The Earthquake; 2015 Edition

Two days ago, South Asia was hit by a severe earthquake that is being deemed the strongest one in the history of Pakistan. The wiki article is already calling it the "Afghanistan Earthquake 2015" for reasons unknown to scientists. Following is what transpired to me as the quake hit Pakistan.

I was on the main boulevard in Defense casually talking to two other passengers when we suddenly realized that there were lots of people outside this particular bank. Upon further introspection, we realized everyone had gotten out of the buildings. We kind of figured it was an earthquake. Either that or there was a meteor approaching us from space and people wanted to get a sneak peek at that. Anyway, thats my version of what happened to me during the earthquake. Needless to say this is as boring as watching Golf on TV. okay I concede not that boring.

So ever since then everyone I meet and everywhere I go, people have been sharing their experience of the earthquake. Things like "I saw the buildings shudder" and " Man! I really starting to pray to God" and what not are to be heard often. I know its not a popular "betrachtungweise"(point of view) but I really feel bad that I have no cool story about the earthquake to share. Now or ever. I mean imagine the year is 2035 and there is like a minor quake something like a 0.7 of the Richter scale and now everyone is talking about the 2005 quake and the 2015 Quake. Imagine my shame when I tell them " hey. I was driving so I didnt feel it."  I also realize that now that I have written this I know for sure I am prone to the spell of the evil eye(that's my translation for "nazar lag jana"). For if anything happens to me in the future, people are going to be like" see! he was making jokes on his blog about the earthquake. Look what happened". This is so going to make the dead me so mad.



Or I could just make a cool story about the whole thing. I mean something like so the earth went asunder and a monster the size of Goalath shouted obscenities in Punjabi at me for no particular reason but wait thats too much. How about something like "hey  I was having a fancy lunch at the fancies place in town (check out the in built check-in within the story) and the manager came and said "oh dear Sir! allow me to escort you outside the building and here are two more fancy drinks for the way"

No. I was driving, and I didnt feel it. Damm

On Being back to Pakistan

The first post this blog outlined that its purpose was to scribble down the events of my European adventure. However considering that I have been back for a week now, I still think I should continue with this blog. Its sort of become something I enjoy, an activity that lets me vent out my thoughts. And there are always things you can write about.

Today I will just write that its been around 10 days that I have been back, and it alredy feels like I never left. Thankfully I have some pictures and videos to prove me wrong. Another thing that I have wondered about and not yet written is that I find it interesting how when we dream, people are the first things to change yet places are the last. For me ever since I have been back, my REM sleep has shown me places in Europe, I was in Berlin for the first 3 nights, then in Paris, and yesterday I went to Prague, I remember thinking to myself that hey “I am going to Prague for the third time”. I think there must be a study that talks about it. I not however not going to google that. 

Why do we travel?

S: Do we think that all the pictures of the Eiffel tower
that we have seen online may be cropped or morphed? Why is it important for us
to look at it with our own eyes? Do we think it’s going to look any different
when we see it with our own eyes? 



Sherry: Well. Obviously it’s going to look the way we expect
it to look and it’s not whether we believe the pictures. It’s about the
experience. 



S: A friend recently posted some pictures on Facebook with the
Eiffel tower as a backdrop and with the caption that read “I love Paris so much
that I want to live here for all my life”. Do you think he really means it?”



Sherry: Probably not. Facebook is a publicity stunt machine.
And people say things there they don’t really mean. But that doesn’t necessarily
mean there aren’t people in the world who want to live in Paris ONLY because it
look beautiful to them.








Reproduced above is a conversation that I had a week ago with
a friend en-route to Paris. Virtually everyone that I have ever met in my life
wants to travel, explore new place and be where s/he has never been before and
everyone has different reasons for it.



Personally for me, I travel to come in contact with people
from all over the world. It is of particular interest to me when I meet people
whose first language, religion, skin colour and ways of thinking about life are
different than my own. Sure places and monuments are important as well but it is
the fresh crispness of extraordinary interpersonal experiences that drive many
of my decisions to travel and explore. I enjoin upon others to share their
reasons to travel often in person, but I have noticed it doesn’t elicit the
sort of response that I require. The responses are typically of the sort that makes
this question seem trivial and pointless, which in my opinion is anything but.

