Why are they called Indians?

Why are natives of America called Indians? She asked me. I asked her in return, "You tell me why are they called Indians? What do you think? She replied " I think,may be because they......I dont know that's why I am asking you." I smiled and told her...ok...Now listen..
In 1453 Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) from the Byzantines. The capture of Constantinople blocked the land rout between Europe and India and Eurpoeans started thinking seriously to find the sea route to India so that they did not have to deal with hostile Turks.
Christopher Columbus was convinced that by sailing towards west the route to India could be found. Convinced by this theory King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain sponsored the voyage of Columbus to discover the sea rout to India. In 1492 Columbus sailed out for India from Spain in the western direction. After a journey of 29 days he found an Island and thought he had discovered India. The people there were called Indians by Columbus and since then the name has been stuck on the indigenous people of Americas.
She was delighted to hear this..why don't you write it down? she asked.
"Fine, I will write a post about it on my blog." I answered.

Life

The experience of living ,just living,need no efforts. When I say no effrots I mean even if we do not put our efforts to live we will continue to live till we encounter death. Live a purposeful life or just drift aimlessly you will end in a naught. In the long run who cares what happened to the lives of billions who are living today. Do we care what happened to billions of unnamed, unrecognized homo sapiens who persihed before us. In the long run everyone's life has no meaning. We are myopic creatures who think ourselves as the centre of the universe. Laughable Predisposition.
Lte's look at the life of an ant. The tiny ant may be thinking that it is making the life of fellow ants better through its efforts. That ant has just been crushed under the foot of a teenage boy while he was runnig just for running. Has anyone noticed........? "The Ant" is gone. We are no more important than these tiny ants in the larger scheme of the universe. Shooooooooooooooooo,and we are finished. The stars keep moving. Not a moment for them to mourn for us, they even dont know about us, how would they care, sum is zero.....result is nothingness. Life is a meaningless experiment of mind of a creature on the tiny ball call earth that is travelling towards emptiness. Life is a joke.....take it lightly!!!!

Two nights.....60 years apart

Last night I felt immense peace and calm as if everything was in harmony. While lying on my bed my thoughts took me away in the past and I imagined the night of September 1947 when my father, at that time 23 year old, was crossing into Pakistan from India at the time of partition in the train that was attacked many a times during its travel from Delhi. At that time what mattererd most was the survival. The passing of each moment safely was an achievement. The covering of each yard of the distance from Pakistan was a feat. It was the night of doubts, anxiety, fear and apprehension. Time passed......a night in 2006....his son now a grown up man, felt peace and calm around him.....and missed his father who passed away couple of years ago....and thought about his struggle and his love at the same time and said to him in simple words " I owe to you this night of peace and calm."

Choice!!

She (through sms)= Thanks 4 luving me.
Me(reply)=It's my choice.

teray janay kay baad.../after your departure

kuchh dair tahar jatay..
yun na chalay jatay..
hum bhi sanbhal jatay..
jo tum ruk jaatay...

yun na dhoop parti
yun na piyas barhti
yun na aansoo bahtay
yun na paaun jaltay

waqt nay sikha diya hai
ab jhooti hansi hansna
jo saibaan nahin hai
khud sar pay haath rakhna

yeh safar-e-zindagi hai
manzar badal raha hai
hum bhi badal gai hain
har shakhs badal raha hai

---------------------

had you stayed more
had you not gone like this
we would have prevailed
If you had stayed..

there would have been no such scorching sun rays
no such increasing thirst
no such flooding of tears
no such burning of feet

now we have learnt
how to pretend to be happy
if there is no shelter
how to cover head with our hands

this is the journey of life
every scene is changing
we have also changed
as every person is changing

The dream journey!!

The moonless sky glittering with stars, I and you crossing the desert in land cruiser, full blown music, you wearing blue jeans and white T shirt, your hair all over your shoulders, your eyes sleepy and I looking into them time to time ...and then we stopping and camping in the open sky....in the morning we will resume our journey towards east. You know I love to see that old fort of Jaisalmer so you accompanying me to my dream journey. O Karachi girl!!! I love you.

My love for Spanish

Hola!!!
In the beginning let me make it very clear that " I don't know Spanish" but this is also true that I want to learn Spanish. Why Spanish? The love for Spanish or to be exact for Spain started during my school days when I read the poetry of Allama Iqbal glorifying the Moorish rule of Spain. The name of the cities Gharnata (Granada) and Qartba (Cordova) represented splendor and grandeur. During the same time Pakistan Television telecasted a serial " Shaheen" based on the novel of Nasim Hijazi. The story was based on the downfall of last Moorish ruler of Spain. The names of Badr bin Mugheera and Rabeea, the hero and heroine of the novel, still resonate my ears.
My first attempt to learn Spanish was during these same school days. I bought a small book Spanish Urdu Bol Chal, sort of a Spanish phrase book with no grammar, not of any use. Time kept passing and I kept building my knowledge about Spain and its history. The life of Abdur Rehman (Ad Dakhil) is one of the great stories of history that tells us how an uprooted prince of Damascus (Umayyad Dynasty) re-established the rule of Umayyad in Spain. I also learnt about Hasham the most pious ruler of Umayyad in Spain. The friendship between Abbasid Caliph Haroon Rasheed and Spanish ruler Charlemagne is also an interesting chapter of Spanish history.
As far as learning language was concern I had little success. In 1999 through Internet I started learning Spanish again. It was an interesting start. I joined Spanish language channels in MIRC (Bolivia, Mexico, Peru, Chile etc). On these channels I used to write hi and the answer I got was hola...so I learnt hola means hello. This was the beginning. Next I got was " de donde eres". I absolutely had no idea what it was. So opened the web site alt vista and used it translation facility by writing the sentence in the window and clicking translate " Spanish to English"...what I got was " from where you are"...so it means de donde eres. I wanted to ask if the chatter is male or female so I wrote m/f?? the answer came m. I thought the chatter was male but in fact it was female because I later discovered mujer is female and hombre is male. So in Spanish it is m/h? to ask for gender. Through these chatting sessions I learnt more words and sentences. Eprendiendo espanol...I am learning Spanish. Muchu Gusto...(Nice to meet you) Igualmente (same here) and blah blah blah. I also made friendship with a girl from Bolivia and I tried to write in Spanish by taking help from alta vista web site. My adventure in learning Spanish was limited on net and no one to speak to me so it didn't go much longer. Now here I know little bit of Spanish but of course I cannot claim that I know Spanish. I haven't given it up. I will one day learn Spanish and read Spanish literature without translation. The books of García Márquez will be among the first ones. Adios.