Women Education

   The hot topic these days is women's education in Pakistan. You can see women activists everywhere. What I wonder is, that, have these activists actually managed to achieve anything? Or will every activist be targeted like Malala Yusufzai? These activists come up, trying to bring a positive change in the society, but regardless of whether they scream, shout, or do everything in their power, they ultimately have to get crushed under political pressure like all the other activists before them.
    I'm not saying that they waste their time or they don't make a difference at all. They do get schools opened and get at least some amount of women educated. However, they don't get to bring a change at a national or global level. Alone, even if they want, they can't bring a change so vast.
    What our country needs, in my opinion, is 'collective force' to fix the issue. By this, I mean that the entire youth of Pakistan should come together and make sure a huge difference is being made. The level of educational institutions should increase, so much so that the literacy of Pakistan increases by a huge amount. Burning tyres and cars, has, and never will do us any good.

Brain Drain

    All our lives , we struggle to do well. In school we do well so that we can get into a good college. In college we work hard so to get into the best universities. Hard work doesn't end in university because we have to do our best in order to get a good job. We do all this hard work for what? For a good standard of living and to lead a happy life? We seem to think that we can't have a good standard of living in Pakistan so we study abroad, work there and end up staying there all our life, feeling so proud to get that green card in our hands. Increasing their Gross Domestic Product of those countries which further increases their standard of living, encouraging other Pakistanis to move there too.
    What is the point of  leaving t he comforts of of our own house for someone else's? When we have all this education, the power to make our country better, to increase the standard of living in our country, then why do we shift abroad where there is little to gain since their standard of living is already too high? Why are we stupid enough to fall for a few good mangoes when we could grow and entire tree full of them ourselves?

Food!

It's sad how many people do not have anything to eat and how many people who can afford food tend to waste so much of it. Food wastage can be in many forms. In making fancy food, eating fancy food whose money can be spent for things much more important. Or simply while buying expensive food and throwing it away because we feel like it. I mean does the privileged class ever realize how many people die of starvation every day! If nothing then at least they can spend their precious money on themselves in a much more productive way. For example,  using their wealth on education, or paying for the less privileged class's food or even education, i mean, its not like Pakistan's literacy rate is very high either.

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

    Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan but currently lives in Northern California. A Thousand Splendid Suns was his second book,The Kite Runner being its first. Both the books were best sellers and have been published in over 60 countries.
    A Thousand Splendid suns is divided into two halves. First part revolves around a girl Mariam, who lives in the outskirts or Kabul with her mother. Her father is a wealthy man who lives in the town with 3 other wives and children. Mariam is his illegitimate daughter and thus she can't live with him. One day when Jalil doesn't come to meet Mariam like always Mariam goes to the town to meet him. Her mother thinks she deserted and commits suicide. Jalil gets Mariam married off to a man 30 years her senior. Then the story revolves around a girl Laila whose family is bombarded with a rocket. So Laila is taken  by Mariam and Rasheed. and Laila soon becomes Rasheed's second wife and they have kids too.
     The story in my opinion is very unique. I like how it is so realistic and shows the real picture of what the people of Afghanistan were facing during Taliban's rule. How the bombardment had changed peoples lives due to migration or the loved ones dying. The part that the story is divided into parts is also very interesting. Not many authors tend to do that. At first the reader might wonder what link does Laila's story has with Mariam's but as the story develops everything becomes clear. Integrating two stories and managing to do it so smoothly is a gift and something only Khaled Hosseini can manage to do.
     I would love to see this book turned into a movie as it has such a touching story. 

Dependence on technology

Have you noticed how everyone is so dependent on technology these days? in the case of an emergency you need to make a call to call an ambulance. what if you run out of credit or run out of battery? Do you just sit there and let your loved one die?
   When you have to meet a deadline for visa application, you need to print and keep the track of your documents, you need your printer to work and your car to be filled with petrol or gas or whatever to take you to your destination. you can't walk all the way from Clifton to Gulshan can you?
 I could just go on and on and on about how our lives are so dependent these days! But what good will that bring? We live in the 21st century with technology at its best, its obvious to be dependent on it.It might make things easier but it took a lot of struggle and a lot of hardwork to get there.Its not like we are going to move back into the stone ages.
  Let's face it. It's plain dumb not to avail these advances which are in every aspect of our lives.

The daughter of Pakistan shot.

Malala Yousufzai is probably the highlight of this week. Why shouldn't she be? I mean, she has achieved much more than her circumstances could achieve. Belonging to the town of Mingora in Swat, she is a 14 year old women's rights activist. She used to write blogs for the BBC concealing her identity using a pseudonym, and later on she gained popularity and even won Pakistan its first National Peace Prize.
But this time, unfortunately, Malala isn't in the headlines for her achievements. She's in the headlines because this spark of hope was tried to be blown away by the Taliban. On 9th October, 2012, she was shot in the head and the neck while returning home on a school-bus. She is still unconscious, and fighting for her life.
While in critical condition, many leaders reported to have expressed their views on this assassination attempt, including President Obama who found this news to be 'reprehensible, disgusting and tragic' and UN Secretary Ban-Ki Moon found this act to be a 'heinous and cowardly'.
Even if Malala survives or not, she has kindled a fire within the heart of every girl from KP: the flame to achieve education. The battle against Taliban will be won, sooner or later. We just need to wake the 'Malala' within ourselves.
Till then, I hope she gets well soon. I bet she won't give up that easy.

 

Traumatized!

    We hear about crime all the time. All over the wold, girls get raped, people get murdered and tortured and children get kidnapped. Prostitution and corruption are so common that we have become heartless! We grown used to everything, we feel disgusted and sad for some time and then grow out of it and back to our monotonous routines of life.
    However, I read this story of injustice and felt so disgusted that I can say that I am traumatized for the rest of my life. To the point that I am actually scared when i am on the streets, outside the protection of my home. A story about three teenage boys  just below the legal age, who not only kidnapped and raped the girl but tortured miserably as well. Things I wonder why would anyone do? Stuff so indecent that I feel ashamed writing it as well. Along with everything they did, they used to burn her and kill the fire right when she was about to faint, so to cause maximum pain. The poor girl eventually passed away and was dumped in a cement truck. When they got caught, they accepted what they did and told the details of their acts themselves. Shockingly they did not get a punishment of more than a few months! That I thought was absolutely insane! Why weren't they given a harsher treatment, you ask? Well, apparently they were not of age(legal age) and thus got away with what they did.
    I can't believe how evil and disgusting a human mind can get.