A poem for us all

A little poem I wrote for myself and you people, the readers. You know what they say, first post best post. lol. I'll just let the words I wrote do the rest. Here you go.


Why is it that you do what you do?

Why do you conduct research conductive?

Would you still do it if you knew?

Tis to one's self and soul: destructive.

　

Do not douse in the dark,

For black is not a colour.

Black is the colours' absence;

No absence could be more duller.

　

Life is a gift far too precious to be;

Wasted on marijuana and coke.

If you crave, have a cup of tea

But please don't drink or smoke.

　

Hear the rain drops pitter patter,

For them there will be no tommorow,

Don't fall from grace and shatter

Life is not all grief and sorrow



　

Amidst the clouds, see the silver lining,

Alas! All storms come to an end.

Then you will see the sun shining.

It's what's broken that must mend.

A Life Secret Hidden in a Hiking Trip

Well no students will leave a chance to miss out a hiking trip to Monal arranged by University, when they know that there will be no issue of attendance for leaving the most hated lab. I never went on to complete the hiking trip to Monal but I always believed that I’m a sportsman so I had many alternate solutions for that. Indeed it was like sunshine in the dark opportunity, how could I miss it? As most of my classmates commonly thought, I went for the trip. It was the first time I got an opportunity to sit in a University bus. We reached the starting point in no time and it was time to begin our knee crunching journey. Most of us chose the toughest route to reach Monal, trail 3. As our journey began, many of us were enthusiastic and took off aggressively. Moving up faster and sometimes running when finding a slanted plain surface. There were still many students strolling near the start point but as time passed, the distance between me and then started to increase and there were fewer people remaining around me whom I knew. Then I found two of my colleagues Ubaid and a girl name Maheen. They were just behind me and completing their journey like the destination is in their hands. Ignoring the fact that friends could help to complete your journey happily and passing time with them is fun. They were my classmate but we didn’t get enough opportunities to talk or share ideas. It’s always good to know that familiar faces are around you. But then it struck my mind that it represents a disrespectful attitude towards my classmates that I’m not stopping when they are just few feet away from me. With a hint of reluctance, I took a deep breath while stopping and joined them. As we started moving together I came to know that Maheen’s father used to come to hiking and it took him 2.5 hours to complete the full trail and we had just been moving for 45 minutes. I thought to change my mindset and focus that I can still make it in time.  The journey in itself is exploring the natural of beauty of the Margalla Hills and I thoroughly enjoyed the silence, bird squiring, greenery and also the company of people whom first I thought would be a distraction. It all happened because we were determined to reach the destination. It reminded me of the famous quote “safar jitna b lamba ho saathi ache hone chaiye” but it makes true sense when you know your friend is also willing to reach the destination. Time passed quite well and they even stopped by a thorn got pinched in my shoe and they helped me to take that out. We saw few people crossing us so I was expecting that we will be on top in 15 minutes but we were falling behind. It seemed so unlikely when I was moving up. I was moving like a king on a horse not knowing my army had marched forward already. Its human nature to absorb joyful moments but we realize later the difficult tasks that follow.

Like hiking trip to un-measured destination, our approach to our dreams is like same. We know our destination but we don’t know how much time it will take and how much difficult it will be, how many ups and downs there will be, how many times your mind will distract you from reaching to your goal and how many times u will be pinched by thorn (people who will you pull back and discourage you) but you still need to keep on moving. Dreams become reality when you know in your heart and sure of your capabilities and again repeating the quote  “safar jitna b lamba ho saathi ache hone chaiye” make sense because a true friends /family/life partner will help you to achieve your goals when they have faith in you, but if they don’t help you instead pull you back, don’t stop for them , keep advancing and there will be new people arriving in your life and eventually you will get along with them ,they will help you to reach to your destination when you reach there don’t be upset seeing many people already there , because before the begin of journey, nobody expected themselves to be there ,congratulate yourself  for making to the final point because you earned it, than the story of true successful person is written !! Try to think of life with another perspective because every dream deserves to become a reality.

Big The Size , More The Issues!!

Ever since a child, I would tinker with Styrofoam to make model planes. Once the design issues were kinked out, I would try to expand its size. But every time I would expand the size, something or the other would fall apart or malfunction. Back then it confused me as to why a working design would pose a challenge at expansion. Growing up, I noticed these phenomenon’s in many different fields where a perfectly well functioning design or an idea would not work at a different scale, just like my plane design. Let me explain.

