Another Day

Its 3^rd of June once again, my angel brother’s face is once again is in my mind. Time has strange nature, when we go through some difficulties it seems to be stopped and when we’re merrymaking it seems to run fast. Whatever it is whenever we recall the olden times it seems a far away memory. Memories are precious as these are our actual gains, memories we have of others and memories others have of us. The part of human nature that amazes me is the ability to be contented, yet only a few are blessed with it; it’s really a cherish able ability to have. Our creator has blessed us with a mind, to think and to reason yet He has calmed our curious nature with contentment. The levels of this ability may be different among all of us but we feel contented with whatever we have at some point in time.

Its fourth year since my brother's death and I feel we have been calmed over what happened. Yes the mighty humans have many things which are not in our hands or may be we are not deemed much important to take these too, by our creator. Creation and destruction are ultimately the tasks of the power who controls all of us. 

Breaking Breeze

On a regular day a sharp sound from nearby can cause you to jump from your seat. Well living a busy and humming life where all we want is self satisfaction and all we see is self comfort; what has changed in our lives in last ten years or so is the sudden sound of a blast that led our minds to draw sometimes calculated and sometimes unintended conclusions.

Over a few years back bombings were the breaking news although still they are but the intensity of their breaking us has changed. Upon hearing such news there was a passion among us to help the destructed and wounded beings but now that has only been limited to call up home trying to find out that everybody’s fine there or not, or browsing a channels’ website to get to know about the details of the explosion. This evolution of being resistant rather determined has emerged whether we wanted it to be or not!

The compromiser human nature has been activated and we have been able to digest what is going on, let it be the floods, Earth quakes or the blasts. Although the generous human being is still alive within all of us and we have managed to get the humane of us rather have matured in the feeling of getting through turbulent times. That sometimes makes us proud as a nation about our sustainability and staying together and sometimes put us in answering the questions about our loosing of basic human loving sentiments or had there been any in any of us? Or on whom we should land all the responsibility of this catastrophic situation of ours, on government more precisely defined as a corrupt government, the foreign hands or the so-called and so-named terrorist agencies/groups?  

What we are made to face isn’t our fate and neither we want it to be, but the virtual statistics of our nation going through all the bads have made us to derive this conclusion that we are brave enough to bear but not that brave to stand, that has some due reasons behind of some rights to fulfill and some mouths to feed. Once I had this statement in a class lecture that a billion dollar person is a ‘problem solver’ (obviously the maker has its own worth), to solve a problem one has to identify which one has the potential to get solved or vice versa the problem will choose us. As in both cases there will be some conclusion and maybe we all are just waiting for that.

It’ll not turn to a lecture on being a good citizen or a courteous person as a matter of fact it would be a synonym. What keeps us silent and away isn’t our responsibility of feeding the dependants but our general behavior of avoiding things, for good or bad, that’s relative.  May be its just to clear to my own self or may be others would conform to, that we have to break the doors of depression and let the cool breeze in. And for doing that we should start from breaking that door of our house (don’t just take the literals).       

Beyond intelligence Budding destruction

It’s an era where nothing’s new and everything news, what is breaking is actually breaking within. What we get around so often are the breaking news of the blasts, attacks or human massacre; that for sure make us all think for the cause of this disruption in the society. Who is responsible for all this? Why is it happening any way?

The reason, one or two, end up to the fight for becoming a uni-polar power. Things are not that simple yet we can’t categorize the fighters as they don’t seem to have specific face, the one I’m talking about are the secret Intelligence Agencies. The infrastructure buildup by these secret Intelligence Agencies is of global level, what we see is actually the giant wall according to the ‘cave theory’ by Plato. We are just the viewers of an already made up and mixed up recipe of current scenario curry.

The influential role of secret Intelligence Agencies is so glaring that we find many nations a hostage to these Intelligence Agencies. Their actions, operations and activities have circled the globe. Where we stand is a place called the no man’s land hence a victim of the secret war between these secret agencies. Whether it’s bleeding Karachi, catastrophic Kabul, or the devastated Baghdad the dominating dictator and policy maker is sitting with an intelligent mind behind an intelligent desk. They have a magical and intelligent table there, where paper organizations are made up, established and launched in the society.

