The Warrior of light writes

What I saw in Quetta last friday….

Talha Masud — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 11:47:42 +0000

By Talha Masud

In my way back to home from Standard Chartered bank to cash our pending cheque for flood victims, I found that I am well after the Ramzan closure timings of the bank. I already had a rickshaw hired that was with me in the rush hour of the day. In conversation with rickshaw driver, in his 70’s for sure as I called him ‘mama’, we were discussing about the traffic tribulation in Quetta, which was a common discussable topic between him and me.

“Mama, take your way right as I think there is a procession going forward”, I voiced as we were nearing to ‘Mezaan Chowk’, the busiest crossroad junction of Quetta. Mama was continuing his discourse and I heard myself say, “No one knows what happens in Quetta, overall Pakistan,” I corrected myself. “We are into a jungle rule with our low-cost lives.”

As the ride took turn, a blast nearly destroyed my eardrums. I saw splinters of unknown mechanism in the air with smoke and cries all around. I closed my eyes and thought that it may be the last day of my life. I thought that the newly stitched cotton Shalwar-Qameez that I was wearing for ‘Jumma-tul-Widah’ would be the last outfit of my life. Splashes of considerations struck my mind: My mother’s last call in which she said that her tickets are confirmed for Karachi and I should look after for the preparations of my Sehr and Aftaar, few faces which I don’t remember now and some clear names that I still remember. Mama got so shaken that I felt he was shivering. I asked him to find a way out from the city and he accelerated his gasoline rickshaw. After a few yards, I saw that one-way road turning multiple way roads for the traffic and police trucks had almost blocked it. The traffic again diverted back, which was very challenging. The police personals rushed towards us and started making efforts to let them pass. As I looked back, I saw something that I can’t forget. Hundreds of people bathed in blood, hiding the actual color of their attire, were running, as they themselves don’t have a destination. A boy near me with trickling blood on his neck into his shirt and already blood-red trousers was mourning in extreme pain. I could also hear the incessant firing.

“Try to go as far as possible else we will never be able to reach our homes,” I directed mama who was not in his senses. After passing from the place, mama speeded up his livelihood. For complete forty-five minutes, it was just going to any road and it is blocked. I saw numberless ambulances; rickshaws, bikes, cars and trucks carrying injured ones. For a moment I thought of a Hindu ritual ‘Holi’ that I saw in some Hindu areas of Karachi in which they color each other such a way that they are hardly identified. Some wise road veers by mama put the rickshaw on ‘Inscumb’ road known for hosting Commissioner and many other Government and non-governmental offices. I was about to take a sigh of relief as I saw entire city collapsing on the road. Women howling, running on the roads carrying infants very casually, school children harassed and everyone running. I saw few kind-hearted people inviting frustrated passers by in their cars to help them reach their homes. Shops closed, people climbing on rickshaws and cars and some depending on shanks’s pony. I decided to do the same and told mama to proceed to his home and I walked down and reached my home on foot with still chaos all around the way.

Like every worsened peaceful cities of Pakistan, Quetta again is an easy heaven for terrorists. The even worst fact of the city today, is that there are multiple terrorism fronts active with complete diversified objectives. The Pashtoon majority province has a good number of Hazaras, Baloch and Settlers including Punjabi, Urdu-speaking, Kashmiries, Saraiki and Hindko families. The city renowned for its cultural harmony and mélange in the past is disrupted into spurts of terrorism. Such a small place where ties are developed so easily is marked with flimsy cultural and humanitarian values today. I wish we would find ways to be good again. I wish…

For the strugglers; of the strugglers; by a struggler

Talha Masud — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:35:24 +0000

BY Talha Masud

If you are into some professional studies, preparing to jump in the practical world, physically exerting yourself for practicing your sport on a broader level, giving a good revision for your exams or even initiating the goal that you excite about to be in your future, then you all are termed as ‘Strugglers’.

This phase is undoubtedly, the toughest part of one’s life. Interestingly, very few realize its essence because for many of us, it comes as trouble-free and a gracious companion but only when it is to give us extremely tough time in our future pursuits. This period rationally, prolongs for all your life but its intensity is always on the highest if you are still an unsung hero.

They say, “When you are in prosperity, your friends are plenty but when in adversity, just one in twenty.” The normal reflection what the masses would give you on your success is awe-inspiring and far-fetched but the same would not tolerate you to a certain degree when you are in the hunt. On this simple theory, one can manipulate the demoralizing factors by considering the yardsticks of his/her struggle every now and then.

DON’T MAKE TOO MANY MENTORS:

There is a big propensity in the strugglers to get inspired from people way too easily. Making mentors is harmful. People with apparent success appeal you a great deal which is not that bad but the worst part comes when you start seeing yourself in their shoes. This not only sieges your intellectual growth but also leaves you aside from your own improving inclination. Add to this, when we make lots of mentors around us, we start behaving as clingers. Being a struggler, a word of appreciation puts you in the skies but on the flipside, a discouragement even by body language or gestures splinters you. You may run around the one who you consider your mentor and the person starts feeling being a savior and self-loving idiot and he would start making hollow-stylish moves to disengage you from being engaged in your task. Most of the times, they disappoint you, in a sense that you expect to learn from them but they take it as your voracity. And believe me, a single thing breaking your bubble of confidence on them can blow you apart. They could ignore your call on a popular pretext of being ‘busy’ and on the other hand remain really ‘busy’ in their self-serving deeds. So you have got to be extremely careful. You are always better than your mentors. Its just you don’t have that belief in you and by the time you start achieving things your mentors did on a small scale, the intricacy of yourself will automatically vanish.

