Noah's Ark ... Through The Ages

Here is my article for Us Magazine in which I wrote about Noah's chronicles through the ages.

Gradual Ticks of The Clock

Check out my recent short story on Tribune blog by clicking here.

Black Hole

Me: I am letting you have my short story collection for second opinion but never ever let anyone get a hold of this.

Jalil: Yeah sure.

Me: Sure what?

Jalil: Sure I won't let anyone see it.

Me: Promise me.

Jalil: Dude, calm down. If it gives you any assurance, I'll only let anyone have it the day X comes to me, holds my hand in hers and proposes me.

Me: (laughs) That sure makes you a black hole. What goes in will never come out.

Jalil: That hurt...deeply. 

Religion of God

I had my reservations that all the religions seemed same to me as I paced through my life and read a few books on it - one should be named here "Evolution of God" by Robert Wright - when eventually I was led to a knowledge that perhaps all the religions sprang out from one single divine belief that was once monolith in the whole world but now appendages of it has grown out with branches that spread into subdivisions which we refer to as 'religions'. I won't call it a belief, but a path leading towards better understanding of my belief.

Axis

I struggled to find the focus of her attention throughout my life, unknown to the fact that the axis passed through me.

Damsel in Distress

She was always a typical damsel in distress, wondering by the single windowed tower, waiting for her savior knight who'd come along with a lit up sword with dragon's blood dripping from its edge. She was a nymph of eternal beauty, much like a love-in-a-mist waiting to be plucked out. So much for waiting, unknown to the stairs that would lead her out onto the smoothed marble embanking the lake with suave water lilies. So much beauty on her, so much around her, and the chance to have it all just standing in front of her, yet she was bound to wait. She was a typical damsel in distress.    

Alone in the World

I was the only living person in the world, and then one day I found in my phone a picture of me sleeping.

Snoring

I woke up at night due to the snoring of my wife, only to realize in the morning that she had died two years ago.

Snowy Night

I called 911 to report a man with an ax standing outside my living room window on a snowy night only to realize that there were no footprints in the snow outside - my assumption that the man was outside was proven false when the authorities told me that he was actually standing behind me when I looked at the window.

The 11th Doctor

The result was announced and everywhere all sorts of people came to congratulate me in their own ways.

Cheers!

Bhai treat kab de rahay ho?!

Beta ENT me jana. Pehla mareez aap ka me hu ga…

Mehnat to kartay nai thay, K.E me kesay aa gaye? Bacha genius ha…

30^th October was the Day of Judgment – kind of an apocalypse we had all been preparing for almost 4 years. I just remember that I woke up at 8 in the morning and we had to go to my uncle’s place. As was my routine, I grabbed my mobile to check the unread messages. On the top of the list was my cousin’s message informing me that UHS merit list had been announced.

Joy

You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the guards asked two questions. Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not. 'Have you found joy in your life?' 'Has your life brought joy to others?"

(The Bucket List)

The Scream

Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893

Big Bang

There is a reason why big bang happened, but that doesn't necessarily  mean that it happened for a goal or an end.

Perfection

(Conversation with a friend)

Me: ...doing small deeds have always led to perfection.

Friend: If only we could think small to achieve greatness!

Fresh Till You Rot

The moment I stepped into KEMU, I – like many others – felt myself half a doctor already. Imagine my feelings when a teacher asked me to leave the class, saying “Doctor Sahab get out of the class!” Heck, I wasn’t even sure if I was supposed to be embarrassed on being thrown out of the class, or act jubilant on being called a Doctor Sahab. Such a jumble of sentiments, all too vague and mixed but I felt assured in residing myself in the territory of “Doctor”. Therefore, that’s what I did during the first few ignorantly happy weeks of my medical-studies-life.

Noah and Deucalion

For centuries, history has been remodeled due to different perspectives of successive generations and has led to the birth of mythology. As the name might say, the word 'mythos' itself means 'a lie' but for all we know, deep down there's a truth that can be exhumed. That's one of the reasons why mythology is studied, other being its wide use in literary relation, such as Milton's.

Study of remodeled history has always seem to sprout from a common idea. There's a God. He wants to be worshiped.

One-eyed King

If you want to impress a one-eyed king, stand where he can see you.

The Man Deserved His Punishment

A story told by Obeid Zakani, a Persian writer:

A man claimed that he was a God. He was led to the caliph to be tried and punished for his abominable crime. The caliph said to him, "Last year a man claimed he was a prophet and he was hanged. What dost though say to that?"

The man answered, "Though didst well to have him hanged for I did not send him."

(Taken from The Garden of Joys, translated and related by Henry Cattan)

Co-ordinates

This one is for Ahmad Jalil who'll understand what it means!

Jalil: Ready to find your co-ordinates?

Me: Afghanistan? Have you found Pakistan's?

Jalil: I haven't. But let's do yours.

Me: Let's go have a walk near the bus.

Monotony of Eternity

I wonder if anyone has ever thought about his life after death? Well, obviously everyone has but perhaps not in the way that I am trying to refer here. With eternity ahead of us, wouldn't life be a series of monotonous beeps that keep playing and cause irritation? We are 'programmed' to experience a specific time frame and expect a result in the end. Would our programming evolve into letting us walk a straight road that never ends with no destination to await us in the end. After all, it's the journey that's more worthwhile than the destination, but what would you say to a never-ending journey with no destination to expect in the end?

Choices

Life is a mesh of complexities produced by none other but our very own choices that either try keeping us at bay from what we sometimes fear while at other times, letting us plunge into the river of opportunities. What we decide today might end up with a drastic blast of phenomena in the end. It's like chaos theory: the initial randomness of insignificant details eventually give rise to big consequences. What I believe is that choices, no matter how little or insignificant, must be taken whenever time comes for that, for if we won't take our own choices, someone else will. Nothing is more detestable than living a life chosen by someone other than yourself.