When I met Hope
It was another random Thursday of my fall term. On Thursdays, I get free from my classes in the afternoon, and so to kill time, I take idle strolls around the campus. This Thursday, while sitting at a new place; where I have never been. I found another interesting person. This time a girl. Wearing an all-black gown. Due to two factors, I can not give the details of her face or personality; one is I am not an excellent descriptive writer like Khaled Hosseini, and the second is the weird position of the Sun. She stood in front of me, and the Sun was shining behind her. Making me unable to recognise her facial expressions. But in mere seconds, I reckoned a sense of an old-aged, sevant individual. This initial perception of her existence later proved to be what I call my “13th sense.”
She began the conversation in a queer manner. Who on earth, comes to a person and says, “Are you looking for me?” In my life, I go through days when I am the least interested in humanity and particularly the young university generation. This was one of those days. She again tried to start the conversation with the internal politics of the university. Well-informed about that and having an interest in this subject, I did not like to go with it.
Then she remarked about the girl who gave a good service in the badminton match in front of us. “When Bhutto returned from the US after the debacle of the East Pakistan, he found Yahya inebriated in his lawn. This was the moment, I whispered and hinted him to oust him (Yahya). I could see in his eyes the very reflection of my existence.” This part amazed me for a moment, and I had to end my “all hate to the humanity era.”
She went further, “At the battle of Ain Julat in 1260, I was among the valiant hordes of Baybars. Who were going to thrash a substantial defeat on the faces of those barbarous Mongols. In the dark days of humiliation of the Muslims, I arranged a meeting of Osman with Courage. It was here, Osman decided to regain the lands of Anatolia and establish his empire. I was on the shoulders of Sultan Mehmet II when he wracked havoc on the walls of Constantinople. I traveled with the mystics to remote lands so in future these lands could become the gardens of the Islamic faith. Babur after his humiliation from Samarkand and Furgana came from Kabul to India for me. I was the one who lured those pervert Europeans to India. When the Arabs were exhausted by the biased behavior of the Ottomans, I was the one who manipulated them to revolt against their masters and betray them. When Qadeer came to Pakistan, I was holding his hands.”
These various parts of history and her saying that she was an integral part of those intrigued me to ask about her existence. But she had more to say, “When a baby is born, I am what his parents see in the child, when a person dies I am the one who leaves him alone. When a new king comes to power, I am the one who builds him a palace. When the revolution is on the verge, I am the one behind whom the protestors run in the streets. I am the one who humanity searches, calls, and prays for. And I am the one, who betrays my partners in their journeys to test what steel they are made of. I am the one, who in pleasure plays with the gray matters of these fragile humans.”
And so Rameen won the decisive match against her opponent, and her friends started shouting and yelling her name. When I turned to see this winning moment filled with aggression and hope, she left the place.
It is hope, which has sustained man’s existence. When she abandons you in the dark tunnel, she is the one who drops the map for you, and she waits for you at the other end of the tunnel. It is hope that man craves the greatest and for which he rampages the land of his mind and earth. Hope mentioned the correct events and the reality to me. If one has hope, he alone can conquer the odds. If one lacks hope, the armies of thousands are mere toys in front of the odds.
