Her Name is Today; It’s the Horse Called Debt

IRSHAD SALIM: We have debts we carry and debts to pay: One of them is to this girl (sunshine generation). Her name is today:

Among several debts we are carrying for decades, two come in my mind straight away. Both are relational, bidirectional having causal relationship. Our bonded rationality, however, has made us switch priorities –this happened down the road sometime somewhere for some unforgivable (toxic) reasons.

The focus has been on A) dollars and cents and B) sense and sensibility was a “doesn’t matter”. Khair Hay most say (It’s okay) to it. “It will happen once we “make (have) enough money” they keep telling me. Not so in my opinion. Frankly my dear (as Clark Gable says in Gone With The Wind), it’s the other way around and should have been so, ought to be now, always.

Both debt are a horse. We must understand how to train each, which one to train first, even if the other has to wait. Each horse needs attention, granted. Blinking is not an option though even if the other horse neighs:

One doesn’t need to go to school to be the architect of priorities and options. It’s naturally yours, given:

Instead, we created a storeful of ideas and imaginations, cliches and giveaways, takeaways and throwaways to ride on the sunroof of streetcar named desire:

Convenience Store

Today I went to the store
Looking for things I needed

Customers were being handled
…they had come after me.

What do you need Sir? Hukm
Not Hukm, Arz hai I said
He giggled…

Dunhill? Imported one, yes
Need local, they’re fresh
No Sir.
Safe, drinking water hai?
Bottled water Sir, Nestle

Do you have “Rule of Law” brand tootbrush?
No Sir

What about Justice brand soap?
Woh mangwana parega

Justice shampoo bhi chalega
Woh dekhna parega Sir

What about Jharoo?
What type Sir?
Koi bhi…

Lagta hai aap bahir se ayen hai Sir
Haanji Islamabad se

Ye cheezein aap bahir istemal karte thay
Haanji

He nodded haanji to a young man