P.S. Anybody here knows how to embed the damn videos on the metroblogs? The embed code just disappears after I save. Help on this, anyone?

MQM Rally photoshopped

Thanks to this keen-eyed blogger, we have now a ‘large presence of MQM in Baltistan, Skardu’. The image is photoshopped to show a larger crowd. More details here

Yours truly happened to be there, armed with a camera.

For more pictures and updates, with videos, of this event with burnouts and screaming tires, do check out CarAdvice.pk. :)

Sitting here, fogged down and cold, it becomes easy.
But it should not be.
It becomes easy to just let it slide. Wear the ’so what?’ cap and change the channel.

But not this time.

We are not talking about an open gutter somewhere in the streets of Lahore, we are not talking about the lack of drinking water three blocks down, we are not talking about my and my loved one’s deplorable indifference towards all that is important.

We are talking about the lives of millions. We are talking about war.

During the last three days or so, the situation between Pakistan and India has nothing but worsened. The critic – cynical nonetheless – in me reminds me that Pakistan, with her Zardaris, Gillanis and other cronies has actually played their part well. Too well for comfort, but a well-played innings so far. Consider this:

• India gets her major city Mumbai taken hostage by a handful of terrorists. Why were they there? Terror in the name of what? We are not told clearly.
• Then India, as the three day saga is unfolding, goes ahead and blames the Pakistani government. Note, there is a difference between blaming someone ‘from’ Pakistan and blaming the Pakistani establishment in itself. India, it seemed, blamed both.
• Eventually, India names Jamat-ud-Dawa as the main culprit organization that trained and brainwashed the Mumbai attackers. The UN – based on proof – declares the JuD a terrorist outfit. The JuD is closed down by Pakistan, not because India said so, but because UN says so. Pakistan plays the UN card well, reminding the world that Pakistan listens to world elders (Kashmir being the first point in this case). Pakistan asks for the same proof that India has given to UN. None is presented.
• The Interpol representative rocks up, tells the world that no proof by India was given. Pakistan plays the ‘jaws dropped’ look well, revealing the other two parties as being rash and silly, namely India and the UN. (I on a personal note, has given proof that the Mumbai attackers were really from Malta).
• The intelligence outfit of Pakistan is tried in the world media. To no avail. Where as only a slight glance over the RAW of India reveals some glaringly obvious involvements in more incidents than one.

Now, what is all of this?
Pakistan has played the calm, mature ‘uncle’ part well. As in most families, this uncle can be seen as the coward, the one without the ‘heart’ to fight for its right, only later to realize that the uncle was being the most far-sighted. Of course, this uncle can be called the ‘mamoo’ if it turns out that the resolve and calmness was based on cowardice instead of cold logic.
Nonetheless, India knows well enough that the nuclear bombs are not for display only, and much more potently, Muslims would love nothing more than a state-declared Jihad. The centuries old “We hold death more dear than you hold dear your life” line holds true today as far as any Muslim is concerned.
Jihad is struggle, and in the case of war, it becomes an armed struggle. Armed Jihad is valid, as far as pristine Islam is concerned, in self-defense and has to be on a state level. Pakistan has very clearly, very calmly placed herself in a defensive role. And try as some may to portray it differently, Pakistan is still a state. A Muslim state that the world can see has been pushed into a corner by India.
If war does break out, regardless of the result, the world will bear witness to the above perspective being the truth.

Doing business in Lahore is getting harder by the second, thanks to the one hour light show (without lasers sadly). Only a few days back, I realized that all of our collective wealth has been reduced by a whopping thirty percent in a matter of 90 days! (thanks to the dipping ruppee). I have been seriously contemplating generating all my income from online sources, and have been asking people for help and advice. Yours will also be welcome.

Lahore comes to a stand still after every hour. Have any of you been talking to people? Take any industry. Take your freakin’ pick. Textile? The whole night shift, gone (that’s 30 percent productivity right there). How about agriculture? With Rs 950 per Mnd for wheat, we are still cheaper than everyone else i.e. watch how our wheat gets hoarded and smuggled to neighboring countries setting the stage for the mother of all food crises. How about exports? Rice is fetching the lowest expected rate in the market, why? Because the small and medium type shellers can’t work on one hour after every hour basis, that’s why! Count in the record-and-back-breaking inflation coupled with the previously mentioned light show, put some Zardari induced toppings for flavor and some mysterious policies that no one knows about for color and you have got yourself a headache in your stomach folks. This all may be cute in some way, but it is high time we did ’something’.

