on the events of 16th December 2014

I sit here write this post today engulfed in unspeakable unthinkable unimaginable grief over the event when the Taliban stormed into an Army Public School and massacred 142 people from whom 132 were school kids.

A tragedy of this sort has never taken place in the history of the world let alone Pakistan and Pakistan is shuddering with its repercussions. Throughout Pakistan, condemnations have been streaming in. Personally, I dont think any language has a word to describe parents who lose their children, and to think that all those kids perished like the way they did. Deplorable

I could not believe the news when I heard it, for I kept thinking about the kids I have in my family. When I begin to consider what those families might be going through who have lost someone in this senseless barbarity, it brings tears to my eyes.

I picture what might have happened in the school. The kids would be studying, most but not all. Some would be talking to their friends, some might also be drawing something on a piece of paper. Some would have plans to go play cricket, or football or something after school. Some would be in the fear of the exams that they would have to take next month, or maybe excited about getting the winter break.

and then they hear gunfire like they have never heard before and people barge in to their classes carrying weapons. They kill their teacher, I wonder what would the kids have felt when that happened. and to see your friends die right in front of your eyes. and then to know you will be next.

but I wonder, the terrorists would see little children, half their own height perhaps, clad in uniforms. What would have they have seen? I wonder. The look in the kids eyes. What did the terrorists think then, what they think before, They didn't think did they. They aren't humans are they. 

Unfortunate Indeed

So my companion, my friend, my point of contact in needs of time , my lovely laptop, suffered a fate worse than any other when I fell from my bike while it was in my backpack along with 3 soda bottles. What transpired is as follows.

I realized It was going to be one of the last sunny days in Berlin. I decided it deserved to be enjoyed with a flavor (weil ich die Sonne genissen moechte). So I hopped on my bike along with my backpack to a grocery shop which was a bit farther away than the place I usually go to. The sun looked like all those things they say it looks like when writers and poets praise it.

I got there pretty soon, which was good because I was getting tired of riding the bike. At the shop, I purchased all that money could buy, fit it into my backpack with space to spare, and soon was on my way back. This is where the weather and hence this blog takes a turn for the worse. While I was coming back, it started raining, which should have made me ride the bike a bit more carefully but didn't and the unspeakable happened. I fell from my bike. When I got up I realized my laptop was inside and when I finally managed to get it out, it was dripping with water, soda and what not. I rushed back home, disassembled it all I could, let it be for 3 days, tried to switch it on the fourth, and was disappointed that it didn't on the 5th.

The day after? The day after I questioned many things I had held dear all my life. Like how important it really was to enjoy the sun, or to take the bike or to forget it had the laptop inside and that it rained and the events were set in motion.

The day after that, I spent the whole day cursing fate and thinking how unfortunate did I really have to be for it to happen to me. I thought how utterly meaningless and pointless this whole affair was that led me to this state of laptoplessness. I felt so unfortunate, so so unfortunate that it was just a very small mistake, what were the chances of that happening. I am sure that doesn't happen to alot of people. I am sure.

and the subsequent day, Phillip Hughes got hit on his head while playing for a domestic cricket match and died.

Do you speak German?

I am often asked this question "Do you speak German now?".  As of right now I dont really know how I should answer this question and be factually accurate at the same time, for my dilemma is this.
If someone who doesn't speak German at all (which is the majority of the people that I know in my life) listens to me having a conversation with someone in German, he would think I am fluent whereas in  essence I would have to actually learn as much more German as I already do now to be fluent.

So the point I want to make is this. This question is invalid because there is no clear answer that will both satisfy the listener and myself. . All I can hope for is that the listener knows about the "common European Framework of Referance for Languages" and then I can simply say. B2 or whatever I want to say.

But it makes me wonder in how many others things does the same thing apply?  Maybe we are always on a line but instead choose to answer many questions with a "Yes I am fluent" without fully thinking about it. 

First class passengers

“Attention please! Emirates flight EK450 is ready for departure. Passengers travelling on business class and first class please board the plane from gate number 42, all other passengers please remain seated”

A group of select few move towards the gate to board the plane and disappear out of sight.

“Attention please! Emirates flight EK450 is ready for departure. Passengers travelling on Platinum and gold class please board the plane from gate number 42. All other passengers please remain seated until further notice”

Another group of select few move towards the gate and disappear out of sight.

