canal.

i check the news with hope that pakistan has not made the headlines. these days it usually does. a lot. its hard to find unbiased news. everyone seems to hate pakistan. they seems to pin it out as an enemy in dire need of a western attack. like somehow that will tame us. pakistan has created an unfortunate disgusting face for itself. it is a face of an ugly man with a beard, strapped to a suicide jacket. its sad, because that is far from what pakistan is or ever will be.

pakistan is undeniably in a crisis. but even without electricity and recent insecurity, it is far from what the media describes it as. i left pakistan a few months ago and will not be returning for at least another year. i miss it so much that it sometimes hurts to think about it. wanting brown skin, cheap cell phone services, and wearing white shalwar kameez barely define my need for pakistan.

the canal. i miss the canal. it runs through lahore. i used to drive by it almost everyday and i would watch people embracing the red brown water in the most blazing of heats. pakistan in the summer is an oven. if not worse. the canal has personality. there are tanned boys in inflated shalwars, filled with styrofoam, jumping into the water in their own classic olympic dives. they are ecstatic. there are women and girls in colorful duppattas washing clothes. couples are silking their feet in water. there are boys in their fake armani shirts trying desperately to get the attention of the girls at the opposite side of the canal. everyone is happy. war is seemingly unavailable. the beautiful truth is that pakistan is as innocent and pure as the people it holds in its canals.

until there is an attack. it drives the man into his house and a woman from being educated. we pakistanis cannot, do not, and will not believe in the message of these psychotic people.

these people have stripped us of our security and respect. these people are not pakistanis.