What if ? by KJ

I saw nothing but deception and promises broken
with only tears to support me

so I chained up my smoldering soul
with a promise of not letting it flee

The shackles held me down for so long
that all dreams from my eyes were gone

why is it now that I want to break free
what if you do the same with me?

A Confession

How amazingly one’s priorities change with time. I am not talking about decades or years, It can happen within a couple of months. I once proudly owned ‘heart of a patriot’ now it seems I’ve undergone a heart transplantation surgery. I just do not care!!

What has gone wrong? Why ‘Pakistan’ is suddenly not important to me. All I worry about is myself. I have changed, or should I say, I have matured. I am now like all of us.

The sad cum shocking part is that I am not even embarrassed at my blatant confession of lost patriotism. Clinging on to emotionally knitted rhetorical statements like ‘Qurbani se mili yeh azadi’ doesn’t make any sense now. What azadi and what qurbani. Are we’ azad ‘? And are we not still being ‘qurbanofied’? The only difference is that our forefathers knew why they were being crucified; we on the other hand silently give up our ghost wondering who is behind our killing and why?

It was my conscious effort when I detached myself, benumbed my senses and blinded my eyes from the media that does nothing more than reminding us of our despicable state, and the tattletales of barfing politicians who never get sick of word vomit day in and day out, worse, now swearing on the Holy Book.

I once refused to be a black & white sheep under a shepherd who uses his staff on the will of ‘the others’, who lazes while his sheep starve, who runs away when the hungry wolf attacks the sheep, who sleeps while his sheep wander off and become lost or caught in a thicket.

“But no longer do I desire to stand out of the flock
as long as I get my share of grass, shrubs and weeds to stock”!

Need of a Cleaner Lens

 

Long forgotten Aafia is yet again a center of discussion, this time because of a bitter comparison being drawn between her (hollywood fabricated) crime and the three dauntless killings in Lahore by an American. Many news anchors are boiling up the issue through anti-Americanism flame. Had Davis been an African or a Korean I doubt if the pandemonium created by our religious parties and the media was of the same intensity.

Shumaila (widow of one of the men shot by Davis) was convinced that her husband’s murderer would safely flee away under the banner of diplomatic immunity, she was made to believe that the Pakistani government is succumbing to US pressure and out of sheer disappointment she not only took away her life but also of her unborn baby’s. Who is responsible for Shumaila’s suicide ? The enslaved Pakistani Government, our shackling  judicial system, our blabbering media or the hate mongering religious parties.

The Americans are hovering upon the Vienna Convention and Raymond’s immunity. Some believe that he is being fraudulently shown as a US diplomat. Another view airing these days is of him having ties with the mercenary force, Blackwater or XE which explains the reason behind US delegations seeing the Pakistani establishment. (I would call it a “Zaid Hamid/Najam Seithi’s” perspective). I believe this matter should not be seen through a stereotypical  chauvinistic lens of hatred against US. But we have become so skeptically sensitive that we look at everything with suspicion. Quite sadly, an ordinary Pakistani’s patriotism is limited to mere rhetorics :“ Amereeca ki ghulami and India is behind this”.

What’s important is that our media should be responsible in handling talk shows and discussions, otherwise it can bring upon the same repercussions as of the blasphemy hype. It should be left upon the courts to decide. We do not afford more chaos in the country. Politicizing the issue and giving it different colors would not only create more qualms in the already polarized Pakistan but would also provoke a lot many dejected Shumailas  to take their lives.

Blasphemy Law: Repeal it?

I have been silently watching this war between the mullah’s and the liberals headed by Salman Taseer. It was hard to discern on whose side I was, both being off beam. We’ve heard enough from the philanthropists (who have suddenly woken up from a slumber finally realizing the cruelty that has been going on under the cover of blasphemy law from the time it was fathered by General Zia in Pakistan), and the Mullah’s (who have nothing else to do other than spurting hatred). I am sure that those among you who are influenced by Dr. Amir Liaqat’s sensational speeches would be irately likening me with somebody akin to Nadeem Paracha.

Blasphemy law is apparently there in Islam and many other religions. Any irreverence shown and practiced towards religious sensitivities must be punished. The law is not new. It has been there since the time of our Prophet (P.B.U.H) and is very much prevalent in rest of the world.

I know about a factory owner, who belonged to one of the most respectable, highly religious, modest and elite families of Lahore. He was murdered.. shot to death by his workers on the pretext of calling an old calendar (having some Islamic calligraphy) to be redundant. There are many who are butchered on the excuse of blasphemy and their murders remain unaccounted for. When I read about Aasia bibi (a Christian woman convicted of violating blasphemy law) , I remember calling her to be lucky to have reached the courts alive because most of these cases are decided on the roads by our people, who consider themselves as the guardians of Islam. This law comes in handy to a person who wants to get rid of somebody safely and JUSTLY because either he has a land dispute with him or any other enmity and is in want of vengeance. It would be wrong to call it as a weapon only against the minorities (Hindus, Sikhs and Christians etc.) because it is used against the Muslims as well. Making it a ‘minority discriminative issue’ is nothing but an attempt to create more conflicts and chaos in the country.

If the government tries to repeal section 295-C, it will make the situation uglier and susceptible to another blood wrath in the country. The question here, is not whether blasphemy law should remain part of the legislation or not, but It is how to make its implementation transparent and fair?  It is the abuse of this law that should be checked and controlled. Annulment of blasphemy laws would do us no good but would ensure a safe nurturing of an army of Suleman Rushdies in Pakistan.

