Annointing the person of the year is a ritual the media partakes with fanfare abroad. Little of it is done this side of the Indus, and even then a mundane pick from the political spectrum is the refrain. We could do with the pickings more often and it would be infinitely, better if a real opinion poll led the way. In the absence of such credible process, I reckon one will have to do with personal choice(s) hopefully, not lacking in substance.
For Pakistan, the year just gone by was traumatic in more ways than one the havoc wrecked by devastating floods alone will haunt us for a long time to come. The failure of the civilian leadership was a marked feature. The less said about the biggest politician among the khakis as Wikileaks amply showed the better. The mens cricket team rather easily given to hero status in the land of less-than-pure violated this countrys honour like never before. Like the enduring fallout of Ziaul Haqs radicalisation, it is difficult to tell if well recover from their bazaar mien.
Against all odds, it is the Pakistani woman, who dared to break the mold as it were, to restore some pride. And to whom should go this award. If there is one woman, who personified the never-say-die spirit, it was Naseem Hameed, who literally ran out everyone else to complete a fairytale the likes of which would be any nations pride. But pray, what did this country give the poor labourers daughter in return for raising the crescent-and-star after becoming the fastest woman in South Asia?
Forget officialdom and movers-and-shakers, who cannot think beyond their noses, not a single newspaper of consequence at home even splashed the magnificent triumph on its front page! It took keen Indian interest in Naseems story their media was more curious to find out how the impossible had been achieved for us to discover what our own possessed.
When financial reward was belatedly, announced at the Presidency and Governor House in Sindh, it smacked off deriving some sort of mileage as photo-ops with sport stars usually provide in this part of the world. But to her credit, this did not dampen the spirit of the effusive Naseem, who surprised all comers with her poise and confident mien never easy for anyone suddenly pitch-forked into the limelight. She spoke with ease and never forgot to thank everyone something that was, in fact, owed her but only belatedly accorded.
Pakistanis learnt later on that Naseem had a trying journey, not in the least because she was once forbidden from running and told she could never compete thanks to a serious foot injury. For a girl, who could not even afford a decent pair of shoes at one time, and whose parents had to tide over general disapproval among their kith and kin to allow their daughter to pursue her ambition, the 100-metre dash was more than just a means to secure a gold medal. It embodied the never-say-die spirit of a Pakistani woman you find in all spheres.
Recently, when I sent a popular commercial depicting her story to an Indian scribe, he was immensely moved by it, suggesting it offered a definite script for a great movie. It is heartening to know that it has been now picked up for a TV serial Bhaag Amina Bhaag (Run Amina Run) which began yesterday on Geo. But if Naseem led the way, there were other women doing the country proud too. The spectacular triumph of the womens cricket team at the Asian Games did wonders for the image of the republic, which appears to be forever in a giant maelstrom of negative vibes.
Where the hitherto unheralded prowess of the young brigade warmed the cockles of Pakistani hearts, it served to reinforce their indomitable will to succeed. While it can be argued that most of these cricketers do not necessarily play for a living, nevertheless the odds are stacked against them succeeding. For starters, there is no grass roots system through which they can climb the ladder and little official or unofficial patronage.
Until their gold strike in China, not even the otherwise pluralistic and vibrant media cared to push for harnessing the talent among their ranks. This despite the fact that they had showed flashes of brilliance at the last World Cup where they won a couple of games against fancied rivals. Such behaviour is symptomatic of the general condescension of women in all spheres strange, when you consider that members of the female population, which make up nearly half of Pakistans numbers, have always excelled whenever given a decent run.
This space would not suffice to account for those achievements but in a literal manifestation of managing the impossible, 19 Pakistani girls from Karachi Grammar School crammed into a smart car to create a world record before the year-end to drive home the point!
The writer is a newspaper editor and can be reached at [email protected]