MOTIVATION, BUT DIRECTIONAL:

In my childhood, I did not understand the rhetoric of our elders for us to study. They never told me what to study in particular for my shortcomings. All they told is to study. Being a school pupil, if you are reading a novel from a magazine which is not for the student of your age at this period, still, you can leave a satisfactory impression on those who don’t give us direction. Direction is imperative to build upon your initiative. If hard work is directed to your aim with the motivational instincts you possess, then you can have a sigh of relief of not going astray.

ACCOMPLISH ‘RSA’:

Before start whining about the constraints others put your way, mostly near relatives when you go against their agreement for your future prospects, then consider this very important theory. A young speaker at YLC after hearing my personal stumbling blocks from people associated to me impressed me by his ‘RSA’ concept. According to this hypothesis, when we are to do something different and better than what folks around us did, we encounter three stages.

1. RIDICULE

2. STRONG OPPOSITION

3. ACCEPTANCE

Now if you are on the first stage, hold yourself because after ridiculing on you, people would put strong opposition against you and if you are on the second stage then believe me, you are very near to be accepted and accomplished with what you wanted to be.

HAVE SOME PAIN:

There was a boxer from Latin America whose statistics proved him an unbeatable rival in his fights. Before even coming into the international arena, he got immense fame. In those days boxing did not pay a lucrative recompense. Between, he got a job with attractive salary and perks and left boxing. After few years, watching the great Mohammad Ali’s interview who expressed that although he didn’t face the early retired boxer in the fray but was afraid of him made this man jump out of his bed. He could not believe that Mohammad Ali has uttered such strong remarks for him. He again went to his coach and asked him to impart the training again. The coach answered; “You can’t be a boxer anymore.” The man got puzzled and asked the reason to which the coach summed up the conversation with the sentence; “You don’t have fire left in you.”

From the above incidence, the fire or pain gives a push as the driving force for your goal. Keep in mind that while tracking down your vision, you don’t derail from it. Another type of pain is the pangs that compel you to prove yourself. It can be domestic imbalances, failed crush, feeling of resentment, social rejection or unjust treatment, all can play a hidden part in your robust emergence but taking positives out of above mentioned is not an easy task. It, on most occasions further digress your endeavor. Every hero has a tragedy as every commoner. The difference lies in perception after the fact.

RESPECT YOUR SINCERE NEARS AND DEARS:

Because they are your only true friends. They are those filtered gems who deserve to be respected. Many of them would not use sugar-coated words to your benefit or portray to be a bit inconsiderate but you have to respect them as their sole motive is your development. Minus those element from them who are there for arguments’ sake or for distorting your frame of mind. Don’t listen to everyone too. Talent is what you are blessed with and none can improvise it for you. You just have to polish your skills and having docile attitude towards your well-wishers is something that takes you very higher.

COMPETE WITH YOURSELF:

The marginal progress in you would never end if you act upon this rule. What were you in last summer to the changes for the better you feel in yourself in this spring is how you evaluate your enhancement. You are your best competitor. Many of strugglers like me fall prey to the enchanting growth of others who were below par in our age. The greatest competitive contemporary is yourself and the more you engage in self-tussle, the better results you will produce.

SET YOUR PRIORITIES:

In your priorities, list to target your limitations first. Additionally, you need to get acclimatized on what you have set your sights. This will put you at ease to further your struggle. Don’t pity on yourself if you are not living a life as the guy or girl next door lives. Reassure yourself that you are not here to drift but to make efforts by all might and main. If you are not versed with the latest Hollywood releases, the new upcoming glamour sensations, you can’t drive a car as good as your first cousin does or you are not a computer savvy, it really doesn’t matter a bit. These things can be grasped at any stage of your life and what better time than when you have completed your basics in order to start a magnificent career.

Sonu Nigam, my personal favorite tells in one of his interviews that when he first came to Mumbai to get his first break, he has to ask for the rent of the flat he lived in, back from his home. He described how long he had to wait before he got his first duet. He puts in the picture of a normal day during his struggling juncture when he was riding on a scoter and saw an eye-catching girl. He was so mesmerized in her that he could not see the road jump and had a minor accident with bruises. He said when he saw his scars in the mirror, he nearly slapped himself that how for granted is he taking his struggling phase. According to him, this small incident made him focused eliminating all the diverting factors from his goal.

COMPANY MATTERS:

It reflects you. You have to be around those people most of the times, with whom your compatibility flourishes. The best thing in achieving your goal is to think about it. Like a cricket player thinks after the match that if he had not missed that specific catch, he would have helped his team and his own morale. This thought process is an essential tool for the growth and it helps you improve in no time. What company does is it inculcates some benchmarks. If you are in a company that has the favorite topic of ‘mobile’ and ‘bachi’, then congratulations! You will prosper in these areas of interest. It is entirely your show with communication that depicts the soul of the society you move in. On a very serious note, a company with literary arguments in vogue or ideas to muster the common perspectives of your friends is a blessing.

