Despite the heavy rain, residents, especially kids, came out to celebrate the Independence Day. PHOTO: MYRA IQBAL/EXPRESS
Intermittent rain dampened spirits of patriotism in Rawalpindi and Islamabad on Independence Day as most people decided to celebrate the national holiday indoors.
The capital’s roads did not show signs of festive cheer in the afternoon. But, despite heavy spells of rain that continued in some areas for a couple of hours at a stretch, some people braved the weather to venture to public spaces.
A handful of residents shunned the drab weather to celebrate the country’s Independence Day Lake View and Fatima Jinnah Park on Wednesday morning. But the crowd was a far cry from the hordes that had thronged parks during the Eid holidays.
Walking in the rain, carrying umbrellas or looking for cover under the shade of trees, people were seen trying to enjoy their holiday near the Rawal Lake as best as they could. Rahim Khan, a Bhara Kahu resident visiting the park with his wife and two primary school-age children, said he was hoping the weather would clear up.
“So far, it doesn’t look like the clouds are going to go away anytime soon,” Khan said. “But at least the children are enjoying the rainy weather.”
He said he had brought his children to the park so they could associate the country’s independence with happy moments.
While Independence Day trudged along without much fanfare, traditional midnight celebrations had started in Rawalpindi with fireworks in different parts of the city.
Motorcyclists on Benazir Bhutto Road enjoyed their freedom by removing silencers and driving dangerously through chock-a-block traffic, with one casualty was reported amid the merriment when a jeep hit two motorcycles near Ojhri Camp.
One of the motorcyclists hit a pole and died on the spot due to a head injury while the other was injured. The jeep driver fled the scene.
As the country turns 66 on the stroke of midnight on August 15, 2013, youthful enthusiasm sparkled in Rawalpindi’s Jinnah Park, named after Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, where teenagers huddled in a large circle in the parking lot, waved the national flag and danced to patriotic pop songs blasting from their cars.
“Tonight we have to send a signal that we are alive as a nation,” said 17-year-old Shahid Alam, a student from Rawalpindi dressed in a green shirt with a flag motif. “Pakistan has given us so much, but we must think about what we have given to the country in return.”
At a movie theatre in the park, one of the halls rang up with cheers of ‘Pakistan zindabad’ when the national anthem was played just before a Bollywood movie began.
But the crowd outside thinned soon after midnight as a slow drizzle began, perhaps a metaphor for the ephemeral existence of happiness in a country burdened with increasing violence, a dismal economy and natural disasters.
“It is difficult to celebrate anything in Pakistan these days, let alone the country itself,” said Zeeshan Haider, a college student who was out with his friends in Saddar. “But we must keep the ray of hope alive.”
Haider said Pakistani youth must look for silver linings in difficult times. The clouds above his head, however, remained dark and stormy.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 15th, 2013.
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