Maqtal-e-Hussein

Maqtal Hussein saja howa hai abhi talak

Qatal abhi bhe jari hai insaf ka

Jo samajthae thae kae zulmat ka sooraj doob giya

Unka khawab abhi bhi hai buss aik khawab sa



Insanyaat ka qatal abhi bhi jaari hai

Kissi ki Aannaa abhi talak saari ummat per bhari hai



Khooon abhi bhi beh raha hai haq kai naam per

Kae mil raha ganda pani, Amrit kai daaam par



Wahi maaal bechtae howae chehrae badal rahe hain aaj

Mein tu gulam hoon, farq nahee badal chalae kisi ka raaj



Mujae iis qafas sae azad koi karwae kiyon

Hussein tu waqt tha, Guzar giya, woh wapis aaae kiyon



Meri zaaat aik na aik din mith hi jae gi

woh tumharae maatam sae wapis kabhi na aaye gi



Seenae paar parte hath, zalim per kub Uthaao gae

Zulm ko roknae kub tum Hurr ki tarha chalae aao gae



Zulm ko rook doo tum, aaaj phir Hussein ko zinda kar doo

woh hi tarkeeb karo, Zalim ko usi kae zulm sae sharminda kar do



Dekhna koi zulm tum sae na hoonae pae

Koi Saakina aaj kai baad aab yateem na honae pae



Haq kae naam par Kisi ki sooch par talae na lagana tum

Apnae gandae hathoon ko Waazo sae na bacahana tum



Hussein tu naam hai , Aailaan hai aazadi ka

Nateeja hamesha hai Zulmat aur zalim ki barbadi ka



Zahoor waqt tu aik din Aakhir badal hi jata hai

Sub Mith jata hai Buss Hussein hi reh jata hai

Remote Control

It has been 4 years since I am living in this apartment; it has got two entrances for the basement parking, front and back. When I first moved here, I always used to use the front entrance, however after some time I found the back entrance is more convenient, as it is broad has got simpler access to my parking place.

However since I started using the back entrance, there is always a problem in opening the parking bar. I found lot of other peoples struggling with it too. That sometime quite frustrating in terms of getting in front of bar trying different combination, trying different distance, pressing button with different frequency, all sort of techniques I developed in last four years and found one or another working at different time.

Every time I was able to open the bar, it was like triumph, an achievement like discovering the secret to unlock some secret door in pursuit of treasure hunt. At the same time some good words for the manufacturer of the parking bar and building management.

While I develop such techniques, I found other people keep struggling with it, having difficulty opening the bar. I found quite amusing that why people just don’t go and complain to building management, why they just struggle with the remote control, this apathy doesn’t make sense to me till one day I found the secret.
One day I reached the entrance and tried the remote control, it didn’t work as usual and then I started applying all the techniques one by one. I tried pressing the button with different angles, I also tried reversing my car to certain distance and then pressing the button with different strength. One by one it tried all and it didn’t work.

I moved to front entrance and tried it and it also didn’t work, Ummmm. Poor maintenance, it seemed that disease is now spread to front bar as well, these poor building people, they just charge hefty building management amount but rather spending on the building they all spend on their salaries, well it is quite much inflation since couple of year.

So I parked the car outside and went to watchman room and explain that it all in poor condition, nothing is working. He agreed to come to back entrance and look at the problem. I went there he came and tried with his remote. Wow, it worked.
I thanked him as I am an educated person so as part of custom I have to, then I again complained why you people don’t fixed the bar, why you just don’t change it. He asked how long I am staying here, as he just moved in this building for last 8 months. I proudly said 4 years, he said, Sir did you change the battery of your remote. What battery? I thought battery comes with the remote, work forever, and I haven’t received any instruction from them to have it replaced.

Anyway next day I open the remote and found an unusual size of battery inside having 9 volts written on it. That seems to be something very unusual, I am very proud of my observations and I have never seen something like that.

Next day I went to supermarket and went to electronic counter explain this unusual battery. He asked do I need for car remote, wow this guy is genius, I said yes. Well it is there in the battery stand among other normal batteries. I went there and found it was there. Ummm. How come I missed, how come I never noticed it and it was always there. It was just so very visible and easy to notice.

