Let me re-write what I have been writing for the last 3 years on 31st December.
Khalid Hosseini writes in ‘And the Mountains Echoed’, “Should have been more kind. That is something a person will never regret. You will never say to yourself when you are old, ah, I wish I was not good to that person. You will never think that.”
Happy New Year with that though it doesn’t matter. If you are in pain on 31st of December, you will be in pain on 1st of January. But if you are happy on 31st of December, there are chances you’ll be unhappy on the 1st of January.
Afterall, happiness in itself is a façade. A lie. One cannot be happy within this body, with this mind, with this soul, and with ultimate disregard for everything and disrespect for his/her own self.
You can counter with what Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote. “Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn’t calculate his happiness.” Thought, all you need to do is to know Dostoevsky and you may not find an unhappier man.
Anyway.
2024 was ugly like any other year. Not ugly for Palestinians much because they had all the years like that, and they shall have some more. Still, the intensity of 2024 being ugly depends on where you live. For example, Parachinar city and Kurram district saw an ugly year. Cruel. People were killed. Children were killed. While the state was busy in Islamabad with both Punjab and KP.
Unlike Parachinar, and like Palestine; Balochistan suffered the same. Nothing uglier. Ugly, but not uglier. It suffered in the microwave oven for the entire year. Equally. So, we can neither mourn nor be happy. We can be content.
The overall country went down though. Further down the pit. It was better under previous martial laws because this one has taken down everything. Even the Supreme Court. With the dummy parliament, this era would be remembered as worst martial law in the history of the country.
But who knows. I used to call the martial law of Bajwa (2016-2022) the worst one too. We never know what gift there is with another year. The current one…
By the way, imagine this: Nawaz Sharif was the PM. Then Khaqan Abbasi. Then Nasirul Mulk. Then Imran Khan. Then Shehbaz Sharif. While the whole time, Bajwa remained intact.
“Object of power is power.” Yeah, Orwell said that. In his 1984 which is our perpetual year.
All the same and old ugly ducklings are dancing to the tunes of Pindi. Duffers remained in power. Only a General Election was stolen. So? It happens every time with elections. But do you know what happens when Elections are not stolen? Yeah! Dissection. Rise of Dhaka.
The business of murders and rapes remained intact. Kids remained unsafe. Women too. Humans too. Camels too. Courts too.
All the travesties traveled from one ugliness to another for over a year for nothing. Imagine travelling hundreds of miles for travesty. But not in a hundred years of solitude. I didn’t watch that yet but yes. that novel is one of the finest reads I remember.
In all this mess, there is still a need to manage paperwork. For that, we have bureaucracy. My favorite idiots of all, because they don’t even know what they are signing. Or approving. From top north to bottom south, there is nothing but disregard of public. Through public money. And public offices. In the hands of those who shine on Twitter and Instagram after passing CSS.
Now, bureaucrats are onto another mission. To curtail pension and retirement funds. So, they are doing that. While they are working for their own good on the same hand. Let me quote Dawn here, “Punjab’s civil bureaucracy has launched a lucrative loan scheme, offering loans from Rs5 million to Rs25 million to the “PAS (Pakistan Administrative Service) and PMS (Provincial Management Service) officers only” at just two per cent interest rate, sparking allegations of favoritism and burdening taxpayers.”
Think. take a loan of Rs.25 million. At 2%. And then you don’t even need to imagine what to do with it. It’s how bureaucracy works. It scams people with their money while sitting in the most legal spaces.
Yahya once dismissed 303 bureaucrats with a single order. That is known as “Three Nought Three”. Later on, some of them were dismissed from the services forever. Today, one doesn’t even need such an order. FPSC is unconstitutional. After the 18th Amendment, Federal government cannot hire employees for provinces.
A day will come, when Faiz Ahmad Faiz will see, when all this hierarchy of bastards will be disbanded.
Anyhow. I deviate. From one bunch of idiots to another and I forget that it can lead to blasphemy. By the way, blasphemy remained blasphemous this year too. Religion remained in blood. People were killed. In police stations. In markets. In clinics. Burnt alive. Celebrations were there afterwards. The living hell is living.
Nothing changed from 2023 to 2024 except for everything getting worse. The worst version of Nawaz is back in town. Khan is in prison for exactly the same crimes. But crimes don’t matter. Criminal does. For now, Nawaz is acceptable, and Khan isn’t. Simple. And it can take a 180 turn any day. And even that won’t be a surprise anymore.
People are still looking outward. Beyond borders. Moving out. Migrating. It is not 80s and 90s of secular democracies. It is a new world of radicalization and right factions are rising from the ashes. Even in the top ranked countries of Europe and Scandinavia. Gradually, things are going to be pretty bad for expats and everyone else. The future is bad particularly in the west. Because the Muslim world and Africa have already been bombed out and robbed.
Thus, here we are. Not by choice. Never by consent. Welcome the new year of 2025. Open your arms. Close your eyes. And get ready to embrace the same ugly filth that you have been embracing since existence. Nothing is going to be a new-new.
Nietzsche said, “The text has vanished under the interpretation”. That shouldn’t happen. People do spend their lives explaining what they meant with their spoken words. Fine. If this happens with written words, that’s ugly. Step aside. Let the crowd settle. Majority of the brains are the same.
Text. Interpretation. Misinterpretation. Like it happens with all the holy texts. More text for further clarification. Further clarification for further chaos. More misinterpretation. Doubts. More doubts. Then more text. For more clarity. Then it becomes a blackhole of its own. Big giant entrance with no exit. Schools of thoughts over schools of thoughts. Jurisprudence. And then… truth vanishes from the texts.
How can it be that interpretation of a couple of decade of a holy figure never ends?
Because truth is straight. Easy to understand. Ultimately, it is your own personal journey. Your own soul searching. Your own delving into your own self for your own God. Between you and your God.
Too long. Yet too less.
I just edited a couple of sentences from the words I wrote last year today. And before that year too. And before that too. This is 4th consecutive 31st December post with sustained pessimism and realism.
The same will be done in the years to come.
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