In our
childhood we all heard and read scary-tales about evil ghosts and botalwala gin
(genie in a bottle)… one of my elder sister was very good in making and telling
scary stories about botalwala gin ….. every time when the story finished and
genie went back to the bottle I go for deep breath and say thanks God that it
was just the story and we don’t have to deal with botalwala gin in our real
life. When I was growing up and did some thoughts on social issues and human
behaviors…. I figure out those genies are very much exists in real life and we
humans needs to deal with them. But the names of real life genies are not like
HabukaWabuka or cheikoma…., they are like Racism, religious exploitation, ethnic/linguistic
chauvinism etc… I also figure out that some of these genies are necessary evils
and some or just the evils. I also learned that only conscious efforts can restrain
these genies in bottles and that effort goes from individual to communal.
At the same time when I was learning these things one evil genie
with big boots was already out of the bottle and terrifying everybody and also
trying to free other genies like religious extremism, linguistic and ethnic
bigotry etc. to destroy every good thing. Later on newly free genies evolving
themselves with brand names like Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Taliban, and
other militant lashkars.
Then all of a sudden big boots genie disappeared in the air and in
the village things start recovering little bit and trade name genies feeling
orphans but big boot’s power was still protecting those brand name genies......
and then one day big boot come back again with different face and soft image....
that big boot is also gone but the evil power is still haunting the village.
Now the question is how to put back these genies in the bottle again? Is that
possible for poor health villagers to restrain these strong giants back to
bottles? I guess they need big boot’s help to restrain those brand name genies!