LET YOURSELF DREAM:

For your dreams are your assets to capitalize upon. Your provocation is also because of your dreams but only when you don’t try to interpret them practically. When you let yourself dream, you let the fervor of achievement in yourself. For all those who struggle, dreams are implanted for the destination they eye as Mr. Pirzada Qasim, the University of Karachi’s Vice Chancellor splendidly writes:

Main aesay shakhs ko zindoon main kya shumaar karun

Jo sochta bhi nahi, khuwaab dekhtha bhi nahi………

‘Cultural disintegration and fabricated generalizations’

Talha Masud — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:29:22 +0000

By Talha Masud

I always enjoy discussions with few of my good friends who are always with rebuttals. Interestingly, they need to be convinced not by mere flat “stereotypes” but with strong arguments, which means: no exaggeration or generalization. One rainy day, over black tea and pakoras, we leaned towards a thoroughly attention-grabbing debate that was about ‘cross-cultural marriages’. I was backing the notion on the grounds that such matrimonial alliances help cultural integration into practical terms putting us unaffected from negative cultural oversimplifications. A guest with us came out with something like this that I have heard many times: “At least marrying in your ethnic-circle secures your corpse to be thrown away in a shady place if even you are killed by your race-mates”. I had to argue that what is the guarantee of smooth sailing after tying the knot in your ethnic group and if you expect for-granted security from your race, then is there any question arises of you being killed in the first place, let alone being hurled in a shadow? He didn’t convince any of us in his response.

Cultural generalization is one of the biggest psychological bugs in our society as a whole. Generalization in this sense refers to having some carved and implanted theories against other cultures, communities and their social values. This false virus had broadened at rampant pace and has only to do with our mental fixations. Having set beliefs against certain cultural settings, we are always prone to disrepute them and this practice has become a favorite hobby in the present times. By this, frustration stricken people automatically follow the herd instinct and by disgracing others’ societal norms, they qualify themselves of being ‘superior creatures’ for their satisfaction.

Take an instance of metropolitan cities or the suburban villages; you can’t put forward objective recommendations for its psychological lag of being ethnocentric in nature. It would simply be rebellion out of you to improvise with ‘better infusions’ in your society. For a long period of time, I took it as a rural practice alone but I was proved fatally wrong in my further years of experiencing such awkward approach even from ‘modernized’ urban segments. The majority suppressing minority has been the world order but in the modern world, they are slowly getting rid of these mental constraints to only view the things as realistically as they exhibit but our region is almost stuck to apt with the rectification of the stance that has already been the biggest impediment in our social strengthening.

Prejudice, is not a part of any culture. Rationally, vested interest groups in every culture adopt it. The reason is simple: No majority loves to be placid out of the fear of losing nuisance among the other minorities. And it is generally said that “To prove yourself right, you must prove others wrong” and these days if you have the might, you are absolutely right.

No one can ever prove any culture total wrong or total right, nor can deny with the beauties it incorporates from generations. From Shah Abdul Latif’s mesmerizing messages, Bulleh Shah’s spiritual teachings, Atta Shad’s catchy poetry to Rahman Baba’s inspirational impression or the genres of the festivities of each culture, only spread love and harmony. The thing we confuse is culture with dirty politics or ill approaches and mindsets with cultures.

Paulo Coehlo, the great Brazilian writer, in his bestseller paperback ‘The Alchemist’, invents a concept of understanding ‘Language of the world’. This is a kind of secret language that helped the character communicate with each and every thing in the world getting befriended with it at the same time. It includes all the positive omens and gut feelings about whatever exist in the universe. Similarly, there can be ‘Culture of the world’ accord as well. The goods in all the cultures can be adopted for being differently thoughtful than masses with mob psychology. This is very much possible provided we respect and learn about each culture’s mores to check our shortcoming in our own practicing ones. Why not going for good than for bad in order to ameliorate our years in this world?

The hub of severe conflicts leading to massacre and social decline in Pakistan without a doubt is cultural disintegration. A Sindhi only stands for Sindhi, a Mahajir speaks for Mahajirs, Baloch supports Baloch, Punjabi covers Punjabi and Pashtoon backs Pashtoons for a sole reason of having cultural and normative differences. Mistrust, fear or being indifferent creates a chasm between them. I swear all of them have profound reasons but the hatred is because of unfamiliarity of each other’s intuitions and perceived perceptions. This can only be initiated by coming to common terms between the charismatic cultures. It would certainly bridge the gap of many misconceptions and communication between the bearers of several cultures having unknown differences, but yet, differences.

I think of a conversation with one of my teachers having a good name in regional literary services. How beautifully he has described the same issue that was striking my mind for so long! I remember his words; “A nation or a culture is not what we select for ourselves prior to our births. We have to accept it in whatever ethnic settings we grow up and learn the shared patterns of life. If I would have been born in a Jew, Hindu or in a disdainful family, I had to accept it unhesitatingly. So when we don’t even have the right of a title or a surname to be selected for us, how the hell we could be chauvinistic to others. Yes, I am proud that I am a good man. I am proud that I am wearing good clothes just because it was me who adopted this course of material and non-material civilization. I will now only be proud about my culture if I am spreading it in my capacity. Language is a human. If you can speak three languages, you are three people in one person because it depicts different cultures at different times. And it is the most beautiful thing to not forget your culture but to expand it in positive manners. What our national political parties failed miserably to do is to spread their respective cultures in true spirits among the individuals of other cultures. I bet no national political front had persuaded the students to propagate their culture or to help them write or read the language they speak at homes to broaden their visions.”

I thoroughly second his opinion that instead of inviting or enchanting our cultures to get associated with others, we have made it a cartel to only keep our hegemony on others of being lords at space, sarcastic of those who want to intermingle considering it their weakness is what the real problem is. Any individual can be a piece of rubbish or an apple of the eye and not his/her whole social order or culture. If we generalize, we surely would come out with clichés. With false deductions. With prejudiced results.

The need of the hour is to understand, accept and transform into having ‘we group’ feelings outside our cultural setups too. For this is the remedy of our differences and hatred at large, slow, but meaningful. As to love, a single reason is plenty but to hate, even hundreds of them do not suffice.

