The Scrimmage

Skyscraping ghettos, barren meadows , truth sometimes, stranger may be, gets you by the toes, drags you to the bitter and brittle reality that yes, nothing has changed. You start run on an endless tarmac looking and grasping for a square of sky to open up your wings, the only thing in your sight is this endless black tar kissing the horizon on its very end. Helpless and out of options you turn back only to see a sandstorm of atrocities gulping each and every herbs and shrubs of hope and light, leaving only darkness in its path. There you are toying between imminent death and painstaking journey to salvation of which you are unsure, out of forks you exhaust your every muscle and minute minuscule of energy to break free from these puppet strings of this theatre of madness. It becomes evident, that your efforts are Fruitless, you decide to succumb the clouds and thunderstorm of evil, you take a leap and find the force to overcome insurmountable fear of getting engulfed in the darkness forever, you decide to fight. 

With all your strength you muster up the courage and buckle up to take on this macabre demon head to head, your blood starts surging at and elevated pace, your vision becomes narrower, the only thing you see is your enemy running with all its mightiness towards you. You turn around, and look back at the phantom square in the eyes. With nothing in your hands and courage in your chest you take on your enemy face to face. Your fearless return, runs an avalanche up against the evil clouds. You gather more energy more substance, more vigor. The scenario drastically changes as you gather the same amount of force that was previously coming for you. Thrusting at equal pace both the powers of good and evil are on the verge of colliding and collapsing into one another thus causing annihilation but, at foot long distance the the black shadows disappear, the clouds dismantle and here you are alone with all your magnanimous force. All that remains is a sight of a distant dungeon, surrounded by nothing but plain sand. Suddenly a stream of water starts to pour its way through the sand tearing it apart and causing the earth to split. The water reaches your feet and calms. Intuitively you step on the water, and edgy plates of ice start making up the floor rising from beneath stopping precisely at the position of your step. You walk all your way up to the dungeon, where you find a large tree, on top of it a throne. The path to salvation is almost forgotten, you feel like destroying the whole place down as the power you have gathered now awaits the command of your hand, but your decide the opposite and climb up to the throne to find a being dressed in black. The throne is wider than you expected it to be made up of carved stone surrounded by water springing from the sky above. The being sitting peacefully is singing something in an alien language, yet you find the verses to be beautiful, you do not want to know what they mean and the lady continues to sing with the natural music of water on which the throne is floating. Curious you step into the water to get near to the singing lady, but as soon as you touch the water surface, it freezes. It triggers tremors in the tree the throne begins to crack, the lady who was previously singing now starts crying, still in a beautiful voice, helpless you try to save her but with your every step the throne dismantles it shakes and sways side to side. You put you last effort and just as you are about to grab her hand she turns into sand and you find your worst fear coming to life, yes it was a death trap. Whatever you did for your salvation was in vain, evil took over you and deceived you with mere beauty. Suddenly within a blink of an eye, the dungeon implodes. Eating away everything you had brought with you, the force the hope the power and most importantly you. The evil wins and fuels the scenario for its next prey.

All that is left is plain desert and a tarmac.

*Top 22 things a Pakistani does after returning to home from the"US". **

via E-mail 

22. Use Nope for No and Yep for Yes.
21. Tries to use credit card in road side hotel.
20. Drinks and carries mineral water and always speaks of health consciousness.
19. Sprays deo  so much that he doesn’t need to take a bath.
18. Sneezes and says ‘Excuse me’.
17. Says "Hey" instead of "Hi".
Says "Yogurt" instead says "Curds"
Says "Cab" instead of "Taxi".
Says "Candy" instead of "Chocolate".
Says "Cookie" instead of "Biscuit".
Says "Free Way" instead of "Highway"
Says "got to go" instead of "Have to go"
Says "Oh" instead of "Zero", (for 704, says Seven Oh Four Instead of Seven Zero Four)
16. Doesn’t forget to crib about air pollution.
Keeps cribbing every time he steps out.
15. Says all the distances in Miles (Not in Kilo Meters), and counts in Millions. (Not in Lakhs)
14. Tries to figure all the prices in Dollars as far as possible (but deep down the heart multiplies by 86 times).
13. Tries to see the % of fat on the cover of a milk packet
12. When need to say Z (zed), never says Z (Zed), repeats "Zee" several times, if the other person unable to get, then says X, Y Zee(but never says  Zed)
11. Writes date as MM/DD/YYYY, on watching traditional DD/MM/YYYY, says "Oh! British Style!!!!"
10. Makes fun of Pakistan Standard Time and local Road Conditions.
9. Even after 2 months, complaints about "Jet Lag".
8. Avoids eating more chilli (hot) stuff.
7. Tries to drink "Diet Coke", instead of Normal Coke.
6. Tries to complain about any thing in Pakistan as if he is experiencing it for the first time.
5. Pronounces "schedule" as "skejule", and "module" as "mojule".
4. Looks suspiciously towards Hotel/Dhaba food.
3. From the luggage bag, does not remove the stickers of the Airways by which he travelled back, even after 4 months of arrival.
2. Takes the cabin luggage bag to short visits in India, tries to roll the bag on Indian Roads.
** Ultimateaone:
1. Tries to begin conversation with "In US …." or "When I was in US…"**

