musaafir-e dasht

So, today was my last day at work. I really cannot sum up my feelings in words but yes, I stepped out of a phase of my life and stepping into another one. Every one greeted me in an extremely warm manner. I was presented with two books by the Ed and I am supposed to attend a farewell lunch after two days :$ Well, honestly all of this was a bit unexpected. I do not have any regrets. Not at all. After all I firmly believe that the course taken by the events is surely going to benefit me. Everything happens for the best for behind everything that happens there's Someone else's hand and Will that cannot lead to anything unfavourable. In short, I am optimistic. After a very long time, today I can truly feel this sense of optimism. Isn't it strange that when we are supposed to encourage someone by being optimistic, all we manage to come up with is pessimism. And when we actually BECOME optimistic... they are no longer there! But once agian, how can the Supreme Will lead us towrad...

Today I am writing something for my blog after such a long time :( I somehow do not feel like writing anymore but then how can I give up on words? :) InshaAllah i will begin writing soon. Anyway, I just wanted to say that FINALLY today we had a peaceful protest rally in Karachi! Arranged by Tahfuzze a Khatam e nabbuwwat , some political leaders also participated but over all it was a peaceful affair, Alhamdolillah . I just wanted to record this thing in my blog!

I had to go to work today after a two-day break. There wasn’t much traffic on roads and the city seemed quite peaceful. See, I am not against staging protests but those protests MUST be peaceful. Resorting to violence is not an answer to any solution. According to a renowned scholar Mufti Rafi Usmani, killing an innocent person or harming his/her property is NOT AT ALL allowed in Islam. And I think we all are aware of it, aren’t we? For a heinous act committed by others, why punish our own people. It’s a pity that here in Pakistan, we still haven’t realised that violence won’t beget anything. Rather it’s only making us weaker. What we truly NEED to do at this hour is boycott all Danish and I would say Western products. We won’t die if don’t use them. But it would definitely touch a nerve in the West. In fact, it can render our ‘colonial masters’ helpless… We just need to think! It’s a Capitalistic world people. Capital is the determinant of Freedom. Capital is the determinant of Power....

Today in one of the discussion sessions I cam across a very strange comment. That comment has been in my mind since then. I will write down a small conversation that finally gave rise to that comment. A: Don't we see that all natural processes take place on time? Has sun ever said that today I cannot rise because I do not feel like or I am tired of monotony? No, it never has. But, yes once it did not rise on time. Yes, there is one incident in history when sun did not rise on its prescribed timings. Can anybody tell me that? B: The day Hazrat Bilal Habshi Radi Allah u 'Anhu did not give azaan. Allah SWT did not make the sun rise until Hazrat Bilal Radi Allhu 'Anhu called for fajar prayers. I was familiar with the incident. But the comment that followed was something that I was not familiar with. Something that I knew, but I knew not. 'A' said: "Taqwa kaainaat ko musakhhar karne ki quwwat rakhat hai"

Ah, yesterday went to the sea-view after such a long time. And yesterday only, we had a presentation on the Old man and the Sea in the book club meeting. It was fun being a part of the discussion. "I have learnt how not to be unethusiastic" :) They say sea is calm. Is it really? The roaring waves always seem to be trying to say something which they cannot express. What do they know of words! They come in and recede. They come in again and recede again... and yet they do not get tired. Perhaps, because they are not human! But why do they look sad? No, why do they SOUND sad? Is it that they are tired of monotony and we just cannot comprehend the message they want to pass on to us. A message that contains a long story of a never-ending journey. A message that encomapasses the entire struggle that keeps them alive... Sea, what a creation of our Lord! Somehow, whenever I think of Sea, the Urdu word zarf comes to my mind. And the verse as it goes: Shor e dariya se keh raha hai sa...

I just came across an article regarding Pakistan's re-entry into the commonwealth. Written by Sarmad Bashir, the column titled, A pariah in the Commonwealth appeared in The Nation on November 30, 2005. Following are some of the excerpts: "One must be reading too much into General Musharraf's observation that people in Pakistan have the tendency of overstepping each other's domain: a doctor wants to do an engineer's job and the vice versa. At best this could be a general rule for 150 million ordinary folks to follow. But then there is always an exception to the rule. And our uniformed saviours are exception to all rules. For the President it is not a matter of opinion but a matter of fact that the so-called experts picking holes in the ongoing relief operation are ignoramuses insisting on knowing everything. It hurts him when he tunes in to his TV set and listens to these critics. Perhaps they all lack the ability to understand that Generals Zubair and Farooq are ...

Technically, I have messed up my template... I hope i get it fixed soon with the help of none other than SE...

My frustrated pen Bears Some frail words That helplessly stare At the nib of my pen-- Distorted Broken Wounded It bleeds! -N.A.

