh Dehelvi with a slight deviation;
Hosh voh hawaas thaab voh tawaan dagh ja chuke
Ab hum bhi jane walay hain, mobile to gaya.
(Sense and consciousness, strength and energy have gone oh Dagh!
We are also going now, mobile has gone)
Instead of enjoying with this deviation, he got angry at me and said” I am worried and you are making fun of me”.
Under the spell of the wandering air current and in the state of ecstasy, I had started this column but the turn of events, thoughts, the accidents have taken me to a far off place. The pleasant air current, when it tinkled me, I recollected this couplet of Insha;
Na Chhaid aay nikhath-e-baad-e-bahari, raah lag apni
thujhe athkheliyan soojhi hain, hum bezaar baithay hain
(Don’t tease me oh breeze of spring, mind your way
you want to play mischief and we are sitting vexed up)
We don’t know where is this world going and in which direction it is going? Although, the human being has made this sphere of Earth a global village as a result of which the speed of the world has become very fast and we started fearing with this high speed of the world. Regarding speed, in addition to moderate and safe movement, I also believe in the straight and righteous path. Now that the human being is not following the straight or righteous path, but he is following the divided path. Every human being is running. Bet he does not know in which direction he is running and why is he running in this manner. An unknown travel and a destinationless destiny is becoming part of his fortune. Then, the higher speed essentially becomes the cause of some terrible accident. I am also personally involved in the fear of the accident. Human being is no longer human but in dealing with machines, he has also become an ordinary part of a dreadful economic system. He has neither individuality nor humanism.
Please pardon me. Unnecessarily I got serious, although I basically believe in leading a hopeful life. There is a beautiful couplet of Naser Kazimi;
Dayam Abaad Rehegi yeah duniya
Hum Na hongay, koyi hum sa hoga
(This world will eternally be inhabited
we won’t be there, someone else like me will be there)
This couplet is my ideal. Naser Kazimi had composed this couplet years ago. I also used to think that eventhough I won’t be there but someone like me will certainly be there. When I set out to find out the interpretation of this couplet, leave alone Naser Kazimi, I don’t find even a man like me till far off places. Don’t take it as a self praise but consider it as the dreadful end of the decline of a human being.