Skip to main content

Ramblings

Just returned from a semi long walk, semi long because it snowed day before yesterday which was actually seasons first snow and today even though temperature was dipping below freezing, we had sunshine, which is killer icy condition,and I would know, I have lived 14 winters of my life in snowy conditions in Pakistan, skiing and making snowmen, so I was afraid I would slip, whereas I was wearing these boots that I had bought last summer in London which were actually boys shoes but fit me perfectly and I got such a great bargain to boot, but you cannot be certain about something until you have tested it so I cut my walk short! Phew that was a long sentence. I have noticed that apparel for women is unreasonably expensive and also of flimsy materials. Its more showy then practical. Like why on earth would you have acrylic and polyester hats, gloves and mufflers in a place like Chicago where temperatures dip down to -15C? What if some poor soul buys it and ends up freezing in this weather. Another thing which is absolutely clear is that most people cannot tell wool from acrylic, or silk from polyester. Is it about not having an eye or having such excellent copies of the real thing that you cannot tell one from the other? That could actually apply to a number of things in our lives!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Choices...

Everyday we make choices. Big choices, small choices, green choices, important choices, insignificant choices....but we make them without realizing that we have a choice. So many times the choices we make are not real choices but are made for us by forces outside of us. First and foremost we are persuaded by advertisement, through billboards, pop ups, television, newspapers or by advocates who have already realized their power to choose. Without educating us they advocate for their choice and we are swayed. Strong advocates for atheism, going vegetarian, going green, going organic, the list goes on. Then there is a modern and current sway which catches us unawares. You are caught in the domino effect and don't even realize your own conversion. And its a strange conversion because you always were what you suddenly start claiming but now you have to define your self, you cant choose to live in the border area, you have to declare. Not only that you have to now start defending your po...
2 comments
Read more

Sawal Gum, Jawab Gum

While still in school as I was just beginning to realize that there was a world outside the 'self' and everything was not an extension of my being and that the world did not really revolve around me when all of a sudden I was struck by questions all the time. They came like shooting stars, out of the blue and with flashing brilliance. I was not alone of course, everyone my age, around me had similar queries. The hows and whys of life and beyond. But whereas I was encouraged to ask I felt some of my friends snubbed these thoughts because ''Islam' did not allow them to question'! And I would ask them why and was told that there are some questions to which there are no answers and if we persist our faith may be tested...hmmm..but isn't it that every question has an answer and 'dhoondney sei tou Khuda bhi mil jaata hai' (One can even find God, if one goes out searching for Him) , and how can we have answers when the search has stopped? Isn't the cur...
2 comments
Read more

Is Pakistan a failed state?

I read somewhere that we don't acknowledge something terrible for as long as possible because there is a superstition that if you do then it will become a reality. I wonder why people ask this question and for the last time here is what I think. The justice giver in Pakistan was denied justice and he came out on the streets, he had a mass following, people from all walks of life, age groups, classes, gender, rallied along with him. He travelled through Pakistan. Every city, town, village he passed people came out in huge numbers to greet him and to show their support for what he stood for. This mass caused a dictatorship to fall and ousted a self delusional autocrat. It became a movement, a symbol, an idea and was on its way to achieve greater things when the brokers of power sitting in other countries got concerned (and rightly so, people have no right to choose for themselves) and made a coup d' etet against this movement. It took place in US, that much we know because though...
2 comments
Read more