It was Rabia’s birthday and she chose to treat her friends at her home. Mrs Ali, Rabia’s mum, was also enthusiastic to meet her daughter’s friends. Due to the pandemic, Rabia had neither gone to nor had hosted any party in the past two years. So it was a day that Rabia had waited for long.

Rabia had decorated the drawing room and all the friends were happily chatting there. Mrs Ali was delighted to see the excited faces and appreciated the energy in the children. All the girls were around 13 years of age.

“These moments are precious,” Mrs Ali thought to herself and recalled her secondary school days with her friends.

The doorbell rang and the pizza boy brought the pizzas they had ordered. Mrs Ali didn’t want to disturb her daughter so she decided to serve the lunch to the girls herself. She was placing the plates, pizzas and the drinks on the table for the guests when her attention was caught by something one of the girls said.

“I hate history! What is the use of knowing about the past? Even the subject Pakistan Studies does not make any sense to me. We all know about Quaid-i-Azam and his struggles, but why do we have to learn about the pre-partition events, etc.? We are all seeing what is Pakistan today and we all know that if given a chance, we would move to a better place,” she ended with a shrug!

Mrs Ali didn’t like the tone or the opinion aired. She was very disappointed, but chose to remain silent at that moment. The girls kept on with their discussion during lunch as well. The sad part was that most of the girls, including Rabia, were highlighting the things they felt were lacking in Pakistan and were discussing the problems — poor law and order, corruption, pollution, bumpy roads, scarcity of gas and water — but none of them wanted to play any role in the betterment of the country.

“It is not our concern, leave this topic! Let us plan about a get together on the upcoming holiday — March 23. We too shall gather and make our resolutions,” said one friend, in an almost sarcastic way. The other girls laughed and continued with their lunch.

The pizza soon finished and they wanted more. Rabia got up to order more when one of her friends stopped her and said, “You have already paid a lot. Now, let us have some free pizza.”

“How?” asked Rabia, as she thought that her friend must be having a coupon, etc.

“Smartness dear!” the same friend winked and called the same pizza shop. She started yelling at them that they had delivered overcooked and stale pizza to them. She also said that the meat was smelly and the cheese had gone bad.

The manager tried to explain, but she said that if they do not send some fresh pizzas right away, they would make a video of the rotten pizza and place it on social networking sites.

The manager tried to handle it as politely as he could, but finally gave up and delivered two fresh pizzas with an apology. The girls were more than excited to receive the free pizzas.

Mrs Ali didn’t know about this episode; she was watching the news bulletin when the girls were leaving. All of them came to bid her goodbye and thanked her for such a nice party. The news was about the Ukraine-Russia unrest. The girls too stopped to watch the news and saw the panic and unrest of the people as they fled from their dear country, leaving behind their homes and loved ones.

Mrs Ali took this opportunity to express her concern, “Actually, we all think that freedom is our right, but forget all those who strived so hard to let us have this right. Any place other than our home is not permanent. See, these people will take shelter in neighbouring countries in a compromised environment. It is a real ordeal!

“It is extremely easy to belittle our country, but have we ever noticed that all the shortcomings are in us, in our behaviour and attitude, and not in the country itself! Have we ever thought that does a country as beautiful as Pakistan having so many natural resources and defended by huge mountainous systems — deserves us as its citizens?

“Don’t you all think that all of us are also contributing in the corruption that we usually hold others responsible for? We lie, cheat and try to be over smart,” Mrs Ali ended in dismay.

The girls said nothing and nodded, looking disturbed by this new realisation. Mrs Ali then hugged each of them and they left.

Few moments later, she heard some noise from the backyard. She was amazed to see Rabia and her friends collecting all the pizza boxes from the vacant plot next to their house. They had earlier thrown it out of the window into the plot, instead of putting it in the dustbin.

In addition, they wanted to hide from Mrs Ali the extra pizzas they had later gotten.

The girls contributed money for the free pizzas and one of them pledged that she would pay the money at the outlet on her way back.

After all the guests had left, Mrs Ali called Rabia and hugged her. She played a documentary that was made on the birth of Pakistan. The documentary showed the plight of the then people, the massive bloodshed and the clever tricks played to corner a whole community. It told that the leaders knew that in their struggle they might lose their lives, but they wanted to secure ‘us’… their future. This resolution initiated a struggle and today Pakistan is the result!

The ordeal didn’t end here, even after the independence, the people who had migrated had to give up their relatives, lands, wealth and status, to start a new life in a new land! Their efforts were for us, the future generations, for which we owe to them till our last breath.

The few glimpses of the people migrating tore Rabia’s heart. The scenes were no different from those of the people fleeing from Ukraine these days. She understood the value of ‘homes’ and thanked the people who provided us the opportunity to be independent citizens of a free country.

Dear children, March 23 is not just another gazetted holiday, try to feel the pain and learn about the struggle, sacrifices and ideology that have all contributed in giving us the identity we are enjoying today. Now, it is up to us how to uphold the glory and secure a better future — without forgetting the past!

As Robert Heinlein said, “A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.”

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 19th, 2022