Quetta is a big city and it is the capital of Balochistan; here people are struggling to make a living like people in other cities. People are struggling for a comfortable life and better future; they worry about their bank balance; they want news cars, beautiful Bungalows, postings and transfer. In this race of life and future there are many who snatch the happiness of others to make their own life comfortable and colourful and call it ability to survive. They destroy other’s families and future to fulfil their personal gains. They are struggling to provide comfort and tranquillity to their sex feet body – it is said, “Everything is fair in love and war” but I would like to add a new saying which is, “Everything is also fair for personal gain.”
People are busy to build their beautiful world but Mama Qadeer Baloch is unfamiliar with this whole saga – for him his protest camp is his world. He is busy building his camp and these pictures at his camp are his total asset. His bank balance (his reputation) is growing, today his protest camp entered 455th day – today his protest for human rights reached to 933rd day – this is Mama Qadeer’s bank balance. He is not from those selfish people who snatch other’s happiness to please themselves. He is sacrificing his own happiness for others. He is sacrificing his desires, needs, personal life, and social life and buried his future dreams. He risked his today for a better tomorrow for others. He fighting against the whole system. He carrying on this struggle alone, empty-handed but with dignity and bravery because his mind is not empty, there is power within his mind. He uses this power but it is invisible.
Initially people would glance at him when passing by his camp but now they seem confined to their own world or perhaps they are tired of staring at him any more but he [Mama Qadeer] never get tired. After travelling a long journey, still there are no signs of tiredness on his face, every dawn refreshes the circle of blood in his body and gives him more courage, and then he picks up his pictures and goes to the protest camp. It is not just a protest camp but it is a battlefield where Mama Qadeer Baloch is fighting against an entire army.
He sits alone at his protest camp but his loneliness is self-crowded. There is melody in the silence of his camp – a melody that rules the heart. It is our false imagination that we say he is alone. We wrongfully think he might become hopeless and abandon his struggle. He, however, feels surrounded in an environment of festivity – he sees happiness all around him and sees a world beyond what we see today. He sees a bright tomorrow. People think Mama Qadeer is insane but Mama Qadeer considers the world as crazy.
When one’s characteristic is strong, then a lonely person makes his personal life a struggle and fights against the whole system. Mama Qadeer is a character; he is the main character of a novel.
Mama Qadeer’s protest camp is only few yards away from ‘Balochi Academy’, I wish, any Baloch writer writes a novel about this living character and preserve this novel for coming generations because future is going to be proud of him and history is witnessing his struggle. Mama Qadeer has become a movement which is recording history – a bright history and history of a new dawn.
This article was first published in DailyTawar, an Urdu newspaper in Balochistan. Translation edited by Balochwarna news for precise reading.
