The pen seller

Recently I came across a little boy who was selling pens he had in a polythene bag. Seeing a school-going child in ragtag clothes, I felt sorry for him. For a while, I reflected on how the questionable people manning questionable institutions have questionably ruined the country on different pretexts. I tried to draw a parallel between the fates of the poor and the elite and questioned myself as to what defines the two extremities.

Part of the answer is that the latter enjoys the monopoly on the resources and masters the art of jumping the queue. Instead of delving deep into the genesis of the ever-growing stratifications in our society, I felt elated about the way the boy was trying to eke out a living. Unlike otherwise, he tries to light the very society that has been pushing him toward lasting darkness.

He is, therefore, nobler than many people around. He is worthier than most of Pakistan’s intelligentsia who trade truth, their consciousness and responsibilities towards the public for vested interests. Whether or not one buys it, ours is one of the most corrupt, dishonest, opportunist and greedy intellectual classes in the world. Instead of being driven by consciousness, truth and compassion towards the public, most of the country’s so-called intellectual lot gets their pen and mind fuelled with gifts, envelopes and the blessed glances of the powerful.

For them, singing the hymn of their patrons is more profitable than selflessly voicing the screams of the public miseries. Instead of resisting aggression, they choose to side with the aggressor. Therefore, they mask the ground realities and carefully highlight things in a manner that absolves the authorities of their genuine responsibilities. The boy is more respectable than the major chunk of so-called civil society that selfishly cashes in on the public miseries for personal gains and connections. Unlike the world where civil society serves as a shield against aggression, most of our civil society has ulterior motives behind its activism.

Most times, the leaders and the workers of civil society – civic, religious, political, nationalist or hybrid – take the public issue only as a pretext for cheap popularity, personal interests and forging connections with the authorities. Resultantly, civil society’s half-hearted, polarised, selective and unsustainable reaction to public issues fails to build a unified front against the excesses of the authorities in the country. The boy is more decent than the people who betray the public trust and adulterate the terms of the oath for personal privileges. Unlike the so-called public servant, he isn’t a liability to society. But society, for sure, is one for him. Notwithstanding the assertions, the terms of the ritualistic oath in most offices have paradoxical implications for individuals and the institutions in our society; they do everything except what they are entrusted with in the terms of the oath. The broken laws, bruised constitution, bleak national image and battered public plight are some manifestations of our national betrayal.

The boy is more revered than the religious authorities, who exploit the public emotions and sentiment for their political, social and monetary benefits. Most of the so-called self-appointed religious authorities cloak themselves as public saviour and do everything possible in accumulating personal perks. From the pulpit to the tombs what is professed and pedalled is: more fear than hope; more pessimism than optimism; more asceticism than necessary indulgence; more ignorance than light; and more dogmatism than rationality.

The boy is also far better than white-collar beggars pleading for money on different pretext. The so-called empowered, saviours, champions, guardians and intelligentsia have done the greatest damage to the country than otherwise. They profess what they seldom practise and vice versa. These greatest violations by champions and propagators failed the moral, ethical, religious and legal values in transforming us both individually and collectively into better human beings.