For the love of Pakistan

Revive the courage

of heroes forgotten

Uphold the fervour

of change begotten

Stand the test

of time and tide

Seize the moment

 of victory and pride

Bury the pain

of loss and fears

Remember the sacrifice

of blood and tears

Win this battle

of darkness and light

Raise this flag

of green and white

Dear Taliban

Dear Taliban,

I hope this message finds you in the worst of health and rotting to your death. You probably haven't checked your mail lately, with all the armed action being taken against you. I really hope you find a good WiFi connection in the next sewer that you hide otherwise you won't get to update your wonderful video channel. That's a pity! But hey you guys were not actually delivering on your promise of creating a Shariah-run state. You really ought to rethink your strategy and try not to kill so many people in your pious efforts because that kind of ticks off the Army. They don't like it when somebody messes with their people.

With all this persecution in Pakistan, you must be finding it difficult to carry on your religious plans. I have a better idea - why don't you go to Palestine and fight for the Muslims instead? It may be too late for the likes of us to go back to being real Muslims but over there true Muslims are being massacred and they have no one to stand up for them. Now is your chance to prove your worth and show the world you mean business. Everybody used to think you guys are here just for terrorizing Muslims only but honestly, now you can terrorize some real infidels, i.e. the Israelis. All your talents of sniping, bombing and fighting will be utilized very appropriately. You will get all the international attention that you ever craved for and in the end you will definitely get your promised Paradise with all the perks and benefits. You can even throw in a couple of dramatic suicide bombers for further glory.

So, what do you think? Oh! You are too busy running from the Pakistan Army to think straight...Hmm...that poses a problem! Just keep running to avoid capture because I don't think you will stay alive for very long. Happy running!

Regards,
Your Secret Admirer

Web of Lies

As if we didn't have enough drama to deal with already, we had to watch a boring episode of Tahir-ul-Qadri pretending to be important and facing mortal peril - only to lounge a few more hours in Emirates first-class :p A few weeks back, we had our very own Altaf Hussain getting arrested and then had to deal with his class act of having heart problems. Gosh! The things people do to gain attention and satisfy their over-inflated ego! With the crucial armed attack (Zarb-e-Azb) taking place against the Taliban, the nation needs real leaders to keep it together and not some pathetic attention-seeking dramatists, who claim to be patriots but choose to live abroad in luxury. We have to stand united against the external and internal threats and be in synchronization with our Armed Forces to aid their efforts and help the victims of terrorism. The uprooting of the Taliban is nothing less than a revolution. If these so-called leaders talk about revolution, I doubt they even understand what revolution means and do not posses the mental capacity to actually lead a revolution (in case they did manage to bring about one!). They seem to be capable of only self-glorification and condemning everyone else for being wrong...as if they even have a vague idea of what's right!

I guess these leaders know they are expendable and hence they have to keep on working on international agenda just to stay alive. But then the international arena has seen the rise of the pure Sunni Muslims of Iraq who seek to end the Shi'ite community in Iraq. These hardcore fanatics, a.k.a the ISIS, are a true representation of how easy it is to manipulate a bunch of Muslims into believing that they are gaining a rightful place in Jannat by killing innocent people. Have they forgotten that Allah Himself states, "...whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely..." [Al-Qura'an 5:32]. These misled maniacs not only have the blood of innocents on their hands but also the sacred blood of Muslim brothers spattering their souls. But sadly, they are blind to their own misdeeds because they have been promised Paradise and have been given sufficient funds to live a heavenly life on earth too. This extremist movement has attracted plenty of international attention, with the media highlighting the plight of the Shi'ite Muslims, who are losing their lives because of violent and crazy Sunni Muslims. What really pains me is that not much long ago a story about the containment of Muslims in concentration camps in Myanmar had surfaced, but it disappeared without causing even a ripple in the media. Was it because the torture and murder of Muslims was taking place at the hands of a Buddhist nation, who have every right to exercise their control over whichever minority they choose? What if it had been the other way round...and the Buddhist people were being targeted by Muslims? Then I'm sure we would have heard plenty of noise about poor helpless Buddhists being murdered by Muslim terrorists :p And many countries would have been considering intervening to stop the "mindless bloodshed".

Are all these leaders and movements only meant to kick dust in our eyes and used as a cover for something far more evil and sinister? This question haunts me every time I see these acts of madness taking place at home and abroad. We have been living a lie for far too long...and despite the best efforts of the conspirators, there is a chance of awakening and breaking through this web of lies.

Mother...To you none can compare!

