Depression on National Days

As a Pakistani who loves his country, I am confounded by the new kind of patriotism which is replacing an old kind which was of genuine pride in the country and a display of honest emotion.

The new kind of patriotism is militaristic, extremely religious and this is starting to show in the songs... (Ironically Pakistan’s music industry is more liberal than ever before)...

This morning some of the lyrics I heard were:

’Dushmanan-deen-o-qaum jub lalkaray gay’

(This was with respect to the PAF, ... ironic because amongst the first shaheeds of the PAF, there were two christian heroes.. )

’kitab eik, deen eik, qaum aur fauj eik.’

etc etc

Ok... so obviously TV plays portraying the events of 65 will have a pro-Pakistan bias, but should they also make all indians into militaristic anti-Pakistan fanatics? In one of the TV plays, two situations are juxtaposed... one is that of a very emotionally charged Indian crowd, which breaks into song and dance when Shastri threatens Pakistan on the radio... the other is the lassi drinking laid back Pakistani-Punjabi crowd which tries to shrug off any political news... this is a sad portrayal.

This is not the Pakistan that I believe in... this is some other Pakistan, trying to pass off as the Pakistan that I believe in.