Only Human

Cliff Diving

2008-09-06T02:49:00.004+06:00

Cliff diving is a great thing. So is bungee jumping. I haven't really tried out the latter, but the reason I'm promoting and marketing both of them is the same: To take the jump, you need to shut off your mind.

So, what does this have to do with the whole life and philosophical theme of my blog? Humans still exist in this world because we have evolved... part of which is knowing how to keep your ass alive. The brain now has inhibitors, and they (usually) act as anti-crazy gates and stop you from doing something ridiculously stupid like... well, jumping off a cliff :)

Cliff diving teaches you to turn off those inhibitors for that one crazy minute... to "take the jump". In life, there are a lot of situations in which you need to stop being careful and just take the jump. This works in countless situations... from changing your job to making a risky investment to moving to another country... even dumping your nagging girlfriend.

A human is the sum of all the experiences he/she has had. "Taking the jump" lets you have a greater diversity of experiences in life... giving you more fulfilment and making you a stronger, more complete human being.

"I refuse to tiptoe through life, just to arrive safely at death"

Of Moths and Humans

2008-07-25T01:16:00.004+06:00

Given the number of daily power outages here in Pakistan, one gets more chances to observe things that we didn't have time to observe before this affluent state of our country's energy resources.

On one of these interesting times that the power was out, my family and I were sitting in the lounge, almost silent after running out of topics to talk about. During this relatively peaceful time, I noticed a moth that was constantly trying to touch the flame of the candle we had lit to be able to see each other's gloomy faces. The moth would touch the flame and go away, at times getting burnt by the flame, other times hitting hard the glass on which the candle was standing. This went on for as long as I could remember (probably a little less than an hour).

The next day, I found the moth dead on the floor of the lounge. I thought to myself: This moth had spent its entire, albeit short, lifetime trying to get close to a light source (the type of light didn't really matter), and had died while trying to achieve this seemingly myopic, nonsensical goal.

But I also realized, that humans are not very different. Yes, we may live a life of 70-80 years (if we're lucky), as compared to the 2-3 week lifespan of the moth, but essentially we spend our entire lives trying to make money, and more money. And this obsession keeps us busy until we meet death. Reminds me of the following verses from the beautiful song from The Verve:

'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life
Trying to make ends meet
You're a slave to money then you die

For most of us, that really is the story. We spend our lives in search of money, and then we die. Anyone looking at humans from a distance would not find us very different from that moth.

This blog post in short: Lying in my death bed, in retrospect, I would not want to see a life spent only on trying to earn money, and realizing that I had only one shot at life, and I wasted it. Nor would I want this for any of my friends or family. Money is only a means, not the end.

What I don't want to be remembered as...

2008-04-11T01:17:00.004+05:00

Tayyab Javed ka hamari tareekh mein jana pehchaana naam hai. In ka naam to bacha bacha jaanta hai. Woh Lahore mein paida huay aur unho nay apni ibtidaee taleem Lahore main hee haasil kee. Tayyab shuru say hee baaki bachon say faraq thay, woh khail kood mein zyada dilchaspi nahee laitay thay, balkay yehi waqt kitaabein parhnay mein lagatay thay (What a blatant lie!).

Teesri jama'at kay baad Tayyab apni family kay saath Saudi Arabia hijrat kar gaye. Unhon nay teesri jamaat say chhati jamaat tak wahan taleem haasil kee. (American school part omitted because of patriotic reasons). Uss kay baad unhon nay aik saal Islamabad mein guzara, jis kay baad woh Karachi chalay gaye. Karachi mein hee unhon nay apna mash'hoor khitaab "TJ" paaya. Yahan par unhon nay apni ta'leem mukammal kee (O Levels and A Levels part omitted because of anti-colonialistic reasons).

Magar Tayyab kay parhai kay shoq nay un ko yahan ruknay nahee diya, aur woh mazeed ta'leem kay liay Lahore chalay aye (as if a bachelors degree is really rare). Yahan par unhon nay Lahore University of Management Sciences, jis ko pyaar say LUMS bhi kehtay hein, kay prestigious Computer Science program mein dakhila haasil kiya.

