Tweet
Liaquat bazaar, Jinnah road, Sattar road, CSD, in short all the shopping malls of the Quetta city, Pakistan were teeming with people buying and purchasing for the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha. Young boys and girls, men and women, sons and daughters, infants and children…all, altogether, weapon sing themselves for the festivity at hand. There was money and there were comforts. There were laughters and there was fortune. It was the time of absolute affluence and richness. One could not see poverty laming and leaning for miles and miles and for so many miles as the eyes could capture. There was satiety and hunger, nowhere. Happiness ad-infinitum.
The sweet mums were getting their kids warm clothing. Mark, the clothing was not only warm but pretty costly as well. It was the month of December. The cold chill was visiting the inhabitants of the city. Eat warm and wear warm were the wise words of the day. The malls were jam-packed. The shoppers were shopping and the owners showing them honor more than they could ever digest. Of course it was the respect caused and dedicated for the full pockets and the empty hearts. All pretending respect and all pretending love and in heart in heart all disgusting one another and hating as if they were their to be robbed and the others to rob.
The malls had anything which could be felt needed to befit the levels of luxury. The malls were decorated like the heavens, as and so described by the religion reactionaries, mullahs as we call them. There were more servants than the purchasers as the former was a cheap commodity and could be amply found.
He was walking beside the city’s top class shopping mall on Liaquat bazaar. It was quite late at night but the shops were still opened. It gave him a sense of strangeness as the shops were still then open when in the other days they were not. He was wearing a dog eared Qameez and a tattered Shalwar. This was all the worldly wealth he possessed amid the context mentioned in the foregone paras.
He was hardly ten years of age. His brown innocent eyes and tender age added to his personal charm. He possessed a smile in his face and looked at others with love and care. He was happy to see the kids buying and enjoying their commodities. He wanted them be as happy as he was!
There were some big lights affixed to the top of the building which would turn off and on at the successive intervals, jerks rather. They were multicolored. They were many in number and they were blinking. As he came by the building he caught in eyes the blinking lights. He remained looking at them for quite a while. He loved them too much. He was very fascinated by the way they blinked. He was enjoying the so many lights and that much crowd. He wanted to enter into the mall to just see how the lights which he saw from outside appeared when seen from inside. That was all he was aiming at. That was his intention of entering in the mall.
As he entered the mall the people saved themselves away as if he was a suicide bomber, which were common and which were feared in the city, Quetta. He started walking in a lane in both the sides of which were piled cloth and on the desks the people buying their things. There was standing an affluent lady by the desk facing the shop agent with her back coming outwards and disturbing the lane walkers. He passed by her without touching her and with steps too much delicate but as he was looking back to save himself from the out coming back, his shoe touched the lady’s shopper in which was some cosmetic items. The lady at once broke out in rage and the rage was accelerated when she saw a young and innocent but helpless and poor boy looking into her eyes with those innocent brown eyes, and with that respectful apology on his face with smile mingling into it. He was expecting the lady would love him and forgive him with a smile. He began to speak to her but no sooner had he spoken than a hateful and disdainful slap came his face and he was but startled. She pushed him back in loath and called him all the bad words she richly know for the good words she was not capable of remembering. The owner of the shop came in and without making any investigation looked at the lady and apologized in the meanest terms and rushed to the boy. The slap had made him seek refuge in a corner of the piles of the cloth. He held him from the collar of his Qameez and began to drag him. He brought him in front of the main entrance and kicked him hate and un-acceptance out of the mall.
He lay for a few seconds with the brain completely confused and locked. The penalty rather in its plurality had not waxed him but what was waxing was that he did not know the crime for which he was punished. He wanted to know where it had been that he had gone wrong. He was seeking for the missing link. All he wanted was just to see how the exterior lights would appear when seen from inside and that was not a crime, was it, he thought and kept on thinking until a man scolded him and called his parents names for sitting in the main path. He stood up and was feeling pain in his right shoulder which the owner had badly jolted. His left cheek had gone blue from brown. The cold air when touching the cheek solaced him a bit as he was feeling it pretty hot and yet hotter when slapped by that lady of affluence. The cold wind, he thought, was a blessing in disguise for him. He wanted to go into the mall again and just to see those lights: how they appeared when seen from inside of the mall.
