Stereotypes

The days of my childhood and my early teens, were the days of rapid technological progress. The word “rapid” seems inappropriate if I would compare the pace of those long gone days, with the hurricane of technological progress that we face today, but those were the days of initial technological progress and back then it was not about enhancements, but about inventions.

International criminal safe haven…

On the 11th of March 2015, Pakistan Rangers raided the central office of MQM in Karachi. What they recovered from that office included convicted criminals, and a huge amount of weaponry. The level of sophistication, of the recovered weaponry, for the first time made it obvious for me, why were the people in Karachi and Hyderabad afraid of MQM, and why did they pay protection money on regular basis.

A couple of years back, while in Karachi, I had witnessed how the MQM thugs enforced strikes and urgent shutdowns. On the day of the killing of Manzar Imam, hardly more than an hour after his death, standing in the balcony of my hotel room, I witnessed MQM shutdown procedure in live action.

Crime and punishment…

In March 2015, in the Eastern Indian city of Kolkata, a group of burglars ransacked a convent. There is nothing strange about the burglars breaking into other people’s property, because this is what burglars do. However, it turned out that they were not burglars, but rapists. While robbing the place, they gang raped a 75 year old nun.

These rapists elaborated a very disturbing fact. It turns out that in India rape is something like a supplementary activity. While people commit other crimes, they try to boost their adrenaline levels, by raping women. 

Some lessons that we never learn…

In today’s sickening world of trendy terminologies, every second person uses the term “Global Village”, not having the least idea of what it means. This term refers to a unified, open and borderless world. 

This is an imperialist idea of global domination. If you don’t like the word imperialist you can call it a Utopian idea, because the first will never die and the latter will never become a thing of reality.

The mastery of deceit…

In the land of my origin, very often people use a number, when talking about others or their actions, and sometimes tag each other with the same number. Since early childhood, I used to hear people call each other: “Hey, you 420!” Well, with the passage of time, I started grasping the pitch of it. I developed the understanding that it was something taunting, at times, but mostly it meant something bad. So for me the number 420 was an indicator of bad.

Gas chamber.

A single day every year is dedicated as the International #Holocaust Remembrance day. The word “Holocaust” means a great destruction or devastation, caused by fire. The indiscriminate killing of people, in the gas chambers and crematories, by the #Nazi Germans, became the basis for remembering the events, which took place inside the #German concentration camps during world war II, as the Holocaust.

The numbers of people quoted by various sources, who lost their

It's all so wrong about rights

The word "rights", has become so much trendy, over the past few decades that it has become impossible to even understand if this word does carry any real sense or if it is just another great PR term.

Painless success…

All our lives, we keep on fighting against different things. We fight against despairs, failures, injustices, and most of our time is spent on fighting our fears. Have you ever noticed that new-born babies have no fears? Their fears grow as they grow. Fears are a system of checks and balances, for human beings. In the initial stages, fear is a system of restrictions, to avoid physical pain or inconvenience.

As the time passes, we come to know of emotional pain, and then, accordingly, we have a system of emotional or non-physical fears. These fears allow us to devise methods of achieving painless success. So it’s quite safe to say that fear is a stimulant, which makes your brain function, in such a way that you try to find methods, other than brute-forcing your way. 

Form and content...

A friend of mine happens to be a doctor. Furthermore, he happens to be a surgeon. His field of specialization is considered to be a difficult one. Now many a times, it happened that we would go with him to a bar or a club, where we would meet new people, and in the course of introductions, when he would tell that he was a surgeon, 99% of the times the new acquaintances would not believe it. The most common reaction was: "You don't look like a ------- surgeon". 

Absolute reality...

Einstein was a genius. Yes, he was as far as the conditions, contemporary to his times, were concerned. But, can we consider him a genius today? I don’t think so. The reason is that, when Einstein lived, the level, and volume, of information was lower than the information we have today.

In the twentieth century, especially in the beginning of the twentieth century, when Einstein lived, no one had gone into space. Space travel was a fantasy. He knew what he knew, but since then the amount of data that we have now, has increased immensely. 

