And it’s time also to stand up.

Yes, STAND UP. Stand up and tell them to stop. Stand up and stop them.

We have seen enough. We have been through enough. And as they say, enough is enough.

We don’t need our so-called leaders bickering over the so-called constitution. We don’t need black coats marching all over our roads. And we don’t need anybody threatening us.

We don’t need anybody threatening us right in our home.

We are worried. We are scared. We have been driven insane enough to act irrationally. We are laughing like maniacs already; don’t push us any further.

And we don’t want this to end this way. We don’t want an end anyway.

We want to live. Peacefully.

And we want to stand up.

Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has won a sweeping victory in Pakistan’s presidential election. (Source)

Now I have seen everything.

*shoots himself*

There’s a very peculiar feeling attached with being a Pakistani: you see it all. You grow up in this country — land of the pure — and the amount of purity that you see around you is simply tremendous. You see hate, violence, greed, corruption, restlessness, and death — all in their purest forms. And you see them all so many times that whenever you see them again, you nod to them in polite recognition and even smile at them. A smile, which doesn’t warm up your heart, but rather makes it hollow every time. And when your heart reaches the point where it can’t be more hollow, it stops. You cease to exist as a citizen of land of the pure, and start to live as a citizen of land of the dead.

And then something happens. Not very different from what has become a norm for the land of the dead, but the sudden shock of it tremors the very core of your (dead) existence. You stare at the headlines springing up all around the World Wide Web, and you switch from one television channel to another watching the screaming news. And then you see your fellow citizens — fellow deads — transform into zombies. You see them forming groups among themselves and you see them charging at other empty souls, sucking whatever life has left within them out of their bodies. Just like in a horror movie, except that a horror movie has background music and ends after 3 hours; land of the dead has background cries and there appears to be no end to it.

So you sit there and try to comprehend whatever that is happening, and then you realize that your mind has long ago given up on thinking. That you can’t do anything except sit in horror and disbelief at what your fellow zombies are doing to each other. And even though you want to smash the television screen when someone questions the stability of land of the pure, you simply change the channel because you now live in land of the dead. So what if this land of the dead was once land of the pure, you are a zombie now, with a hollow heart and an empty mind, and have nothing better to do except recruiting more zombies and raising hell, or otherwise sitting in your home feeling too numb with the utter atrocity of circumstances.

Which leaves you with just one, single thing: an icy, maniacal laugh.

9. Why does the song, which took almost 45 minutes to download on your dial-up internet connection, turn out to have a quality inferior than your 15 years old tape recorder?

8. Why does the ice-cream/juice/salan/fit-any-sort-of-food-here has to fall on your white shirt?

7. Why is it so difficult to realize that the professor is talking about cache performance when he says, “If I have 5 misses, what is the penalty of each miss?”

6. Should I be worried that googling “nadia khan birthday special” directs people to this blog?

5. Should I be flattered that “top ten handsome of the world” is doing the same?

4. Why does an Apple MacBook Pro cost a hefty USD$1,999?

3. Am I the only one who thinks that telephone lines/mobile phone networks should provide the facility of electrocuting those callers who after hearing a “hello” respond with a “Who are you?”?

2. Why is the Earth round and not flat (so that we could push so many people off its edge)?

1. Does any of our so-called leaders give a damn?

Yesterday morning I was in my bed, trying to convince myself that this fever of mine would be gone soon when the bed started shaking. I waved my hand as if trying to shoo a teasing mosquito away, thinking that it’s just a minor little quake. And then suddenly, the windows started shaking. The ceiling fan started shaking. The cupboards, the computer, the tables, the books… everything started shaking. And they all started shaking violently. Within a flash, I was out of my bed and joined my other family members downstairs in the lounge, listening to the sounds of Allah-o-Akbar coming from people who gathered outside in the street.

And then, after a couple of minutes, bad news started to arrive.

You all now know about the details. Entire villages in northern Pakistan are destroyed. The Margalla Towers in Islamabad collapsed. (These towers are just a 5-minutes-drive away from my home). People are homeless, without any shelter. Thousands are buried under the debris. And the worst part is, some affected areas are still waiting for rescue teams. The Margalla Towers had the luxury of being in Islamabad, and thus are under the limelight—center of everyone’s attention. But what about the people in Muzaffarabad, Mansehra, Balakot, and numerous other cities and towns up there in north, where thousands are trapped, where rain and hailstorms are making things even more difficult, and local administration is still waiting for help and reinforcement. And according to the weather forecast, it might rain again this evening in those areas.

And the attendance in mosques has increased exponentially. Although this obviously isn’t funny, but still it is amusing to see how almost always we need a maula bakhsh to keep ourselves on the track. Maybe this has become our trait as a nation that unless we don’t sense fear, and unless we are not punished, we don’t care to think about the rights and the wrongs. Until we are alive and have our senses in working order, it is never too late to repent on our misdoings and to seek for Allah’s forgiveness. Let’s pray that this unfortunate event makes us think and behave. Ameen.