Mama, Ama, Mommy, Mummy, Ammi, Maa....

Some of the words we all use to refer to that beautiful woman in our lives, who bore us with pain, brought us up with care and saw us through life with the utmost affection. She is the reason why most of us stand where we are and she is the support without which none of us can go on. Her prayers, her advice, her sympathy, her patience and her unconditional love make this world a bearable place. She is a mother.

When I think about my childhood, my mother was my champion and my solution to every problem. Her words held so much comfort and her hugs and kisses had magical healing powers. She could tend to all the requirements of the family, look after the entire house and find time to socialize with relatives and friends. Now that I have grown up and become a mother myself, I just can't fathom how she used to do so much and still smile at the end of the day! I feel like a rotten tomato by the end of the day and expecting me to smile is like asking for a miracle! But seriously when you are so tired that you don't want to move a muscle and your child suddenly decides that is the best time to start pestering you to play with her.....you somehow find the energy and get up to fulfill her wish. That is the moment you realize that you really have become a mother. Giving up your portion of ice cream just so that your child can have some more...not buying anything for yourself just so that your kids can have some new toys...adding all your kids favorite treats in the grocery list and cutting down your own requirements....these are some of the things only a mother has the ability to do.

The day my little girl was born and handed over to me, something I never knew, awakened inside me. When I held that tiny hand in mine, when I touched that shrivelled little face and when those scrunched up eyes peered at me...I knew I would rather die than let anything bad ever happen to her. My baby made me feel like some kind of Amazon Warrior, who would stand through thick and thin just to see her child happy and safe. I understood why my mother made all those sacrifices and why she went through all those ordeals because the love that coursed through her veins made her strong enough to bear everything for her children. Her heart seems to grow bigger to accommodate all her children and she does so without a complaint.

When you become a parent, you learn to cherish your own parents because every time you do something for your children, you come closer to understanding why your parents did all those things when you were young. They did what they could, using whatever limited resources they had - just to make your tomorrow better, without any regard for their own desires. It is indeed one of the greatest blessings of this life to have your parents see you through your childhood into adulthood. We can never give them back all that love but we can at least try. Especially now when I am faced with a problem, I hear my mother's voice imparting some words of wisdom, which seemed meaningless at that time but now made perfect sense! She is my guiding light in so many instances that I am surprised how could she have known that someday I will have to go through such a situation...mother...to you none can compare!

Modesty is Oppression??

So what if Rihanna chose to wear such a sheer dress that exposed her body? It is just her way of showing her confidence about her body and the way she wants the world to see her. Every woman has the right to dress the way she likes. This is the first step of female liberation because it makes them bold and feel beautiful...no crime in flashing some of her intimate parts for the benefit of the public...right?

While I am a strong supporter of female rights and women empowerment, I do have my reservations against such a torrid dress sense. Wearing minimal clothes is now becoming a thing of the past...we now have sheer dresses that actually don't need to be there in the first place. Such dresses are worn to keep the police at bay from arresting the wearer on charges of public nudity. What Rihanna and countless other celebrities are doing is that they are enticing the female population into defiling themselves in public and put themselves on display just like the Stone Age Woman, when the concepts of modesty and proper dressing were unknown. On the other hand, such a vulgar show of private parts is sure to provoke the male attention and make the ladies ever-so attractive to them, which is supposedly very good! You manage to do that without having to take your "clothes" off...even if you lost your dignity along the way :p

Many feminists fight that every woman should feel comfortable with her body and it is good that celebrities set the right example. But why does feeling comfortable involve wearing such non-existent clothes? If a woman wears a burqa or head scarf, then feminists are bound to kick up a riot over violation of female rights and protest that she is being suffocated. Do they forget that feeling comfortable about her body is every woman's right? If she feels happy covering herself then who are you to scream murder against it? If transparent clothes are the only way of feeling comfortable, then seriously I don't want to feel comfortable in the first place :p Islam is always under the target of such bull-headed feminists, who argue that Islam is  crushing women by keeping them covered up and women should be given freedom to take off the extra clothes. It is argued that Islam oppresses women by limiting them to a certain dress code. Okay, so lets shed some extra covering and then the woman will be free? I do believe she was free even with all the layers...she was free to pursue her daily activities and be herself.