'When I was just as far as I could walk From here today, There was an hour All still When leaning with my head again a flower I heard you talk. Don't say I didn't, for I heard you say-- You spoke from that flower on the window sill- Do you remember what it was you said?' 'First tell me what it was you thought you heard.' 'Having found the flower and driven a bee away, I leaned on my head And holding by the stalk, I listened and I thought I caught the word-- What was it? Did you call me by my name? Or did you say-- Someone said "Come" -- I heard it as I bowed.' 'I may have thought as much, but not aloud.' "Well, so I came.' - Robert Frost

Here is what I would want to be a part of my blog as well: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, January 28, 2006 Hum k iss ehed mein jeene ka gumaan rakhte hain... Ugly Realities that we either don't want to know or we are not allowed to know... 1. The donors conference was actually a LOANERS conference! ( the World is loaning money to Pakistan to counter the situation in the earthquake stricken areas! 2.America - our ally?! think again!!! 3.More than 5,000 NATO and U.S military forces are in Pakistan in earthquake region which is nearest to the Nuclear Assets of Pakistan...( wonder what they are doing there?! and wonder why aren't we informed?!) 4. Why Americans are after Iran for their nuclear technology when they are signing pacts with India to help them build nuclear weapons?! 5. When Iranian Prime minister has said that they are using nuclear technology to produce power are being convicted of making nuclear wepaons?! The former ...

3.00 p.m. and I left for office. Yeah, office on the third day of Eid. I was so bored that I made sure I did not skip office today. Standing an the bus-stop, I could behold the majestic Shahra-e-Faisal. There wasn't much to look, though. Traffic was minimal. All of a sudden the Met Bus came and I climbed on it. The ladies' compartment had only two females sitting in it. There was soooooooooo much space to sit and I simply smiled. The bus started to move as I was the only passenger to get on it from the N's bus stop. The roads were all empty. Ok, if not empty, at least they were near to being empty! The only thought that struck me was, 'it's Eid after all,' and I simply smiled. I was about to faint when I saw that the traffic in front of 'Regent Plaza' was not at all jammed. Rather it won't be an exaggeration to say that there was no traffic at all. (Uff, why the hell am I so obsessed with this word, traffic ?). Oh, something reminded me again that it...

Ok, today is Eid day. Gosh, this Eid was quite boring :( didn't have anything to do. Me and my sis watched TV all day long despite the fact that there wasn't anything to really 'watch'. We were actually trying to kill time and TV had to be the best option. My routine is so messed up nowadays that I feel like running away from everything! I mean why the hell, I cannot just bring a li'l order in my life? Is it that difficult? Or do I need time management classes? I just cannot figure out when to do what! Life seems to be screwed up and I hope it regains it normalcy...

Dear Blog, Today was just another usual day. I had to get over with Sophie's World and I really do not know why the hell was I being so lethargic to do away with those last pages :-( Anyway, since I had vowed to complete it today, so I did, Alhamdolillah. Gosh, the book was great but I think I will have to re-read it for umpteen time sin order to get all those philosophies into my head or perhaps I already remember them... but no, how could I remember the entire history of philosophy? Ummm, ok doesn't matter anyway, because I will be doing it with Sir IR! Right after getting through with the book, I rushed to office. Things were pretty same overe there. Same people. Same discussions. And same indolent pg maker of ours. huh. Life is another name for Monotony. Oh no, it isn't actually! Let me also mention about the new coffee-wala that we have discovered :) He is some guy near our office only and believe me, the coffee was soooooooooooooooo creamy and tasted so good that we ...

Huh! I just came back home because i couldn't even make it to shahra-e-Faisal... the same old reason... the PM was in town... just imagine! I mean, you get yourself ready for the office then you get on a rickshaw (making all those bad faces) and all of a sudden you are caught up in a traffic jam! Vazeer-e-azam guzar raahy hain, poora road bund hai... then you tell the rickshay-wala to drop you off at home and he asks you for THIRTY bucks! Then you argue endlessly with him that the amount is way too much as you did not even reach your destination. And finally he spares you ten bucks! Thank God. Then you enter your house pick up the phone and tell your boss that you can't come because the PM's in town. ufff kya banay ga hamara??

yaad ki rah guzer jis pay issi surat say muddatain beet gaee hain tumhain chaltay chaltay khatam ho jaye jo do chaar kadam or chalo moR parta hai jahan dasht-e-faramoshi ka jis say aagay na koi main hoon na koi tum ho saance thaamay hain nigahain ke na jaanay kis dum tum palat aao guzer jaao ya muR ker dekho ger che waqif hain nigahain ke ye sab dhoka hai gar kahin tum say hum aaghosh hui phir say nazar phoot niklay gi wahan aur koi rah-guzar phir issi tarah jahan ho ga muqabil paihem sayaa-e-zulf ka or junbish-e-bazoo ka safar doosri baat bhi jhooti hai ke dil janta hai yaan koi moR koi dasht koi ghaaT nahi jis kay perday main mera mah-e-rawaan Doob sakay tum say chalti rahay ye rah yoonhi achaa hai tum nay muR ker bhi na dekha to koi baat nahi