“Attention please! Emirates flight EK450 is ready for departure. Passengers travelling on Silver and Bronze class please board the plane from gate number 42. All other passengers remain seated until further notice”

Another group of people now get up and line up to board the plane.

“Attention please ! Emirates flight EK 450 is ready for departure. All passengers are requested to board the plane from gate number 42.

And a huge throng of people gets up and lines up to get on board.

It is sad that I only had to add one class (the bronze class) to the number of classes above but what I fail to truly understand is why we need classes to sit on a chair in the sky fitted to a metallic bird that travels at 600 km/hour. and its not like the passengers on first class are going to reach sooner than the ones on economy.

The plane I boarded twice in a month was an A380, the world’s largest aircraft at least as of the writing of the following full stop. The aircraft has two decks, the main deck and upper deck. I say this because I got to know the business class and first class passengers get to board the upper deck. What is so special about being 10 feet above other people who are already several thousand feet above the ground eludes me altogether.

And the last parable that I am going to share with you guys is that what classes in air fares remind me of is the Hindu caste system which was much prevalent in ancient India. For purposes of comparison it should be noted that both the systems are called classes.  

However I am sure there are many people who would disagree to my idea of an ideal world where airlines would offer only one class of fare but I am sure everyone can see how unnatural and artificial this particular divide is. Makes me think humanity thrives on creating hierarchies like these. Indeed sad.

But truth be told, the view from the upper deck of this particular A 380 is fantastic.

                          

Euro Trip

I havent written in a while, and the reason is because I have been travelling. Ofcourse its just an excuse the truth is, I am just lazy.

After much deliberation and thought, on the 6^th of September I went touring Europe finally. I saw Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Venice and Vienna and I think from all places I have been to so far, I like Vienna the most.

Then a month ago I went back to Lahore, Pakistan for a month and consequently found something that gives more meaning to the phrase “there is no place like home” and only two days ago I got back to Berlin. Why I am writing all these details. Because I want to make it sound like I was occupied and didn’t have any time to blog. I hope this alibi would work. A brief intro to the places I visited.

Amsterdam is a nice city and I feel it is the epitome of everything western European. Its quiet lenient on things like prostitution and cannabis which makes sense because I feel in the modern world, there is no justification for these things to be banned.  

I went to Brussels because I had to see Kaiser “the Kallu” Sheikh. I had hoped that Kallu would be the only interesting thing in the town but I was pleasantly proven wrong when I discovered that Brussels too has the traditional European square called the Grand place and it really was worth a visit.

In Paris I was hosted by an Isreali Parisian middle aged man who didn’t eat non Kosher food but because of him I had exclusive access to places like the Louvre and other points of interests in Paris. Paris is a big city and that means one has to walk a lot. The Champs Elyse’s is to me just a road (not even a cobblestone street) that has shops for the worlds largest brands and since they are all one road its considered novel. I failed to see utterly what all the fuss was about.

I went to Geneva because it houses the European centre for nuclear research; the CERN. It was exactly how I had expected it to be, a marvel of scientific advancement. I truly had a great time there. I stayed in Geneva with a Chinese person who was pursuing his PhD on global warming. That is when he told me that the city Venice may not be there in another 20 years and it needs to be visited now. And that’s exactly what and why I did.

Next I went to Milan and was hosted by an Italian. I stayed in Seregno which is a bit north of Milan. I was in Milan only for a day that I decided that Venice must be visited for reasons already stated. I had a failed attempt to hitchhike to Venice which had me stranded in the middle of an Autostrate in Italy. How things could have worked out better I don’t know.

When I reached Venice I was completely exhausted from touring all these cities and went straight ahead and found myself a nice place to sleep. The next day I went around the small island and found it be absolutely different from all the other places I had ever seen. For one thing the police in Venice ride water scooters to maintain law and order. That almost never happens anywhere else.

And my last stop was Vienna. What I think about Vienna is that if I was asked to choose one city that I would like to live in that would be Vienna. It is an extremely beautiful city with its old town reeking of medieval charm and beauty. A walk in Vienna is like a walk across time and history. I would like to go back to Vienna someday to discover more. I hope I am able to do that soon.

And then I returned to Berlin. With its bustling city life I consider Berlin to be a must visit place on a tour to Europe.

Big things come in small packages

So it would turn out my trusted old (not so old actually) laptop wouldn’t charge. I try to connect the charger but the battery doesn’t charge.  It takes me herculean strength and Aristotelian acumen to find that sweet spot at which the pin of the charger would just fit into the power socket of the laptop and the laptop would charge.

