Cynicism must not prevail

It was my last lecture of the course in an MBA class. As has always been the case I urged the students to be genuine, creative and forward looking. One of the students quipped that all our strategies and analysis would be of no use because in Pakistani environment an illiterate boss would scuttle our ideas and demand blind compliance of his orders. The mood of the class changed as if all their studies are in waste and they cannot make any real difference through their efforts once they are out in the field. I vehemently opposed the belief that out there in the practical life they would face ogres. Subscribing to the idea of cynicism tantamounts to accepting the role of education and educational institutions as ineffective and by the same token it would mean that my standing as a teacher has no impact on the outside world.I tried to defuse despair by injecting hope among all the students and exhorted that no matter what circumstances you face keep the negative thoughts away and concentrate on delivering the best, certainly, you can and will make a difference. The cynicism must not prevail because it would paralyze your limbs and mind and leave you frustrated. You must give yourself a full chance in life by continual improvement in your education and skills. Do not succumb to cynicism because if you succumb I would lose my pride as a teacher. I have seen success and the seed of success is born in the mind, here right here in you.

Your hand

Your hand slipped away and I was lost
I am looking for that hand to find me back
Do you know how much I have missed you
In thousand dreams I have kissed you
Time sepeartes you and me
it's increasing, it's decreasing
the feel of your hand is still with me
and that gives the clue of my being.

Cold nights

Cold nights challenge me to dare out and feel their raw chill. I want to spend a night over the top of an arid mountain in Kirthar range. When cold freezes me I will take refuge in a cave and lit the fire and wait for the sun to come out.

Sunny Serene Sky

After Monday's thunderous rain Hyderabad's sky is sunny once again.
I love the colour of sky.

Timeless purity

Many will be sending you the messages to wish you happy birthday but they don't know you were born at the time when the stars were born billions of years ago. The glimmer in your eyes is similar to the glitter of heavenly diamonds in a pitch black cloudless night. Your purity is timeless and originality is intact just as the purity of stars is untouched and unmolested.

Emotions and words

She said, "I am good at words for emotions". If you are good at words for emotions you are a poet. We usually fumble and lose our way in the labyrinth of expressing our emotions. To be good in expressing ones emotions is an art because I think one is considered good in expressing the feelings if he/she is able to make other understand the feelings as well, if you are able to do so then certainly you are eloquent and you do not need to be an orator because the skill you possess is rare.

Delhi in my dream

I dreamed of Delhi last night. It was an old part of Delhi having high rise but old palaces and the tombs of saints. While passing through a street I heard someone saying to his younger brother give niaz of 2 annas for a wali but not of 4 annas, his brother replied "aftab" (aftab meant in my dream ok though actually it means "Sun"). I travelled like a wanderer on foot and thought that one day when I actually visit Dilli (let me call Delhi as Dilli as it gives the feelings of belonging) I would find these places so I tried to remember the details of the monuments.

Elegant beauty

If you were born 100 years ago you would be living in a secluded room of a Haveli in a city along river Ganges. Only your eyes could be seen from the small window of your room. Thanks God you were not born at that time and now I can see your elegant beauty unhindered.

Unaiza Nasim: In the line of duty...

Unaiza Nasim: In the line of duty...

Deciphering My Emotions.

Fiction
The difficulty to understand the nature of my emotions has not barred me to look deep inside myself and get a feeling of my emotions. I see a rampant flow of passion gushing out from my heart to inundate the target of my emotions. I am awed by the sheer power of my passion and admit the target of my emotions would be terrified to be swept away in the amorous flood yet I believe when it is over the target of my emotions would have been satiated up to the hilt. This is what I believe; what if when emotions subside I find the target of my emotions in the battered condition? What if instead of being satiated the target of my emotions is devastated? What should I do? Keep the check on my emotions and devoid the target of my emotions of the most gratifying experience of becoming the center of undivided attention of a passionate being. No I cannot go against my nature: this is the message I get from my emotions.

Anew Love Story

"The following passage is a piece of fiction."

In an alien land of your exile I want to cross your path in a murky evening as a stranger to start the love story which never began though it could have begun had I known how to begin love stories when we met for the first time. Do you know you taught me indirectly how to begin love stories? Of course you did all instinctively but through your actions I learn the instincts of woman. You became my learning ground for understanding woman for which I am indebted to you. It has been many years since I last saw you and during this time I have met hundreds of women and refined on my initial learning and I consider myself now experienced enough to begin the love story that never began with you. The story that will begin now has a plot, the title is love story but there is no love, it is a story of calculated moves in which you will have what you always wanted: hope and anxiety, excitement and boredom, victories and defeats, certainty and uncertainty a complete course in falling in love. Finally after a long quest you will get what you wanted attributing the victory to your unflinching power of love. At that moment I will smile on the naivety of my acts and foolishness of my efforts to win your heart when we met for the first time.

Mound of the Dead

On the second day of Eid I visited Moen Jo Daro with my mathematics teacher of school days. The ruins of Moen Jo Daro or Mound of the Dead lie 300 km north of Hyderabad on the banks of river Indus. The purpose of the visit was to see the genius of the people of Indus valley civilization that existed between 2500-1500 BC. After a journey of over 4 hours when we reached MJD we found a huge number of people visiting the place to enjoy the Eid holidays. My mathematics teacher was conducting a research to show the mathematical advancement of the dwellers of MJD and the use of mathematics in the construction of their city. My teacher said that people of MJD were far advanced in mathematics and the Greeks had learnt most of the mathematical concepts from the people of Indus valley civilization. He pointed to the number of wells of different sizes in MJD and told that it was likely these people knew the use of Pi to make wedge shaped bricks to construct these wells. After spending 3 hours on the site we returned back to Hyderabad just after dusk. On the way back my teacher told me about many links between Indus valley and Greece. There are many words common in Sindhi (language of the land of MJD) and Greek. It was a learning of high class and a holiday well spent.

