You know how that bumper sticker on FB goes: I had a life but facebook ate it?
Well mine is officially devoured.
Thanks to my friend R, who'd been trying to get me hooked for ages (oh had I but known what a precious addiction was waiting for me all along), I am now completely and totally useless.
Welcome to Scrabulous. If you are a language enthusiast or simply competitive or even borderline obsessive compulsive, you will forget all your sorrows on this board.
Bid me farewell, o' sad, pathetic world. I have found a well to drown in.
Aug 20, 2008
Aug 19, 2008
The end of an era.
Pakistani politics are just about to be turned into a play. "Kionke General bhi Kabhi Sadr tha".
That's how Star-Plussy we've gotten. Governments coming back from the dead (literally), external control and influence (I hear you, Uncle Sam), evil (come on now, really?) dictators bidding their goodbyes and saving graces, inflation being the key factor of all the masses that will finally bring us to a grand finale of this drama we call democracy ... we're all set.
In what can only be called a charade of musical chairs, another dictator finishes his long line of policies that were undemocratic and in a lot of ways, insipid to the future of the nation. Nevertheless, as the popular opinion goes, Pakistanis have a knack of being apathetic and listening to the loud, whip-bearing, tongue-lashing ones.
Let's face it. We don't like democracy, no matter how badly America wants us to like it. Pakistanis are more interested in getting their electricity and phone bills under their tiny (thanks to the currency devaluation, getting tinier by the minute) budgets. We will not take affirmative actions because Pakistanis have an enduring historical pattern of listening to the unjustified voice of the times.
We thought we'd be saved when democracy was said to return. We thought we'd be back on the groove track when we elected a democratic Prime Minister (who has the oddest sense of repartee, I imagine). We thought we were on our way.
Ah, Pakistanis. Where do we draw the line to irrational hope?
And here we are again. Celebrating.
Over what exactly?
In the nine given years of President Musharraf's regime, in the six months of the democratic government, in the past 24 hours of a President stepping down.. how have Pakistanis reacted?
We have sat, shocked as always, as the dramatic developments of the stage that is the National Assembly, the script that is the Constitution and the actors which keep having plastic surgeries. Masked puppets dancing at the same tune. Corruption, lalalalalala, corruption.
This man who has just stepped down is no different. I have no sympathies for a head of the state stupid enough to sack a Chief Justice (even though it was constitutional), impose emergency for no apparent reason, make a mess out of a mosque issue and basically be stuck between a rock and a hard place for what seemed like a perpetual period of time.
I don't know about the future, but I do know this. Pakistanis need more than just a change of players. What happened today was not the end. We've only seen a bit of the tumult that is to follow in the next tidal waves of episodes.
Who needs soap operas when you've got a state to dramatize.
That's how Star-Plussy we've gotten. Governments coming back from the dead (literally), external control and influence (I hear you, Uncle Sam), evil (come on now, really?) dictators bidding their goodbyes and saving graces, inflation being the key factor of all the masses that will finally bring us to a grand finale of this drama we call democracy ... we're all set.
In what can only be called a charade of musical chairs, another dictator finishes his long line of policies that were undemocratic and in a lot of ways, insipid to the future of the nation. Nevertheless, as the popular opinion goes, Pakistanis have a knack of being apathetic and listening to the loud, whip-bearing, tongue-lashing ones.
Let's face it. We don't like democracy, no matter how badly America wants us to like it. Pakistanis are more interested in getting their electricity and phone bills under their tiny (thanks to the currency devaluation, getting tinier by the minute) budgets. We will not take affirmative actions because Pakistanis have an enduring historical pattern of listening to the unjustified voice of the times.
We thought we'd be saved when democracy was said to return. We thought we'd be back on the groove track when we elected a democratic Prime Minister (who has the oddest sense of repartee, I imagine). We thought we were on our way.
Ah, Pakistanis. Where do we draw the line to irrational hope?
And here we are again. Celebrating.
Over what exactly?
In the nine given years of President Musharraf's regime, in the six months of the democratic government, in the past 24 hours of a President stepping down.. how have Pakistanis reacted?
We have sat, shocked as always, as the dramatic developments of the stage that is the National Assembly, the script that is the Constitution and the actors which keep having plastic surgeries. Masked puppets dancing at the same tune. Corruption, lalalalalala, corruption.
This man who has just stepped down is no different. I have no sympathies for a head of the state stupid enough to sack a Chief Justice (even though it was constitutional), impose emergency for no apparent reason, make a mess out of a mosque issue and basically be stuck between a rock and a hard place for what seemed like a perpetual period of time.