Lessons from NUST

Warning: I do not post or support any page on Facebook except Wipocalypse. Any recurrences of this post other than the page specified should be considered bogus and copied, and may be reported to Facebook for copyright infringement.

1. Always wear your NUST ID Card
2. Always wear your NUST ID Card
3. Never forget your Van pass
4. Do not lose your Lab’s RFID card
5. Get yourself a Parking sticker
6. Get your driver a gate entry pass
7. Always have your CNIC incase they do not recognize you
8. Do not forget flush once done in the toilet..
9. Do not stand on the toilet.
10. Park your car within the borders, or get one tire deflated – courtesy the Parking guard
11. Never use the front door
12. Guards are your best friends
13. Learn under the table politics and master them
14. If you have people in the high ups never use them for a favor, it will turn against you
15. Every AC has a manual power button
16. If your car gets stolen, call the police but do not inform NUST Security
17. If you share smokes with the guard, he wont bother you again – P.S. I do not smoke
18. The water in the restrooms is not fit for drinking
19. There is a “Network” of students, who can get everything done, get all the appreciation and stay out of trouble. Yes the arrow points to a room.
    
20. walking on grass is a punishable crime
21. GPA is a sledgehammer, works both ways
22. The Guards are more powerful than the high ups. They claim it blatantly and they are not lying.
23. It takes a university 100 years to build
24. The correct pronunciation of U is of E, like the correct way of pronouncing NUST is NEST with stress on the T.
25. If you really want a lift from somebody do not directly stop a car – it doesn’t work so well – , walk with a head down like tired donkey, chances are you’ll get a lift, or if you don’t, you will reach to your destination in some time.
26. Restrooms have sexes, Male and Female.
27. A Feedback is worth 500 Rs
28. Barbed wires can be used both ways, to keep some animals out and to keep some animals in.
29. In the evening even the laziest of people go out for a walk
30. Swearing travels from group to group, up the burger hierarchy. The first ones to start swearing are the painduest of all, then some of their semi remotely burger friends carry these words to the burger class. After four years you get to hear the same swear-words from a burger girl.
31. Undue Intimacy is not allowed, but socially accepted.
32. Guards are harmless and can therefore watch a girls sporting event, however the boys cant do that , same goes for Students acting as Sporting officials- i.e. REfs, Umpires, etc and people of the network.
    
33. Mailing List is a controversial matter
34. Research is done on Google
35. Making FYP posters earns you zingers \m/
36. Even if you are broke, you will always spend some money in cafeteria daily
37. There are certain members of staff, who think they are superior to the high Ups – SJ
38. The same people also claim that chips should be called “Paapar”
39. The same people are of the opinion that “Larkeean humari Maen Bhenain gharom mein kaam kerti hain, Yehan per khaya piya isi tarha phenk diyaa”… “O samjdaar hain na aap!” -SJ
40. When you goto the bank, give the cash to the cashier as if he was your wife, arranged in order and counted thrice.
    
41. With your NUST ID card you can goto EME , MCS and all colleges of NUST – exception NBS .
42. Swearing is socially acceptable. Yes it is. The F ,the A the D and all other words – You know better than i do – are becoming parts of general speech.
43. Concerts will get the university under some kind of siege.
    
