The Final Version

At last, I have finished all the seven stories of Harry Potter series and can’t resist telling the pain that I am feeling. I guess when you are reading some stories (which are so intelligently written and flawlessly handled) then you create a kind of emotional bond for those stories and maybe it is due to this reason that although the story finally ended with a ‘happy ending’ as Mr. Potter survived the supreme evil Tom Riddle but still the damage is done and we have lost the most lovable characters Sirius, Dumbledore, Lupin, Nymphadora, Hedwig and Dobby.

Cytogen Arthritis Treatment

It is such a tremendous treatment for arthritis patients – Cytogen. I know quite many bits of this treatment because my mother is having it done for her arthritis problem, this treatment is very novel in Pakistan and of course has its own ifs and buts and side effects also, but still, I think if a patient gets over with his/her arthritis problem to some extent through this pain less treatment then it’s none less than a blessing, I can say this because I have seen my mum bearing the knee and joints problem which has always worsened during winters and now due to this treatment she is in a much better condition and I hope she overcomes all her pain (inshALLAH).
It has been just 10 days of her treatment yet and she is feeling much better, there are still 11 days left and physiotherapy also (if there is a need felt by the doctors). There are side effects associated with all cures but if she can get over with even 70% of her pain through this treatment, I think it’s worth it. I have my fingers crossed and hope (inshALLAH) that she and all other patients get 100% results out of the treatment.
It is a bit expensive treatment and is not known at many places, also has its own conditions so i think one should conduct all the necessary research before initiating it and should start it only when one is fully satisfied.

2012

2012 -- I wonder will the world really end in 2012? Well, according to the 'Maya' calendar world will face the 'Doomsday' in year 2012 and everything will be destroyed either through thunderstorms, earthquakes or megatsunami and thus all the life and living creatures be it human beings, plants, animals or life itself will cease breathing. The picture of destruction of the world is well exposed in the movie entitled 2012 and it is interesting to know that initially the director and producer of the film wanted to release the movie in the year 2012 but then they thought that if the world is really going to come to an end in 2012 then all the effort and heavy budget of the movie will be wasted so they ended up releasing it in the year 2009 so that people can plan out their lives more decently for the three years left :P

source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_(film)

Be serious now!

I was sitting idly in my van while we were driving from home to office when suddenly I had a thought in my mind which ended up at a same point. I want to recount that ‘same point’ through this piece of writing. On the same day I had a discussion with a friend, read an article in a magazine and saw a television show and interesting thing over here is that all three of these acts ended up with the same conclusion that we people of Pakistan are very much interested in putting our efforts for the betterment and well being of our country but for some reason we need help and assistance from the government of Pakistan and I think that it’s high time now when the government officials should seriously look into the well being of the nation rather than keeping themselves busy in washing off the ‘terrorists’ stains from our name, or settling the NRO issue while sitting comfortably in the parliament house or arranging world tours for ensuring leaders around the world that we are not involved in the terrorist activities against U.S.

Be serious now!

I was sitting idly in my van while we were driving from home to office when suddenly I had a thought in my mind which ended up at a same point. I want to recount that ‘same point’ through this piece of writing. On the same day I had a discussion with a friend, read an article in a magazine and saw a television show and interesting thing over here is that all three of these acts ended up with the same conclusion that we people of Pakistan are very much interested in putting our efforts for the betterment and well being of our country but for some reason we need help and assistance from the government of Pakistan and I think that it’s high time now when the government officials should seriously look into the well being of the nation rather than keeping themselves busy in washing off the ‘terrorists’ stains from our name, or settling the (least important) NRO issue while sitting comfortably in the parliament house or arranging world tours for ensuring leaders around the world that we are not involved in the terrorist activities against U.S.

Welcome Winters!

It’s mid November and winter season is about to take its peak, I always love the sound of winds coming from outside the sealed windows during the silent winter nights and reading an interesting book (perhaps a love story ;) ) holding a large mug of coffee and the quilt tightly wrapped around myself. Everything else is so admiring in this season except for the drowsiness that shadows you all day long, especially the mornings are so difficult, it’s always such a bad even worse feeling to leave your bed and get ready for either school, college or office. Whatever, but winter season has its own beauties like wide range of dry fruits, long nights, warm winter wear and above all the different kinds of soups that we usually avoid rest of the year are welcomed open heartedly.
Enjoy the weather people and hope that we can also see some snowfall in our dear Karachi.

