Lara Zuberi's Blog - Posts Tagged "new-country"

Growing up in Pakistan, neither had I ever looked upon politics as a friend-nor had I particularly looked upon it as a foe. As a child, I found myself bored when dinners inevitably concluded in political discussions that I barely understood. I vaguely followed the unwritten rule of refraining from broaching with friends what was controversial. When I entered my twenties, I found my country's every corner and every street painted with such loud political color, that indifference became an impossibility.
I became then what almost every thinking Pakistani became: angry about poverty and illiteracy; critical about corruption; sad about the loss of innocent lives, and hopeless about the future. Moving away from Pakistan did nothing to change these sentiments, other than adding to them a dimension of helplessness.
Today, on the eve of election day, I am feeling something-may be it's just a flicker in the dark, may be it's merely a pin drop in the silence-perhaps it's only the beginning of a long, uneven road-but I can't help clinging on to it-an emerging hope within me that when I wake up tomorrow, there will be born a new country-Aik Naya Pakistan.