‘An apple a day, keeps the doctor away’

Talha Masud — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:20:30 +0000

By Talha Masud

In older days, going to a ‘Doctor’ would be the reasonable panacea for almost each patient who approached him but changing market trends have made more social and less economic services like medical aid, a sheer money generating bustle.

According to Pakistan Medical Association, for the scores of one thousand three hundred and seventy patients, there exists a single doctor in Pakistan. The dearth of doctors instead, has flourished a business with abnormal profit.

The rural society, as always, has been the most vulnerable victim of the made-legalized medical cartels. We mostly have undeserving candidates flocking in the medical colleges due to feudal and political pressures and naturally they turn out to be unethical doctors. The stern competition in pharmaceutical companies has brought green anticipations for doctors in the shape of cash or kind. Many of the lucrative offers to the doctors such as air-tickets, picnics, visits, dinners, renovations, cash payments and demanded gifts like a would-be son in law demands for dowry, to give the medicine companies their maximum sale is a typical tradition.

To get the insight, I met different doctors and told them about my fact-finding pursuit. One of them beamed exposing his incisor as a notion of telltale instincts our doctors exhibit every now and then. On the promise of concealing his identity, he discloses many facts that put a stigma on the curing messiahs of our country, of course with exceptions of few. According to him, the Government provides funds for the machines for ECG, MRI, C.T scan tests and incubators etc, but the same machines including the hospitals amenity articles are always asked from the hungry-for-sale pharmaceutical companies having used the provided funds from the Government’s behalf. “A quota of basic needed medicines like pain-killers is a Government provision but either you don’t find these in our free stores or if given, a minor amount is charged or you are a lucky poor patient to get them and is always considered complimentary” he added.

To my great surprise, a family doctor after being pledged about his veracity, pronounces that some doctors are running their own promotional medicines and they are at liberty to prescribe them: High dosages, higher quantity for the highest sales of their medicines. Furthermore, giving antibiotics of extreme generation for minor requirements or settling it with a capsule worth eighty rupees, where a same salt of rupees five can serve the cause.

Many of us have experienced how laboratories have the monopoly over certain clinics and doctors. They suck your blood and charge you whereas if you have undergone the same test in some other laboratory, they flatly rebuff it. It did not astonish me enough to find it out in my search, that a certain amount of commission or percentage is gone to the doctors’ kitty for referring the patients over a variety of tests, few of them for sure, unjustified formality. According to a medical technician, doctors don’t hesitate to admit the patients, pediatricians for instance, to drip the Glucose that is sometimes a pretension of graving the apparent disease of the patient. A senior RMO let his tongue slip to the fact that there are many medicines including painkillers, antidepressants or muscle relaxing pills that are given additionally, to keep the sale flowchart in the brain, without even a tinge of necessity to the laymen which has nothing to do with the established disease, and has no other side effects on the healing patient too, but just to make his medical budget out of his economic domain. He also reveals in his whipering tone that many times the victims of minor rolling gas are operated for appendicitis and hernia and even a non-medical student knows that removal of appendix can be safely performed without its operable nature that is medically called ‘grumbling appendix’.

Conjuring up a pity patient travelled for hundreds of miles due to a simple problem made serious and in the operation theatre, running with financial hardships is extremely painful and in the borderline cities such as Quetta and Peshawar where patients from Afghanistan are given heaps of drugs, or more formally, medicines, to get the maximum out of them totally forgetting the sacredness of the profession as many of our countrymen have, on the sole monetary thirst that tends to give an impression: No lunch is a free lunch and subsiding the geastures of human service occupation.

The writer does not polish all the doctors with the same brush, but those who come under any of the criterion mentioned above, should at least shake their conscience hoping against the hope to break its slumber. Conventionally, we also have a psychological leanings to get pampered by a doctor with good bit of medicines and fees, to set our minds at ease that we have consulted a doctor as I believe that most part of the disease is cured with mental conviction. The word ‘Hospital’ is derived from ‘Hospitality’ and in hospital, I would be half-cured when someone listens to me and provides me an environment that is based on social service as we see in many of the countries which still have their onus on rehabilitation rather than abnormal profit generation.

‘Media Jinx’

Talha Masud — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:57:57 +0000

By Talha Masud

In Pakistani media warfare, the recent entrancing news on the consensus on ‘Constitutional Amendments’ entitling a breakthrough in provincial autonomy to the biggest extent so far, Khyber Pakhtunkhuwah, most awaited change in the N.W.F.P’s vague identification, the balancing of revenue and subjects distribution to the provincial and federal government or America’s cordial stance to Pakistan had been badly over-shadowed by the overdid fancy coverage to Shoaib Malik, middle-order batsman of Pakistan cricket team and Indian Tennis Idol, Sania Mirza’s declaration of getting married. This mellow dramatization can be associated with present-day media boom in Pakistan.

One can see two extremes of Pakistani electronic media: One, the official spokes television, that is PTV, which I at times pronounce as PEACE TV. The pro-government flute has been its undercover agenda. Tune in to the oldest Pakistani channel and you would find Pakistan, a Utopian and a welfare state.

The other end is not just a media front but also a cluster of media cartel. The flurry of news channels in Pakistan has somehow, enlightened the mindset the rank and file masses in Pakistan but the liberty of being too much hegemonic in nature is enjoyed by the same group. The trends of useless debates on talk shows and the race exposing political elements has made it a bit wavered from the ‘issue seeking’ audience.

