Month: June 2023

Sidrah-tul-Muntaha

Through ups and downs

Further down to pits

From highs and lows

Lower to the lowest

From the misery of existence

From the fear of oblivion

From the old-world order to the new

From sultanates to McDonaldization

The questions are same

The issues are same

The pains are same

The love is same

The departure is same

The idea of being is same

From shaking hand at hello to not letting it go at bye

With a fear in heart and a little shivering in spine

From the curls of a cigarette to dismissal after the last puff

Like a whole life of a tooth, from birth to decay

The journey is same

The travelers are insane

Some, an inch taller

Some, an inch shorter

That doesn’t matter in holding hands

A little awkwardness before an invention

A little tension before the new rise

Yet, no body to stop because it’s the time of a new idea

A new beginning

Like the first kiss, a dry one

In a humid weather to give way to a spring

To another journey of the same life

To another decade beyond the early decades of freedom

Towards the unknown, from the unknown

To the destination inside the womb of the grave

Coffins are same

Death is same

Beyond death is the unknown

Unknown is same

Who cares beyond death? Beyond unknown?

Perhaps we all do

In this journey

From known to the unknown

Towards a single destination

The ultimate dream of the promised land

Sidrah-tul-Muntaha

And beyond that is nothing

Lists

In the last scene of ‘The Trial of Chicago 7’, Hayden takes out a document in the court and begins reading the names of the 4, 752 U.S. troops killed in the Vietnam War since the beginning of that trial, in front of the Judge. That was outrageous because the Judge asked him to be brief.

Hayden did that because each name was not just a name but a whole life. A person. A person who lost life for nothing.

Each name was equal. Regardless of political affiliation, religion, race, creed, caste, color, or whatever.

The same should be the voice here in Pakistan.

Each and every missing person should be equally known. Whereabouts of everyone should be traced. Trials should be public. And nothing should be against the constitution.

I know. I know.

Some we may not know.
Some we don’t agree with.
Some we despise for their opinions.
Some were supporting exactly what they are going through now.

But some were asking for basic rights.
Some just said a few words.
Some were just taken out for nothing.
And some were nothing more than a collateral damage.

Deviation: tagging a human life as ‘collateral damage’ should be the 1st sin of all the deadly sins.

Nonetheless, in the end, they are all victims. They have been deprived and robbed. So, they should be remembered and should be voiced with equality.

Debates can take place again when they are out. You can still disagree with those you want to.

We can’t bring back those who are already dead or killed. Those who lost everything. Buried or not. Unidentified graves. Mutilated or not. We can’t compensate their families.

But names of all killed and buried in that line must also be known. There should be two lists.

A whole lot never accepted that this actually happens. They didn’t see. They didn’t hear. Hence, they didn’t speak. Now that time is long gone. Everyone knows that this happens.

So, remember all. Each and everyone. And speak without discrimination and hypocrisy. Particularly for those you despise or disagree with. This will help to evolve.

Off Spin

Every summer, I imagined tilting the earth. Like spinning the earth a little – like you off spin in cricket – shifting the southern countries more towards the equator. Resulting in north and south poles – both – moving closer towards the line of equator.

A little more into this and there will be heavenly weathers here. Longer summers in Scandinavia and Europe – imagine beaches of those races, jeez – and people here suiting themselves more into abayas.

The tragedy of insanely hairy people in hotter countries would also be over with this off spin. For heavens! All genders have moustaches here. Duh!

Then I imagine a little more… but comes back to the basics. What is stopping the earth from a little off spin? No one. I’m not.

This was supposed to be the plot of my book. With a little off spin, the whole dystopia was transformed into utopia. It was going to be His Highness’s 2084 after Orwell’s 1984.

But then, who would like to waste words over a herd?

And what if the earth is going to have a little off spin someday; without a plot and a book?