It was the month of August and just a normal day when I was casually going through my Facebook newsfeed. Point to be mentioned: only a few days remained in the arrival of 14th August, The Independence Day, therefore my newsfeed was crowded with posts in which people were expressing their love, care and affection for their country and a sudden spirit of patriotism started to occupy their display pictures and covers.

But there was no such thing before August. It was such a strange observation. It was as if no one even remembered some days ago that they love their country and that they live in it. But, as the month proceeded everyone was waking up to the news of independence. I often ponder what kind of a nation are we, exactly? I mean, the rest of the year we do what we want with our country, we don’t care about its cleanliness, we don’t care about its beauty, we're not bothered when we throw wrappers on the roads, we don’t think even once when we chuck the garbage out of our houses. In fact, many times, I have seen people even saying that this country is not worth living anymore because of the increasing inflation and, of course, the desi culture. Most of the people who can afford it, go to foreign countries for a vacation, despite the fact that our own country also has scenic beauty, much of which is even better than many other places. The point is: where does the patriotism (the one of 14th August) disappear at those times? Why is our patriotism restricted to 14th August?

When finally on the 14th of the 8th month every year our patriotism awakens, the more interesting and funniest part appears: the way we show it! We Pakistanis have a special, outstanding way of celebrating our Independence Day. And I really don’t think there is any other country whose citizens do it the way we do! The so-called youth have their own mysterious and terrible ways of celebration. Girls dress up in green and white, decorate their faces with painted flags. Boys on the other hand get their bikes ready for wheeling and skidding on the roads. Some get their vehicles painted green and white, some cut cakes, while most get out of their homes for some strolling. But are these the appropriate ways of celebrating independence? I mean, does this give any betterment to our country? Would anybody other than us Pakistanis be able to figure out that by doing all these acts we mean to celebrate our Independence Day? Is it really supposed to be celebrated like this?

I just want to say that it is sad that our generation of today doesn’t even know about the struggle our ancestors went through for achieving this place. In fact, they, more probably, are not even interested in finding out. All that they know is that they want to have fun, a much as possible, by dressing up, decorating themselves, roaming outside, doing wheeling, shouting, screaming and even abusing on the roads, playing loud music in their cars and dancing. And consequently, every year the day ends with fights on the road, a number of accidents, dead bikers, some incidents of female harassment, and a never-ending pain and sorrow of those parents who lose their sons to biking. And it happens every year.

And I don’t ever understand what kind of happiness, what type of celebration, and what type of Independence this is. You can disagree with me but I honestly always feel sorry for such youths, since I had always heard that any country’s youth can make or destroy its fate.
And I shudder when I see our youth because, whatever we are doing, that is not what our ancestors demanded a separate homeland for, for which they made sacrifices, for which they battled every difficulty, lost their loved ones and earned, for us, the reward: Pakistan.