Anguthi

"To jab Larki ne tumhe anguthi wapas ki to tum ne kiya kiya?"

"Rakh to sakta nahi tha, kisi aur ko bhi nahi de sakta tha.......Pehle socha phenk dun - phir McDonald ke aik 'charity box' main daal di"!

"that one moment"

I am posting this email, not to brag about myself but to see if anyone else had this kind of moments in life too? I received following on my personal email and when I responded, it bounced back. Probably the person has cancelled email account. My comments are after email.

"Doc,

Granted, I felt that maybe I knew you from past life?......I have no reason to lie, it would do me no good. 

Approximately 18 years ago, I stayed with a friend in Chicago for 1 month, we visited Makki Masjid and attended few religious festivals, classes and women majalis.  I  visited masjid  daily (that is my version of heaven on earth).  And I think that's when I saw you for a very brief moment.  It was more like a tunnel vision experience, everything around us had stopped, nothing else existed, as if the time held still ... I am sure you've had those moments too, don't you?  I thought it was weird ....... I forgot all about it until .... I saw your pic with name in one Pakistani magazine, I almost fell off my chair. 

I was contemplating telling you this because I didn't want you to think that I was using this as a bait to reel you into my life.  I was actually surprised when I saw your pic, I didn't know you were a doctor and then had a flashback when for a brief moment I noticed you were alone coming out from Makki Masjid, you were looking to the side and had this big smile on your face and I thought to myself, how sweet! normally you don't see people smiling and whatever reason behind it didn't matter, it seem genuine and attractive...it put the smile on my face.

....I am just happy to be there and it's like a Light Switch, it just comes on, sometimes I have no control over it.  All I know is that I am happy, so I felt the same way about you.  I believe it was a spiritual experience......  

Therefore, believe me when I say, I did not know you then and I still don't know you but I wish I know you. I found your email via google....."  

I had such moments twice in my life. One person (a girl), I never found despite my all endeavors. Other person became my closest friend for now almost 30 years.Though we have many many long years in between  going without talking.

BetiaN! (Daughters)

My Abdomen was hurting since Tuesday night. I ignored it and by Friday morning, I had no choice but to walk into ER. After looking at my CT scan which showed large phlegmon of California size in my Right Lower Quadrant, surgeons had no choice but to take me to OR. Before going to surgery, I called my kids. I spoke to my 11 years old son who understood the logical explanation but nothing struck me more and looking back - I can bear anything except when my 8 years old daughter was crying on phone and asked me: "So will I see you again?", I remained numbed for 2 seconds and said: "Of course you will"... And, then I had to let her go crying. Before they pushed 'Versed' in my IV - I said to God! "You have to make it right for the sake of words I had already given to my daughter"!!

Khuda betion ko itni piyari kiun banata hai!

Related posts:  "Mere Baba ke das Baras!" (here) 

Aik sher Malala ke Naam!

14 year old kid shot by Talibans (Manimals)

Qatale-tiflaN ki munadi ho rahi hai shaher main
Ma mujhe bhi misle-musa tu baha de naher main

A Physician's Diary!

Last week while driving on highway, I had acute abdominal pain, I felt dizzy and I forcefully puked on windscreen. I was barely able to take exit and parked in a parking lot. As I felt better, I drove myself to  hospital (a stupid thing to do instead of calling 911).

Since my arrival to ER, sitting on wheelchair, going through triage, watching staff working under pressure, other emergencies arriving, going through the registration process while puking, a new nurse desperately trying to put IV on me, getting medications, watching physicians, paramedics, loved ones waiting in lobby, other patients, one violent psych patient lying next to me, a CNA trying to give comfort while putting extra blanket on me, going through various tests, watching technicians, transporters and other staff calmly taking frustration of patients. Dealing with first year confused intern, resident, surgeon.....And above all while lying there as a patient......

I realized, how privileged and blessed I am, to put my white coat every morning and go to work. Nothing could be more rewarding. That explained to me one unanswered query of my life that why over centuries - sages, saints, sufis and other religious men have so much interest in medicine as nothing could be more nobler than bringing comfort to an human's misery.....

Ibne maryam huwa kare koi
mere dukh ki dawa kare koi

I had nothing but to say thank you in my heart!!