Non-issues are easily transformed into issues these days. Gather some people and there is an issue on the media waves. What irks me the most is the tone few anchors have developed recently. A renowned anchor in his programme on Pakistan’s leading news channel is always seen to describe ways for dismantling the government. The monotonous verdict seems a bizarre and pompous speech now. In another media shootout, the anchor’s high pitch shouting to the guests sitting a yard away from him is not understandable. Many of them are the judges themselves to be in the frame of the truth and not letting other to speak out. When someone talks to limit media’s high-handedness, the counter bashing is hard to escape.

It is true that check and balance is the best part media plays on the ruling and the ruled class. But media itself has crossed the barriers of decency. And when we see undue coverage on the issues, which hardly matter to the majority, then the questions of being dutiful remains unanswered. When after a certain news, every channel tries to own the credit of breaking it from the bud, and then I tend to pity on the money-generating race by propaganda and hypes.

From Ptv’s ‘Sab Achay Ki report’ to the hysterical approach of other flanks should be rightly checked, guided and understood. We are somewhere, in the smokescreen, being victim of self-disgrace by impolite gesticulation. Both the extremes, if inform and influence the addressees with intent and purpose, then their role become quite significant for the communicative growth of the country.

I Ask My Soul!

Talha Masud — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 05:08:17 +0000

By Talha Masud

I ask my soul

To not console

For the problems I face

For the solutions I trace

When my strength gets weaken

When my sorrows get deepen

When my trickling tears, dry

When my smiles seem, wry

I ask my soul

To not console

When my world exhibits unknown

As my chums bruise me alone

When I have a lot to atone

Left with nothing but to mourn

I ask my soul

To not console

When the going gets tough

Facing the things masked in bluff

When the air don’t aid

And I am slow to cross the strait

I ask my soul

To not console

On the moments I misused

Nature’s wake up beats which I refused

On lessons which I laughed

On the sins that I draft

I ask my soul

To not console

When my coffin lifts high

And my life asks me why?

Pleasure-seeking wants of thy

Wrong and illicit flights to sky

You have lived a life in disguise

You have missed much to realize

Triumph of the world and hereafter is on the making

If you choose the hardest path for the taking

My soul replies, in tandem

To my outraged questions at random

I could hear her for the first time

Rising from the worst to the sublime

Why are you staggering? It asks

Why have you doubt in achieving the tasks?

For what has made you toppled down

Your ‘Legend of Soul’ has gone dumbfound

Just scroll and revert to your past

A lackluster guy with sheer contrast

With what today you transpire

Counting on yourself in the dire

True, you face hurdles of an extreme case

Daunting factors give a serious challenge to your race

I tell you the secret of your transformation

Deep frustration but active innovation

As in all the options;

You have chosen the hardest one

To see what capacity you possess

To judge, how long you can run

What if you toss and turn in a sleepless night!

Dismantled with the plague of the plight

Not everyone finds his soul in his years

You are the chosen one to combat with your fears

Surmount the struggle with even more fire

And you will be furnished with what you require

As she observes silence, a fresh breeze blows

My cheeks feel the chill and my head itself bows

I won’t let the nuisance

To take its toll

And now I ask my soul

To never console…..

‘Promotion of the potential CSS candidates of Balochistan’

Talha Masud — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:35:23 +0000

‘Promotion of the potential CSS candidates of Balochistan’

By Talha Masud

No better platform could the Balochistan CSS aspirants get than what has given to them with the collaboration of Provincial Government and Department of Finance, Balochistan. Two hundred and fifty six candidates have appeared in the preliminary paper from across the province and almost top fifty of them were short-listed to be eligible to take the classes organized in Civil Officer’s club. The very aim of these classes was to prepare the students about the compulsory papers and acclimatizing them with every other ins and outs about the toughest examinations in Pakistan.

This was the third session of its kind. Previously, these classes were organized on yearly basis and provided great results. This session proved out to be the best so far because of the teachers nominated to teach their respective subjects. Almost all of them were CSP’s and had sound grip over the subjects they were supposed to teach.

Department of Finance, Balochistan, with the help of Federal Government’s funding, takes a credit of organizing an extremely fine literary gathering for the students that were beseeching for a platform in the province where one can hardly find any healthy collection of the youth other than political congregations. This is a very good omen for the youth of the Balochistan and had all the budding to bring a change in the mindset and approach of the students who are to take the lead of the future’s top bureaucracy from Balochistan.

Here goes a brief description of the instructors and about the subjects they taught with complete efficiency and devotion.

Mr. Mehfooz Ali Khan (Secretary Finance, Balochistan)

Mr. Mehfooz took the classes on important issues primarily on National Finance Commissions and the distribution of the NFC awards of Balochistan in particular. He has been the mechanism behind the formulae and techniques of the NFC disbursement in Balochistan and undoubtedly, the most authentic person to teach the matter. Other than that, his lectures were based on general motivation, approaches and study patterns with the encountering problems and their solutions. His name is not new to the CSP officers as he can be called as one of the pioneers of CSS qualifiers in Balochistan with Mr. Ali Zaheer Hazara and Munir Badeni.

Mr. Matiullah Khan (Executive District Officer Revenue, Balochistan)

With being the Director of the academy, Mr. Matiullah Khan taught about variety of topics and Pakistan Affairs of pre-partition period. He had freelance lectures on many general issues regarding the exams. The awareness of the right course of books and the technical side of attempting the papers are also imparted by him. He nominated the teachers for several subjects and dealt with the management and administration part of the academy.

