meethapani

  Social Distance The recent Covid 19 pandemic became synonymous with the term, social distance. However, social distancing has been practiced in a variety of ways probably since human societies formed. Social distance is the cultivation of physical, psychological and cultural differences between different groups of people on the basis of class, race, gender, political thought, religion and their many subsets. In Pakistan social distance has been institutionalized for thousands of years.   While the ruins of Moen jo Daro and Harappa reveal no visible signs of class hierarchy, with the Aryan invasion, caste and class became entrenched. Each subsequent invader further consolidated hierarchies of power and privilege. Power and privilege remain a hallmark of Pakistani society.   The Waderas of Sindh, the Zamindars of Punjab, the Nawabs of Baluchistan, the Maliks of Khyber Pakhtunkwa, the higher echelons of the business community, and the top positions of the Civil Ser...

  Negotiating Revolution When we think of revolutions, most people visualise the cataclysmic events of the 1789 French revolution, the barbarism of which has been sanitized as “Liberte Egalite Fraternite” - Liberty Equality and Brotherhood. The French Reign of Terror inspired Russia’s 1918 Red Terror, which sought to eliminate political dissent, opposition, and any other threat to Bolshevik power. These revolutions, with the reprisals and counter revolutionary actions that followed, came to seen as a threat to progress. Market Democracy was proposed as an alternative to people power, but quickly morphed into a Market Economy, building up wealth in the hands of a few.      George Lawson disagrees that revolutions should be consigned to history. Instead, he proposes the idea of a negotiated revolution. Instead of “a fight to the finish, comes a process in which the old regime and revolutionaries together negotiate the destruction of the old order and the bir...

    Managing Collective Trauma   The last year can be described as a cascading collective trauma for Pakistanis, regardless of which side of the polarization they stand. The information highway is chaotic with newsbreaks unfolding with bewildering speed.   How can a nation cope with this unrelenting stress? It seems it is not Pakistan alone, but nations across the world, who face this uncertainty. As journalist Elizabeth Berg   puts it - our crazy world Is making us stressed and sad. A corrosive culture is eating away at the values that we built our social structures on. Baba Fariduddin Ganjshakar wrote “I thought I was alone who suffered. I went on top of the house, and found every house on fire.” We ask the question, why is the world so sad? Reliefweb International reports that 9 out of every 10 countries have fallen backwards in health, education, and standard of living and “a totally overwhelmed global society is staggering from crisis to crisis”...

  How Freedom was Won   India was no stranger to invaders, both external, and internal, as many kingdoms vied with one another for territory and power. The invaders adopted the sub-continent as their home, contributing culturally and economically. The Mughal empire was producing about 25% of the world's economy. By contrast the British colonial enterprise, which began with a foothold by the East India Company in Surat in 1607, until its reluctant departure in 1947, drained India of its wealth for the benefit of the British economy, leaving it in poverty, and social and political turmoil.   A few thousand British officers subjugated a country of 300 million for more than 200 years. They protected their presence with military might, a police force, inventing laws, and establishing social authority. Ironically, the army and police were inducted from the local population, to imprison, execute or open fire on their fellow countrymen. Amitav Ghosh writes “How do you fig...

  Shaped by Design    Humans have always created tools to complete tasks that lie beyond the limitations of their bodies, from the earliest flint tools, the invention of the wheel, the bicycle, the sewing machine, the light bulb, the computer, the cell phone and now GPT4, with countless inventions in between.     While the value of design is measured by increase in productivity, people are also unconsciously shaped by designs. It affects our behaviour, our relationships with our surroundings, and our use of time. Objects become symbols of ourselves, our society, our class.    Design can be used to influence behaviour, called ‘nudging’. Use of recycled materials creates environmental responsibility. Fitbits encourage people to keep track of their health. If the 50s brought entertainment into the home with television and music systems, the 21st century has attached it to our bodies with integrated phones accompanying us wherever we go....

                                              Losing the Plot    Shakespeare's Macbeth calls life " a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing".  and Mirza Ghalib says "bazeecha atfal hai dunya meray aagay, hota hai shab o roz tamasha meray aagay"  (The world before me is a child’s playground, where daily the drama of life is enacted)   Psychologist Dan McAdams, says we perceive our lives as a story. The human brain is hardwired to seek the story that connects events of the past, the present, as well as an imagined future,.to bring meaning and purpose to our lives. All religions and folklore persuade through relating stories that convey underlying moral principles.   The early English novel can be seen...

  No Time to Retire Zia Mohyeddin departed from our world this February at the age of 91, taking with him a generation defined by elegance, grace and excellence. He never retired, and even in his last hours, requested the doctors to work their magic so he could keep his schedule to perform in Lahore in the coming weeks. He represented a generation that believed in itself, that believed it had something of value to share and made every effort to achieve the greatest heights of their chosen field. The economic visionary Mahbub ul Haq, Sadeqain who painted on an epic scale, Faiz Ahmed Faiz who spoke across nations, Mustafa Zaidi whose identity as a poet could never be contained by his civil service career, Noor Jehan whose voice was embedded in our hearts, the bold journalists, educationists, philanthropists, industrialists, and war heroes, were giant trees whose nurturing shade we are now bereft of. In Pakistani society, there is enormous respect for elders, the buzurg. That sa...