On Amar Jalil's Khuda Gum ho gaya hai

I was shocked (and still in shock) the way Pakistani conservative society has reacted to Amar Jalil's short story "Khuda Gum ho gaya hai" (God is lost). It is nothing but a masterpiece of literature. I didn't even find a grain of insult to anyone. I guess people have not read Iqbal's Shikwa, Manto's and Ismat Chughtaii's short stories. 

It was a beyond idiotic reaction.

Jitni tezi se Pakistani logon ko kafir bana rahe hain, Pakistan ke jhande main sirf sufed rang reh jayye ga - range-kafan.

Synch

 

On travel

COVID has disrupted many of my bucket list travel plans. I usually travel by myself and many of my friends don't like it. But the whole idea is to liberate oneself in travel. I found to travel as a form of meditation when I travel alone.

'Dead Sexy'

 Interesting story regarding writing an obituary. 

 "just a rockin' dude from Omaha, NE. It attributes his cause of death to "either leukemia or more likely being 'dead sexy'. (Eric's) departure was just in time for him to make his spiritual appearance at every Red Sox spring game. He is preceded in death by billions, including his dog Harvey who most of us loved to hate. We are confident they are joyfully reconnecting right now. Eric loved, in this order, his smoking hot wife, his brilliant kids and family, his many friends, the Boston Red Sox, the Kansas City Chiefs (before being a Chiefs fan was cool), the Huskers, Liverpool Futbol, QT iced tea, Adidas sneakers, fishing, backpacking, hiking, hunting, and any old Chevy he saw on the road. Eric hated sad stories, beets, romantic comedies, a snow packed driveway and turning off the garage light. That's it, Eric was content with most everything else."

Link here: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/21/us/eric-sauser-dead-sexy-obituary-trnd/index.html

Hafiz Shirazi says

Do yaare zeerak o az badaye kohan do maney

 fara'gte     o kita'be    o   gosha'ye chamanay

(two intelligent friends and two kilos of old wine

 - and may have leisure and a book and a corner in the garden)

"The Sun and the Cave"

"One day the Sun and a Cave struck up a conversation. The Sun had trouble understanding what “dark” meant and the Cave didn’t quite get the hang of “light and clear” so they decided to change places. 

The Cave went up to the Sun and said, “Ah, I see, this is beyond wonderful. Now come down and see where I have been living.” 

The Sun went down to the cave and said, “Gee, I don’t see any difference.”

When the sun went down, it took its light along and even the darkest corners were illuminated. That's why the Sun couldn't see any difference. 

There is a quote from an old book that says "The enlightened ones can never be sent to hell or pushed into darkness. They carry their heaven on their shoulders all the time".

We thought that a heaven is a place where we are supposed to go, perhaps it was a state of mind we were supposed to achieve. 

If you are full of darkness within, full of negativity, fear, and doubt, you become a Cave unknowingly. It's hell within and no matter how much you accumulate, you still remain hollow. 

If you are illuminated like the Sun, then the darkness of the cave wouldn't matter. You could be in the worse of circumstances, you'll still be able to find a blessing somewhere.

You'll be carrying your Heaven with you.