A Foolish Man

Its 25th December, see the picture, recognize it? obviously you do, this is your 'beloved' Quaid-e-Azam, Father of the nation, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Founder of Pakistan, he was born this day and died on 11th September, what tragedy that both dates are now monument of something more significant than him; wait, how can be something more significant than him? 2,996 people died in 9/11, none of them was Pakistani, yet we are are at the center of it, growing with a ratio of 2.9% (Which is faster than the ratio of world population 2.3%) in 2025, Muslims will represent 30% of world becoming the largest religion, yet we celebrate Christmas more than the person who gave us the the only republic built on Islamic ideology.

All year long, our company spent thousands of rupees celebrating Halloween, 14th August, 6th September, Eid and obviously Christmas, but sadly no one stepped up for Quaid, even the Mangoes were more celebrated than him, from Media to masses, be it different talk shows or bulk-sms, I couldn't find anything related,  few of the articles that were written had more politics than Jinnah in it.

Just the the other day I was watching a slow-paced Indian movie Raod to Sangam and sensible actors such as Paresh Rawal and Om Puri shocked me by taking roles that clearly did not represent us, crossing the line they didnt even let Jinnah go, blaming him for filing a case in Indian court to prove that he was not a true Muslim so that all property could go to his daughter.

Just imagine if something of similar nature had happened in a Pakistani drama or Film, what would have been the Indian reaction, but I haven't found anything against the film so far and its been an year to release. Prime example was Jaswant Singh's political biography of Jinnah - Partition f India, where he admitted to the greatness of the man and the reaction was obvious.

We now know where we stand in Pakistan and it is gratifying that a re-emergence of Jinnah occurred in India. Work on Jinnah continues in Pakistan, the latest being The Jinnah Anthology, but our celebrations of the Independence Day instead of being thought-provoking and academic enlightenment of the people, particularly the youth, is confined to the usual lip-service, waving flags, and patriotic dramas and songs. Notwithstanding this situation, the world will continue to assess Jinnah’s capabilities and he will be judged by the totality of his achievements in the background of the situation he was placed in and the role he was destined to play. The new political biography by Jaswant Singh is an example of this continued exercise which will hopefully continue. 

Dawn News - Friday, 21 Aug, 2009

I am not amused because we want to know more about Katrina Kaif, listen more to dumb-headed Shaikh Rasheed, watch more of Rang De Basanti than Film Jinnah, and that's exactly the course our future breed is going to follow unless we decide other wise, decide not to only post a quote of Quaid on your Facebook status but to actually try and understand that why is that he believed so much in us, only if he could see the future he would have known how foolish he was to give us a country that we don't even remember the birth-years of..

Written 25th December 2010