I changed the battery and it amazing; I never had problem again, no complex technique, no reversing of the car, no pressing the button in particular strength, nothing, just pressed and bar opened.

Everything was so perfect expect me. I was the noise in the whole equation.

For a moment I thought, the bar operates when remote generate a special frequency which matches to bar configured frequency and it opens. How many doors in my life, I had the same problem, but I always blamed on the bar, I was living in the perfect world, full of logic and reasoning, good commentator of people apathy, their social and philosophical problems and despite of all I was just damn bad that I never realized the battery inside me now need to be replaced, the frequency I am generating is not matching the other person frequency, don’t know how many time the bar has acted smartly and sympathetic to me and open the door of opportunity for me rather it was my brilliance and excellence.

I was perfect, my world was perfect, all the people acting around me were robots and stupid, I was the king of my world, I know all the problems and supposedly I know the solution but I never knew the problem was not in the surrounding, it was me.

I need to change the battery, I need to listen to everything that is coming to me and I will not have people feedback, unless I invite them to have, if even that day I haven’t gone to watchman, my perfect world never would had shattered. How come I never noticed the car remote cell while purchasing ‘AAA’ size batteries, we only see and listen what our brain expects, our intelligent subconscious mind exclude all the unwanted signals before it is refined and reached to higher authority, so my brain always kept happy, always sees and listen what it wants.

My battery changed and so I do. 

He is there, everywhere

I was having the lower back pain since last two weeks so doctor suggested an MRI, after long waiting, finally got the insurance approval for the MRI so I went to have that yesterday at the appointment time.

I went to MRI room and inform the technician about my appointment. He said I need to get some paper from the insurance department so I went there to insurance department to have the papers, which I found out that they had misplaced. So they created a new one, and ask me to get the account department to get it stamped. I got it stamped and came back to insurance department; they did something on the computer, stamped and send back to me MRI.

In the whole process I was acting like messenger taking papers from here to there. They had all the information and there is nothing really require from me other than their stupid process.

Obviously that was very irritating for me, and it became more when I finally reach to MRI room and the guy started with another paper asking basic question , what my name , my age, why I want to have MRI and what the problem, what sort of pain. I was about to blast however I kept my cool.

The whole process seems stupid and mechanical to me and frustrating, everyone acting dumb with nice smile on his/her face.

Anyway Finally I was inside the MRI machine and machine start scanning me. With dang-dang sound coming from machine, although I was still in bad mode, I got another thought and view of whole situation.

I suddenly realized when all the peoples were acting dumb and mechanical I have the opportunity to act smart and intelligent which I did and all the people around me there to help me out.

I was like the main CPU of the computer to make intelligent decision having communication with the different passive components and it up to me to get my experience better; I had the room to act rather to react like passive component in a system, so which could be better, a dumb Zahoor or an intelligent Zahoor.

I always prefer room where I could play so why not rather I expect somebody smile at me, why not I first smile and receive the same, why not I drive my life and experience rather to wait others to improve my experience, the same 20 minutes of waiting could have been different if I just focused on the objective to get the MRI done to identify the root cause of my problem.

And after all those people are there to help me, they are all doing their duties to get my MRI done, to solve my problem and to get me out of pain. Isn’t everything there for me? Allah has created a world around me to help me out, He put people, process, and facilities around me and make me Center of universe.

The moment I get the right context, I felt like king, I realize everything around me, working for me, God is helping me, talking to me in different forms, He is just everywhere, every actions around me a message to me to act, learn and grow more maturely and responsibly.

What else I want, everything is working me, it just like when a toddler start walking, he fells but parent doesn’t stop him falling, it is the process of learning and I don’t how many such avenues of learning we do miss everyday having wrong context. Every bad experience is not a bad experience is a learning experience.
He is there, everywhere.

Power of context

Living abroad let you discover many things other than wealth, which means it opens up opportunity for develop better understanding of human psychology, structures of societies and human motives behind actions and overall behavior. I am blessed that I have got this opportunity that help me broader my perspective.

