These posts are going to be a part of a special Election Series highlighting what each party brings to the table and hopefully make your decision easy on who you need to vote for so you can blame them for the next 5 years without doing anything yourself.

First up is The returning Brown Knight Rises and his party APML.

APML Background -

The All Pakistan Muslim League is a party formed by our very own friendly dictator Pervez Musharraf (the biggest insult one can give Pervez Musharraf is that George W. Bush considered him as a friend). The good thing about Pakistan who’s hospitality is known all over the world is that it accepts every human being for who they are (unless of course of you’re a minority or you’re poor than you’re out of luck.)  and in APML’s case we’re showing our hospitality once again. No other country in the world would welcome a dictator not only with open arms but also let him contest in a democratic election. Because you know we’re forgetting the past and building towards a prosperous future in which we don’t repeat our previous mistakes and all that. APML’s name is derived from the other 4324324 Pakistan Muslim Leagues that have been formed over the years and uses the old “If you have anything related to Islam in your party even if you’re the spawn of the devil that should guarantee you about 10,000 free votes” tactic.

Party Symbol – Eagle.

But I would have preferred this in all honesty a masterclass in Adobe Photoshop -

No this is not Awais Lovely’s Wedding Card.

Who should vote for them -

If you’re planning on going to the army or you have a relative who’s in the army and you would like to see them get a free house in the near future in one of the 342433141 Askari Colonies that have propped up in Pakistan over the last 10 years than vote for APML. 4 bedroom house with attached bathroom and terrace will be yours..

APML Supporter

Who shouldn’t vote for them -

If you have trouble keeping your mouth shut and like giving your opinion which will most probably result in the occasional water-boarding session along with a few steel rod marks on your back  than I would probably recommend staying away from this lot. (Especially if you’re a Lawyer.)

That is pretty much it, next time/week hopefully I’ll cover Pakistan’s Most Liberal Party MQM. Their liberal values are upheld despite the 32432412 people they accidentally shoot every week. Till next week.

Later.

Ignore all typos. Especially the then one in the comic. Too lazy to make it again.

I wrote the first part 4 months ago and I wasn’t really planning on holding the second part off for this long but anyways here goes -

A city’s greatness by the average person who’s life long goal is to consume as much as he can in his life is usually measured by the amount of skyscrapers it holds and how much technological advancement it’s made over the years along with how many fast food restaurants it possesses in one street.  But for the few rare individuals and I’ll extend that to the true believer a city’s greatness is measured by the memories it holds for the person and the stories it tells.

That is the thing with Madina, though it’s newly built skyscrapers which mainly consist of 5 star hotels might suggest that you’re entering a very superficial city but amid all the tall buildings and millions of pilgrims rushing around the mosque and different shopping malls you see a city with a story to tell. The beauty of Madina’s story is that it intertwines with the story of The Prophet. The connection the city makes with the hearts of the individuals that come to it seeking the blessings it possesses is only because of The Prophet. Or to put it in a slightly philosophical term Madina exists because of The Prophet and to go a bit further with that any connection you ever end up making with The Prophet is also in the end a connection with Madinah because of the amount of time The Prophet spent in the city after his great mission started. (And because The Prophet’s life is so well documented with almost every little detail in the Seerah books, you can basically read Madina’s story and how it reached such great spiritual heights.) Because if you claim to love a person no matter who, to love what he/she loves is second nature. So to all those who end up loving The Prophet, madina ends up having a very special place in their hearts.

Anyways I mention this because the next part of my trip to Madina consisted of going around and visiting all the different places of the city that hold an important historical and religious importance. Most of the other historical places have been mostly destroyed by The Saudi government either for Shirk reasons (because people end up going to these places and doing some weird weird stuff, though I wish they could have come up with something other than demolishing it & preserving it but again people do end up doing some weird stuff.) or for developmental reasons. But still some of the other sites have been preserved and if you’re with a guide or a cab driver who’s familiar with the place he can pretty much tell you what used to be here. As for the places that hold religious significance as some of the specific mosques in and around Madina have been mentioned in Hadith and their importance, those places The Saudis on the other hand have done well not only to preserve but expand for the growing influx of pilgrims.

