Dil

 

Khalid Ibadullah on Imran Khan

Pakistani Test cricket player Khalid Ibadulla passed away in 2024 in New Zealand at the age of 89. Ibadulla holds one cricket record: He scored the highest score ever on the first day of the Test debut, 166, on the first day of the Test between Pakistan and Australia at Karachi in 1964/65. 

In 1971, when the Pakistan team was visiting England, Javed Burki asked Ibadulla (who was working as a cricket coach in England) to evaluate his 17-year-old cousin, Imran Khan. Ibadulla watched Imran Khan bat and bowl at the nets. He then told Javed Burki that this boy had no future in cricket! 

So much for professional opinion!!

Over the years, I have learned that people will surprise you. Some of my brightest students have become mere useless pawns in life, and some backbenchers are riding front horses in life.

عرفی تو میندیش

عرفی تو میندیش زغوغائے رقیباں

آوازِ سگاں کم نہ کند رزقِ گدا را

(عرفی شیرازی)

ترجمہ: 

عرفی تم دشمنوں کے شور و غل سے مت ڈرو۔

کتوں کی آواز ایک فقیر کے رزق کو کم نہیں کرسکتی 

Travel

 

Ten of the most iconic first sentences

Here are ten of the most iconic and impactful first sentences from novels, celebrated for their literary significance and memorable introductions:

 1. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

– A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)

 2. “Call me Ishmael.”

– Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)

 3. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

– Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)

 4. “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

– Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1877)

 5. “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.”

– The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

 6. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

– 1984 by George Orwell (1949)

 7. “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

– Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)

 8. “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.”

– Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925)

 9. “Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.”

– The Trial by Franz Kafka (1925)

 10. “Mother died today. Or maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure.”

– The Stranger by Albert Camus (1942)

Each of these first lines sets the tone for the rest of the novel, sparking curiosity and drawing readers into the story. 

In Quest of Perfection

Although the following video was created as a funny joke, it has a huge lesson. Sometimes, we continue to strive for perfection without knowing that we have disconnected ourselves from the people around us.

 

 

Pets

(An old Middle Eastern saying: Pet horse and dog argue with an angel of death if they come for their master, and they offer their own life to take away. They try their best for their Master's life)

- Copied from the Internet

I was hiking with my dog then; he was part Dalmatian, part Blue healer. It was the middle of the night, and I seemed to have had a heart attack while I was asleep. The sudden pain in my chest almost woke me up, and I entered that rem state as I stood over my body trying to get myself to twitch or something to wake up. In my dream I could feel my body temperature dropping and I was getting cold, my skin started to feel like stone. Suddenly my dog lifted up his head in my dream, cocked his head to the side, and then nudged his nose towards me. There was a ripple-like water where his nose touched, and suddenly, I felt my heart jolt, and it started beating again. The warmth returned to my skin, and I suddenly awoke from my dream. My dog was just sitting there like he was in my dream. Ever since then, I've had this strange ability to sense what animals are trying to say to people sometimes.

Too close

 

The Myth of Antigone - (pride will be punished by the blows of fate)

 Antigone 

By Sophocles 

After Polynices and his allies' bloody siege of Thebes, the city remained unconquered. Polynices and his brother Eteocles, however, are both dead, killed by each other, according to the curse of Oedipus, their father.

Outside the city gates, Antigone tells Ismene that Creon has ordered that Eteocles, who died defending the city, is to be buried with full honors, while the body of Polynices, the invader, is left to rot. Furthermore, Creon has declared that anyone attempting to bury Polynices shall be publicly stoned to death. Outraged, Antigone reveals to Ismene a secret plan to bury Polynices despite Creon's order. When Ismene timidly refuses to defy the king, Antigone angrily rejects her and goes off alone to bury her brother.

Creon discovers that someone has attempted to offer Polynices a ritual burial and demands that the guilty one be found and brought before him. When he learns that Antigone, his niece, has defied his order, Creon is furious. Antigone makes an impassioned argument, declaring Creon's order to be against the gods' laws. Enraged by Antigone's refusal to submit to his authority, Creon declares that she and her sister will be put to death.

