Poetic License

Pakistan as a country faces an identity crisis. We range from Honda hi lainsa to Blackberry hi lainsa and do not know what to make of one another or how to coexist in a meaningful way. Thus all we do is just heap blame upon one another and not take action on things that really matter.

Dubai and New Delhi have realized that building flyovers and underpasses or expanding roads is not the solution to traffic congestion and have reverted to establishing new or refurbishing old public transport systems. Here, in Karachi we take pride in building these corridors one after another which cater to only car owners or the elite.

This month's National Geographic feature on Pakistan has gone through every single possible cliche in the book. We are supposed to be surprised by how friendly people in Pakistan actually are, how much they know about our way of life and in how much danger these relatively friendly, sort of liberal people are from some boogeyman (in this case the Taliban).

It was really late in life when I started reading and appreciating poetry beyond text books. Like a typical teenager I started off by reading Wasi Shah – kash main tere haseen haath ka kangan hota – fame. There was no looking back and I began delving deep into the ocean of poetry and realized how much I had missed.

Conversation was flowing and no one held back - drone strikes, US policy in the region and why we weren't visiting Agra to see the Taj Mahal, Woodrow Wilson's leanings (left or right) and the great partition debate. Lively is an under statement in this group. And it seems we ARE visiting Mumbai!

A new trend some companies have adopted is fooling candidates about the openings they have. Human Resources will advertise one opening so that applicants will send in their CVs but when it is time for the final interview they will rope them in for another.

If you thought clearing the entry test exams after high school was the end of all your hardships, you are in for a rare treat. Medical school can mean losing your hair, humility and social life. With each passing day find yourself are as clueless as a camel which has inexplicably found itself on the North Pole.

Over the past 20 years curriculum reform has come to a standstill. It has been reduced to debates an whether there should be chapter on Jihad or not, or whether the Chief Ministers message should be inserted into text books. We as a society have not set up educational systems to nurture individual talents and creative curiosity.

Men love talking about accidents or mishaps that take place on the roads because of female drivers. We cannot stand to be overtaken by a woman.