He did not know his fault. He did not know that even his existence was exceptionable. He did not know that lives like his own did not have any worth in the classed society. He did not know that he was an ‘unwanted creature’. He did not know that his presence or absence least mattered. He did not know that his crime was that he was not rich. He did not know that his crime was that his parents were not affluent. He was unaware of the fact that the burgoiese society could not accommodate him and recognize him as an alive and active member. He was unaware that he was an alien amongst the relatives. He did not know that it was his own mall from which he was thrown out and in which he was bodily harassed. He did not know that the respectable lady was the wife of the predator who had sucked his parent’s blood and with that blood she was nursing her stinking tits and filthy hips. He did not know that the lights that appeared so multicolored from outside were so dark and dismal from inside. If only he knew…!
He dusted his dusted clothes to look not awful though the clothes did not worth that dusting. But innocent as he was, that was all he had and that was all he pride at and therefore that was all he cared the most. He once more began to walk towards the mall but not from the entrance from which he had entered it the last time. The guard could not see him as he stealthily followed a group of people inside the mall. Now he was experienced. He was very careful in trying to be as much careful as possible. The lights, he thought, were on the top from the outside and so they will be from the inside. He started walking up the stairs. The passers by did not notice him and he was happy to find that no one was noticing him!
He was on the fourth floor and was sitting in a corner of the top mall-floor. There was rush and the people were busy in their activities. He was in his own world very happy to have at last achieved his not only destination but also destiny. Sitting in the corner, facing the outside lights and smiling within. He was stunned by the way those lights were blinking at him. He was happy to have found company in them. He began to blink at them in response of their blinking. Sometimes he would count their blinking but would soon quit the practice as his counting would come to an end. He did not know that their counts began before they ended. He did not know that it was not for them to count anything. He did not know that the counting business was that of the respectable lady with stinking tits and filthy hips. Anyhow, dipped in the nectar of enjoyment he stood to go close to the lights and find a nice watch of them.
He was standing in the open wide wall-like window, up blinked the lights, and down the moving heads. He would look at the people down there. He was shocked to find how small they appeared from a distance and how few. If only he knew that they were less and they were weak. Their hegemony could easily be dismantled. Their power and prowess were but mere fabrications. Once removed, there would be prosperity for all and for ever.
His dreams and innocence both were shattered and jolted as he heard a voice he could recognize from his back, it was the one who had thrown him out of the mall. It was the rich owner of the rich mall. He was holding a stick in his right hand and his face was like the crackling fire of the grandma’s grate. He was rushing towards him with his eyes bulging out like that of a drunkard pig. He was death terrified. He went back to save himself from the death he was seeing moving towards him at such speed and at such rage. As he went back, he went in to relax in the lap of death. It was his head which struck the ground first. The blood, the less he had, flew out of his life. He was dead and calmed at last.
The lights were still blinking up there. What was different now was that he could not reply their blinks. His lights were turned off. He did not know that the difference between the lights when seen from inside than seen from outside was the line of difference between life and death. His brown eyes were shut down. His face was yet calmer. The smile on his face yet remained there which the rich lady had missed seeing else he would have been a different story.
Where the kids of the well-to-do would be enjoying their sheep slaughtered in their homes in the cozy laps of their mothers, he was lying in cold blood and slaughtered by the despotic and cruel economic and social classes and disparities. He had never thought such would be the gift of his society on the charming festival of Eid-ul-Azha. The rich lady would greet his sons and daughters kissing them on their foreheads at home, and his forehead were kissed by the duality of the system. The kids would do henna to their hands and he was all henna from top to bottom. The people would greet Eid with words and smiles and he was silenced as if his words were so cacophonous as to be completely silenced.