Salesmen for Sale

Pakistani cricket team is famous for its unpredictable attitude on the ground, sometimes they defeat world champions with no trouble and sometimes they get defeated by basic teams like Ireland. I have been a very fanatic fan of cricket, years before because now I am fed up of being depressed by the childish attitude of our players. Last twenty twenty finals again grabbed my attention and I once again started the habit of being glued with the TV screen whenever Pakistan was on the field, but still I had made a promise to myself that I won’t be fanatic in this regard and will not pay much regard to any stupid behavior shown by our very dear cricketers but then a few days back Pakistan New Zealand match (Abu-Dhabi series) forced me to do this writing, the cricketers played awfully, the batsmen were terrible on the pitch, it seemed as if they are facing the ball for the first time in their life, none of the batsman gave the impression of being interested in staying on the pitch, only one bowler Amir Khan who has just started his career as a bowler and is not at all a fine batsman stayed on the pitch and played an appreciable innings of 73 runs. My God, what a shameful scene for all our batsmen and the captain, who is responsible for this? when a bowler can play 73 runs why the batsmen can’t. Is there anyone who can ask this question to our honorable players? Distress floods over oneself when we witness such a match :( and we call these players as our heroes who don’t take a bit responsibility of people’s feelings over their shoulders and are more likely to be salesmen for different products rather than being cricketers. When money is more important than the game than you should bravely give up all the game rather than insulting yourself and the nation!

Chaudhvi ka Chand

A few days back, I and some friends were going somewhere (just a fun drive), it was around 7:30 in the evening and we all were busy talking about different bits and pieces, all of a sudden I noticed that it was the 14th day of lunar calendar (I am very bad at remembering the names of months:( and it was full moon on the sky spreading that adorable moony glow all over the dimness of night and obviously when we talk of full moon we straight away associate it with beauty in fact with extreme beauty. No doubt the moon, its shininess, its glow and the radiance is awesome, I always wondered why people resemble beautiful women with that of a moon’s beauty, and whenever we want to explain some one very beautiful we immediately say just like the moon, like a very common sentence is “Cleopatra was as beautiful as the moon is”. I, once heard a man saying (I guess it was in a drama serial) that “Main chand ki chandini pe Binomial Theorem likhne ka qail nahi hoon” For some reason this sentence is still in my mind and I think that as you sight the moon the very first thought that comes into your mind is that of beauty. May be that is because of beauty examples (linked with the moon) we have been hearing for ages because accepting the fact that a circular object having lots of marks in itself seems to be quite illogical :S
I think while symbolizing extreme gorgeousness with the moon, we should not remain biased and also praise the sun because at least its light and radiance is not borrowed and it’s much more bright and luminous than chanda mamoon. When I gaze at the moon, the thought that comes to my mind is that of innocence and purity probably because of the fair white spotless shine it emits. Whatever be it is, the innocence, the glow or the beauty, one person I would always like to meet in my life and that is the old lady busy weaving on the moon surface :P

NOTHINGNESS

Almost all of us must have gone through the feeling of ‘vacancy’; it’s not about job vacancies (which are eminently very rare in our country) it’s about mind vacancy, when there is nothing and absolutely nothing in your mind and you feel so awful, for me when I experience such a state the best thing that I prefer is to sit single-handedly in my room for many long hours and spend time in loneliness.

I think this state is called the ‘state of nothingness’ where you feel vacant, no thoughts in mind and nothing on the earth even your own life seems to be insignificant and unappealing. Once in a book, I read that nothingness is the state which then leads a person to depression and then going two steps ahead there is extreme depression and this extreme depression is the condition in which people feel so helpless so much so that some of them commit suicide also (this chain of states is wholly solely derived from that book which I am referring and has nothing to do with my views). My goodness, this is getting somewhat perilous so I think I must count on the copious blessings that life has given me and get back to finding a way to get rid of this nothingness(which is mere nothingness and nothing more than that :))

Is Music Prohibited in Islam??

This is a very important issue (at least for me, as I am very fond of Pakistani pop and latest numbers on the charts). I did a bit research related to this topic and found a very comprehensive answer to my question. This may interest all my friends too:

“Music is an issue that has been hotly debated by scholars of the past and the present. While many of them have been generally inclined to condemn all forms of music, with the singular exception of ad-duff (tambourine) in weddings, quite a few of them have taken a more positive approach of considering only music containing sensual, pagan, or unethical themes or subliminal messages as being categorically forbidden.

The latter view seems to be more consistent with the general nature of Islam, which is undoubtedly a complete way of life that caters to all of the genuine human instincts and needs within permissible limits. Thus, to say that all music is forbidden in Islam does not seem to agree with the balanced approach of Islam to issues of human life and experience.

Traditions often cited by the first group scholars to justify condemnation of all musical instruments and music, according to some scholars, are considered as either spurious, or phrased in such way solely because of their associations with drinking, dancing, and sensuality.

While everyone agrees that all forms of music that contain pagan, sensual themes, or subliminal messages are clearly forbidden, the latter group of scholars considers all forms of music free of such themes and messages as permissible.

