ATP contributor Mast Qalandar is a chronicler par excellence of ‘All Things Islamabad’ (here, here, here, here, here). His writings on Islamabad constantly reminds us – even those of us who have lived long in the Capital city – that Islamabad is much more (and also much less) than what we think it is.
Indeed, like any other city, Islamabad is a city of many faces. That, in itself, is not unusual. What is unusual, and worthy of note, is that too many of these faces of Islamabad are totally hidden from the public discourse on the city. Including from the discourse of those who live there. This post is about one such face.
The particular face you see above is that of Masoom Bibi. It is captured here by photojournalist B.K. Bangash of AP. I have written about B.K. Bangash before and I know him from the Zia-ul-Haq days when I was a school kid writing on sports for The Muslim in Islamabad and he was already capturing amazing human sentiments on film like the ones he captures here.
To understand this face of Islamabad look also at the other photographs in the series. They all relate to the cost of living in Pakistan and how the poor in Pakistan are coping with the recent hikes in the price of everything in Pakistan. The AP caption reminds us that “in the recent months milk prices go to Rs 42 per liter from 30, prices of rice sky rocketed to double, a 20 kilograms bag of wheat flour jumped to Rs. 350 (US$5.80) from the usual price of Rs. 230 (US$3.80) and also flour became a scarce commodity.”
What is immediately striking here is that this, too, is Islamabad. This is not the Islamabad of politicians, of bureaucrats, of foreign dignitaries, of buzzing streets. This is the Islamabad of Masoom Bibi.
This is an Islamabad that we ignore. An Islamabad we deny. An Islamabad we would rather wish away. Just like we would much rather ignore, deny and wish away Masoom Bibi. But here is a reality that we cannot ignore, cannot deny, cannot wish away. Masoom Bibi is real. Her challenges of daily survival are real. And so is her Islamabad.
At the end of the day, it is not just about this other Islamabad or even about Masoom Bibi alone. This reality is everywhere around us (here, here here, here, here, here, here). There are Masoom Bibi’s everywhere around us. It is all too easy to get worked up about politics. About ideology. About religion. But the lives of and the survival challenges of ordinary people are too “ordinary” for us to get excited about.
Today, we will look at Masoom Bibi with a tinge of discomfort in our heart, and we will look away. Waiting for her – or at least this post – to disappear. Tomorrow will be another day. A day without Masoom Bibi to haunt us. Tomorrow, our passions will return and the firebrand pontificates of various political and religious and ideological ilks will invade this blog again telling everyone else just how right they themsleves are and just how wrong everyone else is.
Tomorrow, we will all secretly wish, Masoom Bibi will be gone. Except, she won’t!
I think this is from Iqbal:
tou qadir-imutliq hai, magar teiray jahan mein
hain talkh bohat banda i mazdoor kay auqaat
What an awesome post! Really moving.
I myself feel ashamed of getting so caught up in politics things that I forget what the real goal of everything including politics and religion is – to make the lives of people around us better. Too bad that we ignore the real purpose:
Dard I dil k wastay paida kiya insaan ko
Please keep up such posts to keep us honest
Adil, While the whole post is very touching, your second last paragraph (the one starting with the word ‘today’) is very powerful and captures the mood well.
Prof. Adil,
Awesome post, I am astounded and amazed by the tenacity of the poor people in our country. They do struggle through some very harsh times, compared to few of us who are lucky. I feel blessed for all that I have (Al-hamdulillah) and feel ashamed that most of us well to do people worry about the latest TV etc. while the poor have to worry about where the next meal is going to come from. This is another form of injustice, the charity that is the right of these people (and our duty), not being given to them, we have certainly lost the way. I know people will say that the government should properly take care of this segment of the society, from Zakat & Sadaqah. I disagree, that is only possible (without anyone misusing that money) if honest people are in-charge of it. Mr Edhi is a good example, if not for him the ambulance system in this country “jo hota woh hum bhi jaante hain or aap bhi
phool mein phool sitaaroa’n mein sitaarey hooway loag
tairay thukraayai hooway meray pukaarey hooway loag
Good prose, Adil. The kind that goes back to the earlier days of this blog. I wonder if this was a euphemism to Qalandar’s planned post, Islamabad the Ugly.
Also, as a feedback, I suggest that you should do away with your personal rule of not commenting on your own posts. That rule should be for those few who write a “great” post and then turn the comment section into a court room battle. It would sort of indicate to us or at least the old timers that you are taking part in the discourse, as you used to, and give more substance to the comments.