It can’t happen to me
The Isfahani family belonged to Calcutta. They were among the richest families in Calcutta. Abu al-Hassan belonged to the same Isfahani family. He studied in Cambridge. He listened to Quaid-e-Azam’s speech there. He spent his time in the service of Quaid-e-Azam and the All India Muslim League. When Pakistan was formed, Abu Al Hassan Isfahani shifted to Pakistan with assets worth crores of rupees. Both Dhaka and Karachi were his business centers. There were farmhouses and lands. When it came time to appoint an ambassador to the United States, Quaid-i-Azam sent Isfahani as the first ambassador to the United States.
The offspring will come in at number three. I have seen countless people in life wash other people’s dogs and clean the car window with their turbans, but the position still slipped under them. I saw the people sitting on the chair becoming Pharaoh and Nimrod and issuing orders like “End Generations” but then when the office betrayed me, I saw with my own eyes people like Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif. He also saw people trapped in filthy bricks and fortified cells outside the courts. I have seen countless billionaires and billionaires in need of money. I go out to Islamabad every day and at the same time think that where there are markets, grounds, and roads today, there will be villages forty years ago. There used to be village Chowdhury and the ego of these Chowdhury would have touched the last end of the bamboo but today that Chowdhury ‘their lands And where are their villages? Maybe buried under the supermarket or lost in the circles of Margalla Road and this is just a forty-year-old story. In four decades, the shape of the earth has changed. I have seen many people love their children. These people have been going through hardships for the happiness of their children all their lives. But then what happened? The children waited for the death of their parents for the land and property. I used to sell my conscience for children’s novels. I also saw such scenes. All Babaji’s children went out of the country. Babaji spent the last days of his life weaving a blanket of solitude. When he died, the children could not get a seat on time, so the responsibility of burial was taken care of by the Edhi Foundation or the neighbors! This is the whole life! Children, infidelity of wealth and position, the stain of these infidelities, and finally the darkness of the grave. This is a fact that everyone is aware of but still, man is perfect. He sees but he does not see. He hears but he does not hear and he understands but it cannot be explained. He sees it being destroyed, he is humiliated, but every time he reassures himself, “It will not happen to me.” Why? Because “I am different from others”. Note: This column of mine was published in Daily Express on March 2, 2014. This column is going viral on social media and various forums nowadays so I use this column for record accuracy. I am republishing it. Maybe you can learn a lesson from it
