If I Were A Millionaire

               Our elders usually advise the young ones to forget the past, ignore the future and care for the present. But there is hardly any one who has no ambition for a higher status than the present one. The constant struggle for the higher position sticks to man till the last day of his life. This is true of every human being right from the man in the street to the topmost personality of Pakistan. This struggle infact is essential for achieving higher ends in life.

               I come of a middle class of the society I can never think of earning millions of rupees. Still God has His own ways who knows I my get a lottery . And if ever I get it I cannot say whether I will be able to enjoy because sometimes the man is so much overjoyed that he leaves the world. Let me suppose that I am fortunate to get a lottery of millions of rupees. I will try to spend it in the most judicious manner as to derive maximum pleasure out of it.

               My colleagues advise me that first of all I should endeavour to improve my living condition. I should have a huge mansion to live in and care for the family and so on. But my conception of life if quite different. Instead of improving my lot I am which more interested in uplifting the poor masses of the country.

               Pakistan is a poor country. There are many people in Pakistan who hardly get two square meals a day what to speak of enjoyed the comforts and luxuries of life. They are poorly fed and ill clad. The largest number of these people is living in villages where the main occupation of the people is agriculture. In villages still the old bullock carts are used though the advanced countries have embarked upon mechanized farming. I will offer them loans at a very nominal interest so as to enable them to purchase tractors, fertilizers and better seeds.

               I would spend a good portion of money in setting up a hospital with all the modern amenities. I will employ highly qualified doctors. This hospital will be run for the poor masses . Charities will always be awaited from the rich classes. This will save people from the jaws of death. It would be a ray of hope for the poor.

               Thus if I become a millionaire my sole object would be to utilize this money for the greatest good of the greatest numbers. To help the poor feed the hungry nurse the sick and better the plight of the people would be my only motto. To help the humanity is a great deed.

               Most of the people especially villagers have no means of recreation. I shall spend a part of my wealth for providing means of recreation to the poor. I shall open various social and educational centers at various places. There they would get education and make their lives.
It is painful to find that there is no adequate provision for supporting orphans and widows. I would therefore lose no time in opening new centers for widows and orphans. They would work and learn their livelihood honourably.

               Some people would jeer and mock at the utter foolishness of spending millions of rupees in this manner. Probably they do not realize that a man gets spiritual happiness by helping the poor and its is much more than the sensual pleasures one gets from the money he possesses. I wish that I were a millionaire and could fulfill my desires.

My Family

               I come of a middle class family in which both the parents are working. My grand parents also stay with us. My grand father retired from the army and draws pension. He is a strict disciplinarian and will not allow anyone to sleep after 6:00 A.M. All the children to get ready for morning jerks by 7:00 AM . He treats us strictly as results in his training center. He pulls up very often and my parents have no choice before him. If you have to visit my house you have to be properly dressed. You cannot sit in our drawing room with legs crossed. It is against the etiquette.

               My grand mother is very submissive and gentle. She prepares breakfast and helps us in getting ready. Although she is past sixty. Yet she is very active and hard working. But for her we do not now how to move about. She is always advising us. She is very loving old woman.

               My father works as an accountant in a private firm. He sleeps with a calculator in his pocket. He maintains an account book for the whole family. He will not go to sleep before preparing a balance sheet. When we are busy watching TV programs he can be seen talking everyone to task for not giving proper account of daily expenses. When my grand mother brings costly fruit it is balanced by simple chapattis next day. He is a man of principles. He loves us very much.

               My mother is the finest lady in the world. She does not poke her nose in anything . She is working as a receptionist ina private firm. She has to get up very early in the morning. She is always smiling. When she returns home smile returns to every one's face. My elder brother is a student of senior secondary class. He is a very serious student and does not take part in games etc. His mind is always fixed on studies. He is always doing one thing or the other.

               I am the youngest in the family. Although I am a student of class X the whole family treats me as a child No one calls me by my proper name. I am moon for all of them. I really feel very awkward when my parents call me moon in the presence of my friends. My friends have also started calling me by this nick name. There is no help because I cannot change my status with anyone in the family.