But I know something is amiss, because it continues to take longer and longer to find that sweet spot and to add salt and misery to my wounds and suffering respectively, I sometimes have to hold the pin into the power inlet of the charger for an indefinite period of time. I know I can’t continue living like this. I have to drastically change the course that my life is taking. But not yet, it’s way too soon. Only when it’s already been two days that I can’t charge my laptop will I have the motivation to actually do something about it. But fate had something altogether different in mind for me. For what transpired was this.

After much deliberation was I finally lucky enough to find that sweet spot only for my laptop to tell me that “the charger that you are using is not built for this machine, please consider changing it”. Even though that’s the exact same charger I have been using for several years, when the lappy tells you something, you better listen to it.

So now when I connect the charger to my laptop it says “plugged, but not charging”. This means I have to continuously have my laptop on charge, the strength to do which only gods can muster. So a mere mortal like me does what mere mortals like me do best these days. We Google things.

And then I googled, and it told me that several other people are experiencing the exact same problem. Many had opined that the “plugged but not charging” sign is a diabolical greeting from the devil himself and a friendly reminder of the epic battle between good and evil.  These were clearly some very smart people. I look for more solutions and try my luck with another website. To my utter surprise and wonder, I find the “top answer” and I reproduce it here without the written consent of the original author.

“take out the charger pin bring it close to your mouth and blow into it multiple times, and then do the same to the point on the laptop where the laptop fits”.

For obvious reasons I thought I was being made a fool of. And surely as complex a problem could not be solved with that easy a solution. But it is with pleasure that I tell you that I was wrong. I blew into the charger and there it lay, fixed. And with tender love in my heart, I thanked the person who had written the post and wished him/her long life.

Operation Protective Edge

I had planned other themes that I wanted to speak about, but I guess everything else can wait.

I am writing this today on the 21 st of July 2014, the day that followed the largest number of casualties (to date) as a consequence of Operation Protective Edge which was launched by Israel two weeks ago against Gaza. The immediate cause cited for the offence was the murder of 3 Israelis teenagers. As of right now, more than 425 Palestinians and 18 Israelis have been killed in the the operation launched by Israel. To say that the conflict appears to be one sided can be seen by the number of casualties on both sides. and with Iron Dome, the protector of the realms, the damage to Israel has been extremely limited. It should be maintained here that I do not expect Israel to wait for casualties and then take offence, but the type of offence as of right now, has been mercilessly and magnificently disproportionate.

Another thing that I have come across is the "qualitative military edge" which is an aid program of the government of the US for Israel. This seeks to maintain the level of the Israeli military to a point that is required to ward off danger from one specific country or a coalition of countries in the middle east "while sustaining minimal damage and casualties". I note it here to establish the level of sophistication that the Israeli army has and then to compare it with the military ability of a group of refugees with an extremely limited military capacity (the best "Qasam" rocket fired by the Hamas has a range of 16 km) and territory which is a mere 360 square kilometres. It is outrageously appalling to me.


Recently there were pro-Palestinian protests in London, Paris and some other cities. The way that Arutz Sheva, an Isralis news agency, reported it was by calling those protests "Anti-Semitic". I cant think of anything that could be further from the truth. The protests were ONLY meant to pressurize Israel into abandoning the ground offensive and should not under any circumstance be called anti Semitic. Interestingly though, I have been following the websites of Arutz Sheva, BBC, CNN and Al-Jazeera and I have learnt that opinions are largely dependent on what website(or news source) a person may happen to follow.

Lastly, speaking of Anti Semitism, there are some points I would like to make. First and foremost I really respect the Jews because they have been instrumental in humanity's advance in many a fields including but not limited to science, astronomy, medicine, music and the arts. They have also gone through at least one of the worst human tragedies that humanity has as of date concocted for which humans all over feel sorry about. However as such, I had honestly hoped that as a group of people, they would have the utmost respect and concern for human life and suffering, but it brings me to tears to find out that it is not the case.

p.s I understand this post might get me into trouble, but I have to say this. 

Re-vo-lu-tion

This Saturday I got a text from a friend of mine and he wanted me to join him for a protest. I asked him what sort of a protest it is to which he just replied with only the word“Refugees”. Perplexed, I decided I haven’t seen him for a while, and protest and refugees seems like the perfect excuse. Some hours later we met at Hermanplatz which was the starting point of the rally. Finally I got to ask him what this protest was all about and he told me that there is a school in Kreuzberg (a locality in Berlin) which has been occupied by refugees and the government wants to throw them out of Berlin and here we are protesting against that.

