Something’s wrong with the world mama

Our minds are always full of questions – some of them accompanied by vivid answers, some with a couple of possible answers and an unending chain of unanswered ones for those who think and observe a lot. In the quest of enlightenment and inner peace i also keep looking for the answers around me with a hope that one day i’ll either find all the answers or i’ll happily let go of the questions to get rid of my restlessness before my conscious flies out of the cage of my body.

During past few months i lived in a new environment, adjusted myself to a new culture and observed the ways of life in an unfamiliar place – interestingly i found out that human instincts are the same where ever you may go. The conditions and particular situations do change the moods and way of our dealings however inside the covers humans are very much similar. Sometimes they are kind, sometimes they are happy, sad, jealous or angry and at times they are not good to each other. Sometimes they expect a lot from others without understanding that they are also obliged to return the favors but we can’t ignore the fact that our environment and our upbringing plays a huge role in the way we act and react throughout our life. We can’t blame anyone – all we can do is to understand our good and bad sides and keep working on making ourselves a valuable member of society.

As recently I have traveled to new places so i got the chance to meet a lot of people – made new friends, got  new inspirations and learned new things. I have also lived alone, learned life lessons and tasted the sweetness and bitterness of loneliness. Sadly the world is becoming more materialistic day by day – people are ignoring their loved ones and family members in the name of self love and trying to blindly follow the hypes created by social media without paying attention to the consequences.

I have seen couples eating together in silence and eyes glued to their phones – i have seen mothers ignoring their kids as their source of happiness is a bright screen which keeps setting new goals and desires for them which eventually result in depression when the mind gets loaded with heaps of wishes without any clue how one may change those dreams into reality.

Some of us just want to wear a celebrity’s life as if it is a piece of garment but we don’t check whether that famous person is truly happy in living that life or not – we buy what we see. I wish that all of us may realize the importance of our own life and our style and contribute towards the society in what ever way we can – the past is past, we must live in the present moment and use our energies to live it to the fullest. Another important thing is to understand that we don’t have to fly to multiple countries and take our pictures at five stars and popular tourist destinations to show that we are living an amazing life – we don’t have to make anyone jealous of our possessions – we must remember that our actions should not spread negative feelings – there are many positive ways of making ourselves happy and as soon as we may understand this the better. My observations can be wrong, my words can’t be final but my intention to educate people that life isn’t that difficult as we make it for ourselves is pure and i keep spreading it to the attentive ears around me. These days i mostly read verses of Persian poetry and few excerpts from “West with the night” along with occasional glance on a Reddit page on “Stoicism” and write for some of my clients who need either technical or travel articles however today when i came back to my room after playing badminton i sat down in front of my laptop after shower and wrote this blog post to spread the words of love, peace and humanity on the cyberspace which is rather bubbling with words written for search engines and probably my words will also be read by search engines more often than the real people – but still i have to play my part – i have to justify my present moment 🙂

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Void

The void is there

eyes haven’t seen it

yet i can feel it

senses have fathomed it

and it has to exist

it can’t be filled

as the mortals have pushed their souls

back to the wall

and now their emotions

are not their’s anymore

they follow what they are fed by the feeds

and they only feel touched

when they are given teddy bears

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Shared domain

 

The sky isn’t mine

neither the birds that traverse its vastness

with their beautiful wings

 

That road isn’t mine

which i push under my feet

to reach the room where i live

 

That car can’t be mine

some company has made it for anyone who’ll pay for it

so do the chocolates and the pizzas that i cherish

 

The air

that fills my lungs

isn’t mine either

as i just found myself breathing in this world one day

i didn’t bring anything with me

and i won’t take anything from here

not even the words

so what exactly is mine except the way i feel?

probably the little desires that bubble in my restless heart?

nothing else indeed

as somehow i share everything with others

 

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Walk to work

A dog yawning in front of a worn out gate – a sparrow pecking on the window pane – a squirrel climbing the bark of a tree – a colorful kingfisher sitting on the transmission wires – an old cobbler opening his small roadside shop – a fat barber smoking a cigarette in the cold sunlight of early January mornings – a motorbike rider carelessly cruising besides the little schoolboy at alarming speed, missing his body by a few centimeters in attempt to overtake a car; these were the few glimpses which i can recall from my today’s one kilometer walk to the office.

And now when the day has almost ended as the sun has arched along the sky to disappear in the western horizon. I am sitting in a comfortable chair with my head resting on the edge of its back – i close my eyes for a moment to think that how all those creatures which caught my attention at the morning would have had spent their day today. I don’t know whether that little boy has thought about that careless rider again while sitting in his classroom or not. Maybe he will be a little scared of walking to his school tomorrow.

