This is a few days before the general election. I was on my way to an important job. An acquaintance of mine grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me towards him. I looked back and he hugged me warmly like Karan and Arjun were going to go to a festival as a child. I was disturbed by the way he met me. God, what happened or what did I do because before it was only limited to handshake and today he met like I have done something really good to him. We asked each other about the situation and I asked for permission to do the necessary work, but he shook his head in denial. “Let’s drink tea,” he said. And one important thing to say is that if he did not mention tea here, maybe I would somehow manage to skip going with him, but as soon as I heard the name of the tea, I became greedy because tea and my relationship is like a lover.
“Whom are you going to cast your vote?” he asked while having a sip of tea. I said, “I am worried about the vote because the party I want to see in power has its representatives here about whom I do not know why they nominated, I am not satisfied with them.” By the time I said this, he started his story of politics and begin telling me how long I have been involved in politics. He told me that, ‘I was working as a member and was a supporter of various parties.’ he talked about the political personality he was crazy about and also told me counting, on his fingers, what he has sacrificed and how weak he became financially. “I have sacrificed the most precious year of my life, that is, the period of twenty to thirty years, as a political activist,” he said while I interrupted him and apologised, “In these ten years, politics has given you nothing but loss. Why don’t you start your own work by withdrawing from the politics?.” He replied, “Brother Pakistan! Pakistan!” he emphasised and continued, “the reason for the decline of Pakistan is selfishness, every person thinks his own.”
I was embarrassed to hear this and thought, why should not I kiss the forehead of the person sitting in front of me, how patriotic he is and at the same time he gave me many arguments for being a patriot of that representative party. How are they? What do they do? Have they sacrificed anything in their homeland? I asked the last humble question that “when you were associated with the previous political parties did you use to call their political representative as good as today? He instantly said,” no not at all, I was with them for my political need then, and I left because there was no good representation at the party. Now, of course, you vote once and see you will not be disappointed.” I set off for my destination and kept saying to myself that ‘these are great people who have given their all to their beloved homeland and look at me that I am interested in looking for the opportunity like If there is a lottery and I leave Europe forever.’
Then the election day has arrived and my conscience did not allow me and I did not vote because of disagreement with the representative party and I could not make the tea of my patriotic brother, lawful.
Long story short, the patriotic brother’s favourite representative have won and the party came to power. Due to private engagements, we both never met for a long time. Then almost after two years, he met me at the same place and after asking about his condition, I congratulated him. But he looked angry at something. I said out of curiosity, “Let me give you some tea this time, come with me.” Maybe he was also a tea maniac like me, so he didn’t resist.
He said while having a sip of tea that “I was crazy about this and its representative party.” I asked “What happened to you?” and he started the stories of their failure and bad governance. But I was worried because it was not as cruel as it was being told. Whatever happened, the tea transaction was completed and I took off. I was trying to find out the truth about what suddenly happened to a man who had to sacrifice everything for politics and Pakistan. And before the election, the patriotic brother used to sing the praises of the party and its representative. Then soon after the election, he became disgusted. Even so now this party has a period of more than three years, it is not good to draw premature results or be disgusted. As they say that ‘whatever you try to achieve with all your heart and soul, the whole universe takes you to it.’
After a couple of days, I found a very close friend of that brother. I told him the whole story and my anxiety. He told me the reason why his friend started hating his political party. He said” No, the reason for his hatred was not a political failure. But he had personal goals which he attached to the party and the representative. When they were not fulfilled, the patriotic spirit of love was broken. So today he is devastated.”
When I heard this, I remembered what the patriotic brother said to me, “the reason for the decline of Pakistan and Politics in Pakistan is selfishness, every person thinks his own”, and of course he was telling the truth.
The writer is a student of Mass Communication at National University of Modern Languages (NUML)
Visit gofrixty for more news and articles.
