Sunday, December 6, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Change
I am often reminded, that babies are one hell of a miracle. I mean, how can something soo tiny make one feel all warm and cute and suddenly all responsible? It is said that one of the best feelings in the world is when a baby is asleep in ur arms, or when a baby holds your finger tightly with both of his hands. Its then when you feel like, whoevers child it may be, you are responsible for his well being, that you should protect him with everything you got, that you should stay standing up in an awkward position, which infact is cramping every single muscle of your body, just so the baby sleeping on your shoulder doesnt wake up. And be it just for a few minutes that you are with a baby, you think. you think of how you can make that childs future life better, that how you can be there for that kid whenever he needs any support. You think of ways to make him the luckiest kid there ever was.
But amongst us, are kids that go un-noticed. be it the ones in sheltering homes, the ones in disfunctional schools, to our house keeping staff, or the beggars on the street. People around those kids may have built castles in their mind, just like us, when they met them, but sadly arent fortunate enough to provide em with that. Or those kids on the streets, whose parents just think o em as another source of income from the second they are born, just so that their hard earned money is snatched and spent on some vice their parents have, for example smoking or drinking or..even drugs. Who, if not their parents, are there to think about their future? People who are well off have settled with the idea that fine, if their parents wont think about them, what can we do to change something which is almost every where and, as far as we think, uncure-able. Or even the ever popular and well abused "flawed system", damn if we had a nickle for every time that happened, we might just be giving loans to the states for a change.
But, there is SOMETHING we can do. something that might just change the "flawed system", something that might just circle around it. And its pretty simple, government schools. there are plenty, always near by from our residence, whereever we live. lets give enough credit to the government that they built an ample amount of schools (no matter how hollow it is). How about, we as a society, contribute to the government. and fine for some would be thinking this is prepostorous, that we pay taxes and that should be enough, to think of this boys audacity to tell us to work for the "governement" and that too for "FREE" after all the taxes THEY PAYED. well, screw you then, if you plan on being this hopeless and retarded, you are no different from the "bad" parents i just told about before.
So continuing, cant we all, just contribute a few hours to the nearest possible schools? the schools go on all day, morning and evening. can we, for a few hours, let the party, that we are supposed to have, wait? can the sheesha gathering wait for a couple of hours? or better still, can the parties just stop for ONE day, so that the cash being saved (which i am estimating to be around an average of 400 bucks per head) to be directed to the donation box of some run-down school? hell we can party any day and any time, but can those kids, whose teachers have ran off because they werent paid, can those kids afford a day of not seeing the slightest chance of an education or a brighter future? what is more important, one day of our party, or those kids entire future? we can take a break, they cant.
My sister is working in a semi-government body which regulates such types of schools, and she reminds me that how run down the schools can be. One of my cousin is enrolled in her schools programme that they have to spend a certain amount of hours in such types of school and teach the kids. She also tells me about things in those schools, that make my spine freeze for a second and just wonder.
And lets be honoest about it, this isnt alot to ask for, is it? a few hours away from a cafe, so that (and i might be delusionally optimistic here) more people can get enough education to open more cafes even? or a few hundred bucks not being spent on sheesha just for a day even,for a handfull of smiles from kids whose future may just have been more possible with that cash? Wont these, as some retardedly "hunks" might say, non fun/non cool stuff, make you feel more good and give you a better sleep at night knowing you played your part, and that you played it well?
Isnt it about time already, that we start giving back? Isnt it time already, that we let these kids feel like they are the luckiest ones alive? Are we ready, to bring about a change?
I rest my case here.
But amongst us, are kids that go un-noticed. be it the ones in sheltering homes, the ones in disfunctional schools, to our house keeping staff, or the beggars on the street. People around those kids may have built castles in their mind, just like us, when they met them, but sadly arent fortunate enough to provide em with that. Or those kids on the streets, whose parents just think o em as another source of income from the second they are born, just so that their hard earned money is snatched and spent on some vice their parents have, for example smoking or drinking or..even drugs. Who, if not their parents, are there to think about their future? People who are well off have settled with the idea that fine, if their parents wont think about them, what can we do to change something which is almost every where and, as far as we think, uncure-able. Or even the ever popular and well abused "flawed system", damn if we had a nickle for every time that happened, we might just be giving loans to the states for a change.
But, there is SOMETHING we can do. something that might just change the "flawed system", something that might just circle around it. And its pretty simple, government schools. there are plenty, always near by from our residence, whereever we live. lets give enough credit to the government that they built an ample amount of schools (no matter how hollow it is). How about, we as a society, contribute to the government. and fine for some would be thinking this is prepostorous, that we pay taxes and that should be enough, to think of this boys audacity to tell us to work for the "governement" and that too for "FREE" after all the taxes THEY PAYED. well, screw you then, if you plan on being this hopeless and retarded, you are no different from the "bad" parents i just told about before.