In reality, parading around in transparent clothes might make her a sex symbol and get her labelled as a hot female, but will it really help her in progressing towards self-actualization and complete liberation? I guess that depends on how you view a woman's progress in society. So far, she has progressed towards adopting fake beauty standards, unhealthy dieting regimens, raunchy clothing and mindless fashion ideas. Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think that even scratches the definition of progress. That is just blotting out the natural creativity and confidence, which a woman derives from her true self, regardless of her body, clothes and makeup! These extra gimmicks should boost her morale rather than bring her down into the dredges. She is told that if she does not have the "perfect body", then she doesn't deserve to be alive! If she does not have that slim long nose then she should get a surgery done or use a makeup technique to hide it. If she does not wear the latest trend clothes then she is shabby and not worth a second glance. Society forgets that her true worth lies in her inner beauty, her inner grace and her inner intellect, which does not need any props to blossom. She can do everything while wearing full clothes and she can achieve the best in life by being modest. Because modesty is certainly not oppression.

One Man's Meat

The media storm surrounding GEO and Hamid Mir made me realize that this world is ever-ready to exploit your misfortune to its own advantage! The beauty with which other news channels worked up a barrage of spiteful criticism was quite astounding! Not that I'm siding with GEO over its useless propaganda about Pakistani intelligence service nor am I a proponent of dancing on sacred qawalis. I'm so over the efforts of every channel to outdo each other with insane breaking news, talk shows and reports. GEO was going down fast like a leaky boat and the other channels pushed it down with gusto. I wonder how the GEO news team feels about landing in the grave it had dug for others?

Me, being an avid fan of conspiracy theories, thought about whether the downfall of GEO was a systematic chain of events planned by the "Unseen Hand" or was it all just a major coincidence? I have gotten so used to looking for clue and cues to the "bigger picture" in recent events that the most obvious facts don't entice me one bit :p Because they are usually dangled in front of our noses by the perpetrators of these events! When the Malala incident happened, I felt my heart break for the innocent little girl who had braved the harshness of her environment to raise a voice for female education. But as the incident unraveled further, all I could see was a carefully planned and executed media campaign that blatantly used Malala's tragedy to make Pakistan look like a place where no girl gets education because of the Taliban. If you closely observe the situation of educational institutions in the Taliban-struck areas, they are suffering from poor sanitary conditions, lack of teachers, absence of proper seating arrangement and damaged infrastructure. People refrain from sending their daughters to school in such pathetic conditions and on top of that primary education is not even free! Who wants to send their child - either male or female - to a useless school when they do not have enough money to feed the entire family? The impoverished and war-torn zone first needs serious rehabilitation measures before anyone can talk about education! But making Malala a martyr in the cause of education, suited the international media just fine, since it gave many stakeholders of the war against terror solid backing for promoting their agenda.

Sometimes the lines just blur and we can't even figure out who is benefiting more from this war against terror. Pakistan is right now a hub of external and internal influences, illegitimate funds, sordid schemes and unparalleled destruction. The people of Pakistan are caught in the crossfire and they are the ones losing everything - starting from their lives, loved ones, peace of mind and everything in between. On the other hand, the people orchestrating this war against terror have reaped countless geo-political and financial gains from all this. Who cares how many people lay down their lives, as long as it serves as media chowder that can be used for bigger purposes. It only goes to show that one man's meat is another man's poison.

As you sow shall you reap...

We have all grown up watching the Tom and Jerry cartoons. They are a part of our childhood memories and somehow I rather enjoy watching them again to refresh those memories and laugh for a while. My daughter also likes Tom and Jerry as much as I do but I'm beginning to view the cartoons in a different light ever since I became a parent. The cartoon makes us laugh on the different escapades of Jerry who manages to outwit Tom every time - save for a couple of times that Tom triumphs. In the process Tom usually gets beaten, bamboozled, and sometimes even broken to bits! The laughter value is pretty good but when you think about it, it actually means that it's okay to laugh at a person who is being hit for no obvious fault of his own and fighting is the only means of settling a score. This is against the norms that we wish to impart to our children but given that they watch such cartoons everyday, I'm sure it will stay somewhere in their heads. In a similar vein is another cartoon called Oggy and the Cockroaches. It is about a cat named Oggy being harassed by a trio of cockroaches and quite frankly that cartoon is more towards the disgusting side of entertainment - filled with acts that violate the basic etiquette that we teach our children. And the list of cartoons with objectionable content goes on and on....