During his short visit (for six & half hour to be precise) to Pak former president Mr. Bill Clinton in March 2000 asked Pakistani nation a collection of questions in an address through the national media that summed up to one question that whether Pakistan is a failure state or not? That question put us all to find the answer. Afterwards gradually with the chain of bomb blasts, suicidal attacks, attacks on state’s defense installations, on GHQ, on religiously sacred places, and target killings in various parts of the country provided the answer, not specific to the questions asked, but to the intentions by which the questions were asked. The ingredient of media also ignited the fire that was blown against the nuclear state of Pakistan and ultimately the fact came out with the arrest of CIA operative Raymond Davis in 2011, which proved the presence of foreign secret Intelligence Agencies especially of USA in Pakistan. US authorities contacted Pakistani establishment for the release of such person who committed the heinous act of crime; Murder. The hard blow was when President Barrack Obama; the Noble Peace Prize winner himself passed statements in favor of the culprit, resultantly he was set free. Many questions arose against the pressurized and biased verdict of release but were provided well settled answers. Such strong influence can’t be neglected when all the genuine Human Rights were surpassed and a frivolous case of Qisaas/Diat was put forward.

There are many other cases of such Human Rights mockery with frivolous explanation; where the vowing Human Rights organizations remained silent and the Intelligence Agencies played their part very well. The so-called case against Dr. Aafia Siddiqui; renowned Pakistani Scientist is yet another glaring example. The so-called independent courts of USA have also great influence of these secret agencies, the so-called Independent Judiciary appeared totally biased on world’s canvas when it came to providing justice to such an innocent.

The scary story of the misdoings of Intelligence Agencies doesn’t finish here, the scariest part is that they are not accountable to any one; there is a world of their own where they draw lines, make boundaries and decide upon what they seem is better, for whom, we may not know. There are a number of feathers in their cap; the unsolved murder mysteries of renowned political figures like Rajiv Gandhi, Princess Diana, Yasir Arafat, Benazir Bhutto etc, the silent yet deadly reasons for Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the notorious case of Bin-Laden, and recently what we see as Middle East uprising and the Karachi massacre.  

What these secret wars gave us is a win to none but a loss to humanity. The factor of humanity has been far surpassed by these brutal and secret agencies. What is dreaded is the future of civilized humankind which is at stake as these agencies have shifted their focus from the International political figures to the pioneers and founders of the successful nations i.e. the doctors, scientists, engineers and the knowledgeable of the society. The case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is one example and many could be quoted if one sees the report on Pakistani missing persons, which are about 10,000.

Those who claim as civilized and peace makers have the deadliest agencies on record as CIA, MI-5, MI-6 and Mosaad.

     

This Rain; for my brother..

It was the smell of wet soil, cool soily wind, low speed raindrops and voice of chirping birds going back to their nests that reminded me same days of rains a year back. The sky seemed full of birds in groups swinging here and there with strong thumps of the blowing wind. Grey and white clouds making the sun to leave a little early than decided.



Nature has its' beauty but for those only who can feel it

 Well life is about all these rains, breeze & nature and delightfully they could be enjoyed only if you are with your loved ones. It’s not always the eyes, which could see the affection; its not always the ears which could hear the loving words; it’s not always the touch; which could feel the warmth in words and its not always the tongue that can realize the expression in language. Because he wasn’t able to do all these things, his blue eyes can just see us and understand what we gesticulated. In these two decades of my life we developed such strings of understanding that we lived and cherished every moment of life. Life has been said to be very short yet it contain millions of moments and in these millions of moments there is a life of its’ own.

When the raindrops fell on his face he had certain joyish sounds and he played with the raindrops. He was the special one in our home yet he treated us all specially. His love had his own levels when he saw his brothers, mother, father or his sister. We understood this gesture of his when he appeared his arms wide opened for his brothers and his smile-only for me, as I always liked to teach him various skills, which I had developed by watching the movies made on these certain issues; so he always appeared queer to my such unusual trainings.