What I understood was that there is a bunch of people who think that the right of movement should not be restricted or confined to a specific group of people. That people should be allowed to live wherever they want to live. Slogans like “kein mench ist illegal, bleibe Recht ueberall” and “Nationalismus raus aus dem kopfen” and “Say no to deportation” perfumed the air.

So what started as a decently apolitical day had turned into a marvellously beautiful rally for people’s rights to live wherever they please. What surprised me the most was that that there are people in Germany or more specifically in Berlin who actually think that everyone should be allowed to live wherever they want to. That they don’t believe that only because one is white, or born in Germany, he or she deserves to be treated any differently than people who are born in a second or third world country.

And when I contrast it with how people think back home I find myself treading an unusually porous surface. Why would these people want this eludes me altogether. But I do know that back home, people even have reservations when it comes to treating people from parts of Pakistan let alone from outside Pakistan. Intriguing.

On Rain

There are several reasons as to why ever since I was a young boy, I have loved it when it rains. Why that might be the case probably has to do with the fact that I grew up in Pakistan and the weather there could more than use a bit of rain here and there. Back as a kid who was ready to go to school, I remember it was a pleasant reprieve when it would rain and mum would tell us that the roads are blocked and hence we cant go to school anymore. I remember how happy would I feel then, I remember how the sound of rain outside just conditioned my memory to think of a day off from school. And not just an ordinary day off, a day where I could play video games all day long without having to stop for food (mum would just come and feed me with her hands. Thanks mum for that). I remember the sound of rain in the morning always meant that. I still have those mental associations to some extent. A lot in life has changed since then, but rain still brings that sudden, abrupt, intense feeling of elation that comes when you get up early for school and learn there isn’t going to be one today. Best thing since sliced bread.

When it would rain in the evening, people would call to each other proclaiming their love for fried food delicacies, and chief among them would be “pakoras”. I have to confess that I didn’t really like pakoras in the beginning, but later they grew on me, just like all other good food does.  

As of right now, when I hear the sound of thunder, or when I hear rain drops or when I smell rain falling on the ground to make that sweet aroma, or when the sun hides behind the clouds, my heart just skips a beat and it makes me happy for some inexplicable reason. And I absolutely love the feeling.

So this is the sort of respect and love I had for rain in my heart when I came to Germany. However here, people don’t really like it when it rains. I have heard people postponing their travel plans only because it rained. I have seen people check the weather before they plan a vacation just so they can avoid the days when it does rain. Unsurprisingly, when people complain about the rain in my presence I find it difficult to relate to that thought. However, I understand. I understand that here it rains quite often and much more than it did back home and therefore its absolutely mundane and people here have no such associations with it.   

I am startled nonetheless; when people from the sub continent tell me how good weather to them now means that the sun is shining bright outside, I find it strange. For how can a person consider good weather to be rain all his/her/its life and then suddenly change that definition after having lived in a climatically cold county for some months.

Maybe its just the innate human desire to have things the way they have always been. And that rain actually really isn’t all that comforting but for now I love it, and I love it that I love it. 

Adam & Eve

One hundred years before Adam and Eve walked the planet; there was a time and place on earth when women ruled the world and men only made club sandwiches for them. This was a pink era in the history of our earth. The following is a story that transpired then.

There was a man who was very much in love with a woman. And the woman was very much in love with this man. This woman was beautiful, her use of words crisp, her ways subtle, she was the perfect predecessor to the 21^st century teenage girl. There was however one subtle difference between their loves in it that the man loved several other women as well, but the woman loved only this one man. This prehistoric man was a smart guy, in fact for the purpose of convenience, lets just say he was a rocket engineer. Legend has it he also understood with considerable ease the complex nature of the space time continuum and was soon beginning work on quantum fluctuations. But even this man could not understand one thing. This thing being as to why this particular woman loved only him. Try all he could, and by god try he did, he could not understand as to why this was the case.

