Young Nation by Qaisar Nadeem

Dear friends, Hope you all are fine and the exams went well. You all must be waiting for the results. Best of luck for it! In this issue we have amazing stuff to read. The animated family of Sim Sim is back and you can watch on your television screens. Isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t it exciting? Take care, edi

Storytime

Coverstory

Our Leader

Heritage

Hey kids, kindly send us letters, stories, poems and events detail on the following address: youngnation@nation.com.pk Or Editor Young Nation 4- Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore.

One morning, several young women went out from their tepee village to gather firewood. Among them was Sapana, the most beautiful girl in the village, and it was she who first saw the porcupine sitting at the foot of a tall cottonwood tree. She called to the others: “Help me catch this porcupine, and I will divide its quills among you.” The porcupine started climbing the cottonwood, but the tree’s limbs were close to the ground and Sapana easily followed. “Hurry,” she cried. “It is climbing up. We must have its quills to embroider our moccasins.” She tried to hit the porcupine with a stick, but the animal climbed just out of her reach. “Sapana, you are too high up,” one of her friends called from the ground. “You should come back down.” But the girl kept climbing, and it seemed that the tree kept extending itself toward the sky. When she neared the top of the cottonwood, she saw something above her, solid like a wall, but shining. It was the sky. Suddenly she found herself in the midst of a camp circle. The treetop had vanished, and the porcupine had transformed himself into an ugly man. Sapana did not like the looks

of the porcupine-man, but he spoke kindly to her and led her to a tepee where his father and mother lived. “I have watched you from afar,” he told her. “You are not only beautiful but industrious. We must work very hard here, and I want you to become my wife.” The porcupine-man put her to work that very day, scraping and stretching buffalo hides and making robes. When evening came, the girl went outside the tepee and sat by herself wondering how she was ever to get back home. Everything in the sky world was brown and grey, and she missed the green trees and green grass of earth. Each day the porcupine-man went out to hunt, bringing back buffalo hides for Sapana to work on, and in the morning while he was away she had to dig for wild turnips. “When you dig for roots,” the porcupineman warned her, “take care not to dig too deep.” One morning, she found an unusually large turnip. With great difficulty, she managed to pry it loose with her digging stick. When she pulled it up she was surprised to find that it left a hole through which she could look down upon the green earth. Far below she saw rivers, mountains, circles of tepees,

and people walking about. Sapana knew now why the porcupine-man had warned her not to dig too deep. She did not want him to know that she had found the hole in the sky so she carefully replaced the turnip and thought of a plan to escape. Almost every day the porcupine-man brought buffalo hides for her to scrape and soften and make into robes. In making the robes there were always strips of sinew left over, and she kept these strips concealed beneath her bed. At last, Sapana believed that she had enough sinew strips to make a rope long enough to reach the earth. One morning after the porcupine-man went out to hunt, she tied all the strips together and returned to the place where she had found the large turnip. She lifted it out and dug the hole wider so that her body would go through. She laid her digging stick across the opening and tied one end of the sinew rope to the middle of it. Then she tied the other end of the rope about herself under her arms. Slowly she began lowering herself by uncoiling the rope. A long time passed before she was far enough down to be able to see the tops of the trees clearly, and then she came to the end of her rope. She had

Storytime By Muhammad Suhail

The

Girl

Sky

Climbed the Young Yo Y oun ung Nation-December Nati Na attiio on n-D De ec cem em mbe be b er 24, 24, 2011 24 20 2 011 1

Who

not made it long enough to reach the ground. She did not know what to do. She hung there for a long time, swinging back and forth above the trees trying to figure out what to do. Then, she heard sounds from above and the rope began to shake violently. A stone hurtled down from the sky, barely missing her, and then she heard the porcupine-man threatening to kill her if she did not climb back up the rope. Another stone whizzed by her ear. About this time, Buzzard began circling around below her. “Come and help me,” she called to Buzzard. The bird glided under her feet several times, and Sapana told him all that had happened to her. “Get on my back,” Buzzard said, “and I will take you down to earth.” She stepped on to the bird’s

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back. “Are you ready?” Buzzard asked. “Yes,” she replied. “Let go of the rope,” Buzzard ordered. He began descending with Sapana clinging to his neck, but the girl was too heavy for him, and he began gliding earthward too fast. He saw Hawk flying below him. “Hawk,” he called, “help me take this girl back to her people.” Hawk flew with Sapana on his back until she could see the tepee of her family clearly below. But then Hawk began to tire, and Buzzard had to take the girl on his back again. Buzzard flew on, dropping quickly through the trees and landing just outside the girl’s village. Before she could thank him, Buzzard flew back into the sky. Sapana was weak and exhausted and she saw a girl coming toward her. “Sapana!” the girl cried. “We thought you were dead.” The girl helped her walk to the village. Sapana told everyone her story, especially of the kindness shown her by Buzzard and Hawk. After that, whenever the people of her tribe went on a big hunt they always left one buffalo for Buzzard and Hawk to eat.

