for those of you non existent people who wait with baited breath for my next blog post...im sorry i havent written for a while because id rather not write until i really have something important to say. And as for the rest of you...well heres another piece of my personality for you to decipher.
ive met up with some old friends recently and they asked me whether or not i was still into the whole hullabaloo of drinking and what not. Lets set the record straight first...i was never 'into' it...i tried it to understand what everyone was always harping on about...and then i left it because i realized...it wasnt me.
Let me explain it again...some people arent interested in religion...its not for them...and in the same way...im not interested in the decadent gora lifestyle anymore...because that just isnt me. with time ive come to realize that we were made for something more...the ummat e muslima had a higher purpose...something way more important than getting high on alchohol on drugs or alchohol. i swear to you and i recommend that you try it too...there have been times that Allah has given me a high that nothing else will ever be able to give me.
Thus i request the following from all those who come across this post. I will not join you in ure next hotbox or ure getting hammered escapade. But i will still always be there if you need me if u need to be driven home or cannot walk straight after such an episode :p
Do not invite me to a party because i swear i will not feel left out infact i will love you for the fact that u enjoyed ure evening with the loud chatter of ngo type aunties who have nothing better to do than to live off of foriegn donor loans - and at the same time understood that i do not like being at such events.
Do not call me to a gathering of the rich and elite intellectual uncles who keep talking of change and history, yet would not dare leave their extravagant abode in fear that they be seen with a lowly beggar knocking at the window and may accidently be mistaken and outcast for talking to the 'common man'.
I am not a gora sahab and i do not like being associated with people with mistaken identities.i do not want to act like one, dance like one, talk like one, or have a drink like one.
I am one of Gods better creations and i have better things to do with my life.
let me tell you a little story about my country. We are democratic people, or so we like to think. We also like to think we are an islamic republic - thus the name 'islamic republic of pakistan'.
The problem is we are confused. The people that fight for democracy, the PPP, the PML, the MMA, the PTI and the MQM are completely undemocratic in their own party functioning. They have the same party leaders for the past 20 years unless their leaders have been assasinated by their husbands (PPP) and dont believe in leaving their 'kursis'. We like the idea of democracy, however thats where it stops...
Its unfortunately something my country love to fantasize, but when it comes to walking the talk...nothing happens.
Let me tell you about the new democratic scheme of things nowadays. Our Minister, Mr. Khosa tried to get his brother in law to head the ICTRD FUND which has about 20 billion rupees in its kitty. When the board refused to shortlist the candidate on the basis of a fake degree, 6 borad members were fired. The board members include some of the leading professionals of pakistan which include the country manager of cisco, ex chairman of engro, and the head of multinet pakistan.
Our respected ministers next move was to try to fit his brother in law in the USF fund, which is again lead by one of pakistans most respected telecom professionals, Mr. Parvez Iftikhar, a man that has made the USF a beacon of learning for the rest of world on how to use funds to increase telecom penetration in low growth and emancipated areas.
Democracy has also brought destruction and corruption to our countrys financial sector. The head of NIIT, Mr. Tariq Iqbal Khan another very respected individual within financial circles, who turned around the company to make it the largest mutual funds company in the country was recently removed to make way for another corrupt crony supported by Mr. Democratically elected my foot ten percent zardari.
Our democratically elected government is going back on all the promises that they made and are redoing everything that they thought was wrong with the previous government. When the media tried to bring to light the fraud commmited by fake degree parlamentarians they tabled a resolution against the media. They delayed reappointment of the judges. The list of crap being dealt to the common man on the pretext of democracy is endless...
So for a moment in time I was going towards supporting democracy but things dont really seem to be helping our case. Sure we can say that we need to give it time to develop, but i can...but what about the man on the street who cant buy food for his family? If our elections were truly transparent enough, maybe we could have thrown out and called for change but we cant. Also if this government goes, will the sharifs come back and screw our resources further? And then back to PPP and then another round of pingpong?
Can someone please explain why i should love democracy, because i truly want to, but cannot figure out a reason why!!!
Sent from my Nokia phone
This is something I wrote in my last week at college, but forgot to upload...
As horrible as they sounded, the Smashing Pumpkins did eventually make some sense in their song of the same name in the movie Batman and Robin.
Thats how i feel about my time at IBA right now. Its a constant cycle, this thing that we so fondly call life and when one trial is over the next stage of life starts. You graduate, you get a job, get married, have kids, bring them up to be responsible adults and then they repeat the cycle.
