Zindagi Gulzar hai - Life is a Flower Garden

13 December - Zaroon

For the first time in my life, I regretted going to college. If I knew all this would happen to me, I would have never have gone.

I don't get that common girl 'Kashaf'. Why isn't she intimidated by me? Why doesn't she hold her tongue? In my life the thing I hate the most is defeat and she is defeating me again and again. What is so special about her that every move I make is directed back towards me?

For the past few days I had been challenging her, so that she would take the bait and I would be able to insult her. And finally today I found the chance. After hearing her talk about foreign policy I was satisfied that I would be able to push her down and Sir Abrar gave me the perfect chance to do so. I used this golden moment to the full but just as I finished, she took permission from Sir Abrar and started speaking. At the start of her speech she said, "Mister Zaroon says that he would like to go into foreign policy so that he can serve his country. The service he will do is clear from his thoughts about the Pakistani nation."

I was shaking in fury at her words.

"He wants to keep good relations with America because it provides us aids, and therefore he thinks there is nothing wrong with bargaining on the national interest. According to him, our nation is alive due to this aid; therefore we should not have any dignity.  I completely agree with him that western countries give us aids but the question is who is getting these aids. There are two classes in this country. 98% lower class and 2% upper class. The aids we receive are actually used by this 2% nation. This class includes famous bureaucrats, business men and government officials and Mister Zaroon is one of them. Through bank loans and corruption, these foreign aids are distributed among these people. In the condition of not bargaining on the national interest, if their income is decreased, they are the ones who are affected. Therefore being a member of this high class, you can understand Mister Zaroon's worrying if the aids are stopped."

"You are meddling with personal affairs!" I nearly shouted at her in rage. I couldn't take any more of her rubbish and I was worried that if I didn't stop her, she would ruin whatever was left of my image. She replied with her voice louder and bolder than mine. Her confidence hadn't decreased one bit.

"I am not meddling with personal affairs. Do you deny the fact that you are the son of a business man?"

"No, when have I denied that?" I replied quickly.

"When you are not denying that fact, then what point of my thoughts seems wrong to you?  Is it not true that a large portion of foreign aids are consumed by the upper class in the form of bank loans?"

"The money we take in the form of loans is returned, with interest!" My anger was rising with every second.

"I have no such doubt that you don't return the money, I'm just saying that the money is used by the 2% upper class, not the 98% lower class. Do you still deny the fact that you are the only ones who use it?"

I didn't know straight away what to reply to her question. As a last try, I turned to Sir Abrar, "Sir, why are you not stopping her?"

"That too, I will answer for you. Sir Abrar is not stopping me because you have called us a corrupt nation therefore the feelings of me and my class mates, along with Sir Abrar's have been badly injured.'

She spoke before Sir Abrar even got a chance. The smile on his face became even bigger. That idiot Kashaf was speaking very cleverly

"Zaroon, I didn't stop you from speaking. You finished what you had wanted to say, now let others speak too."

I became quiet. The matter I had started had become the noose around my neck. Getting the signal from Sir Abrar to continue, Kashaf started speaking again. "When we don't even get anything from these aids, then why should we bargain our independence and dignity? He said that we can't even make a needle. If we can't, then what is our in it?  They should make needles because they are the ones who set up factories, not us. We don't even have any money to set them up. Zaroon said that we can't stop eating meat for two days. 98% of our nation can't even afford meat, how can we stop eating it when we don't even eat it in the first place? We are grateful if we can even eat daal. They are the one who can afford the luxury of eating meat. Mister Zaroon says that we are a fuss-maker and corrupt nation. Name one country that isn't corrupt. The America, which he is in love with, is there no corruption there? Yes, there is corruption in Pakistan, but if the 98% leaves corruption, will the 2% stop it?"