Pakistaniat Gives: Shaam se pehlay aana

Adil Najam, Owais Mughal, Darwaish and Asma Mirza

Like our readers, we have also been moved by the post on singer Alamgir’s health status by A.H. Cemendtaur.

This is a voice we all grew up with. The words, the broad smile of the singer, the sometimes awkward but always entertaining gyrations, are parts of our collective memories. Maybe even our Pakistaniat.

One cannot but be moved by the health state Alamgir now finds himself in. It is the plight of too many, too many of whom have names we do not know, whose voices we have never heard. If we are blessed and can help any of them in any way, we should. One may never have enough to help everyone, nor everything. But let us not make that an excuse to not even do that little which we can.

On behalf of Pakistaniat.com, and therefore on all of your behalf, we are now sending a check, from the earnings from our Ad revenue, as a donation to foundation set up to assist Alamgir and his family through his medical crisis. A couple of thousand dollars here or there will not make a huge difference given the cost of things, but each little bit will count. And for those of you who can – in cash or in expertise, or merely in your prayers – we urge you to do the same.

We at All Things Pakistan (ATP) are blessed to have enough traffic now that we make a little money through the advertisements that bug you so much. As some of you remember from a post back in July 2007, Pakistaniat.com has been giving the profit we make to various charitable causes related to Pakistan. For most part we have decide to do this relatively quietly, directing it to Pakistan-related good causes, and often to causes that are discussed in your comments. We have also given to the victims of the 207 hurricane in Baluchistan, to Edhi Foundation, to Imran Khan’s Shaukat Khannum Hospital and to the survivors of the 2005 earthquake at the earthquake’s second anniversary. Most of our giving has been done silently, as giving should be done. But we share this particular act with you because it may also inspire others to do the same. What we are giving is not just in your name, but it really comes because of you. As we wrote the first time we announced our giving on the blog:

All of you have, quite literally, contributed to this contribution. Every time you have clicked on one of those annoying ads, or explored an inline link, or ordered a book through Amazon by starting your search on this page, or used a service advertised here, you have contributed to this cause. In very small trickles – a few cents here, a minute percentage there – but things have added up.

Let us help those who we can, in whatever small way we can, and before it becomes too late. There will be those who might say that there are other, possibly more deserving but less known, causes. There probably are. Please give to them too. And give whatever little you can, because generosity just does not add up, it multiplies. But, please, do not let your generosity be stymied by attempts to decide which is the ‘best’ cause of all, or by the view that your contribution is too small to make a difference. Those, we think, are amongst the greatest hurdles to change.

Here at Pakistaniat.com, Alamgir’s words ring in our head: Shaam se pehlay aana. Alamgir’s original song’s intent was obviously quite different. Today, for us, it has assumed a new meaning. In the little over two years that ATP has been around, we have had to write too many obituaries of too many good people. We do not wish to write more.