We; his siblings realized his surrounding when we opened our eyes and stepped on Earth for the first time. He was always with us and we were always taught to look after him and he, looked after our things. By time he developed such disciplinary senses that he hated to see things out of order and places them right as soon and as appropriately as he could. Whenever in childhood we played games I always wanted him to be my partner and prayed to Allah Almighty that to make him better as soon as possible. He was said to get better very slowly and gradually and there was no medicine for that. That was our hope to see him all good one day.

Special care could be expected only where one acquires a special place. Our home was our center and he appeared to be the core attraction. We were proud to be around him as he progressed within us. By seeing us doing routine tasks he developed that sense of doing things. We believed that we couldn’t teach him any thing unless we show him the real act and it worked out; it did worked out. He remained within us like us around him when we came back home he use to welcome us by producing special sound effects on the contrary when we use to leave for our quest of knowledge he looks on our clothes and shoes and understands that the team is going to be out on some hunt. He giggled when we brought something to eat and his eyes shimmers when we say that it’s all yours. Gradually he developed a good memory as whenever he saw us hiding any eatable from him he remembered the place; stepped back at that moment and pounced on it amid appropriate surrounding. When he started walking; it was a happy day for all of us because it was yet another achievement for us. But he use to stick to us whenever we were out anywhere. He understood it pretty good that we all had some relation that’s why he kept an eye on our movements whenever we were at some relatives’ place.

Allah had gifted us with that pious soul and we were blessed enough to take him through all our thick and thins. He left us silently as he came into the family. What we believed that such persons need love and affection of their family firstly than all other medical treatments. He trained us to look after each other, care for others and above all he tied us all together.

Hidden Cameras

One day an acquaintance was going with some strategies; plans towards his routine tasks with his everyday worries and schedules. Suddenly a person appeared from behind a car, well dressed and very sophisticated at first sight. Abruptly he sprinkled colored water on the innocent acquaintance leaving him drenched and in displeasure. Naturally the wet person got angry and wanted the impish person to be punished at his humiliated act. The person who sprinkled colored water in spite of any regression started smiling and directed the wet acquaintance towards a car with “hidden camera” and told him to wave his hand with a “smile” of course, as it was a prank on him.

Well, this happening is not a strange one these days as it is believed to be a comedy and a source of entertainment. No doubt all of us enjoy when somebody plays a funny prank on someone. We laugh when the victim shows different spontaneous expressions on the sudden happening.

But the actual feeling of the victim cannot be felt unless you are in that person’s shoes. So “pain lies in the head who wears the crown”.

Life has become so fast and furious that basic rules of humanity are violated openly. The rule which is in use today is “rules are meant to be broken”. So no one is questionable. And no one can be held accountable for any misdeed as they consider it to be just fun.

These days known and reputed channels have started programs of these types having an amount as prize money or any other prize just for playing the best “chaalbazi” on innocent people.

Now whether it’s looting someone, terrorizing young boys, making fool of patients at the doctor’s clinic, teasing an old man or even sprinkling colored water on some body. It has become legal and lawful.

In today’s hustling and bustling life, we need a proper definition of comedy and also a standard for it. In previous eras we’ve got comedy in different acceptable forms i.e. Actions, dialogs. Like the silent films of “Charlie Chaplin” who made people laugh with his funny acts. Then the films of “Mr. Bean” who also used his actions to make comedy. Along with them comedy flourished in the form of dialogs. It was to make fun of each other or of any other person in front of audience. Through this way people get entertained and admire the comedian’s presence of mind.

Mimicry has always been a good source of entertainment and comedy. It is to stage people of different professions into entirely different scenarios like politicians playing cricket. The comedian then mimics their expressions while the play. People who have an art of mimicking are always encouraged for their creative ness and the choice of diverse vocabulary.

The thing which dreads me most about this prank comedy is that people will soon loose their confidence on each other. And there will be a change in the general behavior of the society. People will not trust anyone except themselves.

