The Mysterious Bright Side

Image: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I witnessed something really awful a week ago.
You must have heard it, because when it was happening, you couldn’t hear anything else.
I am talking about the disorganized orchestra of gun fire heard all over Karachi.
It seemed liked everyone was high on New Year’s Eve.
If only the international media was present to cover this it would have changed their perception.

It made me so mad during this unnecessary display of macho-ness. But that was nothing compared to how enraged I was when I heard on the news that more than 70 people had died because of the blind firing.

But when I calmed down, I realized something that moved me.
I heard somewhere that we have prisons because of the mysterious dark side that humans have in their nature.
I have a very unusual way of thinking.
I started questioning myself. What do we have for people that have mysterious bright sides?

When the earth quake came, we went insane trying to help our citizens.
When the floods came, we were coming out of our comfort zone to help.
I felt relaxed and calm remembering things I forgot I had witnessed over the years.

Bikers:
Almost everybody hates them. Take my word for it.
I ride a bike. Almost everybody treats us like we are immigrants and don’t deserve to be on the road.
We are partially to blame for this behavior.

I have been riding a bike for 4 years now. Whenever a biker falls down his bike, his bike sliding one way and the biker going another, other bikers/car drivers/on lookers stop and help him. They go so far as to help transport the biker’s bike, get his injuries dressed and call his employer to inform of the accident.
-Why the heck do these people do that?

Traffic Sergeants:
Almost everybody hates them. Take my word for it.
I ride a bike. Almost every traffic sergeant thinks he/she owns the road. (For the curious: Yes, there are She Traffic Sergeants in Karacci.)
They flag/wave their arms to stop us every now and then and take bribes when we don’t have the right documents.
We are partially to blame for this behavior.

-Yet I have seen one traffic sergeant help me open my eyes.

- You had to be there. I saw the lives being subtracted in front of my eyes as the kitten got nearly missed by a dozen cars.
Then this gentleman/traffic sergeant comes and stands right in front of the kitten.
Then he picks it up and puts it on the pavement.
-Why the heck do these people do that?

The rich:
Almost everybody hates them. Take my word for it.
I ride a bike. Almost every rich person he/she owns the road.
They have their huge cars, eating up the road at light speed. Most of them are always changing lanes (without indications) like they are participating in the X Games of changing lanes.

-Yet I have seen one incident where some rich guy forced me to see in a different light.
It all started when a careless guy dropped not one but 10 bags of (one kilo each) cooking oil on the road.
What was worse this “DROP” happened to be at a sharp curve in the road.
Then the obvious started taking place. Two bikers slipped making a turn to the left.
Luckily, the bikers were not hurt. The bikers got up (It seems bikers have extra lives too, not sure about the number).
Then the two assumed the role of “Edhi”.
One stood in the middle of that curving road and diverted the traffic away from the oil spill.
The other guy started bringing sand from a near by stadium (in his helmet) and putting it on the oil spill so that the sand could absorb the cooking oil.

Then suddenly some guy, driving a huge Toyota Hilux, slowed down and placed his car strategically on the oil spill and turned on his emergency indicators. Wow. It was like watching a dream where characters pop in from thin air and move the flow of the dream in a different direction.
-Why the heck do these people do that?

The poor:
Almost everybody hates them. Take my word for it.
I ride a bike. Almost every poor person thinks he/she owns the road.
They cross the road with their eyes closed.
There should be a joke like “Why did the chicken closed its eyes when it saw a poor guy crossing the road? Because the poor guy got skinned…. alive by a W-11″
(I am using the term “poor” because that’s what I feel they are. Poverty can be financial, educational, ethical and moral)

-But may I remind you when all Hell broke loose on December 27, 2007, something positive happened.
When (more than a hundred) cars on the roads were smashed and set ablaze and ATMs being broken and cash being stolen, a ray of light started shining.

An amazing incident was covered in the newspapers post December 27.
The incident was that passengers from trains were offloaded by force and carriages were being set ablaze by terrorists.

-Yes, I am making a point; we should not call them “angry mobs” anymore because they don’t look angry at all.
-They have smiles when they are setting cars, public/private property ablaze.
-If you don’t agree with me then next time look closer at the pictures of these people (with huge smiles) dancing in front of the things they just set fire to.

Anyways, the train passengers were left stranded between stations and hundreds of miles from their destinations.
The people in the surrounding helped and gave refuge to these passengers comprising of bachelors, families and students.
The people in the surrounding were poor villagers.
The passengers spent 10-15 days with these “generous” poor people.
-Why the heck do these people do that?