THE NATION

Who would know that a star would born on a very normal day like December 25th 1876 in Karachi that would later become an important city of the history of that area? All of us have been reading about him in our early years of education at school in text board books. As we all grew up, our education patterns changed and our lives started revolving around one axis or the other. Yet, 25th December is a holiday for all of us, Christmas and Quaid’s birthday…two important events in a single day! Quaid’s very presence at the helm of affairs enabled the newly born nation to overcome the terrible crisis on the morrow of its cataclysmic birth. He mustered up the immense prestige and the unquestioning loyalty he commanded among

the people to energize them, to raise their morale, directed the profound feelings of patriotism that the freedom had generated, along constructive channels. Though tired and in poor health, Jinnah yet carried the heaviest part of the burden in that first crucial year. He laid down the policies of the new state, called attention to the immediate problems confronting the nation and told the members of the Constituent Assembly, the civil servants and the Armed Forces what to do and what the nation expected of them. He saw to it that law and order was maintained at all costs, despite the provocation that the large-scale riots in north India had provided. He moved from Karachi to Lahore for a while and supervised the immediate refugee problem

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OUR LEADER

FATHER OF

By Zahra Ahmed

in the Punjab. In that time of fierce excitement, he remained sober, cool and steady. He advised his excited audience in Lahore to concentrate on helping the refugees, to avoid retaliation, exercise restraint, remain resilient and protect the minorities. He assured the minorities of a fair deal, assuaged their inured sentiments, and gave them hope and comfort. He toured the various provinces, attended to their particular problems and instilled in the people a sense of belonging. He reversed the British policy in the North-West Frontier and ordered the withdrawal of the troops from the tribal territory of Waziristan, thereby making the Pakhtoons feel themselves an integral part of Pakistan’s body-politics. For the British, seeing a Mus-

lim country emerging on canvas was the last option. They even resisted and betrayed the division of assets between the new born India and Pakistan. May it be military hardware, industrial installations or even the antiquities--- India remained the blue eyed baby. Pakistan, already divided into two lands, separated by breadth of India had only cotton and jute growing areas. Situation took a depressing turn with death of Quaid only 13 months after the division on September 11, 1948. As Quaid closed his eyes, the reigns were in hands of British made feudal to turn the whole into their personal meadow where only their cattle could graze. Today when I look around, it is true that Pakistan is not like what Quaid would have liked. Political elite is dishonest and nonvisionary, officials are greedy. Undeniably nepotism and corruption is wide spread, no harmony, nothing is by the book but poverty and hopelessness is rampant and violence is on its extreme---all written on wall now. I also know people daring to compare Pakistan with India arguing that may be partition was wrong. They are heavily Bollywood toxicities. They are agents from fool’s paradise ignoring historical facts and realities, closing their eyes on

eternal satanic consortia that are deep rooted among non Muslims. We would be dishonest if we put all burden on India or the Britain or both. Reality is that we did not stand on our two feet to prove ourselves to be a sovereign independent country. We left it to feudal lot and then to military to rule and they welcomed the opportunity to molest the motherland as their meadow and a parade ground. India abolished feudalism, but Pakistan could not dare to even copy. Years after years passed, life whispered last goodbye to old lot. Pakistan creation day toddlers became gray haired. New

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generations are ready to take over. Finally a dawn has emerged. Youth is more energetic, more sensitive to its identity and sincere to whatever they inherited. They are roll-up-sleeve model to ‘do it yourself ’ neither the army nor the feudal lot. Seems Quaid is born again, sincere, energetic, untiring, mindful, sight-ful with a clear vision to induce renaissance to the lost leadership role. Once a playful child is now a leader with ability to lead and inspire, has ability to teach lesson to wrong doers and the satanic camps together. Let’s remember our Quaid a little more to figure out the new young Quaid on the horizon, bringing a change, instilling the courage to stand up and change. As we remember our Quaid in our prayers, we pray for the new star that is born. Let’s help the new stars to rise and fight the darkness. It is better to light a candle than to sit back and curse the darkness. An anonymous writer states that “Poor is the Nation that has no Heroes, but beggared is the Nation that has, and forgets them” A star has born!