When a person goes to a dentist, he is basically going to believe whatever the dentist will suggest him, because the patient has trusted him to be as his well wisher. If at the clinic, the patient is made fool then it might be happen that people start believing that the specific doctor is not really serious about his profession. 

So the dreadful outcome which can result from these programs is the social anxiety or disorder in the society. People can be in a state of psychological pressure and in spite of creating something new they’ll get busy in activities to tease the person who made fool of them or in other words humiliated them.

As in recent days, due to continuum bomb blasts people were afraid of their lives and they were not sure that they’ll come back home safe and sound. Now people will fear that they can be fooled at any place and at any time. And they will remain in a certain type of tension other than their routine tensions.

It can be well observed in this way, like if you are made fool on a way to your first office presentation which has to smooth on your career. How will you feel at that moment? Will it be funny for YOU at least?

 The example of April fool can be well related here. As we’ve all seen that how people got affected due to just a fun being enjoyed by specific group of people.

Like someone called you and revealed the saddest news ever about your beloved and when you found your beloved fine then you realize that you were an April fool being made by others. Then you start fooling others and this cycle continues until some thing really bad happens.

Well, the thing to ponder upon is this behavior is not of a very mature society. It indicates something very childish and immature. The thing is this people get benefit of their decent looks and fool people who are not expecting any kind of immature act from the person. So in this way the person losts his nice and decent identity also.

    

Who am I?

I wonder why mostly children want to become Doctors! I myself when was in school had an aim of becoming a doctor like all the girls in my class. We hadn’t even bothered of any other occupation at that time except the medical profession.

Why Doctor? This question strikes me when one of my school going cousins replied the same occupation on my asking about her aim. Doctor has been set an ideal like thing in the minds of kids. Children don’t know why and what they are studying and what is the purpose of their syllabus. It is because the dilemma of career counseling at our institutions.

Kids opt whatever fantasize them without knowing of their ways to achieve. For some it is doctor, pilot or engineer and for some it’s nothing. Some opt to do O-levels but after that they stand nowhere as they have nothing prepared for the future. Students face difficulties in choosing their careers when they are passed out from schools. Bad choice of career can lead to the destruction of a child as well as a pillar that was to lift up the burden of the nation. 

The problem arises at homes. Sometimes parents are not well educated so that they can design a beneficial career for their kid then the problem goes to the institution where there is a stereotyped syllabus which has very less to do with the nourishment of new blood; co-curricular activities are just fulfilling the formalities instead of enhancing the abilities of students.

Our institutions are not providing a syllabus which able the student to make a good choice of his/her career. Moreover the procedures of taking examinations or providing extinctions are very fluctuating which finally de-motivates a child and he/she gets frustrated. If to look at the procedures of taking examinations; from previous couple of years the 9^th and 10^th have been separated and then combined again and again. The Syllabus obviously was changed and then re-changed. This ultimately resulted in a very low pass percentage. This also resulted in mistrust on education ministry.

At our institutions teachers themselves are unaware of the mind setups of the students in their class. Certainly the education system needs a change so do the career counselors.  Coaches make us win matches. Sometimes it’s all about a teacher or a counselor. The one who motivates and acknowledges the work done. Counseling is an art and one’s good counseling takes many to success. God has created every human being equal, talented and full of abilities; now it’s on the part of the surrounding to flourish somebody’s qualities and make him excel through.

Career Troubles

Who are we? What are we doing? And what do we need?   Sounds Philosophical !!!! Well yes it is.  

It is the common feeling of today’s youth. Young people today are both excited and confused by the innumerable career choices. All of them want to be Unique and more progressive than others. The sense of competition has created havoc among young people. Never before have there been as many career options as there are today. To succeed, therefore, means changing one’s mind setup and then sifting through the enormous information overload to find the right path. As IT has opened entirely different world which is quiet fascinating for the young people. There are hundreds of options that can be most challenging and fulfilling, from space Tech, design, travel and tourism, to telecommunications, biotechnology, environmental sciences, and many others. Each offers a diverse spectrum of options that will be benefiting over the years. 

