It was quite late in the afternoon - a time when many people indulge in a siesta after a long and tiring day. This particular household was no different. Everyone there was asleep as well with the exception of Sana Haq, the youngest member of the household. It was not surprising then, that when the phone rang, she went to pick it up.
'Hello?'
'Look, this is an emergency,' said an unfamiliar voice, slightly hysterical. 'Your father's administrator has been taken seriously ill. He is having problems in breathing. You must send your father right away to his clinic.'
Sana felt quite panicky. 'But my father is asleep,' she said. 'And if this really is an emergency, just take him to the hospital.'
The person on the other end hung up. Not quite sure what to do, Sana ran to her father's room and woke him up. Her father was also quite surprised. He picked up the phone and called his administrator on his cell phone. The administrator apparently was asleep and had no idea about what was going on. After a hurried exchange of words which left both Sana and her father in no doubt that he was really all right, the phone was hung up.
Now it was left to Sana to explain who had made the call and what exactly had happened. The entire family was quite baffled at what they thought was a very bizarre incident.
'It wasn't until very late at night, that we realized that it was 1st April that day, and someone had played a prank on us. It was quite disgusting. Imagine what might have happened had dad rushed to his hospital,' said Sana, narrating the incident that had occurred a couple of years ago.
One can easily surmise that this isn't the problem of just one family or one individual alone. Come the last week of March and it is highly likely that quite a few people will become their most vigilant selves, authenticating even the most trivial information they receive to ensure that they are not the victims of what is universally known as April Fool's Day.
April Fool - Quite Ancient!
It is quite surprising to note that unlike the events of Valentine's Day or Mother's Day, which have become rampant mainly because of all the mass media hype they generate, the phenomenon of April Fool has been around for a longer time in this country.
'I remember when I was in sixth grade, girls of my class used to discuss ideas for pranks to play on the 1st of April,' reminisced Maria Hussain. Maria is now in her fourth year of medical school. Judging by this, one can imagine that this idea has been around for, at least, the past decade.
Is Harmless Fun Really Harmless?
Even though 1st April pranks have been around for a long time, this doesn't essentially mean that people have gotten any more mature when it comes to playing pranks. The phrase 'harmless fun' is lost on most people as they indulge in bizarre and sometimes, quite dangerous tricks and jokes. Calling up people to give them unnerving news about their relatives, telling a classmate she has flunked a quiz or making people panic by telling them that their house has been a victim of arson are only some of these 'jokes' that in reality are not even slightly funny.
Over the years, another change that has taken place in the way 1st April is celebrated is that people have apparently decided that the whole month of March should be dedicated to it. Those who have loads of time at their disposal, not to mention a whole lot of their parents' hard-earned money, send out hoax SMSes to everyone in their list of contacts. These hoax news items are then made the subject of feverish discussion right up to 1st April, which is when the 'joke aspect' is revealed.
Confused? Take the following example. Your friend sends you an SMS that she is getting married in 30 days and that she needs your help for the wedding preparations. You sit down with her to make the guest list and decide the menu. At the end of the month, the month that incidentally happens to be March, you find out that it was a joke. Would you regard this as funny or would you term this as downright cruel and insensitive? It's not that hard a guess.
No Time for It!
But quite surprisingly, there are many young people who have now simply chosen to dismiss this day as nothing more than a waste of time. According to these people, they have other better things to do and they only indulge in humour in their own time and not because of any specific day. And, it's heartening to note this sudden change of trend, as revealed by some students.
'April Fool? What are you talking about?' exclaimed Nadia Fayyaz, student of a prestigious business institute. 'We simply don't have time to even think about it. We have our hourlies on 1st April and that's all that the first of April means to us these days.'
The views of Andaleeb Salim, an engineering student, are also somewhat similar. 'This is our third year. We have to take practical courses and form our project groups. I, along with my entire class, am so caught up in these academic activities that we can't even think of any pranks or jokes to play on anyone else.'
At the end of the day then, it does seem that where there are a group of people who will not even consider the nature of their pranks before playing them on others, there are loads of other young people who have decided that it is a sheer waste of time.
What matters is the way you actually think about April Fool's Day. Once you decide that on 1st of April, everything is legal, every joke will seem perfectly harmless, even though it may be dangerous to the nth degree. Of course, no one is saying that you should give up humour altogether. But the fact of life is that humour should not be at the cost of anyone else. And if it is, then maybe it's time to rethink whether all of Us really want this kind of humour to be part of our lives.
Is there a History?
It is quite interesting to note that April Fool's Day has NO history at all. Apparently, no one is ready to trust any historical account after it transpired that one of those accounts themselves was an April Fool's joke.
That was the time when there was no concept of mass media and news traveled slowly. So until this change of calendar became widely known, some people continued to celebrate the New Year on 1st April. Those who did not agree with the new calendar also continued with the old one. These people were labelled as fools by those who followed the new calendar. Over time, this evolved to 1st April being a day when people play practical jokes on others.
Beware of an Urban Legend
1st April has been a subject of many hoax emails. The bad news is that very few people realise that they're not authentic in the first place. One such email regarding the origins of 1st April, which has been widely forwarded, has now been widely refuted as well. The summary of that email is as follows:
The Christian forces wanted to capture Spain, but were unable to do so. To emerge victorious over the strong Muslim rule, they worked hard to indulge them in various vices like alcohol and cigarettes. Finally, when the morals of Muslims had degenerated, they attacked them and captured Spain, ending the Muslim rule. The last city that they occupied was Grenada and that was on the 1st of April. So from that day onwards, they celebrate the day as April Fool's Day - to symbolise that they made a fool out of Muslims to drive them out of Spain.
This story has been aptly termed as an urban legend and refuted by many on the following grounds:
a) As mentioned before, it was after 1582 or 1564 that the concept of April Fool came about. On the other hand, a historical fact is that that Muslim rule in Spain officially ended on 12th January 1492. There is a huge difference in dates, as you can see.
b) Smoking wasn't around at the time when Muslims ruled Spain. In fact, the first cultivation of tobacco by Spain was in 1550, again way after 1492 which was when Grenada fell.
c) There are many authentic and diverse explanations for the downfall of Muslims in Spain. These can be found in many books and articles, and the sources one can trust over a forwarded email.
Of course, the above three points were just the tip of the iceberg of a matter that has been discussed quite at length. Many different Muslim history buffs have collected facts and figures to convince other Internet and email users not to forward this email. Rather they should let the authentic facts be known to whoever forwarded this email in the first place. You can read more about this urban legend at http://www.themodernreligion.com/misc/hoax/april-fool.html
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