Masjid-e-Quba. The first ever Mosque.

Inside

Masjid of Hazrat Umar. The doors were welded together so that no one could enter, according to the cab driver the doors were initially locked with a normal lock but apparently some Pakistani guys broke into it and tried praying some nawafil after which The Saudi authorities ended up welding the doors together. (No idea if the story was true but wouldn’t be surprised if it was.)

Other places that we ended up visiting included Uhud and a couple of other mosques. The rest of the trip pretty much consisted of staying in Masjid-e-Nabwi and making the most of our time there. A few other observations that got me thinking was the amount of work the workers of Masjid-e-Nabwi put into maintaining everything. And by workers I don’t mean the Saudis but the Bengali, Pakistani, Indian and Filipino workers that are continuously making sure that everything is perfect in the mosque. We often over-look the hard-work of such individuals while passing condescending looks. They may not earn much but play a huge role in the running of the mosque. It’s especially funny because we’re supposed to be here giving our salams to The Prophet who lived among these people, and was considered the King of the poor. So when we’re living in our 5 star hotels and going through are all you can eat buffets it is hard to forget such individuals. As Fariduddin Attar says in his poem

How would he be the Leader of the Poor,
if the slightest of desires had ftained his heart?
Poor he remained, because that man’s a Boor,
whose wedding gifts his bride from him do part.
Because he had nothing, he sat on the sand;
Because he was hungry he tied stones to his waist.
Absolute poverty’s proof was in him,
Absolute wealth was his secret within

Other than that was pretty much it of the Madina leg of the tour, it ended with us saying our Salams to The Prophet one last time before moving to Makkah. The feeling during those last salams is hard to describe as such and I don’t really remember it properly as such as compared to the first time. Anyways that is pretty much it hopefully next time will cover Makkah and that round of the trip whenever I get the time.  This pretty much describes the beautiful feeling of when you enter Masjid Nabwi and I’ll end with it -

Later.

Note – This was initially written for Project: Ink. A project started by some A level kids in Lahore. You can read it in full here . (Also check out the other stuff they’ve done, it’s pretty good.)

I’ve never really known what I wanted to do in life. When I was 7 I heard the word “Doctor” and “Engineer” for the first time in my life. I probably heard it before as well but I decided to stick with 7. It’s a nice age to start off with. Now if I wasn’t South-Asian I would have probably heard the word doctor when I actually needed to go to an actual doctor and the word engineer if I decided I wanted to build a bridge but I *was* one so inevitably and like most of us out there.; these two words were the motivation for everything I did from about 7 till I was 18.

I stopped hearing the word doctor when I was about 14 though because my dad was a smart guy he knew a hopeless case when he saw one and he knew a couple of major miracles were required for me to become a doctor. I had no intention of proving him wrong because that required me putting in some extra hard work. My mother on the other hand, like all Pakistani mothers, believed that her son could conquer the world and literally become  if not  Dr. Greg House, at least a great doctor.

Now at 14 the only thing I was good at conquering was a couple of Big Macs in under 2 mins but she believed change was right down the corner and I could achieve great things. A part of me really wanted to prove her right but then again that required actual work so I let it go and told conscience to stay shush. “There will be a lot more to do for mom in life” – I told it.

So with one profession out of the question, there was only one other thing left that I could be and that was to be an engineer. There were no other Engineers in my immediate family, my brother was sent to be a computer scientist but the day he graduated we found out he was actually majoring in something else, my dad had the “Well played son. Well played.” look on his face which I haven’t really forgotten to this day.

So with no one in the family being in the profession the pressure on me was high. Right before I graduated from F.sc (high-school) with mediocre grades I was subjected to the “do anything you want to do but I would prefer if you were an engineer, Pakistan mein aur kisi cheez ka scope ni hai” talk. Which in my head sounded like this:

I decided to go with the former (dreams can wait, food can’t). I still don’t get why exactly I chose the path I did (the food and shelter incentive doesn’t explain it all). When I looked towards people around me for answers, the conversation usually went something like this:

Random Auntie who watches HUMTV Dramas for a living and gives advice in her spare time: Beta, go for engineering.

