Pity the nation…

Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.

Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave, eats a bread it does not harvest, and drinks a wine that flows not from its own winepress.

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.

Pity the nation that despises a passion in its dream, yet submits in its awakening.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins, and will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block.

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another with trumpetings once again.

Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle.

Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation

– Khalil Jibran

How truly does this apply to us as a nation. Every single line fits perfectly to what we have evolved ourselves into. I am truly impressed by the genius of Khalil Jibran who sketched the whole character of this nation centuries before we ever came into existence and yet we proudly deny what we actually are – a hypocrite, dishonest and violent bunch of ‘individuals’.

So, in a couple of hours we will start yet another annual competition of hypocrisy by clogging the streets with silencer-less motorcycles, disturbing other’s sleep with with loud roaring of motor, pressure horns,  firecrackers and fearless display of illegal weaponry. What better way to laugh at ourselves but denying it altogether what lowlife we are. Indeed you call it independence… the liberty that you won’t find any other place on earth. the liberty to kill each other, the liberty to rob your neighbor, the liberty to blackmail the ignorant ones in the name of religion or law…. we have never been this independent, haven’t we?

I’d better be working than partying out coz when the day dawns, we will again forget why we lit those candles in the night or why we gathered at the ABC place and danced to the music.

Good bye,

Jashn e Azadi Mubarak!!!

LiveJournal Tags: Pakistan,Pity the nation,Khalil Jibran,Hypocrite,Jashn-e-Azadi,Independence Day,14th August

tweetin’

One of the most commonly opened browner windows that you may find on my computer is ‘twitter’.

My long blogs have turned fewer in the past weeks and i can attribute this to twitter.

Though i had joined this site two years back, but I haven’t really utilized it till a couple of months back.

So far, I am enjoying posting small messages to this great service, but the real utility would be when i send tweets via my mobile device. This would really serve the purpose for which this site was built.

 

Lets see how long does this addiction continues.

My tweets can be viewed on the following link: http://twitter.com/burhaan

LiveJournal Tags: Twitter,Burhan,Burhaan,addiction,blog

Shab-e-Barat: Memories, Regrets and Hopes

Its Maghrib time in Karachi, Pakistan.

With that, Shab-e-Barat – The night of emancipation will start. As narrated by my mom when I was a kid ‘Its a night when God will write who will be born, who will die, what Rizq (The stuff one eats or earns) one gets and what other deeds one performs…. ‘. Well, me being a rude kid since childhood always preferred to blow firecrackers than to worship. Just thinking about it brings a wide smile on my face as the vivid memories of every year are too hard to forget… I remember the long night of running away scared shitless when i was in grade 10th (for obvious reasons)… and I also remember the year when we neighborhood boys fulfilled our revenge against all those lousy neighbors who used to forbid us from playing cricket… and yeah ofcourse, I remember bombarding the house of our rival team’s captain with firecrackers (small and large)…. and how can i forget the shared laughter on one of the most sacred nights in Islamic religion.

 

Though those days are long gone, and so are the motive to launch firecrackers… but that doesn’t mean that i flipped towards the other side (this means the people who spend the night at mosques worshipping)… How many times, I long to spend the whole night on the prayer rug, begging the lord for forgiveness but the addiction of sins… the long cherished addiction towards doing ‘other’ things but to pray has kept me away for the most of the night. Tonight might be no different since i have a couple of things to do by midnight, then I intend to spend an hour or so looking at the skies or bowing in front of THE ONE. I hope my plans aren’t foiled by the devil who has much more influence on me than i can ever imagine…

And yeah, tonight is a sort of festive night too… good food, warm steaming sweets (multiple types of halva) are served, and i am not missing out on those either :p   om nom nom.

 

Ok, enough of this for the night. I wish that God up there has good plans for all of us in the coming year, I pray that Allah grant everyone with blessings and the courage to be a good person, the passion to live and to let live – Amen.

LiveJournal Tags: Allah,Shab-e-Brat,Night of Emancipation,Islam,Fire Crackers,Sins,Destiny,Regret,Festivity,Prayers

More rain? No, Thank you!

Its been a week since the rains began.  The first drops fell on Friday evening…. then it really poured over the whole weekend.

Since monday, its been a game of hide n seek between sun and clouds, but no significant rainfall.

But,

Today they say a reinforced system of rains is going to start again… and will continue to pound the city by the sea till Sunday…grrrrr!

But we can’t afford any more rains… We have already had enough this season. For a city like Karachi, (which ironically happen to be a port city but doesn’t seem it was planned to be a city where rains come often) rains bring more misery than blessings.
The rains that we experienced past weekend have killed 30+ people. Some places are still partly submerged (the only way that water can go away is drying as there are no working sewerage systems in action), and the already overburdened electricity system has experienced major setbacks during the storm.

Well, as a witness of all this misery, I wish that it doesn’t rain this season again.

 

LiveJournal Tags: Rain,Monsoon,Karachi,Pakistan,Flooding,Misery

I’m going to Mars….