He saw the lights and he saw the difference with his life brought to an end. Such a clueless life and such a clueless death.
The sweet mums were getting their kids warm clothing. Mark, the clothing was not only warm but pretty costly as well. It was the month of December. The cold chill was visiting the inhabitants of the city. Eat warm and wear warm were the wise words of the day. The malls were jam-packed. The shoppers were shopping and the owners showing them honor more than they could ever digest. Of course it was the respect caused and dedicated for the full pockets and the empty hearts. All pretending respect and all pretending love and in heart in heart all disgusting one another and hating as if they were their to be robbed and the others to rob.
The malls had anything which could be felt needed to befit the levels of luxury. The malls were decorated like the heavens, as and so described by the religion reactionaries, mullahs as we call them. There were more servants than the purchasers as the former was a cheap commodity and could be amply found.
He was walking beside the city’s top class shopping mall on Liaquat bazaar. It was quite late at night but the shops were still opened. It gave him a sense of strangeness as the shops were still then open when in the other days they were not. He was wearing a dog eared Qameez and a tattered Shalwar. This was all the worldly wealth he possessed amid the context mentioned in the foregone paras.
He was hardly ten years of age. His brown innocent eyes and tender age added to his personal charm. He possessed a smile in his face and looked at others with love and care. He was happy to see the kids buying and enjoying their commodities. He wanted them be as happy as he was!
There were some big lights affixed to the top of the building which would turn off and on at the successive intervals, jerks rather. They were multicolored. They were many in number and they were blinking. As he came by the building he caught in eyes the blinking lights. He remained looking at them for quite a while. He loved them too much. He was very fascinated by the way they blinked. He was enjoying the so many lights and that much crowd. He wanted to enter into the mall to just see how the lights which he saw from outside appeared when seen from inside. That was all he was aiming at. That was his intention of entering in the mall.
As he entered the mall the people saved themselves away as if he was a suicide bomber, which were common and which were feared in the city, Quetta. He started walking in a lane in both the sides of which were piled cloth and on the desks the people buying their things. There was standing an affluent lady by the desk facing the shop agent with her back coming outwards and disturbing the lane walkers. He passed by her without touching her and with steps too much delicate but as he was looking back to save himself from the out coming back, his shoe touched the lady’s shopper in which was some cosmetic items. The lady at once broke out in rage and the rage was accelerated when she saw a young and innocent but helpless and poor boy looking into her eyes with those innocent brown eyes, and with that respectful apology on his face with smile mingling into it. He was expecting the lady would love him and forgive him with a smile. He began to speak to her but no sooner had he spoken than a hateful and disdainful slap came his face and he was but startled. She pushed him back in loath and called him all the bad words she richly know for the good words she was not capable of remembering. The owner of the shop came in and without making any investigation looked at the lady and apologized in the meanest terms and rushed to the boy. The slap had made him seek refuge in a corner of the piles of the cloth. He held him from the collar of his Qameez and began to drag him. He brought him in front of the main entrance and kicked him hate and un-acceptance out of the mall.
He lay for a few seconds with the brain completely confused and locked. The penalty rather in its plurality had not waxed him but what was waxing was that he did not know the crime for which he was punished. He wanted to know where it had been that he had gone wrong. He was seeking for the missing link. All he wanted was just to see how the exterior lights would appear when seen from inside and that was not a crime, was it, he thought and kept on thinking until a man scolded him and called his parents names for sitting in the main path. He stood up and was feeling pain in his right shoulder which the owner had badly jolted. His left cheek had gone blue from brown. The cold air when touching the cheek solaced him a bit as he was feeling it pretty hot and yet hotter when slapped by that lady of affluence. The cold wind, he thought, was a blessing in disguise for him. He wanted to go into the mall again and just to see those lights: how they appeared when seen from inside of the mall.