Me: Why?

RAWWHDFLGAIHSPT: You’ll make a lot of money! (Which is completely untrue btw and saved for a rant for another day)

Me: But I don’t want to make money.

RAWWHDFLGAIHSPT: You’re not going to get married then.

Me: I don’t want to get married.

RAWWHDFLGAIHSPT: You won’t have kids then.

Me: Never been fond of kids.

RAWWHDFLGAIHSPT: Wow! aren’t you miserable.

Anyways, the path was chosen now all that was left to do was to actually get into an engineering institution. After about 10 rejections I finally got into one and there started my engineering journey. The first thing I did on this journey was to check the number of girls in my class which looking back wasn’t exactly the best of the starts but it is one  which I remember fondly. (There were four btw if anyone is interested. Now currently where I am there are 0. So if you’re looking for a life of gender mixing I would strongly suggest another career path).

Now three years into Engineering I’ve grown to slightly love it, because over the years I’ve realized there isn’t particularly anything else I would have liked to do or anything else I would have particularly been good at. So what’s the whole moral of the story here? I don’t really know, but the few I can think of are

a) You could do something with your life that you don’t want to do and just hope that one day you’ll end up liking it and live a happy life.

b) You could do something with your life that you don’t want to do and probably end up never liking it and live a miserable life. That’s an equivalent of being forced to eat baked turnips completely against your will.

c) You could just screw everything and do what you want, if you actually think you can pull it off that is. Otherwise please don’t try it or embarrass yourself.

That is pretty much it, you can read Alan Watts trying to sum up what I was saying. http://zenpencils.com/comic/98-alan-watts-what-if-money-was-no-object/

Later.

One more thing, guys trying to be fashion designers and bloggers and those people who sell ridiculously tasting cupcakes at insanely high prices,  please stop embarrassing yourself. We’re going through enough as it is, find something else to do. (And no but this is what I want to do is not a valid excuse).

Favorite Quotes I read during the year -

“Allah has names of Beauty: the Compassionate, the Merciful, the Gentle, and many others. But He also has Names of Rigour: the Overwhelming, the Just, the Avenger. The world in which we live exists as the interaction and the manifestation of all of the divine attributes. Hence it is a place of ease and of hardship, of joy and of sorrow. It has to be this way: a world in which there was only ease could not be a place in which we can discover ourselves to be true human beings. It is only by experiencing hardship, and loss, and bereavement, and disease, that we rise above our egos, and show that we can live for others, and for principles, rather than only for ourselves” – Abdal Hakim Murad

“Yes, love, …but not the love that loves for something, to gain something, or because of something, but that love that I felt for the first time, when dying, I saw my enemy and yet loved him. I knew that feeling of love which is the essence of the soul, for which no object is needed. And I know that blissful feeling now too. To love one’s neighbours; to love one’s enemies. To love everything – to Love God in all His manifestations. Some one dear to one can be loved with human love; but an enemy can only be loved with divine love. And that was why I felt such joy when I felt that I loved that man. What happened to him? Is he alive? …Loving with human love, one may pass from love to hatred; but divine love cannot change. Nothing, not even death, can shatter it. It is the very nature of the soul. And how many people I have hated in my life. And of all people none I have loved and hated more than her…. If it were only possible for me to see her once more… once, looking into those eyes to say.” – Tolstoy

“The final end of the creatures’ ascent is the kingdom of singularity. Beyond it, there is no place to climb. Climbing is inconceivable without plurality, since climbing is a sort of relation that demands some-thing away from which one climbs and something toward which one climbs. But when plurality disappears, oneness is actualized, relationships are nullified, and allusions are swept away. There remains neither high nor low, descending nor ascending. Climbing is impossible, so ascent is impossible. Hence, there is no highness beyond the highest, no plurality alongside oneness, and no ascent when plurality is negated. If there is a change of state, it is through descent to the heaven of this world— that is, through viewing the low from the high, since the highest, though it has lower, does not have a higher.” – Ghazali (The Niche of Lights)

