Adil Najam
In days like these when so much of the news is so very despressing, good news feels even better than it does in good times.
I remember how good I felt when I first read (and wrote) about Rahim Khan Khilgi about a year ago. I felt exactly the same way today when I got an email alerting me to a blogpost in The Consumerist about an unnamed “Conscientious Customer” from Pakistan.
The post in The Consumerist comes from someone called Patrick and is described as an “above and beyond” story. Let us hear what Patrick has to say.
He begins with setting up the context:
The software company I work for put out a version available for download early 2007. It was a success, however for the first two months there was a small problem. As soon as you purchased it, you were able to download it BEFORE your credit card was validated. This led to the company getting burned until it was fixed.
Back in 2007 we had a customer who tried to pay for the download in Pakistan, and then paid for it with a debit card. It was the only card payment he had, and it was rejected. He had no other forms of payment, and we had to write it off as a loss while he got to enjoy using his software for free. Whatever, it was our web engineers’ mistake that caused it.
In October 2008 a letter came in the mail with a check from a customer for the Download version. Obviously this raised some questions as we could not process a download order paid by check. I opened up the file with the name on it, and lo and behold, there was the guy from Pakistan who we had written off the charge for.
I called him up, and it turns out that he just moved to the US and one of the first things he did when he had gotten a checking account was to send a check to us for the full amount of the software that we had written off over a year and a half prior.
Honesty, and memory like that is hard to find these days. I wonder if coming from another country and culture had anything to do with it.
Some of the comments on the post are even more interesting to the Pakistani reader. My favorite comment, however, was:
Neither honesty nor dishonesty know any borders.
Given the nature of the web, one hopes this is not some kind of hoax or smart-alec plant. But even if it were, it highlights a more important point: What this customer had done was the “right” thing, but not a particularly “good” thing. Why, then, does it surprise us so? Maybe, because a part of being ‘good’ is to to that which is ‘right’ – even, and especially, when we could have gotten away by doing that which was not right!
More importantly, why is my Pakistani pride awakened by the story?
These stories have the impact they have partly because they are being told by outside voices rather than by ourselves (defensively). More than that, they have impact because we know that these stories are not exceptions, they reflect the goodness – or, at least, the aspiration for goodness – in all of us. That despite the stereotypes that we have of ourselves, despite the fact that there are many amongst us who do bad things (as there are in all societies), we are a good people (indeed, I believe all people are good people).
We are, indeed, a good people. Let us, then, be defined – and define ourselves – not by those amongst us who do bad things (indeed, there are many who do). Let us aspire to emulate, instead, those who rise to the goodness within them. Life, I think, is defined by the struggle to find that goodness that lies in all of us. May all of us succeed in this struggle!
Good post indeed.
There’s tons of good people in Pakistan. And I’m surprised that anyone can even doubt it – though I admit to myself getting hypercritical on our society in the current conditions.
We just have an over-representation of the bad people in places of authority.
Like attracts like they say, and that seems to be the case in our politics. The bad people tend to get to office over and over again as they associate with the bad people already there. The good people silently go about their lives and never make the press.
I am reminded of the time I used to take the railcar from Islamabad to Lahore in the UET days. We had a short stop at Lalamusa where one would get down for a quick cup of tea (it used to cost Rs.1 !). What always struck me was that as soon as the train started moving, almost everyone still drinking the tea would reach in for the money and desperately try to pay. All they had to do was to put the cup down and run onto the moving train without paying – and the tea-wala wouldn’t have been able to do anything in heck about it. But no, people would invariably try to pay the tea-wala even if they had to leave an unfinished cup of tea behind.
It’s a tale I’ve repeated to many a friends since than. It convinced me that the majority of the people around me are honest and fair. And though times are hard right now and we’re drowning in corruption I’ve never doubted that the majority of the 170 Million people in this country are peaceful, honest, honorable, and just want to get on with their lives.
What is good and evil?
How do you define good and evil?
Lets see. Conventional definition says anything that serves the interests of mankind is good. For example, helping people is good, being nice (honest/kind/helpful etc) to people is good.
A man pays back money honestly with the expectation that people will be good to him too. Live and let live because humans don’t like dying and pain. Structure your society to be kind TO HUMANS because it is more comfortable for all of us that way! And the biggest selfish goof of them all: Do good to other humans so that YOU may get Jannah for yourself!!!! They will also get Jannah if they do good to you! Anyone see the joke?
Guys notice that all these selfish definitions of good and evil has been made by selfish men. LOL what a surprise. One can cut down trees and kill warm blooded animals to eat them and afflict great amount of pain on them, but ah.. that is not evil. Plants and Animals have not invented the definition of good and evil, humans have.
If you look at the big picture, these selfish human definitions of good and evil are meaningless. You might have heard: one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter: that is the definition of good/evil taken one step lower in the scale of selfishness. Think as a Balouchi, or think as a Pakistani, or think as a South Asian, or think as a human. The narrower or wider you make your outlook, you find the definitions of good and evil change. If you broaden your outlook to think about this universe, words like good/evil lose their meaning.
Why is killing a man any more evil than killing a hen or a goat? The lack of fundamental thought about life and universe in today’s society can be ascertained by the fact that most will laugh at this question. Why is killing a man evil? Just because ‘evil’ is a man made definition? Just because man wallows in this sense of self-importance that some supreme entity God made him in it;s image?
A comet struck earth a billion years ago and the entire species of dinosaurs that roamed this earth at that time was wiped out, that act was neither good nor evil. This has happend more than once on earth. Evolution moves on. Same may happen to homo-sapiens, nobody will care. A new life/species will arise on earth in a few million years, they will also most likely wallow in self-importance like us.
Bottomline: There is no good or evil. Man wants to survive, he invents these definitions of good/evil to facilitate HIS OWN survival. Thats it.
Wow! Kudos to that guy really.
Great post Adil bhai.
I think you have highlighted a significant issue with Pakistanis today. We have gotten so carried away with being critical of things in Pakistan( conditions, people, institutions) that we have lost all faith in the ability of our nation to achieve any good.
This is a self fulfilling prophecy, and a very dangerous one to follow. The day that we stop believing that positive change can take place, we surrender to mediocrity and oppression. No matter the conditions, we should have more self belief.
Adil,
The danger lies in complacency; that we may pat ourselves
on the back and go home, for we are already such good people.
The truth is that there are some exceptionally good, selfless, and noble people among Pakistanis, regardless of what the world would have us believe. How could anyone ever doubt it?
It is equally true that we CAN BE good people in much much larger numbers. With sincere intent and hard work, and a past to inspire, there is every reason for hope and optimism.
haft kishwar jis se hoN tasKHeer bay taeGH-o-tafang
tu agar samjhay to teray pas voh saamaaN bhi hae