Switch on the television and you can see flames a mile high devouring everything in their wake, the screaming sirens of ambulances, hapless rescue workers illequipped to handle disasters, policemen running here and there and countless reporters with microphones zeroing in for the breaking news. This all too familier scene is oft repeated, given maximum coverage by news organizations. Moving videos on the television and heart-breaking photographs gracing the front-pages of their newspapers.
The blasts in Lahore will get all the due coverage. Eyewitness accounts, interviews of survivors, a front page story but only for a day then everything will be back to normal and we will find something to celebrate about. Maybe a DHOTI TEHMAD DAY, or a SAAG MAKKI KI ROTI DAY or a NASWAR DAY or even a CHAGHI DAY. Oh no.............. sorry for the faux pas we cant have days for all the provinces because YOU KNOW Sindh rules these days after decades of suppression by Punjab. But we should not lose hope...............wait for the day when someone from our region graces the high position then we can celebrate all we want. Dancing.......singing.........and a front page photograph in the newspapers mocking us. Wasnt it only a few hours ago we were a nation mourning innocent victims of an insane blast.
What about those 37 dead and 150 injured in Lahore, do their families have a reason to celebrate? What do you say to them when they had been anxiously waiting for their loved ones to return from a shopping spree but instead they are running from post to pillar, trying to determine the whereabouts of their near and dear ones, arranging blood, identifying the dead.
The everyday occurence of blasts, bombings and suicide attacks have diminished their horrors in the eyes of people and press alike, until it strikes close to home then we feel the actual pain. Uptil then the victims are faceless, nameless, somebodys father, mother or brother but not yours.
The gana bajana on the telly, the extravagent ads, the music everything should be stopped. We should atleast behave like living and breathing human beings who are conscious about what is happenning around us not burying our heads in the insane activities on the telly thinking that amid all the violence we need a break from such seriousness.