Because I Chose Not To Be You

I just registered for my first vote ever.

I choose to be different than the usual lot, you see. I choose not to abuse Zardari’s mother everytime the electricity goes and my so important world of watching football, cricket, f1 or using Facebook gets interrupted.

I choose not to be part of the lot who sits in their drawing rooms with guests and when the discussion on politics arises, I choose not to call my people “illiterate bastards/jahil”. I choose not to argue on the dinner table whether the Sharif brothers or Imran Khan can change the fate of my Pakistan.


Stay Hungry; Stay Foolish

Steve Jobs has been an idol for me and for thousands of other Computer Science students growing up. This man has alone, changed the face of the industry. He is the man behind today’s Personal Computer. Coming up with GUI which changed the face of computers. He is responsible for changing the mobile phone industry with the iPhone, which means you wouldn’t be even seeing androids or any other smart phones as good as they are today. He woke up the tablet industry with the iPad. Revolutionized digital music with the iPod and iTunes. And finally came up with Pixar.


Rub Dilan Wich He Rehnda

Masjid dha day mander dha day, dha day jo kuch dhanda,

Ek bunday da dil na dhaween, rub dilan wich he rehnda.

You can destroy the mosque, you can tear down the temple, you can break anything that can be broken,

But never break anyone’s heart, that’s where truth lives, that’s where God lives.


Crass sounds. And monotony.

I know this place. It’s high. It’s smelly. Yet, in all its dinginess, it’s beautiful. I can see smoke emerging from a chimney, the vapors untying and then fusing, yet again, in a mystic dance, forming swirls of grey/black/purple set against a picturesque sunset, and stumpy yet supple low-lying clouds. There’s an orange sun, gleaming through those cumuli, so that it looks like a diffusing orb. I can feel raindrops on my flesh; the miniature puddles lustrous, like crystals, telling me tales of exhaustion, relaxation, purity, pollution, whatever you may. The air is mellifluous yet the humdrum and reverberation of sounds forms a repetitive composition. The muffled beeping of cars, the banter of kids frolicking in the rain, the sloshing of water, as impatient automobiles send it displacing everywhere, a silently raucous cacophony. This place I am in, the peeled paint and low-lying electricity wires telling stories of the unkempt monstrosity which it is, except that it doesn’t look as ugly to my eyes, as to yours maybe. It is love that I feel, seeping from the clasped hands of the couple walking by, or the mother feeding her child somewhere down below. Love; inhumanely selfish, yet a savior, compassionate and benevolent. As I gaze down below, my city, in all its division and discord, looks united. Perhaps the interconnected lanes and paths, and the even similar accents of voices trailing upwards sowed this into my mind? Or maybe because I can’t see the self-imposed boundaries between places this high up?


Give Me a Dose of Escapism

What is real and what is not, is different for everyone. We all have our own internal representation of reality which comes about due the fact that our knowledge of this world and nature differs across the board. Reality in essence is something absolute but because of our wildly different perceptions, it becomes something subjective; making reality a very abstract concept. However, in our own little (or vast for some) world reality becomes a “narrowed down” concept which only pertains to the intricacies and complexities of our daily life. Therefore the world is our reality and it our world (abstract I know). It is a bubble, a bubble with a very tiny radius but whatever we (or someone else) manage to put in it becomes our very own reality.


Someday

Someday, I’ll blog about pastures. About green. About deep, deep valleys, and an asthma-less me running in between them. Someday, I’ll blog about needs which have been quenched. I wonder if quenched needs are any fun to write about.
Someday, I’ll blog about smiles. I’ll write a whole post. Dedicated only to smiles. Their smiles. I’ll write sharply and precisely, so that when you read it, you shall see the smile, as if it were a photograph. I’ll talk of the exact curve of their lips; I’ll tell of the hint of lip balm on the lips; I’ll wax eloquent about the teeth. Yes, teeth, I’ve realized, are very important. I’ll write about the smiles, without writing about the effect that they induce in me. Because that, as they say, is a whole different story.
Someday, I’ll blog about contentment, and what that feels like. Someday, when I might know what contentment feels like.
Someday, I’ll blog about pouring summer rains, and making love in the mud. Someday, when I might know what making love in the mud feels like.
Someday, I’ll blog about the Unsaid. I’ll blog up a storm, like that which it engulfs me with, and I’ll write about all the smiles, the tears, the wonder, the frustration, the heartbeat and the heartbreak. I’ll write about how it meant jokingly little, and how it meant painfully much. I’ll blog and blog and blog, until I shall have recreated it all. Because, by God, I could live it again. And again. Perhaps again.

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Parents and Materialism… Oh and Art

This other day I was scanning a wedding area for a table where I would be able to enjoy my large plate of food. I found one with few acquaintances and a couple of strangers. I sat myself down passed a smile around just to be polite and then dug right in. The food was delicious and hence needless to say that the food had my undivided attention whilst I ignored my fellow diners. However, to my dismay, my bliss was only ephemeral thanks to a voice that came from across the table saying, “So Mufaddal, I here you are doing a lot of theatre these days, how is that going?” I looked up and on the far side of the table was seated a rather large man wearing a pitch black business suit with a light blue shirt and an Armani tie. I did not fail to see the golden diamond studded Rolex watch on his left arm either. He moved forward waiting for an answer and I could not help but notice his pot belly getting squeezed between the table and himself.
“Oh! It is going quite fine uncle,” I finally replied, “it is such a thrill to be on stage.”
“I am sure it is” said the man with his tongue in his cheek. “Anyway beta speaking of theatre, what do you think of the state of Pakistani cinema these days?”
My jaw dropped. Only a blind man could have ever been forgiven to create the link between cinema and theatre; they are nothing alike. But then again he was a big shot entrepreneur who ran a huge ass corporate firm, so I forgave him. “Umm Uncle I think it is pretty stagnant, even “Bol” didn’t do much for it. If the Pakistani Cinema is to progress, then they need to release movies of the caliber of “Khuda Kai liye” and “Bol” much more often” I answered feeling quite sure of what I was saying.
“I quite agree with you” said the business man, “It is not just the cinema, it is every art form that is dying in this country and it is very sad.”
I could totally tell by the gloom on his face that he was heartbroken. “All is not lost uncle, music is doing pretty well and I am sure it has a bright future seeing that your talented son is soon to join the industry.”
“Ah no, no, no, no,” came the immediate and stern reply. “He cannot do that he has to run the family business you see.”


One Collective Roar

We have adopted two traits that are beginning to haunt us on a national scale; one being that of giving up and entering into a resignation mode, the other being that of embracing disintegration and divide with generosity. And in times like these, it is easy to blame external elements for everything that goes wrong. I asked myself if this was the right approach. I asked myself if chanting empty slogans without belief, repeating saintly teachings without action and envisioning a prosperous Pakistan without any real vision should be the backbone of a new Pakistan.


Muse

 

My dreams may be broken,
My muse still remains.

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Amy Winehouse and Pakistan

Why is it that we don’t see a status on Facebook or grief from our youth when countless people die everyday, for example nowadays in China. 91 died in Norway. A thousand people or more were killed in 2011 in Karachi alone. But why is it that when a druggie-singer dies, all our cool bachay post statuses telling her to RIP?

Do not give me the argument that a thing like Facebook doesnt represent us or our youth, it does.

This just sucks, man.

 


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