Monday, June 24, 2013

Rich civilians replace Army for better or worse?

Idiots for whom just a change of regime and shuffle between 'rich civilians' and 'army' means the country is becoming a better place. The 'left leadership' in Pakistan is so liberal, that if their daddy was not a rich industrialist or bureaucrat living in DHA, they'd be sitting in one of the local offices, run by someone who is a part of the 'civilian' government, waiting to be paid on time.

Definitions from within the Pakistani context:

Liberal is someone who can take criticism against Islam and find it cool to be called an Indian agent. Their existence is defined by being equated to an Indian. The only criticism they cannot take is against PPP and ANP. If you criticize either, you are nothing but a PTI troll, apologist, rightist and Mushy fan. Pointing out the condition in PPP constituency will be countered by, the army is responsible for that. Oh and mostly they think drones are the only and best solution to all Muslim problems.

Rightist, Patriot, Apologist is someone who cannot stomach criticism against Islam, Pakistan and s/he rants against Ahmedis and India. Might be living in a Salafi bubble created by his 'Puppa' working his ass off on some oil rig owned by a Sheikh. He might even insist there is no such thing as Shia Genocide and that it is Muslim Genocide. A person with slightly better nuance will claim it is 'merely' a crime against humanity.

Leftists are still in the making. But they are mostly children of some businessmen, industrialists or coconuts (brown on top, white within). Many have either gone to some European institute or been under influence of some local self-declared Marxist. They are hurt by the plight of the workers and labor, so they make a small party, read Faiz and Jalib and sometimes make deals with capitalists to launch a label to sing for a revolution they know their dada and mama are making sure never comes.

Remaining are the common people, who work hard to make ends meet. They have no time to waste on twitter and facebook. They do not read English newspapers because most are Rs 20 a copy. They cannot even afford one on a Sunday. These poor chaps don't know what democracy is, except that the local goon party would empty their home if they didn't vote for them. It is beyond the rural and urban divide. 

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Shoes that never fit

What you think of what I do is not my concern,
For you can never be in my shoes,
Never know what the world within is like
Or stays
Its an ocean of light and darkness
Love and hatred
The night of which never comes
as the day never ends
Judge me for all I care too,
For your judgment comes from ignorance
Your bliss, a torture unknown
Live it as your destiny,
Maybe cherish it too
For this is what you shall ever know and love
Bloodied trails in muddied waters
Where murky death beckons you to live!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Holiness of the whole

Broken world,
Torn flesh of humans
Scattered everywhere
Not just bombings
Suicides too
For it never ends, never stops,
The cycle of truth
Melody of hope
Cries for help
From the depths of darkness
Desire to breathe
Leaving behind the grip of death
In search of eternal sunshine
Fragrance of silk
Shine of a star
Holiness of the whole,
Calls all, swimmers, drifters, tramps,
Collective dreamers
From the land never pure
Of putrefied wood
Souvenirs from the desert
Panting sands
Whooshing ringlets of grey matter
Dew on daredevils
Surviving hatred from within
Living on for now!

via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/53398088313

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

"I could start fires with what I feel for you."

“I could start fires with what I feel for you.”



- Fires, David Ramirez (via whorizontalacademics)



via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/53261597250

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Songs of nature

Among the high peaks and tall trees
Flowing wind
Rustling leaves
Yes, the loneliness of a mountain calls
Sadness of the dark boulders
Standing on cliff edges
In perpetual fear of falling
Crushing someone
Lovers or enemies, friends or foes
And in the distance
The shepherd on his flute too
Signals you, come hither
For the song of nature is always present
Brutal
In lightning and thunderstorm
Darkened, charred tree trunks
Trailing fires; Raging waters; Moving earth
Sliding solid waters
Destructive and vile you think
Is it so? The muses ask;
Sheep, ask them
Grazers of the hinterlands,
Jumping along steep slopes with sure foots
Tiny bells, they too beckon you to join them
Running to the shepherd
Making the music louder
Summoning with longing
Mixing in, the laughter of the blossoms
Fragrant trails of sensuous colours
Even if poisonous and deadly,
Crackle chants until nightfall
Till the fireflies abuzz
Bring heaven on earth
Bejewelled, luminescence on black silk
As well shouts
Come hither, come hither, come hither!