               Ours is a very happy family and cooperative. Every member is a very considerate. No one hurts anyone's feeling. All of us cannot think of living without each other. I wish it to prosper by leaps and bounds.

My Favourite Book

               Even since my childhood I have read a large number of books. Short stories novels works of poets and biographies have been of great interest to me. But one book has interested me most. It was the life of the Prophet of Islam by Allama Shibli.


               I was amazed to read the life of the Holy Prophet He was born an orphan. At the age of six he lost his mother as well. Among the idol worshippers of Arabia he stood alone and worshipped one God. Arabs quarreled among themselves for years on end over petty affairs. They drank wine buries their daughters alive. They gambled, fought, cursed and had all the vices that one could think of.
Muhammad (Peace be upon him) kept aloof from them. He disliked their ways but could not make them give up their evil ways . At the age of forty God entrusted Muhammad with the work of reforming the people who had gone astray. When Muhammad (Peace be upon him) took upon himself this work all turned against him. Only a few listened to him and became true muslims. He had to leave his home and hearth yet he struggled hard in obedience to the world of God.


               After a hard struggle of a few years he returned victorious to Mecca the very land from where he had fled for his life to the cruel treatment of his countrymen. The unbelievers trembled with fear. They thought it was the day of revenge. The prophet declared it was the day for general pardon. This generous treatment made the unbelievers listen to what the Prophet said. They embraced Islam in large numbers. Those who fought among themselves for years on end began to believe in universal brotherhood. They gave up their evil customs. They no longer buried their daughters alive but showed greatest respect for fair sex. A complete change was wrought. Humanity was reclaimed.


               This book has interested me most. I have read it again and again. It is a very instructive book. After reading this book truth came home to me that truth is stranger than fiction.

Visiting Relatives

               I have lived all my life in a big city. But my father as a young man lived in a village in the foothills of the Himalayas and his relatives are still there till living in the old house that belonged to their ancestors. Sometimes during the long school holidays I go to see my hill cousins and for time I live a life quite different form the urban existence to which I am accustomed.

               The house where my relatives live is a large rambling one. There is a central court with a fountain in the middle of it. But the fountain no longer plays. All round the courtyard is a deep verandah from which a flight of stone steps goes up at each corner to the first floor.


               My grand mother is the head of the household. But three of her sons and their families live in the house as well. My youngest uncle's wife is only a very little older than I am. Her name is Sumaira. She was spinning on her verandah when I first me her. She was pretty shy girl with two long plaits falling from under her blue green head veil. She wore the hill woman's costume of a tight bodice and very full skirt with a board black band round the border.
 
              Sumaira took me to her room off the first floor verandah. It was very sparsely furnished with two string cots several tin boxes and a line across one corner on which two hang clothes. On the verandah outside it was a white covered mattress on which Sumaira sat to spin . This was the outer verandah of the house and from it there was a magnificent view of the hills beyond. I could not help comparing Sumaira's room with mine. Mine at home was on the second floor of a block of flats. It was furnished in modern fashion with a wooden bed dressing table and wardrobe and had dainty curtains at the windows. But there was not verandah and the view was of an other block of flats about a dozen yards away.


               Everybody in my relatives house was expected to pay great respect to my grandmother. When her husband was alive he was the most important person in the village. And hardly a day went by without several people coming into the courtyard to ask his advice or to bring some little present or to pay some debt. Now he was dead. They continued to come and my grandmother always had advice to give. Or a scolding to house those who were not conducting their lives as she thought they should. She knew everyone in the village and all their private affairs and who editide anyone whose ways of life did not fit in with my grandmother's ideas.


               All the girls in the family and those in the village too treated me as an object of great curiosity because I was fifteen an still going to school. When are you going to get a husband? They asked and I could tell that they thought my father was a very bad parent to have left me so long without arranging a marriage. But grandmother unexpectedly took my part and told them to leave me alone. Naila will have as fine sons as any of you some day. You wait and see what will happen when she has passed all these examinations she is studying for!


               I laughed and said I hoped I should pass them successfully. But when the holiday was over. I often thought of my uncle's wife Sumaira and the life she was leading in that remote village while I struggled with my bookish problems in the heat and noise of the city.