The serpent of anguish slithers,
As peace within withers.
Turmoil, into the soul, seeps
As composure weeps.
Insomnias creep,
Night after night, deep.
Drifting from reality to delusion,
In a surreal confusion.
Psyche jolted in a quake,
Oh! prudence do not forsake
And keep me awake,
For sanity’s at stake.
I have a dream of…
A war
That’s played not fought,
To invade, not lands,
But hearts
Of disheartened souls
To heal not injure
With guns that shoot
Bullets of harmony.
Lay landmines, when stepped
Blast into goodwill.
Drop bombs,
Explode splinters of amity,
Taking captives in heart
To enslave in love
With chains of unity.
Being victorious
With an everlasting cheer.
I have a dream of …
An earth quake of sanity
Buries bigotry deep
Beneath the rubble of tolerance.
A flood of awakening
Drowns the ignorance,
And never recedes.
A volcano that
Burns hatred to ashes.
That spews
The lava of love
Which hardens as rock
Within the chambers
Of a caring heart.
And that never cools.
A tsunami of charity
Sweeps away greed,
That afflicts the globe.
A tornado named ‘Prosperity’
Blows off,
Roof tops from
Houses of hunger and poverty
A geyser that exudes
Steam of justice
Generates energy of hope
That runs the windmill
Of empathy
Relaying without Resistance
A ‘direct’ current of equality
That illuminates the world
With an everlasting PEACE
Continued from the previous post….
Delhi roads, or for that matter roads on any metropolitan city in the world is so very stressfull. If only these vehicles did not share their light hearted smalltalks or gossiped or flirted on the way, they would be having high rates of ‘heart attacks’ like us humans.
Only if we too knew how to wade our ways through chaotic and bumpy roads of life with humour, life would seem much less of a burden.
Again open your ears, shush your mouths and hear them gossip and flirt and romance…..
Madame Maruti: Haaaye teri baat ne dil khush kar diya.
Truck ji: Chal Rani tera Rabb Raakhaa
Mme Maruti: Rani, haan who tou main hun. Thankyou for the dua, yaar.
Auto bhai: “Papa Jaldi Ghar aa Jaana.”
Maruti behn: Bhai, ghar mein bachey wait kar rahe hain, zara safely
chalao.
Another auto bhai: “Mera Bharat Pareshan[My India is Troubled].”
Maruti : Tere jaise careless auto se pareshaan nahi hoga tou kya hoga…India.
Maruti, the advisor: Yar tou kaali ko bhool ja, kamai kar buss…
Romeo Truck: “Kaho na pyaar hai”
Laila Maruti: Kyun, ek baar bol diya na, bar baar kyun boloon, huhh.
Maruti( sharma ke): Awaein, mere kol koi hor kum ni haega..
Truck Dada: “Road King”
Maruti: Tabhi tou itna chaura ho ke chalta hai, sarak pe.
Lalchi Maruti: Hain, to kya ye sara maal vi mera. Haaye meri kismat.
Truck in denial: “Gori fir se hui jawan”
Maruti: Kya bola? Zara apne aap ko sheshey mein tou dekh.
Creepy Truck: Tou hi meri dulhan, tou hi mera dahej
Maruti: Yar mat tang ker, us bichari nai Maruti ko.
Truck ji: Bus peecha karoge, ya kabhi dil mein bhi baithogey
Maruti: Arre, peecha kaun kar raha hai, awein hero mat ban.
Truch ji: Dekho, dekho,dekho,magar pyaar se
Maruti: Yahan marne ki fursat nahin hai, tum pya se dekhne ki baat karte ho.
Maruti: Haan, haan woh to nazar aa raha hai.
JattTruck: Jatt Di Mercedez
Maruti, the sophisticated: To tum bhi koi Jutt se kam nahin ho bhai.
Truck the philospher: Hun Tu Kaun te Main Kaun
Maruti the sufi: O truckeya, tu ki jana main kaun…
Maruti: Hahaha kya baat hai…:D
Haseen Lorry: “Kashmir Ki Kali”
Maruti( jealous): Chal chal zyada ghuroor mat ker apne ooper.
Badtameez Tanker: Zarra Hatt ke Laadli
Maruti( ghussey se): Oye tameez se baat ker…
Filmi Truck: “दुल्हन वही जो पिया मन भाये,
गाड़ी वही जो नोट कमाए”
Dulhan wohi jo piya man bhaye
Gaari wohi jo note kamaye.
Maruti, the feminist: Yaar, aajkal to dulhan bhi note kamaye…
Pendu Truck: Himmat hai to pass ker, warna burdass kar.
