An interesting piece I read, and would like to share !!!
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“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.”
I was reminiscing with a class fellow about old days at university when I came across the above quotation. You read it and say, nobody could be more honest and striking about being nostalgic.
Nostalgia is a feeling which can take over you at any point in time but winters savor it best. If I go back into time, along with all those who were around and accompanied me, I had the best of life indeed. While reading the quote, I realized that it’s a fact that we only miss our past when we go through a bitter present. Otherwise who would miss the bad patch? It’s only the goodness and sheer happiness of times we miss and obviously the people.
As time passes, we grow older and lose our freedom at the hand of time and others. All our life we want to grow up and jump from school to college to university. It’s only after those years when we are trapped in the vicious circle of responsibilities; we cherish what we had in those years. We had freedom and fun. The enthusiasm was filled in each small activity of life. Laughter wrappers were all around our days and nights. From a small Rs.5 Kit Kat to cheating in the quiz was our essence of life.
The maximum tension we suffered was maintaining a GPA or small heart-matters. I call them small because life has taught me what is BIG.
I still remember how we saw the first reporting of the Iraq War at a friend’s house and discussed it with her late father, Baba. We had huge dreams of changing the world and making our names in the history of time. Lifetime plans were discussed between the small spaces of the library or over Samosas (Potato Patty).
The freedom of dreams and imagination we experienced is priceless. We just didn’t know that out beyond these iron gates, the reality and responsibility both awaits us.
In winters, we want the warmth of our memories to wrap us, or else the season can leave its mark on us.
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I am happy that many of us hold a delightful past which makes us optimistic about the future and harbor our present.
According to a Bollywood actress Amisha Patel, “I feel French is very close to Urdu. Both languages are beautiful. Sadly, their beauty is lost in translation”.
After receiving a comment from French blog visitor that Urdu belongs to Punjab, I told myself its time some of us should write down more regularly about this language and its initiators.
“Urdu” is an Indo-Aryan language came into being somewhere around 1300's through Mughal Courts of South-Asia then. The literary means of Urdu is Lashkar or "Army" in Turkish. In those times, Mughal Emperors had soldiers fighting in their army from various backgrounds i.e. Persian/Arabic/Turkish, hence a concoction born out of these languages called as URDU. It is an extremely rich language due to its take from the mentioned three languages, which made it an official language later.
It is the 20th widely spoken language of world, mainly spoken in Asia.Urdu is also as considered as 9th most influential language. It is official language of Pakistan and some states of India. Sometimes mistaken with Hindi due to its dialect, where as its inherited by Sanskrit mainly, which is a complete contrast to Urdu grammar and pronunciation.
Urdu is considered as one of the most formal, mannered and sweet languages. Many poets from Mughal era till today, have suggested their experiences of love and life both through Urdu Poetry and Prose.
I am born into a family who not only speak Urdu but also feel proud of it. Personally, I feel Urdu is one of the most expressive, imaginative, and passionate languages.
As usual on Eid, my brother was zapping through the channels, when he finally stopped at a new movie WANTED. We both were excited and astonished because this movie is already screening at cinemas and till its running there, no cable operator can show it.
But it was EID after all.
Anyways, we started watching the Salman Khan(SK) and his unbeatable action. SK has come to the big screen after some gap but with all the preparations to take the audience with storm.The Tamil direction was very visible with the pistol dancing from one hand to other hand. I was awe struck during an action sequence where he managed to kick out 12 gangster all by himself. And during all this, he had not received a single scratch or a blood streak on his body. I thought thats enough for a middle aged man. The make-up artist was an inexpert to put enough amount of base on his face, because the wrinkles and drunken-eye-patches were visible.
If closely noticed, SK's bald patch was shown too in few romantic scenes. I suppose editor was tired of hiding it at many places already.
Through out the film, I felt like watching a human who has found immortality. I mean not in a single action scene, Salman Khan got injured. Kudos to the director and hero, who managed to kill a leading gangster and his gang in a cleanest manner. During all this, all he lost was his shirt from Khakee Vardee (Police Uniform).
Later, I realized that why the hell do we make fun of our very own Sultan Rahi and his Jutt roles?
What was his fault? I think he did exactly the same, decades ago what Bollywood action heroes are doing now.
In fact, Bollywood learn all these tactics from THE MATRIX, where as our Mr.Rahi did it without any prior inspirations.
If you see there is not much difference in Salman Khan and Sultan Rahi. Even their first names have same initial and equal number of alphabets.
We Pakistanis should be proud of having Sultan Rahi for doing films with immortal acts then. At least they were his own and no Matrix was there to be inspired by.
I hereby, announce Salman Khan as a Wanted Jutt of Bollywood Cinema.
Do you remember what I do? There are many things in bits & pieces which make a whole picture in front of me.
The most strong memory are of my beautiful hands with which I committed the most horrible mistake of my life. I remember how I was thinking of severe steps and the longest time I took inside me to accede.
Ahhh, I should have listened to myself instead of useless, heartless and punishing souls.
The makers of Lipton Tea campaign "Clear your Mind", themselves need to have a cup and clear their minds.
On my way to office through busiest Shahrah-e-Faisal, I happened to notice a hoarding of Lipton new campaign. I am an ardent fan of Urdu language and correct people regularly in terms of pronunciation, grammar, writing and all. Initially, I thought I read the word wrong but very next morning, I slowed down my car and stopped near the pole where board was hanging. To my surprise, the word "Zehan" has two shoshay (Circumflex) instead of one.
