Classic Manto

 

Childhood Memory

‏ابھی ڈسپوزیبل سرنج نہیں آئی تھیں تو محلے کے ڈاکٹر صاحب کیتلی کے کھولتے پانی میں ڈوبی سوئی کو چمٹی سے نکال کر اس ٹیکے پر لگاتے اور دوائی بھر کے تھوڑا سا ایک نکڑ کی طرف کر کے دو قطرے نکالتے اور کہتے 

" کاکا کچھ نہیں ہوتا سیدھا ہو جا "

شائد آپ بھی شاھد ہوں اس زمانے کے

 

 

Let them pass!

 

Interesting Puzzle

 

Key to spousal relationship

 "What do you think, what you need as the key for spousal relationship?"

"Respect or love?"

"Those may be right answers at lower level, but what makes a relationship really meaningful and successful is to hold difficult conversation when situation arise with kids, values, relatives, in-laws, finances, porn, attention, nagging, perceived cheating and others."

A Phoenix will Rise

 

GOD!!

 

*G P S, STORY*

(Names have been blocked out for the privacy)

Our dear friend SR, who lives just two blocks from us, originally hails from Lyallpur, a city renowned for its textile industry in Pakistan. SR comes from a prominent family deeply rooted in the textile business, much like Dr. NS family. SR has made a name in the industry, even in the USA.

SR visited his primary care physician a few months ago for a routine checkup. The results revealed that his hemoglobin A1C (Hgb A1C) level was elevated at 6.8, indicating prediabetes—a warning sign that caught his attention. His doctor delivered a straightforward ultimatum: either shape up, lose weight, and adopt healthier habits, or face the prospect of starting medication to manage his condition.

SR embarked on a business trip to Pakistan shortly after this appointment to oversee his textile operations. While there, he had an enlightening conversation with one of his factory managers, affectionately known as Chacha. Chacha A**** offered unconventional yet practical advice as they discussed food and health. “Sahib,” he said confidently, “just follow the GPS, and you’ll shed the weight in no time.” Puzzled, SR inquired, “What’s GPS?” With a chuckle, Chacha explained that it wasn’t a navigation tool but a simple dietary principle: avoid Grains, Potatoes, and Sugar—the “GPS” of unhealthy eating. He assured that sticking to this approach would yield results.

Intrigued by the idea's simplicity, SR decided to try it. Upon returning to Chicago, he committed to the GPS plan, cutting out grains like bread and rice, starchy potatoes, and sugary treats from his diet. The results were nothing short of remarkable. In just 10 weeks, he dropped an impressive 21 pounds. Encouraged by his progress, he set a goal to lose 33 pounds, steadily working toward it by faithfully adhering to the GPS method.

SR’s transformation left me in awe. It’s incredible how a straightforward shift in diet—avoiding processed carbs and sugars—can not only help shed unwanted weight but also potentially prevent chronic conditions like diabetes. It’s a powerful reminder that small, intentional changes can yield life-changing outcomes, steering us away from the pitfalls of junk food and sedentary habits.

I encourage you all to consider trying the GPS approach for yourselves. Share your experiences—whether a pound lost, newfound energy, or a healthier outlook—I’d love to hear your stories! 

 *Here’s to health, discipline, and the wisdom of Chacha A*****!*

Which fight to pick

 I have learned in life that one of the biggest skill you need in life to learn which fights to pick and which fights to let go. You can't fight all battles. Choose wisely.

We need both!!

 

Editing

Over the years, I learned that being simple and having few words are much more impactful...Verbosity is a curse.

 

Been there - I know the peak of stupidity!

 

Indus Valley and Mohenjo-Daro recreated

How the Indus Valley and Mohenjo-Daro looked in history, watch in this short video made by AI...

 

Taste of Death

 (A text from a friend)

As you know, I am not a very religious person, and as usual I got the news of death of someone on one of my WhatsApp group. Someone commented with the Quranic ayat:

And for few days I kept thinking, why the word "Zaiqa"? Is death sweet or has a specific taste? or does it metaphorically mean that: Death is a good thing for every human?

Don't know my friend. I am crazy. Bewajah baton pe aen waen gor karain..

A man

 

Time!!

 

Bhook!

 

An Actual man

 

Dreams

Remember how sewing machine was invented via a dream to Elias Howe!!

 

Teacher

 "Once a teacher, always a teacher - if not, not a teacher."

"A teacher is a born student."

Spiritual Strenth

 "Sir! what is the height of attaining spiritual strength?"

"When you can decide the mode and time of death at your will."

Education!