I don't know about the future, but I do know this. Pakistanis need more than just a change of players. What happened today was not the end. We've only seen a bit of the tumult that is to follow in the next tidal waves of episodes.
Who needs soap operas when you've got a state to dramatize.
Aug 16, 2008
I hate insomnia.
I hate staying up the night.
Everyone has been sleeping - Exploding Dog.
I hate not being able to sleep.
I hate this helplessness that makes me stare at the walls like some sort of crazy schizophrenic.
Is it odd that there are parts of Septimus that I can relate myself to?
I hate this helplessness it is driving me nuts.
I finished movies, began reading, watched television for hours on end and still couldn't sleep. I spent the entire day sleeping and the entire night staying up. And the worst part is even when stay up during the day I cannot sleep for more than three hours during the night.
I'm having the craziest nightmares. Or daymares, anyway. I relived every awful memory of the past few months.
I thought dreams were a way to ... disguise your anxieties ... not show em exactly as what you are afraid of.
Exactly what you are trying to forget in the first place..
Everyone has been sleeping - Exploding Dog.
Aug 15, 2008
Aug 13, 2008
When will pigs fly?
I realize I don't get chauvinists.
I don't get them just like I don't get a zit on my nose on the day I want to look remotely presentable. Like I don't get hysteria and like I don't get cheating.
Interviewing candidates for admissions in the fall semester gave me a sound opportunity to see how much I don't get them however. They're like a freak of nature. Sometimes they're so unbelievably stupid, it gets you thinking if human beings are really all that cracked up to be.
I asked a young man what his opinion was on women. He said he respected them. Then I asked him if he would be willing to be a stay-at-home dad if his wife wanted to travel the world for her job. He said, "No."
When I asked him why, he replied, "Because she is my wife."
Me: "So?"
Chauvinist number 1: "So I will not let her. I will not allow her."
Me: "Being your wife makes her your slave?"
My eyebrows were raised. If he passed this question, he'd get recommended.
"Yes."
Bad answer. Jerk.
The next guy gets it right between the eyes.
"So tell me," I ask, "would you marry a rape victim?"
"Yeah I would."
I brighten.
"If I'm already married, then yeah, I'd marry her."
The one guy who said he'd be willing to be a stay-at-home dad was the guy who said he was smart enough to know what people wanted to hear him say.
I recommended him for his sheer smart-aleckness. He'd get to be in places in the next ten years.
A fellow colleague on the panel was having the time of his life enjoying the conversations. After each candidate left almost puking with nerves, he would turn to me and say,
"You're really enjoying this aren't you?"
"Only so much. When they say they own their wives, it just makes me want to hammer their puny brains into mush."
"You can't blame 'em, you know."
"And why not?"
"It's what our culture and society has taught them since they were little kids. At 18 or 19 they won't have enough sense to come out of the rain let alone fight stereotypical thinking. You are being too optimistic to expect a rational 18-year-old."
"I was rational when I was 18."
"You can't expect everyone to be the way you are. The normal population thinks women should stay at home and be owned by the men while the man earns."
"I think they are better care-takers too. I'd probably want myself to stay at home to take care of my kids rather than go flying about neglecting my own home. Women are mothers for a reason. But that certainly doesn't mean they don't have the freedom of choice and that definitely doesn't mean men own them like chattle."
The day ended with our last interviewee being a frightened young woman smiling sheepishly and blushing uncontrollably.
"So," my colleague asked, "if your husband forbids you to work after you complete your BBA and your MBA, what are you going to do?"
"I'll quit."
After she left, Mr. D turned to me and began laughing, "I told you, beta. I was hoping a girl would come and prove my point. It's not just men. We're all sexists."
Are we all sexists?
Really?
Chauvinism is a strange concept to me because I don't call myself a feminist, a radical feminist or even any kind of -ist. I just feel equality is something that shouldn't be as awesome as a flight to the moon for the species who are growing to live out of caves into feats of architecture that can boggle the mind. When I see educated, intelligent, capable young men and women, seasoned, experienced old uncles and aunties and likeable, loveable people acting as primitive chauvinists I wonder if it's really that far along that we've come.
Sometimes I feel society breeds these vamps we hear stories of. Vamps who destroy houses and eat their young.
