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Cult Pakistan: Part 1 | Blog | DAWN.COM

Is this really 'freedom'?

11:59PM Gunshots being fired in a locality of Karachi. People fleeing across the city in fear of being wounded, possibly in response to a statement produced by Senior Minister Zulfiqar Mirza.

 Why are we being subjected to all this? Did we do anything wrong? Was there any social evil prevalent in our society which a certain class of people is trying to demolish? Is there any monster which they are trying to detain? Maybe the thing they are trying to destruct is in their own selves.

As I woke up early in the morning, I heard gunshots being fired in the vicinity. The streets were deserted, the markets closed. It seemed as if some epidemic/plague had broken out causing everyone to lock themselves up in their homes. Seeing such a desolate scene, I came back to my room contemplating whatever could have possibly caused all this reticence? As I switched on the TV, every news channel displayed a somewhat similar scenario scattered throughout the city.

Buses being burnt across the city as people were forced to remain indoors throughout the protest.

It turned out to be the acts of a politician inciting another political party. The said politician was none other than Zulfiqar Mirza, a person whom we have become accustomed to turning up on our TV screens and producing an attacking statement every now and then. It seems like the old days of civil war and ethnic differences are back upon us. The only difference is there is no more participation of Hindus in it. It’s between Pakistanis.

Why do we seem to keep our ethnic differences abreast of any conflict? Is it really so difficult for us to shrug them off and adopt a friendly cooperative stance. Whatever happened to the words democracy, diplomacy, negotiation, and peacemaking? Seems to me as if they all are synonyms of fascism in today’s world. If not the world, at least in Karachi it is so. It is indeed a matter of shame for us that a metropolis this big is under siege, and that too by some titty bitty people carrying arms of which they have no right whatsoever.

Supporters of the political party MQM burn an effigy representing provincial minister  Zulfiqar Mirza during the protest in Karachi July 14, 2011

We once used to hope that democracy would prevail in Pakistan and no one would ever need to be obsequious as soon the military rule is over. But whatever happened today was quite the opposite. I would rather the dictators came back and saved the day instead of us getting to see all this misery. A few political leaders taking the power in their own hands get to decide what we do with our days. These people determine our freedom and approve of our day to day activities. The word ‘feudalism’ rings some bells? This quid pro quo transaction did not quite live up to its promise.

Enough with the lamenting; now for the decisions. For one, I think such a situation demands immediate action. A political leader asking his men to retreat after causing disruption in the city for many hours is a matter of disgust. While there are many rules for TV screenings, all these seem to be inconsequential, considering the quasi-existent PEMRA. Why isn’t there any rule for public speaking and TV screening restricting all statements of personal attack by political leaders and consequently, paving the path for another battle of words? I personally think we, the people of Pakistan, specifically the media personnel, did not learn any lesson from the skirmish between the MQM and PML-N leaders a few months back. Why can’t we put such leaders under house arrest when we can so easily do so to the person who helped us become a nuclear power? At least we can put them under some probation so that these people don’t tend to repeat such mistakes (read: blunders) in future.

Disclaimer: I am not a supporter of any of the aforementioned political parties, just a regular citizen who wants peace and freedom for his country. Please leave your feedback in the comments section. Thank you.

The First Breath

An answer to…sacrifice. Now how did I come up with that? Well, I looked around me and saw some very nice people doing good deeds to others. And it isn’t that rare, either. Daily you can see a myriad of people helping each other out in everyday life.

The incident which forced me to write on this topic may seem to be very small in nature, but its true essence lies in the underlying sentiments involved. While traveling in a bus today, I saw an elderly person climb up. He was carrying a lot of stuff with him and was fully perspiring. Seeing this, another person instantly gave up his seat for that man to sit down and unwind himself from the intense heat outside.

