Shattered Dreams

An Experience to Learn From

by 

Sabeer Lodhi  

She was a princess who had hope shinning through her eyes. She was a model who had enthralled crowds with her contagious smile. She was a daughter. A sister and a human. 

She was Princess Flavia. 

Princess Flavia was on-board the unfortunate Bhoja Airlines plane that crashed not more than 15 kms away from my home. She was living her dream of being an air hostess; a dream her family resisted. But against all odds, she was flying high and serving the 127 passengers with a smile. Until the horrific crash that saw her dreams – and everybody else on that plane – dismembering into unrecognizable parts.

 “We knew it was a risky job. We were always scared of plane crashes.”

Prince Henry, her brother, had always been nagged by this thought. The thought of losing his sister to a plane crash. Although they were ‘inseparable best friends’ who did everything together – there was something Princess Flavia experienced alone. 

Death.

She is another ‘story’ out of all the other passengers who lost their lives. Amongst them, there was a couple who had recently married and had optimism reflecting through the air around it. There were 11 children who lost their lives before they could even begin. There were mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers.

There would have been my father and our family’s aspirations too. He was to return back to Islamabad on this flight, had he left for Karachi on the 16^th of April. Whenever that thought crosses my mind, all I can do is try to stop the tears that fill my eyes.

This is a tragedy that surpasses many. But this is a tragedy that we should all learn from.

Some religious zealots will adjudicate that the passengers deserved what happened to them, because they must have sinned. The moderates would empathize and say a silent prayer. The liberals will cry tears of despair and the god-less will leave it to fate, feeling as bad as anyone would. 

The politicians will scream out calls for a transparent probe. The civil society will shout for justice.

But for how long will these emotions and actions last?

As long as it is news and sell-able.

Let’s face it. How many of us still remember the Air Blue crash in Margalla hills? Do we feel the same way about the May 12 carnage in Karachi as we did the day it happened? Do we remember Imane Malick and what happened to her? Or does our heart still feel wrenched for what happened to the 31 children who crashed on the motorway as they were coming back from a school trip?

No.

It is undeniable that life moves on and the: 

Dead are buried. 

But what is also equally important is to learn from these unfortunate incidents and take precautionary measures to avoid them.

And one of the greatest lessons we can learn is of humanity. The lesson to not let the media`s zeal, people’s opinions, or politicians` rhetoric de-sensitize us. The lesson to feel human and keep pressing the government to hold people responsible for such incidents accountable, and bring them to justice.

Equally important is the fact that our media needs to act maturely. In its zest to beat its contemporaries in ‘breaking news’ and snatching TRPs, this pillar of the state forgets the basic ethics that need to be followed.

When a loved one dies in such a catastrophic disaster, the family requires solitude to come to terms with the reality, coupled with silent unflinching support from people around them.

But what do our reporters do instead? They shove the mic forward and start a verbal diarrhea of nonsensical questions. “App ko kayesa mehsoos ho ra hey apney bhai ki wafaat keh baad?”

This is not only an invasion of privacy, but also insensitive and callous on part of the reporters. The last thing an aggrieved family wants is hordes of ‘tamash-been’ with cameras and mics, prying them with silly questions.

And since media regulatory authorities are busy blocking everything that doesn’t need to be blocked, we should collectively decide to break free from the shackles of this vicious cycle that breeds insensitivity, apathy and savageness.

Let’s make this unfortunate experience into an opportunity to introspect, and as we proceed with living our lives the way we did, let us at least evolve into better humans. Humans who have a heart and can feel each other’s pain and act with sensibility when required.

Sabeer Lodhi is a Chief editor at a digital marketing firm, a critical thinker, a poignant social observer and a blogger at the Express Tribune who says it like it is. He is the founder and auteur of the thought-provoking blog http://musinggalore.blogspot.com/                                                                                        Sabeer has an undeniably gifted sense of story telling.