Never Say Die!

The attack in Lahore on Friday was aimed at a security forces convoy but many victims are civilians

I have been trying to get my hands on a photo of a hoarding advertising Jashn e Bahaaran here in Lahore fro quite some time now.....but have failed in the endeavour. May be I wasn't trying enough.These hoardings have been sponsored by Lipton, the famous tea brand .....these signs look quite relevant because basant and bahaar (spring) apparently share the colour yellow with Lipton's logo.

But there was something strange in the air right from the start....the spring festival turned out to be quite low key.Back in the mid ninetys when this trend of corporate sponsorship in the country was still nascent, the response to such calls by the sponsors was quite cheerful and whole hearted. This has completely died down now.

The common man seems to be dragging their souls towards happiness....this decade has given the people a moto......stay happy. I mean the message seems to be "try hard and feel the happiness..try real hard..."we have seen people trying to define the term happiness and the emotion love, like never before. Pick up any website on the internet, any digest, any weekend news paper mag and even juice drink packs....they all ask you to practice happiness somehow!

And people tried ...they did try real hard ..not only because they succunbed to the force of the message that mass media campaigns employ to drum their adds but also because its a basic human need to feel the happiness....and in that bid over the last week I ahve been sitting in a fast food joint's window seat that gives a good view of the park in Lahore that is one of the venues of Jashn e Baharan events.....People come with expressionless faces ....take slow strolls in the park , give spiteful looks at the huge tea logo cut outs and leave.

That is beacuse they are all concerned about reaching home in one one piece...and what happened yesterday in Lahore was enough to shatter any kind of brave hearted Lahori. Just returned from the capital , I have never seen such a strange quiet in the city and that too on a Saturday over the past year I have spent here. But now people are not as free spirited as they once were-they are thinking twice....because they all know there are savages out there who can blow them off in seconds right in the heart of the city within seconds, within days and 7 times in a day.

The response of London to the July 7 attacks was appreciated by the world

Back in October when there was an attack in Shangla on a security forces convoy and I was asked by a London based journalist ' How did I feel on the roads in Pakistan?'.I had replied at that time that the life goes on ,,,,the spirit of Paksitanis is high, quite similar to the reslove that Londoners exhibited after July underground bombings, My interrogater had given a toughtful silent reply .....

But just some months later , I now feel that the resolve of Pakistanis is greater than any nation in the world. The way they bounce back every time their lives and the way of living is attacked is unmatched.

Why those Lipton hoardings caught my attention was because of the slogan inscribed across them in deep red, which justifies itself absolutely after Friday attacks:
Lahore Can Do That!