Civilization of barbarity....

There is a loud cry about the fight between the civilized and the non-civilized world! But, which civilization are we talking about? Isn’t it the Roman civilization, or the remnants of it? Of course it is!

A major part of our contemporary world is caught up in a dilemma. We are slaves to strong words and misinterpretations. We think that wrong is right and right is wrong. And occasionally, we rid ourselves of any responsibility saying that everybody’s right and wrong was different. But do we understand the implications of such extreme subjectivity?

I want to blame the Jews!

The notorious extremist phenomenon called ISIS has recently evolved and expanded in Western Iraq and eastern Syria. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, ISIL)(Syria in this name is not the current state of Syria, but the broader understanding of an extended Muslim empire, otherwise named as Levant) had very successfully been making its way towards Baghdad, via lots of very holy Muslim places like Karbala. 

The most expandable commodity….

Lately, the world that we all share, has become a hotbed of conflicts. All that we see and hear about, across continents, are conflicts, disputes, and grievances. Some of the conflicts are still a little short of taking-up the violent form, but most of the conflicts are in battle stage.

One of the most notable of these conflicts is the @Palestine-Israel, never-ending dispute. As in any conflict, especially the ones which enter extreme violent stage, it is hard to understand, who is right, and who is wrong. But one thing is clear, there is something not right.

Justification of evil!

On the 17^th of December 2014, a lot of solidarity, with the victims of terrorism in Peshawar, Pakistan, was observed across the globe: Turkey observed a day of mourning with lowered flags, Indian parliamentarians observed a minute of silence, the Russian president, British Prime Minister, Chinese foreign minister, US president, and many other world leaders

The colour is red...

Revolution is a very strong word, but unfortunately sometimes it is used in a very free context. This word, in itself, is a whole expression, which means demolition and reconstruction, and mind you this demolition is never partial, and the post-revolution structure is always diametrically different from the structure, which it replaces.

The yard stick…

It has been a year since the massacre of 147 innocent children and staff at Army Public School, #APS, Peshawar, Pakistan. It is a tragedy that is too hard to forget. Although, in today's time and age, when mass killings have become anything, but a rarity, the images of children's corpses, stacked on top of each other, is a view unforgettable.

The Party...

I remember the times when there were so few parties in town that one had to wait for extended periods of time, from party to party, and except for that it used to be a problem getting into a party, unless you knew a few connected people. 

Handling a menace.

Pakistan is faced with a menace popularly called religious eXtremism (represented by TTP [TEHREEK E TALIBAN PAKISTAN], JIP [JAMAAT-E-ISLAMI PAKISTAN], JUI [JAMIAT-E-ULLAMA-E-ISLAM], LASHKAR-E-JHANGVI, LASHKAR-E-TAIBA, SUNNI TEHREEK, ITTEHAD BAIN-UL-MUSLIMEEN, SIPAH-E-SAHABBAH, JAISH MOHAMMAD and a multitude of other parties and thousands of madrassas run by these parties). Although, it is the best attempt of main stream media to date this menace back a few years only, but in fact this problem has a lot longer history.

Choices...

Human beings, and especially free human beings, take pride in having the ability, capability and opportunity to choose. Choices do make a difference, but choices also limit us.

Certainly not

Since the dawn of times, we human beings have been busy, exploring and learning. The passage of time has improved our capabilities and options of learning, which means that we can learn more, faster and more comprehensively than the members of our species, who strolled the gravel pathways of our planet, a couple of hundred years ago.

The herd...

A great many number of times, when talking about old or the oldest professions, I hear people suggesting prostitution and journalism to be the winners of this antiquity award. Why these two professions? Well it's easy to understand. Those, who suggest prostitution, cement their suggestions with the fact that humans always wanted to have sex, and sex might be the first thing that humans bought or sold.

Rule of flaw...

The Mughal emperors came to India in the early 16th century and, as far as the number game is concerned, ruled successfully until the mid-19th century, but did Mughals really rule India for that long? Or did they lose the empire a lot earlier than we think?