“The tragedy of the modern world in it’s consumerist intoxication is that people take more and more and they’re being urged to take more and more and that’s how it is and the Hadith is very clear “If a man had a whole valley full of gold. He would want two valleys full of gold but in the end it is only dust that will fill his mouth.” And this is another intoxication of modernity, the false promises earn more, get more and be more happy. If you earn more you can get more but happiness is a very subtle thing that governments or corporations can’t give you because the real things that bring us happiness is sincerity in our hearts which cannot really be measured with wealth.”

Best Books -

Surprisingly a good year for reading -

1. Remembrance of Death and The Afterlife.

2. The Niche of Lights.

3. Love for Allah – Shaykh Zulfiqar

4. Sandman – Neil Gaiman

5. Muhammad his life based on the earliest sources – Lings

Favorite Poem -

“Should you not gain your wants, my soul, then be not grieved;
But hasten to that banquet which your Lord’s bequeathed.

And when a thing for which you ask is slow to come,
Then know that often through delay are gifts received.

Find solace in privation and respect its due,
For only by contentment is the heart relieved.

And know that when the trials of life have rendered you
Despairing of all hope, and of all joy bereaved,

Then shake yourself and rouse yourself from heedlessness,
And make pure hope a meadow that you never leave.

Your Maker’s gifts take subtle and uncounted forms.
How fine the fabric of the world His hands have weaved.

The journey done, they came to the water of life,
And all the caravan drank deep, their thirst relieved.

Far be it from the host to leave them thirsty there,
His spring pours forth all generosity received.

My Lord, my trust in all Your purposes is strong,
That trust is now my shield; I’m safe, and undeceived.

All those who hope for grace from You will feel Your rain;
Too generous are You to leave my branch unleaved.

May blessings rest upon the loved one, Muhammad,
Who’s been my means to high degrees since I believed.

He is my fortress and my handhold, so my soul,
Hold fast, and travel to a joy still unconceived.

Overall, the year started of in a lot of internal conflicts and confusions and thankfully it doesn’t end this way. Nothing remarkable might have happened over the year but still has been a tremendous year in which I’m grateful for everything good and bad that’s happened. Though I was a little disappointed the world didn’t end.

“Man this prof is such a $%@#$@@#@#. He doesn’t know anything I don’t know what he’s doing teaching.”

3 years into engineering (4th if I had stayed back home, I’m just desperate to graduate at this point) or any other undergrad degree you would have most probably heard the following sentence being thrown around. If you haven’t used it one of your batch-mates probably has. I’ve changed schools at-least 10 times during my schools years expanding from New York to the middle of no-where in Sindh, I can’t remember a single time when I didn’t dislike a teacher or thought the teachers weren’t good enough to teach while I was there. This was probably due to the fact that I was a below average student for most of my life or at most an above average student if things went really so blaming the teachers and their inability to teach was an easy way to tell myself that I wasn’t incredibly stupid.

But looking back at all my teachers especially the ones I had back in Pakistan during my Matric and F.s.c school years, I look back at each and every single one of them and am extremely thankful to all of them for the brilliant effort they put in to make even the most crooked and evil of us into decent human beings. Math, science etc they taught and forced it upon us whether we picked up on it was entirely our own choosing but what they did do was make sure that whether we turn into doctors or end up selling fruits on the side of a road for the rest of our lives we would be decent human beings who would know how to interact and give back to the community. No matter what we thought of them we knew any slight disobedience or disrespect to them was akin to blasphemy so we respected them in some cases out of fear but in most cases out of actual respect. So it’s kind of soul crushing when you see the “youth” be mostly disrespectful of teachers. It is an epidemic here but it’s increasing back home as well where kids have absolutely no respect for the teachers. Maybe the teachers have some share in it as well for trying to make their profession into more of a “who can make the most money” type of profession who knows but it would be nice if we generally started showing more respect and appreciation to the people who educate us whether they be our teachers or our parents.

