We Who were Executed

It's true - that not to reach you was fate -
but who'll deny that to love you
was entirely in my hands?
So why complain if these matters of desire
brought me inevitably to the execution grounds?

Why complain? Holding up our sorrows as banners,
new lovers will emerge
from the lanes where we were killed
and embark, in caravans, on those highways of desire.
It's because of them that we shortened the distance of sorrow,
it's because of them that we went out to make the world our own,
we who were murdered in the darkest lanes.

Faiz Ahmed Faiz.....translated by Agha Shahid Ali

Of Emergency

I was at airport this morning waiting for the flight to board and trying to get some wireless internet signal but was having no success....and just when the passengers were asked to board the plane, my laptop caught some signals and at that critical moment, I thought to have a look at BBC website to see what was new in the news....and may be this was not a good idea!!!!
The main page hit me with a shock - "emergency in Pakistan"....for a nano-second my mind blew off.....but then what else I could have expected from a military person. I know, I admit, my first feeling was to cry....I really felt tears coming towards my eyelids....I felt a real pain deep inside....and even now when I am writing this blog, I can feel, I am being emotional again.....I ask, why, why, why they had to do this? why don't they just leave my country as my country? why are they humiliating the constitution? Is it not their country??
I was coming to CA for a weekend, was very excited for my trip but suddenly all I could feel was just pain.....I got my seat, it was besides window....I kept looking outside and suddenly the lady at my side asked me whether I had fastened my seat belt....I said yes and again looked out....my mind was blankly over whelming.....suddenly I heard her asking me, "where is home" and I looked at her , the statement flashed in my mind....home is where the heart is.....and all I could utter was "Pakistan" and I felt that I'll start crying if I didn't say something. May be I wanted to scream, share the grief and I told her that I was feeling sad because of the downfall in Pakistan.

At that time I looked at the book in my lap and then I couldn't resist a smile.....there was a co-incidence again. I was reading "Pakistan: military rule or people's power"....

Just few weeks ago, I was at a film festival watching a documentary about Sikh massacre in 1984 in India. That was very sad and while watching it, I just looked at the book in my lap and I was reading "1984"......is there really something linked? I don't know.