March 23rd

As I was on my way back home, I saw people celebrating the Pakistan Day-playing songs and putting up disco lights and dancing on the roads with joy. A rush of joy grasped me and I was quite enjoying the songs and the spirit of being GREEN! A thought struck me that we are a nation who celebrate independence twice a year without even realizing it. And I felt great about it! This is our first independence-the independence of thought when we were able to conceive the idea of separate homeland. 23rd March was the day when Pakistan was born for us. A day when we started to think apart from what was obvious.

This was a new and bizarre idea at the first. With strong determination and true dedication, this thought became the reality in the form of Pakistan on 14 August 1947. Days progress and we anticipated to reach new levels of development but the history changed its course. Rather, we had improved with time, we started shrinking ourselves into a box. We had chained our mind, thoughts and have divided ourselves into sects and creeds.

Every year we celebrate the independence on the idea proposed on 23rd March but we forget to broaden the horizon of our thinking. I may be sounding a little pessimist to say, but this is what I had felt throughout my 30 minutes drive. i started questioning myself.Is this day was only to celebrate that we are now an independent nation? Are we actually playing our roles to make it a nation who everyone would be proud of? A part of me was happy to see all this celebration but, on the other hand I grieved for our narrow thoughts.