Mr. Abdul Ghaffar Achakzai (Section Officer Finance Department)

Mr. Abdul Ghaffar Achakzai was not amongst the instructors and only dealt with the administration and management of the academy. He was also very receptive to listen to the problems of the students and solved them directionally.

Madam Zainab Qayyum (Customs-BPS 17)

Her only lecture was very thought provoking. She is a topper of Balochistan amongst females.

Madam Foqia Nisar (DMG-BPS 17)

She is from 37^th CTP. Her subject was ‘Everyday Science’ as she has scored very good marks in this subject. She taught all the portions of the everyday science with provision of the notes she had made for the class and guided about the reference books for the subject.

Mr. Noor Ahmed Samoon (Deputy Secretary Finance, Balochistan)

He was serving as ‘Deputy Secretary Education’ when he started to teach in the academy and later on was transferred to the finance department. Mr. Noor Ahmed Samoon is a student puller and he has defended his title of being the widely praised teacher of the previous session, in this session too. He taught English Composition paper and essay with its ingredients. Out of the ordinary, special permissions were given to the outsiders too and one can imagine his caliber that the strength used to be more than ninety only during his class. He had been running academies in Lahore as well and is a matchless genius in his subject. His class was never less than of two hours and whatever he has taught is something phenomenal. He has won loads of fans in the academy and his motivational impetus on his students with maintaining a very candid environment in the class by his sensational sense of humor puts him in his own league.

Madam Beenish Ahmad (DMG-17)

She was a Pakistan Affairs teacher. There used to be a very competitive atmosphere during her class as her teaching method was excellent. She taught in a very fine way but due to some unavoidable circumstances, she had to go but not before teaching pre-partition period and a good chunk of post partition era.

Mr. Dawood Barrech (DMG- National Program Manager with Area Development Programme, Balochistan)

If one terms his genius as the jackpot of knowledge, it would still be a weak phrase to represent his profound lectures and over-all personality. He taught current affairs and other imperative topics. He has been serving in United Nations for a long time. His teaching style and impeccable confidence with sound grasp on his topics is something to learn from. It was his bright heartedness that he took the classes and introduced a new dimension of seeking knowledge by his precedent.

Mr. Atta-Ur-Rehman (Assistant Commissioner, Political)

He is a PCS officer. Being from a religious family and having Tafseer-ul-Quran and Islamiat background, his selection for the teacher of the Islamic studies was a very handy one. A very impressive teacher with clear concepts and an excellent command on Islamic studies on minute and broader aspects.

Madam Faiza Meer (Lecturer International Relations Department, University of Balochistan)

Madam Faiza Meer taught from tip to toe about current affairs and international relations proclivity in the topics. She is an excellent teacher and had few problems initially in getting settled with the CSS mode of teaching but later on proved out to be a gem of a teacher. She has provided heaps of material regarding her subject and intends to take few more classes of the interested candidates in the University premises.

Khalil Ahmad (English Professor)

He is the only teacher who struggled to teach his subject. Although, his educational portfolio from India and a good command over his subject can not be denied but he always felt short of the expectations of his own as well. Conversely, he brought very helpful assignments and techniques in teaching the grammar and written expression side of the English that holds a key in CSS examinations.

This academy was a very encouraging step-forward for the Balochistan students. Indeed, the serious students and very competitive standards were set there. Besides, the academy has also established many other activities like the opinion formation slide shows, presentations from the students and the media exposure. The farewell day was very memorable. Lectures and evaluation comments from students were taken and the students have shown good promise in the platform provided to them. Misconceptions about the exams are hauled out from the minds and a clear approach is imparted to them with everything that can help them in setting a trend that can flourish their latent talent and hard work, channeling them the way and the fruits they deserve.

The ‘MAZDA’ part of a life…

Talha Masud — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:46:59 +0000

By: Talha Masud

It still used to be dark when I would calmly step out of my home and went to heart institute bus stop in Federal. B. Area, Karachi, to catch my F.11 bus. The traffic would run subtle in the morning time and the conductor was kind enough to help me climb into the bus as the morning passengers are dangerous quasi-slept customers.

In the socio-economic activities of metropolitans, local buses play an essential role in the lives of the people. In almost all the cities of Pakistan, people are very much dependent on buses but in Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi, the local bus journey facilitates more than 10.7 million people of city comprising of almost 20 million in population. According to a recent gallop survey, Karachi has more than 120 thousand buses running all across the city on 24/7 basis.

A local bus journey in Karachi is more than a journey. One learns about the real life in buses. On the top of it, the second best sleeping place other than one’s bed is buses in Karachi. The Karachi people are mostly under-slept and folks in sound sleep can easily be found in the buses. What makes me puzzled is that how well they know about their stop and abruptly break their slumber to get off from the bus. The writer imitated the idea but it never worked. Many times when I allowed my sleep angels, I woke up miles after my stop. At times, I naturally slept and had to catch multiple buses to recover the extra distance. Once, I slept so badly that I did not have any clue that the bus was punctured and the passengers were shifted to another bus but I was not in a hurry to wake up. It was quite humiliating and funny.

Secondly, the best civilization one learns is in the buses. If he is not civilized enough, he is bound to acclimatize himself with the bus ethics. The respect of elderly figures is something I really feel proud of. People do not hesitate to leave their seats for aged beings. Any one standing in the bus and carrying something, everyone offers him to carry his stuff until the passenger gets a vacant seat. People are very well aware of their rights. The transporters can’t increase a single rupee in the fare without any evidentiary logic. Drivers have to put solid brakes when any female is going to climb into the bus else people would beat the bus so badly to make the driver and the conductor beseeching.