Coming back to my point, when we have jails because of the mysterious dark sides of human nature, we should also have rewards/awards or at least recognition for these Pakistanis who have a mysterious bright side to their nature. Because I believe that this mysterious bright side is infectious and should be spread all over Pakistan through television, radio and newspapers etc.

Sickness – A Blessing

Image: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Getting sick helps you realize what you were missing when you were healthy.

So true. I miss being ridiculed all the time when I am visiting my “best” friends. Now they know that I am sick and I can lash out so they use self control.

Sometimes, when I am thinking about something without paying attention to what I am looking at.
And from thin air a husband of a woman appears to break my chain of thoughts asks me why I am looking at his wife.My usual response would take me some time and be too late. I may get a verbal abuse or a threat. But now that I am sick, all I have to do is start coughing and wheezing (sister of coughing). And the person backs off.

-If this phrase hasn’t been created then I am making history and you are reading history being made.
“Coughing like a dog“. This is my new hobby these days.
I didn’t intend to pick it up. I caught it from a friend of mine.

And for your information it wasn’t like:
Fahad: “Hey Jamal! What are you doing with so much enthusiasm?”
Jamal: “I am coughing.”
Fahad: “Hey, this seems interesting. Let me give it a try.”
Jamal: “Sure.”
Fahad: “Cough. Cough.”
Jamal: “My God. You are an amazing quick learner.”

Now I know you’re saying, dogs don’t cough. But does it matter. It is just used to create an image in your mind.
Just like, “Working like a dog“. Now everybody knows that dogs don’t work. But it’s still a phrase. I don’t see them driving taxis or flying airplanes.

Continuing making peace with the Inuits, the dog’s you have attached to your sleigh are more like wolves. Yeah, I would like to see you attach poodles and terriers to your carts.

Coming back from Alaska to the topic at hand, you seem to cry a lot when you’re sick. Some people say (I haven’t found those people yet) that crying is good for your eyes. I think they are hypocrites. Because most of the time they are smiling when they are sharing these believe it or not facts.

Apparently, you see clearer too. I see dust everywhere. Stuff that forces me to compete with people suffering from epilepsy.
The coughing starts and I am holding my chest like I am singing the national anthem. People suffering from epilepsy start crying (not because of the national anthem). Because they see a person, in one of the worst conditions, going into spasms.

During sickness your sixth sense activates. You know when a room that looks and smells clean isn’t clean. You start singing: “It’s dusty, It’s dusty”. Cough. Cough.
I like people, who I don’t know, to keep their distance from me. Previously, I used to start giving lectures on privacy to people who started forcing to be friends with me. Nowadays, I don’t have to give two shakes of rat’s tail. I just cough and wheeze.
I don’t have to force myself to cough. It’s on autopilot.

I tried to cough on purpose once. But I couldn’t do it.
I didn’t have the time (or breath) between coughs. Apparently, you can’t cough when you’re still coughing.
If I was successful, I would have made history with something new.
A “Double Cough”. What is a “Double Cough” you ask. This could be the title of a new movie starring Al Pacino. Hoohaah!!!

Thoughts Finally Online

Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So much planning goes into amazing works of art and symphonies that seem to be made in heaven that we feel overwhelmed to venture into something really big we believe in.

We forget some of the inventions available today were a result of mistakes and lucky accidents.
-Now I am not saying that we should not plan. All I am saying is that we should not be fearful of trying.

Fear of failing stops us from trying.

So with this I create and write my first blog. I don’t know how many people are out there that go into the “possible” future using their mind. But I visualize a lot and I see positives and negatives. And the possible actions I can take.

To give an example:
(+) I see myself becoming really famous for my blog.
(-) I see getting grilled with questions regarding my views on religion and politics based on the posts on my blog. (Do see me shifting from one sitting position to another)
(+) I see doing work like supporting causes for charity.
(-) I see charities misusing my trust and support.

So, in essence, my ability to visualize can be a blessing and a curse (If I allow it to be a curse).

It’s like having a best friend who is really angry all the time. And he/she asks your opinion on something he/she strongly supports and you strongly oppose. You patiently listen as he/she starts with a speech, lists the benefits and at the end when he/she is nearly breathless asks (with judging eyes and ears that have enhanced hearing ability just for this moment) “What do you think”?

You have to come up with something very genuine immediately. Adopt better and suitable words as soon as you see some restlessness in the eyes of above mentioned best friend. Be polite and patient as they interrupt you when you give your opinion. In short as long as you have got somewhat good moral foundations in your character and self control, something magical happens during the conversation. Either your best friend sees your point of view or becomes your best-best friend and bookmarks you in his/her browser.
So just bookmark my blog if you like.