Give a pen to someone who asks for 5-Rupee

I don’t know when this happened but it’s now a norm that my daily drive of 20-minutes average gives away 2-3 ball points from my car's right pouch. A coffee mug is usually filled with Piano ball-points and I feel good when I get smiling reply when I slip out a pen towards an eye that expects a 5-Rupee coin or a 10-Rupee note.  I won’t take the credit of starting something very new as I had also seen someone doing it and I thought it may create a change.

A pen can give hope to an uneducated boy or girl and he may start atleast drawing sketch of any loved one.  Few NGOs did a step ahead and gave rubbing clothes, washing tubs and cleaning glass materials so the beggars may not beg but earn their bread. I remember people advising others not to give fish to someone who is hungry but to teach them how to FISH. Once this feeling develops; a nation starts its way to success.

2 weeks back I was in India and had a chance to drive about 2500 kilometers on the roads of Gujrat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Poverty is proportional to their growing population but I found young children and gentlemen working 18 hours a day including their study-hours.

While moving on Gujrat roads, I came across this monument and asked the driver to hold for a while. Thanks to my late uncle who lived in Rajkot and had taught me Gujrati; I tried reading “Va'anche Gujrat” meaning “Read Gujrat”. 

I recalled many endeavours of our Government quoting “Parha Likha Pakistan”. As we talk about Pen, Government has distributed laptops and delivered a message to learn and earn. Our neighbours includes China which has become a nation to be proud of. Reason of success is not ONLY hardwork but right education to all citizens of the nation.  

These comparisons during evening discussion among friends lead to pessimistic outputs though as citizens of this lovely land we should look at brighter side of the stories too. This story made my day;

https://www.techinasia.com/markhor-pakistani-startup-accepted-combinator/

In June 2012 Waqas Ali and Sidra Qasim from Lahore founded Markhor and today its leading top brand. https://themarkhor.com/ has craftsmanship and supreme collection of elegant shoes. Who gave them this approach !!! Its always ONE single moment that brings CHANGE.

Thinking on similar terms my Google search also followed the same till I reached an article by Bina Shah; it was covered in NY Times on 10 Aug. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/opinion/bina-shah-pakistan-the-next-software-hub.html?ref=topics&_r=0 Her article though focusses on positive growth of IT industry and uplifting resources but she has mentioned clearly that it misses Venture Capitalist’s role. It’s not far now – SOON education and penetration of education will make a difference. This difference will make our efforts prominent and more stories like Markhor will be printed. What is missing is good education for all !!!

Going back to where we started, its just a matter of stepping forward and helping someone. Our graduation degree oath commits us to make atleast one Pakistani literate. Pakistan produces about 445,000 university graduates and 10,000 computer science graduates per year. I don’t want to exaggerate its just like giving a pen to a person who asks for money. Just teach ONE person how to read and write – make him/her literate – rest all will be done with their fortune and virtues.

Education is the ONLY tool that can change our lives and our nation’s fortune. No leader can do this for us. I wrote this article to put it online on 14th August; but whenever I thought to publish I found it incomplete. Today 20th August, I felt if I will wait for completion; it will always remain an incomplete article. So, friends here I am with a vision; Hope to have more friends in the list who ONLY wish to contribute in increasing COUNT of Readers/Writers/Learners/Entrepreneurs in this pure piece of land.