What is Nation

 Written by: Muhammad Anwar Andar

Emal and Naima go to the castle. Lalo Mama arrives and after greeting, he complements naima’s new shirt.

Naima says that one of her friends has borrowed her shirt for a wedding ceremony but the shirt burned from her and she bought her a new one.

Lalo Mama says that when the blacksmith’s house caught fire, his life got better.”

Emal wants to explain his saying.

Lalo Mama says that this proverb has a story. Naima and Emal want him to tell them the story of the proverb.

Lalo Mama takes them inside the castle and there, in the corridor of the castle, he opens a window for their information.

Window:

In the window, Anisa asks her grandmother to tell her the story of the proverb, “When the blacksmith’s house caught fire, his life got better.”

The grandmother explains to Anisa, “Once a blacksmith was living in village and he has a blacksmith shop near his house.

One night the blacksmith and his family were invited to his relative’s house.

The blacksmith forgot to extinguish the charcoal in his shop. Later at the night, a wind flew and opened the door of the shop. A sparkle of the charcoal fire burned the blacksmith’s carpet and then the fire reached to his house and burned it all.

A neighbor of the blacksmith gave him a room in his house. The blacksmith was regularly collecting charcoals  from his burnt house and was using them in his daily business in his shop.

One day, an old man took some sickles for sharpening to the blacksmith’s shop. The old asked the blacksmith  about his life after burning his shop and house.

The blacksmith replied that his business is better than before and added that he decided to rebuild his house soon.

The old man asked the reason for the betterment of his business.

 The blacksmith replied that before he was spending more money for purchasing charcoal from the market but after burning his shop and house, he doesn’t have to spend money for buying charcoal because he uses charcoal of his burnt house and shop.

The old says, “When the blacksmith’s house caught fire, his life got better.”

Lalo Mama closes the window.

Lalo Mama turns on his mobile phone and says that his nephew has asked him how to fill the blank space for nation in the chart of electronic identity card.

Zarmena says that she always hears from radio and television the name of nation but she doesn’t about nation.

Lalo Mama takes them to Hakim Baba, who is reading book in the castle’s library.

Lalo Mama asks Hakim about the nation.

Hakim Baba says, “A nation is a group of people who share the same culture, history, language or ethnicity. It could also be described as people living in the same country and government. The word nation comes from a Latin language word meaning birth or place of birth and who live in Afghanistan are called Afghan and Afghan is our nation.