(Since I didn't get any awards as such, we need to say the following) Tayyab yahan par bhi baaki bachon say zyada mehenti aur danish'mand thay. Woh parhai aur baaki cheezon mein sab say agay hotay thay, aur unhon nay bohat jaga apni university ka naam roshan kiya. Sab asaatiza ko Tayyab par bohat fakhar tha.

Apnay aakhri saal mein Tayyab nay LUMS kee mash'hoor society LES kee sadaarat haasil kee. Unhon nay iss society ko apna bohat saara qeemti waqt diya, aur society kee shaan mein chaar chaand lagaye. Unhon nay apnay ham-khayaal logon kay saath mil kar Pakistan mein pehli baar Young Leaders and Entrepreneurs Summit karaaya, jis mein pooray Pakistan say taalib-e-ilm aaye.

(... to be continued)

Religious Freedom in Pakistan

2008-02-13T01:04:00.000+05:00

The title pretty much shows I'm not going to be touching upon a light topic today. I've been wanting to write this entry for a long, long time... more-so because my feelings regarding this issue have been building up in intensity day by day. The whole debate is: "Does giving birth to a child give you the right to determine his/her religion?"

In our subcontinent, and in the West till a few decades ago, the trend has largely been that religion is "inherited" from your parents... just like your ethnicity, your looks, and your allergies.

In Pakistan, for example, no child (even when he/she becomes an adult) can dare think of
changing their religion because of two reasons:

1. The whole household will break down and there will be waves of criticism from the immediate and extended family, from friends (who might soon become ex-friends) and from the society as a whole. Basically your family will disown you and your society will treat you like an outcast.

2. More importantly, under the Islamic law, you will be labeled a "murtid", and are liable to be killed unless you repent and revert. I am not sure how many scholars disagree with this law, but to the best of my knowledge, it is widely accepted.

I completely fail to understand that with such laws, how can we even dare to invite others to Islam. How can we ask someone to leave their religion and become a Muslim if leaving a religion is such a heinous crime? The typical Muslim response to this question is: "That is because Islam is the true religion of God and all the others are not". Come on! With such a self-centered worldview, do you really expect to be living in harmony with the rest of the world?

Imagine you trying to convince someone to convert to Islam... and in return he says "I am convinced that your religion is the true and final religion of God, but if I convert, my government will kill me under the religious law". What will you call their law? Savage? That is exactly what they call us: savage, barbaric, extremists.

The non-flexibility of religion is so ingrained in our heads that hardly anyone even dares to ask questions like "Is there even a God? If yes, is Islam really His true and final religion?" In fact, even the sub-categories of religion are so rigidly defined that no one dares think of changing their sect from one sect to the other. In most cases, that could actually be worse than leaving religion altogether.

Conclusion: I strongly feel that religion is a matter of personal choice, and we really need to help our people understand this. We need to kick back the self-righteousness and and push up the tolerance. As the Radio1 public service announcement very aptly puts it: "Tolerance. It's not just a word. It's what we need."

Saying Goodbye

2008-02-05T03:23:00.000+05:00

OK so due to the 31st Dec incident, my whole of January was spent traveling in riksha's and buses, sometimes even on foot. On one day I walked almost 2km, WITH my not-so-light laptop bag, on my way home from office. For some reason, the trip was neither boring nor tiring.

Since my car was standing at the workshop, on many of the days I had to go to the car parts road of Lahore, which is known as Montgomery road (It's actually surprising how many pre-independence British names we still haven't changed more than half a century after our so called independence!) n many of the days, I had to go during office timings, which led to me sitting till late, sometimes even after 11PM!

But if you have read "Who moved my cheese", which was given to me by my boss in Infosys (Pune, India), Miss Zalak Dedhia as a farewell gift, you would learn how to convert any incident into a learning experience. And I did, I now have more knowledge of the car parts industry and the qualities or parts available. I have also become less dependent on my car now, it doesn't seem all that crucial now after I've spent more than a month without it.

The Young Leaders and Entrepreneurs Summit (YLES) 2008 is going on at LUMS nowadays, and they have a whopping 900 delegates this time, including an international team from Malaysia. Yesterday was the most exciting part of the event, the ad-making competition... and I must say that some of the ads were absolutely mind-blowing! It seemed that their concepts and ideas for the ads came from some advertising expert! According to the "official statement", the ads will be available on the YLES website soon.