I am a mother guilty of using the television as a nanny when needed but recently I have started cutting down the amount of time my daughter spends in front of the tube. I have watched most of the cartoons myself to ensure that they do not contain anything that is either alien to our culture or is sure to plant crazy ideas in my child's head. It is a difficult job to explain to a little girl why she can't watch the cartoons that make her laugh the most but I am trying to draw a line somewhere. I know a person who does not allow kids to watch television entirely but even that deprivation is not healthy for kids living in today's modern society. A kid cannot comprehend why everyone else can do a certain thing and he/she can't. I have always talked about the influence of media in our lives and now I worry about what it could do to our kids! The shows aired on kids channels are also devoid of any real positive purpose and portray the most vile characters as being the most popular. The subject matter of the different shows is rather artificial and promotes useless concepts that should not be the objectives of young minds, like: chasing after girls/boys via different tactics, using money and looks rather than brains to gain attention and above all giving cheeky answers to adults to show assertiveness. Sometimes I talk to my daughter about what she just saw on television and explain to her that the act was bad and the person doing it was being nasty. Thankfully she responds well and next time points out the same act and says she will not do it because it was not nice. It is a start to discovering the good and bad side of things.

A young and open mind will absorb whatever is coming at it, which is why not just television but also the home environment are key factors in deciding its orientation. A household, where everybody has the habit of shouting at each other and misbehaving, is sure to produce children who are prone to bad behavior. Not everything can be taught to kids, because they have a very keen observation and watch our every move with diligence and ultimately copy it. The wise old saying that children are merely a reflection of their parents is true 100%. Their shining eyes look up to us as a role model and it is not their fault that they feel good about behaving like their mom and dad. We are the ones around them since the day they were born and they dote on us! Life does change when you have children because at first you only think about yourself but now you have to think about the latest additions to the family, who are capable of leading you to Heaven or Hell. Allah does cater to the needs of every child that is born but He has left it up to the parents on how they raise that child. And it is scientifically proven that till the age of ten, a child's personality is developing and parents play a crucial role in shaping that persona. As parents, we have to try our best that our children are a worthy reflection of all the good that lies inside us. Because as you sow, shall you reap....

For a Few Dollars More

The political situation of Pakistan has recently started showing signs of complications. Be it the local scenario or the international happenings, we have seen many spikes in our country's strategic graph. Coming under speculations that somehow the lost Malaysian Airliner is in Pakistan was a little too much to digest though...I mean seriously, why does every half-baked story about terrorism have to circle around Pakistan these days? We get implicated for every act of extremism, fundamentalism and of course terrorism. Maybe it's because we hold the distinctive position of being everybody's favorite scapegoat...Because nobody seems to remember that our army is actually fighting all of the before mentioned curses and our civilians are targets rather than active members of terrorist groups. We have to clean out the gangs of Karachi, we have to tackle the terrorist attacks on different cities, we have to recover kidnapped people and we have to avert the security threat posed by Taliban. Do we have time to even think about wreaking havoc in another country when we ourselves are in such hot soup?

But there's a different side to our country's profile...We have a reputation for embracing the troubles of other countries just for a few dollars more. Bahrain has asked us to lend our army for crushing innocent Arabs, who are just crying out for democracy and the rewards will be hefty sums of money. The United Nations has commended our army for being very well-trained and hence our soldiers can easily be used as "mercenaries" anywhere around the globe. As long as the money keeps pouring in, the leadership has no issues with our country's tarnished image or lost lives. Rumor has it that Pakistan has almost agreed to send its army to assist Bahrain in thwarting the attempt of its people to rise against the Kingship. Has our establishment overlooked the fact that the people involved here are Muslims and killing them, is in no way justified by the promised monetary aid. I roughly quote a journalist, who said, " Is the financial situation of Pakistan so bad that we are ready to dip our bread in the blood of innocent Muslims now?" He was being kind about the intentions of our leaders but I don't think that national fiscal boosts have crossed  their minds. 

History stands witness to the fact that Pakistan's establishment can be bought very easily and can be lured into any honey trap, if the fringe benefits attached to the deal are sizable amounts of dollars. It is this greed to fill up their Swiss Bank accounts that makes our leaders overlook the far-reaching repercussions of their selfish decisions. None of them even pauses to think about how damaging such excursions are for national security and national pride. The pain and anguish experienced by Pakistanis, when they show their Green Passport anywhere around the world, is a result of these foreign policy mistakes. The leaders come, gather lots of dough for themselves, buy apartments and mansions abroad and then go off and cool their heels out there somewhere...What do they care if an average Pakistani has to bear the insult of being branded as a terrorist? Why should they lose sleep if some poor children die in Thar due to famine? Why be bothered if a rape victim burns herself to death for lack of justice? Why look back and feel sorry for all the people struggling with inflation, when they have everything they need? This hunger for personal gains and gathering as much money as possible, without any shame or guilt, has made me think that really our leaders have sold their souls to the Devil for a few dollars more.