Religion plays a strong role in shaping our stereotypical behaviors and so does the heritage a land bears. Pakistanis have a strong reason to believe that their religion has taught them to be sexist and patriarchal. It is convenient enough to forget that Islam actually gave rights to women when it came instead of stripping them from them. Today feminists like to talk about a woman's signature as a witness and her dress code as a barbaric exploitation of women's rights in Islam. I ask them if they'd ever heard of the Prophet SAW's treatment towards Hazrat Ayesha RA when he would ask her if she needed her for anything before he would offer his midnightly prayers. How he handled his wife's anger. Today if a Muslim wants to show just how Muslim and a follower of Islam he is, he does it by proving what a strict check he keeps on his wife, how he doesn't allow her to say a single word in his presence, how he may even slap her soundly if she dares argue and recently got to hear this from someone I wasn't expecting it at all.. "It's really the best if women don't get educated."
I mean, please don't blame me for wanting to hate everything around me right now because people close to me who are capable, intelligent, sensible and usually logical have started to believe that women are the scum of the universe.
A woman should be seen and not heard. A woman must not say or do anything to offend her male counterpart. A woman must take in the butt of all the anger, the flawed logic and a man has the power and the capability to rip her heart out and feed it to the wolves to teach her a lesson. A woman bears lesser intelligence than the man because she is too emotional (if anyone quotes Islam here, I'll be the first to count the number of ahadeeth which have been proven authentic just because a woman .. and a young one at that ... has narrated them, viz, Hazrat Ayesha). A woman is a lesser mortal, a weaker mortal (try waxing your neck and push a kid out of yourself). She must take in all the unfairness with a smile. She must not speak of how life affects her and how must she bear what she does. She must not complain. Because if she does, she is irritating. If she doesn't do what she is supposed to do her grading goes one step down the phylogenetic scale of intelligence. A woman must never think of herself as a more capable person, no. She must control her outbursts, keep her emotions in check, and stop speaking when her anger gets the better of her.
So I'll shut up. Before I really piss people off.
I don't get them just like I don't get a zit on my nose on the day I want to look remotely presentable. Like I don't get hysteria and like I don't get cheating.
Interviewing candidates for admissions in the fall semester gave me a sound opportunity to see how much I don't get them however. They're like a freak of nature. Sometimes they're so unbelievably stupid, it gets you thinking if human beings are really all that cracked up to be.
I asked a young man what his opinion was on women. He said he respected them. Then I asked him if he would be willing to be a stay-at-home dad if his wife wanted to travel the world for her job. He said, "No."
When I asked him why, he replied, "Because she is my wife."
Me: "So?"
Chauvinist number 1: "So I will not let her. I will not allow her."
Me: "Being your wife makes her your slave?"
My eyebrows were raised. If he passed this question, he'd get recommended.
"Yes."
Bad answer. Jerk.
The next guy gets it right between the eyes.
"So tell me," I ask, "would you marry a rape victim?"
"Yeah I would."
I brighten.
"If I'm already married, then yeah, I'd marry her."
The one guy who said he'd be willing to be a stay-at-home dad was the guy who said he was smart enough to know what people wanted to hear him say.
I recommended him for his sheer smart-aleckness. He'd get to be in places in the next ten years.
A fellow colleague on the panel was having the time of his life enjoying the conversations. After each candidate left almost puking with nerves, he would turn to me and say,
"You're really enjoying this aren't you?"
"Only so much. When they say they own their wives, it just makes me want to hammer their puny brains into mush."
"You can't blame 'em, you know."
"And why not?"
"It's what our culture and society has taught them since they were little kids. At 18 or 19 they won't have enough sense to come out of the rain let alone fight stereotypical thinking. You are being too optimistic to expect a rational 18-year-old."
"I was rational when I was 18."
"You can't expect everyone to be the way you are. The normal population thinks women should stay at home and be owned by the men while the man earns."
"I think they are better care-takers too. I'd probably want myself to stay at home to take care of my kids rather than go flying about neglecting my own home. Women are mothers for a reason. But that certainly doesn't mean they don't have the freedom of choice and that definitely doesn't mean men own them like chattle."
The day ended with our last interviewee being a frightened young woman smiling sheepishly and blushing uncontrollably.
"So," my colleague asked, "if your husband forbids you to work after you complete your BBA and your MBA, what are you going to do?"
"I'll quit."
After she left, Mr. D turned to me and began laughing, "I told you, beta. I was hoping a girl would come and prove my point. It's not just men. We're all sexists."
Are we all sexists?
Really?