I am not trying to promulgate the good intentions of the person who gave up his seat. Neither am I trying to make you realize the plight of the elderly man. What I am trying to say here is just that raw emotions are very hard to nurture. But if developed properly, they could very well lead to a considerate cause (do not imply at any point that this is a debate between nature and nurture). Today, we seem to have lost faith in the future and have developed antagonistic feelings regarding the present. We see our future either in another homeland or in a sovereign ruled by someone else. Why is it that we are unable to comprehend the significance of us living in an independent state?

The answer to that lies in the singular most important part of every act performed by us, i.e. the first step aka the initiative. Without the first act, any play is incomplete. An education is pointless without the first grade. A journey is no more a journey without taking the first step out of your house.  It has become a custom in most Pakistani households to criticize political leaders as well as Army chiefs. Every discussion/argument starts with the pretense ‘the problems in our country are due to….our borders are not being defended properly’ etc. What we fail to realize here is that this is OUR country, not someone else’s. We are responsible for everything that happens here, not some political leader. And by us, I mean all 169 million Pakistanis.

It is high time that we start doing something on our own for our homeland rather than sitting idle and gossiping around. Be proactive. Take responsibility for your acts, instead of blaming someone else. Take the first step and ask others to do so too. If we don’t make the sacrifice ourselves, how can we expect someone else to respect us? I beg you to please stop holding our leaders liable for our present circumstance and do something before our demise is unquestionable for good. There is a lot of good in us. All that’s required of us is to realize it. All hope is not lost yet, my friends.

Cheers,

Faheem

'Source Code': A Review

An answer to…the Source Code. Nah, I don’t think that I can do that. Heck, even the director was not able to do some justice to that question. How do you define a rail that starts on a track, moves on it the whole time, but ends up on a completely different track? Not that the movie is all about it, but it does focus on trains a lot. What is the matter with train crashes? First, it was Unstoppable and then they even created a Source code for it.

The story basically revolves around a handicapped US soldier who is sent on a mission to find the mastermind behind a train bombing. He is to do so by being in the mind of a person who was on the train when it was bombed. While residing in that person’s mind, Capt. Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) comes to discover some secrets as to why he was sent here and the underlying purpose of trying to stop the train and ultimately, a master plot. On the train, he comes to know Christina who was probably a good friend of the person whose mind Stevens currently controls, and falls for her in the process. Stevens tries to do all this and more, but he only has eight minutes on the train before the bomb blows off. Capt. Goodwin (Vega Farmiga) is Stevens’ mentor throughout this process and guides him on the specifics of mission.

The plot of the movie was quite good up to a certain point, when the writer thought of divulging from his own source code. Furthermore, the mediocre acting by the lead actors adds little to the already weak storyline. What did Jake Gyllenhaal think before signing up for this movie? Did he really think that time travel was his field of expertise? Ok, I get it, he did some justice to Prince of Persia, but it was after all an adapted screenplay. If it hadn’t been for the game, they wouldn’t have been able to derive such good out of it. But let’s not start on Prince of Persia here, shall we? In fact, I did like that movie a lot.

Besides the lead actor, Michelle Monaghan was also not that good in the movie. The childish, innocent facial expressions didn’t help a lot. Trying to act calm and indifferent does not add much to the role. Besides, what more can you do from a role which you portray for fragments of 8-minutes in the movie? Vega Farmiga tries to do her best in consoling the lonely soldier, and succeeds in doing some justice to her role. Her delivery represents that of a person having some pent-up emotions inside her. According to me, some more screen time and storyline should have been accorded to her role.

A tip for all movie-goers: watch The Butterfly Effect instead. It has a lot better storyline as well as acting and at least, follows its own central idea rather than believing in a convoluted form of it. If you are willing to kill some time with a run of the mill time-travel movie, then this may be the one for you. And if you are a fan of falling in love with a person whom you meet for fragments of 8-minutes, then you should definitely watch this one. Jake, if you are reading this, its time you left the time dimension.

Cheers,

Faheem