No respect for body at Pattoki wedding

"Whatever the reason for the death, what pricks my mind is, the callousness of the wedding guests. They should have shown respect for the remains of the vendor and delayed dinner for a while"

For the last two days, I have failed to distract my mind from the footage of a wedding hall of Pattoki, where the body of a vendor is lying on the floor of the hall, and the guests, under the same roof, are doing what they came for to the function; eating qorma, biryani and dessert. The police have arrested 12 suspects for allegedly beating the deceased – who was stated to be a vendor – to death. The video has stirred a countrywide rage over the ‘heartlessness’ of the wedding guests. There are conflicting reports about the nature of the death. The deceased’s family alleged Muhammad Ashraf was beaten to death, while preliminary medical reports say no torture sign was found on the body. Whatever the reason for the death, what pricks my mind is, the callousness of the wedding guests. They should have shown respect for the remains of the vendor and delayed dinner for a while. Who cares when the body is of a poor vendor?

The reality is that food is a ‘must’ part of our events – be it a celebratory gathering or a mourning occasion. Every burial is followed by a feast for guests. Every death anniversary gathering is an occasion for having a meal party.

Every one of us has our own version of success. Every heart houses several goals and a desire to achieve them. Every one of us has ideas, and ideals, and wants to imitate them.

But life is so unkind to us that we face obstacle after obstacle in the pursuit of our dreams.

So, the vital question is: how can we be successful?

I must clarify at the beginning of this piece that I am neither a motivational speaker, nor I like them. Their nice talk is bookish and beyond realities. I am sorry if I have inadvertently hurt the feeling of Qasim Ali Shah fans. Qasim Shah talks great, but I would like him to realise his talks in action, and become my ideal. Motivational talk is not better than a small practical step.

This piece, however, preaches the ideology of novelist Paulo Coelho, who authored the most popular novel of our times – The Alchemist. The novelist gives some tips about being successful in life. The crux of the obstacles to success was originally written by Dr. Khalid Sohail, and published on the website Humsub.com.pk.

Thank you, Dr. sahib, for such an inspirational piece.

Polo Coelho mentions the secrets of success and four obstacles along the way in the preface to the novel.

He writes that there are four obstacles in the way of human success.

  1. The first obstacle is that since childhood we are repeatedly told that we will not succeed in life and we accept this and become an obstacle in our own way.
  2. The second hurdle is that we think that if we start fulfilling our dreams, we will demonstrate our selfishness towards our loved ones. This is the dilemma of the joint family system. We need to know that if our loved ones truly love us, they should be happy with our success.
  3. The third impediment is the economic and social difficulties that life brings before us. I believe that if we are truthful in our search, sooner or later we will find a solution to these problems. So, we must not give up.
  4. The final hindrance is that even when we reach our destination, we keep telling ourselves that we do not deserve this success. We view our success with skepticism and sometimes lose even after reaching our destination.

The essence of the tips is that many people lack self-confidence; they do not have full faith in themselves.

Paulo concludes the note that he has learned the secret of success in life “… that if a person falls seven times, he will stand up eight times and move towards the destination. I believe that if our dream is true and we are sincere in our quest, then the whole universe helps us to achieve our dream in a very mysterious way.”