Life is Good - A little-known story

Tweet

*message tone*

*picks up iPhone and checks text*

“Hey Buddy! Where are you lost?” *friend pings*

The AC wasn’t working; he overate–but then, the food was awesome–he felt it's hotter than usual –Damn! The Net's down…

*curses Rehman Malik*

“Hey, I am good, whassup?” 

Friend– “Do you know 300 people have died in Karachi, some fire incident in a factory? Haven’t seen you on twitter for a while also”

“OMG! Really?  My internet is down, haven’t checked twitter”

He doesn’t feel like switching on the TV.

Friend–  “Yeah man, poor souls. Heard some Bhatta Mafias were also involved”

“BC. These bad asses. We must do something about those poor people. Khair aur sunaa?”

Friend–  “Sab set!”

“What’s going on at the twitterverse nowadays?”

 *continues texting*

Friend–  “Same shit happening. PTI Trolls. PPP Jyalas. N League k Noorey. And then wohee Elitiye signing petitions. Lol”

“hahaha. Kuch nahin badalne wala [Nothing will change]”– he was surely missing some fun.

Friend– “So true man, what else?”

He guessed it was end of the discussion and he was bored to his teeth. This humid weather was killing him. He looked towards the AC, which seemed to stare at him with a poker face; he picked up the phone to text back...

“You were telling about some fire incident? What happened?”

Friend–  “Dunno much. Some garment factory. Fire broke out and peeps were caught inside. Some 300 died, they say”

“hmmm… that's it?”

He was expecting something more from him, some "masala" story….

Friend–  “O Yea! Arab Spring hit the Arab world once again, hardly anything tho'....this time”

“What? What happened now?”

That seemed interesting.

Friend– “Man, some Jew made a blasphemous film. Protests all over the Arab world, heard of some in Pakistan too”

“Oh man, that blasphemer should be hanged to death, how does someone dare to do that”

*blood boils*

Friend– “Exactly man! A US ambassador has also been murdered. Yo!”

“Yeh Cheez, SaloN ko sabaq sikhaana chahiye [That’s the way. We should teach a lesson to those rascals.]”

*feels happy deep inside*

“Do you know about the protest organized in solidarity with Karachi fire victims? Should we go?”

What the hell is he talking about–he thought.  “Itni garmi mein? [In this heat?] Nah man! I have some better things to do,” he replied.

Friend– “Aur sunaa”

“Nothing much, why don’t you come over? Will watch some shit, suna hai TDKR's cool”

Friend– “Man, sorry, am invited at a do.. .Nadeem ka pata hai na? Dude's b'day bash at his joint tonight. Full on scene hai”

“Chal okay”

.........

"Sala C****iya"

*looks at iPhone and grumbles*

He stared hard at the AC; may be it ‘LOLed’ at him?

He turned to the Lappie but the modem’s light was still red.

"F**k!"

He lifted his weight and waddled into the lounge.

He stopped in front of the fridge and picked up a Pepsi.

He switched the TV on and fiddled with the remote–flicking channels.

"Ah! ManU"

His favorite club played against some random FC… LIVE…

The AC sprang back to life...slowly purring...blowing cool air into the room...he felt sleepy...

"Van Parsie's rocking man!"
*mumbles*

Life was good....

Tweet

Story of Pakistan

Tweet

Really Short and Amazing Stories

Tweet

1. Today, after a 72 hour shift at the fire station, a woman ran up to me at the grocery store and gave me a hug. When I tensed up, she realized I didn’t recognize her. She let go with tears of joy in her eyes and the most sincere smile and said, “On 9-11-2001, you carried me out of the World Trade Center.”

2. Today, at the age of 70, my grandfather graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in business studies. He’s been a successful business owner most of his life, but he told me he earned his degree to fulfill a promise he made to his mother before she lost her battle with cancer 50 years ago.

3. Today, my mom is a healthy 54 year old who successfully owns and operates a popular bakery downtown – a goal she had all her life. 15 years ago she was diagnosed with cancer. In the face of death, she quit her store clerk job, opened the bakery, started chemo therapy, and succeeded on all fronts.

4. Today, after I watched my dog get run over by a car, I sat on the side of the road holding him and crying. And just before he died, he licked the tears off my face.

5. Today, as a young ‘up and coming’ lawyer, everyone in the firm was congratulating me for winning my first big case this morning. And all day long all I could think about is how I used a technicality in the law to help a murderer walk away a free man.