Generally, from rich to the destitute, all prefer traveling in buses. The reason is that buses are more secure than a rickshaw or a taxi in Karachi. Females find it the best public transport and from school and college girls to the working fraternity, all feel secured to travel by bus. There is no fence (some call it ‘samaj ki dewaar’) between the male and female portion of a bus. One can easily ponder about making his eyes glued on the fascinating girls to pass the journey better. Problems are serious when the she men who are in huge numbers in Karachi show up in the buses. Either they show up to beg or to travel, create big fuss. Poor they, have to travel in the male compartment because they are not welcome any way in the female one and very few sit on the next seat with them other than elder people. The youth runs away to sit beside them as they make absolutely obscene and horrible gestures that make one berserk. The hawkers of peculiar articles to the fake beggars, is a common trend.

The chitchat in buses is extremely significant. You can catch up to the latest news without any newspaper. People giving advises to the minors and at times giving absurd lessons from their lives. Sometimes the jokes they tell are so pathetic that they deserve a sure pity glance. You are licensed to augment on any rubbish topic but one can make many friends in the buses. Often, a loud speaker takes attention of the people and becomes the man of that moment. Information about any topic in the buses is replete. People love to make their journey worth. On the route towards universities, many students exchange ideas and notes. In the examination time, it is not a tall order to find an alike student who would tell you about his preparation and listen to your revision. Since, the traveling distances are very long; one has to be very patient to wait for his destination.

The moral obligation and ethical behaviors can be learnt in the buses. The biggest fight would occur when one spits the PAN in the bus or outside. People would fry him in the taunts. You can find people overfilled in the buses standing in the posture of an indifference curve in the rush hours. Many love to sit on the roof of the buses. Despite the city governments’ ban on roof passengers, they travel to feel the breeze to the fullest and smartly recline themselves as they see any sergeant. You have to be much disciplined in the buses. When I used to be extremely tired back from my office, slept while standing, my knees had crooked and hit someone very badly and then I always had to excuse him. Before two stops of your destiny, you have to be by the exit door. Abusive language is avoided if there are more elders nearby or done in a lower tone.

People do guide very well in the buses about the traveling routes. They don’t exhibit gauche attitudes when someone asks for help. It is considered as a very noble deed to help someone for the right course. People know to say sorry and thanks and if they don’t, they are not regarded good.

My experience in traveling in the buses taught me much about patience, perseverance and about different people. It may not add up to my real exposure in life but sometimes minor modules in life teach you more than the major ones.

‘OUR SIMPLE COMPLICATIONS’

Talha Masud — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:15:31 +0000

By Talha Masood

Once, we had a Christian sweeper who came in alternate days for cleaning. One morning he told me something that took me by surprise, “I am going to embrace Islam”. I was naturally happy and I gave him few saved-up currency notes for the happy sign. Then few days later I saw him in Bazaar and his get-up was quite different from his orthodox clothing. He was looking happy and with him I had a brief chit-chat with his bearded friend who, according to our sweeper, guided him the true path.

Few days passed and I went busy in my Schooling. I completely forgot about it until I have noticed that he is not coming to perform his duty from last many days. One day he came in his same conventional attire. I inquired about his absents but he looked impassive. At last he started telling me something which was somewhat like this. “I embraced Islam after being impressed and motivated by my friend’s guidance. When I went to nearby Molana Sahab for the learning motive of Islamic teachings, he asked me that on whose hand you have accepted Islam. As I told him, the Molana got fierce on me that what the heck you have done. That Molana is from some different Sect and you are still a non-muslim. After approaching to the first Molana, he had much to curse about the other as well. This confused me a lot and I decided to go to some other religious scholar. His words made me entirely abashed when he said that go and learn about Islam and then come to embrace it. This, beta (That’s what he used to call me) broke my emotions and I am again on my previous religion plus I have decided that now I will never deviate from it”.

After many years, I recalled this apparently normal incident and with that I can also recollect some occurrences that I have witnessed so far in my life creating a certain hodgepodge in my mind.

It was midst of the year, 2008. I started a part-time job as Teacher’s Training Coordinator in an Islamic Organization of Schools and Colleges in Karachi. We always had Juma congregation in the compound of our Office with college students and teachers. This was the first of them. I stood as the ‘aqamat’ began but I saw they were sitting and waiting for the half of the aqamat to finish before rising up for takbeer according to their Sect. As I stood up I heard the whispers from a student from the back row saying that “Sir is a Wahabi”(A sect use to call everyone other than them, a wahabi, that means a person only worshipping Allah and not having faith in His Last Prophet).

In the same organization, I helped a Karachi-based friend from Panjgur to apply in our organization and being an apple of the eyes of administrators, I just had to insinuate them that this guy is a hard-worker in which I had no doubts and they eventually appointed him. He really worked hard and in few months was considered as a very competent employee instead of being called my friend. Because of rush hours duties, we met very often off and on. One afternoon he came to my cabin saying that, that might be the last day of his in the office. Answering to my cross question he described a peculiar reason that the office administration asserts that because you are a ‘Deobandi’, they can not let me continue my services. It really shook me with astonishment and dejection. I can’t forget his words he was exchanging with our Madam: “Madam! You have just come from Hajj. Have you seen anyone discriminating in any Deobandi or Barelvi that one can perform Hajj and the other can’t?”. As his luck would have it, he was expelled from his services although it was in knowledge of the office administration that I am not from their sect too but since I was on a key responsibility, I know they would take some time to oust me with the same pretext.