via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/53082458775

Rain

Don’t stop rain
Arid earth
Parched people
Hungry farmers
Dried rivers
With parted lips
Vacant eyes
Been waiting long
In scorching heat
Amid dead cattle
In the hope of springs
And smell of earth
Laden with heavenly fluids
That cleanse dirt, air and flight,
Dancing in rain,
Getting purer by the drop,
As through glimmering sheets
Of liquid bliss
Pass rays of light
Trying to catch a rainbow!



via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/53062243582

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Past strangers

Dreams that fill your eyes,
Colours that make rainbows,
Early morning at the beach
Flying in the cool breeze,
Gentle flowing,
Blowing from far across the border
With little droplets of rain and love,
Embraces me, and tell me the secrets
That you kept so long,
We are no longer strangers my love!

via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52762875634

Short-lived shadows

It was a shadow
Silhouette of darkness,
Passed as quickly as it came
Knowing that staying longer
Could reveal what must be hidden
Hidden from the seeking eyes
Tearing through craftiness
Cobwebs of which had lingered long
Like a library visited seldom
Or cacophony of deafening lies
Sculpted in stone
Don’t dust it away, let it lay in hiding
For it is poisonous and frail
Infecting the soul for long
A ghostly silence,
Of elongated gloom
Murky corridors in a shanty town
Where hopelessness presides in chaos
Desert, for order will kill it
Permission denied now!

via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52757768132

Quotes About Abuse (154 quotes) from goodreads.com via Findings.





Quotes About Abuse (154 quotes) from goodreads.com via Findings.






via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52696152625

Quotes About Abuse (154 quotes) from goodreads.com via Findings.





Quotes About Abuse (154 quotes) from goodreads.com via Findings.






via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52695762584

Monday, June 10, 2013

Its not called acting dumb, its called being deceptive.

Its not called acting dumb, its called being deceptive.






via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52672200064

Anaïs Nin on Life, Hand-Lettered by Artist Lisa Congdon from...





Anaïs Nin on Life, Hand-Lettered by Artist Lisa Congdon from brainpickings.org via Findings.






via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52668180552

Quotes About Criticism (260 quotes) from goodreads.com via...





Quotes About Criticism (260 quotes) from goodreads.com via Findings.






via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52668067744

Quotes About Criticism (260 quotes) from goodreads.com via...





Quotes About Criticism (260 quotes) from goodreads.com via Findings.






via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52667878368

Quotes About Criticism (260 quotes) from goodreads.com via...





Quotes About Criticism (260 quotes) from goodreads.com via Findings.






via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52667593636

Luna Moths at Street Lamp






Luna Moths at Street Lamp






via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52663820385

sdzoo: Snoozer by Ion Moe





sdzoo:



Snoozer by Ion Moe







via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52663801255

rhamphotheca: The lanternfly (Phrictus quinqueparitus), family...





rhamphotheca:



The lanternfly (Phrictus quinqueparitus), family Fulgoridae, Puerto Viejo, Heredia, Costa Rica


(photo: Geoff Gallice)







via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52663719814

rhamphotheca: Lost World Locked in Stone at Fossil Lake by...









rhamphotheca:



Lost World Locked in Stone at Fossil Lake


by Megan Gannon


With just two inhabited buildings and a population of five, Fossil, Wyo., is all but a ghost town today. But as far as ghosts go, the ones at Fossil are pretty remarkable — 50-million-year-old monitor lizards, stingrays and freakishly long-tailed turtles among them.


