Rich and famous?

A friend recently emailed me a clipping from a renowned Pakistani newspaper ‘DAWN’, titled “Want to be rich and famous?”. It went on to describe the deaths of rich and famous people, and describe how miserable their lives were. There’s an Urdu saying about people who talk about this kind of stuff: “Angoor Khattay Hein”. The saying comes from a story about a fox, who tried to jump and catch herself some grapes from the vines. When she was unable to do so, she declared that “The grapes weren’t sweet anyway, but were sour, and she was better off not eating them.” (Or “Angoor Khattay Hein”).

I am writing this article as a rebuttal to that newspaper article. Yes, the rich and famous sometimes have unfortunate ends, but the poor exceed them not only in misery, but in sheer numbers. I could have compared the unfortunate rich with the fortunate, but that didn’t seem human. Instead, I chose to compare with the unfortunate poor.

All these stories are true, from inside pages of newspapers dating back to 1998. I bet no one remembers these stories.

Subject: Codename Madison
Location: Unknown
Assets: Unknown
Heirs: None
Story: A lady (considered Codename Madison for this article), lived somewhere, sometime. Had four children, husband divorced after birth of 4th child. Tried to feed all, accomplished none: children died in infancy. Caught tuberculosis working at a local village clinic as a cleaning lady. Body found in a 1000cm-diameter pipe by the roadside, 1999.

Subject: Codename Dune
Location: UAE
Assets: Unknown
Heirs: None
Story: Name not disclosed. Paid a heavy sum (produced on loan) for job relocation in the UAE as a handyman because he wanted to improve the hand-to-mouth living situation of his family in Pakistan – a wife and six kids. Unable to payback the loan within the agreed time - shelter in the village confiscated by the local ‘zamindar’. Wife acquired by the zamindar, the children slaughtered.
Currently works in the UAE, making a hand-to-mouth living.

Subject: Codename Altocumulus
Location: Unknown
Assets: Probably none
Heirs: Five
Story: News reporter for a local newspaper, barely able to make a living and feed his family. Killed in a ‘police encounter’. A small obituary printed on page 4 of the newspaper he worked for, and the case was closed. The family of his wife declined to take her in, on the basis of their belief that a married woman dies with her husband. Children currently at an Edhi Home, location of woman unknown.

Subject: Codenames Black, and Portrait
Location: Somewhere in Pakistan
Assets: None
Heirs: Unknown
Story: A couple raised their four children near perfection – fed them well, educated them better, wed them. After a few years, they wanted their part of the ‘empire’. The property was divided, and somehow the couple was left with nothing. The lady died of trauma; the man is currently at a mental correctional facility in Pakistan.

I could go on, but not much is know about the life and death of the poor…