Nirala- NOT GUILTY

This is an email I sent out this morning in response to a forwarded email. We have become so insane in this forwarding email business we don't even care what the repercussions may be. Shame on us.

Okay a lot of stuff has to be set straight
I PERSONALLY know the guy and have been receiving information of the incident and subsequent false allegations made on Faisal himself. The guy has a 20 year record of SAFE driving (including that of sports car-driving) all over the world, this is his first ever MAJOR accident in his life. He has never drunk or engaged in any malicious activities. He was on the Main Boulevard of Defence going from Lalik chowk towards Masjid chowk when this other chap made a U-turn without seeing where he was going and rammed into the porsche which had a right of way. The car spun and hit a tree on the side and the 2 and a half month old baby flew out of his mother's hand out of the open window and landed a few feet away from the car on the mid-divider green belt of the road. Faisal Farooq called the1122 ambulance and stayed there for an entire 45 minutes (which magically seems to be erased from the appalling accounts being spun around the city, by the way). Later he also took his old father to the hospital to grieve and condole with the family who had faced the trauma on which THEY took out a gun on an unarmed old man who was there to share their sorrow. I repeat, I personally know all this is true and this being an only reason that I'm replying to a forwarded email for the first time ever in my life. It is tragic beyond words could express, a family who have lost a baby and faced such a huge trauma but we as a nation have to GROW UP and realise that sometimes accidents happen and it's not always the party that bears the greater loss is the one that has to be right. No doubt the loss is irrepairable but slinging mud at someone who doesn't deserve is certainly not on. Boycotting Nirala Sweets won't bring back the child or lessen the grief of the bereaved but yes it'll cause some 1300 plus people to go out of work overnight over something that is being blown out of proportions and is not based on facts. Yes there was an accident and YES a baby died which is the worst form of agony for the parents and family, YES Faisal Farooq was in the other car but NO IT WASN'T HIS FAULT. If people out there have the audacity of forwarding out emails and short messages then I think they should be forwarding this email out because it bears the whole truth not just bits and pieces out of an evening paper. Trust me if he were my best friend and was guilty i would've been the first one to throw rocks at him.


Regards

Hareem Sumbul

Girl Power

We still rule you know. With all the hullabaloo about the chauvinism and the male oriented society cliches we bump into every now and then, the lamenting hue and cry over the fact that women need more attention. We just got to know our strength and be able to use it the way we are meant to. We just fail to understand how strong we REALLY are. Making a fuss over a broken nail, bawling our eyes over a mismatched shoe, we do get our way do we not? What could encompass more strength than driving an otherwise sane man bonkers over the fact that his wife is upset let it be a shoe or a nail or an eyelash for cryin' out loud!? I say women out there, be yourself, throw tantrums, act dumb and get your way through; that's the way to get back at them men for their chauvinism!! All the time they look down at us for being mere fussy little, cute, drawingroom showpiece breed of miniature pooches, hell they've been mugged all this time, of straight thinking.Talk about a "jackass" race, the definition of a true gentleman is still governed by how the subject treats the women around!!
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We still rule y' know ;)

Another stormy night

I am sailing, I am SAILING
home again, 'cross the sea.
I am sailing, salty waters
to be near you, to be free.

I am flying, I am FLYING
like a bird, 'cross the sky.
I am flying, passing high clouds
to be with you, to be free.
Can you hear me, can you hear me
through' the dark night, far away.
I am dying, forever trying
to be with you, who can say.

Sailing across the winds calling out my name,

I know the world is long
but where you are is home
wherever you stay, i'll find the way.
I run like the river, I follow the sun
I fly like an eagle, to where I belong

the gushing winds gets me going, as i soar with the winds taking me higher above the chimney tops, where troubles melt like lemon drops,

Somewhere
over the rainbow
way up high.

where blue birds fly

If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow,Why, oh, why can't I?

Tantrum

Dayaar-e-noor main teera shaboun ka saathi hou
koi tou ho jo meri wehshatoun ka saathi hou

main us say jhoot bhi boloon to mujh say such boley
meray mizaaj k sub mausamoun ka saathi hou

main us k haath naa aaoon woh mera ho ke rahey
main gir parroon to meri pastiyoun ka saathi hou

karey kalaam jo mujh say tou meray lehjay mein
main chup rahoon tou meray tewaroun ka saathi hou

main apney aap ko daikhoon woh mujhko daikhey jayey
woh meray nafs ki gumrahiyoun ka saathi hou

woh khuwaab daikhey tou daikhey meray hawaaley say
meray khayaal k sub manzaroun ka saathi hou

