Sunday 28 December 2008

Ever Wander?


As the Car stopped at a signal, I gazed at people, waiting for the green light to flicker and to continue their journey. My mind started wandering in a valley of thoughts. Where are they coming from and where are they going?

It is perplexing how man has homogenized in this world.
A middle-aged man tiredly waited on a motorbike with bread hanging in a plastic bag on the handle of his bike perhaps he was going home after a frenetic day. Behind him was a bus packed with jadedly standing people returning from work, students and generally people traveling, a family was in a jovial mood in their air-conditioned car. Some beggars prattling in a group. Traffic was rushing on the next road. People were standing at the bus stop lost in their lives. The market was glittery with lights and busy as usual.

I marveled how man has envisaged his existence. How he learned to live here, found activities to do, to keep him busy, learned tricks to showoff, yet this assumingly free creature is bond to do only what he is allowed to!

After centuries of existence and using wisdom that was nurtured by hundreds of generations, and by achieving heights of advancements, he is where he started. Man is helpless in changing key things that comes with the package!

He has to eat when he is hungry, he has to sleep when he is tired, he must open his eyes to see, he ought to breathe to survive. He cannot break the chain! Coming here was not his choice, nor would leaving this world be.

He still plays with things granted to him; he cannot make something new without using material already present. Yet strangely, he stands swollen with pride of his intelligence. Just like a child who is given toy blocks to play with. Sometimes he makes house out of it, some times a bridge, and flamboyantly displays his creations.

With given resources he cannot look beyond the blue sky that covers his world. With inventions, there is always an endless universe to discover. There is no end or the limits get as far from him as close he tries to get to them!

Living in an illusion, he has convinced himself to be in a reality.
It is strange how man owns something that previously belonged to people before him. He dwells on the land where people before him lived and died just like him! Thing he owns today will belong to someone else tomorrow yet he is busy in planning for future exhausting himself in the process just like his ancestors.

Nothing is his, not even he himself, yet all belongs to him. He has a house, a family whole world for him, yet he is a stranger to himself. He sees some one else inside him when he looks in his own eyes in a reflection. He wants to live forever and ever yet an infinite life scares him.
It is mystifying that he breathes in the air that the first man inhaled! He lives under the same sky; sun that shines on him today has scattered its radiance in the worlds of the past too and have seen the nations rise and fall. Dazzling stars that shine tonight have glistened the nights for societies before him.

He feeds on what grows from earth, and drinks water that skies sprinkle. He wears wool that sheep produce, and cottons that a flower offers. His most treasured possessions are stones that mountains veil, just like a child who while digging the earth finds an interesting looking twig or a pretty seashell along the seaside and keeps it in a secret place and guards it with his life.

He feeds on what grows from earth, and drinks water that skies sprinkle. He lives in world already garlanded for him, with exactly all he needs and nothing more or less.

What is he doing then: Perhaps just playing with the toys, frittering his time?

Thursday 11 December 2008

Mysterious Coincidents

During a stroll in Karachi University today, I came across these beautiful dancing trees. I am sure I have seen these before...spellbound with the mysteries of coincidents...

Saturday 6 December 2008

untitled.

Its raining outside.. dont know why I am captivated by these lines...
کتنا پانی یے جو بےوقت برس جاتا ہے
اور کہیں قفلا پیاسوں کاترس جاتا ہے
~Zahra

Monday 1 December 2008

Reactions | We Care

Writing for ireport became quite adventurous when I posted my first report without expecting the reaction.

With in few minutes of posting, Christina Zdanowicz from CNN emailed and latter called to ask few questions about the post “We Care”. The call ended up quite long. She wanted to know why I wrote this report and how was Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks.

I told her that I read Indian reactions on irport.com and it hurts to see such abhorrence for Muslims and especially Pakistanis in their hearts. I just wanted to portray what whole of Pakistan is feeling about it.

We were in shock and disturbed even terrified that Karachi could be attacked like that too. In short the discussion got quit lengthy. Christina also said that “we care” was the only response they got from Pakistan!

She asked for permissions for using my report on CNN. Within an hour CNN.com published my ireport. It was an exciting experience for me to see for my first and totally unplanned report to be the highest rated, most viewed, most shared and with highest number of comments for two days!

The comments how ever, were mostly from Indians. Every few were the encouraging one. It was dispiriting to see two or three Pakistanis participating in the discussion. There was no one to respond to the all harsh comments that we were getting from Indians.

During this eye opening experience, a Canadian also posted a reply. He was 40 and his grandparents were British. He said that he is friends with both Pakistanis and Indians and have nothing against both. He even said that he read about British history and was too angry at his ancestors that why would they steel the jewels from the sub continent. And he actually apologized for the acts of his ancestors!

I will always remember the innocence and originality with which he wrote that. And I guess that’s what we need to do!

Let’s move on.

We Care!


This is a voice from Pakistan, where we are in pain for the unnecessary loss of precious lives of Indians in recent Mumbai attacks.
Everyone here is shocked. We have been watching news and praying for the quick end of terror wave in India constantly as even our families and friends live there. It's been like this since ever. We have cultural inheritance and a sincere love for each other.
But it hurts to see Pakistan being blamed without any evidence and being threatened by Indian press, government and the army. It's another debate that why the Indian government and the intelligence agencies failed to track this plot down and how did these terrorist managed to get the ammo.
We as Pakistanis have suffered the most even before the war against terror started. Horrific memories of 1995 terror attacks are still fresh in our minds and they continued after that with different intensities. Currently we are fighting against militant groups within our country. Our bazaars, public places, government buildings, citizens in general are being targeted since many years now.
These terrorists are neither Pakistani nor Muslims; in fact they even drift away from the category of humans. No nation suffered from terror attacks like we have.
We stand with India in this time of crisis and it would be heartening if they would too.