Shehri Maruti: Lagta hai gaon se naye naye aaye ho, Dilli shehr mein. 🙂
When we part, we get emotional 😥 :
Maruti: Chal TATA. Kabhi Salam bho ker liya ker…
Jazbati Truck: Milega Mukaddar , Pher milangey
Maruti, (equally emo): Haan kismet hui tou zaroor milenge isi road pe, ek na ek din.
Devdaas Truck: Chalo ek Baar Phir se Ajnabi ban JaayeN
Paro Maruti: *sob sob, sniff sniff* Haan chalo, Khuda Hafiz.
And this is how they meet each day, with gossipping, joking, flirting on the roads and making their way through packed roads. Their spirit and zest to survive is touching.
Maruti remarked: Yess we give space on the roads to these beings too, . Do you Humans do the same with animals?
Maruti taunted: Dont you think there are Supermen amongst you only. We have them too.
Maruti( with proud): We have Superwomen too.
Maruti: See we are considerate for our poor too. And we give them way.
Maruti: We believe in UNITY IN DIVERSITY.
Maruti, the thinker: And we believe in PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE .
Indeed, one thing remarkable about the traffic community is their ‘unity in diversity’. How they coexist with some noisy peace and give way to each other with no vengeance, is worth commending.
We humans need to learn some real ‘good’ lessons from these vehicles.
Ever since
Borne off the rib,
Road’s been uphill.
Laden with boulders,
Of hardships, hurdles,
And umpteen struggles
Track slippery and steep,
From cradle to grave.
Crawling narrow lanes,
Of Adam’s psyche.
Jostling upon her,
The backpack of duties.
Taking twists and turns,
Thro’ dark dogmatic alleys,
Braving blizzards of biases’
Dodging dissecting stares
With resolve steady as rock
And mind tough as steel.
A heart warm as fleece,
Entwined in agony and love,
Walks the tight rope,
Miles after miles.
How far more ?
Endless?
Passing the baton of destiny
From Mom to daughter to…
Will it go on?
Forever?
Behind fog of prejudice,
The summit remains unsighted.
Can she make it?
Before sunset?
Ever?
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/jun2011-weekly/nos-19-06-2011/spo.htm#6
( Published in The News, Sunday Page on 19 June 2011).
The victory of Indo-Pak Express, Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bhopanna, at the Gerry Weber Open Tournament in Halle (Germany) brings a cool breeze amidst the summer heat, to all of us from India and Pakistan. After winning the match they reach to their seats adjacent to each other where their white jackets hang, embellished with the four magical words: ‘Stop War Start Tennis’.
The message is simple and brief, yet has far-reaching implications. The message holds the key to the prosperity of one fifth of the Earth’s population.
They are best friends, both on and off the court, and say that they complement each other’s style of play. Ever since they paired up in 2007, their careers have been marching uphill.
It is not just their game but their spirit to rise above religious and political differences that makes usall proud. They may have yet to fulfill their dream of Wimbledon doubles title, but they have already lifted the biggest trophy of Peace and Sanity.
After one of the tournaments, Aisam had remarked: “There were a lot of Pakistanis and Indians in the crowd cheering for us. And you couldn’t tell the difference, who was Pakistani and who was Indian, they were all mixed together and supporting the same team.”
And indeed this is the truth, no matter what skeptics may say. We have more in common than in differences, whether it be our appearances, our histories or our geographical location.
These talented young men are a living example to the 1.4 billion Indians and Pakistanis that ‘United, we shall stand’.
The duo echo the feelings of millions of hearts that throb in the chests of the people, who aspire for peace and prosperity for themselves, as well as for their neighbours. Like Aisam and Rohan, these millions too could become the real ambassadors of peace in their own right. Together they could reckon to be a Peace Force large enough to defeat any force of hateful extremists or other vested interests that leave no stone unturned to sow hatred and differences between the two neighbours.
History, with three wars and years of tensions, cannot be changed and borders cannot be erased. But these young men have shown us that by ‘being friends’, we can avoid the waste of energies in hatred and blame games, and instead, harness the same energy towards progress and prosperity for the entire region. Let the borders be just on the land, not in our hearts is what the pair teaches.
It does not need rocket science, but just a flicker of change in one’s thinking to turn this hatred into love. It does not even need too many bureaucratic visits, MOUs or anti-war treaties if one and a half billion people of this subcontinent decide to make Aman ki Asha into a real everlasting peace.
