A maddening loss of imagination

Both India & US once shared same colonial masters as us. But they have moved on and we are still stuck in the past.

Imagination is the key. Dreams give birth to civilisation. The wide- eyed fascination of a child with the processes far beyond his grasp eventually leads to scientific inquiry and consequently cutting edge technology. It is here that a poet’s flight of fancy and a science fiction writer’s created worlds interact to make progress possible.

Look at them. What new technologies they keep coming up with. Amazon, the American electronic commerce company, will soon have its delivery drones to bring to you your orders. Meanwhile, instead of inventing new technologies, we have allowed predator drones to shape up our political ideology. No doubt that these drones are killing machines and are not endowed with the ability to tell the difference between criminals and innocent bystanders. But if they were to stop coming, imagine how many politicians would go out of business.



Research has shown that man is on the verge of conquering one of the worst enemies in recent decades: HIV. A combination of antiretroviral therapy and radioactivity ought to do it. In our immediate neighbourhood, India’s Mars probe has already cleared moon’s orbit.

Mediocrity is not a crime. As a common man, I struggle daily with my inadequacies and mediocrities. It is, however, unforgivable if you have no or rotten imagination, for imagination is a faculty hard-wired into our brains. It is amazing to which extent some of us would go to lessen the burden of imagination. Curiosity is but natural and yet, many average everyday parents cannot stand their children’s curiosity. Unquestioning servitude is what we are cultivating here. And that is what we have to endure in the shape of an unimaginative, angry, paranoid youth almost ready to be harvested by extremists.

If you are not convinced of how far along we are in this disease, here is a simple test. Answer these few questions. How many good quality Pakistani fiction writers have you come across in recent years? Can you name a few inspiring Pakistani poets of the 21^st century? Do you know of any original science fiction works in Urdu? Which recent Pakistani television drama or movie impressed you the most with its quality and creativity? How many Nobel laureates have we produced in recent years?

Granted, not everyone can be as creative. But how good are we in the fields of research and innovation? Have you come across any important Pakistani paper on science and technology in international journals? Any well known Pakistani invention? Any well established Pakistani multinational, in the true sense of the word? And how about a couple of Pakistan-based successful international websites? The fact is that we are a sorry bunch. We keep blaming our colonial heritage for our ills and yet remove the infrastructure built by the British colonialists and are left with precious little. Both India and the United States once shared the same colonial masters as us. But they have moved on and we are still stuck in the past.

If truth be told, we have given up innovation because we are afraid of imagination. In our 66 years of national life, we have created a repressive narrative that waylays our flight of imagination as no terrorist or dictator could. As I pointed out earlier, this faculty is so hard-wired in our brains that in order to evade suppression, it surfaces in the worst paranoia possible. If you are looking for a metaphor to describe us all, Khoji from Ratan Nath Sarshar’s Fasana-e-Azad fits the bill. In the end, there is only one solution to the sorry state. Instead of fighting a repressive narrative politically, enrich your culture by adding as much creativity and imagination in your personal limited capacity as you can. Even baby steps will do.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th, 2013.

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