Tu Shia Main Sunni

(one true incident from a life of a person)

"...I may never forget the incident while I was a kid...... an eleven or twelve years old. We were trapped in a relatives house when violence erupted in one part of the Karachi..We were total 7 kids(I was the eldest one) & five ladies inside the house...the youngest one was only few months old.The smoke from the teargas shell was all over the place & all of us had wet towels in our hands. Then suddenly we heard people climbing on the rooftopย yelling " Shia ka gher hay aag laga do".

They did not even realized that victims were few innocent children & women. They started throwing stones inside the house. Our mom, grandmother & aunt put their hands on the mouth of all the children. Our eyes were burning & we were like dead corpse.... nobody was crying; not even my infant brother. There was pin drop silence, then we heard someone saying "lagta hay ghar ke under koi nahee hay, aag lagana beykaar hay".

They stayed on the roof for sometime.....then we heard a police van & some firing in the air & all of them vanished. We remained inside the house for many hours & then police helped us to get out of the affected area.."

Drowning incident and dreams

Sheik Adil Kalbani is recently appointed first black Imam at the Grand Mosque in Mecca. 2 years ago, he dreamed that he had become an imam at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, but he dismissed that dream.


This long weekend, I planned to take my son to a water park. A night before I dreamed that I have some kind of accident and I am all blue. Than its all dark in my house and my son is hysterically crying, and my mom is trying to calm him done (I am not there anymore)........I woke up with this dream and dismissed it as a mere nightmare.

On Sunday, I was with my son doing a water ride with double tube. My son was excited and little hyper. While we approached ride, he moved his legs inside the tube and that disbalance the whole tube. As I tried to manage, tube flipped upside down. I felt myself drowning (I don't know how to swim). Somehow - I was able to grab floating tube with one hand and my son with other hand. I kept floating inside water for a minute. Those 60 seconds were like 60 years. I kept my mouth annd nose shut. I was worried about my son. Meanwhile, life guard was there, he rescued me and my son. I was shaken and naturally my son was!

Probably, my mom's Dua saved me and my son. As I wrote earlier on this blog - yo can't dismiss all dreams.

Stop Sign

(Police siren)

"Yes officer"
"Papers please! You blew Stop sign"

"Did I? I am sorry officer. I was watching full moon"
(handing over license, insurance and registration)

(Looking at sky)
"Hmmmm. Interesting. I advise you to be careful next time"

"Thank you Officer"
Driving away (in my heart) "Interesting"

Sitare

Ye ittafaq to nahi ho sakta. Ye sitaron ka kesa khel hai... ?

Liaqat Ali Khan jub qatal ho ke Rawalpindi Hospital laaye gaye to Dr. Sadiq Khan ne unhe attend kiya.

56 years later....

Jub Benazir Bhutto qatal ho ke Rawalpindi Hospital layi gai to Dr. Sadiq Khan ke bete Dr. Mussadiq Khan ne unhe attend kiya.

Shayed Khan family ke sitaron main ye kaam kerna likha tha. Ye sirf "husne-ittafaq" to nahi ho sakta. Baqol Faiz:

Is tarah hai ke pase-parda koi sahir hai
jis ne afaq pe pehlaya hai yun saher ka daam

(Its like, there is a magician in the background
who weaved the mirage of magic over universe)

October 18 Tragedy

Karachi was my first love. I loved that city even before I loved any woman. On October 18, carnage was carried out in Karachi in most brutal way. Raza Rumi wrote an excellet article in newspaper and put words to my emotions. (Thanks Raza)


The Oct 18 tragedy and our collective conscience

The foreign media, usually proficient in the rant on Talibanisation, gun-totting radicals and burqas were also at a loss on how to comment on this day. The castle of stereotypes on Pakistan had fallen: men and women were dancing spontaneously, often together on the loud, tacky party songs. There were very few burqas, no guns and no favourite signs of a west-hating native populace. This was a day heralded as a watershed in our recent times, from the left to the right and from the khaki to the mufti. Not because there was a revolution in order but that the real face of the many millions, who aspire for better livelihoods in a secular framework, had been rediscovered.