Indians and Pakistanis are 1.4 billion people together, sitting beneath the noose of nuclear weapons in the region. True, that the possibility of these being used is negligible, but then why such a hefty expenditure in developing, maintaining and improving their ‘killing’ capabilities in the name of big meaningless words like ‘nuclear deterrence’?
We do not deny that there aren’t serious differences and contentious issues, but three wars and numerous tensions have failed to solve them. Nor will the missiles and nuclear weapons resolve them in future. There is no issue which cannot be settled through peaceful negotiations. So for the sake of the well being of the huge numbers of people at stake, it is time we give lasting peace a real chance. Tensions and wars benefit few, but peace shall benefit each one of us across the subcontinent.
The political tensions provide an excuse to the vested interests (outside the region) to continue getting both sides to buying arms and building arsenal for ‘safety’, amidst poverty, hunger, ignorance, illiteracy for millions on both sides. What if this money was used for development and not arms build up?
Let us ask for our ‘safety’ not through arms and ammunition, but through regional cooperation in education, health, alleviation of poverty and economic activity. This is only possible if both sides are at peace with each other.
Is this asking for ‘lasting peace not tensions’ that farfetched a dream? Maybe the idea looks a dream, but then dreams do come true too.
And Aisam and Rohan have shown us just that. Congratulations Indo-Pak Express. You make us proud.
ilmana_fasih@hotmail.com
Ek duaa, mere shehr ke liye…t
Sukoon se jaagti subhein
Qahqahon se goonjti shaamein
Bekhauf o khatr sotee raatein
Suno, ab laut aao na…
Hansee jo rooth gai lab se
Khushi jo naraz hai sab se
Raunaq jo udaas hai kab se
Dekho, ab maan jaao na…
Khauf jis se na aam ho
Zulm jis se na zabt ho
Umeed jis se na khatm ho
Koi aisi dawa batao naa…
Nafrat koi bikherne naa paaye
Khushi itni ke sameti na jaaye
Aman aye to phir lautke na ja paaye
Kabhi aisa din bhi laao naa…
Let your heart be your compass,
your mind your map,
your soul your guide…
and you will never get lost.
~Unknown.
Our heart is the voice of the soul.
Listen carefully and in its beating
you will hear the fluttering of angel wings.
~Unknown.
The head thinks,
the hands labor,
but it’s the heart
that speaks and laughs.
~Liz Curtis Higgs.
Have a heart that never hardens,
a temper that never tires,
a touch that never hurts
~Charles Dickens.
Let your heart guide you.
It whispers the truth.
so listen closely.
~(Land Before Time).
Sarfaraz Shah you are the real face of Pakistan.
You are the face of the youth who constitute two thirds of Pakistan. They say youth needs no spark to ignite, they just need a direction.
Yes Sarfaraz you are the very face of the youth who has all the necessary spark within but no sense of direction ahead.
You are that face of Pakistan who has the great potential lying dormant within it, but the energy that no one cares to harness.
You are that very face of Pakistan who’s steam of helplessness and lack of opportunities to make a decent life scalds it to take the path of transgression.
You are that face of Pakistan who has learnt from his seniors that the shortest path to success is through ‘might is right’.
No one is born a villain, one is made so due to the circumstances.
How could you learn otherwise when the seniors you idolised around you were all offenders in their own right? Snatching petty cash, cell phone or jewellery at gun point in some corner of a street isn’t the only offence.
Usurping the rights of those weaker than oneself, not performing one’s duty sincerely in one’s work, not being honest in paying taxes, not giving the due to the maid in one’s household are all offences . So when you grew up seeing all these misconducts being committed , day in and day out, left and right, all around you, how would you not emulate them. Yes you are this very face of this Paksitan too, the delinquent Pakistan.
Yes Sarfaraz you are the face of that son of Pakistan whose mother sends him off every dawn, at her door with a fear in her heart, whether her beloved son would return home alive, at dusk.
Yes Sarfaraz you are the face of Pakistan, the young and the old, who’s fate is to bear the intimidation of the those who wield more power and who is born to bear the bullying from the powerful at every step, from crib to grave.
You are the face of Pakistan which is seen as a mere clay pigeon by the hungry guns and despot boots simply because they have learnt that the word ‘boots’ is synonymous with ‘stamping’, and the word ‘civilian’ is synonymous with ‘feeble’. And that the boots are worn to stamp the feeble, while the trigger is pulled to shoot at these feeble clay pigeons.
You are that face of Pakistan who dies several deaths each day, while it’s cries and wails of help fall on the deaf ears of the apathetic crowd, which just loves to watch from the sidelines.
