By Anm Shaharyar
        The Animal Conundrum

If the world was a jungle: Let’s start with that particular sentence.

Here’s what the cynics would say: It already is a jungle. There’s a reason we call it a dog-eat-dog world. Who cares, we’re all going to hell anyway. And the philosophers would wax theories analyzing man’s inherent animalistic instincts, the biologists would argue and debate darwin’s theories, and meanwhile every single adult you know will shake their head and say, ‘It used to be so sensible when we were young. It truly is a jungle now.”

But these people aren’t writing this blog. I am. So what demographic do I fall under? And if we are truly to be split, not into ages or professions or experience, but rather by thoughts and emotions and feelings, how many of us use patriotism blindly? Profession or age or expression, these things tell us one thing: your country is a snake, your country is a dog, your country is the blood-sucking parasite that clings to bigger, stronger animals and provides nothing, serves no purpose, does no right, and never will. But what do feelings tell us? What do thoughts clouded by emotions tell us?

It’s easy to say that Pakistan is a particular animal, but you can’t really. Because while you’ve the fat, ugly pigs sitting on their thrones, and the lecherous snakes that kill and poison, right next to them are the hardworking horses, the patient hens, the peaceful cows. As a country, Pakistan is too rich to be described by one particular animal, but this, I’m told, is the easy way out. One must, if one is told, find an animal that fits.

In that case, let us be the rooster that blindly crows, no matter what time of the day it be. Let us strut around pretending to be the kings of our domain, blind to our own faults, fighting each other whenever we get the chance. Let us be the one who gets caught and butchered, and eaten and enjoyed. If nothing else, let us be the cockerel, who does not understand man very well and considers him his enemy. And if that doesn’t sound like Pakistan to you, a country where we kill our own country men more than we should, then I don’t know what will.