So continuing, cant we all, just contribute a few hours to the nearest possible schools? the schools go on all day, morning and evening. can we, for a few hours, let the party, that we are supposed to have, wait? can the sheesha gathering wait for a couple of hours? or better still, can the parties just stop for ONE day, so that the cash being saved (which i am estimating to be around an average of 400 bucks per head) to be directed to the donation box of some run-down school? hell we can party any day and any time, but can those kids, whose teachers have ran off because they werent paid, can those kids afford a day of not seeing the slightest chance of an education or a brighter future? what is more important, one day of our party, or those kids entire future? we can take a break, they cant.
My sister is working in a semi-government body which regulates such types of schools, and she reminds me that how run down the schools can be. One of my cousin is enrolled in her schools programme that they have to spend a certain amount of hours in such types of school and teach the kids. She also tells me about things in those schools, that make my spine freeze for a second and just wonder.
And lets be honoest about it, this isnt alot to ask for, is it? a few hours away from a cafe, so that (and i might be delusionally optimistic here) more people can get enough education to open more cafes even? or a few hundred bucks not being spent on sheesha just for a day even,for a handfull of smiles from kids whose future may just have been more possible with that cash? Wont these, as some retardedly "hunks" might say, non fun/non cool stuff, make you feel more good and give you a better sleep at night knowing you played your part, and that you played it well?
Isnt it about time already, that we start giving back? Isnt it time already, that we let these kids feel like they are the luckiest ones alive? Are we ready, to bring about a change?
I rest my case here.
Friday, July 10, 2009
People who surround me
Every day, we meet hundreds of people of all kinds. From them, we cautiously select a handful, to be called as our friends. Of the handful we select, some years down the lane we lose them for one reason or the other, some have to leave and some wants to. And although at that time, we do have to let go of them, their memories stay forever, good and the bad alike. I just want to go ahead, grab this opportunity and pen down a little about them, to remind me in the future years what actually made me who I became.
Accepting the rudeness of this fact, I divide my friends list in 3 circles, each one with its own special space, but with world’s difference between all of them.
To start off, the people I met at my tuitions while doing my o/a levels. This group of people I met, included my own teacher, and who ended up calling themselves as “ludhars”, a term whose meaning is unknown to date, just the macho-ism of the word is enough for them. It had a whole bunch of people in it, of which one married off (dada, as we call her) and now is expecting a baby (which am really excited about) from one gem of a husband (aki, like dada calls him), a few others who just disappeared in the thin air, whose name I don’t want to put forward, but still a few stayed. These few, I had lost touch off, appeared in the starting of the year 2009, just capturing all of my working day’s evening hours, Sunday being an off day thanks to the driver of this person, who has to be one of the most wonderful person I have ever come across, who has the painful responsibility to pick and drop a fool like me every day, really appreciate whatever she has done for me. With this person along with “dada” and her husband, I have to admit, I have done the craziest of things. From riding a horse and a camel for the first time in at least 10 years, to listening to these weird old songs at the highest volume which made me tone-deaf for an easy 24 hours, to sitting in a parlor listening to this whining off a song watching the person get a blow-dry, to stealing flowers from garden of different houses. Good times, good stuff. I have to also mention my mentor and my teacher, who has been the most “chilled” teacher to be around, smoking during his classes, drifting in his car at midnight in front of an ice cream parlor after sitting at the open rooftop of a hotel on a seriously chilly night, with no warm clothes on, or just sitting admiring the new soft sofa in his office while sitting on a rug on the floor in the hopes that we leave no marks on the sofa. Boss, as I call him, has seriously been the single reason for my interest in accounts, the sole reason I ended up going into ACCA. I just simply adore these people, all of them, without them my evenings will be pathetic, which I had to unfortunately bear a couple of days back due to some issues.
This group, recently joined by few cadets from the northern side of Pakistan, have breathed a more exciting and weird life into the group. I have my fair share of funny memories with them, one which happened today only, which I might just never forget. These 2 cadets, and I, were rudely left stranded on the streets, by our ‘transporter (please don’t kill me for this=p)”. But, seizing the moment, and trying to show that we don’t really mind sitting on the street divider (which we did!), we took a few pictures, adored the scenery ahead of us and saying a few weird movie dialogues about being left alone and stuff. Sadly, my data cables fried, so won’t be able to put them up.
