HAPPY INDEPENDENCE!

Here's to the 72 years of freedom that we have earned, wait, correction, our ancestors had earned. We, on the other hand, have done our best jobs to damage it and we have served well. Now I apologize if I came down on the patriotic mood of yours. I meant no offense.

Our beloved homeland has made it to 72 years, all bleeding, all scratched, all withered but nevertheless all beautiful. Our roads are loaded with charged patriots. We love our land. We are happy, happy to be free. Happy to have been bestowed with the gift that our ancestors presented to us. And what did it cost? Blood. Sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, the unborn.

See, I share your spirit too. I don't share your way celebration, perhaps. This day isn't a happy day for me. Of course, I am grateful for it. When I think about the ‘what ifs’, what if we never had won? Where would we be now? Dead? Caged? At war? Maybe we'd be coexisting peacefully. But that's a far-fetched maybe. And I am talking Timbuktu far. When I think about the lands that are not quite free. The ones at war. The ones where human life has no value. Kashmir, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Iran… The list goes on. And what breaks my heart even more is the fact that it has only just begun. Peace takes years and years of blood to prevail and it takes one moment to break it.

Wars, on the other hand, wars are easy. Hatred is easy. It doesn't hurt the way caring does. Political games.

And when I think about them, I feel relieved to be here. And I hate myself for feeling it but there is nothing wrong with it. It's human, if not really humane.

So when the day comes, it's a blend of emotions. I am happy to be here. But it breaks my heart because the day is always sad. The aura is always sad. Because the sacrifices never faded. The horrors never ceased. Maybe they never do.

Maybe someday I'd talk about the irony of this situation but not today. Today is about independence, the happiest sad day, or the saddest happy.

While we have the independence, that we owe to Jinnah and Iqbal and the ones who got wrote down in the history and the ones who never made it to be known, they all did it for us, selflessly. They knew they wouldn't make it, but they had faith that we would. And so we did. But we ruined everything along the way.

Happiest Birthday Pakistan. Long Live my beloved homeland. We're sorry to have failed you, to have failed our ancestors. We're sorry to have taken the sacrifices, that were already beyond our bearing, for granted. And in doing so, we have made them heavier. We're sorry that our patriotism wakes up for one day, or when we're challenged but sleeps all the other days. Because we're so ready to defend but we are not ready yet to amend.

We can lay down our lives for the country but that's about it because working to make it better is a bit much to ask.

Dear beloved, I wish you recovery for we have damaged you a lot. Dear beloved, I wish you the best people because you deserve them.

I wish we find it in our hearts to do something for this country, and for our people suffering in our neighbor land. They came so close to being with us, and they're still suffering. Our land maybe diseased but it's not rotten yet. It's survivable. May Pakistan live long. May Kashmir be free. May all the lands be safe. May we find it in our hearts to do more than mere talk. May God be with us all.