--- Iftikhar Arif


Is it asking for too much? Even if it is, that's what I need, so hey big guy up there! I need my order sealed, signed delivered.
Surely you only throw tantrums where they're most likely to be heard. He hears them all out, NEVER turns me down. No wonder vanity IS my greatest virtue

As free as the wind blows...

wind gushing its way in, with all its might. Try to pull the curtains, close the window and it takes you with it, with the trees going crazy, soar above the lights of the city, just lose it the way tress do.
Just break loose of all that's holding you down, let the storm be your expression.
As free as the wind blows...

basti rang de, hasti rang de
hans hans rang de, nas nas rang de
bachpan rang de, joban rang de
ab der na kar sachmuch rang de
rang rez mere sab kuchh rang de
mohe mohe tuu rang de basanti yaara
mohe tuu rang de basanti

(doesn't make much sense, but the senselessness has its own way to express the unknown and thus the immortal for what's unknown shall never die)

What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger

While at the courts today, all i could think was... Labor.
I mean Labor must be so much worse than what i went through and if my ex-house maid can go through it twice every 3 years, hell I gotta have more balls than that (no puns intended!)
The place looked like a flea market of lawyers, all sizes, shapes, colours but ruggedly used abused and bashed around, mostly deshaped, balding.
Just one question sums up the entire day: Is justice this tough to get or are we too tough to get justice any more?

"Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind." --
Leonardo da Vinci

Define star? Star is referred to as the zenith of what man ever intends to achieve, ever aims for. Whether fixed to a star or a grain of sand; does not change his mind, does NOT change his mind.
Repeat does NOT change mind!

A new quest

History has to be rewritten in every generation, because although the past does not change the present does; each generation asks new questions of the past, and finds new areas of sympathy as it relives different aspects of the experiences of its predecessors.

Christopher Hill (1912-2003)Historian

this gets my creative juices whizzed in a food processor! Seriously, i'll write history. For the next generation, write-off what my parents passed on to me about emotions and life, it's all obsolete, doesn't work for me any more. But how sure I am that whatever I feel will remain in working conditions when it's time for the next gen to use it? Like the margins in notebooks we used to doodle in, meant for extra notes, when penning down history, there should always be space for the "new questions each generation asks of the past"

Soul Shriek

"Keep your face in the sunshine and you can never see the shadow" --- Helen Keller

What if its the sunshine that starts scorching your spirit? When the all-smiles-24/7 routine starts parching your lips, forming laugh-lines on your face, disintegrating into a mound of crackled, dried up skin. Tired of making believe, tired of smiling, tired of hoping things will get better.
Tired, tired, tired...

My blog and blasphemy

We are so naive, so so naive.
I am denied access to my blog because some loony cartoonist in the farthest end of scandinavia had nothing better to do than to sling mud at my Prophet (SAW). I'm upset, enraged, feeling lower than a grasshopper's knee, yet have no access to my blog where I can purge my repressed emotions, yell my heart out and feel better. The entire world is sitting back, relaxing and enjoying the show as we wreck ourselves, burn down our cities, kill our own people in protest, and block our own blogs. It usually begins right at the basics, some people are just, rebellious by nature. The proverbial Maverick that loves going against the flow of the tide and gets thrilled at that alone. Maybe this guy just did this for kicks too? Not that it rends his actions forgivable, it is no doubt a high priority red alert and very serious in nature and content. It should definitely be condemned but for crying out loud, could they please be channelised to protest in a remotely saner way than they are? Somebody go ask them, what does my blog have to do with THAT man, or even THAT country? Or for that matter any individual with a mutinous standpoint or profile? I'm sure he's having the time of his life, on a vacation in Hawaii (because his well-being's at risk in the pretty Muslim countries!), sunbathing, sipping Pina Colada and cooking up more ideas to ridicule religious beliefs so he could earn more of this free-of-cost fame! And here I am, sitting on a weekend after scurrying my way through the hectic work routines, trying to relax and sluice out my system, wringing it clean of the tiresome grime; sulking on a "Cannot find this page, DNS Error or Server Not Found"
The question remains, when exactly do we intend to grow up? When precisely do we initiate thinking rationally and acting accordingly as benchmark treatment of sensitive situations and scenarios arising every now and then?
Besides, FYI: the blogs that displayed the blasphemous cartoons are still working!! Hallelujah!

A silly complication of a pleasant simplicity

by far the most picturesque and vivid definition of love I have come across ever. What else is it? A pleasant simplicity, a look, a smile, a kiss, a shy laugh to follow; the simpler it's kept, the sweeter it gets.
Behold, it is love that I spread and it is love that I shall get in return, no matter what. Crests and troughs, ups and downs keep tossing the surfer around but don't you see how he surfaces everytime, his surfboard splashing the glistening salty water, cutting through the heart of the ocean

"His ears make him look like a taxi cab with both doors open". Clark Gable remained mum because he was a job seeker. He, later in life, was voted the "King of Hollywood". He was also commended to be the most handsome man in the world. His 1939 performance in Gone With the Wind remains a classic.