27th Dec 2007 - Through my eyes

2007-12-28T02:56:00.001+05:00

The following was the sequence of events on my 27^th December. I had office as usual, and was supposed to catch an 8pm flight to Karachi to attend the wedding of one of my closest friends from college, Shireen. I had planned to make it to the “dholki” tonight and also attend the main wedding function on Friday. So this is what my day went like…

09:30 AM – Alarm rings. Press “Snooze”

09:35 AM – Alarm rings again. Press “Snooze”

…. This goes on every 5 minutes… until 10:30 AM …

10:30 AM – Alarm rings. Press “Shut up” button. Get up from bed. Get ready.

10:45 AM – Pack for Karachi.

11:00 AM – Leave for office.

11:20 AM – Reach office. Start work.

01:30 PM – Go to pick up mom from Daewoo station, who was coming from Multan.

01:45 PM – Go back to office. Give car to mom. Continue work.

05:50 PM – Hurriedly get up from a meeting with the CEO. Leave office. Grab a riksha back home. Tell him to step on it.

06:10 PM – Get a call from Zartash, director of our company, informing me that he has just been informed from a friend in Pindi that Benazir has been critically wounded in a suicide bombing, and has been taken to hospital.

06:25 PM – Reach home. Do some final packing in a hurry. Get another call from Zartash: “Benazir is dead”.

[It takes a while to sink in. A few seconds pass in shocked silence]

“Oh God. That is unbelievable!”

“Yes. This is certainly going to lead to a lot of trouble.”

“Yes. I am now double-minded about going to Karachi.”

[some more exchanges follow. How? When? Who?]

“Take care”

"Khuda Hafiz"

06:45 PM – Packing complete. Still in shock. Go back to the same riksha, put in my luggage and we leave for the airport.

06:55 PM – By this time I have exchanged more than 25 messages and have received at least 5 phone calls all related to the tragic death of BB and more importantly, the events to follow.

07:00 PM – Get to talk to Shireen. She is not sure if today’s event is going to take place or not. I am now undecided if I should even go or not.

07:02 PM – My decision is made easier by a phone call from dad, ruling out the option of me going to Karachi, because violence has already started in the form of burning buses and cars and shootings in the city.

07:10 PM – Park riksha outside airport. Call PIA to cancel my ticket. After a lot of “network busy” signals, I finally get through. Unfortunately, all their systems have crashed. The guy at the call center tells me to call back later. The flight is to leave in 50 minutes. I don’t want to waste money on a flight I’m not going to take. I call back again. Still no luck.

07:20 PM – Tell riksha-wala that this is not the end of our adventurous journey. I put my luggage back into the riksha. Call Shireen and let her know I’m not coming. We take off for home.

07:30 PM – reach Cantt. area, keep checking for any sort of unrest. Thankfully, on the route I took, there was none.

08:00 PM – safely reached home.

However, I later talked to people in Karachi, and they told me that they were constantly praying to God to get them home safely. One of my cousins saw a shooting right ahead on their road, as a result of which women were running out of their cars with their children and hurrying to go and lie down in nearby empty plots to avoid crossfire. Bullets firing, children crying, tires burning, women running… I can only imagine the fight-or-flight reaction of the people watching this horrific scene, worried about their own safety and those of their children.

As of now, 10:00 PM, Lahore is mostly silent… not a car in sight. One can only hope that this is the end of the chain of reactions to this terrible event, but knowing our people, it is too high a hope to have.

Benazir Bhutto (1953 - 2007)

2007-12-28T02:43:00.001+05:00

History has changed with the tragic events that have taken place today, the 27^th of December, 2007. No matter how clear the dangers were, no one ever thought it would really happen. Benazir Bhutto, the “daughter of the East”, the first-ever prime minister of a Muslim nation, one of the few hopes of Pakistan’s future was killed in a suicide bombing in Rawalpindi in one of her rallies. Not that she was the sin-free savior of our country who would have solved all our problems, but she could have played an important role in ousting Musharraf and bringing something closer to a democracy than what we had under the dictator.

