ENVIRONMENT (A PETITION BY TREES)

A petition by trees

Nasser YousafSeptember 16, 2017

We, some of the oldest trees still standing our ground in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, wish to make a petition to the people of this province. We have come to know that the population of the province, where we have our deeply entrenched roots, has risen phenomenally to somewhere like 30.51 million, and perhaps even more to a higher figure since the aforesaid count is now a good five-months old. By thus quoting these figures of the living souls, we would like not to be seen to be merely grasping at the shadows, but reaching out to a great mass of people in full possession of their vibrant senses and sensibilities, in the hope that some, if not a great many, of them will empathize with our cause.

Lucy Maud Montgomery, a writer of great repute from Canada and one of our contemporaries from the late 19th century, had this to say about us in her beautiful writings, ‘The woods are never solitary – they are full of whispering, beckoning friendly life. The woods are human as they call to us with a hundred voices.’ While Lucy is no more, we are still here right in your midst, breathing though not without making considerable struggle as we see the world around us closing down.

Whenever and wherever someone from amongst you raised a voice in our favour, we escaped the woodcutter’s axe. But it is a life sans freedom as we find huge walls being built all around us. Earth is being dug out in our near about where we once had our roots and the gaping holes are being refilled with concrete.

We are not ordinary trees; we embody the finest quality of log known to the world. You have guessed it rightly; we are the conifers of various shades and hues, the chinars and walnut-trees of the hilly terrains, the rosewoods and oaks of the plains and numerous others. Our strength is such that with our broad fibrous trunks we can withstand a windstorm of considerable ferocity without making much of an effort. 

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Our greatest strength lies In protecting you from flash floods as we act as bulwark on the mountain slopes against the rampaging waters that may otherwise inundate your cities and your neighbourhoods and your ready for harvest crops on your sprawling agricultural lands. We sustain biodiversity and protect you from the harmful effects of toxic gases by inhaling the same as you must have studied thus in your primary, middle and elementary classes.

We would like to clarify here that we are totally different from some of the modern species of plants that you have been forced to familiarize with in the recent years. You have correctly identified these plants which are called by the name eucalyptus. It is perhaps owing to the prolific plantation of these peculiar trees that has made them into a household name in your milieus for otherwise, and quite ironically, very few people in KP know the names of and appreciate the incredible benefits of conifers like cedars, deodars, pines etc. Our only sin appears to be that we take a long time before we grow up like giants.

There is no dispute among the botanists as regards the unquenchable thirst of eucalyptus which have this queer habit of sucking water from every conceivable pore at the expense of other habitats. The plantation of the eucalyptus along the canals is as strongly disapproved of as it is pooh-poohed in the vicinity of green forest for while in the former case these so-called trees purloin water meant for your agricultural fields in the later case their avarice retards the growth of the fibrous trees.

Now, you must be wondering what immediate existential issue is at stake that has necessitated this long prologue. Your curiosity is indeed warranted and needs to be satisfied without further much ado.

Until recently, we the oldest trees of your region had quite a substantial presence in your cities and cantonment areas. We were quite proud of this as we considered ourselves as the veritable representatives of the greater mass of our kin on your hills and mountains. You simply need to be a little more discerning to see how we have withstood the tides of times in your backyards and on your roads right in the middle of where you live and move about at leisure. We do not feel inhibited in telling you that we lend beauty to your environs. Have you seen some of us in our full regalia with our broad brown and taupe colour trunks standing tall like reaching out for the heavens?

Some such trees have their muscular branches spread out so widely that you can literally accommodate the entire population of a middle school under their shade. We invite you to come and watch some such trees in and around the cantonment area in Abbottabad, especially on the several roads leading to the Shimla Hill. This area is of particular concern to us as it is here where we feel most threatened.

Dear folks, some people simply want us banished from their presence as if we were rather aliens than well-meaning life-supporting creatures.

