With the blessings of Allah, we were able to end up our miseries and live again in our country with peace and comfort. Our youngsters and teenagers, who were born in peace and were brought up in such a calm environment, may never come to realize the true worth of peace or the fears of war and destruction. There were the days when the deserted streets of Kabul frightened their dwellers. There was no laughter or any other pleasing sound in the air, but the frightening silence was disturbed by the sounds of gun shots and rockets exploding in different corners of the city. This situation forced millions of Afghans to leave their homeland and take refuge in different corners of the world. It was a great relief that we were able to return to our country and enjoy every moment of life here and tried our best to forget our miseries of last three decades. But it is very unlucky that we have still not learned all the lessons from our history and still we are slowly drifting towards the destruction and miseries that once blackened our days and nights.

This harsh reality becomes evident on a number of occasions. In a month or two, I became the witness to see the careless and dangerous driving of drivers. This situation may not be much alarming but it was shocking for me to discover that there are a number of strong and influential members in our society who regard themselves superior to any law and treat the common public just like insects. The other night, a fast and powerful vehicle came flying to our lane and had almost crashed into our vehicle that we pulled it on a side and the luxurious and expensive vehicle passed away like a wind. My friends assumed that the driver was drunk and there is an increasing trend of driving while being drunk in our ‘Islamic society’. Drinking a wine may be termed to be the affair related to one’s private life but even in developed countries of West where alcohol is used openly, no one drives and endangers the lives of others when he is drunk. Similarly, there is increasing trend of getting into the lane of others and not waiting for your own turn on the road. This act is also carried out with an air of superiority and pride.

English movies bring to us a pleasant and sound picture of their civilized society by showing an ideal picture of their restaurants. In the restaurants, families come in the most pleasant manner, they greet the waiters and the receptionist, then they give order very politely to the waiter and in the end, leave the restaurant thanking and appreciating the good food and service. Usually they leave behind tip to the waiter and children never forget to thank him/ her for the good service.

But in our society, exact opposite picture of it is present. There is a saying that, ‘True character of a person can be seen when he is eating’, and this saying fits very well to our society. The other day, I was sitting in a restaurant with some friends and I was able to see the true picture of our countrymen. People used to come in groups of 4 and more and it looked as if everyone considered himself to be the president of the country. They were all proud and rude. These two qualities were evident from their walking, talking and sitting. Most painful was their attitude with the poor waiters. They addressed him as if he was a servant who had committed any serious mistake in his life. I kept waiting until a few customers were left behind and I called a waiter and requested him to sit with us and answer a few of our questions. The poor man looked surprised and nervous but when we took him into confidence, he opened up his heart. He told us that majority of the customers were ill-mannered, they shouted on the waiters, unnecessarily disturbed them and asked for things, they talked to them in the rudest manner and they had no option except to remain silent and tolerate all these because they were all strong people and even the restaurant owner could do nothing against them.

This was not a new discovery but the sad and helpless face of waiter time and again made us sad. We were busy in discussing this issue and pondered on the possible reasons of all these improper social behaviors. Then came into my mind one of the famous essays of English literature, ‘Hunger and population explosion’. The essay starts with the description of children starving in the drought-hit countries of Africa. As you might have seen the picture of such children in media, they are only a collection of few bones and their weakness doesn’t grant them to move from their place. Along with this, the writer mentions an important phenomenon about hunger. According to him, ‘When we don’t get food for some hours or miss one meal, we think that we are hungry but the next moment, when we eat something, we forget about our previous situation or feelings. But this is not the true hunger. The real hunger can be seen in Africa where people did not have had enough food from many years. They don’t know the meaning of feeling full or satisfied with food. The hunger of many years has occupied their minds and emotions. When they are provided with abundant supply of food, they keep eating and never feel themselves fully fed up. Doctors advise that they should be stopped after some time because they will not halt eating and it would bring so much pressure to their stomach that it would endanger their lives.’ Except for the small minority who has returned from the civilized countries of the world, the mental condition of majority of us is like the drought-hit and starving African children. For the last three decades, majority of us were deprived of any kind of entertainment and recreation. Those who stayed in the country passed their days and nights in fear and their only aim was to save their lives. Those who migrated to the neighboring countries of Pakistan and Iran, life was so difficult that they never thought of doing anything except to live a life provided with the basic necessities of life. When the democracy made possible a good and comfortable life, we started acting like the African child. There were the deep-rooted feelings of hunger in our mind and when we got access to abundant supply of food, we could not control ourselves and ate too much that it greatly affected our sound thinking and social behavior.

The above assumption may be wrong but with the exception of limited number of civilized members, I have diagnosed the same problem prevalent in different social levels. But this situation is not much disappointing either. It is natural if a nation remains illiterate for three decades and then exhibits such attitude. This situation should not annoy us; rather we should feel pity on all those who are behaving so. When we come to the solutions side of this problem, there can be two possibilities. First, is to wait for the action and effect of education that it would refine our behaviors and make us more civilized. Secondly, I request the civilized members of our society to try their best to influence the rest of the members of society with their fine behavior so that they should also try to review their attitudes. Both the solutions would definitely take time to give an evident output.