Economics: We have been told that Communism does not work. Soviet Union & North Korea bear witness to this fact in history. And we are told that Capitalism works. Many countries adopting free-market policies have prospered (compared to the Communist nations). In a Free-market economy, money is the means of signal for supply and demand. Communist Economies requires Central Planning. What I find interesting is structure of a family. A family runs on communist principles. You do not charge your kids for food. Everyone works according to his ability and need. This model may even work in large families. But as the size of the model expands, communism falls apart. Whereas if Capitalism were applied to a family unit, it would destroy the social fabric and the human element from relationships.

Knowledge:  Pick any major event in history – Roman Empire, WW1, WW2, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The more you read into its details, the opinionated the information gets with conflicting point of views. Plus, when we try to granulize details, we tend to lose sight of the bigger picture. This is very common in the field of Economics. We tend to mix things between correlation and causation, or the arrow of causation. The marginal utility of more details goes from beneficial to harmful. It is important to always keep the larger picture in sight. More information does not mean more wisdom.

Religion: Religion creates a baseline for morality. Practicing an old religion keeps us in touch with our history, regardless we understand it or not. But implementation of religion in its strictest sense twists matters in reality. Let’s take Pakistan for example. My parents tell me that Pakistan was one of the most prosperous nations in the region in the 60s & 70s. It was a very friendly and safe place. I see my parents wedding pictures and I do not see anyone looking too religious. Today, taking a random sample from Pakistan would show more people practicing religion. Yet, the moral sense didn’t improve proportionally. In fact, it’s common that neighbors no longer interact as much as they did 40 years ago. So what went wrong? I feel Law of Proportionality comes in handy explaining that we may have overextended a working principle. Or maybe it’s the ‘Institutionalization of religion’. Who knows! And that’s the thing with Complex social systems – they aren’t linear. In Complex systems causation is noise. Correlations & long term trends are the real signal carrier.

 Science: Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein explained the world of natural laws of gravitation via mathematical equations. Their discovered laws hold well with celestial bodies. But these very laws fall apart when applied to Quantum Mechanics, where there is no such thing as certainty and everything is probabilistic. The Law of Proportionality prevails even in the purest form of natural science. I am not arguing against the size as the factor in complex system but the layers of complexity. The more complexity is layered into a system, the higher its risks of failure. And there is nothing more complex than a human conscious. We can predict the durability of machines, we can calculate the half-life of radioactive materials, energy levels and even molecular processes but we cannot calculate rational or irrational responses of a conscious being. This very element of consciousness restricts us from ‘calculating’ future economic conditions via fancy models. It’s not just that we cannot calculate conscious irrationality but interpretation of data adds our own conscious  abstraction to our conclusion.

A day on the streets

As had been customary for pretty much the entire summer, 11-year old Amir woke up at around seven in the morning drenched in sweat. The fan had been still for almost three consecutive days now; a silent reminder of the bliss it had been that Amir had never bothered to acknowledge when electricity would visit their home a few hours a day. His mother was stretched out next to him; asleep; the fanning mat still clutched in her hand. She had fanned him to sleep, Amir knew, and had finally given in to exhaustion and dropped off herself. Her sleep wouldn’t last long, Amir knew. The heat would see to that.

Soon he was out on the streets, in the scorching heat with the stack of newspapers balanced under his arm. He didn’t have to try hard to appear in a pitiful state as he shuffled from car to car, waving the newspapers in the car windows; his grubbed and torn-at-places attire, matted hair and dirty face saw to that. Whether a disgraceful appearance helped him in selling more newspapers or not was a debate he had forgone a long time ago. There was just no satisfying people, he knew. If he made himself look abject, people might take pity on him, but would mostly just turn away in disgust. If he made himself look presentable, there would be no end to the ‘such a fine young lad you are, and look at you. Begging here on the streets (even though that wasn’t exactly what he would call selling newspapers), why don’t you go out and get a real job?’ stereotypes.

In his scrimpy trade, Amir had come across a lot of different types of people. There were the big, rich businessmen who would ride up in their big black cars, seated in the backseat clad in grand suits. Such people hardly ever bothered to even look up at him. There was the harried father rushing his kids to school, always in bad mood. Often he would vent out his anger on Amir. There were youngsters, whos’ arrival would always be heralded by loud music blaring from the car speakers. Whenever he approached them, they would engage in a loud and raucous discussion, and pretend not to hear him. There were taxi drivers; always mopping their sweating foreheads; and most of them hardly had enough for their own selves, yet would at times try to shell out whatever they could for him. Very few were the relaxed people, who would smile whenever he came up and pay him, and sometimes they would even refuse the newspaper he offered them, telling him to just keep the money.

