Friday, May 14, 2010

“Hasrat Mohani Day, Pakistan, PYR & More…”


[Some Random Thoughts While Returning From Pakistan]

Where Is Our Next Generation? 
Since my childhood, I was always reminded at home that being a grand daughter of one of the pioneers of Pakistan Movement was not about any privileges or fame… rather it came with certain responsibilities.
I remember composing and proof-reading the texts of invitation cards of Hasrat Mohani Day (یوم حسرت موہانی ), typing and posting letters to newspapers and institutions  during the pre-internet days.
It is almost fun to recall how was I asked to prepare on-the-spot  announcements for the arrival of various dignitaries.
I often ended up reading Welcome Notes for the wrong people … needless to mention that the real guests laughed at my childish mistakes, while advising me to do better in the next year’s Hasrat Day.
I do know that they only did it for their devotion to the heroes of independence and their high hopes from the upcoming generations of Pakistan.
As the time is flying, many of our learned and experienced people are growing either older or weaker. While we were informed about the inability of some of our guests to attend Hasrat Day Programme, due to these very reasons, my mind was looking for the answer to one  question…WHERE IS OUR NEXT GENERATION?  


Remembering Hasrat Mohani:
Thinking about all this background, I flew to Karachi to attend Hasrat Mohani Conference to be observed at Pakistan Arts Council on 13th May, 2010.  By the grace of Allah, the program went off very well … Very insightghtful papers were read by scholars like Dr. Jafar Ahmed (Director, Pakistan Studies Centre, Karachi Uni), Prof. Sehar Ansari ( Head, Urdu Dept, Karachi Uni) , Dr. Anwar Ahmed Zai (Ex Director, Education, Sindh), a poem by Prof Hasan Akbar Kamal (eminent national songs writer, author and critic), Bari Mian Farangi Mahli ( President, Hasrat Mohani Trust) & Mr. Peerzada Qasim (Vice-chancellor, Karachi University). There were some thoughghtful speeches rendered by Mr. Raoof Siddiqui & Mr. Shoaib Bukahri (Federal & Provincial Ministers). The special messages from Mr. Asif Ali Zardari (President of Pakistan) and Mr. Altaf Hussain (Quaid, MQM) were also read out in the program.
Before the start of the program, two ghazals of Hasrat Mohani were sung by Mr. Rafiq Rana.
More details of this program can be had from Daily Dawn of 14th May, 2010.

Hasrat Mohani and Our Youth
Did I mention my own small speech? My topic was “Hasrat Mohani and Our Youth”, which I wrote while travelling to Pakistan, amidst all the previously mentioned random thoughts.
The jist of the speech was that the life of Hasrat Mohani is a model for our youth. 

"Have we ever realized that Hasrat and his contemporaries were doing much more “multi-tasking” than present day fast moving youth?  

Think about a life without satellite TV, internet, email, fax, etc. ..

Can someone without all these modern day facilities imagine being a journalist, poet, scholar, writer, analyst, critic, politician, public speaker, even a trader … all at one time? 

Hasrat Mohani led a very fast paced life, without all modern day communication tools….

So why can’t we be able to set our goals higher and achieve them?"


Pakistan Youth Revolution – A Hope for the Future? http://www.pyr.org.pk/ 
This is my firm belief that our youth, well equipped with such ever growing technology, are capable of facing much bigger challenges and succeed. They have the same passion and devotion in their hearts, only waiting to be discovered and utilized in the best possible way. This passion can be easily seen and felt through Social Media interaction.
It was initiated with Pakistan Go Green Campaign by Farhan Masood  and its numerous supporters. Later Pakistan Youth Revolution by Jahanzaib Khan came up and thousands of talented and highly qualified young professionals joined it. In a very short span of time, this organization has made us set our hopes high and aim for the best only.
It was indeed a great pleasure to see PYR Karachi Team led by Sarfaraz M Khan accompanied by Abdul Hameed KathHameedullah, Sabir Khalid and others. It was like a breath of fresh air of such an enthusiastic group of people in this annual gathering of Hasrat Mohani Trust, Karachi. Also, it was nice talking to Beenish Qureshi who couldnot attend due to her work.  I wish and hope that from now onwards, the message of Hasrat Mohani and other national heroes will be remembered and spread everywhere with great zeal and spirit through the platform of PYR.
Isn’t it the revival of a great task of working together towards a common goal…. i.e., spreading hope and light in the lives of all Pakistanis?
History will tell…. Lets wait and see…

6 comments:

  1. Rumaisa,

    The next generation is just around the corner and seeks directions that feel is in remembering the Icon's & Leaders like Hasrat Mohani along with a list of devoted Independence Activists... that spent their entire life and savings for the cause...

    We too at PYR are trying bring youth leaders who will carry the Vision of Pakistan with the same Zeal, Devotion and enthusiasm as our such leaders...

    On behalf of the Management of PYR and PYR-Karachi Chapter I thank you for the mention and being part of us...

    Sarfaraz M Khan,
    Member BOD & Advisor to the President,
    PYR...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Salaam Rumaisa,

    Nice post! and inshAllah the history will be prosperous and the generation will change the future.

    P.S You are also welcomed to PYR UK meetings if u ever decide to come to this part of the world.

    JazakAllah

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Rumaisa
    You make your family proud by upholding the patriotic space in blogosphere. Good job on keeping this blog space alive, .... and continuing with your very contagious patriotic spirit!
    Cheers
    Shaista

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  4. Dear Rumaisa
    It was a lovely piece to read & found it to be very expressive. I highly praise your efforts for keeping our heroes alive & spreading awareness about them among our youth.
    You will be welcomed, if you need any kind of support.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @SMKhan, @Ali @ Shaista @Dr. Ahsan , Thank you so much for your appreciation and encouraging words... Its my humble wish that we should join to create hope and positivity among our fellow citizens... because when we are hopeful, its easy to take up big challenges, and even failures do not hinder us from stepping ahead.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice one and really it is very interesting and I like that very much but I also want to share a link of online Muslim community where you can get the latest information about the different Muslim worlds and many more. So do visit the link and join it..

    ReplyDelete