Fossil showed promise of becoming a train-stop city during America’s westward expansion. The town’s real golden age, however, may have been the early Eocene, when it was covered in a subtropical lake with an incredible diversity of aquatic life, surrounded by lush mountains and active volcanoes


(read more: Live Science)


Images (Photos by Lance Grande from The Lost World of Fossil Lake: Snapshots from Deep Time, © 2013, published by the University of Chicago Press):


T - This is the most complete skeleton of a so-called dawn horse ever discovered. This specimen of Protorohippus venticolus was much more diminutive than today’s horses, standing less than two feet high at the shoulder, but its long back legs suggest it was a good jumper. Perhaps it was less skilled as a swimmer; researchers aren’t sure how the horse ended up at the bottom of the middle of Fossil Lake but they suspect it drowned, possibly trying to escape a predator.


B - This fossil immortalizes stingray sex of the Eocene. The male and female fat-tailed stingrays (Asterotrygon maloneyi) shown here were likely mating or just about to mate when they were killed, researchers believe.







via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52663650727

Photo









via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52663552749

woodendreams: (by Jason Hatfield)





woodendreams:



(by Jason Hatfield)







via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52663473596

"In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the..."

““In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The Gulag Archipelago”



- Facebook from facebook.com via Findings.



via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52627963650

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Take your ego down a couple of notches. from allthingskrista.com...





Take your ego down a couple of notches. from allthingskrista.com via Findings.






via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52600679687

Bud and Happiness: Take your ego down a couple of notches.

Bud and Happiness: Take your ego down a couple of notches. :

knunz:



image


There was a point in my life a few years ago that if you asked me to put my writing on the internet for the public to see I would have laughed at you and probably just walked away.


As previously discussed in my last blog post that I would have considered myself in a mentally abusive…







via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52593365641

likezombieslovebrains: I’m going to make a real effort to stop saying, “I am Bipolar.” I am not...

likezombieslovebrains:



I’m going to make a real effort to stop saying, “I am Bipolar.”


I am not Bipolar, I HAVE Bipolar Disorder.


My mental disorder is not who I am.


People don’t say, “I am cancer.”







via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52592534439

Photo









via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52531131226

Photo













































via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52531091430

Saturday, June 8, 2013

An affront to Mirza Ghalib fans. Things that make one wonder if...





An affront to Mirza Ghalib fans. Things that make one wonder if one should laugh or cry. *sigh*






via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52494865343

architectural-review: A drawing blog can’t be complete without...





architectural-review:



A drawing blog can’t be complete without the hallucinatory fantasies of Archigram and Peter Cook, 1979. This skyscraper reminds one of an infected mushroom listening to a mini disc player while brushing his teeth, or is that just me?







via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52494219515

architectural-review: Hiding Places, by Matthew Borrett





architectural-review:



Hiding Places, by Matthew Borrett







via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52494062792

designdesk: News Illustration: Kira Walker/Staff





designdesk:



News Illustration: Kira Walker/Staff







via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52493164626

samaralex: Mike Dexter













samaralex:



Mike Dexter







via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52492942899

seeinanewway: Portrait by Destiny Lane - shot with the Lensbaby...





seeinanewway:



Portrait by Destiny Lane - shot with the Lensbaby Composer Pro and Edge 80 Optic







via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52492918101

Friday, June 7, 2013

"But the truth is that no person ever understands another, from beginning to end of life, there is no..."

“But the truth is that no person ever understands another, from beginning to end of life, there is no truth that can be known, only the story we imagine to be true, the story they really believe to be true about themselves; and all of them lies.”



