Words talk

As I asked for my one rupee balance from the cashier, the lady customer on the next billing counter took a whole 180 degree turn and looked at me in such an inferior way as if I had abused the cashier . Like I was not embarrassed enough when the cashier rolled his eyes and took a 5 rupee note and gave me saying “you can keep this instead”. He made me feel like a beggar on asking for my own money. Obviously I did not keep it but amused and astonished I moved away.  The next day I discussed the incident with my friends, most of them shared the same opinion as the lady at the store, “For God sakes you asked for 1 Rs in change?”, “Thank God I was not with you.. lol” and similar comments. Though a few did agree that it was my money and no matter how less it should have been returned, it’s about principle. This is one of the things which have become a part of our daily lives where it is predetermined that the shop keeper will keep the change (mostly small amount) and your asking for it ...

Despite “unity, faith, discipline” being our national motto, despite “All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black, nor a black has any superiority over a white- except by piety and good action” being the teachings of our religion; we are as divided as much as possible. Abraham Lincoln said “A house divided against itself cannot stand”; that is exactly what is happening to our nation- or should I call country? we are not only following discrimination but also promoting and supporting it- and at every point, stage in fact our daily routine. We need to stop forwarding messages which keep on reminding what cast we belong to and what is our status in the society, accordingly. Honestly, that has been my only source of knowing the cast ranking in Pakistan of “who is better”. We laugh and forward all such messages because we agree to them to a certain extent. I have a...

“Did you see the interview of XYZ, the cricketer? OMG! It was hilarious, not even one sentence was grammatically correct. And Teena, the singer? It is so a must watch. Hold on! I guess one of her videos has already been shared on Facebook, I’ll e-mail it to you in a bit. She says ‘Thaki-yew’-LOL.” These are some of the regular chats of us- the Pakistanis; whose mother tongue is Urdu. Who focus more on how bad English our nation’s artists spoke than how well they performed. My young cousin is a brilliant student. He wants to go abroad; good- he should. Why do I suspect, he will start working there to contribute towards the betterment of that foreign country where he’ll have to live as a second class citizen rather than coming back to Pakistan? Because, this is the story of most of the Pakistani students. They all of a sudden have this reverse cultural shock when they come back to Pakistan, where they have lived for some 18 years, after 4 years? Pakistan is highly populated and pollute...

Assigned a university project on “Are the customer sales representative good as well as smart?” me and my group members decided to include analysis of encounters with the CSR. While I was planning this; my fate had already planned a similar ‘encounter’ for me- and a very comprehensive one and that too with a Telco where losing customers like me- profit category C- is not a big deal. By losing a more-demanding-less-profiting customer, they will be better off. Anyway, my enthusiasm to do something for the flood victims was much encouraged, yet again, after having a look at the latest stats on damage caused by the natural catastrophe. It was 2 a.m. when I got done reading the article. I thought of doing a fund raiser, and mobile and internet are the first things you think of while going for such a move in today’s time. Likewise I quickly recharged my cell with the 100-ruppee-credit-card; I had bought earlier that day. Activated the SMS bucket, and sent the 3 text long message to most in ...

Dear Pakistan Cricket Team, It is indeed sad to hear that some of the top Pakistani cricket players have been accused of spot-fixing, or match-fixing. There is not enough evidence to say anything at this point in time but I strongly hope that these accusations prove to be wrong. But why should they be there at the first place? That’s a whole separate debate which I don’t want to indulge into in this writing, at least. I am not a big fan of cricket. I don’t watch all cricket matches and series, in fact, I rarely watch cricket or any sport for that matter but I am a huge fan of Pakistan cricket team . I watch cricket, only if one of the teams playing is Pakistan, I jump when Pakistani players bowl so well that the opponent fails to judge and play it right. My heart screams out loud “HOWZAT” when you bold the opponent. I jump as high as I can when the bowl flies high and lands outside the boundary I feel I have won when Pakistani cricket team wins. When we won the T20 world cup 2009, I ...