THIS is with reference to the letter ‘Utter loss of hope’ (March 15). The writer seemed to have lost all hope in her life because her electric stove was of no use owing to lack of natural gas and electricity outages. More than that, her senses were rattled by the constant barking of street dogs. She concluded that “helpless and hapless civilians have nothing but frustration as their fate”.

Such a feely surely indicated signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or something like that, for barking of dogs is something natural as dogs can only bark and not bray or roar.

I sympathise with the writer, but would like to tell her that military men face much greater challenges and, instead of losing hope, they become the hope for civilians so that the latter may sleep without being disturbed by the barking of dogs.

Become a dog-lover and you will not be disturbed by their barking, and make necessary arrangements for facing the challenges, I suggest. People, after all, lived happily even when there was no gas and electric oven around. Happiness, trust me, is just a state of mind. Period.

Air-Cdre (retd) Khayyam Durrani
Karachi

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2024