FAILURES.

Next time you're down and out and filled with doubt, this list from Hans deJong might provide a little perspective on success and failure.
- Albert Einstein was four years old before he could speak.
- Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school.
- Beethoven's music teacher once said of him: 'As a composer, he is hopeless'.
- When Thomas Edison was a boy, his teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything.
- Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
- Winston Churchill failed the 6th grade.
- Steven Spielberg dropped out of high school.
- Sam Walton's (Wal-Mart) first store failed.
- Henry Ford suffered an early bankruptcy.
- Walt Disney was fired from an ad agency because he couldn't draw.
- Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman were both voted 'least likely to succeed' at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. They went on to win two Oscars apiece.
- Sally Jessy Raphael was fired 18 times from showbiz jobs. She tried out for 134 commercial voice-overs and never got a single one. She eventually became a very successful talk-show host and garnered two Emmy awards.
- A young actor named Archibald Leach was rejected by Paramount Studios because he had a thick neck and was bowlegged. He later became the movie star Cary Grant.
- Clark Gable worked hard to get a screen test, only to be turned down by producer Darryl Zanuck, who shouted in Gable's presence: 'His ears are too big. He looks like an ape.'
- After an aspiring author sent her manuscript to a publisher, an editor called her writing 'painfully dull, inept, clumsy, undisciplined, rambling, and thoroughly amateurish.' The book, 'Valley of the Dolls', by Jacqueline Susann, sold nearly 29 million copies.
- And we may add Bill Gates who dropped out of Harvard to become the wealthiest man alive.

Circle of Life

"From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the sun
There's more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round

It's the Circle of Life"

one step at a time, like I'm just getting to grips with the art of walking
starting a new life, unwinding and entangling my paws in a new ball of yarn as i neatly wind the old one.
Then why does the heart despair and the head lose faith?
the modus operandi to success
one day at a time, just like that

Who I am today...

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear dada jaan, happy birthday to you!” My shrill voice rang out of the phone on the bright and hot morning of June 1, 1998. “What are you doing at home?” instead of a regular thank you, he replied in a worried voice, “don’t you have an exam today?” Laughing I explained it was in the second half of the day; I couldn’t have stayed at home and not wished him. It was my grandfather’s eighty fourth birthday and my F.Sc examination for biology.I had not lived with my grandfather all my life as we kept moving from place to place according to my parents’ jobs, even still, I remember him teaching me how to tie my shoe laces when I was a child. Everybody else had given up on me. They’d tell me to take the left lace above the right and I’d end up with a pile of untie-able knots and a puppy eyed look in my large eyes! “All you people are worthless, come baita, I’ll show you how it’s done!” he said in his rich, deep, sonorous voice that would shake his sons up even though they were all grown up and had families of their own. Sitting in the living room converted bedroom that I saw him live in all his life, he asked me to find his shoes from under his bed. Crawling under the bed I emerged with a shoe as large as half my arm and heavy as an anvil! With his gigantic foot in his massive shoe next to my tiny foot and miniature shoe, it seemed like something out of Gulliver’s adventures. Slowly and steadily he went over each step of tying shoe laces as I followed with my small hands, in a few minutes I was viciously tying and untying my shoelaces over and over again! “Yipppeeeeeeeee, I can tie my laces dada jaan!” I yelped, “Yes my dear, you can!” He laughed throwing his head back, the way he always would, well, whenever he’d laugh!My grandfather was by far the strictest man I have EVER come across. He was in the police and an undercover intelligence bureau director for 14 years. Those fourteen years had ended when my father was still at college, which was when he had retired from work, so I never got to see his PEAK times of life but was anyway, exposed to his stern disposition all my life. He would seldom laugh and usually yell at his sons. Hell what has that got to do with us? We grandkids had always been the apple of his eye. Six feet plus, he stood taller than all five of his sons and even at eighty four years of age, he shaved regularly! Our favourite stunt would be when he’d move his ears without touching them! Eeeeeeeeks it was freaky but fun! He was scary for elders but fun for us. What could be better than that? It was like our play pal was the Supreme Court at home! He’d even get to scold our parents if he thought they were out of line. Now how cool was that? There was still an invisible line that even we couldn’t cross, he was still DADA JAAN and we were kids. We were still scared of him to some extent, but if mom and dad would have to say something to him that might flare him up they’d usually use us as a go-between.