6. Today, on our 50th wedding anniversary, she smiled at me and said, “I only wish I had met you sooner.”

7. Today, after 2 years of separation, my ex-wife and I resolved our differences and met for dinner. We laughed and chatted for almost 4 hours. Then just before she left, she handed me a large envelope. In it were 20 love letters she wrote me over the last 2 years. There was a post-it note on the envelope that said, “Letters I was too stubborn to send.”

8. Today, when I slipped on the wet tile floor a boy in a wheelchair caught me before I slammed my head on the ground. He said, “Believe it or not, that’s almost exactly how I injured my back 3 years ago.”

9. Today, someone else’s tragedy provided the miracle my family had prayed for. Thanks to this stranger, my dad will have a heart. It’s so odd to think that an accidental death just saved his life.

10. Today marks the ten year anniversary of the day when I slapped him and screamed at him remorselessly for not letting me in the bathroom after we ate breakfast. That moment also marks the positive turning point in my battle with Bulimia. I think he saved my life that day.

11. Today at 7AM I woke up feeling ill, but decided I needed the money, so I went in to work. At 3PM I got laid off. On my drive home I got a flat tire. When I went into the trunk for the spare, it was flat too. A man in a BMW pulled over, gave me a ride, we chatted, and then he offered me a job. I start tomorrow.

12. Today, I was working in a coffee shop when 2 gay men walked in holding hands. As you might expect, heads started turning. Then a young girl at the table next to me asked her mom why 2 men were holding hands. Her mom replied, “Because they love each other.”

13. Today, after the funeral, I went back to my parent’s empty house – the house I grew up in. As I gazed around in awe of all the great memories we made in it, I noticed an old photo of my parent’s in their 20’s sitting on the coffee table. In my father’s handwriting, across the back was written, “In this moment, we were infinite.”

14. Today, as I walked away from the airport gate alone with my head held high and eyes beet red from crying, I knew at that moment what it meant to be a military wife.

15. Today, a lady walked up to me in the gym and asked me to give her some workout pointers. She said, “You look incredible! Watching you gradually tone-up and progress in here has become my primary inspiration to get in shape.” It made me smile because I’ve struggled with my weight since I was 15.

16. Today, my grandpa died. As I was crying and telling my grandma how sorry I was, she said, “Let’s stop being so sad and instead celebrate the 80 wonderful years he was alive… 60 of which he spent with me.”

17. Today, as my father, three brothers, and two sisters stood around my mother’s hospital bed, my mother uttered her last coherent words before she died. She simply said, “I feel so loved right now. We should have gotten together like this more often.”

Tweet

Scum Express!

Tweet

         A journey by train always fascinates me. I always compare it with the journey of life, as there are a lot of things common between these two journeys.

We have to wait for the right time for the train to arrive, looking for the right place to board it, giving space to our co-travelers, meeting new people, spending time with them and on reaching the destination, saying good bye to them.

During a train journey, one also experiences passing through light and darkness alternatively as we pass through the tunnels and emerge from them. Sometimes a train has to halt in its track and give way to another train coming from opposite direction.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at the Lahore Railway Station waiting to board the train to Rawalpindi. I always travel at night so that I reach Rawalpindi during the early hours and spend more time roaming around the city or simply hang around friends and family during the day.

I was scheduled to catch the Night Coach for this journey but on that day not even a single seat was available in any of the compartments. Luckily or unluckily “Tezgam” Express, which was almost 6 hours late, was also waiting at the same station, A young boy at the ticket counter suggested that I travel by “Tezgam”, as it may have several empty seats available.

I picked up my backpack and entered the Lower AC compartment of “Tezgam”. I asked the Station Master for a ticket, he asked me to simply take a seat and not to worry at all. So I did exactly that.

Eventually, the Train moved slowly out of the station… and so started my journey. Soon I fell asleep at my seat. But as the train reached Gujranwala, the Ticketing Officer woke me up and asked me to move to another compartment. He just guided me to another Business Class section of the train and assured me that I could sleep there, peacefully.

I was travelling without a ticket till that point in time but he didn’t mention anything about it. I was clueless about what’s going to happen next. But I was too tired to care. I locked the door and went back to sleep.

I slept like a log, till the train crossed Jhelum city. Then I was rudely awakened by a loud know on the door. It was the same Ticketing Officer, accompanied by an old man with long white beard, who was the T.T.

Both of them were very courteous and enquired if I had been comfortable so far. Of course I was! This was King’s treatment, so I nodded my head confirming it gladly.

They re-confirmed that I did not have a ticket and having heard my answer; the old T.T took out his ticket-book and started scribbling something on it. And all this while, the Ticketing Officer kept on assuring me that I didn’t need to worry, it was a very luxurious compartment and its fair was 1300 PKR.

