Conversation with a Jahil

It was in the year 1999, when I first met Jahil at a press conference where leaders of different political parties had togethered to eradicate poverty from Pakistan. I was there to cover the event for my newspaper.

The idea was big. The organizers worked hard to select one hundred people from the streets of Karachi. Some of the prominent people selected were ‘Jahil’, ‘Ganwar’, ‘Mawali’, ‘Anparh’, and ‘Gareeb’. The organizers thought that bringing such diverse people at one platform will be a great idea and will mark the beginning of new era in the history of Pakistan. Jahil was selected to speak on the various issues that they are facing.

Jahil, a young, skinny and a tall person remained quiet during the whole session. When prodded by a politician, he responded that he was born on 14th August 1947. During the session, I interacted with him and came to know about his origins. When I asked him how he was picked by organizers to participate in this event, he explained that he was lying in dump when few people came to him and requested him to participate in this function. I asked him why he never complaint when he was lying in a dump, he looked at me, smiled and then said, “Everyone needs listeners to hear their complaints. To register a complaint, it is important to have listeners first. I don’t have any listeners and therefore I never complained.”

“But how are you so called Jahil when there are other good names?” was my next question. Jahil leaped one step back and said: “Unlike others, my parents were not given a chance to name their child. I inherited this name because my society forced this name on me.” After pondering on for a moment on what he said, he went on further.

“Please, Mr. Journalist, tell me one thing that whether a person should be blamed for something, he never has?”

“No”, I said

“I did not have any money to go to school as I was lying in a dump. I never had money to attend school for a day, then why this society started calling me jahil. My friend Mawali had no money to buy clothes for himself, then why he is labeled Mawali.”

“But jahil look, everybody has some bad times. It is law of nature that some people are extremely poor and some are extremely rich. All poor has to do is to climb up the ladder of success and should not curse his luck all the time. This is what the rule of God is.”

He looked at me sternly

“Do you think God envisage this world, the way it is right now?”

The question was confusing and I could not reply.

He continued: “There are certain parts in the world where people struggle to reduce their weight because they are obese, whereas at certain places people don’t get enough food to eat. Some countries throw excess food in rivers just to maintain equilibrium price levels and some countries cant even produce enough food for its citizens.”

I was amazed by his instantaneous responses but then I gathered some courage and asked:

“So Mr. Jahil, if you think there is widespread injustice in this world then why did you never rebel?”

“We rebelled every day but no one could see it. Yesterday, Gareeb, jumped off from Minar-e-Pakistan and died. He was a good friend of mine and was a nice person. He was unemployed and could not find any job till yet. At last, he decided to jump off from Minar-e-Pakistan since he had nothing left for his survival. His suicide was a message of revolt to the society that educated people did not have anything left for their survival but the sad part is that everyone thought of it as ‘another suicide’ and did not give any heed to it.

Suddenly, a man in awami shalwar kamiz strolled to us and took Jahil with him, saying some politicians want to have a photo session with him and some of his other friends. I whispered to him, “Jahil go there and say all those things that you told me right now. They will listen to you”.

Jahil looked at me and smiled grimly, “ No, they will only hear me” and went away.