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Education is Futile

When we think of progress, the first thing that comes to our minds is education. Generally it is firmly believed that education makes a man a human. When we think of a civilized person, we imagine a tornado of books and degrees around his statue.

I beg to differ. Education, or this education, is all about teaching you how to make correct arithmetic calculations and understand different languages. Sadly, education does not make us humans. If education made a difference then our cities would be heavens and rural areas hells. If education made a difference then we would have perfect traffic on roads and zero corruption. If education made a difference then we would have had a perfect political era when Musharraf and every member in parliament was at least B.A. passed. If education made a difference then we would not have stockists who pile up basic necessities to make people beg and crawl for them. If education made a difference then our industrialists would be paying taxes honestly.

It's not education, it's the man that makes himself a human. It's the determination of not being animal like everyone else. Only few percentage of people in the world choose that, because the temptation of acting like an animal is so high. Look at our politicians, for example, they all are bunch of beasts that drive innocent animals like ourselves. Because we stay too busy being animals that we never get time to think.

We don't need people like our professors, teachers or ourselves. We need people like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Lugwig Erhard.

The Day Today

We (me and my housemate) woke up 7 minutes before the end of Sehri. We didn't know what to do because it seemed like no time for preparation. I became hopeless and just sat there. The housemate picked up the only apple from fridge and started munching on that. It pissed me off and surged my hunger. From this mix of jealousy and anger, I got some hope and made a (DAWN) Paratha in record time, and gulped it down even faster. Finished just in time for Azaan. Don't remember if I heard that completely before falling asleep again.

Then I woke up at 9 and half to reach office late by 10 and quarter. The day at office was normal, means boring. I kept yawning and dreaming about McArabia all day. I, yet, have to find a person who likes McArabia, which I absolutely love. The smell of it is so seductive that I surrender like France did to Germany in World War Second.
I left office at 7.

Reached home at the perfect time for Iftar. My Iftar is really modest, you know, only a few dozens Samosas and kilos of Pakoras plus a truckload of Coke and dates.
Well, that was my dream. I just go with couple of dates and a glass of Tang because anything solid like Samosa or even apple really shatters the dream of jogging later. It all tries to escape through your mouth when you run.

After Iftar I went for jogging. That was the most eventful thing of the day. I ran 6.8km, and that was third day in a row. Imagine running that much with Roza all day.

After jogging, and of course, shower, I ran for McArabia. It smelled just like I imagined. While the McBoy was collecting things as per my order, I was literally drooling over the counter.

I came back and then went to drop check for my credit card bill.

And now I am writing about my 'eventful' day just because I wanted to update blog. I will be asleep as I finish watching Candy.

The Life

No man loses ever on a lower level by magnanimity on a higher.

Henry David Thoreau
In email from H.

The Right

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Evelyn Beatrice Hall, The Friends of Voltaire

Mad Men Resumes

Mad Men, the best thing ever happened to TV, just resumed with Season 3. Even though I have this raging fever that is making me hallucinate about things and making it painful just to close eyes, I still managed to watch new season premier, which was marvelous as expected.

Hope I survive to watch season finale.

Happy Independence Day

You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

The Great Gatsby

My year long search for this book ended last week when I slipped into Readings randomly. The Great Gatsby has revitalized my passion for reading. And, unbelievable to myself, I started and ended it on the same weekend. It's a marvelous piece of writing.
Instant favorite.

The Word That Means Peace

Just yesterday I heard this shocking news and it took me a while to actually believe it. Aren't we creating another Gujarat at home? The event we detested so angrily?

Christians are the most underprivileged people of this country: 99% live below poverty line and do the dirtiest jobs imaginable. Actually the jobs no "sane" Muslim would like to do, yet they do that honestly and we take that for granted. I even know people who treat them in a subhuman way. We get kicked in the ass all over the world and then we have them to spit on. And guess what? All in the name of The Word That Means Peace: Islam.

If I were to listen to any talk show on TV right now, I would get lectured on how greatly Islam treats minorities and how blah blah Khalifah did something good to minorities. But, I ask, do we ever look at the dark side of religions? Don't they all promote hatred for each other in an implicit way? Don't Muslim clerics, and pretty famous ones, promote hatred for non-Muslims? I was raised in a rural and conservative family and all my life I heard clerics in mosques calling each other non-Muslim. And then when they would get tired of calling each other Kafir, they would take on other religions and promote Qataal (killing) while directly quoting Quran.

I happened to study at a missionary school. Not by choice but by the lack of it. The most famous school, aptly named, Muslim Model School wouldn't take me in since I wasn't one of the best of the pack. My mother and grandmother actually did a little protest over it. But my dad was too concerned about my future, so, he had to do it. I studied among Christian fellows and it opened another world for me. Hitherto, I had been looking at just "Islamic" side of the picture and never even considered Kafir people to be humans like us. The thing that shocked the hell out of me was that they would actually recite Quran and memorize Surah's in Islamiyat class. They could have gone for some Akhtiari (optional) subjects but they didn't. And what shocked me further was that they would take care of Quran just as we did and used to perform Wudu (The Washing) too. All that Islam in a Christian school.

Now let's imagine for a moment that Pakistan is a Christian state: 96% percent are Christians and about 4% percent are Muslims. All the Muslims have to study Bible to get through the school. Would we? No, we could create a hell of riots but we wouldn't just touch the Bible. In fact, if you look at all the fucked up countries of the world, you would see a similarity: Muslims would be in majority. Just do a little analysis and you will find out yourself.

Coming back to the point of Quran and how Christians handle(d) it. All my time at school I carefully noticed every move of my fellows when reading or just handling Quran. Never did I notice anything that could qualify as "disrespect" even by the most rigid Islamic standards. So, the riots above in the news, started because someone from the Christian community desecrated Quran. Let's say this happened, which I doubt it did, isn't there a law already for such things? Isn't the State and courts are supposed to handle this? How does this justify burning seven people alive? How would I explain to someone that Quran promotes peace, because this news says it caused some deaths?

Just Do It.

The first time I checked Nike's "Just Do It." line, I was like "What a stupid tagline. What does it imply?" Until recently I was unaware of the genius behind it.
Remember my colleagues who decided to quit after first day of trekking? We actually got in serious arguments. Their point was that they couldn't move because of pain. My point was that I was having equal amount of strained muscles and pain but "we should do it." Because through my personal experience I came to find that one can override muscle exhaustion by doing more muscle exhausting work. Essentially, I believe that the more you stretch yourself the stronger you get. Something like "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."

So, when you are running or hiking, there would be many times when you would feel energy-less. A voice in your head would tell you to stop. And that's exactly when the real thing starts.
That's where "Just Do It." starts to make sense.

In such a situation I realized how great marketing people Nike has.