Fighting hearts; Connecting pain!

You have a neighbour. You have fought with him. Bigtime, thrice. And you daily argue with him. Skirmishes are there all time. It's rare that smiles are exchanged, leave alone congenial talk. Is it possible to sympathise with such a person? I thought not.

But I was wrong. Last week I was sorry for Pakistan. Here they are, bombed in their sovereign territory, by a person who is their ally. Some seventeen of their countrymen die, and all they can do is wring their hands.

I could feel what their countrymen are going through. That's because I hold my country dear. Crazy? Ironic? Seems weird, but I'll try to explain.
Long ago I had my blood boil with rage, when my stupid foreign minister went to Kandahar for the release of hostages. Submitting to the captors' demands was inevitable then, but what got my goat was the external affairs' minister's pose holding hands with the terrorist who was to be released.

Another time. This time the government was the same but the ministers had changed. We conduct a nuclear test, and the superpower frowns at it. Each country has its own reason to behave the way they do.You do what is good for your country and stand by it, come what may. But what we saw was our minister chasing the super power's then under Secretary of state, all through the world, buttonholing him wherever possible. It was almost like a sub begging a dom after playing truant. I personally felt humiliated. If you don't have the guts to do something, you shouldn't do that at all.

Okay, I'll stop here, for still I get worked up just thinking of those incidents. Such events like these humiliates the ordinary patriotic citizens. And because we have had our own share, I am able to relate to the collective psyche of the Pakis.

A government is not some amoebic torso of a creature. Ultimately it boils down to some individuals who take decisions what are touted as Government's actions. And when they have no sense of self respect, integrity and steadfastness, first their character taints the government's actions. Then such an action stains the country. And this, pains ordinary people like me.

My sympathies are with such ordinary people of Pakistan who are caught in a vicious cycle of jingoism, over dependence on military and religious extremism. It seems that to keep people from asking to be alleviated from poverty, the prescription world wide is fundamentalism. It is the opium of the masses.

Ofcourse, I can be thought of as mistaken. I have read only our history books.