When Babur invaded India, and finding conditions suitable for occupation, founded a permanent kingdom, India was divided into RAJDHANIs (small princely states). Babur had not been the first and by no means the last of the invaders, who ruled India.

Beyond horizons

Human history, and all aspects of human life are mostly related to search for the unknown. Humans had always gone to war to conquer unknown territories. If we look into history most of the travellers and explorers undertook the hardships of dislocation just in the anticipation of finding something new. People, all along the human timeline, were fascinated by new faces, new cultures, new music, new languages, new foods etc. 

Murdered in the name of the law...

The American police has killed 1048 people on the streets of USA, till date! 254 - White, 266- Black, 169 Hispanic/Latino, 58 of unknown origin, 18 Asians/Pacific Islanders, 13 Native Americans.

Degeneration of generations...

The term “shortage of memory” became popular with the advancement of computers, because as the software grew in capacity and ability, so did its volume, and requirements of available storage space and operational memory. Those of you, who used the computers in rapid development era of 1990s, must have come across this annoying situation on many occasions. But fortunately computers are man-made machines, so the developers (the industry) rapidly worked-out measures to counter this situation.

Plagiarism at industrial scales...

There were times, when people used to respect doctors, not because they were rich individuals or professionals, but because of their innovative approach towards gaining knowledge and finding solutions. This respect pattern was visible, towards other creative and innovative persons also. Most, or nearly all, of the big names in fine arts were known to be financially weak, but their works were respected and they were respected. Figures like Confucius were never known for their material wealth, but for their originality.

All that Einstein had were new ideas, although not in the field of fine-arts, but still very artistic and mainly new. 

Sweetheart of many hearts…

“Thief, thief, thief…..” a gradually increasing yell in a mix of male and female voices, woke him up and as he opened his eyes and was trying to figure-out if it was a dream or reality, the intruder alarm composed of heavily accented Afghan voices was suppressed for a split second by a crash sound, as if something had fallen down from the second or third floor height.

Land of the holy bow...

A strong earthquake shook the ground under Baluchistan’s feet on the 24th of September, 2013. The initial reports as usual placed the death toll in lower double figures, but by the next morning the numbers had risen into hundreds.

Baluchistan is a sparsely populated province, but the people living in that province are just as much the citizens of Pakistan as the people of Punjab or Sindh, but on the first day of this natural calamity the level of coverage in media was way lower than the level of reporting of some single murder event in Punjab or Sindh.

Info wars

Three days after shooting down the Russian SU-24 Front-line Bomber, the Turkish Air Force has released an audio recording of an assumed Turkish Air Force warning to the downed Russian SU-24 Front-line bomber. Following is the released soundbite:

The affair...

It all started back in Helsinki, on one of those, regular for Finland, rainy September evenings. What would you do on an early Monday evening, to tackle boredom, when the options are limited? In the Finnish capital, answers to this question are limited and their numerical value is equal to the number of bars in the downtown area.
So considering the options and their limitations, I tracked my path to a bar. The door to the bar was like a border post between the wetland and the cosiness of a warm climate. I crossed the climatic line and leaving my rain drenched jacket on a hanger by the entrance approached the bar behind which the wall was laden with glassware filled with heavenly and some not very heavenly liquids of all sorts and colours.

No metal detectors.

Finland is a country without metal detectors. It seems like a premature statement, because how come in today’s world could you have a country, where metal detectors are not used? But I hope in the following lines I might succeed in establishing my position regarding this short but affirmative statement.
In today’s time and age metal detectors, body searches and all of those signs of mistrust and acts of integrity negation are so common place that we often don’t even feel offended or hurt when subjected to such procedures.