Ten years less than hundred years ago before Adam and Eve walked the planet; the women had a strange idea. They suggested to the men that maybe we could have a monogamous relationship all our lives, and proceeded on to claim that she thought that it would be pretty darn cool. The man did not know the meaning of the word monogamy but did not like the sound of it. Since the Womandom was named as it was, the only thing the men could do was to add more spice into the sandwiches, and our elders tell us that that is exactly what they did. So it came to pass that a new institution was established which sought to restrict people’s right to love as many people as they desired and hence in this way, bars were put into place on how much people could love and whom. This was of course the precursor of other more severe things to come. 

Later, the first man and woman walked the planet and called themselves Adam and Eve. And the first thing Adam did was that he made the world a patriarchy so that crazy things like these will not happen again. and children! Now we know why since that time, we have had patriarchal societies in most parts of the world.

The rest is just future. 

Shopping at Lidl

In Germany there are places which are as German as German gets and one of those places is the discount retailer called Lidl. Since a Lidl outlet is right next to where I live, I shop there often. But before I begin I must warn you dear reader. You read at your discretion since this tale is not for the faint of heart.

So even before you enter the shop you sense an air of urgency about that place. When you are inside there are sales women whom I have never seen walk, they only run. Sometimes they drive that little in-store shopping cart for carriage purposes. This makes them even faster. I am sure they love it. On hindsight I think that’s what those women do. Lidl has no sales people. They dont understand what they are used for. 

I remember the first time that I was here. In Pakistan grocery items like bread, jam, butter etc are labeled both in English and Urdu. So if one does not read and understand Urdu one can read English. When I came to Germany this is exactly the impression that I had. I was thinking hey I cant understand German but I am sure I can get around with the rudimentary English language prowess that I posses. But as luck would have it, the first shop that I went to was Lidl. And not only do they never speak English in Lidl (I have never heard English inside a Lidl store, I am fairly certain its not allowed), not only do the items never have anything written in English but also the saleswomen, who travel at Marc 3, inside the store, will be absolutely apathetical towards your presence in her vicinity.  It is therefore with this desire in your mind that you shop at Lidl that one day maybe one day she will stop by you, look at you with those beautiful blue eyes and proceed to shouting something in German at you. Something like “Du hunde sheise! was brauchst du hier jeder mal, wann ich hier bin?”But so far I must admit that has not transpired.

There is one thing that I think people who wish to travel to Germany or want to live here should know. I want to mention this because this breed of person does not get as much attention in the media as the person deserves. I am of course talking about the lady at the counter at Lidl. Like everyone else in the world I have heard stories about you-know-who (in the German context) but I am fairly certain the counter lady is meaner. I will gladly let Superman torch me with his laser eyes than be stared at by the counter lady at Lidl. This typically happens when all my stuff has been through her, I have paid the bills and now apparently all the matter in the universe is waiting for me to put my things in my bag. It is then that she just glares at me. And I wish that if she would just take out a chainsaw(used in the massacring industry), and chop my hand off instead, that would be so much nicer of her and I would thank her.  I swear to all things I hold dear and sacred, that on such times I honestly want to run back to Pakistan. 

Against all censorship

Recently( this means for the last 5 years or so) I have been watching with some consistency, new and old stand up comedians, and trying to take life's real lessons from things they say. It is no surprise that what they say is filled not just with irony and satire, but also with truth and honesty. I have however stumbled upon something which qualifies for a post in this blog.

I am sure that when these comedian guys sit and write their routine, they always ask themselves as to what is it that they can say that that will most offend their listeners. and then they proceed to say just that. Much of stand up comedy(pronounced life) is based on saying things that people think about but yet cant never bring themselves about to saying them. It is left on the shoulders of the stand up comedian therefore, to try to think of those things and then say them. This also charges right through the domain of self expression and freedom of speech. But what is freedom of speech really. I mean at what point does an idea becomes so uncivil that it is definitely, absolutely, completely, totally, wholly, and utterly inappropriate to voice? In other words, at what point does an idea NOT fall under the umbrella term freedom of expression. or is there never a time like that. Maybe everything falls under freedom of speech. Lets take a sweet journey down an idea lane to check to see at what point is it definitely wrong to say something.

Being supportive of the LGBT rights

One race of people is superior to another (brown people are inferior to yellow people for example)

Being Supportive of the Nazi regime

Claiming that slavery is justified and being all up for its reinstatement.

Being generally or specifically profane and godless

Being up for human limb mutilation

Being up for incest

Being in favour of a Nuclear holocaust.
.

