Words talk

Labels and tags; are they necessary? Is it really necessary to compartmentalize the richness of a human being? Does the efficiency that classification brings really worth the destruction of an individual’s self esteem?   When you really don't fit into any label. Your definitions of labels are as dicey as the labels themselves. Whether you are a bigot or not, depends on who is deciding. Just as beauty lies in the eyes of beholder, your definitions are always changing. Cutting someone slack, giving grace marks or exception; favors and sides - is that what we have all come to be? Where you live? What you wear? What you do? When some of your best sleeps are at worst of places. The clothes don’t guarantee the best laughter. When your work doesn't guarantee contentment. Why does it matter? Your personality type? Your skin tone? Your voice? When there no two identical personalities in the world. When flesh is same, flows the same, behaves same. When the sweetn...

We have different skin tones, we are different body types, we practice different faiths, we have different beliefs, we have different lifestyles, we have different occupations, we have different challenges, we have different circumstances, we follow different theories, we have different status, we have different hobbies, we speak different dialects, we belong to different sects, we speak different languages; we are different. But we are one. That oneness is our unity. The oneness of our hospitality, the ones of norms, the oneness of our piece of land, the oneness of our traditions, the oneness of our songs, the oneness of our sports, the ones of our identity, the oneness of our society, the oneness of our systems, the oneness of our economy, the oneness of our people, the oneness of our language, the oneness of our love for the society, the oneness of our pride, the oneness of our air. We are indeed one. We are different but we are united under our flag, our land, our ...

Thirty seconds remaining before the signal turns green; this dirty boy needs to speed up picking his coconut strips from the road. How stupid does one have to be drop a small tray? That is probably why he is a street vendor. Most likely, he will sell these soiled coconuts to the cars stopping at the signal later. Ten seconds (driver beeping); aww! the poor thing is crying. But needs to hurry up! I am getting late for the fund raiser. I am so excited to be part of the fundraiser for a primary school, set to be opened by end of the year. It feels great to be part of something that is bigger than me. I am volunteering for this multi-national non-profit that focuses on child education. It's great learning working with them; great network and will help with my college applications. --------- Tanveer:           Don't you feel it? Anum:             Feel what? Tanveer: ...

International Women’s day may be over but the conversation it started is not. That conversation is an opportunity to have that uncomfortable discussion that everyone avoids or hesitates to participate in fearing everything from being judged to being challenged on the status quo; that holds true both for men and women. But isn’t that the point? In a patriarchal society like Pakistan, its an even harder conversation to break; men don’t want to be labeled sexist and women don’t want to be labeled prejudiced. The underlying understanding, however, may even be the same at times. Although it is part of a much larger topic of ‘diversity and inclusion’ which is very close to my heart and people are generally more receptive to that over anything women... If I’d a dollar for every time someone told me I am wherever I am, is because I am a female, I would be a billionaire ( And I would move to Themyscira, for those of you who don't follow Marvel comics, google it). Me? who ...