          The decision of choosing a career is the most important one of our lives. Yet it is often made on the basis of unrealistic professional aspirations, inadequate knowledge, peer pressures, and emotional factors that are irrelevant. It is very sad to know that many people around us find themselves in careers that are only remotely associated with their aptitude, skills and desires. They drift into jobs they are unsuited for, and end up dissatisfied, frustrated, over-stressed and often bored. It is very important to take a realistic approach to the choice of one’s career. Success in a career largely depends on aptitude and interest.
           Unfortunately career Counseling has always been malnourished in our region. It has never given the importance it needed. If to argue on the present Literacy Rate; Career Counseling cannot be put back. More or less; whatever our Literacy rate has been or is, Career Counseling has remained a very important factor of its chart. If observed psychologically a person can fall a victim to “Career Terror” due to lack of career guidance. Career Terror is defined as a terror in which a person always feels himself under evaluation or some scrutiny where his abilities are going to be tested. This also results into a lack of self confidence.

So it proves guidance to choose any profession largely affects the people and people have to form a nation. A blame game cannot be played here because left or right; the loss will be ours. When a person couldn’t lift himself then how can it be expected that he will be able to lift his nation. In order to overcome this crisis; policymakers should recognize the importance of career guidance and counseling in assisting to achieve policy goals related to lifelong learning, employment, and social equity. It can be helped by developing closer links between policymakers and practitioner associations. Such intense focus on career guidance and counseling will also result in closer scrutiny of its professional standards and qualifications. Consequently, at the same time as there being increased demand for and interest in career counseling, practitioner associations will redefine their roles with members, the community, and policymakers.

No doubt that discovering one’s talent and choosing the right career will ultimately be the key to success and happiness in life. And it needs all earlier factors to be accomplished. However, there are some necessary steps on one’s part too, to plan life and career choices.

There are two ways of starting off. One is to find out what you really like doing and do it irrespective of the gains and growth patterns and the second is to find out what really motivates you, find out which among the careers gives you what you want and build up competencies for it. Either way you will get what you want in the first method the journey itself is your reward (though you will find many pulling your leg, but don't worry, many have tread this path and quite successfully at that too) and in the second you are carefully working your way to your reward which could be clearly spelt out to be a consequence of your work or occupation.

Whichever path you choose, it is most important to know your individual strengths and weaknesses. First of all relax and assess yourself honestly. Think of all your accomplishments, of all the compliments you got, of all the work that really inspired you, of the times when you worked with passion at and jot them all down. You will find that as you note down your victories, your achievements etc a pattern will emerge. You can find that you are good at organizing, at making people comfortable, at leading, at solving puzzles, at physical activity, at playing music or games. Each of these represents a career option by itself or throws up some characteristic in you, qualities that could be good assets in your future career options.

Now list out things that motivate you, which you aspire for, your dreams, things you would want more than anything else in the world. Find your fit between the person you are and the dream you wish to achieve. As this picture gets clearer you become more aware, confident and purposeful. Attributes that serve you well along the way. You have now formed a sharp picture of yourself with specific saleable qualities.

Based on your aspiration level and your aptitude, you can also identify the careers that offer the kind of lifestyle or returns that you wish.

Having decided on a particular direction, build competencies. Specific careers need specific education and training. Whichever area you choose to be in, you will fare well if you strive to be the best in it. Leave your individual brand on it. Learn the ropes by acquiring information, by taking up courses, by taking up internships and summer jobs, by learning the economics of the job, by adding special skills that help in handling the job with greater proficiency.

All careers without exception would certainly require a good writing and verbal communicating ability so please work on that, a pleasing and well-mannered personality, a professional work ethic and good inter-personal skills. Work on these important soft skills along with as you plan your career.

A final word! If the goal has been decided then; be clear about it and start walking towards it. You will learn along the way. You will acquire skills and competencies that help you along. The important thing is to start the journey.