Thanks, Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an incredible source of [almost] reliable information on more topics than can be found at a single place anywhere else. Whoever came up with this idea and implemented it has indeed served the cause of knowledge sharing and dissemination in a magnificent way. Wikipedia is being run as non-profit enterprise. Maintenance of this site requires a lot of money. A major source of funds for meeting these costs is donations from grateful users. I have made my tiny contribution as a token of gratitude and got this badge as acknowledgement.

Come away, O human child!

Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a fairy hand in hand

For the world’s more full of weeping

Than you can understand

- W. B. Yeats

New heroes of the nation

When you find your silent thoughts and feelings acquiring the shape of words, even if someone else’s, it surely feels very good. This is what happened when I read Ayaz Amir’s column in yesterday’s Dawn. He writes:

“Time was when Pakistan had few people to be proud of. Now so many, a whole string of men of integrity and principle who we can look up to, that counting has become difficult. Never was it truer that to the darkest clouds there can be a silver lining. This may be a bleak moment in our history — indeed, perhaps the bleakest — but it has brought out some of the best in the Pakistani nation.”

“All of them — Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Bhagwandas, Ramday, Javed Iqbal (his stock sky-high), all those in the Supreme Court and the various high courts who have refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitution Order — are today the undisputed heroes of the Pakistani nation.”

Na koi khwab na saheli thi

Na koi khwab na saheli thi
Us muhabbat mein main akeli thi

Ishq mein tum kahan ke sache the
Jo aziyyat thi, ham ne jheli thi

Yaad ab kuchh nahin raha lekin
Ek darya tha ya haweli thi

Jis ne uljha ke rakh diya dil ko
Woh muhabbat thi ya paheli thi

Main zara si bhi kam wafa karti
Tum ne to meri jaan le li thi

Waqt ke saanp kha gaye us ko
Mere aangan mein ik chambeli thi

Is shab e gham mein kis ko batlaoon
Kitni roshan meri hatheli thi

- Naushi Gellani

Some comments from ATP

Raza Rumi’s post on Ramzan was published by ATP on October 9. Reproduced below are some of the comments on the post relating to emphasis on rituals, mathematical count of sawab and washing away of sins:

• Shueyb Gandapur says:

  October 10th, 2007 9:56 am

  Of course, too much emphasis on rituals, and too little attention to character and welfare of humans … the momins of today for you! I guess this behaviour is encouraged by the prevalent way of preaching. They keep on mentioning the exponential count of sawab one can earn by such rituals and have one’s most horrible sins washed. So one may think, why not keep committing the wrong, when washing it away has been made so easy.

• Tina says:

  October 10th, 2007 10:33 am

  Shueyb–exactly right! Christians with their instant born-again forgiveness fall prey to the same way of thinking. Now Muslims are doing a version of the same thing–everything can be made right and we can go on sinning ad infiniteum….

• Tina says:

  October 10th, 2007 11:35 am

  So people who believe in the short cut and “reducing the cost” of sinning against others, I have to wonder…if they believe this do they not believe that God can’t see their true intentions in their hearts? Who do they think they’re kidding?

  Allah, apparently.

• Pervaiz Munir Alvi says:

  October 10th, 2007 11:45 am

  Sister Tina: It is not that his flock is born-sinner and one confession will wash all the sins away or how many rosaries must be said or candles must be burned following each confession. Moulvi Sahab has developed a precise mathematical formula of sin-washing. You ought to try it some time.

Qurratulain Hyder, the literary giant is dead!

For quite some time, the feeling kept haunting me that the time for Qurratulain Hyder’s departure was imminent. Finally, the sad day came and she left us for good. Despite the impossibility of circumstances, I had a great desire to meet her some day, while she was a living legend. I have my old-time friend, Fuzzle, to thank for introducing me to this colossal writer.

The first short-story of her that I read, I found it so engrossing that I made a resolve to read all her works. Though, I am far short of fulfilling that resolve, whatever little I have read of her has left a deep influence on me and changed some of my perceptions of the world and life. I found her work generously adorned with abstract thoughts, expressed so amazingly that one is overwhelmed by results of the skill with which she exploits the power and beauty of Urdu language. She was not a follower of any particular ideology. She just cherished her inherited civilization, and wrote about it and her background.

When I joined orkut, first thing I did was to make a community on QH, as there was none at that time. Through her name and mention on that community, and elsewhere, I got introduced and acquainted to some remarkable people. Being the owner of QH community, for some it became my identity.

Her health and old-age didn’t permit her to write any more, but since I got the news of her demise yesterday, slowly I am realizing that her life, as long as she breathed, meant something. After her death, today, thanks to Raza Rumi, listening to her in her own voice made me feel overwhelmed. I couldn’t believe it. But alas, she lies under loads of earth now. The loved and lost, comes not again! 

Mere azizon tamam dukh hai

Mere azizon tamam dukh hai

Hayat dukh hai, mamaat dukh hai

Yeh sari mohoom o be-nishan kayenat dukh hai

Wajood dukh hai

Wajood ki yeh namood dukh hai

Yeh hona dukh hai

Na hona dukh hai

Judai to khair aap dukh hai

Milaap dukh hai

Ke milne wale judai ki raat mein mile hain

Yeh zinda rehne ka shauq, yeh ehtemam dukh hai

Kalam dukh hai

Ke kaun keh saka hai jo mawra-e-kalam dukh hai

Mere azizon tamam dukh hai 

Courtesy: Hermes Blue

2 weeks in Bahrain

The narrow lanes of Bahrain are so very similar to the streets of homeland. Old decrepit buildings side by side with new construction. The difference being that the streets are relatively clean and there’s no stench of open gutters. In addition to its oil income, this country thrives on revenues from tourism. To the tourists of neighbouring countries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, it offers plenty of avenues of decadence, which they can’t enjoy in their own countries.

Bahrain!

After living for months in the drab city of Riyadh, I am quite excited about my upcoming visit to Bahrain starting Friday. From the most retrogressive of the Arabian peninsula to its most ultra-liberal and as they tell me, the most decadent. Let’s see.

The Aftermath

If the goverment committed some mistakes in the way it wound up the operation, that doesn’t make any heroes of the inmates in Lal Masjid, who went down fighting for dubious causes. It’s so disappointing to see political parties, especially the religious ones, springing up to action now after it’s all over to gain political mileage out of the unhappy episode. These so called mullahs and ulema seem jokers to me. Also disappointing is the way many people’s sympathies have turned the other way after the operation. Those, who previously wanted the government to finish them all off, are now blaming the government of committing a crime of such heinous proportions, that according to them, no such example could be found in history!

Satan is most effective when it begins to chant the name of God! These are no conspiracies of the enemies. We are our own enemies.