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I came across a picture which showed a young man sitting on a charpoy with a knife in his hand and blood on his shalwar. He was posing like a hero, having just killed his sister.

Some of the things our countrymen have done in the aftermath of the flash floods are stark examples of how far people will go to benefit from other peoples’ misery.

There are some who leave their footsteps behind in the shores of time, whose memory remains etched in the hearts and minds of people even years after their souls have departed.

Traditional Ramazan fare has fed the greed of hoarders and profiteers. But this year man made shortages have been eclipsed by a natural destruction of unbelievable magnitude.

No amount of theory can prepare one for the real deal - closed schools, girls pulled out of school, or trying to convince men that education will not impact values.

People have no clean drinking water. Do you know what they are doing? Drinking flood water. Soon scorpions and snakes will emerge from the cesspools as well.

A senior journalist and past colleague from Geo days woke me in the morning with the following SMS: Are you getting 2007 flashbacks?

I have never felt as hopeless in my lifetime as I am now. How can I feel happy when our nation is bleeding? We are all on the path to self-destruction.

Instead of assuming the responsibilities of a state, we want to be a pan Islamic global movement which exports terrorism as a cause. Shoe-throwing solves nothing.

Writing fiction is akin to erecting a temple of consecrated ideas which, like religious convictions, should be sacrosanct for the author.