Horace, Men of Faith and Gates

By turn of century, war on terror began and then reduced to drone attacks, green revolution sprout in the streets of Tehran and then shrank to pages of BBC Farsi, Wikileaks sprang out of nowhere to shake the capitals of world and reduced to few interviews, Arab Spring came to change the face of Middle East and ended up changing the faces of a few old men who were already needed rest for medical reasons. Although, most of the expected BIG events proved to be ephemeral but unlike the rest of world, Pakistan is unique in that, she doesn’t rest at all. Here, a Big event is forced into dormancy just by another Bigger event. Take the examples of Gates series; Just like Bill Gates Windows series, there are upgrades of gates in matter of weeks to months, memogate, family-gate and now media-gate. Are there more gates in the pipeline? Who knows?

Like every other Pakistani, I grew up hearing time and again about the Iqbal’s “Man of the Faith” in books, in newspapers, in TV talks and songs. To see, men of faith in actual was like expecting to see the spiderman in subways. May be, as some conceive, Iqbal’s words were so dense that the very men of the faith for whom they were written, weren’t able to decipher them.  People say that, “Great men think alike” so I turn to another great lyricist like Iqbal, Horace just to not offend those who take Iqabl’s words as sacred poems. As the media report, Malik Riaz had distributed Villas to remove his anxieties. Horace says,

“Reason and sense remove anxiety,

Not villas that look out upon the sea”

And

“Try to bend things to them, not them to things.”

But, these bookish advices are of no use to hardheaded elites of Pakistan as they know well that, there are two parallel lines of logic in the world, reasoning and money. There is no one who doesn’t understand the logic of money while, there are  few people who are convinced by reasoning. So, if they had read the Horace by any chance, they must have read these lines,

“Let him show mastery over a fighting foe,

And clemency when he has brought him low”

And

“When riches fail, I praise

The safe and simple life, content with humble ways;

But then, when better, richer fortune smiles on me,
I say that only they live well and sensibly

Whose wealth in country manors glistens brilliantly”

But, wait a minute, Iqbal’s Man of faith was supposed to be like Eagle or in Horace words,

“Wise, and master of himself,

Fearing not death, or chains, or lack of wealth,

Disdaining honors, firm against desire,

Within himself well-rounded and entire,

Beyond the reach of all external pain,

Against whom even fortune strikes in vain?”

Perhaps, Iqbal had realized that his men of faith are much sharper than Eagles and are more practical than bookish wise men and that was why, he said, “Why should I ask wise men; whence is my beginning? I am busy with the thought; where will be my end?”

Still, each one of the more than 180 million citizen of the country are busy worrying, Where will be their end?