Lost Spirit of Lahore or 'DAWN'?
- by S Roman Ahsan
I wish I did not have to include this post in my blog. But sometimes when I read articles like the one discussed here which has been published in a leading English newspaper like DAWN then I feel I have to say something. The concerned newspaper is supposed to give mature thought to our English reading audience in Pakistan. Nobody is condemning good fun activities here but The DAWN newspaper of yesteryears carried the right spirit. It used to educate the masses and mobilized them in the right direction. Came 9/11 and the related global events. Things have drastically changed. The focus is increasing on such issues as if the intent is to promote decadence in the society. The overall quality of the newspaper is still great but the thought floated in articles sometimes lacks responsibility on the part of the editors and the team in general.
We all want progressiveness but not in clash with our own cultural and religious heritage. Ideas and conjectures that are at war with our beliefs only serve the enemies of our country. Just to emphasize, 'westernization' is not the evil. The evil is in getting carried away and promoting godless or atheist philosophies at times (other than this article also). I hope the management of 'DAWN' would grow up one day and would stop trying to compete with THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE. The time has come to dig into our own values and revive them. Enough damage has already been done to our country in the educated circles as a whole. We have to especially worry about our youth as well. We are not expecting an English Daily like 'DAWN' to leave 'everything'. But it can have a moderate policy compared to its current trends! We all freak out sometimes but we don't have to publicize it openly.
The link below is from the article in DAWN "Profile: High life, Lahore" and two comments on the article are also being given which further throw light on the issue. Of course, these comments are my own choice from the many given there. What do you think about this? Feel free to share your views below.
- S Roman Ahsan.
COMMENT NO. 1: Baaji ,Aapa ya Aunty, with all due respect, this reality of Lahore remained restricted to
privileged and not much has changed since your time. I think people at
LGS, LAS and Beacon celebrating Halloween, Holi and all the other
festivals seem pretty much in sync with trends of their times. I am
trying my best to avoid sarcasm but this reality seems completely
oblivious to lives of waiters in Gymkhana serving at your dances or
those other deep realities of servants and housemaids. This
unfortunately seems like lamenting of an old lady from American south
reminiscing about how things were awesome and trendy during those Ball
Room dances made possible by help of slaves and maids. People like you
certainly make me sick because they tend to dwell in glorious aspects of
past without pausing to think about the surrounding help which made it
possible. Dawn of Quaid is becoming more like a "She" magazine by
publishing such unnecessary nostalgia from socialites.
COMMENT NO. 2: To me this article reeks of snobbery rather then nostalgia.
Paradise created and enjoyed by hundreds at the cost of millions are
doomed from the beginning. Reminds me of similar account of comfort and
cozy memories by Egyptians as shown in "The ten commandments". No wonder Pakistan is bleeding today due to decades of indifference of self serving and self indulgent elite.
