what is happening to lahore?

What is happening? New cars...flashy..gaudy...new money, everywhere...people spending like crazy on clothes, food, weddings...having ’antakshari’ dholkis, inviting hundreds of peolpe..marrying into money to stabalize themselves...talking about shikaar and beach parties and trips to dubai, thailand, india...buying diamonds by the dozen...

Faisal Farooq of Nirala killed a 2 month baby and the police wn’t write the FIR...one kid died yesterday over a fight at a bonfire at Lahore Grammar School for Boys...10 are seriously injured..they opened fire on each other...why do 15 yr old boys have weapons on them? A few weeks back a kid in O’Levels, a colonel’s son, went to his grandmother’s house and shot her dead, along with his chachi and a maid...day before yesterday there was a gang war in the neighbourhood behind my house...40 people of the gang have been killed over the past 10 years...

You go to get togethers and all you see are people dressed in Prada and Gucci, talking on their cell phones, saying ’jaani’ ’darling’ ’muah muah’ to each other...you go to restaurants and you see glamour, dazzling jewels..you step outside and there’s a horde of beggars...there are maids sitting with kids on the same table where the mem saab and her friends are eating, not even asking the poor maid to have a bite..she stares at the food, transfixed, hungry..but there’s no food for her..

Seth Abid’s son is shot dead in broad daylight..this man, who is worth billions, has 4 or 5 deaf and dumb children, and this one son was the only one who was ’normal’, who took care of the huge business..and he’s shot dead..killed...and no one knows why...

Parties are full of druggies, junkies...a family friend’s son passed away a few years back in Islamabad due to drug overdose..a 16yr old girl hung herself by the fan when she found out she was pregnant and her boyfriend refused to marry her...

welcome to lahore, where having money, owning a lexus, spending your days giving or going to kitty parties and your nights at some smoke-filled, shady lounge is appreciated more than having a decent job and leading a decent life..because what’s decency got to do with anything anymore?

i want my old lahore back..i want the decent, warm people who only thought about where to get the next big meal from..as long as their stomachs were full, they were happy...as long as the lassi was flowing freely, they were content...

maybe i just don’t fit here anymore.