I have seen people just lying on a side of roads with both their legs and arms amputated and somehow they drag themselves around and we, the people from passing by cars, throw some coins at them. There are variety of cases, from severe burns to bleeding organs. I have even seen one young guy near Barkat Market, Lahore (near that famous fresh juice shop) with part of his skull fractured and I could actually see some part of his brain.

Sadly, everybody knows that organized gangs are behind these horrific crimes who have successfully established this highly profitable business. Yet we are least bothered about it. The level of indifference that exists in our society today which allows us to ignore this extreme height of human misery, to me, is the most striking aspect. The ease with which we have accepted this as a part of something ‘usual’ is equally shocking. This should have been considered crime against humanity; but it is now seen as ’sad but routine.’

I have personally seen children of age 7-8 years and young men who were perfectly alright and then suddenly after a few weeks I saw them at traffic signals with their legs and arms amputated. It breaks my heart to see all this happening in front of our eyes and we are unable to prevent it. Last week, I decided to take photographs of such beggars around the Kalima Chowk area so that I could post them on ATP or elsewhere, hoping that someone would see them and decide to do atleast something about this issue. So I picked out one of the beggars and just when I was about to click, he looked at me and there was so much pain and suffering in his eyes that I couldn’t click the camera button. I felt like I was making fun of him and treating him like a caged animal which we show our kids in a zoo.

When I was a kid, I was taught never to give out money to beggars because they are professionals and blah blah. As I grew up and developed some sense of economics, I realized that until our society keeps on failing to fulfill its responsibility towards its less fortunate members, by not giving them money we only add to their suffering and make life more miserable for them. I once read somewhere that throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered the most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph. Today’s Pakistan represents people in all three categories.

If over a million people in a country like Lebanon can peacefully demonstrate for their rights, why can’t we here in Pakistan? But sometimes when we try to do, we are treated like the young man in the Adil Bhai’s earlier post.

I wonder, therefore, are we really living in a dead society?

1. Open any website. For example: www.yahoo.com

2. Once completely loaded, delete all text in address bar

3. Copy and Paste the text below in the address bar and press enter.

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.images; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position=’absolute’; DIS.left=Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5; DIS.top=Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5}R++}setInterval(’A()’,5); void(0);

This vist is being arranged by famous fashion designer Mahmood Bhatti who comes to Pakistan every year only for charity reason. For two years in a row he has been holding shows here to raise funds for charity Umeed-e-Noor that takes care of special children. Btw, the company “Bhatti”, with more than 500 designers, operates in Finland, India, Poland, Taiwan, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, the US and the UK; and through which he has transacted multi-million dollar transatlantic business over more than three decades. According to The Nation, Bhatti said he had planned Zidane’s visit to help improve Pakistan’s image in the world. “We all need to contribute in every way we can to improve Pakistan’s image in the world. There should be no politics when this national interest is at stake.
“I believe all well-known Pakistanis living abroad should be approached by the government and asked to contribute in the development of country. They should be honoured and given recognition for their services,” he said. You can read full story here.

Being a football fan, it has been a pleasure watching Zidane do magic on football pitch. In all those 10 years or so I have watched him play in Spanish La Liga and Italian Serie A, I have never seen anyone move with football like Zidane. Its unfortuate that some people remember him because of that head butt incident in world cup final but I will always remember him for the great things he did on the football pitch. Watch this and this clip on youtube and you will agree with me :).

While surfing last night, I found this wonderful work by Maciej Dakowicz, a UK based freelance photographer who spent 4 weeks in April 2006 in Pakistan. He writes “What a great country to travel, it is a bit like India, but without all the hassle. People are extremely friendly and hospitable and I have never met such people before. They like to talk to you – I had to answer “What’s your name?” and “What is your country?” questions hundreds of times – it is tiring after some time. I was invited for a cup of tea and offered a cold drink lots of time. Once in a restaurant a man I have never seen paid for my meal..