Rejection was an integral part of Amir’s ‘trade’. He had learned long ago not to let it get him down. And so he had stopped seething at people who would roll up their windows when they spotted him, or the disdainful looks he received, or the snide comments about how he was a perfectly healthy young boy who should do something more worthwhile than selling newspapers. He had even stopped being frustrated at the selfishness of the people; after all, if a person could afford a big car, an expensive mobile phone, maintain a family, why could he not shell out a mere 10 rupees to him, a person in dire need? It was something that used to bother him a lot once; when every window rolled up in his face, or every annoyed expression on a potential customer’s face when he ambled along would be an affront to him, and he would turn away with a sickening feeling in his stomach, his heart aching. It wasn’t just the fact that they were forcing him to move on empty-handed, but also the contempt with which they regarded him. He may not be educated, or have a proper job, or own a car, but he was still human. He too had feelings! But as the days rolled by without anything changing, he learned not to let it get him down. Sometimes he told himself to be strong; at other times, he would compare himself with shopkeepers. He told himself that while he may not have a proper shop, he had the freedom of being able to interact with his customers openly and freely, and he did not have to worry about competition either. Of course, he did not get the respect that shopkeepers get in his case, but after all, you have to give something to lose something. Sometimes he would realize how ridiculous he was being, but he forced himself to believe that, for he needed a way to uphold his pride. He had some of it, if not a lot, and like every other person, he needed to maintain it. To keep himself going.

But despite whatever he kept telling himself, the fact remained that rejection wasn’t just in his ‘trade’; it was in Amir’s whole life. He had been rejected a father who could financially support his family. He had been denied a country which could, or maybe chose to, help people like him all over the country. He had been denied the basic necessities of life such as water and electricity. He had been denied an education. In short, he had been denied a proper life.

He had even been denied a healthy mother. She was sick most of the time; sprawled on the bed, her skin burning to the touch. Fear and worry for her made Amir forget all about his misfortunes though. Amir didn’t know exactly what she was suffering from, but he was aware that they never had enough money to get her treated properly. Amir had even started to save up the small amount he used to shell aside from his income every day for sweets and chocolates, in the hope that one day he could gather enough to get his mother treated. He loved her so very much; the pure love born of innocence that exists between a mother and child; and he didn’t know what he would do without her.

And that, in fact, was his true driving force; not him telling himself to be strong, neither the need to uphold his pride; it was fear for his mother. It was what kept him doggedly padding through the roads, stopping at car after car, waving his newspapers in the windows, steeling his nerves at every rejection, and moving on. That, and of course his self-assurance that this was still better than being stuck at a shop, being forced to sit the hours away. It was something Amir knew, deep down, yet he refused to acknowledge it, and kept telling himself it wasn’t true. Because it would always lead him to thoughts of what would transpire if something were to happen to his biggest source of inspiration; if she was around no more; what would he do then?

And then he would shake his head; telling himself that he was being foolish, for nothing was going to happen to his mother, and that he would soon have enough money to get her properly treated; and then he would move on to wave his stack of newspapers in the next car’s window.

Accord

''Give up!'', says the mind,
and now the heart agrees.
What of this agony? This malice?
That no one ever sees!
What of this peace, i havent known?
Unknown to me, like the floatin trees;
Of Babylon!
Which way do they sway, when a certain cold breeze,
Hits their upside down copses;whither do the leaves
Fall? Down or up, towards the sky?
If so, then why?
Or, are there Djins, and Ghosts and ghouls?
And terrifying ghost-houses with forlorn souls.
Pity! For the haunted, who no one consoles.
Furthermore, on the contrary if we are to think.
Do djins and Ghouls dwell in barren lands,
Stories being stories,
Tales to overwhelm?
And so do they think of us humans
.............as we of them?
And are they afraid of the horror i.e ''Man''
And is honesty really the policy best?
Coz men have failed while being so!,
Or were they; simply put; or else,
They surely would have forseen so!
Hypocrisy; it shines when put to test.
Man notes and progresses,
forgetting the rest!
Seemingly tis a powerhouse of unflinching zest!
But it does make life look like a sorry jest!
Tis new yet the biggest mystery of them all!
Does the heart have any role in feelings.
Does it transcend and mould and bend;
The way we make our dealings?
Or is it a mere organ, devoid of sentiments;
Like the hectic learned man,
Who never diverts an inch or so ever,
From the purposed plan.
If so then Lo!
Tis only brain,
And heart muscle and vein.
The idioms and phrases of yore,
Are apt to go down the drain.
So much hassle bout the heart of before,
All in vain!
Hail the mightiest of organs; the real vital one
The mighty electrical brain,
And yet, i am unsure
and so there is room for contrabands,
And thus ardently the question stands,
Because to this there is more,
And im fiendishly unsure,
And this my brain with my heart grieves,
How can the brain and the heart,
So peacefuly be at ease?