The old man finished his scribbling and handed over the ticket slip to me demanding I pay 500 PKR upfront.

I didn’t even bother to look at the slip and quietly handed over the amount. Both wished me a safe journey and left.

However, I continued to wonder about this strange exchange. The fair of Lahore to Rawalpindi in Lower Ac is more than 500 PKR. Why were they so kind to me? Why did they give me a berth in Business Class for just 500 PKR?

Suddenly, I remembered the slip they had given me. I took it out and studied it carefully now. I was shocked to find that amount mentioned was towards traveling fair from Jhelum to Rawalpindi in Economy Class, and the figure was 130 PKR!

The unholy nexus between the officials and the scam racket became crystal clear to me.

I felt like a culprit to have been a party to it and was overcome with a nauseating feeling of remorse and guilt.

I reached Rawalpindi next day early in the morning, and rested for a while, re-running the whole set of events of last night, in my head. While sipping tea at a hotel near the station and browsing through the local newspaper an article immediately caught my attention. The heading read “Railways left with two-day fuel”. It also reported that the Railways Minister Bashir Balour had stated that The PR had been finding it difficult to pay salaries to its staff and pension to its retired employees, due to a severe financial crunch.

I almost choked on my tea!

Even to this day, I am still trying to figure out the connection between this piece of news and the incident that happened during that fateful journey.

Tweet

Living in the Darkness!

Tweet

“Don’t light the match” I said.
I was holding his hand and moving forward in utter darkness, which was all around, the licking our bodies, scratching our faces with its jaws.
“Where are we?” he asked
“I don’t know” I replied
“It’s all stinking damp and dark, it must be The Gutter”
“Oh yes! I remember I fell into The Gutter” I said as I recalled from some faraway memory.
“How did you fall in The Gutter” he asked
“I don’t know, and I don’t remember for how long I’ve been here, but how did you land up here?” said I.
“I also fell down. I think you fell before I did, and trying to help you I got dragged in too, or I fell first and you tried to help me and in the end we ended up here!” said he.

Holding hands, we inched ahead, all the while feeling the slimy dampness of water somewhere around our feet.

“Can you hear the traffic?” he asked.
“Yes! We are somewhere under the main road” I said
“Then there must be an open manhole nearby, so let’s get out of here, or at least see the sky” He murmured

“Oh!” he jumped.

“What happened?”, I asked. He said he felt something, something touched his legs. He lit a match. A spark of flame lit up our faces.

“Here it is” he pointed at something. We took a closer look at it,
“A dead body… an infant” I sighed “May be somebody tried to hide their sins”
“Or may be his mother gave birth, here, in this Gutter, is that possible?” he added
“May be” I said and we moved further on into the darkness.

We were trapped in an underground Gutter, a never-ending damp tunnel and were trying to get out of this place. We desperately looked out for an opening from where we could escape.

The match-box was also getting damp with a few more matchsticks to go. We didn’t want to lose those tiny sticks. Our last flickers of an inevitably dying hope. With the dying flame of each matchstick, died our last rays of hope.

The situation was getting bad to worse. The fear of losing life was gripping our very souls. Hope was slipping away, the way a handful of sand eventually escapes a closed fist. Would we ever see the light of a day again? Would we ever see the bright sun again? It was all gloomy down here. We were kissing our own breaths to feel the life, to believe we were still alive.

Thus we kept on creeping slowly into a dark nothingness.

“Did you hear that?” he said
“Noise?” we could hear some voices – voices of children. A mix of shouting and crying. We could hear the sound of water splashing as we felt they were running towards us.
“What are these children doing here?”
“Light the match” I told him.
As he lit the match we saw a group of more than a dozen children, almost running past us.

“Hey! Listen” I yelled at one of those boys, who seemed to be around ten or twelve.
He stopped and looked at us with a wide smile spread across his face, ear to ear.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him
“We live here.” He replied innocently
“Here? You were born here?” I was extremely confused now
“Yes! All of us were born at this place in Rubbers” , he confused me even more.
“In the Rubber?” I repeated his words
“Yes! Our parents threw us here, wrapped in Rubbers” saying this, he ran away to join his group…

“Where was I born?” I tried to recall. At a hospital or at home … or …. or I couldn’t remember more than that or I didn’t want to think any more about it.

“Is it possible that we were also born here” His words shocked me.
“No… No..!!” There was a confession hidden in my quick denial.