Actually its my name that is going there …

The New Cyber Crime Ordinance

Wellll, the government got so pissed off from the ever growing number of funny SMS’s about the president, prime minister et al. that it issued a new ordinance that will entitle the government of Pakistan to apprehend any person (local or abroad) that is involved in the publishing of derogatory SMS or emails. The suggested punishment for such a hideous act is 14 years in prison (plus being raped by the jail guards/other frustrated prisoners as a bonus).

Well, my take on the widespread usage of sending those so-called offensive text messages is that people just don’t make fun of you just because your name sounds funny, they make fun of you because you gave them every chance to make fun of you. Naming those reasons would make myself a prime suspect of being disappearing into a maximum security prison, so zip zipppppp.

Here is the loss of another civil liberty, and ironically its not the fucking taliban that are stealing our liberty this time… its the government (in the name of “protect the leaders’ dignity” act). This reminds me of old school days when a bunch of kids used to mock any poor kid and that kid out of frustration would either start crying and reach the teacher or would bring his parents/elder siblings to school…. the only difference with the current situation is that the kid you have mocked is the bully of the school, and he is gonna get you … big time!  Thats one frustrated bunch of high ranking officials

Where will the next axe fall???? I believe the TV channels… the political satire shows like ‘Ham sab Umeed se Hain’, ‘4Man show’, ‘News Views and Confused’ etc have gained enough popularity and controversial status that the government will do anything to ban these shows or to screen the contents of the shows.

I would like to conclude this post by saying that ‘to earn respect, one must know how to respect others’

Lets see how the game continues…

 

LiveJournal Tags: Cyber Crime,Pakistan,Government,SMS,Emails

Murtaza’s Valima – A writeup

Last Friday, my friend Murtaza invited us in his Valima Ceremony. I had totally forgotten about the date/time of the event until i received a SMS from him ‘formally’ telling us about the event at their community center. Wow! i thought, How could i not get the idea of formally inviting people via SMS? though i occasionally use SMS as a reminder tool

He had strictly told us to be there on time as their ceremonies are quite unlike the valima ceremonies thrown by our folk.

Me n dAs coordinated and he picked me up from my place at 9:30 PM (we had to be at his community hall by 9:45). After messing around for a little while we reached the place almost five minutes after the deadline time. At the community hall, we two seemed the odd ones out as we were dressed in our respective colorful clothing and the rest of his community men were clad in their traditional white sherwani and pajama…. while we were wondering like idiots on how to start and where to go, we were approached by a guy who was set in place by the Dulha bhai to look for us. He guided us to the groom. After formal pleasantries, we were seated at our designated place (remember, that the seating arrangement was in small groups right on the floor). We were told that the dinner is served as soon as the size of group reaches 6 or 8.

The dinner had already started (the most punctual wedding arrangement that I ever remember). in 10 minutes or so, our group acquired the desired number and we were briskly approached by a guy who placed a big platter in the middle, on the platter were wrapped items which turned out to be steamed beef, chicken malai boti, a few desserts, salads. We quickly learnt the code of eating, every item was taken out of its wrapping and placed on the platter which served as one big plate for everyone. Once we started, the servers brought Biryani and it too was treated the similar way.

Another nice thing about the occasion was that the drinks were not the routine carbonated soft drinks, but a traditional lemonade in black pepper and black salt… om nom nom (i am drooling even as i write this). Once we were finished with the dinner and dessert, it was time to go. We got up, caught the groom and co. who was just starting his dinner, and he spared a few precious moments to have his photographs taken with us.

Thats the beaming groom

 

Yours truly with dulha bhai.

dAs with his new look and our groom

 

so, within an hour from entering the hall, we were out. with our tummies full and the night still ahead of us. Had it been a wedding from our folks, we might not even have reached the gathering as dinner at such places is served no later than midnight (if you are lucky – 1:00 AM being the average time).

Thank your Murtaza, for inviting us to such a unique experience. I wish other people could follow a similar custom of pitying on the attendees while they marry. The food was very unique and tasty, the occasion was simple yet awesome… I wish you and your wife have a long and prosperous life ahead of you.

 

LiveJournal Tags: Murtaza,Murti,dAs,Burhan,Valima,Wedding,Bohri Style Wedding

My Favorite Movie – A different story

My favorite movie.. The Lord of the Rings (LOTR)… in a different way… (though the end is the same)

Busy day begins (again)

Its just past midnight… Damn, another busy day for yours truly

Have two meetings at work

Have a farewell lunch to attend

Have a meeting at my parent company at 6

Have a wedding reception to attend at 9:30

 

Damn, I am wasted… and none of the event is to be missed.  What if the meeting at 6 extends longer than expected?  ahhhhh the thought of missing my friend’s wedding reception makes me feel sick

Busy day begins (again)

Its just past midnight… Damn, another busy day for yours truly

Have two meetings at work

Have a farewell lunch to attend

Have a meeting at my parent company at 6

Have a wedding reception to attend at 9:30

 

Damn, I am wasted… and none of the event is to be missed.  What if the meeting at 6 extends longer than expected?  ahhhhh the thought of missing my friend’s wedding reception makes me feel sick