Bad Romance

Having spent five beautiful years of my life married to the most amazing man on this planet...I am a strong proponent of love stories and classic romances :) But sadly, the definition of love is getting very grotesque these days :p Recently, I have noticed so many things going wrong with romance that it seems to be becoming a very shallow and extremely dramatized affair. Maybe it's the media projections that show everything to be either far too perfect or completely shattered. There's never any in-between scenario, where people are anything besides love-struck puppies or deranged tormentors. And it's either violent throes of passion or it's a violent battle of wits and money. I have rarely seen any love-related drama to show sensible people, who believe in cooperating and working on a healthy relationship that revolves around mutual trust. Most of the characters profess love based on silly presumptions and great expectations, which they keep hidden from the person they love, rather then keeping them in the loop. And then these presumptions and expectations lead to disastrous results for the poor couple :p Can't figure out why do people have to have such over-sized egoes and be such nitwits on television! The worst part is that I see all this happening in reality too......Real people very often indulge in such bad romances and do exactly what seems so unrealistic. 

I agree that dramas today are trying to highlight the menaces found in society, but they don't have to be so goddamn honest about things that plant far-fetched ideas in people's minds. If you keep on seeing something so socially obtuse day-in and day-out, then your mind actually accepts it and adapts to it. And it's not surprising that these twisted ideas of love and dating are making their way into our social system and gaining acceptance from everyone. Our norms about marriage have been shaken to their foundations and it is heartbreaking to note the high rate of divorces and separations these days. Gone are the days when people used to sit down and discuss their problems...now it's more like a debating competition where the two parties are hurling abuses and accusations at each other. Nobody is listening to the other's point of view, which makes it impossible to sort out what is happening!

I have always argued over the negative influence of media but seriously what's up with the writers these days, who write such crap for dramas?? Do they only believe in garnering maximum viewership for their channels or do they have any objectives behind their stories? Their profane ideas have seeped into the minds of most young people, who think of their love life as some romantic movie unravelling. Everybody dreams of the perfect partner and wants to spend a very perfect life, which has candlelight dinners, passionate expressions of love and unlimited glamour. It's ok to believe in such fairytales but you have to be realistic too. Real love takes compromises on both ends and needs plenty of hardwork and effort. You have to be supportive and understanding if you want to work miracles. Seeing beyond the imperfections of someone you love will in fact lead you to the perfect love. But if you just keep on doing what they show on television then you are bound to have a bad romance.

A Better Tomorrow

Justice...Peace....Law and Order....

These words sound like a lot of baloney to an ordinary Pakistani and quite frankly, they ring so empty within the current government framework. We, as a nation, have been left to brave the elements, whether they are social, economic or political. In the past, such a system led to anarchy and chaos around the world, and in some cases it even paved the way for rebellion. But somehow, we seem to be handling ourselves quite nicely. We have kept the act together and have been progressing on slowly. We have become so good at this that we even have the courage to look into the eye of the storm - that is terrorism. We have now a long list of heroes, who sacrificed themselves just to protect others. There are many examples of individual officers of the law, who believed in the greater good and gave up their last breath just so that this country could see a better tomorrow....

But I'm afraid I don't see a better tomorrow anywhere over the horizon and neither do I find any reason that can justify all the deaths of civilians and officers in the name of peace...I searched high and looked down low, and all I could come up with were just empty promises made by the Government to negotiate for peace...I feel humbled by the magnitude of the sacrifices of all the daredevils for something they believed in so strongly despite the failures of every political party that comes to power. How can anybody believe in the greater good, when the bad is so obviously in control of everything that is around us? I am not a pessimist but being realistic is not very helpful either :p

Eversince this year started, we have been losing officers and civilians hither thither but did that even raise an eyebrow in the higher offices? I don't think so.....The few good men that we do have are being targeted by God knows whom and for what nefarious conspiracies. The stakes are getting so high in our country because we seem to be having the interest of so many countries around the world. Somebody disappears and somebody reappears...we get aid and we get a kick in the nuts...somebody does good and somebody gets blown up...we have laurels bestowed upon one talented girl and we get ignored for hundreds of other talented girls...we really have no idea what's going on......

But then we go through this every day and we bear with all the crap just so that we get to see a better tomorrow that comes with the sunrise of fulfilled dreams, the open skies of justice, the songs of peace and the vistas of progress. Yup...tomorrow please be better than today.