THE UNBEARABLE WHITENSS OF SEEING

Just like almost everyone, Sohail khan has also been hit by the rising prices and energy crisis in the country. He likes to read the newspaper every morning and takes his tea and news with a pinch of salt. But today a sugary news item reads that the government has decided to distribute free energy saving bulbs that give out white light and are twisted in their make up. They go round and round and are not bulbous like the normal bulbs. He has seen these white energy savers in the hospitals and offices. They are kind of new in the market. They even save more energy than the tube lights that are quite rampant generally in the night life of the country.

Sohail khan has picked up the energy saver bulbs from his local Utility store for free and has installed them through out his household. Now everything is white inside whenever it is black out. White light is strange, thinks Sohail khan because this is the first time he is looking at his family members in a new light.

Lately his wife seems to be depressed and irritated when he comes home in the evening. The children look ugly, cold and withdrawn. Sohail khan himself feels a shift in his moods. He can’t even enjoy the black and white words in his books, that he so likes to read after dinner. Even bulbul the pet bird in the cage seems confused and has changed its tune. It now mostly sings whites instead of blues.

Sohail khan talks about this predicament with his friend who is a wise man and owns an electric store on the corner. The wise friend sits him down and tells him in earnest that the whole country is generally moving in the same direction. And that the moods of the nation are generally in proportion with the laws of inflation and the lack of political will on the part of the common man.

But Soahil khan, as he stumbles home in the dark knows too well that the wise man is just bending the broken root. Meanwhile in his shop, the wise man as he hands out energy savers to his long line of customers, shouts out loud. “My friends, my mortal nothings, spread out the word; for it has been ordained that the white is the new order in the concretes of the black night.”

They say this is how they will tackle the energy problem in the country; this is how the country will save electricity until the new dams are built and this is exactly how the nation will prosper in their new found unbearable whiteness of seeing.

Wajahat Malik
zygotepoet@hotmail.com