Chowrangi

March 15 marks The ‘World Consumer Rights Day’. The occasion needs to be utilized to encourage awareness among the people regarding the consumers’ right. This year, the theme of the World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) 2010 is ‘Our money, our rights’ and highlights consumer issues in relation to financial services. Access to stable, secure and fair financial services is important for consumers everywhere, especially under the strain of the global financial crisis.

This day has a historic importance as it was on this day in 1962, when the Bill for Consumer Rights was moved in the US Congress. During his speech President John F. Kennedy had remarked:

This Monday, I had an environmental management and Isalmiat monthly test. As I was sitting in my classroom-going over the hadis included in our test topics-I felt an explosion.

In 2008, I also sat in my classroom, reading a play by Shakespeare ‘The Tempest” when we were intrerruptred by a blast on the road besides our school. At that time, we were relatively new to this thing so the shattering of our class windows’ and the flying in of rubble added to the shockwave caused much panic to ensue. The entire student body rushed out of the school gates and awaited their fate but when we heard no second explosion, we thought that we had been saved. I believed that that would be my last experience with a blast but I was wrong because two years later, history repeated itself and I again escaped death.

Its 8.51 pm IST and I am in office, surprising fact is I came in at 6.00 am.

Now that’s a odd shift but when you sign in a contract with a client to offer your services 24/7 people like me actually don’t have choice, we would be thrown with a statement “you are being paid!”.

I have been thinking for a while and its really eating me up from within, I am earning almost 50 grands a month but I have no time to spent with my family, its been ages I have been on a holiday and I haven’t been on a date since past two years.

Generations come and go; time flies and yet, one thing remains immobile: the monotony of chemistry. During class, I have to force my eyes to stop looking at the clock but they just keep roving about. One day, I decide that it’s enough! If I want to stop flunking day in and day out, my eyes will have to be tamed. No more looking at the clock. I and Mahnoor (my best friend) vowed: ‘So we’ll go no more a’Roving’. Alas, it was as if we had boarded mission impossible. There was no helping it. Ultimately, we would find ourselves gazing longingly at the clock, awaiting the bounteous sound of the bell-that is otherwise shrilly-that would free us from the cell that is our chemistry lab!

This is my first blog post at Chowrangi and I am starting it with few words on “Attention seeking syndrome” that both India and Pakistan suffer from!

Lets get back we were one, we were united and we fought together against evil.

We all got what we deserved; FREEDOM and then we actually started our journey in achieving our first objective food, shelter etc (Maslow’s law of hierarchy)

And we didn’t realize realized we were short of resources and we were vulnerable at the same time.

And today it has brought us to the point where we have actually programmed and conditioned our belief system with the stereotypes.

Basant means spring in Sanskrit, a reference to the fields of blooming yellow flowers of mustard that grace the area as spring approaches. It is celebrated predominantly in the Eastern city of Lahore, Punjab as a mega festival. People celebrate it like a ritual with thousands of kites elevated into the sky and boisterous rooftop parties at night. ‘Basant’ had become one of the most attractive events in the provincial metropolis which is a tourist attraction too in the past. This auspicious occasion has been turned into mourning when people risks innocent lives by using chemical thread and metallic twine to add their joys, making it a fatal exercise.

I just cleaned out my drawers a while ago and this is how I am feeling: ‘phew!’.

Knowing that your place is in a clutter sort of clogs your life. This is because wherever you look, you are met with a mess so you ultimately feel bogged down. For the past few days, I had been completely ignoring the condition of my room. All my books and stuff would be lying everywhere. My beanbag was covered by clothes and bags. I didn’t bother making my bed and you get the picture. And this had me pretty much on the edge. I was becoming something of a slouch. Hence, today, I decided to take things into my own hands. Starting with my bed side drawers that had all sorts of sentimental junk I had been stuffing there for over a year.

Almost all the cellular companies in Pakistan are offering attractive late night call packages that are quite popular perhaps for the reason that they are easy on the pocket. One of the reasons of fame for such packages is that they help people in making nationwide calls and talk with relatives or friends for hours and hours easily. On the other hand cell phones nowadays have become fashion statement and symbol of independence for our youth that mobile phone helps them to develop their own language and social groups away from the snooping eyes of their parents. It is privacy and not mobility that matters.

Years ago, I read about someone asking Imam Abu Hanifa about why a woman was not allowed to have more than one husband. He asked his daughter (Hanifa) and she is reported to have said, “If she has more than one husband, how can anyone explain whose child it is that she has borne?” So the great Imam (who is followed by most Sunni Muslims) explained that this was the reason why Islam forbade a woman to be married to more than one man. Now a Saudi woman in Egypt has asked why polyandry (the custom of women having more than one husband) should not be allowed, since DNA testing is now easily available to determine parenthood.

I have had the good fortune of meeting with many people who are considered to be “up there,” many of whom with which I have a continuing friendship. Once in a while, however, I come across one of those odd-one-ins (not outs), who are what I call pseudo-all-of-the-aboves.

I have a problem. You see, it isn’t that these people exist, like the tulla at Devil’s Point. It is that we cater to their egos like we cater to our bellies on those wedding days with biryani and salan, filling our bladders with caramelized carbonated water.