Or is it that just about everything that I can think of, I can say? because after all, ideas are bulletproof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSLeuTvRPdI

On education

It transpired when I was in a café sipping my coffee waiting for a friend of mine to join me who was uncharacteristically late. So I was just sitting sipping coffee, having a look at people on the other tables. On most tables the conversation was in German so I didn’t pay much attention to that (This is such a euphemism since paying attention would have hardly helped improve comprehension). But there was one table where there were a couple of teenagers speaking English and I was naturally drawn to that. I was not so much interested in what they were talking about as I was in how the body language of the speakers changed and reacted to what they or the other person was saying. I could clearly see that in social contexts, one of the simplest way that people show their approval of what is being said to them or the group at large is to laugh or smile as a reaction. I could see that when people at the table laughed, the speaker got more energy to continue with whatever he or she was saying (because the person had clear approval to continue). It looked to me that the way social groups encourage certain types of behavior is by laughing at things.

Conversely when someone said something that did not make the group laugh or smile, the speaker is subtly discouraged to continue with his or her tirade. Such a speaker may often be considered boring or uninteresting.

Thereby there is at least a small causal relationship between social behavior (body language used, words used, the type of jokes told etc) and what people laugh at. This makes the reason as to what makes people giggle, laugh, grin, smile, and chuckle at the very heart of human behavior. Hence it is important to find what exactly what it is that people laugh at. As per my experience I feel that what people laugh at is associated with the amount and type of knowledge that they have acquired in their lives. That’s why people in Pakistan will laugh at things which people in Germany may consider lame and what people Germany may laugh about is what people in Pakistan can consider immoral. The difference is the amount of education that they have had. The knowledge they have received acquired or information that was generally disseminated to them. So in order to improve social behavior, educate people.

“So I didn’t get stood up after all” I tell him, as he finally shows up
“Da kann nicht seinJ” he says

Erkaltung

Ever since I have lived in Berlin, I have been going to this doctor (Aerztin). She does not speak English at all so its always a a lot of work in trying to tell her how I feel. I went to her when I had been in Berlin for 3 months, then 6 months and now yesteryday when I went to her, I have lived here for almost a year. Being able to talk to her is the litmus test for my German speaking abilities.

Every time that  I have been to a doctor in my life, I have come back with load full of medicinal drugs that I have had to take day in and day out to get well again. So yesterday when I went to the doctor I was wondering if she would give me Augmentin the anti biotic or some standard paracetamol. But what she did was to tell me a total of three German sayings which I feel I should translate here

“Erkaltung. 3 tage kommst es, 3 tage bleibt es, und 3 tage geht es”
“Cold. For 3 days it comes, for 3 days it stays and another 3 days it leaves”

“Manchmal weniger ist mehr als mehr”
“Sometime, less is more”

She told me that I have the common cold and since it’s a viral infection there is no medicine for it. And that I have to rest it away.So here I am sitting at home since yesterday, bored out of my wits and thinking that getting sick in a foreign country sucks really bad. Makes you miss your mom the most. 

Inside the mind of old people lies history

Apparently the old people in Berlin have something against urban rails and underground trains and have a thing for trams and buses. I say this with a reasonable amount of certainty after having watched a bus full of really old people, a countless number of times. Today was also one such day. The laziness that I personify, I was taking a bus to a place where I could have easily walked to. But this post is neither about the commuting habits of old people in Berlin nor of my laziness in general, but instead about what I think when I see so many old people in this city.

Germany in general and Berlin in particular is brimming with history, and here when I say history I don t mean something that happened thousands of years ago but of things that happened a few decades ago. Once the capital of Prussia, then the capital of the Third Reich, then the divided city (and capital of the eastern bloc) and finally becoming the capital of  unified Germany, Berlin is a gem for people who are even remotely interested in anything related to history. These old people are a living testimony to those times. So come to think of it, these people were actually there when Europe was  ravaged by the second world war. Some were IN BERLIN when the red army invaded Berlin and Germany unconditionally surrendered. Some of them might even be in Berlin when Hitler committed suicide. They might just be a few blocks away from where that happened. They must remember a lot that would be valuable to historians.

Then this city was divided and there was a wall, a real actual literal wall that separated the city. and passing to the other side was, for all practical purposes, impossible. All these old people must remember how it was to have family on the other side of the wall. and then how it must have felt when the wall came down. Some must have been happy, some must have been sad but it was a historic moment and all of these would remember it.

