Shaghal-ghati – game lines

When we were kids, there was a certain game we used to play. I don't know if other kids in other villages and cities played it or if they had the same name for this game as we had but in Charsadda we called it Shaghal-ghati. Basically you would have two opposite teams, each would draw lines in secret places around the neighborhood. Each team would try to find where those lines were drawn by the opponents and if they succeeded in finding those lines, they would win the game. In the next contest, they would repeat the same while skillfully trying to ignore the lines from the previous contest. The major skills required for this game was to find the new lines drawn and not to confuse them with the lines drawn from the previous contest, which was played either an hour ago or yesterday. I feel like we are in that same game today except in the real life squid game type version of it. If we make a mistake in not finding the lines drawn or if we act according to the lines drawn a few years ago, then we risk losing the game. And this time around the game is our life, liberty and property. It appears as if this was a long time ago but in reality it was only 3 years ago when the lines that appear faded today were fresh. India was Pakistan's enemy and those lines had clearly marked that as such. Today, the lines are redrawn and I am not too sure if I can be so critical of India or Israel for that matter. The faded lines of today also had Afghanistan and Taliban as allies of Pakistan. But today, new vivid lines have been redrawn over those and Afghanistan has suddenly become an enemy. This Taliban regime was the one that Pakistan spent decades nurturing, spending money, blood and political capital. When the time came to reap the fruit, suddenly those lines belong to a previous contest and Pakistan is no longer seeing Afghanistan and the Taliban as friends. More interestingly, while Maryam was busy in some European country working on her jawline and Nawaz on his hairline, Pakistan was drawing its own new lines. And only those journalists who were skilled enough to tell the new lines from the previous ones were able to make it in the game. In the old lines, the ones from the previous contest, criticising the most popular prisoner in Pakistan was equated with the critique of the hidden hands. Both enjoyed equal respect and love from the people. After the redrawn lines, the two have become mutually exclusive. Those critics from the previous lines are only critical of the prisoner today, which defogs one thing very well –they had always been pro-America. Whoever sided with the prisoner faced the wrath of the American critique. The thieves of yesterday have somehow become Pakistan's new rulers, who would decide on the fate of 250 million people and who would represent them abroad. And somehow, we have been able to put up with it. That, my friends, is called the magic of lines. I always loved that game because while it appeared lame, it was very strategic and involved intuition. Never knew one day the little game from Charsadda would be played by the entire nation without even realising it. Everyone in the nation is in the squid game styled version of Shaghal-ghati. If you don't adjust to the evolving lines or if you are on the wrong side of the redrawn line, you are on your own against a conglomerate whose sadistic powers are unquestionable. I remember the trick to winning that game. When the opponents would go draw the lines, the strategy to find the lines was to get inside the head of the opponent and try to think like him and ask 'where would I draw the secret lines?' I hope and pray that Pakistan will come out stronger and healthier once these mind games end.

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