 

One small dream

 Saw Nana in my dream today.

Nana's house is full of people, as if some aftaari is happening. Guests are present as if Nana is hosting an Iftar party.

Nana is sitting in the TV lounge on his sofa, wearing a clean white shawar kameez and looking very healthy and happy. Nani is in the kitchen, and Mamu Shariq, his family, Musa, Mahrook, and I are all there.  

Mamu Waqar sat beside Nana on Nana's side of the sofa, and Nana smiled joyfully at him. And then nana asks him with a naughty smile, why do you look so weak and touches his legs and says 'lagta hai saray rozay rakh rahay ho, kamzor ho gaye ho'. 

America is Changing

 

Obsession

" Obsession in any form kills but continues to drive and thrive life." 

Box

 

A life lesson tip

 

دامن پہ کوئی چھینٹ نہ خنجر پہ کوئی داغ

ہندوستانی وزیراعظم اندرا گاندھی نے 1975 میں ایمرجنسی لگا دی تھی ۔ اکیس مہینے کی اس ہنگامی حالت میں انسانی حقوق پامال کیے گئے ۔ اپوزیشن رہنماؤں کو جیل بھیجا گیا اور پریس کو پابندیوں کا سامنا کرنا پڑا ۔ ان حالات میں پندرہ اگست کو نئی دلی کے لال قلعے میں تقریب ہوئی ۔ وزیر اعظم اس مشاعرے میں موجود تھیں۔ کلیم عاجز نے اس مشاعرے میں اندرا گاندھی کی طرف اشارہ کر کے یہ شعر (دامن پہ کوئی چھینٹ نہ خنجر پہ کوئی داغ......... تم قتل کرو ہو کہ کرامات کرو ہو) پڑھا۔ شعر پر بہت داد ملی ،لیکن مشاعرہ کے منتظمین کا خون خشک ہوگیا ۔

دامن پہ کوئی چھینٹ نہ خنجر پہ کوئی داغ

تم قتل کرو ہو کہ کرامات کرو ہو

بکنے بھی دو عاجزؔ کو جو بولے ہے بکے ہے

دیوانہ ہے دیوانے سے کیا بات کرو ہو

One Futuristic

 

On Animals

 

On Snake and Us

 

On Human History

 

Giving

 

Why Piku was a different move

Piku was a 2015 Indian movie with mega stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Irfan Khan and Deepika Padukone.

The reason I think everyone should watch this movie as it shows that love doesn't need to be an extravaganza show. It comes from every day's life gestures - so subtle sometimes - that you may even miss it!

You might have to watch this movie twice to understand those subtle gestures and dialogues. 

Naturally only Irrfan can do it!!!!

Paradox of AI

 

Masti main hai saara jahan

مِی و میخانه مست و مِی کشان مست

زمین مست و زمان مست آسمان مست

شد زمین مست، آسمان مست

بلبلان نغمه خوان مست

باغ مست و باغبان مست 

Sharing Griefs!

 

The Second Vulture

In the 1990s, a photo of a vulture waiting for a starving little girl to die so it could feed on her body was widely circulated.

This photo was taken during the 1993/94 famine in Sudan, by Kevin Carter, a South African photojournalist, who later won the Pulitzer Prize for this “incredible photo.”

However, while Kevin Carter was enjoying his achievement and being celebrated on major news channels and networks around the world for his “exceptional photographic talent,” he only lived a few months to enjoy his supposed success and fame, as he later suffered a breakdown and committed suicide!

Kevin Carter’s depression began when, during one of these interviews (a phone-in show), someone called and asked him what had happened to the little girl. He simply replied, "I didn't wait to find out after that flash, because I had a flight to catch..."Then the caller said, "I just wanted to make you understand that there were two vultures that day, and one had a camera."

So, Kevin Carter's constant thinking about this statement later led him to depression and he eventually committed suicide. He could have still been alive today and even much more famous, if he had just picked up that little girl after her photo and taken her to the UN Feeding Center, which she was probably trying to reach, or at least taken her to a safe place.

Today, unfortunately, this is what is happening all over the world. The world celebrates stupidity and inhumane acts, at the expense of acts of heart and bravery.

Kevin Carter should have taken the little girl away from that place, which would have cost him nothing, but he didn't.

This is the inhumane posture: "he had plenty of time to take his flash, but he didn't have time to save a little girl's life."

So, we all need to understand that the purpose of life is also to touch lives.

Are you also a vulture?

In everything we do, let us put humanity first, before what we can gain from the situation. In everything we do, always think of others and how we can be useful to humanity, how we can help them.