I would also like to thank all who called me, texted on my cell phone, emailed, and/or posted a comment here about me and my family’s safety: A, Aapi, Saeed, No One, and all others. It feels so good to have friends around. Initially, there was some difficulty in contacting me through my cell phone, since, probably, one of Mobilink’s towers was also affected. But anyway, thanks again for your concern.

May Allah help us all.

It’s just last night that I came to know of this news, and now it’s getting on my nerves. I mean everybody —everybody— has been telling me about Saddam Hussein and his capture as if I have been living in some remote island somewhere, or as if I am the most uaware soul on this planet.

I came to know of this news first through BBC’s website. Then my sister came and said, “Bhai! Do you know Saddam Hussein has been arrested.” I nodded my head.

Then came my Abbu ji and told me the same news. I nodded again.

At that time I couldn’t decide if I was feeling any sympathy for Saddam Hussein. It was quite a vague emotion I was feeling.

Then I went outside to a local bakery, and there I was informed again that the former Iraqi dictator has been captured. I felt that I was getting irritated.

I came back, logged into my Hotmail’s account to check my email, and when I signed out, this news was flashing again on the monitor’s screen. What the hell, I thought.

I went to sleep, and thank God that nobody came in my dreams to tell me about this ‘Operation Red Dawn’.

I came to university this morning, and when I entered the computer lab, I saw a class-fellow of mine who was browsing through UrduPoint and reading the same news. Before he opened his mouth to tell me what I already knew, I went ahead.

Now I am sitting here, and I want to tell all of you that yes, I know Saddam Hussein has been arrested. I don’t care if the world is celebrating this event or not; I am absolutely not concerned about what different governments are saying; I certainly have no concern with the good (or bad) things it is going to do for the entire human race; and I am telling you all this because I know that free or arrested, Saddam Hussein doesn’t determine anybody else’s fate.

This much said, I go to the dining-table and enjoy my lunch.

I’m so infuriated right now that I won’t even apologize for not writing to you for a long time. Can you believe what I just read? I surfed into Pakranks for checking my blog’s stats and look what I saw there:

[Pakistan] is the epicenter for terrorism. It really is. This is the only country I know in the world that has so many groups that are against the US or Western ideals.

—Mike Evanoff, US Embassy Islamabad (2003)

Now what the hell does this mean? What is this man, whatever his name is, trying to say? Is that how they define terrorism? Is that what makes anybody a terrorist? Is that that definition of terrorism they are fighting against? Is that what’s terrorism is all about?

Help me, Blue, I am totally confused.

And I have to ask you, Blue, what the hell is that terrorism? Who are terrorists? Those, who have got anything to say against US or Westerm ideals? Does difference of opinion make you a terrorist? Does a different point of view is sufficient enough to certify you as a terrorist? Oh my God. I didn’t know I was a terrorist. I have disagreed with so many people on so many things. And some of those people hold the same view as US or Western ideals. My God, I am a terrorist, Blue. I am a damn terrorist.

And tell me, Blue, what ideals is Mike Evanoff talking about? Doesn’t he know that ideals can change. He has got his own ideals in US. The West has got its own ideals. And Pakistan has got its own ideals. There is no way you can avoid clashes among these ideals, but terrorism? Is Mike Evanoff trying to say that they are terrified by the mere thought of someone disagreeing with their ideals? Is he really trying to say that? If he is, then I don’t know what to call that. I can simply shake my head.

So Blue, I guess, next time when I’ll disagree with some US or Western ideology, I should be ready to be called as the epicenter of terrorism, and I should be ready to get labelled as a terrorist. Also, I should be ready to face a war against me, because I disagreed with a US or Western ideal. Expect me in your nightmares, Mike Evanoff, I have disagreed with you.

You keep watching, Blue. See you later,

Saadat.

The Bano Arcade collapsed. That multi-storeyed shopping store located in the local market. I was returning from the university when I heard some boys saying “it’s down… it’s down… all over.” I couldn’t get what they were talking about. I looked around to see what was down, but didn’t notice anything. Then I walked out of the street and turned into the main market.

Two constables were standing there, redirecting the traffic. I got a little puzzled, “may be it’s some kind of vehicle checking thing”, I thought. But then I realized that a huge mob is present some steps further. I got more puzzled and went ahead…

I saw ambulances…

I saw the fire-brigade crew…

I saw police constables…

I saw TV reporters…

I saw panic…

And when I moved a little further into the mob, I saw dust. I realized that there used to be a shopping store in place of that dust.

I couldn’t really accept the situation. “It’s down… it’s down… all over.” Yeah, the Bano Arcade was down. I remembered that the top storey of the building was under-construction…

“The lower structure couldn’t bear the load of another storey,” one man was saying. I looked at him. “Sub-standard material, I guess,” another one commented. “Allah janay (Allah knows), let’s just pray that trapped people could be rescued,” third one added.

I looked at the collapsed building. Police constables, labourers, common people, all were there trying to rescue those people who were trapped below. The same scene I have seen in the movies. But reality really hurts…