44. When you work for them for free, they will motivate you, push you to do more and when you ask them for money.. They show you their posterior.
45. NUST, you will come in crying and go out crying – reasons differ from person to person
46. 
    

More to come…

P.S. You can contribute some too.

The other side of a fold

Note: Let me clarify first that this article has nothing to do with personal point of view of the author. So I would request you not to express your loath. Of course you could have a different opinion.

I am sure everyone must have heard about the unjust killings of Kharotabad and Karachi. Unfortunately the victims were unarmed civilians. Even the person with a pinch of humanity will consider these killings to be inhumane, so I’ll not condemn them and prove I am a human. Most of the people become comfortable after blabbering something against the obvious. Lets them have a good sleep.

In a folded piece of paper there are four sides, two on the inside and two on the outside. If I have a paper that is blue from the inside and green from the outside. I fold it and ask you how many colors are there? Since you haven’t seen me folding the paper and you have no prior knowledge that it may have another color, so it is imperative to confidently say , that it is green, all of it. Most of the people will be comfortable with their answer. While I am the only person who knows that there is another color.

Let me mold the killings onto the above analogy. The camera shows you four or five armed personnel insanely firing at unarmed civilians. In both of the videos it is evident that those personnel were responsible for killing those people. That is one side of the story that they show on TV. Unfortunately the Justice system that everyone protested for and marched for is still breast feeding on venom from banks. So the people responsible cant / wont be brought to justice. So the incident keep on happening again and again and again, and you keep on seeing the same side again and again and again. Interestingly the first incident forms the basis of this stack and till the very last, the one sided opinion has solidified into something harder than concrete. It is easy to fuel something like that when you have intolerant and volatile masses as catalysts. After that you get to hear all sorts of atrocities directed to the person responsible.  Hilarious is the fact that some people surpass the level of humanity in condemning , thus becoming at par to person who committed the crime. Obtuse isnt it?

Now the second side of the story that the camera doesn’t know and will never know because of the same reason, non-rectification at first occurrence. A paramilitary personnel gets ready from home on his duty, and gets to the place where he is deployed. Suddenly his radio comes to life and he gets an information of approaching terrorist, scared he arms his rifle and waits. While on the other hand the incoming people are just a bunch of scared foreigners [Kharotabad] or a scared pocket pick [Karachi], running away from the paramilitary force. Both of the parties unsure who is friendly. The poor paramilitary personnel sees the approaching danger, deeming the worse – a suicide bomber – and opens fire. Turns out to be a false alarm and the camera records it. He gets the worse of it.

Without further ado the third side of the fold. Somebody pays a person to avenge a rivalry and injects false information through the ranks. The paramilitary personnel that is on the duty again fearing the worst opens fire and then in confusion let the man bleed to death. Since calling in an ambulance would cause him an explanation as well. Nobody knows what happened.

Yet another side – you will like this one – , the paramilitary personnel tries to get bribe from the incoming party and on refusal radios the next station to kill them, because they are terrorist. Clean, simple and persuading.

Finally the last one, one of the paramilitary officer is a senior. He has his ego and his belt, upon confrontation with a pocket pick he tries to teach him a lesson. But the thief is on his knees and begging because he is scared. The officer is a fanatic knows that he is dominating, so for putting a stamp on his prey he open fire. Everyone else is shocked they do not call the ambulance. The camera man finds it his duty to film the incident but does not call the ambulance since he is the only one ‘human’ in the eyes of his camera we would have expected him to make that call.

Conclusion: In all the scenarios one thing is clear, that nobody called in help but found it more appealing to record the whole madness. Yet intriguing is the fact that why did the personnel let the camera man issue a death warrant to them, i.e. record the whole thing.  They could have killed him as well or at-least confiscated the camera. Nobody really knows for sure.

The fact that is alarming that these personnel come from the same areas that we come from. They are people of Pakistan, poor ones may be or corrupted, But no man in any sort of mind will ever put a bullet into somebody for no reason. That’s like paying somebody to put a bullet in your head. The stories do not fit.

Lets enjoy condemning all these incidents and making another biased and concrete opinion, yes the whole Army is a group of lunatics who get an internal satisfaction of killing the very own people they vow to protect. Pak Fauj Zindabad. Pakistan Paindabad. The best we can do against injustice, SHOUT!