Attitude matters

 Over the years I learned from a lot of colleagues and students that only one thing matter in life for success. Attitude.

The Rashomon Effect

The 40 year old gentleman was in deep distress. His wife was massaging his left shoulder in a bid to alleviate his pain. 

Within the last 48 hours, he has met three different Doctors (Super- Specialists to be precise) and underwent an ECG, ECHO, MRIs of shoulder and Neck bone, and a battery of blood tests. The wife's hands were overflowing with the prescriptions and the Path Lab reports.

Being an IT professional, he has been suffering from Neck pain quite often.

Three days ago, the pain started to gradually shift to his left shoulder and arm. 

The patient googled his symptoms which indicated the possibility of an imminent Heart attack.

The couple had rushed to a local Doctor who performed normal blood tests and sent him to a Cardiologist. 

The Cardiologist thought it could still be a Myocardial ischemia and performed a 2D Echo Test. It turned out to be normal but to be on the safer side, he prescribed a low dose of blood thinners, Cholesterol medications and advised him to get an opinion from an Orthopedic Surgeon.

The pain was excruciating and the Orthopedic Surgeon being a Specialist in Keyhole surgeries, suggested that it could be a tear in the shoulder tendons since the patient was diabetic. He performed an MRI of the shoulder which was equivocal. 

He gave the patient some more medications and suggested that he meet a Neurologist ‘just in case’ it could be a nervous problem. 

After examination, the Neurologist too thought it could be Diabetes or viral Neuropathy based on the high Blood Sugar level.

He advised a few tests and an MRI of the Cervical Spine. 

Finally, it turned out to be a Slipped disc in the Neck Bone.

What we see here is a common Healthcare problem of late.

 

Every Super-specialist sees the patient and his symptoms, only from his specialized narrow perspective.

The clinical notes, investigations and disease Management are tailored to suit the Doctor's specialization.

 This is what is stated as *Rashomon Effect*

*Rashomon* was a famous movie directed by the celebrated Japanese Art-movie Director-

*Akira Kurosawa*

In this movie, a Murder scene is described by different witnesses from their own point of view. All their views, are very different from one another. But they all believed that they are speaking the truth, because it appears True from their own individual perspective.

Similarly every Medical Super-specialist has his own approach towards the patient, typically focused on the system in which he has specialized. 

Upper stomach pain is seen as Esophagitis by the Gastroenterologist, Angina by Cardiologist and as Costochondritis by the Orthopedic Surgeon.

If we look at their clinical notes and examination findings, it would match their diagnosis since their mind is wearing blinkers.

The Specialized mind fills the gaps based on his previous observations, specialized knowledge and myopic training.

With increasing Super- specialization, the patient is not seen as a whole, but only as an affected Organ.

The specialist falls prey to the *Rashomon Effect* and explains the patient's symptoms from the perspective of his own Super-specialization.

It is difficult to avoid this in future, since practitioners of General Medicine, are on the verge of getting extinct, thanks to current trends in Medical Education worldwide, there is a craze for Super-Specialists.

Please consult a good General Physician, before approaching any Super-Specialist in Medicine.

Life!

وہ چشم بے نور کتنی بے نور ہے کہ جس نے 

نہ خواب دیکھے نہ زندگی کے عذ اب دیکھے 

Money

 Found the following rules on money management so valid!

Negative Time

 

A German proverb

‏جرمن کہتے ہیں ‏کتے کو اپنا خوف اور انسان کو اپنی ضرورت سونگھنے نہ دیں، ‏ورنہ وہ دونوں آپ کو کاٹ لیں گے

 

Pendulum of Mind

 

Incredible delivery of poetry

 

Agree!

 

Unmarked Death

 It took me a long time to realized the burden of last few lines of  Leo Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilyich

And suddenly it became clear to him that what was tormenting him and would not be resolved was suddenly all resolved at Ollce, on two sides, on ten sides, on all sides. He was sorry for them, he had to act so that it was not painful for them. To deliver them and deliver himself from these sufferings. "How good and how simple," he thought.

{Leo Tolstoy died from pneumonia, aged eighty-two, at the railway station of Astapovo, a remote Russian village, on November 7, 1910. He had left his family home on October 28, in the middle of the night, to die as unmarked person}

Or, why  Thomas Hardy in The Mayor of Casterbridge quoted: 

 Michael Henchard's Will 

That Elizabeth-Jane Farfrae be not told of my death, 

or made to grieve on account of me. 

& that I be not bury'd in consecrated ground. 

& that no sexton be asked to toll the bell. 