- Children Of The Mind, Orson Scott Card (via wonderingrocks)



via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52419171977

Photo









via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52418887375

theanimalblog: White Rhino Calf

















theanimalblog:



White Rhino Calf







via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52418832558

Thursday, June 6, 2013

ombuarchitecture: Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art Chuo-ku,...













ombuarchitecture:



Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art


Chuo-ku, Japan


By Tadao Ando


Source: Architectuul







via Tumblr http://andaleebrizvi.tumblr.com/post/52301266630

Monday, June 3, 2013

Lynch mob mentality can get anybody killed

The three men marked in red are the main aggressors


A regular day on the streets of Karachi…

An unfortunate man was beaten by a mob of 100 people in front of North Nazimabad Board Office Park. The man was accused of trying to snatch a mobile and money from a man at gunpoint. The incident sheds light on not only the ‘lynch mob culture’ prevalent in Pakistan – Sialkot incident – but also the utter failure of law enforcers.

While the situation kept escalating and the victim started bleeding, two Rangers who were busy snap checking motorcyclists disappeared. Later two policemen on a motorcycle arrived at the scene, only to leave within a few minutes, without even attempting to disperse the violent crowd.

There were at least 4 or 5 rickshaws present around the crowd and several motorcycles. I was shoved around by the crowd and told to go away, as it is not a place for women. It seemed it was a free for all, since whoever stopped, gave the man a few slaps and kicks. The victim kept yelling he had done nothing wrong and can be checked there is not phone or gun on him.

Whoever stopped and got a chance to get near, beat him


On questioning the aggressor, I was informed that the man stole a mobile phone at gunpoint, however, when he was asked to produce the mobile and pistol the victim carried, the aggressor had nothing to say. On being told they had no right to beat the man the aggressors started screaming, refusing to call police and said that law enforcers are useless in curbing crime, “we have no choice but to take law in our own hands”. Police does nothing but let culprits roam around free. They also intimidated the Daily Times driver and asked him to go away.

The aggressor kept changing his statement; first he said that the man was stealing mobiles in the bus. Another guy intervened at that moment and said that they were both travelling in the rickshaw, not the bus. So the aggressor changed his statement and said he was in the rickshaw with his wife and brother. A call was made to 15 to ask for police assistance, who did not arrive for the next 15 minutes, during which time some other men took the victim across the road, while the original aggressors stayed around me intimidating me with screaming and loud explanations. Told the guy wearing blue shalwar kameez to stop shouting, and they still had no right to beat the man so brutally.

Asked the aggressor to show his ID card, but he refused and sat in the rickshaw, while a guy in khaki t-shirt asked us to leave, as the man has been allowed to 'go'. Someone had even threatened to immolate him. DT driver was shoved around again to leave the scene.

The crowd by that time had thinned and dispersed. Later, SSP Amir Farooqi was called for details in this regard, who gave a totally different version of the incident. According to the SSP, “The victim was beaten up because of eve-teasing.” On a question he said that a police mobile reached the spot after some time, however the crowd had already dispersed. He confirmed that the man is safe and was not burnt alive by the mob.

I have been told by several people that putting myself in danger was not a good idea. That the man might have been a thief and perhaps this is the only way to get rid of the menace of mobile snatchers. Here is why I disagree, let us revisit August 15, 2010, when Mughees, 15, and Muneeb Butt, 17, alleged mobile snatchers, were beaten to death in front of a crowd which included members of the district police. They were proved innocent in the court, posthumously.

In another case, an angry mob burnt two robbers alive in Karachi, on May 15, 2008. Yet another case is of a man burnt alive in Dadu for desecrating the Quran on December 23, 2012. Youtube has many videos of Shia men being dragged behind motorcycles and immolated by extremists in certain parts of Punjab.

The problem in vigilante 'justice' is, often it is too late to prove the truth of the matter. Here are a few reasons that could have been used, or are often used to incite a mob in Pakistan:
  • The victim is a relative and the men beating him up owed him money.
  • A sister or any woman family member was in love with the guy.
  • He was a thief but had 'somehow' manage to get rid of the evidence.
  • It was only frustrated public taking out their anger at a poor man.

Date and time of incident: June 3, 2013, between 5:30pm and 5:45pm