So what do you think?

 He said that in the wake of this alarming situation, everyone has jumped on the bandwagon to help the victims. All media is abuzz with the statistics of destruction, casualties, and displaced people. To help is definitely valued however things of greater importance are put in the backdrop. Houses and possessions are washed away and so people do not have the legal documentations for the land they owned. When the situation has normalized, there would be arguments over lands. Politics would get involved and as we know of our leaders, there would be corruption and the matter would not be solved. Flood affected people would still be displaced.

The need of hour is to come up with better plans. Media should not be just concentrating on covering the relief efforts being made but also take the long run into perspective.

Search for “Inter Active Voice Call Manager”, the handy software, on website:www.dotsis.com, download it, and install it on your cell. Now, using the software, you can add the numbers of crank callers on the black list. The members of black list can easily be ignored now because if they dial on your cell again, depending on the option you have selected, they will either be listening to the continuous beep sound indicating that the cell is in use, even when it is not, or the message that the phone is powered off when you might be talking to someone else! What do you say? Isn’t it cool?!

It would be so easy to type the whole composition in a short time while sitting on a dumb terminal instead of getting tired of scribbling away notes on paper. Secondly, the corrections could be made without making the paper messy and also, assessors will not have to waste time trying to figure out illegible handwriting. In order to please the teachers and parents, software could be made that do not give the option of thesaurus, spell check and grammar, etc. In this way, according to the mindset of our superiors, student’s true ability could be tested. The electronic copy of paper can be emailed to the examiner or printed out. The cost of printing and other charges can be collected from the students.

Since lots of us have gotten dependent on computers, it would be a very good option. However, it will take a long time before our examination system gets revolutionized and somehow our country relieves itself of the electricity crisis. What do you think?

The first day of Eid started with the cleaning of house, every nook and cranny. It was done quite quickly because half the job was done the previous day. Later, I, along with my siblings and relatives, saw the slaughter of two goats. The sight of a knife cutting the throat of the animal and a fountain of blood spilling out had my aunt to have goose bumps! –Aw she is too girly. Meanwhile the raw meat was prepared to be cooked; I dressed up in my new clothes and then, treated myself to a treat of delicious Kalaije, which are actually pieces of liver cooked to give excellent taste, with glasses of Coca Cola. In evening, I ate a full plate of Biryaani (rice cooked in Paki way) and man! I was near to bursting with all the food stuffed in me! The rest of the day was spent with cousins. We disturbed people, had loads of laughter and can you believe it?! The 12 of us, which included 5 elders and 7 kids, squeezed ourselves in the small Suzuki Mehran! Fortunately, I was on the driving seat and did not have to suffer much, but you should have checked the people sitting on the back seat! They reminded me of the pictures of captives caged in prisons in Gauntanamo Bay but this time sound effects were there. We ate ice cream in cold and I made a few stunts with my cousin constantly reminding me its not Mercedes and could easily topple over. Thankfully, no such scene happened and I retained my license (from my parents) to drive. I sent Eid greetings to relatives and friends and received hilarious short messages regarding Eid, like this one:

“This goat: Rs 10000, this one: Rs. 15000, the other one: Rs 20000 and finally, the one you are holding, it costs Rs. 500,” says the goat dealer.

The customer: “Why this one is so cheap?”

The dealer: “Because it is made in China so no guarantee. It might start barking the other day!” The first day ended here.

On Saturday, it was unluckily the kitchen day. I woke up late and spent the day doing house chores and helping with packing the raw meat. That day too mom and dad made Biryaani and it was too tasty to be eaten just once. There was lot of overeating but my digestive system is that of a true Lahori, so no trouble.

As usual, we had barbeque on third day. I had a scrumptious treat of tikka and kabaab. Later at night, I had a table tennis match with my “Champion” cousin and audience included all the cousins and aunts. Funny commentary and hooting added to fun. On a long drive (Too bad! My bro was driving this time…), we had some soft drinks. On reaching home, I was too tired and went to sleep right away.

All in all, it was great enjoyment and fun.

Mr. President,

“Life unexamined is not worth living”, is an unequivocal statement of Socrates made 2400 years ago. Though it is still applicable in this 21^st century, yet how many of us really examine our lives? How many of us self-question ourselves about what our mind holds and what our body carries out? How many of us challenge ourselves instead of just flowing with the river of life?

Sir, it is a pity that the answer to all these questions is that a majority of us spend our lives without scrutinizing it. We are so lost in materialism that instead of filling our lives with meaning and making it worthwhile, we are constantly filling it with the shiny objects of comfort! How pathetic! I mean what matters us the most is money, and money and yes, once again money. We are so entangled in this vicious cycle of avarice that we hardly pay attention to our own selves. In doing so, we keep ourselves at a loss. Let me explain.

All of us know that life is a precious little time full of experiences. It is, as Ralph Emerson Fordyce says, a succession of lessons, which must be lived to be understood. However, if we do not reflect upon our lives, learning the lesson is a far fetched idea, we will not even realize that something new has crossed our paths! And so, all our life will be a mere repetition of our past. Committing the same mistakes again and again, never realizing the failures, we lose the chance to improve ourselves. In my opinion, pursuing such a life is all but meaningless.

Sir, personal growth involves examining one’s life which reveals the patterns of behavior. On further contemplation, he understands how the elements of his life fit together. His example can be taken as a man with a map, who has a better chance to reach his destination compared to the other without any map. He will not be wasting his time in taking U-turns.

Sir, it is not just in philosophy that a man is told about examining his life, some religions including Islam has it that one should spare sometime and evaluate himself, his life and everything associated with it. He should not just parrot the cultural, familial, or generational party lines; rather he should understand the reasoning behind these ideologies. Same goes for his beliefs, values and opinions.

You must be wondering as to why that be?

Well, you must have heard of people who get red-faced when asked the reasoning behind the truths they hold to be a priori. They consider them to be true just because they are true or because the majority is following that belief. They never critically examined it, meaning they haven’t thought about whether their beliefs are true or false neither they want to know. They are just blindly following them and staying willfully ignorant. Now, if we suppose what Buddha said was right i.e. a person’s future is determined by his actions which depend on his beliefs, it would be so awful to be reincarnated into a cockroach just because of the absurd beliefs one is having. Ha!

The point is it will be quite unfortunate to keep ourselves saddled with these dogmas and never know where we would have been without them.

Finally, we should utilize this short period to make our lives worth living by analyzing ourselves. It will allow us to take control of our reins instead of letting others pull it for us.

I conclude my speech with this quote:

Lives, like money, are spent. What are you buying with yours?

I thank you all.

PS: This post is way too long!!