How many times this has happened to your car? :D

A couple of interesting things happened in the last 3 minutes or so… so I thought I’d share it here.

First, I found out that Lahore has a proper emblem. And that Punjab has a flag. And on top of that, I found out that the Lahore Dist. Govt has a website on which there is a link for the Litracy department. (One of the links to the Literacy dept is spelt ‘litracy’ khekhekhe). On the Literacy dept page, I saw yet another interesting thing: A mission statement. And what a mission statement!

Eradication of illiteracy within minimum possible time.To achieve 100% literacy ratio in District Lahore by 2015

That is a great mission statement. I sincerely hope they do it. I wonder how I can help. And another thing…how do we define literacy. I hope they are not including spelling words of English right or forming sentences in English that look not as if said Yoda by.
God’s Peace be upon you all.

Yesterday, it was all windy and dusty, again. Some newspapers reported of winds of 135 km/hr. The result was widespread damage to billboards, electricity wires and uprooted trees. Nine people are said to be killed of this falling debris. That’s sad, indeed.

On the brighter note, heavy downpour that followed the dust storm was enough to make lively Lahorites come out of their homes and get wet in the rain.

City roads & streets were full of pedestrians and leisure drivers beating last few weeks of extreme heat out.

I just wish we had more tidiness around the city while the weather would have done the rest to make it feel like a perfect Roman English hill station.

A study conducted by police reveals 23 crime prone areas in Lahore. Police has identified Gulberg – II, Main Boulevard, Liberty Market, Shadman Market, blocks of Model Town, Johar Town, Township, Alama Iqbal Town, DHA, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Moon Market, areas near Civil Secretariat, Hall Road, Macleod Road, Lawrence Road, Race Course Park, Cavalry Ground, Canal Point, Canal View, Shalimar Link Road, areas around the University of the Punjab and some other colonies.

Any part of Lahore left safe?

Source Dawn

I was reading today’s The News and found this unbelievable story. The Election Commission declaration bound members of the National Assembly to declare not only their own assets but also the assets of their spouses and dependent children. And guess what, more than 100 MNA’s including ministers and party heads do not have a conveyance of their own. Now this is a good one :).

Their declaration of assets as notified by the Election Commission exposes the financial strength, if one tends to believe their returns, of the Chaudhrys, Soomros, Pirs, Gilanis, Qureshis, Sardars, Mirs, Achakzais, Rajas, Fatianas, Nakais, Wattos, Mengals and many others of the country’s elite.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Maulana Fazlur Rehman also say that they don’t own any car. Amongst the women MPs, besides several others, Dr Attiya Inayatullah and Kashmala Tariq have also declared to have no vehicle.

You can read the full story and names of ALL the clowns here.

Lost in its own silent rhythm, the Ravi sings its song.
In its undulating flow I see the reflections in my heart —
The willows, the world, in worship of God

I stand at the edge of the flowing water
I do not know how and where I stand —
In the wine-coloured dusk
The Old Man shakily sprinkles crimson in the sky

The day is returning to where it came from
This is not dew; these are flowers, gifts from the sun
Far off, a cluster of minarets stand in statuesque splendour
Marking where Moghul chivalry sleeps
This palace tells the story of time’s tyranny
A saga of a time long spent

What destination is this?
A quiet song only the heart can hear?
A gathering of trees speaks for me.
In midstream, a boat hurtles by
Riding the relentless currents,
Darting beyond the eye’s curved boundary.

Life flows on this river of eternity
Man is not born this way; does not perish this way
Undefeated, life slips beyond the horizon,
But does not end there.

Muhammad Allama Iqbal

– Translated by Parizad N. Sidhwa

Daily Times reports that there are people, actual real people with names and everything, that believe that Pakistani, no – Punjabi films will be big in India. The same people also probably believe that the Earth is flat and that the Moon houses an old lady who apart from being in a zero-gravity non-breathable environment, of all the things, likes to tell tales and sew cloth.

There is a channel on cable showing Pakistani/Punjabi movies all the time. And I tune to it regularly. Either that or Super Comedy. Sometimes, the movies channel is funnier. In a disgustingly pathetic sorta way.

The collapse of the Pakistani Cinema is a hoax. For something needs to be built for it to actually collapse. Much like the Iranian President’s rhetoric about the Holacaust; It did exsit, but not how everyone thinks it did. The Pakistani Cinema was an insult to every sense belonging to a human individual and a bigger insult to the society. Thanks to our heroins, armed with a ‘secular’ approach towards morality and a thumka, the beautiful art of theatre and performance went way, way down the drain.

Hence, the amatuer theatre in our country is in fact the most professional and purposeful of ’em all.

God’s Peace Upon Us All. Aameen.