“Khuuch Pia Vardka:Wichae Khusi Kar Loo”
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburg. CA
This pithy, Punjabi saying (meaning the bull has fallen in a ditch; castrate him now) often resonates in every Punjabi house many a time when the express objective is to highlight the timely helplessness of an individual who has been full of virility and has been out-of-control in the past.
Mothers often hurl it on their male kids who often act in a crazy fashion, but then one day find themselves in this proverbial ditch. The saying is not as simple as on the surface it appears to be.
The element of compassion, discretion and sympathy for the trapped bull can be duly traced accompanying the urgent desire to first pull him out. The saying succinctly raises the time-honored question for discussion, challenging: What should take the precedence in a situation as this? Pull out the bull from the ditch first and give him a treatment as needed; or keeping in mind his past kicking habits and his tendency to disregard any norms of restraint or discipline, just take advantage of this God-sent disability of his, and castrate him, a pre-requisite for his future servitude and tameness.
But, who is the bull here? The President; the issue of the independence of the judiciary; the restoration of the fired judges; the future prime minister of Pakistan; or all these combined. Trusting the creative imagination of the readers, I leave it for them to figure it out. The wisdom enshrined in this Punjabi saying, however, is not bull-specific. It is obvious on all that he, the bull, is already trapped and is helpless. It clearly is directed at the wisdom of those who currently are his handlers. Would they castrate him first, and in the process, who knows, may end up killing him as well; or would they pull him out first, and do the first thing first.
The elections of February 18, 2008 have created a situation for the people of Pakistan as the one cited above. The leaders of both the main political parties, namely Mr. Asif Ali Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif (though both are in a state of warming-up), have already begun showing signs of major fissures. If they seemingly appear to be somewhat discreet under the circumstances; their newly-elected members do not show such signs. They, on the contrary, appear to be just going our-time, and thus as a consequence keeping their main leaders busy in doing the patch-work for the damage caused by them. To borrow a sentence from the Time magazine of March 10, 2008, which basically is about President Clinton acting as the sharpest political strategist for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, because it succinctly sums up what the intention is here, “Yet there was always the worry about whether Bill would be able to stay within the constrained, derivative role of the candidate’s spouse. THE BIGGEST FEAR WAS THAT HE WOULD SHINE TOO BRIGHT, BURN TOO HOT, CONSIGN THE CANDIDATE TO HIS SHADOW.” The process of self-destruction, in the case of our main leaders, has already begun.
Nothing appears to have changed the three most important characters, namely, Mian Nawaz Sharif, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari after Ms. Benazir, and President Musharraf, who as of today have mattered so much in the 33% of the country’s total history. Neither the blasts, and the sufferings of the people, nor the personal humiliations and history; virtually nothing appears to have moved them to sink their differences for some time with a view to getting the country out of the woods. The President once again (as it happened during the tenure of Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Farooq Leghari as President) appears to be lending a sympathetic ear to those who are disgruntled, and who specialize in the art of conniving.
And the saddest part is that the main winning leaders, without being clear who the “Bull” is, have already begun miffing over the issue whether the “Bull” should be castrated first, or should he be pulled out first. “Be sure your brain is in gear before engaging your mouth”, is a wise saying.