He did not know his fault. He did not know that even his existence was exceptionable. He did not know that lives like his own did not have any worth in the classed society. He did not know that he was an ‘unwanted creature’. He did not know that his presence or absence least mattered. He did not know that his crime was that he was not rich. He did not know that his crime was that his parents were not affluent. He was unaware of the fact that the burgoiese society could not accommodate him and recognize him as an alive and active member. He was unaware that he was an alien amongst the relatives. He did not know that it was his own mall from which he was thrown out and in which he was bodily harassed. He did not know that the respectable lady was the wife of the predator who had sucked his parent’s blood and with that blood she was nursing her stinking tits and filthy hips. He did not know that the lights that appeared so multicolored from outside were so dark and dismal from inside. If only he knew…!
He dusted his dusted clothes to look not awful though the clothes did not worth that dusting. But innocent as he was, that was all he had and that was all he pride at and therefore that was all he cared the most. He once more began to walk towards the mall but not from the entrance from which he had entered it the last time. The guard could not see him as he stealthily followed a group of people inside the mall. Now he was experienced. He was very careful in trying to be as much careful as possible. The lights, he thought, were on the top from the outside and so they will be from the inside. He started walking up the stairs. The passers by did not notice him and he was happy to find that no one was noticing him!
He was on the fourth floor and was sitting in a corner of the top mall-floor. There was rush and the people were busy in their activities. He was in his own world very happy to have at last achieved his not only destination but also destiny. Sitting in the corner, facing the outside lights and smiling within. He was stunned by the way those lights were blinking at him. He was happy to have found company in them. He began to blink at them in response of their blinking. Sometimes he would count their blinking but would soon quit the practice as his counting would come to an end. He did not know that their counts began before they ended. He did not know that it was not for them to count anything. He did not know that the counting business was that of the respectable lady with stinking tits and filthy hips. Anyhow, dipped in the nectar of enjoyment he stood to go close to the lights and find a nice watch of them.
He was standing in the open wide wall-like window, up blinked the lights, and down the moving heads. He would look at the people down there. He was shocked to find how small they appeared from a distance and how few. If only he knew that they were less and they were weak. Their hegemony could easily be dismantled. Their power and prowess were but mere fabrications. Once removed, there would be prosperity for all and for ever.
His dreams and innocence both were shattered and jolted as he heard a voice he could recognize from his back, it was the one who had thrown him out of the mall. It was the rich owner of the rich mall. He was holding a stick in his right hand and his face was like the crackling fire of the grandma’s grate. He was rushing towards him with his eyes bulging out like that of a drunkard pig. He was death terrified. He went back to save himself from the death he was seeing moving towards him at such speed and at such rage. As he went back, he went in to relax in the lap of death. It was his head which struck the ground first. The blood, the less he had, flew out of his life. He was dead and calmed at last.
The lights were still blinking up there. What was different now was that he could not reply their blinks. His lights were turned off. He did not know that the difference between the lights when seen from inside than seen from outside was the line of difference between life and death. His brown eyes were shut down. His face was yet calmer. The smile on his face yet remained there which the rich lady had missed seeing else he would have been a different story.
Where the kids of the well-to-do would be enjoying their sheep slaughtered in their homes in the cozy laps of their mothers, he was lying in cold blood and slaughtered by the despotic and cruel economic and social classes and disparities. He had never thought such would be the gift of his society on the charming festival of Eid-ul-Azha. The rich lady would greet his sons and daughters kissing them on their foreheads at home, and his forehead were kissed by the duality of the system. The kids would do henna to their hands and he was all henna from top to bottom. The people would greet Eid with words and smiles and he was silenced as if his words were so cacophonous as to be completely silenced.
He saw the lights and he saw the difference with his life brought to an end. Such a clueless life and such a clueless death.