Our thinking are like fishing nets, so broader the net means more fishes. Fishes are always there and they are infinitely many. It is the net that restrict us and local context of people around us that make us think that it is the maximum that we can have.

Yesterday I was reading pamphlet in Arabic that is about customer feedback, it hardly makes any sense to me, though I can read and may recognize few words in it. One of the words that I found was “Maqbool”. Maqbool is a word in Urdu being used in context of describing something which is very famous, popular and may be prestigious, it used in quite positive manner. This word was lend from Arabic as Urdu is comprised of words belong to different origins and languages.
Surprisingly in Arabic, “Maqbool” means the same however it application is totally different; it is used in terms to describing something which is average and known and accepted by population which barely satisfies them. It is no way means it is popular or famous or anyway near prestigious.

Just amazed, how a word taken from different language with it literal meaning almost the same, means totally different in two different societies and trigger different reactions. May the meanings of words are inside our minds, not in the words.

I just wonder reading books; history, literature, religion are suffice to deliver the message from one generation to another. I hardly think so. Without creating the context in mind about the people and the understanding of society they lived, it would be very difficult to get across the right message and intention behind it, and must impose great responsibility on us to understand it let alone make any inference based on the reconstructed thoughts and apply to current societies.

Rabi zidni ilma - My Lord increase my knowledge

Speed Bumps

Today, I found a new speed bump built on the road that I use daily to go to my office, that speed bump was built in front of the school so understandably it is designed for the safety of the students of the school, a good thing that municipality people thought of. However when I was going back to home at evening, the speed bump was there as well, so I need to slow the car to dead speed to get over it, although school was closed. Quite understandably once speed bumps are build they don't go anywhere they remain there.

This let my mind to get into something fancy to drive analogies out of it. Speed bumps are negative instrument that work against the very purpose of road to facilitate the traffic but sometime we decided to have it to avoid bigger loss and compromise on the speed. We do consider them as safety checks to rein and control the speed menace and avoid any problem which may happen but not surely, when and how, but anyway we better think to have them installed.

We humans built our personality as we grow up facing different experiences, culture and custom. Such experiences allows us to build such road network of thoughts in our mind, and every "no" that we learn in our life is like a speed bump that restrict our capability to free flow our thoughts and innovation or at-least slow down our ability for adoption and something even think rationally.

However a "No" at some point of time doesn't means the same for your current situation, but since speed bumps built that they stay there even the school was closed, it keep slowing down everything and kill your speed, creativity.

So keep review your speed bumps (internal beliefs) , I usually prefer no speed hump but you need to have some. The worst of all that, sometime people are known for their speed bumps, as basic ingredients of their personality. A personality full of "No", I can't eat this, I can't watch this, I can't go there, I can't wear this, I can't do this.

I think a continuous thinking to review our internal speed bumps are required, but you need a motivation to do, a motivation is a vision that lead your way out and act as compass what you should do and what you shouldn't and what is the right way to go about.

A motivation should be a positive statement for you, for your family and for the people around you. A statement that let you know what is the better for you and all the people around. I again stress people around you, because your speed bump not only affects you but all the people that are connected to you.

So this statement let you know which speed bumps should remain be there and which should be removed.

Best of luck with your speed bumps, Live your life to fullest and use your brain rather let it use you.

Death a reality

Death is the ultimate reality of life. However, I still need to find the definition for it and develop its understanding: The very fact of this reality that one day I will be dead, which means I will be no more in this world. But why do I have to die anyway? After spending so many years fighting for my existence and working hard to get the control of life, eventually I will be retired from this world. The moment I reach the heights of my achievements, I will be told that Mr. Zahoor, thanks a lot for your services and the efforts that you have put in. But we no longer require your services. Would that be fair? Am I just a part of the machinery which will eventually be replaced and thrown out once its job is done and it's no longer able to serve the system?

I have no issues with death nor am I afraid of it. However, I am not willing to accept it. I can’t accept that one day I will be destroyed. My ego and self-esteem don't allow me to accept it. I just can?t accept that all my efforts and struggle that I am putting in will one day be nullified.

