What are we worth?

Six of the 152 passengers on the ill-fated Air Blue Flight 202 were my friends. People I had sat, laughed and fought with. Now they were gone.

I knew six of the 152 passengers and crew on the ill-fated Air Blue Flight 202 personally. They were friends – not very close – but friends nonetheless. Two more among the passengers I didn’t know in person, but knew about.

The initial news had shocked me to the core. Until then, I wasn’t aware my friends were on board and I watched the national tragedy like the rest of Pakistan on television.

The messages of the deaths started to pour in late afternoon, when the news spread from family to relatives and then friends. Four of the crew members were my best friend’s colleagues who I had occasionally met with her, while the newly-wed couple turned out to be none other than a good friend from years ago who had married on July 23.

These were people I had sat with, laughed with, teased and fought with. I couldn’t stop myself from going on Facebook and reading their last messages over and over again. I couldn’t stop myself from thinking of all those times when I might have gossiped about them behind their backs, for the sake of gossip.

I regret all my vices, and I miss them as they were a part of my own soul.

Relationships, in today’s world, have zeroed down to text messages, and even then, most of them forwards. We spend our lives studying, working, making money. And in the end, all of us have to return to the ground, leaving behind all that we accumulated in the race that we called our 'personal lives’.

Maybe I’m depressed so I am being philosophical. Maybe I am just plain right. Where are we heading? Has anyone ever wondered that? Food for thought.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2010.