You are also that face of Pakistan, like many other faceless and nameless Pakistanis who meet their end ruthlessly on the streets each day, and who’s sacrifices are forgotten long before their spilled blood dries up.
But Sarfaraz you are also that face of that Pakistan, which has the lava bubbling into it’s chests and is waiting for a tiny crater to spill out that ferocious lava. The lava that shall turn to ashes every injustice and malfeasance that has thrived for the past 64 years.
The true face of Pakistan that no one has ever fathomed in the remotest of their dreams.
Yes Sarfraz, I wish you become that very face of Pakistan.
Courtesy: Faking News
Poor ostrich is often associated with the belief that it sticks its head in the sand during times of trouble. Of course this is a myth and no ostrich is foolish enough to do that. Thanks to the mankind, and his state of denial that he has attributed this term to the poor ostrich. I am sure ostriches and other animals must be calling this as ‘human effect.
(Ostrich effect is a term used in behavioural finance for the avoidance of apparently risky financial situations by pretending they do not exist.).
We human beings are the masters of denial. Whether it is health, finance, social, political situation—personal, or public we live in denial. We bury our heads in sand of denial of and on.
Who would know the bitter effects of denial than I myself. I still suffer from its guilt now almost a decade on.
On visiting my parents in Delhi in July 1997, I clearly remember how my mom begged to me that she felt that my Papa wasn’t well and he needed a thorough medical checkup. I took heed to her concern and talked to my father, that he needs to see a doctor. He scoffed off the idea that the sweating he gets while walking has nothing to do with his heart but due to humidity in the monsoon season. We went on long walks together, where his pace at 64 years of age was still faster than mine.
I continued to watch him with a side gaze, off and on, to see if I could get a trace of some unwell signs in him. He was radiant as ever, with barely few hair grey in the sideburns and and intact zest for life.
How can my Papa be having a ‘serious’ problem ? I questioned myself several times..
He convinced me that my mom was obsessed. We went for a basic blood test which was all well. Mom wasn’t convinced. But my confident Papa, shooed her idea of an echocardiography for the heart.
Twenty days after I left, I got the news that my Papa passed away, hale and hearty, while working on a computer, typing a chapter for his new book. He had a massive heart attack.
I have not forgiven myself ever since, for having lived in denial, to escape harsh reality. Had I faced the truth head-on, life would have been different.
In a wider context, all human beings live in denial—with just the difference in the degree. We deny everything and then wrap it in the garb of ‘conspiracy theory’.
A quote goes: ‘The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race’.
On one extreme end are those who deny Holocaust, the landing of man on Moon, the 9/11 incident, even the Abbotabad operation in which Osama Bin Laden was nabbed and killed. The other milder extreme are those who express “ We have stopped watching news because it is very depressing.”
How can anyone close their eyes to what’s happening around? My mind often tickles.
In the local context, one sees that denial has become a way of life in Pakistan. There are many who refuse to accept the problems of Pakistan and pass the buck on others—most favoured excuse being America or India.
Twenty years ago when I was new to Pakistan, first ‘conspiracy theory’ hurled at me was that Pakistan’s big or small problems are because it wasn’t given the ‘right’ piece of land during partition. I remember having had frantic arguments, with myself as a new bride alone on one side, and many old and young, mostly men on the other.
And after that for whatever happened in Pakistan, some of my ‘friends’ and kin, in Pakistan made sure that I knew that all that was happening was due to India.
The latest being the PNS Mehran incident—in which a ‘friend’ of mine took pains to mail to me in India that it all happened because of the involvement of RAW agents and that the proof she had was that those men who came there were uncircumcised. I did not shock me, for I had heard the same explanation when the armed men had attacked the Sri Lankan team in Lahore. And worse of all, many among my other kin and friends did not disagree with her.
I do not find these stories amusing any more. Mass denial has become a “National Sickness”. And conspiracy theory is it’s outward symptom. I fear that the way things are moving this sickness may lead to our demise as ‘thinking’ and ‘reasoning’ individuals.
So aptly has the following quote by Meredith Grey summed up ‘denial’ :
Sometimes reality has a way of sneaking up and biting us in the ass. And when the dam bursts, all you can do is swim. The world of pretend is a cage, not a cocoon. We can only lie to ourselves for so long. We are tired, we are scared, denying it doesn`t change the truth. Sooner or later we have to put aside our denial and face the world. Head on, guns blazing. De Nile. It`s not just a river in Egypt, it`s a freakin` ocean. So how do you keep from drowning in it?
Blind to Bounds 
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