پشاور کا ایک قبرستان

پشاور کا ایک قبرستان ہے۔ جس میں بہت سی چھوٹی چھوٹی قبریں ہیں۔ ان قبروں کی مٹی سے عجیب سی مشک آتی ہے۔ کہتے ہیں ان قبروں کے مکیں بہت بہاد تھے۔ یہ قبریں خود میں بسنے والوں کے چلے جانے کے غم کی طرح ہمیشہ تازہ رہیں گی اور ہمیشہ جوان رہیں گی۔

December

December was my favorite month of the year while growing up especially the last 10 days, the excitement of a new year. The chill was not only in the air but one can feel it inside; all the dry fruit, all the saag and all the hoodies. You have to be warm from inside to feel the cold that lives outside. We use to have Ramzan in December when I was growing up and I was also a student at the Presentation Convent, Hassanabdal and we use to get Christmas holidays too. So, the December was both blessed and merry.

My love for December continued even when I was no longer a third grade student. I still loved December when I was a teen or when I was a university student and even then when I was a boy, working at my father’s construction site, out there in the open. December’s appeal never depreciated not even a dime but then the December of 2014 happened. After the 16^th of December, 2014 everything changed. Suddenly, December was synonymous with loss, sorrow, mourning, excruciating pain, and grief. December has lost its mojo. Now it was the worst month of the year. The following December, the wound got fresh again; ripe as it was on the day one. December was lost. December was gone. Every reference to the month ended up on the mentioning of the unfortunate day of 16^th December, 2014, like the month has no other day. I wished that I close my eyes on the 31^st of November and open them on the 1^st of January, skipping the whole month. The worst part of a misery is that you have to live through it. December was my misery.

But then I had an epiphany. I realized that you not only mourn the dead but you celebrate the survivors. December was no longer bad but now it stands for promising that we will not let it happen again to all the other mothers. We faltered in our promise but the resolve is still there. Now, I love December again but with a pinch of melancholy. Now it is not just a month, it is message that reads love and cherish your own and protect them at any cost. It is a pledge that says that we will not let it happen again. It is a resolve that affirms that we will never put our foot down and it is a reminder that how low our enemies can stoop. Today December stands for many things and I love it for this.   

The World

The world is big

The world is small
What the world really is?
You can never be sure
But the thing about the world is that
The world is today
The world is present
The world is now