(click here for full article)

Monogamous

Maria ko main koi 8 baras se jaanta hun. Ye koi chothi (4th) baar us ne apni gaari badli hai. Magar har baar woh aik hi model ki (lexus RX) aur aik hi rang ki (black) gaari upgrade kerti hai. Main ne us se kaha: "yaar tum itne paise barbad kerti ho, koi naya model try karo aur kuch nahi to kum az kum rang hi badal lo". Us ne mujhe muskura ke deka aur boli: "You know, by nature women are monogamous" !

Karachi

(Ye nazam main ne 20 baras pehle likhi thi magar 12 may ko karachi main jo kuch huwa aur jab main ne raza rumi ki nazam parhi - it made me pull my diary and read this poem again. It was written as perody of Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali's Musaddase Mad-o-jazar Islam )


Karachi jis ka charcha hai ye kuch woh kiya hai
Pakistan se alag aik jungle-numa hai

fasanon se bharpur jis ki qabaa hai
na khaufe saza hai, na zoqe wafa hai

sabar o thammul ka is per para hai na saaya
sultane-jamhoor ka yaan qadam tuk na aaya



na police na deegar hain aese zameer perwar
Alif laila agar phir paida hon Iqbal aur Johar

na kuch aese intizam hain yahan mayassar
mujrim jis se pakre jaayain sub ke barabar

na bijli hai, nalkon main paida na paani
faqat load shedding pe hai zindagani


kaam hamare jitne hain sub rishwatana
hur aik loot aur maar main yagana

curfew main kutta hai hamara zamana
Nahi hai koi firing ka tazyaana

hum hain qatal-o-garat main chalak aese
dareende hon jungle main be-baak jese



kahin pehle jhanda lagane pe jhagra
kahin aage jalsa barhane pe jhagra

lub-e-shugal kahin banner lagane pe jhagra
kahin mini bus ke jalne jalane pe jhagra

yunhi roz laraii hai be-khauf hum main
yunhi roz chalti hai kalashnikov hum main



pathrao hamari din raat ki dil-lagi hai
pistol hamari ghutti main goya pari hai

sifarish hai, zalalat hai, begaangi hai
garz hur tarah hum main jahalat bhari hai

bahut khun ki hum ne bahai hai nadyan
kub nekiun pe chaii chatain gi ye badian

Accidental?

Read this news and tell me: Do you still think that days of our life are accidental?


Store clerk’s mistake results in her winning $200,000 in lottery

CONOVER, N.C. - A Conover convenience store clerk inadvertently won a $200,000 Powerball prize after she rang up duplicate lottery tickets. Wadburn Allen accidentally printed the two tickets for a customer Tuesday. At the end of the day, after she was unable to sell the second ticket, Allen paid for the ticket herself. The next day, Allen returned to the store and found the ticket matched all five numbers — earning her a $200,000 jackpot.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18234638/

On "Honor Marriages"

Few days back, surror did a post on a strange custom from Kyrgyzstan , where a man can marry only a kidnapped girl against her wishes. How we are different ? We kill our girls either by ourselves or make her kidnap against her wishes by marrying her to someone she don't want. 

All hats off to Amish people

I have always been fascinated with the Amish community, and now I have so much respect for them. After going through such a horrendous tragedy when their children were shot dead without any reason (unbelievable crime ! How someone can even think of doing that) - how they reacted so gracefully is impressive. You may disagree with their beliefs, but I see their character as a 'role model' for other communities and religions. They are at least honest and sincere in their teachings of forgiveness.

'Life has to go on for Amish community Spirit of forgiveness rules the day in the face of school shooting tragedy - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15120230/

*

hawa

Jese hi hum ne HA ko qabar main utara aur us pe matti daalna shuru ki - qabarstan main zabardast hawa ki aik laher chali jese aandhi aai ho aur qabar ki matti mujh simat kai logon ki aankhon main ghus gai.

Enough to break me

This one picture from earthquake zone was enough to break me.

Money

I was trying to teach a mentally challenged kid the right way of doing things. I said: "Every time you trash things properly, I will give you one Quarter," and she replied: "But what will I do with that quarter?"

She taught me a big lesson: Before striving for money, at least know what you will do with that money! Also, should we always look for rewards to do things correctly?