“Around Us” depicts those events that are currently taking place in Pakistan and how it has weakened our moral fabric, the intangible conscience and all that makes us what we are not”.
Engraved in our memory, the old questions
Of freedom and justice, as we watch in silence
Engraved in our memory, the unfolding events
The stories of horror in darkness,
The blunders of our masters, out in the open
In silence- our hands and minds
Engraved in our minds, the old lessons
Of purpose, morals and of courage
As we hear, as we devour, the very fabric
Consumption of all what we once had
Now lay there, only the ruins and questions
In the hazel of dusk, the stories of long march
Out in the open, the corridors of justice- the body
A girl and her existence, kidnapped and raped
To pay the price, the sickness that exists
In minds and in hearts, of flesh and blood
As protectors pay homage to the wolves
The cartels of crime in distance and in open
As we hear the shots, as we see them fall,
The daughters of our land, through crimes
The old trade of flesh and blood and its protection
As the suffering continues, in sorrows and pain
The old hands of mutiny upon us, to shackle
“You will not survive” as we constantly hear
The old sermons through faces of our times
Engulfed in greed and hunger, the story
As the fortune plays their tune, to the mocking crowd
Hear we noises, hear we stories, hear we sermons,
The actions to be taken, the silence must draw
The evils that are there, the darkness that prevails
Through the silken days of our existence,
Comes hither, the brutal reality -naked
The old cartels of crimes, out in the open
As our daughters are sold, as our children pay the price
Of innocence and poverty, as we watch them in silence
The voices inside us, remain inside us, never we shout
The same stories in different formations, around us
Around us, the victims, around us the conscience,
As the hope begins to crackle in its fury
In words and in actions, in participation and presence
As the time stretches itself to eternity
The crimes will never be forgiven small and large
Too much at stake as we devour ourselves
In our greed and in our fame, the forgetful woes
I will stand up, I will stand up, hear me out
Those million souls, asleep as history rewinds
Gather those wolves, gather those evils
Strike them, with justice and strike it hard
The lessons to be learnt, the message to be given
Around us, the wrongs, in its mischief
As the old green now go on sale and in auctions
The symbols of our existence, the symbols of hope
The questions of who will stand up and the answers
Around us, in us, there lies the hope, their lies the quest
Around us, the faces, of victims and hope,
Around us, the magnificent story of our times
There stands a man, in the distance, the history
Around us, the beautiful faces of our generation
Around us, the voices of wisdom and of age
Around us, the passion and principles of conscience
Around us, the existence in flowers and of beauty
Around us, there stands a man, in the distance,
The history, in its words, in its actions,
Around us, Islam and its Prophet, and the civilization
Around us, Jinnah and Iqbal, in words and in peace
Around us, the light from billion years of travel,
Around us, the Universe, it’s Maker, the Force, the Nature
Around us, you and me and million faces,
Around us, the immortal question, of our failures
Hear we not, around us, the voices of reason and wisdom
Around us, the man, in the distance, the history!
Kashkin
Pak Tea House 