Rabee’ bin Sulaymaan was the companion and student of the famous scholar, Ash-Shaafee’i and he  said, ” By Allah, I was not so bold as to drink water when Ash-Shaafee’i was looking at me out of awe of him.” 

My English teacher back in F.s.c (12th grade) used to repeatedly tell us after our many occasional disciplinary breakdowns (looking back at it, it was the best time of life)

“All your actions are a reflection of your teachers and your parents. If you act like a moron in public, than your parents and teachers are morons. Is liye Khuda kay liye humari izzat ka hi khiyal rakh lo aur insaan day putar ban jao. (For God’s sake just out of respect for us turn into children of human beings”

I try not regret many things but looking back at it, I feel I should have gone back to them at-least once and said thank you for everything they’ve done. Because these are the type of people that whether we choose to remember them or not if we were to go to them in 30 years time they would still remember our face and probably end up sharing a story of something extremely stupid we did when we were young over a cup of tea.

  ” I am a slave to he who taught me a letter.”

 

Later.

                         It takes a while until one’s inner soul

                       Becomes revealed to others as a whole

                      Is there some gold beneath the body’s wall

                    Or just a snake-pit where foul insects crawl?

                

Our obsession with the outward as a society is turning into a  hilarious parody of itself. During exam period or just generally try not shaving for two weeks for no reason and you’ll see your family and friends bombarding you with “MashAllah darhi rakh li hai. Tum tou naik ho gaye ho..” or “Very nice *insert name*, you are turning into a very good human being* on the other hand if you’re clean shaven and go to pray 5 times a day no one will notice your religiosity. Or another example pray in the middle of the street by blocking the path way for 90 percent of the pedestrians walking on the street when you could have easily prayed on the side without anyone noticing you will make you into a famous meme with the “Omg look at this guy so committed and firm on his faith” headline. All that seems to matter these days is our obsession with the outward while our inward might be the most ugliest thing we’ve ever seen.

This obsession isn’t limited to religion, do a nice kind act to help another fellow human being out but while you’re doing it make sure it’s getting recorded so you can put it up on youtube and become a source of inspiration for everyone. Whether it be a man with a 7 foot long beard and prayer mark forced onto his forehead by stabbing himself repeatedly with a wooden stick or a man in a nice italian suit with a nice gold watch or a pakistani bride wearing 7 tons of gold (seriously who even still willingly wears gold anymore?) half the things we do is for show.

                          But if a beggar utters words of gold

His wares still won’t be put in shops and sold.

My point which I’m not making too well, there is a desperate lack of inward reflection and retrospection in us these days. The outward takes precedence over the inward, no matter how horrible or terrible our intentions truly might be we aren’t concerned with them because they can simply be hidden away through outward lies and deception that can be easily bought by people these days. But while putting up a show using the outward is pretty simple and might at times be easy as donning a piece of clothing to show people something. To master the inward and balance it out with the outward is one of the hardest things one can do. How does one fix the inward? Well I have no idea to be honest, I’m still working on that but from what I can see it seems like a lot of hard work and sacrifice which not many people are willing to make including myself. And what’s the point of fixing something broken that no one can see? That point from what I’ve seen is entirely up to you but from my experience once you realize the problem it will stare right down at you until you attempt to fix it unless of course you go back to a state of heedlessness or ghaflat but as soon as the process of fixing it begins your inner reality reveals itself to you and every flaw that you have so carefully hidden over the last 21 years of your life slowly embraces you, screams at your existence and the process of removing each flaw begins which is a hard and tedious task and as soon as one flaw is fixed another pops up needing a even harder treatment.

And I thought this was going to be easy, ah well.

Although you like to show off with hot air

Your home’s a spider web it’s hardly there;

When did you fill your soul with satisfaction?

You’ve only just looked up it’s definition!

