Yasir Ullah
An unfortunate road accident of an oil-tanker happened late at midnight which crashed electric wires. It was August 13, 2023 as the clock clicked 02:00am when a yellow blue lightening signaled the blast of a Transformer. The morning headlines announced that two seared in fire and found dead as Oil-Tanker collided at 01:57am. Light had since then disappeared. The accident turned out as a blessing, since there was no light and the accident proven as a TIME MACHINE which raced us back to the old good days when under the open sky, the whole family would gather up, dine on one Table and afterwards, drag Charpoye to the Sehen and the Moon absence would lit the sky twinkled with stars. After a few hours, batteries of the phone were almost dead which worsened the day for the SCREEN ADDICTS. However, Liba and Abdul had a boring day without internet due to the accident. Since it was Sunday; a funday for them as after being done with their homeworks, they would fight for having Tablet and laptop; the Modern Internet Generation. The turn was patterned in the way that if Liba used to have Tablet, Abdul would remain busy playing GTA(Grand Theft Auto)Vice City on laptop. The internet in 21st century equals to oxygen for the young generation as it is arduous for them to live without it. Abdul felt so annoyed that quite often he banged his head but he had to do some activities to let pass the day in one way or the other. A few moments later, I observed him reading a book. Liba was no less than Abdul and had opened 2.5 exercise of mathematics. Not even this, she also prayed ZUHAR and hit the hay afterwards, Abdul did the same. Amma had been to Khala’s home as she had to attend her bateja’s (Nephew) AQEEQA- an Islamic ritual to sacrifice an animal on a new baby’s birth. I was also a screen addict as whatsapp groups had new notifications where we were supposed to open them with compulsion. It was the blessing of that unfortunate accident that I attentively read (Paiman-e-Azal) by Professor Rafique Akhtar who encountered the liberals in their beliefs. One such was a criticism on Bertrand Russell who had stated that GOD IS NONSENSE. Prof. Akhtar appreciated Bertrand Russell for his criticism over God’s Existence. Rafique Akhtar expressed in his book that a person, blind by birth cannot draw an elephant because the person has no sense data of an elephant having not seen it. He added that Bertrand Russell is very right as there has to be data for a thing to make sense and he was told that Quran is God’s direct speech but Russell denied and declared it as a gospel (Naozobillah). Rafique Akhtar encountered that according to Russell, there is no data of Allah and thus he is right saying GOD IS NONSENSE. Prof Akhtar writes that Quran is the real data of Allah and after telawatt and Tarjuma, one can witness that there is a supreme power and force behind this universe. The dilemma of the modern generation is that they have more information available on screen but they have barely any wisdom. After reading 2 chapters from Prof. Akhtar’s book, I turned to my teacher, Dr.Amna’s recently published short stories collection named as 15 Illusions of love in life and read few pages. The reading session came to an end and I decided to hang out with cousins as we ended up hiking to a mountain near by the village. The layers of freshly winds swishing through the leaves of eucalyptus and pine trees with Pigeons and Parrots sang the melody of the nature. This scenario flourished with rain drops in the presence of sun that has now gone pale as it descended, stepping in the twilight and drew the colors of variety on the blue slate, mixed and curved as if it touched the peak of the mountains. The villagers are known for their hospitality. We continued hiking the mountain as we passed through a House, muddy four walled, ceiling covered with mud and plastics, a strong powerful tall man with beard and moustache, hazel blue eyes warmly greeted saying “Pakhir Raghly” (Come with peace/Hello) and insisted to be his guests for some time. Being persuasive and emphatic, we could not do anything but stayed for a while at his Hujra and had a cup of tea with Juwaro Roty (Maze Bread). The old tall powerful and experienced man presumed that we may have had outing because of no light since hours. He added “the new generation has been tarnished by the mobile phones and the PERSONAL-ism has haunted youth into individuality where peace and harmony can rarely be witnessed in a society. Aslam, my cousin endorsed the old man’s view and responded “Dear Chacha Jan, I have lived both the era of No-Internet, social media and the Modern Internet era. I was born in an era where we used to have Telephone, where we had no mobile phones, internet and would gather up all at Hujra, where we could ask about each other and were ONE FAMILY, united”. I seconded Aslam and expressed the agony that technology has grabbed the Hujra and turned us “individuals” rather a Family. This individualism is the sole fountain to a depressed and chaotic life and therefore, the ratio of anxiety amongst youth of Mobile Phone era is far on peak than it was in no Mobile Phone and Internet era. The conversation ended with gratitude as we thanked the old man for a delicious cup of tea and Juwaro Roty (Maze Bread). After praying Maghreb, we returned back home and waited a long while for the light. Amma had been home and it occurred to me as if I have lived the days; Deja vu. The Charpoye were dragged to Sehen and we began to count stars and siyare (The moving stars). Amma also joined us under the open sky and she said “Yasir beta, gone are the days when Nani would say that people used Stars and the Sun as their Watches and Time pieces and they would travel according to the movements of Stars and Sun’s shadow”. Amma added that the fired star has a myth which Nani used to say that the Angels (Farishte) would fire to vanish the SATAN’s diabolical, slandered meetings which were aimed to astray people from being righteous. The stars shone as there was no light lit up and we traveled back in the past, the old memories popped up in our heads. Amma recalled that we memorized Quran Majid and DUA under the twinkling stars as our elders would let us memorize all these after having dinner and Isha prayers. Then we used to narrate Dua for sleep and would hit the hay. This family meet up ended when the light shone in veranda and all of us flee to grab phone chargers for charging the hourly dead batteries. The light shone all around the house and the stars no more twinkled due to lights as the electrician called BABA G to confirm the light. Abdul felt relieved as he turned on laptop immediately and directed San Andreas in GTA VICE CITY video game to kill many innocent peddlers and pocket their money which can help him buy a new car known as Cheetah. Having my phone plugged in a charger, I saw Amma still looking to the sky upward that wasn’t twinkling anymore. Amma wailed after witnessing us “the internet era may have led the world to modernity yet it is a silent killer, and like a demon, it haunts the person, especially the young generation as it has harmed them to an extreme level of existential crisis”.
