Koi Ummeed Bar Nahi Aati, Koi Surat Nazar Nahi Aati!

With every passing day I'm loosing hope, hope of a secure, peaceful and bright future, if I'll have one at all, in my beloved country - Pakistan.

Every incident (like the one of lashing a 17 year old girl publicly in Swat for liking a boy) instills fear in me. I think of the days, months and years to come.. I think of my own daughter and it gives me shivers, just the thought that what the future might hold for her.

Every news item makes me feel that things have gotten out of hands, that there is just no hope, only fear. And when I see my fellow Pakistanis not realizing this almost certain threat, it saddens me even more.

So I ask myself once again.... Hope - All's lost, Or all that remains?

A Pakistani's Anthem of Hope!

A hope of a new dawn, a dawn much awaited after a long dark night. A night that has been full of of tyranny, terrorism, bloodshed and hopelessness;


Umeed-e-Sahar

Jigar dareeda hoon, chaak-e-jigar ki baat suno
Umeed-e-sahar ki baat suno

Alam raseeda hoon, daman-e-tar ki baat suno
Umeed-e-sahar ki baat suno

Zubaan bureeda hoon, zakhm-e-guloo sey harf karo
Umeed-e-sahar ki baat suno

Shikasta pa hoon, malaal-e-safar ki baat suno
Umeed-e-sahar ki baat suno

Musafir-e-rah-e-sehra-e-zulmat-e-shab se
Ab iltafat-e-nigar-e-sahar ki baat suno

Umeed-e-sahar ki baat suno


-Faiz Ahmad Faiz


Hope of the dawn


I'm torn inside; hark what my tormented entrails tell
Hark to the hope of the dawn

I'm swept by sorrows; hark to what my tears have to tell
Hark to the hope of the dawn

My tongue is tortured; hark to my wounded throat
Hark to the hope of the dawn

My feet are lacerated ; hark to the travails of my travels
Hark to the hopes of the dawn

From a traveler through the desert of the dark dark night
come! and listen to the tidings of bright & beautiful morn

Hark to the hope of the dawn



(The poem has been sung by a Pakistan pop band, LAAL, and video can be seen on this link; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjaNQFChkCY )