Sunday, November 13, 2005

The Aftermath

The aftermath. Nadia Jamil said it perfectly when she sms’d me from Balakot. “Feels like the day of judgement” That kind of summed it up. I know some people are expecting graphic details. But I feel stunned into silence. A very old close friend of mine who is also a doctor left his practice with a group of like minded individuals to hike up and treat the victims. I get a call from him 3 days back very emotional and yelling at me. I know he’s upset because of what he has probably been through and what he’s seen so I ask him to calm down and tell me what’s wrong. A few days before he had helped identify a region that had not gotten any aid which I was able to announce and mobilize attention to. Our conversation went something like this.

R: What is the use of me having f**king friend in the f**king media when you are all completely f**king useless!
A: Hi… glad to hear you’re ok… what’s wrong?
R: I have just reached Mandakhel.. its two weeks since the earthquake and I don’t see a single person here with aid. What the f**k is going on?
A: Ok thank you for identifying that area… now that you have informed I will make sure things get there
R: If you only knew what I have just been through you wouldn’t be so f**king calm. Do you know what I have just done?

At this point I am silent and I get chills as I can only imagine what he may be about to describe

R: I have just pulled a 5 year old little girl out of the rubble Ayeshah. Two weeks after the earthquake it’s a miracle she is still alive. The left side of her face is completely damaged. In order to save her life I had to amputate her left foot and left hand. How can you tell me aid is getting to the people? You are all f**king liars…

I am silent. This was just one of the calls. As you can imagine as more and more places were being identified and the information being relayed back to “home base” to send relief teams out.. our task seemed more and more gigantic. Where does one begin? Where does it end? The immediate relief force is just one angle.What about the rehabilitation process of homes, peoples minds and hearts and ruptured souls?

I am thankful to the team I went up north with. Luckily all of us were as insane as each other and managed to keep a good sense of humour about us to keep morale high. Wajahat Malik, Nighat Chaudhry, Nasir Shaikh, Pervez, Aaqib and Nils all of us made a great team. I suppose I wish I had a “group” photo but vacation pictures were the last things on our mind.

On the lighter side and yes believe it or not I do have a lighter tale to tell about the earthquake season … Mr. Delicious whose name I have now changed to Mr. Smart Ass made the most generous donation though without knowing it. It all started when Fakhr sms’d me about the PAF museum on Day 2 and so after my Hero Pakistani draw went down there with the tribe to pack medicines etc. It so happened that Mr. Smart Ass had given me some clothes to be dry cleaned. Yes I’m on dry cleaning duty these days. Not a problem. I had been to and fro at the museum all day dropping stuff but managed to save the bag filled with his designer pants. Gucci, Versace, Armani… you name it. Mr.Smart Ass only believes in clothes that carry an expensive price tag. All good so far right? Can you feel an Ayeshah Alam special coming up? Ah..good… later that evening Balochi Babu decides he wants to get some stuff from his place to give away. Blankets etc. So off we toddle to his place to pile everything into the car. When we get to the museum, him being chivalrous, he drops me off at the gate so I can walk in to Mr. Smart Ass who was calling up constantly to find out where we were. We were there till pretty late working and the next morning I hum my way to the dry cleaners to deliver the bag of clothes only to find my trunk empty. Oh my God! My heart sank. Mr. Smart Ass will hit the roof. How do I tell him that his Gucci Mucci’s are now sitting comfortably in Balakot somewhere? What’s worse is…if it didn’t mean that much to him… the situation is actually making me laugh. I can’t laugh… this is serious. He’ll kill me.

Needless to say, he didn’t speak to me for a few days. I think he’s still nursing his designer wounds. Oh well…danay danay pay likha hai khanay walay ka naam But it also makes me think what are our priorities and what do we put our values in. A good lesson I suppose though now is not the time to remind Mr. Smart Ass of that. Anyway, that’s it for now. For anyone who is reading this who is and has been working on the relief.. thank you .. please don’t lose heart despite the politics being played and carry on doing what you are doing in your sincerest efforts. You are the heroes of today. Thank you

Unknown at 6:52 PM

7comments

7 Comments

at 1:58 PM  Raheel Lakhani said...

Nadia Jameel is among the few talented actors that we have in Pakistan.

I guess, everybody is doing all that can be done for the relief. My salute to the media because I think, without these personalities and publicity, it was impossible to carry out these relief efforts at such huge mass level.

Hero Pakistani still going on?? I thought the campaign was over. I also heard that fake tickets were circulated in market by some other group.

Bicharey Mr. Delicious aur unke Delicious clothes. Yeh we need to set our priorities right. We have gone insane for getting all those material benifits.

 

at 9:34 AM  Ambreen Haider said...

Has anyone thanked you and your team? for leaving your children and rushing off after coming down here for just two days? Thanks and salutations to you and all those who have done from the least to their most to help the ones in need.

Allah give all strength and more so: mercy.

 

at 6:42 PM  Unknown said...

Anathema...thanks for the encouragement.... will pass on your message to the rest of the team

 

at 4:59 PM  uXuf said...

I lost my new pair of shoes on a similar lighter note, but that was no moment of crisis. Just some stupidity on the part of someone.

But hey, I am not crying!

 

at 4:44 AM  Amira Zaidi said...

Hi ayeshah, ok before u ask who i am again - the girl from lhr who was off to london? i was "under fire" in khi sept 15th to b precise. ok now u place me :) okay 1st of all i totally love your blog though this is the wrong thread to post such comments on. well tell me what i can do sitting so far away. i've heard such bad stories - about people actually making money on the side. how sick does life get?!?

 

at 9:08 AM  Unknown said...

Hey Amira, yes its sad but true... evil will rear its ugly head even at disastrous times like this... and there are all kinds of horrific stories out there...but there are some good groups too... it all depends on what you want to do to be involved...you can help raise funds to give to people who are working up there. Make sure you get the donations to people who have a credible reputation and "Big Names" are not neccessarily the ones to go for. Unfortunately even some of the NGO's have been quite disappointing. Find out specific needs and try and rally support for that.. for e.g. these days 200 bottles of blood are needed daily... we need galvanized corrugated iron sheets... when Nasir and I first started the campaign for that about a month ago.. the price was 400 odd a sheet. now it has gone up to 560.... does anyone know anyone in the steel foundation and get them to pledge not raising prices... as I'm sure they were making a profit before.. why do they want to rob people even further when there are people , men , women, children dying out in the cold. yes volunteers are coming forward with aid... and they will have guaranteed sales at a level that far out does what they were expecting..why isn't that good enough?? do i sound outraged? good. I hope this answers some of your questions :)

 

at 5:00 AM  Amira Zaidi said...

Hi.. yes u do sound outraged and hell u hav every reason to be. from what i hear the funds are going fine, except the problem is that there's no plan - no way to get those funds through to them in the needed ways. we at SOAS managed to collect a lot too which is great. really wish i could do more from here.. if my cousin in birmingham hasn't sent the stuff to someone else i'll def tell her to contact u. thanks, keep it up.

 

Post a Comment