What happened today is one of the worst developments we could have had at this crucial point of our country’s history. We were already going downhill in every possible way, and fast. But most of the people, however depressed by the declining state of the country, were still going on with their lives, doing their business, slaughtering their goats and enjoying their cricket matches. But now, in the wake of Bhutto’s death, hospitals, cars and trains are being burnt, shootings are plenty in every major city, roads are being blocked by burning cars and tires, business has come to a halt, and citizens are happy to just be in a safe place, whether it is their home, their hostels, or even a friend’s house. The state is at the verge of a civil war.

Fueling the already increasing tensions is the fact that she was killed in Punjab. This will cause further polarization and ethnic tensions will increase, because now it will be labeled as a Punjabi killing, and PPP is, in every way, a Sindhi party. Everything Punjabi, including both the PML parties and even the Army which has always been favorable to Punjabis, will now be the target of violence. Unfortunately, in the violence between these parties and the armed forces, we citizens have a lot to lose, namely the sense of security and the hopes of a better Pakistan.

The Idiot Box

2007-12-22T16:04:00.000+05:00

Someone gave this very apt name to the television - "The Idiot Box". Now TV lovers don't need to become suddenly defensive at this point. It does not mean that only idiots watch TV, however true that might be. Instead, it means that TV plays a huge role in making people "brain-dead", i.e. TV makes "idiots" out of perfectly normal, capable, and intelligent human beings.

This is not to say that TV is an evil that should be removed from every household, but just to point out that each of us spend endless hours in front of the "idiot box" rendering ourselves more and more brain-dead, and hence we need to make sure that we use this invention for our good rather than our let it lead us to waste half our lives.

When I suggest this idea to some people, the only thing they have to compare it with, is reading books. Now, not watching TV is not the equivalent of being a book worm. I, myself, have read less books in my life than the number of toes on my right foot. However, spending four years at LUMS (my university) has taught me how much better life can be without television!

However, people staying at home might argue that it is only time-pass. The problem with that is that it is a very addictive form of time-pass, and I myself can also sometimes find it difficult to turn it off once I start watching. One of the most addicting things on TV nowadays is movies, especially Indian movies. You would have watched that movie ten times before, but still find it difficult to change the channel or turn off the TV when you see Kajol trying to grab Shahrukh's hand on a running train!

The solution? Not starting in the first place. One might ask, what better way to spend my free time than watching TV? Doing anything, be it hanging out with friends, reading a newspaper, reading a book, reading blogs, playing sports, or even spending time with your family is much better than watching TV... Don't believe me? Try it for a week.

Thanks to the idiot box, finding "quality time" with your family has also become a myth. I work in Lahore while my parents live in Multan. I am able to make the 5-hour journey about twice a month to come home to my parents. When I am in Lahore, it is the distance that separates us. When I am in Multan, it is the idiot box. The irony of it all is that we are all sitting in one room, even as I type this post, and yet all the eyes are glued to the TV screen, on which re-incarnated Shahrukh Khan is trying to take revenge of the love of his previous life, as is the case in half the Indian movies. Gone is the hope of spending quality time with family. So, while TV has the power of bringing the family together to one room, it also has the ending any and all possibilities of "quality time" with family.

From where we left...

2007-12-21T23:44:00.000+05:00

OK so Sneha started her blog about two weeks ago, and with a very fancy name, I must add. It's called Aleatoriedad Redifinido. Go figure! So anyways, being a tech-savvy, net-savvy CS major, my ego didn't let me stay too far behind and I finally took the leap and decided to write my first post. So here it goes...

There is really no point to this post, or to this blog, or to any blog, or even to this life for that matter. Have you ever asked yourself, "What do I want from this life?" or "What change will my life bring to this world?". Umar Saif, one of the best teachers, mentors, and friends I have had (and still do, btw), once told us to ask ourselves a question and come back with an answer in the next class. The question was, "If you could be anyone you want, have anything you want, who would you be?"

I feel a lot of people, especially in our region, need to ask themselves this question, and soon enough to be able to make a difference in their lives. It's not an easy question, at all. But the search for the answer might change your life.