Later. (If you still want humor you can always find it at the facebook page http://www.facebook.com/hamster41 )

There’s a lot of stuff going around these days that the Saudis have turned Makkah and Madina into places of consumerism and materialism while at the same time destroying all the Islamic heritage that there ever was in these places. Along with that there is also the notion that the “spirituality” and the holiness of such cities has been destroyed and the whole spiritual experience has been ruined.  (The irony of the situation is that most of this stuff is coming from  a) People who have never been to the two cities. b) To be completely honest when it comes to consumerism and materialism the west isn’t really a shining beacon of spirituality and heritage so a lot of their observations aren’t based on any preconceived notion on what should be sacred or not. )

I had been blessed with an opportunity to go the two cities earlier this year, though I have been lucky enough to go there a couple of times before this trip but this time it was special in the sense that for the first time there was a very serious desire in me to visit the two cities. So basically I’ve tried to document my journey to Madina and how the overall trip was. InshAllah if I get the chance I’ll write about Makkah as well which was just as fulfilling.

Madina - 

Before leaving for Madina I had decided to prepare for the trip by going to the one place to eat that would guarantee a sore throat and food poisoning which was Mcdonalds. It was not exactly the perfect time to get sick but I was just grateful that I was getting a chance to go to the two cities (after a year full of inner turmoil and conflicts) which was initially going to be a trip only taken by my parents but my mother felt bad leaving her 20 year old unemployed son back home. My flight was directly to Madina it was around 4-5 hours if I remember correctly and was a relatively good journey.

The first feeling you get when you reach Madina is one that calms you, especially during the nights no matter how hot or humid the weather may be, there is a sense of calm in the air that you feel continuously when you’re outside and near Masjid-e-Nabwi. It is sort of perplexing because the amount of tall buildings and structures that surround the mosque should suck the soul out of you and make you feel trapped but very early on you realize there is something more to Madina and it does not work on any preconceived notion that you may have of a modern city. It is a city that outwardly may look like any other city with tall buildings and buzzing malls but there is a reason people have been coming here for the past 1400 years here and will continue to do so. Though I must admit from what I observed a lot of the people fail to realize that reason and are more worried about getting some Al-Baik to eat and to get some gifts for people back home. Also at times because of the impressive buildings surrounding  you it is easy to forget that the greatest of creation is resting not more than a 5 minute walk away.

One of the many entrances to the Mosque.

We reached our hotel around 2-3 am around 3 hours before Fajr. I quickly settled in and dosed up on pain killers and headed out for Masjid-e-Nabwi. The great thing about the Masijd as compared to the Haram is that even with the huge influx of pilgrims there is still a time slot that you can find in which there are not that many people in the mosque. That time was usually from 1 am till Tahajjud for me, though the time from after Fajr till around 10-11 am was relatively free as well. The one thing I had luckily done before the trip was to read The Seerah of The Prophet (the one written by Martin Lings). If you are to take a trip to Madina I would recommend reading the seerah before coming as it gives context to every location and every action you do while providing a perspective to the Madina of 1400 years ago and to what it is now. Anyways I headed off to the mosque alone (had this bad habit of doing everything alone while I was there and in retrospect I slightly regret it and would have preferred spending more time with my parents but ah well) said my Salam to The Prophet and then proceeded to pray the two nafals in Riyad-ul-Jannah which I admit was pretty hard. You need to play the waiting game here and as soon as a spot opens up just grab that spot. Though a lot of people occupy the spot for a long long time and refuse to give it up which means you can’t really go deep into the center and only get a chance to pray near the edges. After the two nafal I went out towards the courtyard and found a quiet spot till Fajar.

The courtyard. In front the entrance of the main part of the mosque where Riyad-ul-Jannah is located.

The first time you say Salam to The Prophet I do not exactly remember the feeling I had because I knew this was hopefully going to be one of many times I would be coming down here in the next few days but I do remember the feeling the last time I said it before leaving Madina which I will eventually get to. This is getting way longer than I thought it would be so I’ll end it here and hopefully continue when I get the chance again. As for praying and offering Nafals in the mosque I do not know about others but never do you feel so great and at the same time helpless when you enter sujood there. It was an amazing feeling one that I really hope that I get the chance to do again in my lifetime. It is one of those few times in your life especially in our society and environment of permanence where you long to meet your creator so that you can be blessed with an opportunity to be buried in the same dust as the greatest of creation.