Haemon, Creon's son, who is about to marry Antigone, advises his father to reconsider his decision. The father and son argue, Haemon accusing Creon of arrogance and Creon accusing Haemon of unmanly weakness in siding with a woman. Haemon leaves in anger, swearing never to return. Without admitting that Haemon may be right, Creon amends his pronouncement on the sisters: Ismene shall live, and Antigone will be sealed in a tomb to die of starvation rather than stoned to death by the city.

The blind prophet Tiresias warns Creon that the gods disapprove of his leaving Polynices unburied and will punish the king's impiety with the death of his own son. After rejecting Tiresias angrily, Creon reconsiders and decides to bury Polynices and free Antigone.

But Creon's change of heart comes too late. Antigone has hanged herself, and Haemon, in desperate agony, kills himself as well. On hearing the news of her son's death, Eurydice, the queen, also kills herself, cursing Creon.

Alone, in despair, Creon accepts responsibility for all the tragedy and prays for a quick death. The play ends with a somber warning from the chorus that pride will be punished by the blows of fate.

Mulaqat

 

Wisdom

 

Aesthetic

 

Old books

 

Husband wife eating from one plate

 This couple just arrived from Pakistan due to the deteriorating situation there. 

"Bhai! Business to bohat achha tha - kabhi nahi socha Pakistan chorain ge - magar - bachhon ke mustaqbil ka dar tha. Aakihr kaar halaat se haar ker idhar aa gaye'.

I saw this couple three times at community events in the last few months, and I was intrigued that they always ate from one plate.

"How long have you guys been married?"

"About 20 years."

"Interesting. I am pretty impressed that you both always eat from one plate".

"We had an arranged marriage. The first few months were a little rough for us in understanding each other. At one such moment, my grandmother gave this tip to try. This was the most amazing thing that has happened in our lives. Over time, all fights vanished, and our understanding and love grew day by day".

Detachment

 

A lesson from animal world

 

Mirror

 Mirrors can be very deceiving. The following picture is interesting as it can be described in both a positive and a negative way.

• Positive; No matter what you are, see yourself as an emperor of your life
• Negative; The Devil can't see his own narcissism 

Respect

 

Azra aur Murtaza ki kahani - Jaun Elia ki Zubani

 In one of his rare interviews, Jaun Elia mentioned a true story from Amroha, India. This account played an essential role in his personality formation.

In his neighborhood, a girl named Azra was engaged to a boy named Murtaza. Nikah was done, but rukhsati was pending. They were in immense, deep love with each other. One day, Murtaza died. When Azra learned about his death, she did not cry but went into isolation for months on the upper story of the house. Her food was served by servants and family there. She rarely came downstairs.

Woh mukkamal pathra gai

One day, out of the blue, she came downstairs in an extremely happy mood. She took out her favorite suit and put perfume and gajra on herself. Everyone was shocked and surprised and asked her what had happened. She said, "Murtaza came into my dream and said he would take me with him soon." Everybody thought she had gone crazy, but she died in a few days.

Jaun says this event enormously affected him and changed his outlook on love and life.

How you pick the right thing to change - 70/30 rule

While going to board a flight, this book caught my attention and was a great read for a four hours flight.

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith

 In a way, I can see why people have problems choosing what needs fixing. In golf, for example, it is common wisdom that 70 percent of all shots take place within 100 yards of the pin. It’s called the short game, and it involves pitching, chipping, hitting out of sand traps, and putting. If you want to lower your score, focus on fixing your short game; it represents at least 70 percent of your score. Yet if you go to a golf course you’ll see very few people practicing their short game. They’re all at the driving range trying to hit their oversized drivers as far as they can. Statistically, it doesn’t make sense because over the course of 18 holes, they’ll only need their drivers fourteen times (at most) whereas they’ll pull out their short irons and putters at least 50 times. Athletically it doesn’t make sense either. The short game demands compact delicate small-muscle movements; it is much easier to master than the violent big-muscle movements of driving off the tee. Nor does it make sense competitively. 

Actually, the whole book is a great read to improve oneself.