Nobody remembers his real name anymore; everyone calls him Billa Rocket, whereas he takes pride in being called Billu Rocket. By profession, Billu has been a pyrotechnician; he is well aware of all the stages of fireworks, pyrotechnics, and fire-making. Billu Rocket is not the kind of person from whose words flowers bloom. Even when Billu Rocket speaks on issues like politics, religion, society, or economy, he does so using metaphors and examples of fireworks. Commenting on the recent political incident of taking Imran Khan to PIMS instead of Shifa Hospital, Billu Rocket said that this was a *shurli* (firecracker); first crackers will burst, and then finally the bomb. Do not consider a *shurli* to be a cracker, and do not regard a cracker as a bomb. Fireworks begin with a *shurli* and then gradually gain momentum. Billu Rocket now resides abroad, but the fire of patriotism has not been able to separate him from his homeland even for a moment. He sees fire everywhere. Sparkler, fountain (*anar*), sparklers, rocket, and bomb—all these are synonyms recorded in Billu Rocket’s dictionary. He also frequently uses phrases like trick bomb, smoke bomb, and destruction bomb. Just now, Billu said: “O people unfamiliar with fire and power! You do not even know the ABC of politics. You mistake a trick bomb for a real bomb and a *shurli* for a rocket. The recent fireworks were merely the beginning. In fireworks, warning shots are fired first so that a scene of ‘alert, beware, and ready’ is created, and then the fireworks gradually pick up speed.” Noon Khan and Peepal Khan, who were present in the gathering, said to Billu Rocket: “We did not understand anything. Do not talk in riddles; explain in simple words what is happening and what will happen?” On these questions, Billu Rocket became serious and quiet, but then, like a wise poet, he started humming these Punjabi verses: *”Jo hoya eh hona hi see / te honi rokiyan rukdi nahin / ek vaari jadon shuru ho jaye / gall phir ainvaye mukdi nain”* (Whatever happened was bound to happen, and destiny cannot be stopped once set in motion; once it starts, the matter does not end so easily). Noon Khan and Peepal Khan were left speechless at this poetry, while Insaf Khan praised him generously. On this, Mr. Billu Rocket boasted that Munir Niazi had recited these verses to him personally when he had asked him what would happen next.

Billa Rocket has passed the age of sixty. On one hand, there is the memory of the homeland, and on the other, there are inner deprivations. He feels as if the inner fire is burning him alive. He has become somewhat paranoid, annoyed, bitter, and pessimistic. He himself says that just as children rub crackers against walls on Shab-e-Barat to make them pop and crackle, he too keeps cackling like a brooding hen all the time. When the heart aches, what else can one do? Ever since Billa Rocket went abroad, he has become very wise. Many times he feels that he is even wiser than his father. He has a solution for every problem of his country. Although Billa Rocket lives abroad and has no intention of returning to his homeland, nor will his wife and children ever agree to it, Billu wishes to get a chance like Moeen Qureshi, Shaukat Aziz, or Shahid Javed Burki so that he can serve the country for a short period like them, and when the government ends, he will return across the seven seas to his wife and children. Billu Rocket believes that Moeen Qureshi, as the Senior Vice President of the World Bank, understood the global financial system; Shaukat Aziz, being in Citibank, was familiar with the process of capital transfer from one country to another; and Shahid Javed Burki, due to his experience, knew financial discipline. Billu Rocket, like them, is an international expert in fireworks affairs. Billu Rocket believes that if he is made a minister or prime minister, he will earn the country an international standing in the art of fireworks. People from all over the world will come to watch the fireworks, millions of tourists will spend millions of dollars, and then we can earn so much foreign exchange by selling sparklers, fountains, rockets, and bombs that everyone’s poverty will be wiped away.

Billu Rocket now considers himself a technocrat and says that what Shaukat Aziz could not do, he will change the destiny of the country through the technique of fireworks. Billu Rocket has so much mastery and confidence in his field that in his view, it is not the era of artificial intelligence coming, but the era of fireworks. Billu Rocket says that drones, rockets, and missiles are all inventions of pyrotechnicians; they had been using this technology in fireworks for decades, and the rest of the world learned this art from pyrotechnicians. Whenever political turmoil starts in his country, Billu Rocket’s blood circulation speeds up, his restless cackling increases, and a stir begins inside him. The thought comes to him again and again that when he possesses a tested formula to change destiny, then why don’t the people of the homeland and the powers-that-be remember this patriotic technocrat living abroad?

A very sincere friend of Billu Rocket advised him that a person with names like Billu or Billa cannot be made a minister. First, Billu got defensive and said that if Modi can become prime minister, why not Billa? If Chhotu Ram can make a name for himself, why not Billa Rocket? When two or three more sincere friends gave the same advice, Billu changed his name according to Western standards and made it **Bill Rackat** (formerly Billu Rocket). Now all of Billu’s friends are confident that Bill will definitely get a ministry in the technocratic government, and then the country will progress by leaps and bounds in the fireworks industry.

Bill Rackat (formerly Billu Rocket) has recently given a detailed statement about his future intentions. He said that if given the opportunity, he would lay a network of fireworks across the country. In every small and big place, fireworks experts will arrange fireworks every night. Fireworks will be given the status of an industry, the government will provide cheap loans to pyrotechnicians, a Fireworks Officer will be appointed in every tehsil and district, and the promotion of the art of fireworks in smaller administrative units will boost exports nationwide, making the country the global supplier of fireworks material. Fireworks alone are the future of the country; the destination will be determined through this path; this is the very spring from which water will eventually gush out…!!