For many others, it might be a minor mistake whereas for such a campaign its not. Campaigners must take in account that Urdu is our national language and still many left who have the love for it.
By the end of 2008, the words crunch, recession, downsizing etc, were known to almost everyone and the prime topic to discuss over corporate lunches and dinners. Friends, colleagues still share articles and various information such as how Sony suffered lost for the first time in last 14 years or the top companies who laid off their employees.
But its not the business only which is suffering from loss. The consequences are dawning upon the laymen.
Recently, I received a forward email from a friend cum ex-boss, regarding Warren Buffett's advice for 2009. He told me that he is following none of the mentioned advices and no wonder he feels crunched badly. He has even decided to buy a mountain bike instead of joining a gym, which will definitely cost him much lesser as compared to any hi-end fitness center. In case you thinking, he must be not holding a good position or something, I must tell you he heads a department of leading agency.
Right after this small and casual discussion, I pondered over the situation rising out of increasing inflation and recession. It has changed public views by 180 degree. Before the budget 2009 announced, GEO TV was running a show called "Kharchay ka Charcha" which we(me and my team) used to watch daily. One of my team-mate commented that if you know you are out of budget, why buy bread & rusk, instead make a roti or paratha. I was a bit surprised that our people have actually start thinking to make a way out.
Increasing amount of sale and discounts on top-notch brand stores, home-made lunches, car pooling, are all those symptoms which appear after being hit by deflated pockets.
The story doesn't end here.
Every time I login to my Facebook account, one or two status are speaking the story of increasing expenses and static earnings.
The recession has hit us all and we are bound in this vicious circle.
Every night before I could fall on my bed and curl-up myself to sleep, she reminds me she is alive. When she reminds me of this, I feel so helpless and insecure. I have never imagined myself losing her at any point in time of my life.
She is always there from scrutinizing my wardrobe to counting how much fruit I consume. It’s her who tells me I am eating 1 roti since the day I started eating, or my hair is not properly oiled and a lot more. I love her most when she sees my feet and tell me how pretty they are.
Even when she is not talking or intervening, everyone knows I have her on my back. Half the world I know knows me because of her and maybe I am given the due respect because of her only. Because I don’t have the same attitude as hers.
But what will happen after her?
They don’t spare me in her life, hell is expected after her.
I regularly tell her to think less and she will live more. I am selfish. I need her for the sake of my existence.
I saw the above picture in Dawn Newspaper on May 11th, 2009 and couldn't help myself appreciating Pathans' business skills.
We spend time and money learning all these brand, target market and product marketing.
Our brothers from frontier have all this as God gifted. Despite of all the chaos and mess up north, these fro-bro(frontier brothers) are making an effort to do the business and doing it attractively.
The month of May not only bring birthdays of some of my close friends but this year it also marked a complete year at my job. This makes me and another colleague, who joined with me, very happy.
But what makes it commercially important?
I bought a suit for my Amma and her remark on that was too innocent and usual. She was giving me lectures on how should I manage and save money which I cannot do if I spend on such lavish stuff. I said Amma, mother’s day is coming so I thought I must gift you something. She paused for a moment and asked: “does that mean, you will show love to me once in a year only?” I went quite and hugged her.
Later, throughout that week, we all watched that celebrated Dalda mother and various such packages on TV. Daily on my way home, I saw this huge billboard advertising Mother’s Award and every time I use to shake my head with fury. On every channel, they were discussing what a mom should have, what not and blah blah blah. My mother told me while watching such an ad one day, that if you really want to salute motherhood, you must find women who struggled and sacrificed and never respected or in some cases acknowledged. I pondered on that for a while and thought if I ever come across such mothers.
I came across, exactly on mother’s day, yesterday.
My Sunday started when my Amma came running to my bed saying someone has sent you flowers and cake. I was surprised and jumped out of the bed to go and check if am on my way to receive romantic surprises. When I opened the card, I found out it was our family friend who sent it for my Amma on this occasion (he didn’t remember Amma’s name so put on mine). So my mother was overwhelmed and I had a long face after a defeat to my romantic hopes.
Soon afterward, I had my over-due facial appointment. I always get my things done either from Ghazal* or Farah* at the salon and this time Ghazal had her daughter there. To my surprise, her daughter was 11 years old; whereas Ghazal is just 30 or maybe 31. Hailing from a lower-middle-class family of Faisalabad, settled in Karachi, she got married at the age of 15 and had her first and only child at the age of 21.
Ghazala became a widow before she could turn 25. For the last six years, she has been working and bringing up her daughter with proper schooling and other training. I asked her if her daughter misses her on Sundays. She replied with a deep thought “she has to miss her mom not only on Sundays but various days”. I could feel that suffering and longing with which she replied.
Farah, on the other hand, has 2 daughters and since their birth, she is continuously defending her daughters’ existence. She has to fight with the bias her daughters face from their grandmother (Dadi). Farah is doing this with her own strength and husband’s support.
All my life I have heard and found my mother beside me and am thankful for that. And I am a firm believer; mothers are the mentors of daughters. Mother’s Day should be celebrated but for mothers who fight on a daily basis for their children and raise them to stand-up and face the Society.