Another addition to this group has to be my friend since class 6. Really fun to be around, I have known her for decades, although sharing more troubled memories than good ones, still, her addition has been a good experience in its own.
The other group, which spun off and joined another, started when I joined this place “lecole”, at the start of my ACCA. That time gave me 2 friends, out of which one I am not so much in touch with, but our ways keep crossing each other and we happen to know about each others’ basic routines. The other one is who I came to call as a really close friend of mine(H.A.S), and ignoring the tiny differences about us, his life’s experiences are carbon copied to mine. We both lost our serious relationships at the same time; we have had the same problems over the years, and we both share the same thoughts on major of things, especially our love for our beloved city, Karachi. He has launched his own business a few weeks back, and I wish him well. From this same person, I ended up getting into another group. A group which amazes me. One can fail to explain how intellectual yet fun these guys can be. Being very successful in their own fields, I came in contact with them just a few months back, and have been literally amazed by their discussions. It makes me really happy and proud to see, people of their words are still alive, people with principles and a surprising level of respect for every human being, and that I know them. It is magic, when around them, discussing about all kinds of things, and this makes the time fly. The flying time has been a problem, because late home coming is really not my dad’s thing, and has landed me in a few messy situations. But I think it’s worth it, u give when u get.
The last, but equally important, is the group who am mostly in touch with my cell or my msn. Out of this, a few live countries away, while the rest being just streets down, yet with no physical interaction, and whose faces I may have clearly forgotten and vice versa. This includes 2 of my oldest friends, “dany boy” who I know ever since I joined my prep classes, and the other, “aunti” as I call her, who I’ve known since class 8. Dany boy has been around ever since I can remember, and we somehow are always in touch, and know almost all there is to know about each others’ lives. He lives a few blocks away, yet we fail to meet as much as we could, thanks to our schedules and commitments. The other, aunti, also living a few blocks away, has known me for ages now. She too, knows everything there is to know, thanks to being constantly in touch through SMS every single day. Not a day has passed when we haven’t been just yapping about the most useless of the stuffs to each other.
This other person, who as well, was with me in class 8, had disappeared when changing her country. But, thanks to facebook, we got back in touch around end 2008, and ended up being, probably, the most retarded of the people on net. We have crapped about any and every famous personality, and made the lamest jokes ever, and laughed loud enough to even make the neighbors shout! It’s never boring talking to her, and I mean NEVER.
Other then these, I have also managed not to lose touch with the people I grew up with, or even went out with, who had been really important to me and who I might never be able forget no matter what, no matter how.
These all are the people, whose faces I might have forgotten and whose birthday dates I may never remember had there been no facebook/orkut reminders, I respect them all, and they have played their own parts in making me who I am today, and have played it rather well.
This ends my tiny list of the close friends and people who surround them. These are people I am ready to take a bullet for, happily, and knowing them, hopefully, is something I’ll never regret to the date I live, for one thing is sure, I’ll never be able to forget any of them.
Once again, shout out to all the friends, thanks a ton, something I don’t really say as much as I should. And sorry if I have left anyone’s names or nicks, it is kind of late at night right now and my mind is rather tired from an exhausting day. So,Peace!
Syed Muhammad Raheel Nabi Shah.
Accepting the rudeness of this fact, I divide my friends list in 3 circles, each one with its own special space, but with world’s difference between all of them.
To start off, the people I met at my tuitions while doing my o/a levels. This group of people I met, included my own teacher, and who ended up calling themselves as “ludhars”, a term whose meaning is unknown to date, just the macho-ism of the word is enough for them. It had a whole bunch of people in it, of which one married off (dada, as we call her) and now is expecting a baby (which am really excited about) from one gem of a husband (aki, like dada calls him), a few others who just disappeared in the thin air, whose name I don’t want to put forward, but still a few stayed. These few, I had lost touch off, appeared in the starting of the year 2009, just capturing all of my working day’s evening hours, Sunday being an off day thanks to the driver of this person, who has to be one of the most wonderful person I have ever come across, who has the painful responsibility to pick and drop a fool like me every day, really appreciate whatever she has done for me. With this person along with “dada” and her husband, I have to admit, I have done the craziest of things. From riding a horse and a camel for the first time in at least 10 years, to listening to these weird old songs at the highest volume which made me tone-deaf for an easy 24 hours, to sitting in a parlor listening to this whining off a song watching the person get a blow-dry, to stealing flowers from garden of different houses. Good times, good stuff. I have to also mention my mentor and my teacher, who has been the most “chilled” teacher to be around, smoking during his classes, drifting in his car at midnight in front of an ice cream parlor after sitting at the open rooftop of a hotel on a seriously chilly night, with no warm clothes on, or just sitting admiring the new soft sofa in his office while sitting on a rug on the floor in the hopes that we leave no marks on the sofa. Boss, as I call him, has seriously been the single reason for my interest in accounts, the sole reason I ended up going into ACCA. I just simply adore these people, all of them, without them my evenings will be pathetic, which I had to unfortunately bear a couple of days back due to some issues.
