Ayaz Khan
With [my] chronic Asthma and its expanding effects along with the post-effects left after the hefty treatment of tuberculosis, which often make me have unexpected landings in different hospitals, I am still kicking and alive. Living in a city, which is home to all and sundry migrating from entire Balochistan province in search of livelihood which the industrial hub, lying adjacent to Karachi almost with a tinny population often helps to provide, I seldom prefer to go for a check up to a chartable hospital when month stares in my eyes prohibiting me to spend the last penny in Liaqat National or Aga Khan Hospital!
With my consistent visits to hospitals, I come across numerous but quite interesting people. In these visits, the unforgettable memories of mine are two of the interactions with two persons: first being quite religious but fully inspired by the ‘mullah’ mantra of contemporary Jihad and the second quite young but externally educated!
Conversation with the jihad-frenzy
In my first interaction I was bashed by a sexagenarian for being too worldly as, for the sexagenarian, the worldly education meant too myopic and was confined to the world only! At first, I was quite convinced by the sugar-coated words of the sexagenarian as his eloquence seemed sedative yet I managed to escape the mesmerising twist of the words he hurled on me.
“Don’t you desire to have seventy ‘hoors’ in paradise,” asked me the sexagenarian with a tone perhaps he had never used for admonishing his son ever, “You are too young. You shall serve the God, with wagging jihad, in your youth and meet seventy ‘hoors’ right there in Paradise,” the sexagenarian introduced himself while indicating towards his son who was there to get himself treated.
“His son is too young even younger to me, why doesn’t he prefer his son to wag jihad before I do,” I took a long breath and murmured after having an intra-personal communication, “Don’t you think seventy hoors is a meagre reward for a probation too hard to pass?” I asked.
“You are an idiot buddy,” he bashed on me, “The ‘hoors’ would not be in a worldly makeup! They would be too beautiful having put lipstick which you have never seen in your life!” he answered me in a rather amusing tone.
“Mr. Ayaz! Mr. Ayaz,” called me the doctor’s assistant in the meanwhile, “Excuse me uncle,” I sought permission from sexagenarian and left.
Conversation with the externally educated young man!
(after check up and previous conversation with the sexagenarian)
As I use the word externally educated for the young man, whom I had a very short conversation with soon after I was bothered enough by the myopic-jihadi view of the sexagenarian, for his quite ironical remarks when I asked him about disposing of the trash in a proper place in order to bring the young man close to have some civic sense.
“Hello! Brother, please take it; you have dropped something,” I called the young man while he was sorting out his file when some papers fell down, “Leave it; it is trash,” the young man replied and frowned.
“If it is trash, why don’t you throw it in the trash bin standing with you arm in arm?” I encountered him with the question, “Let the cleaner take it himself. It’s not my duty to sweep the hospital,” he answered.
Still I was in a fix about what to say in answer to the young man’s immoral reply—devoid of civic sense—there came another trash paper rolling towards my feet and I could see another young man missing the call ‘use me’ by the same trash bin lying too close to both young men!
With this conversation finished, I remember the days when my colleagues and I in my university vowed to use trash bin for disposing of trash to at least fulfil a moral as well as societal obligation. Haphazardly, once from my department (Mass Com MCD) to the main gate of the KU, I held some trash in hand and tried to find out a trash bin to throw it in order not to renege on my promise. Then, after travelling almost 40 km to reach my home, situation remained same. Finally, I threw it where I found a heap of garbage littered. With this abortive trash bin hunt, have I aligned myself too with the myopic mind set of the both externally educated young men?
Writer is member of staff. Follow him on twitter @ayazkhanzada18
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are those of the author and Balochistan Voices not necessarily agrees with them.
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