& that nobody is wished to see my dead body. 

& that no murners walk behind me at my funeral. 

& that no flours be planted on my grave. 

& that no man remember me. 

To this I put my name. 

Michael Henchard

Or Ghalib said: 

hue mar ke ham jo rusvā  hue kyuuñ na ġharq-e-dariyā

na  kabhī  janāza  uThtā   na  kahīñ  mazār  hotā

How many intellectual discussions end - without much to avail

(As described by a close friend)

I was explaining to a few friends of mine that this morbid fascination with death and the afterlife is unnecessary but oh how we love to dwell on it. Sadly, it’s so unnecessary because consciousness arises from brain activity and ends with brain death. Once our brain neurons finally die, our entire perspective about life or the afterlife quickly disappear, leaving nothingness, blackness… just like before birth we had zero recollection about our existence. In fact our brains are joke at birth, and it takes years to fully develop. 18 years on average!!! 

So this nonsense about heaven, hell and the prospect of life after death fades away with the last neuron flickering towards its end.

Meanwhile one of my friends, Mashooq Hussein, 61, who I thought was intently listening while puffing on a cigarette, pensively said “did you know there are two only types of jinns in this dunya, *regular jinns and londay baaz jinns* and so the conversation quickly ended and I looked at him, raised my right hand and gave him a solid lanath and said “thooo bhenrda” and we all laughed and sipped on tea and lit a cigarette. 

That was the end of that intellectual conversation.

Funny African Proverbs

When a man is stung by a bee, he does not destroy all beehives- Kenya Proverb

It is only a stupid cow that rejoices at the prospect of being taken to a beautiful abattoir - Zambian Proverb

No matter how far an eagle flies up the sky, it will definitely come down to look for food - Zimbabwe Proverb

An army of sheep led by a lion can defeat an army of lions led by a sheep. - Ghanaian proverb

The anus doesn't teach the mouth the sweetness of food - South-African Proverb

The man who marries a beautiful woman and the farmer who grows corn by the roadside have the same problem- Ethiopian Proverb

A short man is not a boy- Nigerian Proverb

No matter how hot your anger is, it cannot cook yams- Nigerian Proverb

It requires a lot of carefulness to kill the fly that perches on the scrotum- Ghanaian Proverb

If the throat can grant passage to a knife, the anus should wonder how to expel it -South-African Proverb

The frown on the face of the goat will not stop it from being taken to the market - Nigerian Proverb

An old lady feels uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb - Ghanaian Proverb

The same sun that melts the wax, hardens the clay - Nigerien Proverb

If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there - Ugandan Proverb

There is no virgin in a maternity ward- Cameroonian Proverb

The madman, who throws a stone into a crowded market, forgets that his own mother could be hit by his madness. - Ugandan Proverb

A child can play with its mother's breasts, but not its father's testicles - Guinean Proverb

He who goes to sleep with an itching anus wakes up with smelly fingers - Nigerian Proverb

Faiz Mixed with Van Gogh

 

A Persian Saying

مُلْکِ خُدا تَنْگ نِیسْت، پائے مُرا لَنْگ نِیسْت

- دنیا بہت وسیع ہے اور فقیر چلنے پھرنے سے معذور نہیں

- ایک جگہ سے محرومی ہوئی تو کیا فکر ﷲ تعالیٰ دوسری جگہ سے دے دے گا ، فکر وہ کرے جو جدوجہد سے گھبراتا ہو

One remarkable painting

One remarkable painting.

Note: Gracias to Books and stilettos for providing update in comments: "This is "The Slave Market" by Jean-Léon Gérôme, painted in 1866: It depicts a scene in the Middle East or North Africa, the Barbary slave trade. It is an example of 19th-century Orientalist art. His paintings are located at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown. I have seen another one where a guy is checking a nude woman’s teeth like we do for bakras on eid hahaha his work is fascinating!"

 

One definition of Home

 

Leaving pleasures

From my early days, residency, fellowship, and career in medicine, I had to let go of many get-togethers, gatherings, parties, and late-night pleasures!

 

A woman!

 

Monkeys!

There is a saying in Persian: "every human born is destined for a specific work."

 

 

We are verbs!!!

Oscar Wilde said that if you know what you want to be, then you inevitably become it...that is your punishment, but if you never know, then you can be anything. There is a truth to that. We are not nouns. We are verbs. I am not a thing...an actor, a writer...I am a person who does things...I write, I act...and I never know what I am going to do next. I think you can be imprisoned if you think of yourself as a noun."

Consistency vs Intensity