This group, recently joined by few cadets from the northern side of Pakistan, have breathed a more exciting and weird life into the group. I have my fair share of funny memories with them, one which happened today only, which I might just never forget. These 2 cadets, and I, were rudely left stranded on the streets, by our ‘transporter (please don’t kill me for this=p)”. But, seizing the moment, and trying to show that we don’t really mind sitting on the street divider (which we did!), we took a few pictures, adored the scenery ahead of us and saying a few weird movie dialogues about being left alone and stuff. Sadly, my data cables fried, so won’t be able to put them up.
Another addition to this group has to be my friend since class 6. Really fun to be around, I have known her for decades, although sharing more troubled memories than good ones, still, her addition has been a good experience in its own.
The other group, which spun off and joined another, started when I joined this place “lecole”, at the start of my ACCA. That time gave me 2 friends, out of which one I am not so much in touch with, but our ways keep crossing each other and we happen to know about each others’ basic routines. The other one is who I came to call as a really close friend of mine(H.A.S), and ignoring the tiny differences about us, his life’s experiences are carbon copied to mine. We both lost our serious relationships at the same time; we have had the same problems over the years, and we both share the same thoughts on major of things, especially our love for our beloved city, Karachi. He has launched his own business a few weeks back, and I wish him well. From this same person, I ended up getting into another group. A group which amazes me. One can fail to explain how intellectual yet fun these guys can be. Being very successful in their own fields, I came in contact with them just a few months back, and have been literally amazed by their discussions. It makes me really happy and proud to see, people of their words are still alive, people with principles and a surprising level of respect for every human being, and that I know them. It is magic, when around them, discussing about all kinds of things, and this makes the time fly. The flying time has been a problem, because late home coming is really not my dad’s thing, and has landed me in a few messy situations. But I think it’s worth it, u give when u get.
The last, but equally important, is the group who am mostly in touch with my cell or my msn. Out of this, a few live countries away, while the rest being just streets down, yet with no physical interaction, and whose faces I may have clearly forgotten and vice versa. This includes 2 of my oldest friends, “dany boy” who I know ever since I joined my prep classes, and the other, “aunti” as I call her, who I’ve known since class 8. Dany boy has been around ever since I can remember, and we somehow are always in touch, and know almost all there is to know about each others’ lives. He lives a few blocks away, yet we fail to meet as much as we could, thanks to our schedules and commitments. The other, aunti, also living a few blocks away, has known me for ages now. She too, knows everything there is to know, thanks to being constantly in touch through SMS every single day. Not a day has passed when we haven’t been just yapping about the most useless of the stuffs to each other.
This other person, who as well, was with me in class 8, had disappeared when changing her country. But, thanks to facebook, we got back in touch around end 2008, and ended up being, probably, the most retarded of the people on net. We have crapped about any and every famous personality, and made the lamest jokes ever, and laughed loud enough to even make the neighbors shout! It’s never boring talking to her, and I mean NEVER.
Other then these, I have also managed not to lose touch with the people I grew up with, or even went out with, who had been really important to me and who I might never be able forget no matter what, no matter how.
These all are the people, whose faces I might have forgotten and whose birthday dates I may never remember had there been no facebook/orkut reminders, I respect them all, and they have played their own parts in making me who I am today, and have played it rather well.
This ends my tiny list of the close friends and people who surround them. These are people I am ready to take a bullet for, happily, and knowing them, hopefully, is something I’ll never regret to the date I live, for one thing is sure, I’ll never be able to forget any of them.
Once again, shout out to all the friends, thanks a ton, something I don’t really say as much as I should. And sorry if I have left anyone’s names or nicks, it is kind of late at night right now and my mind is rather tired from an exhausting day. So,Peace!
Syed Muhammad Raheel Nabi Shah.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Social Circus
Everyday we curse our country and its so called "system", a word which even a 5 year old can talk about. Many geniuses say that all it takes is one person to solve the entire thing. The person, me. If i change myself things will become all favourable. Its me who ll have to change, not them, not anyone else. And if i dont change, than ladies and gentlemen, we are stuck with the same corrupt environment. We say knowing that its highly impossible, i mean, seriously, if i change, how will things change for others? people will do what they want, no matter what, no mater what i become. It ll take alot of courage to accept that yes, we are back to the jungle rule, where the one with the power is the law.
