Friday, June 19, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Swat - A City Out of This World
“Swat is Heaven on earth” I have heard this enormously, perhaps due to reason of listening so many times I have never extracted the literal essence of this phrase until last week when I visited Mardan and met people who are reflecting the dreadful image of Swat operation. We ran a fund raising campaign in Karachi and the basic purpose of our visit was to distribute these funds to IDPs (Internally Dislocated People) of Swat operation. Regardless to the dispute of “who is right” I have found the innocent people of Swat and its suburbs paying the cost of this operation. They are accommodated in camps, government schools or in the houses of people living on the strip of Mardan to Shergarh.
Having lost their loved ones, home land and even homes they are still very optimistic towards peace. One thing that I and my friends will never forget is their approach and attitude towards us as visitors. Their hostility towards us was unbelievable, in other words I would say that they went beyond their ways to comfort us and this is not because we were helping them, it is the general nature of the people of Swat. Keeping in mind that these people are suffering from lack of food, it is very hard to believe that we had been offered meals of their own, which they probably would not have for themselves in these circumstances.
Our whole team was astonished and really felt grief when we saw white bearded people in queue waiting for food and supplies. We met an 80+ year old woman who lost all her relatives except one nephew who is suffering from severe heart disease. We met more than 400 families but none of them expressed any negative gesture instead almost everyone said ALHAMDULILLAH (Thanks to ALLAH All Mighty).
One of our guide/driver Karim, who is also from Swat and living with a local family, he never let us pay for anything except for one occasion when we threaten that we would abandon his services if he would not charge us for fuel. Keeping the fact in mind that these people are disturbed by the Swat operation, their positive attitude and approach was unforgettable. The above is just an attempt to describe their pleasant souls but the fact is this effort would not do justice to what these people actually are because there are not word in dictionary to define pleasant souls.
Having lost their loved ones, home land and even homes they are still very optimistic towards peace. One thing that I and my friends will never forget is their approach and attitude towards us as visitors. Their hostility towards us was unbelievable, in other words I would say that they went beyond their ways to comfort us and this is not because we were helping them, it is the general nature of the people of Swat. Keeping in mind that these people are suffering from lack of food, it is very hard to believe that we had been offered meals of their own, which they probably would not have for themselves in these circumstances.
Our whole team was astonished and really felt grief when we saw white bearded people in queue waiting for food and supplies. We met an 80+ year old woman who lost all her relatives except one nephew who is suffering from severe heart disease. We met more than 400 families but none of them expressed any negative gesture instead almost everyone said ALHAMDULILLAH (Thanks to ALLAH All Mighty).
One of our guide/driver Karim, who is also from Swat and living with a local family, he never let us pay for anything except for one occasion when we threaten that we would abandon his services if he would not charge us for fuel. Keeping the fact in mind that these people are disturbed by the Swat operation, their positive attitude and approach was unforgettable. The above is just an attempt to describe their pleasant souls but the fact is this effort would not do justice to what these people actually are because there are not word in dictionary to define pleasant souls.
Monday, June 15, 2009
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