Can't come up with a title... NOT ready for publishing!

If you were one of the unfortunate victims of the deranged and vicious attack on the Christian community in Lahore a couple of months back, chances are that you are one of those really few people in Pakistan who still hasn’t applied the forgive and forget, or rather forget, policy related to the whole event. You were there; you know the whole story. No one else knows the cold, piercing fear that impaled your heart the night the police and then a mob gathered at the house of the accused. How you and your whole community were forced to flee, fearing the worst. The worst, which you’d been imagining too demented to actually happen. And then the sense of unreality that gripped you as you stared in horror at the ashes of what had once been something that belonged to you; at the charred roads and black smoke that encompassed what had once been your home; and the only thought running through your mind was:

You: What did I ever do to deserve this?

And then along comes one of the many people responsible for the burnings; the man of the hour, here to rescue you from the plight of your endless/conclusion-less pondering.

Deranged maniacs: You committed blasphemy. You insulted our Prophet (S.A.W).

You: But… I did not do anything.

Deranged maniac: Well, one of you did. You all had to be taught a lesson.

You: But the man who committed the actual blasphemy got arrested! Isn’t that lesson enough?

Deranged maniac: Pah! You’d like to think so, wouldn’t you? But it’s not as simple as that. In matters as serious as this, a stronger statement is always needed.

You: So basically, if one of us committed a blasphemous act, you deemed it fit to burn down the entire Christian community? Punish all for the crime of one? Just to send a ‘statement’?

Deranged maniac: Blasphemy is a very serious crime in our religion, boy. It must be dealt with a punishment as severe as the crime itself.

You: I don’t really get how the severity of one man committing blasphemy and that of burning down an entire community match up…

Deranged maniac: Spare me the clever talk, boy. You tell me this: what is your problem with our religion? We’re willing to live in peace with you Christians, but you’re not making that entirely possible, are you?

You: Oh, oh, so you’re calling punishing all of us brutally for one person’s crime ‘living in peace’?

Deranged maniac: Why are you portraying it like that? We’re the actual victims here!

You: You’re the victims here? HOW?

Deranged maniac: You heard me. We’re the actual victims here, just as we always are. Victims of your propagandas, always targeting our religion. This was merely a way to defend ourselves.

You: You burn down the entire Christian community to defend yourself?

Deranged maniac: That was the only way. For a strong statement was needed to keep you people in check, since you obviously can’t do that yourself. I repeat: blasphemy is a VERY serious crime in our religion.

You: Are you implying that we should keep a check on EVERYONE here and stop them from committing a crime; else it’s hell for all of us? That’s impossible.

Deranged maniac: (shrugs) Then deal with the consequences. Remember: as you sow, so shall you reap.

You: So you’re actually defending the mindless atrocity of your actions.

Deranged maniac: I stand by what happened. You deserved it.

You: Deserve – what, HOW? Okay, let me explain the situation to you in very simple words. Suppose a person committed a robbery. The punishment for that in Islam is that the hand of the one responsible gets cut off, right?

Deranged maniac: (nods vigorously) Yes.

You: Okay. So if a person steals, do you cut his hand off, or do you go and cut off the hands of his entire family as well?

Deranged maniac: Only the person who stole would be punished. Why his family? Islam is a very fair and just religion.

You: Exactly. So isn’t ours the same case? If a person commits blasphemy – what’s the penalty for blasphemy in Islam again?

Deranged maniac: (sourly) Death.

You: Exactly. So if a person commits blasphemy, would you not have him sentenced to death? Why burn all of our belongings and possessions down as well?

Deranged maniac: (growing frustrated) These two are completely different things!

You: HOW, pray tell? Or are you implying that blasphemy is a special case in Islam where you are allowed to take the law into your own hands and inflict whatever punishment you deem fit on the criminal?

