‘It was hot. I remember being so sweaty that my clothes were drenched. Also, it hurt so much in my head. I wanted to call out to my mother but she was not home. She had gone to look for water; a bucket in her own sweaty hands but I wondered why she was not back yet. I looked at what the teacher in my school had taught us just yesterday is called a ‘clock’. Do you know about the clock? It has a code for what time it is. Just a day before that our teacher had also told us all about time in our science class and how it is divided in equal measuring units so we can tell how much of it has passed.
The teacher had told us we should look at the clock often as it is a good habit. I decided to look at the clock again; I had checked it when mama has left to look for water and said she will be back in a while. The clock said it was five past ten o clock in the morning then. I don’t think our teacher mentioned how many hours long was ‘in a while’. I should have asked mother. She tells us often she went to school before she got married at sixteen.
So I tried to get up to read the clock code but my head felt too heavy. By then, it was difficult to breathe. I looked at the fan switch; it was on so that it’d start as soon as the electricity came back. I wondered why electricity would leave our house in the first place. My friend, Aamna who lives in the house next to ours heard her parents saying that we don’t get electricity because we are poor and there is not enough for everyone. They also said that the rich don’t pay bills because they have friends in the government. I think I’ll go see if I can find some friend in what people call the government to help us too. I’ll ask Abdul, my brother to take me there on his cycle. While I am there I’ll also ask them why poor people have to pay money and the rich friends of the government do not? If the government needs help, shouldn’t their friends help them? I help my friends even with their homework sometimes but you mustn’t mention that to our teachers.
My eyes burned with pain as well by now and I could feel heat coming out of my body. I tried to get up again and look at the clock. This time it read twenty past two in the afternoon. Afternoon since it was p.m. now. I wish the clock would move its hands faster, it felt slow as I watched another minute pass…
I remember looking at the clock- looking at time passing. After that I’m not so sure what happened.
I remember trying to breathe… but I couldn’t. It was so scary.
I remember vomiting…
I remember wishing the fan would start working because it was so hot. It didn’t.
I think I heard Aamna knocking on the door and calling out my name. It hurt too much to reply.
I remember darkness, pain and fear. I remember crying for mama to come back. It hurt so much and I could hear the clock ticking so loudly now like it was inside my head.
‘For a while’, as mama had said must be a very long time but I never found out. The ticking of my last seconds wasn’t as long.
This story is one of the 700 plus (so far) stories of the people of Sindh losing lives due to heat strokes. Most make it to hospitals but like this innocent girl of five, not everyone gets even that far.
In fact, it is not the people of Sindh losing lives. It is the poor of Sindh. The worthless ones. The lesser humans. Why make any effort to save the seven hundred plus poor people? That too in this weather! Why go out of the air conditioned houses? It is too hot for that. Let the poor die. After all, what difference does it make. They have no political backing which will result in any problems for the government.
Bhutto is alive, democracy is alive, Qaim Ali Shah and all those who matter to him are alive.
“More than 400 dead bodies have so far been received in our two mortuaries in past three days,” Edhi spokesperson Anwar Kazmi told AFP. “The mortuaries have reached capacity.” These bodies are of people who belong to familes who can not even bear expenses of their death- let alone their lives. By now I feel it doesn’t even make sense to call these people human.
Headlines should read: 700 plus animals butchered in Sindh.
When political leaders say democracy is alive- somebody tell them it is freaking not! In truly democratic states, animals have more protection and rights than the poor people of this so-called democracy. After 690 deaths in four days, Mr. Sharif does us all a huge favor and say ‘immediate action must be taken to handle the crisis’. Crisis is the rule of the Sharifs in Pakistan, what this is, is a massacre of the helpless.
Is there even one person from the upper class who has lost his/her life in this heatstroke? 700 hundred plus people die, not to mention these are only the reported figures, and not a single person with more green in their accounts?
So this is not a crisis for the country, it is a crisis for the poor.
Why is this happening? Blame the weather, blame the changing air currents but please while you do so, do not forget to blame the outright liars who ensured electricity availability all through Ramadan at least. Shahbaz Sharif declared with that unfailing confidence of a practiced liar that there will be no loadshedding during Ramadan. Just like any of the other promises we hear from the Sharifs, this one did not have the validity to hold for a single day. Does he not fear God while manipulating people in the name of religion?
Dr Seemin Jamali, a senior official at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), the city’s largest government hospital says, “The mortuary is overflowing, they are piling bodies one on top of the other. We are doing everything that is humanly possible here, Saturday, the JPMC had seen more than 5,000 patients with heat-related symptoms. Of those, 384 patients had died”, she said.
“Until [Tuesday] night, it was unbelievable. We were getting patients coming into the emergency ward every minute.” she added. Another anonymous official claims that the people coming in are either elderly or poor.
The indifference of PPP government to these deaths takes inhumanity to the next level. They are like, Roti, Kapra & Makaan? Yes sure, if you somehow survive, you just might get a chance to succeed at being as corrupt as we are and get your roti, kapra and makaan because we ain’t giving you any as long as you believe this nice-sounding-but-total-nonsense slogan of ours.
Where is the Chief Minister of Sindh, Qaim Ali Shah, apart from attending lavish iftar parties? I’d say he spends the rest of his time feasting on the blood of his people.
On top of it, K-electric claims that it is having trouble dealing with the spike in demand since people are keeping air conditioners on. Umm, really? That must be a huge shocker for you considering the possibility of keeping air conditioners on during intense heat, especially during Ramadan is just so unexpected! No wonder you were totally ill-prepared to deal with this.
While the poor continue to suffer and lose lives, the authorities maintain their indifference and the iftar parties continue. What will it take to make this matter? Is there a specific number of body count that is waiting to be reached? Is 775 (source: Al Jazeera) not enough? Will the nation have to stage Dharnas at every point? Or is it time for peaceful rebellion to take another face?
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