Chauvinism is a strange concept to me because I don't call myself a feminist, a radical feminist or even any kind of -ist. I just feel equality is something that shouldn't be as awesome as a flight to the moon for the species who are growing to live out of caves into feats of architecture that can boggle the mind. When I see educated, intelligent, capable young men and women, seasoned, experienced old uncles and aunties and likeable, loveable people acting as primitive chauvinists I wonder if it's really that far along that we've come.
Sometimes I feel society breeds these vamps we hear stories of. Vamps who destroy houses and eat their young.
Religion plays a strong role in shaping our stereotypical behaviors and so does the heritage a land bears. Pakistanis have a strong reason to believe that their religion has taught them to be sexist and patriarchal. It is convenient enough to forget that Islam actually gave rights to women when it came instead of stripping them from them. Today feminists like to talk about a woman's signature as a witness and her dress code as a barbaric exploitation of women's rights in Islam. I ask them if they'd ever heard of the Prophet SAW's treatment towards Hazrat Ayesha RA when he would ask her if she needed her for anything before he would offer his midnightly prayers. How he handled his wife's anger. Today if a Muslim wants to show just how Muslim and a follower of Islam he is, he does it by proving what a strict check he keeps on his wife, how he doesn't allow her to say a single word in his presence, how he may even slap her soundly if she dares argue and recently got to hear this from someone I wasn't expecting it at all.. "It's really the best if women don't get educated."
I mean, please don't blame me for wanting to hate everything around me right now because people close to me who are capable, intelligent, sensible and usually logical have started to believe that women are the scum of the universe.
A woman should be seen and not heard. A woman must not say or do anything to offend her male counterpart. A woman must take in the butt of all the anger, the flawed logic and a man has the power and the capability to rip her heart out and feed it to the wolves to teach her a lesson. A woman bears lesser intelligence than the man because she is too emotional (if anyone quotes Islam here, I'll be the first to count the number of ahadeeth which have been proven authentic just because a woman .. and a young one at that ... has narrated them, viz, Hazrat Ayesha). A woman is a lesser mortal, a weaker mortal (try waxing your neck and push a kid out of yourself). She must take in all the unfairness with a smile. She must not speak of how life affects her and how must she bear what she does. She must not complain. Because if she does, she is irritating. If she doesn't do what she is supposed to do her grading goes one step down the phylogenetic scale of intelligence. A woman must never think of herself as a more capable person, no. She must control her outbursts, keep her emotions in check, and stop speaking when her anger gets the better of her.
So I'll shut up. Before I really piss people off.
Aug 12, 2008
Medha Ishq.
Gandhiyan, median khool na mahi....
hin te gayen aan see see gandhiyan
My love, open my knots for me
these hundereds of knot i am tied in
Atak jhatak wak ankhiyan aryan
ate pe giyan yaanm khiirriyan gandhiyan
My eyes are fixated towards atak jhtak
and here I have these knots which cant be untied
Akhii rro roo matam karan nit yaad aawan tediaan gandiyan
yar fareed oo soohgan hoowayan jera naal mahi de gandiyan
My eyes mourn whenever I remember your knots my love
Yar fareed, those who are tied in knots with there love, only those become sohagan
hin te gayen aan see see gandhiyan
My love, open my knots for me
these hundereds of knot i am tied in
Atak jhatak wak ankhiyan aryan
ate pe giyan yaanm khiirriyan gandhiyan
My eyes are fixated towards atak jhtak
and here I have these knots which cant be untied
Akhii rro roo matam karan nit yaad aawan tediaan gandiyan
yar fareed oo soohgan hoowayan jera naal mahi de gandiyan
My eyes mourn whenever I remember your knots my love
Yar fareed, those who are tied in knots with there love, only those become sohagan
Karachi Valiye - Rabbi Shergill.