Simple words, serious consequences... Chapter 2

Wars are fought for resources, but there are resources which are imminent to conduct those wars. The resource most needed to make a war happen is the human resource. Humans unlike uranium, nickel or gas, are intelligent beings, so to use them it is not sufficient to just have control of them.
Yes there were times when subjugation was the only persuasion needed, but over the centuries, human beings have acquired knowledge and it has become difficult to just make them do

Afghanistan before and after 1980

Just a little visual demonstration of what radicalization and fundamentalism can do to your society. Afghanistan was a perfectly normal society, before the Americans, Saudis and Pakistanis entered a collaboration to bring "freedom" to the "poor" people of Afghanistan. (the photos are all open source images)

The fish rots from the head...

 

Dictator Erdogan's way or the Highway

By now the news about Turkey's blunder regarding the Russian Air Force's SU-24 has definitely reached every corner of the world. Although Washington and Brussels did not condemn Turkey for so stupidly trying to expand the already very bloody Syrian conflict, but the sane people of this world have all realized the mistake that Turkey and its Islamic extremist government has committed.

Simple words, serious consequences... Chapter 1

War – a mere three letter combination that has plagued mankind since the inception of time. As events, wars are the most well-remembered and most celebrated ones. Looking into prehistoric times all we see are great battles, war heroes and unparalleled wars. 

What Greek mythology does, is that it talks of wars and battles. In the said mythology gods were at war with each other and mortals were at war amongst themselves and with gods and demigods etc. Mahabharata is a war epic, where Ram and his company fought the “evil” forces to uphold goodness, but whatever maybe the reason after all it’s all about war.

Lets kill on humanitarian basis...

(repeat publication)

There has been fierce debate at all levels, in many countries, for the last few days and in some for the last few months and in one country for more than a year, on how to disrupt the functioning of a legitimate government in Syria. 

We all remember year 2003, when White House initiated and 10 Downing Street followed a hot debate about how to rid this world of Saddam Hussain.

Nobel prize a "noble tradition"

The Most Peaceful Man alive

(I wrote this article in 2013, so don't think that  I am unaware of the current events!)

As soon as the American political elite decided that it was time for the first ever BLACK man to become the president of the United States and as soon as they found the right candidate, who even carried a Muslim middle name, probably people at the Nobel committee, who are very easily influenced by the political setup of the time, started contemplating how to highlight the height of American "Democracy", which had brought a black man to the oval office. 
They thought of nothing else, but to award Mr Barrack Hussain Obama the Nobel Peace prize. I have no doubt that people who make these decisions are very competent, highly educated and utmost unbiased.

I Love us!

No one, just no one in this world can deny looking for love. When we are born, we look for mother’s love. When we grow up we seek the peers’ love. When we step into teens we start looking for cross-gender love. Well it’s too categorical on my behalf, because some of us start seeking that cross-gender love a lot earlier!

Learning and exploring...

In my childhood, when I would read an adventure book or watch an adventure movie, I always dreamt for prolonged periods of time afterwards to go to places unexplored and acquaint myself with customs unknown and simply to reach out and touch the distant horizon.
But as I grew-up, to my dismay, I discovered that most of geographical exploration had already taken place way back in the 16th – 19th centuries and my dream of discovering new lands had very minute chances, or let’s say no chances, of fulfilment. 

Behind the wall

Their community comprised of great numbers. Some would argue and say that although they had a huge population, but there was nothing “great” about those numbers. But anyway they were there and they were real and their native land was swarming with them.

I'm Afraid...

Long way back, why long way back?, because the time I'm referring to is my childhood and considering the speed of passage of time, it really was a long time ago, I used to be afraid of darkness. Now you say: “What's the big deal? Nearly everybody's afraid of darkness in their childhood.”

Well that's right, nearly everybody's afraid of absence of light, but I was afraid of darkness not the absence of light. Does it sound crazy? I would say yes, but it's not so.

Tool of ignorance

Hatred is a tool, used by the weak and ignorant people as catharsis. Yes as strange as it might seem, but weak and ignorant people also have something of a limited thought process. Their thought process is limited to such an extent that all they can produce is hatred.

Hatred produces intolerance, fury and lack of self-control. So when you see someone exhibiting these signs, discount their behavior for their ignorance and limitations.