Hai koi hum jaisa!

Published in Element Prime December issue

http://issuu.com/elementprime/docs/element_prime_-_december_2011/13

Hai koi hum jaisa!

By Noor-ul-Ain Hanif

“Pak Sar Zameen Shad Bad…” by reading these verses I am sure, a nostalgic puff has blow your hair and you’ve imagined your self standing in center of school ground attending the school assembly, wearing proper uniform, hair are combed well and laces are fasten tightly but here I want to draw your attention towards one of the most important events in the 64 years history of Pakistan that our country has registered a new record of most people singing Pakistan's National Anthem on 14 August 2011. 

The new world record is the most precious gift, gifted to Pakistan on its 65th birthday by the patriotic youth. The idea of breaking record was put forward by the two youngsters Abid Beli and Waqas Pai under the banner of “I own Karachi”. According to the post of Abid on the website of I own Karachi. May 30, 2011, “We contacted Guinness world record team that we are planning to break above mention record.  We didn’t confirm them a Date & Time. So once we receive positive response from those people who are willing to join hand with us to break this record than we will announce the Date & Time. Till now we agreed on 14th august 2011”(http://www.iownpakistan.com/2011/05/30/world-record-for-most-people-singing-pakistans-national-anthem/)

However, the vigorous youngsters spread their message through the hub websites of youngsters, the famous social networking websites Facebook and Twitter, a large number of people came to know about the event through the websites and join their voices with others in order to break the world record. The gathering was voluntarily organized by the youngsters without any sponsorship or support from the public or private sector.

The event was held in Karachi, late night at Defence Stadium where 5,857 Karachiites gathered, when the clock struck 12:00 am, the zealous crowd chanted the national anthem to break the previous record of 5,248 people, achieved by students, staff, faculty and alumni of MSU-IIT (Philippines) who sang ‘Lupang Hinirang’ their National Anthem, at the MSU-IIT gymnasium, in Iligan, Philippines, on 1 September 2009.

Before Philippines, this record was under Indian custody as 104,637 people sang ‘Vande Mataram’ on January 12, 2010 which is not exactly their anthem but a National song. Therefore, a youth representative Abid Beli contacted the organizers of the Guinness records, notifying them the record of singing national anthem by a large number of people in India should be removed as they have not sung their National anthem that is “Jana Gana Mana”

Along with the devoted crowd, renowned politician Marvi Memon, Captain Wasi, who was freed along with his ship crew after months by the Somali pirates, was present on the occasion with his daughter Laila Wasi.  The honorable celebrities also addressed the crowd.

Hindrances are always present on the smooth path of success so as in the way of achieving record.  Despite of huge people marked attending on Facebook, a quarter of them made it to come to the event due the sudden rain so it took a flood of texts, tweets and Facebook messages at the last minute to attract more people. Hence, the jubilant, vigorous and zealous crowd successfully breaks the record on 14th August 2011.