Je aunda maen kadey hor
Agar main kiss aur waqt aata
Ki mulaqat hundi
kia mulakat hooti
Je hunda maen changa chor
agar main acha choor hota
Ki jumme-raat hundi
kia jumme-e-rat hooti
Je aunda jhoothh maenu kehna
Agar mujhe jhoot bolna aata
Tan vi ki parda eh si rehna
kia yeh parda rehta
Hijaban vali
Hijab wali
Karachi Valie
Karachi wali
Kujh khali tere andar si
Kuch khala tumharay andar tha
'Te shayad mere vi
aur shayed meray bhi
Ik paase khahishan si kharhian
Aik taraf khawahishain ( Desires) kharri thii
'Te dujey haddan si
doosri taraf haddod
Ni haddan terian si nerhe meri door
Ni ( Oye) tumhari hadain kareeb thiin aur meri door
Ki karda maen si majboor
Kia karta main tha majboor
Mijajan valie
Mazaj wali
Karachi valie
Thhande sahan valie
thanday sansoon wali
Rukhe valan valie
Rukhay baloon wali
Thorha kasoor si mera
Thora kasoor tha mera
Thorha si tera kasoor
Thora tumhara bhi tha kasoor
Par dasso dil uthey kiven jit sakdai
Lekin bataoo wahan dil kaisey jeet saktay hain
Jithey rehndian ne mattan vadhoo
jahan aqal ziada important hoo
Tun tukdi si rakhdi si bujhdi si machdi di
tum takti thi, rakhti thi, bujhti thi, jalti thi
Jhakdi si kardi si gallan
hitchkhichati thi aur batain kati thi
Munhon dilon hor
Moonh se kuch aur, dil se kuch aur.
Maen takda si rah, kadey takda si daa
Main rasta daikhta tha, mooka dekhta tha
Kadey farhda si banh teri
kabhi bazoo pakatrta tha tumhara
Aakhar maen si chor
aakhir main choor tha
Asan lai ik sann kurhey
Main ne naqab zani kar li hai
Vehna kinna chir khaloni eyn
dekho kitni dair kari hooti hai
Vaddi kandhan valie
oonchi dewaroon wali
Agar main kiss aur waqt aata
Ki mulaqat hundi
kia mulakat hooti
Je hunda maen changa chor
agar main acha choor hota
Ki jumme-raat hundi
kia jumme-e-rat hooti
Je aunda jhoothh maenu kehna
Agar mujhe jhoot bolna aata
Tan vi ki parda eh si rehna
kia yeh parda rehta
Hijaban vali
Hijab wali
Karachi Valie
Karachi wali
Kujh khali tere andar si
Kuch khala tumharay andar tha
'Te shayad mere vi
aur shayed meray bhi
Ik paase khahishan si kharhian
Aik taraf khawahishain ( Desires) kharri thii
'Te dujey haddan si
doosri taraf haddod
Ni haddan terian si nerhe meri door
Ni ( Oye) tumhari hadain kareeb thiin aur meri door
Ki karda maen si majboor
Kia karta main tha majboor
Mijajan valie
Mazaj wali
Karachi valie
Thhande sahan valie
thanday sansoon wali
Rukhe valan valie
Rukhay baloon wali
Thorha kasoor si mera
Thora kasoor tha mera
Thorha si tera kasoor
Thora tumhara bhi tha kasoor
Par dasso dil uthey kiven jit sakdai
Lekin bataoo wahan dil kaisey jeet saktay hain
Jithey rehndian ne mattan vadhoo
jahan aqal ziada important hoo
Tun tukdi si rakhdi si bujhdi si machdi di
tum takti thi, rakhti thi, bujhti thi, jalti thi
Jhakdi si kardi si gallan
hitchkhichati thi aur batain kati thi
Munhon dilon hor
Moonh se kuch aur, dil se kuch aur.
Maen takda si rah, kadey takda si daa
Main rasta daikhta tha, mooka dekhta tha
Kadey farhda si banh teri
kabhi bazoo pakatrta tha tumhara
Aakhar maen si chor
aakhir main choor tha
Asan lai ik sann kurhey
Main ne naqab zani kar li hai
Vehna kinna chir khaloni eyn
dekho kitni dair kari hooti hai
Vaddi kandhan valie
oonchi dewaroon wali
Aug 10, 2008
"Kung Fu Panda"
You know it's a good movie when you start forgetting about the socio-cultural implications and start believing what the characters are trying to involve you in. Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie and Jackie Chan star in such an animated picture from Dreamworks, their dream-big, do-big blockbuster of the year, Kung Fu Panda.
Po is the Panda son of a restaurant-owning duck, in a Chinese valley where his ultimate dream is to become the 'awesome' Kung Fu 'dragon warrior'. But don't we all know that flabby bellies and cookie-love don't produce warriors that can move faster than light and swing sharper than a sword. Destiny however has great things in store for this dumpling-seeking ball of fur that breaks all previous records of heroic stereotypes.
Ogres, pandas, I'm really looking forward to what Dreamworks designs next as their unlikely hero. Now that I can safely say that I very much enjoyed this animated adventure, I am pleased to see audiences giving warm receptions to this redefining old schemas and images of what a hero should or should not be.
A definite thumbs up and mustn't forget a big-fat-Panda kudos to Jack Black for the relatable, believable Po.
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