Lonely victory

Fiercely ambitious people crush every one who comes in their way. For them every interaction is an opportunity to further their own interests. They see the world as if it exists only for them. They want all relationships to serve their purpose. Their purpose is to reach the heights where no one is above them. In the pursuit of their goal they destroy many lives and at the end what they get is loneliness at the peak of the mountain. This mountain is made up by the heaps of tormented people. Who are these people? They are the ones whom they had called their friends and loved ones. A lonely victory is the end of every ambitious man's story.

Poverty and Peace

"Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty”, this was stated by Nobel Peace Prize committee as it awarded this year Nobel Prize for Peace to Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank. The above statement is the statement for hope for the world. Muhammad Yunus has transformed the traditional banking sector by providing small credit to poor especially poor women without asking for any collateral. The Nobel Prize is the recognition of the role of Grameen Bank and its founder in the promotion of peace by eliminating one of the major causes of war: poverty. Nobel committee has shown to the world that war or absence of peace is caused by economic reason. I appreciate the decision of the Nobel Committee mainly because it highlights the relationship between poverty and war.

The wide gap in the standard of living that exists between poor and rich creates ill will among the poor towards rich. The poor of the world see the world resources have been monopolized by few rich nations and these rich nations plunder the resources of poor countries through regimes run by kings, generals and other despots. Wherever there is anarchy the root cause will be economic injustice. If the world resources are shared on equitable basis the ever-elusive world peace is achievable by mankind. “

Women all around

My younger sister when she came yesterday said to me, "Bhaijan I have observed that it's all women around you". I smiled and replied, " I am very lucky". At that time these were the women present and I was the only man.

a. Mother
b. Wife
c. 2 daughters.
d. 3 Studnets (all girls).
e. 2 housemaids.
f.1 sister
g. 1 niece.

MashAllah :)

Roller coaster

I am flawed, erratic and moody
yet you hold my hand all along
not knowing where I would lead you
sometimes we soar as if never to fall
when I become quiet, you wait for my call
my life is like a roller coaster
Love entered in my life when I stopped being perfect
and it was then you told me " I love to ride on a roller coaster."

Analysis of Pope Benedict Speech

There is an uproar in the Islamic world on the speech made by Pope Benedict in which he has quoted a Byzantine King who said "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
I was aghast at the use of malicious quotation by Pope and thought why would he say such a thing in the time when the world is already in turmoil due to religious intolerance. To understand the motive behind his speech I read its full text. Here is my analysis.

1. The objective of the Pope in the speech was to invite non-practicing Christians back to the religion of Christianity. He pleaded them the case of religion (Christianity) that had lost its central position among Europeans.
2. The strategy he adopted to achieve the objective was first to malign Islam by quoting the Byzantine King who was humiliated by Turks throughout his life. Then he portrayed Islam as a religion in which there is no place of logic. Why did he malign Islam? To get a soft corner in the heart of the audiences who in these times consider Islamic fundamentalism the greatest threat to the secular civilization of Europe.
3. Next he quoted from Bible that Logos (Logic and word) is God. This quotation was to appeal to the secular audience, who are adherent of the logic and followers of science.
4. He then said the Church and Greek Philosophy have never been at odds essentially. (This was important because audience identify themselves with Greek Philosophy, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and not with church.)
5. He quoted a Muslim philosopher Ibn Hazn who said, "God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God's will, we would even have to practice idolatry. " Now here he tried to discredit Islam through this quotation as a religion in which God is not oblige to reveal the truth.
6.Then he tried to detach the modern Catholic Church from the past in which Church itself was the greatest impediment in the path of enlightenment and logic.
7. He then appealed that religion must not be excluded from the realm of logic and the Europe that wants to engage in the dialogue with other civilizations/religions must do so as Christian Europe because there is no conflict in the Christian faith and the values of secular Europe.

The points mentioned above show the position of a man whose institution has lost its ground long time ago and he is trying his best to reclaim the central position for the institution he represents and to do so he used Islam that is indeed sad and dangerous.
How should Muslims react? Muslims should not involve themselves in violent protests. The Muslims should involve themselves in intellectual debate. In universities and in media the Islamic scholars must respond to the misinformation that exists about Islam in Europe through historical facts.

Indus View: Latifabad, Hyderabad, Sindh.

No.

That was a moment when I felt all alone, left out in the middle, abondened under the scorching sun in a city of chaos and mayhem. I had two choices either to crumble down and crack under the pressure of that ominous moment or to lick my wounds and without wasting time in lamenting the fate carry on to do what I was upto. I selected the later choice. I didn't allow that moment to suppress my will and write me off. As I withstood that moment everything started to click. Unknown forces came to my help. Strangers became friends and blind curves opened new vistas for me. I didn't do much except saying NO to that moment that was asking me to surrender, that was trying to numb my senses, that was forcing me to withdraw from the game of life.

In wilderness.

I am shining, I am glowing, I am dancing, I am flying, I am flowing in wilderness.
I long for you O my love.
Shine, glow, dance, fly and flow with me.
Give meaning to my existence.