The game of numbers continues with abandon and all sorts of political wrangling transpire across the country. The most interesting is that an opposition has been formed prior to the formation of a government. Only Pakistanis can think of an anti-thesis prior to a thesis. Despite appearances, the leadership of the two major parties in the coalition, the PPP and PML-N seem to be in dire strait regarding past indiscretions. While the PPP siblings are under investigation by the FBR, closer to home, the former chief minster’s under trial henchmen are turning against him.

Whatever the outcome, it appears that barring any incomprehensible happenings, the elected party is set to form a government in the Centre, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Some sort of arrangement in Balochistan and possibly in urban Sindh also seems certain. While its mandate significant, the challenges waiting for the new government, innumerable and grave. Will things change? We can but wait!

While on change; on a personal note, having crossed the half century mark, perspectives change. The past perhaps appears golden, seen through a rosy tint. People will always tell you that the food was purer. Large doses of ‘desi ghee’, a common part of the diet: the local wrestlers and strong men going to the extent of drinking it regularly. There was less disease and the people hardier. While all this may be true to an extent, a fact testified by our sedentary lifestyles and virtual dependence upon all sorts of technology, there are some positives to progress – however inequitable and allusive.

In the olden days, at this age, one would most probably be sitting underneath a “Bargad Tree” and people would be seeking counsel from a venerable old man. The appearance would be haggard, the smile toothless, the hair a faint memory, joints stiff and the eyes cloudy. Not these days! The venerable old man is now a hipster attempting to masquerade as youth. The appearance is buffed courtesy chemical aids for all biological possibilities; the teeth, all in working order courtesy the local dentist; hair luxuriant but assisted and perhaps not one’s own, the joints well lubricated and eyes glistening behind the latest eyewear and with corrective surgery. One exaggerates but there is something to be said for progress.

With age, the city has also changed. Apart from the massive growth and development, there have been changes to its underlying social fabric. While distances have considerably shortened the social cohesiveness and interaction lengthened: identification with the city, local community (mohalla-dari) and family is getting fuzzier. A measured pace of life has accelerated to breakneck speed: stress, psychological problems and physical ailment, even in the young, more prevalent. Civilised and subdued behaviour replaced with crudeness and display. Intellectual pursuits replaced with the material and vocational.

The weather too has changed; presently in Lahore it is not only hot but ‘dirty hot’. Sweltering hardly describes it: while you boil in the heat you stew in your own juices: perhaps a useful cooking technique but hardly one with application for the living. Another thing that transpires with age is that you feel the heat more intensely. In our youth most of our punishment at home used to be based on the fact that we should desist from playing outdoors in mid-afternoon, after school, when the heat was at its meanest. These days life without air-conditioning seems fictional and yet we take things for granted. Keeping one grounded an old memory haunts: as children and at the time the family’s financial means somewhat limited, our air-conditioning would consist of a tub full of water placed under the ceiling fan by my father. Naturally, we talk here of dry heat and not this persisting sodden affair.

So here is to change political, biological, material and technological. A word to the wise “the only way to cope with change is to help create it.” — (AmLahori@gmail.com)

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2018