19th December, 2011.
22.40 hrs
I am in the train on my way back home from Rourkela. When the bed linen was being handed, my mother asked for a cleaner pillow case and a few extra napkins. The railway attendant pleasantly offered that this was his first day at work, and hence probably the lapse. He was better off at Kargil, he joked. Wars are easier than daily laundry battles, he added.
These days I'm reading Songs Of Blood And Sword, by Fatima Bhutto. It's a memoir of her father, Mir Murtaza Bhutto she's writing, especially to provide her younger brother Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Jr., a way of remembering the father he lost when he was only 6. The book covers a lot of Pakistan's political history, in vivid detail. Any way, there during my read, i came across a part where Fatima mentions that Gilani, Yousuf Raza Gilani, the current Pak PM, was an Army official in Gen Zia's regime, and was something of a favorite of the dictator.
The point is Pakistan's not-so-popular Army continues to enjoy extreme respect, spontaneous or forced, even to this date. And in spite of having been an active part of the military regime that executed Pakistan's first democratically elected PM, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (Fatima's grandfather), Gilani goes on to become the second most powerful person in Pakistan today.
And a man who fought for our country in the freezing Himalayas, a mere 12 years back, and made God knows how many personal sacrifices for us, works as a railway attendant after his retirement from the Army.
Most of us Indians have great reverence for our servicemen, and while reading this will be as overwhelmed with emotion, as I am while writing this.
But most people who will come across him in this new job of his, on a regular basis now, will most probably be unaware of his background and will probably mistreat him the way they usually treat "railway attendants", without realising that this man risjed his world 12 years back for our sake. When he didn't know about us. Like we don't know about him today. Same situation, actions worlds apart..
What am I feeling now?
Overwhelmed?
Sad?
None actually.
Right now I am an ashamed Indian, ashamed of my country that doesn't know how to show gratitude to people who are the reason we are not in the pitiable state that Pakistan is, even aft er 64 years of independence.
-An ashamed Indian.
22.40 hrs
I am in the train on my way back home from Rourkela. When the bed linen was being handed, my mother asked for a cleaner pillow case and a few extra napkins. The railway attendant pleasantly offered that this was his first day at work, and hence probably the lapse. He was better off at Kargil, he joked. Wars are easier than daily laundry battles, he added.
These days I'm reading Songs Of Blood And Sword, by Fatima Bhutto. It's a memoir of her father, Mir Murtaza Bhutto she's writing, especially to provide her younger brother Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Jr., a way of remembering the father he lost when he was only 6. The book covers a lot of Pakistan's political history, in vivid detail. Any way, there during my read, i came across a part where Fatima mentions that Gilani, Yousuf Raza Gilani, the current Pak PM, was an Army official in Gen Zia's regime, and was something of a favorite of the dictator.
The point is Pakistan's not-so-popular Army continues to enjoy extreme respect, spontaneous or forced, even to this date. And in spite of having been an active part of the military regime that executed Pakistan's first democratically elected PM, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (Fatima's grandfather), Gilani goes on to become the second most powerful person in Pakistan today.
And a man who fought for our country in the freezing Himalayas, a mere 12 years back, and made God knows how many personal sacrifices for us, works as a railway attendant after his retirement from the Army.
Most of us Indians have great reverence for our servicemen, and while reading this will be as overwhelmed with emotion, as I am while writing this.
But most people who will come across him in this new job of his, on a regular basis now, will most probably be unaware of his background and will probably mistreat him the way they usually treat "railway attendants", without realising that this man risjed his world 12 years back for our sake. When he didn't know about us. Like we don't know about him today. Same situation, actions worlds apart..
What am I feeling now?
Overwhelmed?
Sad?
None actually.
Right now I am an ashamed Indian, ashamed of my country that doesn't know how to show gratitude to people who are the reason we are not in the pitiable state that Pakistan is, even aft er 64 years of independence.
-An ashamed Indian.
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