COVERSTORY

Young Nation-August 13, 2011

Young Nation-December 24, 2011

WALLEDCITY

MARKOF THE

“It is absolutely im imperative mperative that hat we protect, preserve presserve and pass on this genetic heritage h for man and every otherr living g thing g in as good a condition on as we received it”. David R. Brower. On the north western corner of the walled city stands the magnificent Mughal structure “the Lahore fort“also known as “Shahi Qila”. Along this once river Ravi flowed which later changed its course. One cannot say with certainty as by whom and when it was built as the information is lost in the history. Despite this historians say that the fort was built, demolished and upgraded by subsequent rulers but its present structure was built in the reign of Mughal emperor Akbar. The extraordinary mughal art, a masterpiece indeed at-

By Menahil Haider

tracts the visitors by its splendid lawns, impressive marble and mirror palaces e.g.: shish mahal, magnificent pavilions e.g. naulakha , beautiful divans and fascinating passages and the miniature and fresco art which is masterpiece in itself . On could sit the entire day and admire this massive structure and its builder. The entire fort it’s each and every section portrays the rich tradition of Mughals and it is because of this that the fort was inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage. Moreover the

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HERITAGE

Pakistan pavilion at expo 2010 is designed in the replica of fort. The fort after the decline of Mughal Empire in 1758 went in the hands of Sikh maharajas and later to British s when they ruled over. “Both the later and former ruler looted and plundered the precious jewels engraved on the fountains, pavilions etc, as told by one of the tourist guide. Despite this the political instability greatly affected the interior and exterior of the magnificent structure as whoever ruled showed a little or no interest

on its restoration. Due to this with the passage of time the structure started weekend from inside gaps appeared within walls, dust accumulated and as a result vegetation and fungus started growing which damaged the murals. Prof Rafique and archeologist say that: “war was the major cause of destruction of heritage, tourism, natural disasters, and unplanned construction followed”. After Pakistan emerged Lahore fort was given in the custody of archeology department and then realizing the needs of its conservation a master plan for its conservation and preservation was formulated in 1973. The plan included the restoration of fortified walls, dalans .shish mahal and diwan-e-aam. Unfortunately the plan wasn’t

properly executed due to the negligence of authorities, poor administration and parliamentarians showed a blind eye towards the issue. Later when the situation seemed to become worse and fort lacked tourism attraction and the fact remained that Pakistan was economically unstable to spend on the heritage so a meeting was held with United Nations and Norwegian agency and they withhold 500,000 grants for the maintence of Lahore fort. The motto of the plan was to divide and spend. The money seemed enough to be spent on the restoration of the entire fort. Sadly the money which was promised to be granted during the declaration wasn’t provided. After failing to lure international donors the authorities planned to cut down the plan and restore only the murals walls and some part of the royal kitchen through some resources already with the department. Some conservation measure including wall tightening, removal of plants/bushes has already been taken to protect murals.Meanwhile other projects are going in progress such as making of an auditorium in the basement chamber of the fort to hold functions. This is currently being done with the help of American experts. “Whatever is left, we can

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save. The atmosphere is still here, the ambiance. At one time, this was [all of] Lahore,” said Yousaf Salahuddin, As far as other implementations are concerned it is due to the lack of interest by the authorities resulting in lack of coordination between protection agencies and local community because the work which is currently being done is not enough to bring our heritage to the same verge of attraction as it had been earlier. The fact remains that the work is not being properly executed because our parliamentarians our provisional government are showing a blind eye to it. We can call this inefficiency or can say selfishness because all these are considering their personal interest over public interest. In fact it is in our legislations Antiquities Act of 1975 and Punjab special premise act 1985 and other legislation which is provided for the protection of built heritage .This is why the question arises that why aren’t these being implemented or given consideration.? If these laws are implemented in their true spirit would certainly lead to conservation of monuments that are being decayed. Now as we have seen the politicians and authorities failed to accomplish their tasks so the general public and media collaboratelly could highlight the issue so all the authorities are held publically accountable . We all have to realize this that this is our heritage we call Islamic architecture it’s not only a picnic point instead it has a great importance as it is our ancestors who left behind such a magnificent structure which we own now. “It is not the honor that you take with you, but the heritage you leave behind”. Branch Rickey

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Suffyan Butt

Zainab Zafar

Artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Corner

NOTE: NOTE Kindly send us your drawings on white paper. Mahnaz Mir

Ashar Mahmood

Sameer Khurram

Young Nation-December 24, 2011