As a matter of fact, we know from the authentic traditions that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, not only allowed music in the weddings but also listened to girls singing: While listening to girls singing on such an occasion, he interrupted them only once when they sang the following verse, “In our midst is a prophet who knows what will happen tomorrow”; whence, the Prophet, peace be upon him, told them, “Cut this sentence out, and continue singing what you have been singing earlier.” There is nothing in the sources to indicate that the above permission is limited to the occasion of wedding, as some people tend to think.

In light of these, according to the last mentioned group of scholars, music that is deemed to be free of un-Islamic and unethical themes and messages, the same is true of musical instruments so long as they are not used for the above, have been considered as permissible.

But we have to stress that Islam clearly prohibits mixed dancing of males and females.”

Excerpted, with slight modifications, from: www.islam.ca

Strange Creature

While I am going through an interesting wizardry book these days, I just noticed that novels and stories based on supernatural conceptions are very eminent among the masses all over the world. If we look to this situation from behind a scientific and technologic glass then we all will agree to the fact that vampires and wizard world (having an organized education system, a ministry of its own with proper rules and regulations and stuff like that) don’t actually exist but still these subjects are very well-known now a days. It’s strange that we love to read what that doesn’t exist or is something which can’t be a part of practical experience by a human, I think that’s why human is known to be a strange creature!

SORCERER's STONE

Well, it’s the first time when I am reading any of Harry Potter’s books and after finishing the first of them, now I truly understand why everyone on Earth is crazy about Mr.Potter. Each and every line of the book gripped me more and more and I could not wait to read the second of the series now. All the adventure and the entire story is so soundly handled and there seems to be no flaw in the writing style, at least for me it’s a perfect entertaining book. After reading books like Sorcerer’s Stone and Twilight, I wonder, do wizards and vampires really exist? … God knows the answer better.

Img Source: http://images.google.com.pk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.impawards.com/2001/posters/harry_potter_and_the_sorcerers_stone_ver4.jpg

The ‘LIVING’ Nation

Forwarding text messages between your friends and family is very common these days, be it teenagers or elderly people, everyone seems to be indulged in this activity. A few days back I received a text message from one of my friends about Pakistan, the message stated some very sentimental statements that can easily provoke the patriotic feelings of any emotional individual and of course the last line of the message read ‘Please forward this message as much as you can and if you receive this message back then it proves that we are a strong nation and the spirit of nationhood still lies in us’. I did not noticed that sms much and forgot it after deleting it from the inbox but after a few days I again got that message and suddenly I thought that though I havn’t forwarded this message to anyone but still I have received it back, does this mean that we are a very very strong nation and no one can destroy the bonds of nationhood that are nurturing in our souls. But then, on the same day when I had that ultra patriotic sms in my inbox I also heard about threats of terrorist attacks to schools, bomb blasts in International Islamic University and bombs successfully disposed off somewhere in Peshawar, hearing all this is really sad and I think this is high time when all the citizens of Pakistan should get united to stand against these suicide attacks and prove pragmatically that we are a LIVING nation.

UNDER RIDER AT PAF PUBLIC PARK KARACHI

It was a local news channel where I watched the news of the instalment of a huge under rider (this under rider is a swing that moves heavily to and fro and people sitting inside the swing feel like they are physically going through the journey of the scene which is being played in front of them at a large T.V screen) at some PAF Park in Karachi, the news stated that the instalment cost of this swing was approximately 5 crore rupees and the cost of one cd played in that under rider is about 12000 pounds. This is really pleasant to hear that government is putting efforts to provide quality amusement to the locals but at the same time I was wondering that a country where people are dying of starvation, where people are selling their children just because they can’t afford food for their kids, a country where numerous people passed away while striving to get ‘ration’ for their children and family, a country where hundreds and thousands of people do not even have access to the basic necessities of life, in such a country spending 5 precious crores on mere entertainment and diversion counts under ‘israaf’. I appreciate the step taken by the government but I guess government should first spend energy and money to make plans for providing people with the basic necessities of life because if our stomach is full then only we can think of some activity or leisure and even gold feels like dust if the stomach is empty … Higher authorities please first look into matters like electricity and power outages, water supplies, low-priced but quality education etc etc and when these problems are under control then we can definitely focus on building Disney land in Pakistan too.

WE ARE RUDE!