Protests are old fashioned it seems. The lawyers I know curse the lawyers movement for keeping their account books empty for over a year, yet the movement is the only protest that bore some fruit. Only to be quietly and quickly sidelined by our I-smile-at-you president and his party.

How about correcting one’s self, being in a position to stay on the right course while being given the opportunity to bribe, con or flex some political muscle? How about playing the cards right this time? How about paying those taxes? How about not bribing the buildings department’s bugger to let you keep the third story of your office plaza? Let him doze it down, it is alright, you deserve it. How about conserving your electricity rather than going ballistic on your electricity meter? Naah, it seems we as a collective society, deserve this. We deserve the Zardaris, the PPPs, the MQMs, Jamat-e-Islami’s and the Dark Knights of all flavors. I mean, look at us. More than 30 percent of our electricity is stolen every second of the passing day. Imagine even if half of those thieves had a conscious? We’d have 8 hours of load shedding in Lahore instead of the current 12 perhaps. The milk you drink is as corrupt as the magistrate taking 10 grand for a deal. The illegal scotch 90 percent of the media personal ’syphon’ out of hotels is as haraam as the maulvi telling you that only and only your sect is the right sect. The irrigation water you steal, the monthly you pay the WAPDA lineman to keep the meter ticking deathly slow, the wink you wink to the cop to make an arrangement for you, the line you jump because you can and the hatred you display whenever given a chance, this all leads up to this. Yes, this.

Welcome to our own doing. Settle in, grab some friggin’ cold popcorns, a warm coke and a fake smile, it seems to be a long show.

P.S. If it is any interest to you folks, do check out the latest review of Toyota Vitz at CarAdvice.pk.

Our country really has a great threshold for pain. We should be proud of that. No, really we should. Not physical pain, but extreme mental torture to our collective intelligence (remember, we are vegetables). The dollar is at its highest ever to the rupee. Zardari, now a teenager without the pimples, thinks that India was never a threat. The biggest money-makers for us, the farmers, are the lowest in the food chain. We essentially now do not have a food chain as such. Inflation has put balloons to shame and our government is perhaps making the animal kingdom proud.

Did you know that the farmer was to be paid Rs 950 per maund for his wheat crop? This was rightly hailed as a sensible decision to first, produce surplus wheat and secondly, to inject billions to the rural economy. A great sign, some would think. No, not really. I have been a farmer for the last three years. The input costs in the form of fertilizers and diesel has grown not linearly, but exponentially. The seemingly large increase from the Rs 650 to Rs 950 per maund does not bring the percentages at par. No one seemed to care about that, of course. We were, being lettuces and onions, overjoyed at the increase in support price. No one cared that the international rate is somewhere at Rs 1200, no one cared that the smuggling will not be stopped, no one cared. Lettuces and pea-pods are not supposed to think about things like that. So, the animals that rule the plant kingdom, hit us with an absurdly crude weapon; they increased the fertilizer prices from Rs 3,100 to Rs 5,500. So, you get 350 per maund increase in wheat price. National average of wheat production is dismal 20 something maund per acre. Let us make that 29 mnd/acre. With 350/mnd increase, the farmer stood a chance of making an extra 350*29= Rs 10,150 per acre from his anticipated wheat crop. The vegetables rejoiced at this higher mathematics. The animals, cool as a cucumber (ha!), saw the anticipated surplus, so they increased the input fertilizer prices. Who cares about the sky-high diesel rate? And water, who needs water for crops? Let our friendly India have some, they are hardly a threat of course. What, you have electricity to take water from wells? Double the electricity rate so your threshold for mental torture stays exercised. ‘Give me some of that 10 thousand now, why don’t you. Although you will be making that in April next year, why don’t you just give some of that cash to me now?’

And as farmers go, they will complain, they will complain some more. You and I will not hear about it, but they will complain. It will not fall on deaf ears, only trained ones. Lahore will have its food on the table. It will a little less, but who cares. Who notices? How many of us know how much lentils cost? Heck, how many know the difference between masur and channa?

Remember, farmers are more than 70 percent of Pakistan. Out of the other 30 percent, a whopping 90 percent or so have their income directly tied to this wonderful sector. Who in his right mind say that Pakistan’s economy is dependent on Agriculture, on wheat, milk and rice? Pakistan is a country of vegetables.