Consider a typical Berliner (person not doughnut),who was growing up in the 30s. This person is bombarded with the 2nd World War propaganda of the time and he/she believes in all the ideals held by the third Reich( I assume here that kids generally don t know or think much and are therefore extremely vulnerable to what they are fed to them in terms of information). Sadly for this person however, Germany would lose the war in 1945. For this person it would be catastrophic because that means that whatever s/he believed was wrong and Germany would not reach the world domination that it so desires to have.. Now consider again that this person lives in the eastern bloc under the communist regime and grows up with this propaganda. At this point s/he finds it difficult to cope with this new found ideals that are being fed to him/her, but does well to inculcate them into his framework of thought. but come the collapse of the Soviet Bloc and this person again has to change everything that s/he believed in and has to adopt a new system of thinking. I can only imagine what that sort of a person would feel. For most people who truly absolutely believe in something, they never change it, I cannot imagine what it would be like to do it twice. Almost sounds impossible.
This is a person I would like to meet and talk to. 

Describing a picture

There are many reasons as to why I like this picture. Top amongst them is the fact the people featured in the picture have made no superficial effort to give out the impression that they are close friends. However, if you look at the picture for 5 seconds you sense that the air between them is those of old friends, who have known each other so well and for so long that even silence between them is comforting. I also like how these two people have made no attempt to pose for the camera whereas both appear to be fully conscious that they are being snapped (assuming of course that the person on the left just stands with his legs crossed). Since we can see the blue sky as well, the impression is that of a relaxed sunny day by the river. This just adds to the overall ambience of peace and quiet where words are a mere stain on silence.

For both these people personally, the logo on top of the building on the right will always remain important, for it is/was their Alma Mater in Berlin. And because of the sadness that comes with getting only one life to live, this name is going to stay with them for the rest of their lives.

There is also a  river on one side, which to me always represents the flow, from one point in life, to another. It symbolizes the unending and quite unnerving constant metamorphosis that our lives are regularly undergoing. The river stretches as far as our eyes can see. Which is just perfect.

The only thing lacking however is that it is coloured, for I have noticed that for a picture to be considered of artistic value, it needs to be black and white. Sadly, this picture isn't.  

Words from everywhere

I have collected some knowledge about people from different countries and cultures over the time period that I have lived in Berlin. One thing that I find myself paying particular attention to these days is how words are constructed in different languages and how some words exist in one language and not in another. Following is a list of words (mostly English sadly) which I think are quite unique.


Weltschmerzen (German)

The beauty in German is that it combines words to form longer words (an "agglutinative" language since we are on the subject of words). So koepf in German means head and schmerzen means ache/pain. So Keopfschmerzen is headache. In much the same way, Welt is world and Weltschmerzen is "the pain of the world".
What it really means is that if you could imagine worrying about everythig in the world, say from hunger and politics to stars and insects to facebook to cars, if you could hypothetically worry about everything, and how temperoary everything is and how meangingful the persuit of happiness is, THEN you truely have Weltscherzen. In essence it the pain associated with just existing and just being alive.


Wanderlust (Loanword from German, now English)

Here we have, something that many young adolescents might associate themselves with. Wanderlust is the desire, the urge, the wish the hope and the lust for travelling to a place, somewhere, anywhere that one has never been to before. It symbolises breaking free from the hustle bustle of mundane life. It is for people who want to seek out "new life and new civilizations"


Alexithemia ( English)


I love words which have a sense of humour about them, and I think alexythemia is one such. This word ( which I am not sure even native speakers of English would even know. I am sure the Americans wouldnt know that , the Brits and others might:p) describes the condition one has when one cant describe emotions in a verbal manner. So they actually have a word, and quite a difficult one at that, for when you cant describe your emotions in a verbal manner. :(



Flaneur ( there is an umlaut on the letter "a" and yes it is a french word)

This word describes a person who wanders around aimlessly BUT enjoyably through life while observing everything that life has in store. All of us have it so some extent I suppose.

Baraye Meharbani ( Urdu)

What do we say when we want someone to do something for us? We say please. this is the Urdu word for please which is made up of two words Baraye ( meaning for the sake of / in order to ) and Meharbani( thankfulness)

So when you combine these two words you have something that would translate in English to "please do something after which I will thank you for doing it)

So if you meet a native speaker of Urdu (like myself) and he/she says please to you. You should picture in your head the following sentence "please do something after which I can thank you"

Adoxography ( English)

and finally I end this blog entry by mentioning a word that means "an elaborate writing on a subject of little or no use whatever" which is quite in itself the description of my blog and this post.