Something cracked under my feet. We lit a match-stick, again, only to see some disposed-off bones.

Scary!

“Who are these people?” Who knows who they were?
“Look! They are all gagged with duct tape ” I said, as I saw each of them held a pen tightly between their dead fingers.

Somebody sealed their lips before killing them or they died their own death by chocking themselves up.

“Poor folks” He murmured.

These bodies made scared us even more

“Can we ever see light again?” he asked vaguely.
“I hope” I replied, but I knew, living in this darkness, forever, was our final destiny.

As we moved ahead, may be a few feet, we heard screams, harsh and loud. It sounded as if someone was being beaten up, brutally or as if someone was being sliced into pieces! The dirty water at our feet felt warm and smelled nauseatingly salty. As we stared down, we saw, we stood, ankle deep in thick blood. There was no air to breathe in either.

We felt suffocated.

Those voices tore into our ears and ripped apart our souls!!

I asked him to light the match.

But there was no light.

He was scratching a match-stick against the match-box, but was unable to strike a light.

The Match-Box was wet now and the other Match-sticks were all broken into pieces.

He stood there, trying again and again, looking almost insane, but without any success.

“That was the last stick” he said, finally, giving up.

I took the match-stick from his fingers and kept it back into my pocket!

Thinking… It might be our last ray of hope.




Tweet

Among the living..

Among the living..

This blog is from Selene'e Blog.This is something worth reading. Sharing it for you. You can follow her blog here Selene. 

‘Lahore is under siege! We are under attack!’ read the text message on a certain person’s phone. The phone owner hurriedly switched on the television, clicked the remote a few times to find his favourite news channel and seated himself on a comfy couch all set to watch some distressing scenes taking place in his city.

With eyes glued on the screen and hands with a firm hold on the mobile phone, he typed in to his friend who had informed him about this devastating terror attack, ‘Oh look! How the devil did that terrorist got up there!’

The first person who was in his office, and has been watching the terror scenes since long was getting frustrated now, ‘what the hell is the police doing!’ he texted.

The second person, sitting at home could not type anything but, ‘I just don’t know what is wrong with this country!’

The television was now repeating the same images revealed an hour go which showed the terrorist firing from a top building, people screaming and running away on the streets, police taking its position to counter the terrorist.

..

Few minutes passed and both friends were quiet for sometime as if waiting for the next move of the terrorist so that they have something to write to each other.

Soon the television screens were broadcasting some new images of the terrorist blazing bullets at the naive people who were trying to hide, trying to run away in an attempt to save their lives from a monstrous being that was destined to kill them all without any seemingly possible reason.

The person at office who was fond of watching national geographic documentaries started comparing the current scene on television with another scene on another channel. He thought, the scene is quite similar, for there also someone was running, hiding, trying hard to save his life from a beast, just like this scene on the news channel.

But the only difference was, the earlier channel was showing a human in action while the latter channel was capturing a scene from wildlife where an innocent deer was trying to save his life from a lethal leopard destined to kill him.

…

Few moments passed away, the terrorist got in full action, and the text message discussion also got in full swing.

Both friends sitting in a fully air-conditioned room were trying to analyze the thoughts, emotions and fear of the people under attack. Both were eager to share each and every move of attack and give their viewpoints on the scene as if the lives of those unlucky beings depended on this discussion or as if it was doing any good to those people who were the target of this ruthless act.
..

After a long discussion, the two people witnessing the scenes of chaos on the television screen seemed to be running short of words to discuss the scene with each other, and the person at office typed in: ‘May God have mercy!’
The person at home said with a deep sigh: ‘He better have mercy!’

But in fact they were not short of words they were simply getting bored of the repetitive images on the screen.

..

‘What if I was among them?’, thought one of the friend disturbed by the incident.

‘We live and we die, after all life is the name of moving on,’ other friend at home came to this conclusion in his mind.

‘Oh God! I have already wasted so much time worrying about those people who I don’t even know, I really should focus on work now’, the friend at office thought and got busy in work.

‘This is getting too much bloody! I can’t watch this anymore!’ thought the friend at home and switched the channel.

As the desperate conversation between the two friends came to a dead-end, so did the dreams and lives of many people who became an object of the fatal attack without any cause.

But of course why should the living spare many a thoughts on dead?
Even this thought seems really absurd that some lifeless and ghostly figures lying on the streets now were as real and alive just few moments ago as these two friends.

Running...!!