Every single day we are waiting at the signal, waiting hours at each. It just opens for 15 seconds, the average time that is required to wake up the people in the front line with our deafening horns. Its green, 15 seconds later all the cars ahead of us leave, except ours. Thus we are forced to break signals, taking ourselves as james bond, gunning our rides to the other end in less than a second, dodging the trafic coming right at us like angry bulls. We still break the signal, showing our asses to the others, to the standing policemen, to the whole "system". But well, our glory is short lived, as some policeman comes infront of our car with his fat belly and his slick jutt tone, and we know its time to feed the hungry beast with some colored paper, which we consider as great value, yet it takes only a mere cent to make.
Anyways, leaving this thought aside, we are stuck on the middle of a road, stuck with a cow with paper horns which will turn into flowers as soon as we flash them. The geniuses sitting on our heads, have a very simple approach to this: ask for the proper ticket. Oh my, how could i have missed that? To be responsible, i have to take the proper ticket, and avoid the monster called "bribe".
So i try this, i try asking for a proper ticket, like a responsible citizen whose changing his life so that things get easier for others, lovely. I run a red light, get caught, ask for a ticket. And what a lovely response i get: lets not get into the paper works, we are brothers, i wouldnt like to see you standing in the line in some bank. How sweet! But sadly it just means its flashing time again. But once again, my civil duty hits me, and i argue that i really want a ticket. He gives me one, 900 bucks for running a red light. Good enough, i deserve this. But that is not enough for the cow, who has suddenly turned nasty. He demands paper(money), "demands" it. He has my license, and wont even give me my ticket, without which i cant have my license back. So back to the monster it is. I bribed a cop to GIVE ME A TICKET!! Brilliant.
So maybe it is not only me who has to change. maybe it is time to be more sensible and accept, that yes, we all have to change. Getting a ticket is not all that is required, it is more than that, much more than that. It is about time that we stop pointing fingers at everything, and start pointing at things which really pisses us off: us. We cant change anything, when we think the smallest of the things, like signals, are unfair. And no, a single "leader" wont be able to change anything for us. We need an army of leaders, ruthless leaders, like Fidel Castro, like Che Guevara, in short: we need the worst to fix us up, and we need a whole lot of them, fast.
Every single day we are waiting at the signal, waiting hours at each. It just opens for 15 seconds, the average time that is required to wake up the people in the front line with our deafening horns. Its green, 15 seconds later all the cars ahead of us leave, except ours. Thus we are forced to break signals, taking ourselves as james bond, gunning our rides to the other end in less than a second, dodging the trafic coming right at us like angry bulls. We still break the signal, showing our asses to the others, to the standing policemen, to the whole "system". But well, our glory is short lived, as some policeman comes infront of our car with his fat belly and his slick jutt tone, and we know its time to feed the hungry beast with some colored paper, which we consider as great value, yet it takes only a mere cent to make.
Anyways, leaving this thought aside, we are stuck on the middle of a road, stuck with a cow with paper horns which will turn into flowers as soon as we flash them. The geniuses sitting on our heads, have a very simple approach to this: ask for the proper ticket. Oh my, how could i have missed that? To be responsible, i have to take the proper ticket, and avoid the monster called "bribe".
So i try this, i try asking for a proper ticket, like a responsible citizen whose changing his life so that things get easier for others, lovely. I run a red light, get caught, ask for a ticket. And what a lovely response i get: lets not get into the paper works, we are brothers, i wouldnt like to see you standing in the line in some bank. How sweet! But sadly it just means its flashing time again. But once again, my civil duty hits me, and i argue that i really want a ticket. He gives me one, 900 bucks for running a red light. Good enough, i deserve this. But that is not enough for the cow, who has suddenly turned nasty. He demands paper(money), "demands" it. He has my license, and wont even give me my ticket, without which i cant have my license back. So back to the monster it is. I bribed a cop to GIVE ME A TICKET!! Brilliant.
So maybe it is not only me who has to change. maybe it is time to be more sensible and accept, that yes, we all have to change. Getting a ticket is not all that is required, it is more than that, much more than that. It is about time that we stop pointing fingers at everything, and start pointing at things which really pisses us off: us. We cant change anything, when we think the smallest of the things, like signals, are unfair. And no, a single "leader" wont be able to change anything for us. We need an army of leaders, ruthless leaders, like Fidel Castro, like Che Guevara, in short: we need the worst to fix us up, and we need a whole lot of them, fast.
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