On Characters from Children's Books

Back when I was young ( not just by heart) I read books in which there was a clearly defined good guy character( who also looked good by the way) and a bad guy character( who of course looked bad). You could actually tell just by looking at the cover of the book as to who was the good guy or who wasn’t. Take the name of the story and the picture on the cover together, and there you have it, a working rough draft of the story. It made me feel happy and secure that I wouldn't have to read too much into the story myself. 

But when I grew up, I saw that things weren’t as simple as they seemed. For example sometimes good looking people were really absolutely nasty at heart (most of the times? nah) and really ugly (strong word lets change it) really reasonably okay looking people could be good people. I have to admit, that was a shocker. How was I now ever going to tell good people from the bad ones? My whole worldview had been changed. There was utterly no superficial way to know that anymore. Looks, apparently as it turned out, could be deceiving. Good guys didn’t just do random good things to strangers on the streets and bad guys weren’t always brooding over some evil plans to take over the world(preferably in a dark room at night) Actually all this was making me feel really sad up until again when it suddenly changed to what it used to be like before.

The Taliban are people who live in caves, mostly in Afghanistan and sometimes in Pakistan (that is if you actually know the distinction between the two countries and you don’t think one is a city within the other). Their weapon of choice is an AK47 rifle (mine too actually in the computer game counter strike). Their job is to blow things and people up. They have been doing it for years and as the architect of the Matrix says "have become increasingly efficient at it”. They sport beards and wear the traditional dress from the region which is "shalwar kameez". Most importantly they look and act DIFFERENT. Different than what I am. They are also generally seen on camera almost always carrying a rifle (even when the apparent purpose of the video is to talk to people from the media). They claim to follow the shariah law (at least their own version of it) and have sister organizations or daughter concerns virtually everywhere in the world. Literally anything wrong that happens anywhere in the world is carried out under the guileful command of the Taliban leaders, and only so that there is no confusion they are always quick to accept responsibility for things that happen in Iraq or South Sudan or Syria or well, unsurprisingly Afghanistan. 

So now once again I feel the same thing. I no longer have to think about the bad guys or the good guys. The news channels just do that for me. And then they just tell me what I have to think about. And I like a truly modern man of the 21st century, humbly always comply. So at the end of the day, I again know how/what the bad guys look like, smell touch taste feel say talk do. Yet again you name a news story containing that name and show me a picture simultaneously and I can tell what the story is going to be about. Ahh. It has made my life simpler once again.

Disclaimer: I detest and abhor to my very core the ideals that the Taliban hold and represent and wish that the world soon will be rid of people like them. The purpose of this blog however has only been to state that every time I hear something on the news, like this,  I feel there is more to the story than meets the eye. 

Its that thing you know

Invariably, all the people I have met in Berlin speak more than one language. The last sentence is a colossal understatement because most people speak three or more languages. And when you speak many languages, the most profound benefit that you have is having something else to talk about with strangers you meet for the first time, other than weather and world politics. You can talk about languages themselves.
More often than not, people will also tell you how they have a “thing” for languages. I don’t know what having a “thing” for languages means but it certainly means something cool or else people wouldn't be saying that so often. This reminds me I also used to say the same thing. And I don’t anymore because I speak only two languages and that’s a low number of languages to know if you want the claim of the “thing with languages” to be taken seriously by anyone.

So virtually everyone I have met here I have told this one thing. I generally tell it right after telling them how similar I think German and Urdu are (which happens when I tell them that “I AM learning German” (this happens when they ask me “ARE you learning German”?)). Anyway so when I tell them I think Urdu and German are similar, their response is always “really? How come” and then I pull up my sleeves and get into the nitty gritties. I have told the exact same thing to many people so many times that it almost seems like a script that I rehearse over and over again. Lately I have been thinking whether I have become so old that I do not remember I am repeating myself or not. I certainly do hope I haven’t. This similarity in these languages is telling people the word for “capital city” in Urdu. In my defence, if indeed you can come to your own defence, but in my defence, the word for “capital city” in Urdu IS really interesting and it DOES really remind me of how words are constructed in the German language. For the interest of the reader it is “dara-ul-hakoomat” and it means a region within which the government of a country is located. Wonderful isn’t it. There you go. Now when we meet for the first time, you would know what I will say.

 OHHHHHHHH Now I see why I am so pathetically sad and lonely here. It makes perfect sense now.