Airport security - safety for some, strip show for some

This fellow was left semi nude in the lobby of Jinnah Airport, after the metal detector beeped 'cause of metal buttons in his kurta. Must be messaging his family: "raped, dont expect me home tonight".

Reconnecting - old comrades

Its funny, actually, how we end up meeting people from our pasts un-expectedly. And by meeting I mean a physical interaction or merely chatting up through a few ridiculous texts. I had one of those days when a lot of people from your past come out in front of you at once, and it’s like a pleasant blur. Be it the ex fellow students, at a hotel, that I ran into when I went to have lunch, or talking to an ex-friend through SMS like it was 2004 again and the time when everything was suddenly all "electric", or chatting up shit with one of your old teacher.

It brings me to one pressing thought, the sense of how much people have changed, how much I, as a person, have changed over this time. But then there’s this thing which amazes me more, it’s that no matter how much people change, a few things remain constant in them. A prime example would be my want of a private jet, ever since I was 15, when I saw this actor dude hitching a plane with a rock star in some movie. The exciting thing was I told a certain someone, who I was talking to after a very long time, I still want a plane, and she flipped over the fact that I STILL want that. It is ridiculous, this wish of mine, I should clearly accept. But just maybe, it’s that thing in me which reminds me of who I was, and how much I have changed over this time. Maybe, the wish is just an anchor point of the past. Mind dwells on countless explanations. I shall repeat though, I still want a private jet. Black in color, with a matching Lamborghini. Donations are welcomed, in pretty much any form.

Another "reconnecting" event of the day, worth to be repeated, is that this teacher of mine, who taught me 2 years back, called - to tell me lecole is starting its ACCA program again. Fun was the fact that we actually bitched for half an hour about how the students of other schools are not sane enough to be... well, humans. And by human I mean a general yet bearable personality bearing person.

It’s amazing how human changes over time. Even more amazing is the fact that no matter how much they change, they somehow stay the same. All I’m trying to say here is its fun talking with old comrades after a long time. It reminded me the reason I have a sore ass, I kept sitting on nails.

PHET effect - on the streets and at the hotel

I sit in the lounge of Regent Plaza, a somewhat known hotel to me, waiting for my room to get ready. My sister has an exam in an hour. It’s pouring madly outside. CFA people didn’t find it in their interest to postpone the paper. Thus after a hurried session of packing my valuables, jamming in the car, and hitting the road at break neck speed, we arrive at Regent.

Now you may be thinking, why did we shift to this hotel, what about the house? Well, the house, after much tear and sweat was sealed against rain water the whole day yesterday, but the seal didn’t match the wrath of the rain. When it started to rain last night, around 2 AM, the house was in waters within an hour. Specially my room. It became a mini pond. Rest of the rooms were relatively dry. Ironic for this to happen to someone who is water phobic?

So well, the whole night was spent awake, with me and my dad manually trying to throw the water out as much as we could and seal the places with cement and plaster. It was useless, as it turned out. The water was one tough opponent, always finding ways to get in. I tried countless strategies of the Need for Speed game, to think of ways how difficult is this challenge, and how difficult the next challenge will be?

And while waiting in the lobby, I meet a student, waiting for her turn to come so she can go in the exam room. She’s scared for her exam, yet she is more scared about how it’s going to be when she comes out, how far will her house be under the waters? I shudder to think the condition of my house right now. Probably a nesting place for fishes?

Now the truth is: I have no idea how it’s going to turn out now. I’m now in the refuge of a hotel, which of course is un-safe in this country, my room is still not ready, and it will take half an hour more. My sister’s paper starts in an hour. God help us all. I don’t want to drown.

PHET- up

Right now, as i write, its starting to rain outside. I put all my phones on charge, tell the people of the house to do the same. Get the torches out, and clean the generator. My sister is sleeping right now behind me, she has a paper tommorow. I just hope she wakes up to a dry sunny day.
I write this, to summarise the fiasco happening in my life in the past couple of days due to this cyclone PHET. Ever since it has started, just a couple o days back, life in karachi for me has been somewhat crippled. Different channels giving different reports, different websites giving their own little views on how its going to struck karachi.
My mom has been the worst hit uptil now i suppose. She has been worried like PHET is going to come right upto our house and knock on our door and ask for a shower. All the sms she recieves are automatically repeated at the maximum volume to the entire house, all the website reports are saved and emailed to everyone. She even has made a contingent plan of shifting to a hotel, which is apparently the only place where the cyclone wont be planning to go. When this is all over, and i hope it is really soon, she will be the one who feels the most relieved i suppose.
So well, starting off BBC has been a giant pain in the arse about this. Last night it predicted clear skies, and well, it rained bullocks over my house. Clear skies? My ass! Weather.com/yahoo weather has been predicting thunderstorms every hour, and today the whole day it predicted the same, when the sun was out and i was drenched in sweat getting my house sealed from the expected water. The dilemma is, who to believe here?
Which brings me to a whole different news, urgent house restructuring took place today. In a span of 2 hours, the house was made somewhat waterproof. The water tank raised, the entrance doors of the ground floor recieved bricks and cement, to make sure no water creeps in (like the last time it rained, and there was 2ft of water inside the house), the windows sealed with this silicone stuff, and sand dunes being made on all open spots. Oh and the cars got these black pipes on their asses to stop the water from going up its holes. Funny much i suppose.
This cyclone PHET is seriously getting on my nerves. Im tired of friends sms-ing me to tell me how fun it was for them to know me, how its time they drown and die, or sms-ing stuff like take care, stay on high grounds and blah blah. I may be the most care-free person about PHET right now, i dont care if it hits or not. If it does, bad luck, we gotta suck up and live with it. If not, we still get a shit load of rain to face, and well.. suck up.
All i care about is that i got a paper on thursday. And BBC predicts a sunny day. God help me!

Justice - a state of mind

Past few events have left me wondering. Justice is a state of mind now, and probably left as a myth. It is now much alike the tooth fairy.
Guardians of justice, the lawyers, are day after day being blamed for being corrupted. And sure, some of these accusations might just be un-based, a rumour. But atleast some of that has to be true! My opinion is.. well, all the buggers are busy getting a piece of the action, why should anyone take judges to be angels in this place.
So now what is left of justice? For some it is just to get the word out there, that hey! this happened. Media flashes a few camera their way, and bam, justice for them is done, word is out, a few brothers read about it, a few see it on the tv. Moment of silence.
For some, it may just be about getting a police report made. The police goes around, after much references of powerfull people and things, and arrests some boy who had nothing to do with it all, but wrongly captured for the heck of closing one case. Case closed.
Justice might as well be more of a mist now, thin and very hard to see. I wonder is there real justice out there? I doubt it. I just hope my worries are someday proved wrong, and toothfairies do exsist.
I have alot of teeths lying around.

Perhaps befitting the current state of the whole world.

a sunset.

watching a sunset,
is like dawning of a mist on you,
a mist which turns you into a mere lump.

your mind forgets how to think,
your body forgets how to move,
the earth and your feet are suddenly one.

your body gets stiff,
in the hope of stopping the sun from going away,
the eyes are left as a mere camera lens,
capturing the moment,
which you can never witness from any other photo.

you silently pray, like a little kid -
Oh Lord! please let the sun stay..
a few minutes more wont really harm its grace?

but alas! its gone,
and you are left there, staring into the dark,
but then maybe tommorow,
you'll be there yet again, with open arms,
just this time, to welcome it back to your world.

PS: this might be a crappy revisit to the poetic side of myslf, but had the urge to describe the scenic moment of a sunset that i witnessed recently, whose pictures might not do justice to its beauty.