The interesting thing though, is the thing that i discovered while thinking on these fatalistic lines today. Life is more than a rat race, and more than the drudgery that ive made it out to be. Sure its a cycle, but thats what disney was talking about in the lion king, when they referred to the circle of life werent they?
But its not all THAT bad...life is what we want it to be and i want mine to be more than something or someone that will easily be forgotten...
Sent from my Nokia phone
I know this is a controversial topic and i also know that people are scared to debate what has been taught to them as the final word and nothing beyond it.
However music has been a huge part of my life since i was a kid. More often than not it has taught me lessons that no book could ever teach me, and has unearthed passions that i never knew existed inside me. Certain songs and singers have a way of speaking to you like no other, and it is those moments that have given music a certain reverence in my life.
So when people say that music is not allowed in our religion, it hurts me to hear that. Ive thought about it over and over again, and ive reached a conclusion that all those people are wrong and ill tell you why.
Recently i was listening to coke studios version of Abida Parveens rendition of bulley shah and a weird thing happened after that. I cried, got up and went to say my prayers. If a song can make me say my prayers, im pretty sure that its allowed. Take another example. Go listen to josh grobans 'remember when it rained'...it makes me think of God because it was He that gave Josh the voice to sing that song....does that still fall in the 'haram' category?
God has given us instructions that we need to follow, but with our own intuition. Im pretty sure that some sort of music is haram...take for instance the latest rnb hip hop i want to do ure booty type of songs...thats sexual promiscuity right in your face...which is wrong...
Think about it and give me your view.
So heres a thing ive been noticing for a while...and no i dont want to be called a potty mouth after this post but you should know about this in any case... Because its kind of funny
people...or guys (ive only used male bathrooms so i really dont know what happens in female restrooms) tend to not look at each other when they meet in the bathroom. Even if u know the person, you immediately tend to look down and pretend like ure not there. Why? I mean its only natural and its nothing to be ashamed of.
As im sitting in my office restroom and typing this out im dead sure that as soon as i open the door and walk into the handwash area, ill see a guy and he'll look down
Yup...there it is again. But there are also people who try hiding this fact and after a very awkward silence, say 'aur boss, whats up'. Thats the stupidest line ive ever heard...i mean what is a person supposed to tell him...give him an update of my bowel movement?
This lesson goes back to about two years ago, but somehow stays with me to this day...
While working at mobilink we had a tradition of having company dinners at Monal, this new establishment our company had sponsored on Margallah hills. Since it was a friday, a group of colleagues and I said our juma prayers, grabbed some drinks and headed hillside.
When i finished my drink, i threw it out the window. Thats something that i had learnt while living in karachi, since it was unfortunately the practiced norm amongst my peer group. This group however turned out to be different.they stoppped the car, asked me to get out, pick up the trash and keep it in the car until i found a trashcan. All the way up the hill i got a lecture on how if everyone did the same, Islamabad would not be the clean city it was today.
On my back home today, i had a chewing gum wrapper that i wanted to throw outside, but as my hand went out the window it stopped and i remembered what my friends had said. It made me think, and i kept the wrapper in my bag.
the point im trying to make here, is the difference in mindset that we tend to have across pakistan. Whens the last time you ad trash and though 'yaar abhi is ko bahar hee phek do'
Think twice before you act on ure urge next time.
Its been a matter of great debate for me, with people asking me all sorts of questions about my return to telco instead of taking the standard fmcg route...after all thats what i had planned and why i did an internship with reckitt.
Heres the thing...when you go to college, your only objective shouldnt be getting a job, but rather finding a company that gives u a certain purpose, and thats what I saw in Telenor. we always tend to bitch about how the cleint never has the guts to change perspectives, how the client will not risk revenues to go for creative executions. Telenor did the absolute opposite with their karo mumkin campaign. Theyve provided us with a positioning that show all that is possible if we all start working towards an objective...together.
Its good to know that im part of a company that believes in changing customer lives by not simply selling soaps, but instead changing the very way they function. Whereas our ad strategy can be questioned, no one can argue what our services like easypaisa, doctor helpline and blood donation drive have done for this country.
And thats what i want to continue doing. Changing pakistan and taking it to new levels of success and contributing in my own way.
Think about it. What have u done for your country?