People who want us thus vanish out of existence overnight occupy high positions of authorities in your cantonments and municipal offices. They get rid of us through their minions. You have to see those curmudgeons to believe how they rejoice at cutting our lifelines with their grotesque machines that work like roaring juggernauts. We beseech you to come to our rescue before it is too late as your feckless planners and developers of towns seem bent on seeing the last of us.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2017

CULTURE (A BEAUTIFUL DAY)

A beautiful day

Nasser YousafSeptember 08, 2017

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THE third day of this last July necessitated a visit to Islamabad from my home station Abbottabad. I woke up a little after dawn and set out soon thereafter. It was a beautiful morning. On our way, we found whatever little of the countryside in Haripur is left, bathed in the daylight glory. We considered ourselves blessed as we saw the fields resplendent with ripening corn, cabbage, tomato and a variety of other vegetables.

Quite a few farmers looked engaged in their daily chores, weeding, steadying the water flow and putting up scarecrows to protect their labour of love from the scavenging birds. It was a scene cut out from a landscape described in one of Thomas Hardy’s many novels.

Sadly, the once vast Haripur countryside, fenced by beautiful grey and green hills, is fast disappearing under pressure from the weight of a burgeoning population and their concomitant worldly needs, if not outright avarice.

While thus lamenting our impending comeuppance for defying the laws of nature, we discussed how a substantial population in the cities was denying itself the immense blessings and benefits of the morning life. Ironically, these days it is considered fashionable to spend the night working and socialising, and then consuming a better part of the daytime sleeping till late afternoon.

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Islam stresses the importance of morning time.

Morning time, like youth, is robust and bubbling with energy. We all know that in most developed countries of the world, the wheel of life in offices starts when morning is still young.

People in big numbers could be seen scampering to their workplaces as if they were in a race against time. Both in quality as well as in quantity, morning time is particularly productive as far as brainy work is concerned.

At one place in Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte’s great gothic classic, the narrator of the story Ellen advises her listener thus: “You should never lie till ten. There’s the very prime of the morning long gone before that time. A person who has not done one half of his day’s work by ten o’clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.”

Written a little less than 200 years ago, the importance of these timeless lines cannot be overstated in our own peculiar situation where we find ourselves battling against the many evils of inefficiency, lethargy, indolence and neglect that have persistently let us down in our quest for development.

Efforts to enforce even a modicum of disciplinarian regime in our government offices have not borne any fruit. The introduction of biometric registration and attendance system too has not produced the desired results as delinquent officials have found ways to circumvent these technological checks on their movements.

The situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is particularly unsatisfactory where there exists a culture that sees government offices function as traditional guesthouses with guests coming in, staying put and then leaving not before ruining the better part of the day. A scientific and rational study of KP’s bureaucracy will unmistakably bring out this fact as one of the overriding factors responsible for the poor delivery of public services.

Islam lays immense emphasis on the importance of morning time in human life. The Holy Quran in chapter 25, ‘Al Furqan’, verse 47, says: “And it is He who made the night a garment for you, and sleep a rest, and made the day like a resurrection.” A detailed explanation of this verse translates into: and it is He Who makes the night a covering for you, and the sleep (as) repose, and makes the day Nushur (ie getting up and going about here and there for daily work, etc, after one’s sleep at night or like resurrection after one’s death).

Birds of all hues announce the beauty of the morning in their melodious voices, singing the praises of nature. In chapter 17, ‘Al Isra’, verse 78, God stresses upon human beings the value of the recital of His name at dawn most emphatically: “Establish worship at the going down of the sun until the dark of the night, and (the recital of) the Quran at dawn. Lo! (the recital of) the Quran at dawn is ever witnessed.”

How, by staying late in bed during the daytime, we deny ourselves a multitude of opportunities offered to us by nature for free. This realisation tugs at us more acutely in the mountainous areas where nature manifests itself most profoundly, but few of us prefer to behold it after having spent the night wandering around aimlessly in the noisy bazaars with our families in tow.

Our salvation, and that of our younger ones, indeed lies in benefiting from the infinite wonders of the morning time that we otherwise seem to be letting go to waste.

The writer is a freelance contributor.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2017.