Dating amongst the dead!

The graveyard is the final resting place of the intellectual stalwarts who helped put the country on the world map. As it is, the place is hardly kept in shape. Broken fences, wild grass and bottles littered across the paths are visible. But to have young kids jumping over the graveyard fences to fetch their tennis ball, or seeing groups of people in fun next to the mourning loved ones, takes a strong stomach. The mood seems to be that once you finish the ziarat, you should be up for a packet of jhalmuri or fuchka. Can we get any more insensitive?

Perhaps insensitivity is a misnomer. It is more of a sense of disrespect. And I can't even begin to wonder how the young cupids frame their sentences ' hi love, weather is nice and cool, want to meet me besides grave 461, you know Mr. X, born 1944, died 1999. Yeah, he was a freedom fighter or a teacher of something. Can't miss it, its got a lovely patch of flower beds next to it....'And to cap it all, I remember I once had to climb over the seven feet metal gate to enter the place because at noon the guard had thought it fit to shut the place. What happened to the crowds who were inside already munching amra? Was there a special show on invitees only?

It's probably useless to make an 'appeal to the authorities' as I am sure they have enough on their hands. But if someone in some sort of charge of the graveyard is reading this, please remember that you have been entrusted to look after the people who had devoted their lives to this country. And, besides, if it were you looking down from the heavens above, you also probably would not like to see people turning their backs on you when you have given them your heart and soul.