The life never stops – there are always so many things going on around us. We should remember that by showing a little care and compassion for our fellow beings can save them from getting in to trouble. Moreover if we keep observing little things and happenings around us, we can learn many important lessons of life from them.

So live with your eyes open – play your role in ensuring a safe and peaceful environment for all and keep learning the art of life.

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Step towards peace

Why it is so difficult to achieve peace?

Today the Newspapers, TV Channels and Social Media tell us about the chaos, uncertainty and numerous other problems of the world. If you ponder a little the root cause of all these problems is same.

Peace is difficult to achieve because the hearts of mankind are engulfed in the clouds of greed, lust and selfishness.

It’s not some secret – everyone knows it – religions teach it – atheist accept it; even then a great majority cannot contain their desires and actions within limit and hence the trouble persists.

I must admit that some evils have pushed the humans to work beyond their limits and achieve great goals but it is important to understand that an achievement may not ensure long lasting satisfaction. As a human we still need to understand true satisfaction.

Let’s start trying to acquire inner peace in such a way that it doesn’t conflict with other’s peace. It will contribute a great deal towards collective peace.

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Gossip

During the day – Sun makes a huge parabola and dives in the west – Just as we wake up in the morning – finish our chores and dive in the bed to sleep again at night.

Sometimes a day passes very fast – like the wind enters a window from north and swiftly passes through the southern side of the room. As the basketball stays in air for some time until it dips down in the bucket. The always awaiting – hungry bucket with an open mouth – ready to swallow its prey.

Sometimes a day becomes longer – it feels like it will never end and you start realizing what the word “infinity” literally means.

Yesterday – it was one of such days which don’t pass easily. I watched videos about grafting an orange tree with lemon, trophy hunting in killer mountains of Tajikistan, listened to traditional music of Tibet, drew something like a rabbit trying to hold a big stone that was all set to roll down a hill but it looked as if the rabbit was rather pushing the stone down, drank water – more than it was needed,

moved from reading Robert Frost to Leo Tolstoy and from Tolstoy to John Milton and became extremely thoughtful. Then i got up and did some push ups, checked prices of the things on my “have to buy” list and planned to go for shopping with a friend. After getting a plan in hand the things got better and the time passed a little faster.

I went for shopping but nothing touched my heart and i came back without buying anything – picked up two peaches from the basket and came to roof top. A half moon was drooling in the middle of western hemisphere and the stars were not very bright. Maybe they were dull due to the thick layer of pollution in the city air. Anyhow i tied a huge rope to the two bright stars and made a swing to reach the moon. The moon was not so near as it appeared to be but i kept swinging across the sky – the wind felt very good on my face and my hair danced like a crazy dancer from an ethnic tribe.

After a while when the swing pushed me very near to the moon – i dared to ask him “Tell me something about life”

The moon smirked and the swing pulled me back;  before he utter anything.

On the next round – when the swing brought me closer to the moon – i was all ready, clasping the seat with my legs and in this way i grabbed the soft cheeks of moon with my hands and implored “please tell !!!” – the moon said these words before i let go off his cheeks,

“Our life is a war with our own self as well as the world that surrounds us. – we are weak and we need help in this war – and we expect help from those whom we love very much”

 

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The door is open

We breathe in an eventful world which keeps posing questions to an active mind. With promises of joy, sorrows and hopes this world lures its dwellers with exciting pursuits, confuses them with the options, tests them by empowering them and wipes them when the time’s up. 

The webs of mysteries and psychological challenges entwine us  during the span of our life and while living every next moment we keep on knowing new things which either augment our knowledge or challenge our understandings. For those who live in real sense, this process keeps on going until their heartbeat stops.

Everyone handles the mystery of life according to their caliber. Some consider it a Suffering and some see it as an opportunity. Some try to solve its mystery and some prefer to rely on others to feed their queries. But all that matters is that how one used the opportunity of being alive; otherwise a human being is nothing more than a package of privileged matter that exercises its powers until that final moment when it starts decomposing to the same matter. Mud returns to mud. Eventually the candle burns itself down.

Its wise to stay open to knowledge. Train your heart to receive wisdom. All the beings deserve love and all the sayings need to be listened carefully. Your heart starts welcoming the knowledge when you start accepting the people and respect their thoughts. Just as if you keep the door of a room open, its more likely that the warmth and brightness of sunlight will fill it. Closed doors reflect the light back.