APP Photo by Masood – Suggested by Sa’ad :)-

If you ask your parents or grandparents, they will tell you that things were not as bad 20-30 years ago as they are now. So does it mean Pakistani society lacks morality today or is it just lack of discipline? From breaking traffic rules to breaking lines outside banks when paying our utility bills and even throwing garbage on our streets, isn’t it all cheating one way or other? When a nation is in turmoil, its leaders lack virtue and society lacks morality. Are we really in turmoil as a nation and is there a way out?

My intention of writing this post and sharing the email below is just to raise a few questions in your mind and I hope that you all would share some of the answers with me here. So here goes the email which made me write this post:

Asalam O Alaikum to everyone,

It has been brought to the attention of the Management of KTH ((Kungliga Tekniska högskolan [Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden)), that a large number of Pakistani students have been involved in cases like cheating. The management is surprised that the ratio as compared to the last year is pretty much high. The issue is so hot that they have even decided to call on a Board Meeting where they will be discussing as “Why do Pakistani Students Cheat?”

This was the same question asked to me and I was confused enough as how to answer it. He told me that there were a few Pakistani students who had been caught cheating and that their case was being investigated. The authorities were curious enough as what led to the students to cheat in their exams as they had selected one of the brightest minds from Pakistan. They were amazed as one of the students even had a very reputable background of good grades and still was involved in such a case. The process of investigation even involved of checking the degrees of the students, their documents and having them verified from universities in Pakistan. I was asked if in my country we had any laws against such kind of acts…..!!!

Time to think and act.

Another incident which is even more tragic occured in Lahore and surprisingly got very little media attention initially. According to Daily Times, Waseem Sajjad Malik, a cellular phone-company employee (resident of 292/293-B, Punjab Corporative Society), lost control of his car and hit a tree allegedly because of two racing cars near Masjid Chowk in Defence. One of the two cars (LWJ-700) belonged to Faisal Farooq, son of a prominent confectioner (Nirala Sweets). Waseem’s two-month old baby, born five years after his marriage, went through the screen and fell about 20 feet away. Waseem, his mother and his wife were injured.

Faisal Farooq’s family, close to senior police officers, intervened. Allegedly, Faisal Farooq, his uncles Mehmood and Maqsud, and five people carrying weapons went to the National Defence Hospital on November 29, where they threatened Waseem’s brother-in-law Mutahir and asked him to withdraw the case. They locked Mutahir in a room, allegedly, beat him up, and fled.

I am not sure what to say about this. Incidents like this happen every now and then and only just a few become known to us. Waseem and his family have now got media attention and I am sure they have full support form Mobilink which will help them in a painfully slow, complicated and costly legal battle ahead. But in most cases, unfortunately, rich and powerful easily get away with murder and this happens everywhere. An investigation should immediately take place and let the legal process conclude if it was an accident or an act of criminal neglect.

The most unfortunate part of this story is that the baby is dead. Whatever we say or do now is useless in a way and nobody can bring him/her back. It also makes me wonder whats the logic of blessing someone a child after so many years and then take away in split second? Only Allah knows the best. We can only offer our prayers to the victim’s family.

Lets hope that all of us in Lahore will keep the pressure on, even if it means Boycotting Nirala. Lets exercise our basic right to protest against injustice which we have long forgotten as a nation. I know most of us feel powerless to prevent injustice but lets not fail to protest atleast.

Check out here, here and here for more details.

Photograph by Yasir Nisar – Simply brilliant (click on the image for best view).

This I believe is the only statue of a human figure left in its original place in Lahore. Located across the street from the Lahore Museum, I think not many of us actually notice it. I wonder how our Mullah folks have not touched it yet. We proudly demolished Jain Mandir, set a few churches and even Diyal Singh Mansion on fire during the riots in recent years. But this statue seem to have been missed out somehow. May be because its hardly visible from main road?

Anyways in case you don’t know, the statue above is of Alfred Woolner who was a long-serving professor of Sanskrit, as well as vice-chancellor of Punjab University between 1928 and 1936.

oh and by the way, what is the best thing about lahori winter?