Hopefully next time on the architecture of the mosque, the setting, the amount of work being done by the people who don’t get enough credit and the sites from history that have been preserved (with a few pictures if I can find them) and those which have been destroyed. Also all the good things The Saudis have done in accommodating the huge influx of pilgrims.  Apologies for the rusty English and grammar been a while since I’ve done this writing thing properly.

Later.

When I was about 14 I had the pleasure of going down to my dad’s village with the whole family. There my grandfather introduced me to an individual who was a Doctor. But he wasn’t really a doctor but was actually the local neighborhood night watchman who had come across a bag of aspirin and a machine to check your blood pressure with. But the whole village respected him and called him a doctor, they went to him every-time someone was sick. He would check their blood pressure if a person complained about some kind of muscular pain or a bad cough and give them a pack of aspirin while charging them around 100 rs for the medical services. He made a living, and the rest of the village went on with their lives and if the illness ever got really bad he would just tell them to go see a proper doctor. The system with all its logical flaws was a system that was working so it continued and probably does continue to work till this day.

Looking back at that incident I realize that the doctor had cracked the code to live a successful life, it was in pretending to know everything but in reality not knowing very much. And when ever your intellect would be on the verge of being questioned with something you have no idea about, quickly coming up with

• Something so incoherent that it makes no sense at all yet at the same time makes some kind of sense. (Like a vague compliment “Your eyes remind me of the blueness of the ocean as the sky transcends it’s beauty into the night”)
• Refer the person to someone who actually knows the answer to the question.
• Admit that you do not know very much.

The last point usually is the worst because I’ve not seen many people in this current climate who like to admit that they do not know much, whether it be an Engineer or a Programmer who’s asked at a job interview if he knows Java and he replies with “Yes” when in reality the only Java he knows is using a For Loop to do a count from 1 to 10 or may it be an academic scholar who when asked a question usually changes the subject and starts talking about something he does know.

The point being there is nothing wrong in not knowing and pretending you know something, at times we all need to do it to get through life, it’s how I’ve gotten through 3 years of engineering. But the real problem occurs when a person who doesn’t know anything starts believing in his own mind he knows everything than that usually doesn’t end well. It ends with the person’s ego being inflated to such new heights that all he sees is himself. Everything around him is a projection of his genius and everything around him that he doesn’t like is a projection of everything that is “wrong” with the world. I don’t really know why they want to show the world they’re geniuses when they’re going be dead really soon anyways. (Though Hi, I’m a genius, political analyst and a literary writer is much more appealing than Hi, I’m 22 and unemployed.) Individuals like these, we should stay away from because not only are they leading themselves to their own downfall but they’re determined to take a bunch of us with them. That’s all I really had to say.

Later.

Let’s say there is a scenario -

Person A is on the other side of the globe, and he is going to be a victim of an injustice. Now you know this but you can’t really do anything to help person A out at all. All you can do is let out a sincere prayer from a damaged heart of yours that person A survives this injustice. Other than that there is nothing much you can do.

So the question being, would you prefer not to know about this said injustice and live a life in neglect and delusion of things happening on the other side of the globe OR would you choose to know about it and live with the fact that you are a completely helpless human being who no matter what action he takes can not ultimately help these people out?

If you end up picking the second option I welcome you to a life of miserableness and depression where every second the state of the world gives you a reason to bleed your heart out, where the world chips away at your existence, telling you that in another lifetime this could have been you, so make the most of your chance. A chance that you should be thankful for in your heart and in your mind but a chance that you neglect with every action you take, every action that contradicts your very own being. You know deep down you’re capable of some level of decency and good. But that decency and good rarely show and manifest themselves into action, so you go back to your shell questioning your very being once again.

Side note -  Will be more consistent with this blog once again. I’ve missed doing this more than I would like to admit.