Few months back, I was in Hong Kong for a leisure trip with
some of my friends, and i must say being a vegetarian is not easy. We were desperately looking for some Indian restaurant
, trying all type of sign languages with
localites, hoping that all those nights spend playing dumb-charades would help
us fill our hungry stomachs.
There in a lane we saw a man looking so like us, and thus thanking the population of our
country we thought its impossible not to find a country where Indians don’t live.
We approached him, and asked him in hindi, if there was any Indian restaurant
nearby.
Looking at us with a light smile on his face, he told us
that there was one nearby. One of us asked us from where was he in India, after a small
pause he replied that he was Rawalpindi, Pakistan. That was followed by a
moment of awkward silence. My hunger forced me in action, and i said “ Shoib
Akhtar’s Rawalpindi”. It wasn’t that good a joke, actually a horrible one,
rather it was just a selfish attempt to make sure he would still take us to the
restaurant.
I don’t know what he thought, but not only did he agree to
tell us the way to the place, but actually take us there. On the way we started to have a conversation, his
name was Abdul Rehman, he was a security guard and had been living in Hong Kong for 17 years with his family He started
telling us about Pakistan, how his beautiful land had turned into a mine-land.
Telling his tale, there was pain in his eyes, “I call my relatives back home every
2-3 days, and every time they tell me of a Bomb explosion, bullets being fired.
People are living there in a fear. My daughter goes to school over here, she
will get education, back home we are afraid to send our daughters to school.
Did you hear about that girl MALALA who was shot, just because she spoke, such
a Brave Heart....allah save my land !!!! "
Not only did he leave us to the restaurant, also showed us
the Metro, gave us his phone number, and asked us to call him at any time , if
we needed any help. Here was a Pakistani, being a host to Indians in Hong Kong.
The reason i told you this story was because of the last sentence that Pakistani man said to us.” . Did you hear about that girl MALALA who was
shot, just because she spoke, such a Brave Heart” , at that point of time it
was just a person praising a girl who was shot by extremist because she spoke
against them. She survived to become a symbol of peace and hope for Pakistan. But
today with Malala being all over the News for her efforts towards rights to
education for women, and she just missing the Nobel peace prize. I was shocked
to read a Article by a Pakistani journalist, who said that Malala is just a
hype being created by the west to deviate people from the path of Islam, and people
back home in Pakistan don’t like her speaking so audaciously against Islam.
I don’t know anything about Islam, i am no one to decide weather she should
have got the Nobel or not. All i know is that she is s 16 year old girl, who against
all odds decided to speak for what she felt was right. Not many girls in the
most developed nations would have the courage to stand against a small
injustice. And for a girl who comes from a place where women don’t have such
freedom, what she did is not only brave, but its hope for all those young girls
in Pakistan who want to study. Education is a power that can unite this
unstable world. That can eradicate things
like terrorism, rape, poverty.
I am just a common man whose voice would not probably reach
Malala, but i hope that girl knows that like Abdul Rehman what does a common
Pakistani think about her. He thinks she is brave, he thinks she is the hope,
he prays for her.
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