I am very much sure that this question of ?Why I will be dead? is not only in my mind but also remains somewhere in your mind too - maybe at some corner. Some of you ignore it and some accept it and some might have trouble dealing with it like I have. However, I must salute all of you. Despite knowing the fact, all of us continue in struggle to make our world more beautiful, making our life more luxurious and relaxed, creating events of happiness and ignoring and dealing with the sad part of it. It really requires great courage.

I know lots of philosophers passed away dealing with the issue of whether we exist or not. My question is related to the other extreme. I am very sure that I do exist, however, a reality also exists about transition from my existence to non-existence. Is there something that exists as non-existence of myself?

April 20, 2005

- Zahoor ul Islam

Dumb Cat or Kat or you whatsoever

Dumb Cat

Aug 2^nd 2005

You know cats are cute, they are indeed and as the same time they are smart too. Though at our home we are not used to keep pets and as I believe to let them free in nature is a good option.

One good evening my family found a cat sitting next to my door, it was quite unusual especially for the kids. They had tried every way to poke her out that could had made her to runaway but that cat seems to quite stable in her intention and kept sitting with a innocent look on her face. She seems to be hungry, we guessed, so we gave some left over food which she quickly ate and run away.

Next evening she was again there at the same place, this time we didn’t fed her, some suggested this way she will be used to come daily, some agreed but some soft hearted people in our family never mind feeding her and she used to come every day at the same time event twice afterwards.

Soon after few weeks she becomes the familiar to our family, now she can roam into the house and people can touch and play with her and she had tried everything to get the attention by every family members especially those who feed her.

I also sometime fed her, as I said we don’t keep pets, we just tried to feed her as we felt she always come hungry for food.

One fine evening, she was again at the doorstep, sitting there with the innocent look on her face, by the way she was not that innocent as she is very selective in eating food what we presented to her, she seems to found to good food, no Khachra, please J. She communicated us in one or another way.

That evening, I also saw another cat with her, may be the other cat was uninvited guest and didn’t seem to be there with the consent of the old cat. I was having dinner at the time, so I saved few chicken pieces for the cat and after the dinner throw it towards the cats, the quantity was good so I felt probably that will feed both the cats, however I observed something that quite strike me, the new cat was hesitant to go for the chicken piece and she looked first toward me with the disbelieve in her eyes whether the pieces was for her or my old cat, and then she looked towards the other cat who was very much confident in grabbing pieces and branding herself as the favorite cats of the house and then I saw all the pieces was collected by the old cat and she didn’t offer anything to that new kitty and she finally runway without eating anything.

It was bit strange and at the same time familiar to me, that very much happen in our human world too. We human are not less than these two characters, we often found cat number 1 in our life who seems to promoting herself as the best person in town having access to all the resources and opportunity in his hand and marketing her personality as the person having power and access to the resources while the cat number 2 often found in our society having lack of confidence, lack of information and knowledge about where the opportunity exist and how to grab them and understand and know the real person distributing and managing resources, approach them and finally fell dependent to the smart cats and comprised for the whole life following the smart cats.

They never tried to understand that there is nothing exceptional in the smart cats except their confidence and perseverance.

What if that cat had attempted for the chicken piece for the first time, would I mind that O! Poor kitty this is for my old favorite cat and you are not allowed to have that, well this was not in my mind but was there in that kitty mind. How often just the perception change the whole picture, how often just looking at the positive side and being confident let you get to the new opportunities rather falling prey to circumstances and comprising rather inventing opportunities for ourselves.

Just think it out for 5 minutes in silent when last time you felt like cat number 2 and cat number 1 has taken the major share of your efforts and grabbed out your opportunity and leaving aside few bits and pieces for you. Just think when you last time gave up without even giving a try to solve your problems by yourself.

The choice is yours, what do you want, it up to you , Cat number 1 or Cat number 2, you can have your life being the Cat number 1 or Cat number 2, the choice is yours, it is just the matter of perception in your mind and getting more confidence. Would you now give a try, here see there is chicken piece for you :)