Editorials, blogs, newspapers, coffee house discussions, no matter where you turn to, people are screaming about their version of what’s wrong with Pakistan. Yes! It is indeed a country with thousands of problems, it is indeed a mess right now, 99.9% of the things are going bad, but, why don’t I see anybody talking about the 0.1% of goodness that we still see around us.
I am an average person whom you don’t have to listen to, but I would request a few minutes of your time while I express what is still good and commendable around me. If we don’t show gratitude towards whatever is still good, we will lose that pretty soon as well.
“The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.”
- I am grateful to the people who clean the streets of Pakistan. I know that people criticize you incessantly but I have seen you work hard in scorching heat and I cannot thank you enough for keeping our city clean.
- I commend all the organizations that are genuinely working hard to provide free education. I have met people studying in these schools and getting opportunities they could only dream about.
- I am grateful to the volunteers who still direct traffic in parts of Pakistani cities wearing a jacket that says “I own Pakistan”. I don’t know which group or organization they belong to, but I think they are doing a wonderful job.
- I feel blessed that we still have elders around who are practically strangers to us but still dispense wisdom and kindness when we are in trouble.
- I want to thank the 90 year old lady I met, running an orphanage in Karachi. I also want to thank another old lady who walked miles to donate Re. 1 to that orphanage. That’s all she could afford.
- I want to thank our security forces and police.
- I am thankful for the brief yet memorable moments following our recent sports achievements. Those moments brought with them unity, gratitude and celebration.
- I will forever be grateful to those school teachers who think teaching values is more important than teaching a generic syllabus. We might be able to pay you for your work but we can never pay you for the nobility of your profession.
- I want to thank those who still provide free food to people. No matter what motive you have, it always eliminates hunger and feeds poor.
- I know the roads in my city are broken and full of puddles, but I am happy that they take me to places I couldn’t go otherwise.
- I am grateful for people who build houses. I know they only want to fill their pockets but they still provide housing to people who would otherwise sleep on streets. I know cities where hundreds of thousands of people sleep on footpaths.
- The unity we demonstrated after the October 2005 earthquake was extra ordinary. Hat’s off to the thousands of volunteers, contributors and well wishers who made us realize we still have a heart.
I am not a writer but I still hope you can see the sentiment behind my unstructured sentences and linguistic inadequacies. Eckhart said: “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.”
What are you thankful for?
I am grateful for All Things Pakistan. I am not Pakistani but have learned more about life in Pakistan, and about Pakistani people, here than anywhere else. I have learned that Pakistanis are not all uneducated fanatics from North Waziristan, which is a common news media stereotype, but are mostly thoughtful people who approach challenging circumstances with intelligence, courage, and sympathy. May you live long and prosper.