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No pain, No gain

An excursion proves to be a mere wastage of time if you are only interested in taking pictures to upload them on social media and brag your interest in travel. It’s more fun to visit a place when you can relate to it. One needs to do a little research in that regard. When you visit a place with its background in your mind it welcomes you and the air around it touches your soul.

If you want to explore a city in true sense, don’t limit yourself to museums and memorials, get off the car and deliberately loose yourself in its streets. The city will open its heart to you. For instance if you go to Eiffel and don’t get a chance to roam in streets of Paris; I won’t consider your trip, a success. The culture of a city waits in the streets to greet the visitors.

Once you take the leap of faith and start exploring, you start taking interest in a totally new experience.

Walking about the streets, You see the impact of time on architecture. Styles gradually changing in compliance with modern trends. Old buildings entice you with their grace and new ones with their pomp.

Your sensory neurons feel a complete new world around, filling your brain with details. You hear new sounds, songs, pleas, orders. what not.  You pass by vendors selling special cuisines and drinks, their aromas tempting you to taste each and every one of them.

You meet people, happy, sad, busy, beautiful, rich, poor and they would be different from the people of any other city.

There are so many cities in this world; i have no doubt in saying that all of them would be worth exploring. Whenever you get a chance to visit a new place, make it a memorable one.

 

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Let’s weave a story

Tom lived a carefree life. Staying away from newspapers and television he relied on internet for information. These were his special arrangements to choose what he listens and see what he opts rather getting drowned in the sea of useless crap like other media junkies.

He was concerned about the unrest in the world,  violations of human rights equally disturbed him and he also felt sad for his inability to bring change. The thing that disturbed him most was the hypocrisy of mankind. The way men cheated their fellow men. He often thought that animals were far better lest they had power to think.  That gradually made him a pessimist about the world and he mostly chose to focus on his own life.

Whenever he got into discussions with mates he was found to keep such opinions that Rules and Rights were mere cobwebs for the weak, powerful can always get away; being spiders. Justice seemed a pseudo concept to him as he knew that criminals often get away through the net while innocents rot in solitary confinements. Justice can only be done on the day of judgement if there were any such day; he used to say at the end of such discussions.

Today he woke up from a strange dream.  The element of surprise and its perfect details totally baffled him.

It was dawn as he woke up in his dream and looked out of window. A metallic pipe slowly appeared from rooftop situated in east of his house. In few seconds it became obvious that it was a Tank’s barrel. That moment he felt so unsecured, he never considered any country or a force as his direct enemy but today when he found himself under direct threat his subconscious brought up a list of friends and foes and he anxiously waited to see  whether it was enemy’s Tank. He felt his throat drying and his mind swirled with the ideas of defense, attack, surrender, escape and what not.

Weaving adjourned

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Democracy : A Cobweb

Today Pakistanis will cast votes to elect their representatives for the next five years. The promises of democracy are high and lucrative but it remained a pseudo concept to my understanding as elections always proved to be a mere melodrama in the history of Pakistan.

Winston Churchill said that the best argument against democracy is a five minutes conversation with an average voter. As modern Democracy is an evolution of a British concept we should give some respect to the views of a veteran British politician and  spare some time to re-evaluate this system of government which some of us keep dear to our hearts.

Democracy is a cobweb. The politicians are the spiders and you know well what rest of the people could be )) however the spiders are in humble mood these days, they’ll talk to everyone in most humble manner and wave their hand to every person on the roadside while commuting in their dashing vehicles. They even lift their hand to wave a signboard just to drop it down halfway, bashfully. It seems as if their true self has hibernated and they have worn a cloak of piety. You’ll see these politicians attending almost every funeral or a wedding ceremony where they expect to persuade some more people to vote for them in elections.

This reminds me of an Iqbal’s Urdu poem “Makra aur Makhi”. In that poem a Spider persuades a Fly to enter his web, Fly is reluctant fearing that Spider will eat her. In the end the Spider manages to get the Fly stuck in his web and feasts on her.

When there are all spiders around , a sensible voter is left with two options,

a- Vote for the less poisonous

b- Don’t vote

Once the polling ends and the results are announced, the successful candidate would incarnate in to an arrogant politician and the poor voters will stand in long queues to get their legitimate tasks done, only to be ushered away by the rude secretaries and bodyguards until the next election.

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I have no plans to tackle the worst but still i would hope for the best. Long live Pakistan

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