This religious bigotry was something new to me. I had heard about it but the prejudice for the first time was in full swing before me. They did not drive me out but whatever I saw there in the minds of intellectuals to the young students completely deterred my confidence that Islam which has itself been fragmented by its followers can ever be practiced as an egalitarian religion.

Where there is knowledge, there are differences and it is not only in Islam but in almost all religions. What we fail to develop is tolerance to listen to the other and resolve our reservations peacefully. We always talk about Islamic revolution whereas my study says that the true propagation of Islam was an evolution unless it was internalized in the masses. What to talk about revolution when the true concept of it is not thrived. Resultantly, the new generation is having a space from the religion and it seems something outstanding to them. The fact of the matter indicates that we always try to change the direction of the wind but never pay any heed to adjusting our sails.

We are still tackling with the religious and ethnic chauvinism in the onset of the 21^st century where the development and awareness is on full boom. You travel around the country and you will find a new story everywhere. We are quoted as ethnocentric and religious dogmatists. We have the greatest of religious scholars but somewhere our society is rotted so badly that it may take a generation to have the acumen to solve our small disputes. We are still confused that either wearing a tie could list us among the infidels or to tie our hands above or below the belly button during the prayers while it is very clear that as long as we pray, it is right as the Prophet prayed in all the manners to prevent any mayhem in the issue of offering prayers.

We have many responsibilities being the flag-bearers of new generation in this regard. Initially, our understandings should be free from pre-conceived prejudice. Our efforts should not limit us to any specific jurisdiction but to a global extent. Our interpretation of Islam should not be in our respective interests but the real essence should be based on how receptive our souls are to understand and practice the true word of Islam. We must not give an impression that our unity is at stake. Tolerance is what the need of the hour is. It not only solves abrupt violence but also pacifies the differences and surfaces a better way to be a collective strength. As a lay man, I must be prepared when my son asks me to dispense the vision of a life that never violates our Islamic values and principles but also would be in accordance with harmony, prosperity without class differences, tolerance and a Muslim, well-versed of his moral obligations.

let’s get this going

Talha Masud — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:03:56 +0000

By Talha Masud

I still remember those hot afternoons of June in Karachi when I, a fat eight year old kid repetitively tried to learn the mathematics tables on the huge balcony. The reason was that I was taught nothing in my school in interior Balochistan and was forcefully put in the coaching center in winter vacation; I felt that my Karachi tuition mates were far more ahead in giving answers to the tuition aunty.

Problems remained the same until my secondary classes. I discussed it with Mr. Faraz, one of the best teachers I had in my life and his answer was simple and convincing. “Talha! No one will listen to your pleas of not having good teachers or your miss-fortunes; in fact no one has time to listen to the causes of your failures. It’s you who has to run extra miles to grapple your problems in studies”. Since then, his words are tied in my mind and whenever I meet him, I think hard that what I have, to give this great man in return of changing my loser approach and all the times I had no conclusions.

A teacher is beyond an imagination of a simple person and is worth to be respected if he has transmitted any knowledge in you. The rewards teachers get in our society is unique: They get killed because they are teachers. Yes. I have come back to Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, where many teachers having served more than twenty years are shot dead because they are teachers. Because they are the only science teachers and rest are confined to general and linguistic subjects. A teacher who teaches beyond the boundaries of ethnicity and religion deserves no condemnation when he losses his life as a reward of giving the thankless services of illuminating a torch of education. On some occasions, I tend to think that why they serve in a province where there is no dignity for them. Who gave them the right to come and serve in the educationally ignorant province? When in a province where they are not required and where generally, students believe that because the teachers are being paid, so they have the right to assault them. This, sadly, has to do with our culture now.

On a lighter note, when I have heard that students protested to allow ‘cheating’ in a reputable institution nearby my home, I could not believe that the illicit demands are so brazenly asked because there is no responsible authority to keep a check and balance on leftover educational institutions in Balochistan. Coming back to Quota system uproar, suppose there are reserved quota of seats, say, ten (maximum) for a district and there are twenty deserving candidates from the same district, where would they go? Is it a fair order to shove those in an open merit passage?

Watching a Picture of a topper of a department in University of Balochistan, whose eyes looked opened in sheer astonishment in the picture, had a funny comment from someone that “He himself is flabbergasted about his position” provided a good laughing stock but the only remedy I believe is setting us for broader competition. The complacency of belonging from any backward area is not acceptable in the sense of a competitive world. Why don’t we take the easy examples of the student of far flung northern areas, North West Frontier and FATA who in large numbers, establish themselves in Lahore in rental rooms, prepare for CSS and other competitive exams, do part time labor for bearing their study expenses and many of them go through as the record clearly states about the big ratio of village qualifiers in CSS results being there for a long time now. The practical example is seen in the libraries’ which open at 8:00 and I could see a crowd of the students waiting before the opening times and throwing their books on the library chairs to get their seats reserved for the next many hours. Most of them are the education seekers of remote areas all across Pakistan and we the people from Balochistan, are self-righteous enough to stay stagnant on political slogans. The results are self explanatory.

Our prosperity lies on our own build-up. For how long had we been crying of being deprived? We have to travel, migrate and acquire the longing for education if we are to make a difference in our homes, towns and cities. Surpassing from the process of a creditable future and outshining the better-fed and better-educated metropolis contenders would itself make us not believing on the outcries of limited opportunities as I cited my own preoccupation and mental fixation in the initial paragraphs. Being an inspirational figure of one’s family or tribe, one can better be the opinion leader of his youngsters who will not face the hard problems as he did but may be ending much better leading towards a real vision and success as a destination.