Smiling through a bad day
I disembarked the airplane thinking of how discontent I was with the 35 hour journey. I was determined to write letters of complaint to the involved airline for their disorganized conduct. Now, I had a total of 12 hours of nothing to do. I felt vexed and disgusted. I found a secluded bench, dropped my bag, and sat down to engage in what travelers typically do at airports – people-watching. After looking around for several hours, I came across an elderly gentleman who would not stop smiling. It seemed that nothing could faze this man. He entertained a couple to whom ...
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Rahul fights for his destiny, not for the dynasty
In William Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” the protagonist is the complex Prince Henry – the son of the king who keeps the audience baffled at all times. Sometimes the king himself is worried about his son’s future. His subjects were never sure what the prince (Hal) stands for. He acts rebellious but does not reveal his intentions. However, Hal redeems himself on the battlefield by saving his father from the enemy and eventually shrugs off his bad reputation when he demonstrates his ability to govern in uncertain times. In India, an icon of a dynasty is working to engage the masses and ...
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De-meriting the merit system
Pakistan is notorious for multiple reasons – ranging from terrorism to illiteracy and poverty. Recently, however, I feel that our merit system has seen a bit of a downturn. It seems that in the professional world, it’s all about who you know, not what you know. And for fresh graduates like myself, that is indeed quite demotivating. My friends and acquaintances will start with the: “my dad knows the head of HR at company XYZ so I’m going to be starting there from next month.” And i’ll wonder what relevance a social sciences degree will have in the finance department. Aah, ...
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TEDx Karachi: Reflections on inspiration
TEDxKarachi 2011 was an event for the elite. It had a political slant to it. The line to get in was long, the air-conditioning sucked, there were too many technical glitches with the microphones, the snacks were mediocre and there were people there that didn’t deserve to be invited over many others that weren’t there. The talks were not all exactly what we see at TED Global. Yet I returned from the event thinking that making the impossible was possible. I returned with some ideas that inspired me. People went to TEDx Karachi with different mindsets. A lot showed up wanting to ...
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Incompetent healers, uncaring doctors
Ok, I give up. I know I said that doctors care. And they do. At least most of them do. But then there are some who are either too incompetent or too ignorant or just too damn arrogant to admit that they don’t know what the heck is really going on with their patient. I saw a patient yesterday who had seen at least five different doctors in Bahawalpur and Multan in the last two months. After months of looking for answers for his poor health, all he had for a diagnosis was Anaemia (low Haemoglobin.) Someone performed an ...
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Haunted: More laughter than fear
The Indian horror film, Haunted, is one of those films which will make you alternate between laughing hysterically and covering your eyes out of fear. The film really has nothing new to it and is the typical sub-continent love story, where boy meets girl and would do anything to help her. Except this time, he’s not saving her from an evil step-father, the owner of a brothel or a terrorist; instead, he’s saving her from the evil spirit of her piano teacher who has kept her spirit trapped for 80 years raping her every night. The rape was what got to ...
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