Take the power back, why don’t you.

From where I sit, a lot has been happening. And has happened. For a highly personal take on how I have been seeing it, in bullet form for effect :), read on.

Politics:

• Almost as if he never was here, Musharaf is not heard of. Amid pretty much nothing, he has managed to just pull a Mr. India* and simply disappear.
• Zardari started flirting openly. A lot of us started taking notes.
• Lawyers movement get boring enough to silently exit the lime light. But people who are focused and more purposeful, stay the course. My prayers at least, are with them.

Society, People & Culture:

• Marriot goes. With a loud enough bang. Fingers keep pointing, loudmouths keep barking and people keep dying! Almost as if a fashion statement, our media tries to make Sept 20th as our Sept 11th. London has 7/7, American has 9/11, at least we din’t rhyme with our 9/20. Or whatever. A sad situation got even sadder.
• Hamid Mir finally got depressed enough to say what I believe only Hamid Mir can say.
• I find inspiration in the fact that a single person can change himself and his society. I disagree with practically all of their suggestion, but that always remains a debatable issue. Lahore in specific, and Pakistan in general needs people like these to take the action that no one else seem to think about. Faisal Qureshi tries to go for a solution and Sohaib Athar writes powerfully.
• Eid came suddenly. For the first time, enjoyed the ensuing chaos, including my first trip to a ‘choree waala’ in Main Market. A mosque in Lahore celebrated Eid one day later anyways, claiming a stake in the overall confusion that plagues the nation, and the media played the devil by letting everyone know about it (like this?!?!).

Doing business

• Lahore office rent is like Lahore’s weather; totally unpredictable. You have to search to get the right deal. I tried, found the best deal I could have imagined, only to move out of the office 6 months later.
• Doing business from here becomes harder. One of my business colleague finds it hard to convince his ‘American connection’ that his call center can handle the business, purely because it becomes riskier for his ‘goraa’ client to book into a Hotel; the damn places keep blowing up!
• My web design blog gets the lowest monthly average of visitors for the last two years! I again find comfort in blogging about life and make new friends; people who are monetizing the Internet in the most ‘cutting edge’ of ways, on purpose :) . I find creative money makers. DjFlush and his Sizlopedia is and should be an inspiration for us all.
• After researching for a local Pakistani car on the Internet, I get frustrated at the lack of proper car reviews, specific to the Pakistani market. I finally get around to launching a small blog about cars in Pakistan.

I have seen a lot of hope amidst so much of chaos. Bridges are getting built in Lahore as hotels are being burnt and blown in Islamabad. The political looters are honing their skills as media personal begin to have a heart. People are celebrating a ‘rocking’ Eid (with fashion shows, dance competitions and what not — Pathetic!), as friends and family with a heart as seeing every day as an opportunity to do good for the people around them. Improve and help not the world, but one person at a time. That is how the world improves anyways.
God bless and good luck to us all.

I will be posting the answers to your questions, God willing, by Monday evening (given of course, that we get to meet and talk to him). He has confirmed our meet up. Let us see.

P.S. Yes, yes, I know, he is a controversial figure. And I have asked Dr. Israr a few questions in the past as well. I am not saying I agree with him as all of us have a right to choose. (easy on the flaming)

And yeah, God bless us all and our country.
Wonder what actual action feels like, no? We as a nation, naah, we as individuals would be totally clueless in the face of action, no?

There was action, yes there was. Long marches, protests and what not. But that is the drama. The center stage. All dramas have a villain and a hero. All villains and all heroes take action. What these dramas don’t show are the people who just sit and watch. Why? Because they make for a very boring subject.

Are you boring? Do you plan to be boring? Stay boring perhaps?
How about some action this time around? Some solid, well-directed effort to change yourself and the ones around you to a better state than now?

But wait, we need someone to tell us what to do, what solid, well-directed effort to undertake. We need a leader, that’s right, a leader.

Ladies & gentlemen, in the red corner, weighing in at fifty million pounds (or was it euros?), the smiling crusader, man of his word, king of the castle, chairman of the party, the one and only, ZarrrDaaaaarreeeeeeeeee.

Go ahead. We deserve nothing else.

P.S. I also hear it’s highly cool to pray in this month. Praying qualifies as action, but only in this month, if you catch my drift.