A few days ago I was reading an article in a newspaper about the citizens of Pakistan and the focus of that article was ‘We are a RUDE nation’ , while reading that article I realized that this fact is so true, if we notice the masses around ourselves we will come to know that each and every category of our society is engaged in this impoliteness, our beggars are rude, salesmen in the markets are rude, our servants (the massis in our houses) are rude, the sabziwals and fruitwalas roaming around in streets are rude, bosses in the offices are rude, employees are rude to their colleagues, the nurses and doctors in the hospitals are rude to the patients, we are rude to the waiters serving us in restaurants, we hardly say thank you to the waiters when they serve us in restaurants and saying ‘sorry’ to someone is synonymous to climbing up mount Everest for us, even if it is our own fault and so hard it is for seniors to praise and say a few words of appreciation to their juniors at workplaces. The ‘best’ examples of rude behaviour can be seen on the roads where people are simply on the edge of killing each other for very minor mistakes while driving. I went to a restaurant with my family during this eid and there a very interesting scene happened, a man was sitting with three women (I guess one was his wife and the rest were his sisters) when the waiter served him with his order, he suddenly started shouting , the reason was that the food was not sizzling, the manager immediately came in and his order was replaced straight away but the boorish attitude of that person was so gloomy for me because he looked a decent man by his appearance and the way he was talking with his fellows was also quite upright but the moment he started shouting and ranting over the waiter he seemed none but a mad man. Its just one example, every day around us we can count on hundred of examples of our rude and ill-mannered behaviour. If we compare our attitude with that of some other country people, we can a lot and obvious difference, I am not saying this because I am also fond of degrading our own country and am addicted to praise other countries (and especially countries like U.S and U.K) but I am saying this because I have experience the urbane behaviour of people in other countries. I don’t know what’s the reason behind this attitude, may be the instability of our economy or the insecurities of life or the worst water, electricity and health, hygiene problems have made us treat others in such a way, whatever be the reason but my personal opinion is that being impolite to anyone is not justified in any situation, society or religion.

CHANGES ARE NEVER WELCOME

Changes are never welcome. This particular sentence may come across many of us but nobody notices it watchfully because there seems to be nothing worth noticing in this one sentence but this small sentence suddenly becomes important when we actually go through a ‘change’ in our life. I understood the importance of this sentence when I had to switch my job from one private limited company to the other one.
I had serious issues with the management of the company where I was employed previously and it was wholly solely my decision to leave the place and seek my career somewhere else, I remember very clearly those job hunt days, looking for a position at some renown place, appearing in employment tests, being interviewed every other day and finally when I got successful in seeking a position in a high profile private limited company, it became really difficult for me to adopt the situation. I took a break of about 15 days when I switched from the former organization to the new one and during those holidays I was very excited about new workplace, new job responsibilities and new colleagues.
But, the time when I actually joined the new company became really very hard for me and I truly went into serious depression, all the time I used to hate my previous managers for making the circumstances so very difficult for me and forcing me to leave the job. I had switched into a better career position, a better environment and a better salary package but still I was in a very infuriating situation and it took me weeks to get over with the situation and finally I was able to cope up with the new environment and new tracks of my life. It was all because of my will power that I got beyond those difficult times of the ‘change’ process and thank Almighty Allah for giving me the strength and acquaintance to comprehend the condition.
The above mentioned situation is though not something very huge but has taught me a very essential lesson which is ‘changes are never welcome’.

SECTORS OF OUR RELIGION

I have never been a very profound Muslim and have never practiced Islam very strictly, be it offering prayers five times a day or be it about wearing a hijab. But I have set certain lines and have promised myself that I would never ever move about those specific lines, one thing which is very prominent in those lines is to orate bravely if someone abuses my religion verbally or through his/her actions.

One thing that I have experienced these days is that various sectors of Islam are widespread around us, in old days we barely see a Shiya or Ismaili person in our vicinity, at least I had no friends in either my school or college following a different Fiqqah of Islam but now I have many of my friends who belong to different sectors of Islam and the point which is worth mentioning over here is that people are so perfectly bound to their specific Imams and sectors that they can even badmouth about our beloved Prophet and our respectful holy book Quran (Na-auzubillah), and one more thing which I have noticed and have practically gone through is that people belonging to different sectors are very perfectly geared up with their particular teachings of Islam and can easily make you shut your mouth when it comes to arguing with them on basic principles of Islam.

Something that bothers me more and is really alarming for all of us is that we are afraid of defending or speaking loudly for our religion, there can be many reasons for this may be we want to show that we, the Muslims are calm and peaceful people and do not belong to any of the terrorist camps (this is quiet extreme clarification I guess) or we don’t want to lamp sparks and create a feeling of aggression among our friends and associates, whatever be the reason I think that at least we should not be afraid of speaking for our religion and if we are afraid of being a Muslim then we should not be a Muslim.

Anyways, people have their own mind set and I can’t judge that who should remain a Muslim and who should not but one thing which is in my mind is that we should strongly focus on understanding the meanings of Quran i-e Tafseer so that at least those of us who have the courage to speak for their religion can defend it properly and are able to do away with the wrong understandings of others about Islam. Mothers should understand their responsibility and should teach the basic lessons concerning to the religion to their children from childhood as kids pick up readily and remember the lessons learnt in early childhood for all their lives.