With This Ring

With this ring I do solemnly swear.
That my whole life with you I’ll share.
To be with until death do us part.
Together in soul, together in heart.
Together with a bond that will last our whole life.
You and me as husband and wife.
Touching and agreeing in everything we do.
Our whole life it will be us two.

It is amazing how a small metal unites two people in a perpetual bond. Ring is a centuries old symbol of loyalty and a promise to love, honor and respect one’s partner. It is a circle, having no end or beginning with a hole in the centre which epitomizes a door leading to the future.   

I surfed a little to read about the history of rings and found it extremely interesting. Ive summarized it to share it with you. It stems from the time of the Ancient Egyptians who made bracelets and rings by plaiting reeds that grew beside River Nile. Later to add durability, vegetation was replaced by bone, ivory and leather. Egyptians believed that the vein in the third finger of the left hand travels directly to the heart, Greeks when conquered Egypt adopted the same belief who passed it on to the Romans who called it ‘vena amoris’ or the vein of love. Ring made of iron was given by the groom’s family to bind the bride to the groom. It also served as a show of his good will. This Roman custom was taken on by the Christians. It was in the early part of the fourth century when the ritual of giving rings at the wedding ceremonies began. During the Middle Ages, iron was replaced by gold and was considered as the most precious display of fashion.
The concept of an engagement ring began with the decree of a pope in England, who believed that there should be a waiting period between the espousal and marriage. It was in 1549 when King Edward VI officially declared the third finger as the ring finger. During the World War II many soldiers exchanged rings with their beloveds and wives so that they could be remembered in times of war. This was a little insight to the emergence of this beautiful ritual which is still very much followed all over the world. Today, we have various styles of rings giving out some special meanings and messages ranging from promise rings, engagement rings to wedding rings etc. Selecting the right ring for your partner is exciting yet a difficult task. Diamond rings are traditionally considered as a token of love and commitment and are given on engagement to brides to be. It would not be wrong to call a diamond as a woman’s best friend as it is deeply aspired by the fair gender. It is believed to be a symbol of purity, endurance and longevity. Some believe that the ring need not be expensive as marriage is a commitment which should not be bound by material things.

Ring is a seal of the bond between two people which brings along some wonderful moments and opens up doors to a new tomorrow and cast a satisfying feeling of joy that there is someone who is willing and eager to share his entire life with you forever.

Murder he wrote

We hear many stories about people being killed in road accidents; we stop for a while, mourn over somebody’s loss and very easily forget all about it. But, I am not sure if I will ever be able to take this one car crash out of my mind. I was not present at the murder site, but this horrible footage was enough to leave me wretched and forlorn. There are many other videos surfacing on the social networking websites clearly showing the deadly Supra hitting a group of unfortunate spectators, but I’ve uploaded the one less tormenting to eyes.

This happened at the High Performance Racing’s (HPR) event in Rawalpindi’s Bahria Town on Sunday, December 5,when a Black Supra 707 lurched off the highway (the assumed race track) and crashed into the spectators who all died on the spot.

Many of us are accusing the driver/owner of the car as the sole culprit by defining this accident as hit and run. I beg to differ. His liability is equivalent to that of the other drivers participating in the race, the organizers of the event who failed to affix barriers on the road side and let unprofessional affluent teenagers to compete in the race, the Bahria Town authorities who permitted such event to happen on a highway instead of a proper race track, and the sponsors.  But we know how justice is done in our country, it cannot reach the rich collars.

Keeping all aside, it is actually the mysterious story of Asfandyar Khan, an 11 year old student at Roots School System Islamabad, one of the fatalities of the car crash, which melted my heart. My mind fails to understand if it’s a miracle, a co-incidence or a lesson. Two days before the incident, he wrote ‘The Accident’, an essay in his creative writing class, in which he narrated a car accident and made himself the victim. He described the pain he suffered, the siren of the ambulance he heard and how he opened his eyes at the hospital.  Not only that, few days back he wrote a letter to the editor of The News in which he highlighted how reckless driving results into the loss of innocent lives.
And later this boy proved his point by exemplifying his life. Its a pity that our children know the worth of human life more than us.

 

Allah ke naam par..

I was waiting for my ride in a parking lot when an old beggar woman accosted me for some money. I kept ignoring her till the time she said “Allah tuje chand sa dulha de” I gave her some money as there was no other way to get rid of her, besides what she said sounded a bit pleasing to my ears.

From banging on the car windows to text messages asking for credit-share on Allah’s name, beggary has become a profession in Pakistan and is expanding with a consistent rise in poverty. It has become a nuisance and exasperates common people. There are times when one feels guilty of shunning these beggars rudely especially in case of disables and children. Whenever I go to ‘Haroons’, a gift shop near Gaddafi Stadium, I see a pathan kid eight or nine years of age begging for money. He claims to go to school regularly and every time narrates to me some new lesson that he has learnt. I find it quite dreadful to see such children.

 It is our responsibility to properly gauge and assure that the person whom we are aiding actually deserves such financial assistance otherwise beggary will become unstoppable and continue to spread its cancerous roots. Instead most of us find these beggars as readily available recipients of ‘sadqqa’ and throw off money hoping to be accepted by God as an act of charity.

Charity in Islam can be given to those who fall strictly under the definition of a ‘miskeen’.

According to a Hadith

“The destitute (miskeen) is not one who goes around begging from people and desists when given a morsel or two. The destitute is a person who does not have enough for his sustenance, yet people do not realize that (his needy condition) so as to give him in charity, and he does not ask people (for charity). “(Hadith Bukhari)

What we forget is that by blindly providing these beggars easy money we are actually promoting this evil in our society.