Deranged maniac: Of course not. Islam is just.

You: Is it really? Your actions certainly suggest otherwise. Or maybe that’s because there IS no penalty for blasphemy in Islam, and you don’t know what to do about it!

Deranged maniac: (growing increasingly frustrated) There is. Stop insulting our religion.

You: I’m not insulting anything; I’m only pointing out what seems evident. Is it the fact that there is a penalty for blasphemy in Islam; you just don’t know what it is and thus decided to act of your own accord?

Deranged maniac: (suppressed anger) Are you implying that we are ignorant of the ways of our religion? Because if that’s the case –

You: Well, it’s either that, for I refuse to believe that considering how ‘perfect’ and ‘just’ Islam is, as you keep reiterating, it would allow something as senseless and unjust as this.

Deranged maniac: (seething) Do not doubt Islam, it is the fittest religion!

You: Then why are you continuously giving me reasons to doubt that?

Deranged maniac: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

You: I’ll TELL you what I’m talking about. I’ll tell you what really happened. The penalty for blasphemy in Islam is death; death for the criminal. But that isn’t enough for you people, is it? You always talk of Islam being the perfect religion – and maybe it is! Yet you don’t consider it perfect according to your intemperate views, and thus are redefining Islam, molding it according to your perspectives, and yet using it to defend your actions! You are using your religion, your beloved and PERFECT Islam, as an excuse for oppression. And that, my -

Deranged maniac: (takes out a gun and shoots you).

Steps Towards Democracy

A political person is appointed by the peoples and is responsible for hatching the development issues to the higher level of administration and improvises the innovative policies to improve the governance. This is one of the most respectable occupation and the elected person is considered prosperous national servant.  One of the most interesting enigmas is the process by which such 'servants' are selected. This process is referred to as the democratic where the community is given the option to mark on his favorite person's electoral symbol. The outcome of this exercise is a best servant that receives high number of votes.  The process consist of following three phases, phase-1: Pre-Poll, phase-2: During-Poll and phase-3: After-poll.

In this article the objective is to provide the hypothetical analysis about each phase under the prospective of a common Pakistani.

Phase-1: Pre-Poll

The pre-poll is the phase where the political entity reforms its social contacts by attending the funeral, marriage ceremonies; go for prayers and dinners parties etc.  The member explains his party manifesto and highlight the burning issues and vouch that his party is the final choice to pull out the nation from the current mayhem.  At this stage, the best exercise is to erode the corruption and incompetence of incumbent govern authorities by providing the references to the various cases and intend that their party manifesto is the only hope to prevent the Pakistan for additional disaster.  The member describes his fidelity and explains that how his party has suffered and faced different democratic peril and how opposition has curbed various ongoing projects. Similarly, the opposition has the same sentiments of how the government has blocked the national interest projects by bolstering the administrative discretion  The member cronies prepare various types of slogans that revel the ineffectiveness of opposite counterpart.  In short the members try to hide their incompetence by putting all garbage of corruptions and vitiated governance on the previous govern authorities and on the opposition.

Phase-2: During-Poll

The Phase 2 is short and interesting as the voter receives the higher level of importance and protocol from the member cronies. For instance, the use of vehicles, vans, cars, rickshaws and mini buses are common to take the voters in the polling stations.

Phase-3: After-Poll

The phase 3 is the actual epoch in the life of both voters and the winning member (servant). After the result announcement, the voters go the political offices to greet the winning member, enjoy a cup of tea there and come back home. The disarming journey of voter demise and servant ride starts as lot of issues upraised for him.

For instance the winning member feels that the party manifesto that brought him into this winning position is not in the wider interest of nation. He feels that, despite the corruptions (that he had proved during the election campaign) the other party is not bad as much. He deems that he can develop and serve his constituency better by joining the counterpart regime. Such ideological rejuvenation forces him to leave his incumbent association. So, do we need to obliterate such culprit system that is based on the personal goals? The answer is no, because the democratic system works like this. The ominous speculation is that the same members are going to rule the system for the next five years or more. Let it happen and allow our leader to check the temperament of the peoples.  Let the peoples bear the smashes of politician cronies on them. Let them observe how our political leaders fight each other and how they sit together. Let them witness various corruptions and one day these frustrated peoples will come out.  The day will be the 'day of judgment' and will be a staggering day for the political elite. The peoples will have their own court and the decisions will be made on immediate basis.