I was running with drops of sweat pouring down from my head to toe. I was unable to stop myself. I was running for my life. I wish I could look back but I was too terrified. Somebody was following me, trying to chase me but I didn’t have enough courage to look at it. I did not know what exactly was chasing me. It felt as if I was running between two railway lines. Was it the train hounding me? I wasn’t really sure. I knew i must run and continued to do so or else everything would be destroyed. Therefore, I kept running for myself and for my life. However, eventually I got tired, I couldn’t run any further. Had pain in my legs, was having difficulty in breathing, eyes were gradually closing and the whole thing seemed like the end. The last thing that came to my mind was that, that “thing” will pass over me and I’ll be finished.

I woke up!

“It was a dream,” I thought. Smiled at my own foolishness and went out.

It was the same old world for me. I roamed around in the streets. There was nobody in the street. I seemed to be astonished by it for the reason that I could merely hear voices. I could hear noise made by children playing. Some women bargaining with the Sabzi-walahs while other men walking around discussing politics and other various issues. I didn’t see anyone though. I could perceive every sort of voice one comes across in daily routine but was unable to see any person. Was there a problem with my eye-sight? No! I could witness the rest of the things i.e. buildings, narrow and wide streets, houses… in fact everything! What I couldn’t see was any flesh and blood being. Suddenly a dog barked. It made me feel as if that ferocious creature was barking directly at me whilst moving closer towards me.

I ran towards the main road to hoard myself. On the road, there was a lot of bustling traffic. The road was full of activity with the moving vehicles, cars, buses etc. At last I saw some life there. It was a sign of relief. However, it made me traumatized as there was nobody in those vehicles, cars and buses. Not even a single living being there. Yet again, their voices were there.

This sight was intolerable for me. I couldn’t resist or defy all this. I tried to follow the voices; I desperately wanted to see someone… Any-single-living-soul!! I ran wandering place to place, unfortunately, to my disappointment, I didn’t see anyone.

My entire struggle turned out to be ineffective. I got tired. My breath was breaking.  Out of the blue I heard laughing reverberation. From all corners I was hearing giggles. I sensed everyone laughing at me. Yes! Everyone WAS laughing at me. I couldn’t stand this nonsense. I tried to pay no attention to them, but they kept on laughing and then those laughs became intense. I covered my ears with both hands and ran away to one side. The voices were following me... I kept on running… running to escape... running for me life. And the voices are still following me.

Nostalgia (Part 2)

“What kind of question is this?” She gave me a weird look “I love him more than anything else, no matter in what condition he is, I love my son” saying that she picked up the cups and went inside. She wasn’t bothered by my question but she guessed by my gesture that I wasn’t listening to her. In fact I wasn’t present there. I was somewhere else. 

 I remembered, ten years ago, it was a monsoon evening when I came to this city, with dreams of “bright future” in my eyes. It was raining cats and dogs when I had reached here and swept under the shelter of a shop. I compared that rainy weather with the present time. Two rainy evenings... Now I had everything I wanted. But still there was something missing in my life. I had a home, a good job, a lovely wife and a son. This seemed to be an ideal picture on the canvas of life. We always seek happiness in others; we never search for it inside our souls. For people around me, I was very happy but my soul was wretched, I was shattered. And I was trying to collect the pieces of my shattered soul at this moment. There was some void inside me.

 I recalled my childhood, my family, my past and my first meeting with my partner. I thought I never existed in this world. It was just like a vacuum. Everyone who met me added a piece and made my personality... I was almost complete But still one part was missing... the peace of mind and soul…

(To be Continued) 

Nostalgia

“Look there” She said pointing her finger towards a kid, who was in rags, running in the street, flowing like a river. I was standing with her in the balcony of flat, Feeling the music of rain with mugs of coffee. It was raining since morning. After the hot and humid week, it was a gift of Lord for us. I was feeling dead inside, Rain was reincarnation for me. 

Birds were chanting, music of showers was soothing, drops of water falling on our faces, layers of clouds playing like kids on the sky, watching the unseen and feeling the warmth in rain. I felt life at that moment. “Oh! That’s life” instead of looking towards that creature in the street I replied to her looking at her deep shining eyes. “What are you thinking?” She felt something. “Nothing, Bust wondering,What else I expect from this life" I said "What do you think the people who bring ‘sun shine” in our life are more important or the one who provides shadow” She gave a sad smile and came more close to me. “Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain” I replied putting my mug aside.

After few moments of silence, she jumped and asked again “Do you like watching sun set at beach or dawning?” Instead of replying her question I asked her “Do you like watching your son standing at the door steps or you feel more comfort when he comes back and put his head in your lap?” ….. (To Be Continued)