Bis Jetzt

Heute ist der erste mal, dass ich etwas auf Deutsch schreibe. Mein Ziel ist zu wissen wie gut ich Deutsch schreiben kann. Ich habe jetzt in Deutschland, übrigens zu sagen in Berlin für ungefähr 2 Jahre und 2 Monate gewohnt Hier habe ich sehr viele interessante und merkwürdige Erfahrungen gemacht. Heute rede ich Über ein paar. Los gehts


Gestern war ich in einem Geburtstag Party eingeladen. Eine Freundin von mir, die mit mir Deutsch gelernt hattet, war 22 geworden. Ich finde es interessant , diese Leute zu treffen und mit ihnen Deutsch zu reden. Ich denke das ist eine eindeutige Fortsritt in Richtung eine neu Sprache in kopf zu haben. Wann wir diese Deutsch unterricht gemacht hatten, konnten wir gar nichts reden aber gestern hatten wir Überall auf Deutsch geredet.

Aber das ist nicht nur was geändert ist seit ich hier bin. Es gibt viele andere Sachen. Und wichtigste ist mich Selbs.Ich kann jetzt kochen putzen wacshen kurzlich zu sagen ich kann uber mich selbs pflegen. Es freut mich dass ich diese dinge machen kann. Ich habe mit vilee menshen aus der gaze Welt getroffen und speichere in mein Kopf unfassbbare unzahlbarre Erfahrungen.

Einer Spanische Freund von mir hat gestern erklärt das es gibt Leute auf der Erde, die denken dass die Kultur vom ihrem Land ist unterschiedlich als die Kultur die sie selbst haben. Ich weiss nicht genau was es bedeutet oder ob es passieren kann aber ich finde es zu interessant. Er ist auch auf der Meinung der die aus Spanien und Deutschland ganz anders sind aber das kann ich unbedingt nicht glauben. Alle europäische nah ehrlich zu Sagan alle Menschen die die Hautfarbe weis haben sind gleich. Ich habe alles mit nur eine streiche gemalt.

Dogs

“Really? But why don’t you let dogs inside the house?” She asked me with utter incredulity in her voice white petting the two dogs that she has had for the last 10 years. Her words were in response to my narrating the story about this very morning when I woke up because one of the two dogs licked my hand when I was fast asleep. I didn’t really know how to answer the question she asked. I mean what do I tell a German to whom a dog is part of the family. I tried nonetheless

“Well! You see. Its because dogs are……..

And I paused mid sentence and figured that telling her that dogs are considered unclean would be thoughtless and culturally insensitive so I dug deep inside my mind for another explanation

“Well! In our religion and culture dogs are kept only for reasons of security and therefore it is best if they stay outside the house” was all I could muster.

She looked puzzled and for the life of her could not understand why this was the case. And I was puzzled too because for the life of me I could understand why dogs could be allowed inside the house. 

It doesnt look that way at all.

So having known R for two years as a close friend and having learnt we share things in common which transcend cultural boundaries, I believe I owe him a blog entry.

On a walking tour in Munich, everyone gets asked whether they have been to the Oktoberfest, and only R raises his hand. R is in a habit of raising his hand to questions that follow the general theme “Have you been to “insert name of a country/city here”.

R is currently the most well-travelled friend that I have. He has been to the US, the whole of Europe, south East Asia, India, and other places. I know this not because he told me one fine day of all places he has visited but rather I accumulated all the isolated accounts I have heard from him of places he has been to. However the reason I write this is not this.

The reason I write this is what he told me one fine day when we sit in my room which I make no effort to tidy up when he comes now because he comes often and is cool with my untidiness and he tells me this

“Sherry my boy, when I was young I used to think we were poor because I lived in a one storey house while the others kids lived in a two storey one. It was only when I went to college that that my dad told me he could afford it that I learnt it was not the case. I didn’t like those kids who flaunted being rich and I decided I will never flaunt. And now when I talk about all these places I have been to I always hope it does not come out as if I am trying to boast. Please tell me honestly Sherry, does it?”

He left me thinking as to how great a man he really is. He actually learnt something from his experiences in life. That almost never happens.

I used the word culture too many times in this one

So in the bar that I frequent multiple times a week, I saw a Muslim man from Yemen wearing his traditional dress. That got my attention and I hit up a conversation with him. He told me that he was doing his masters in Architecture from Humbolt University. When he heard that I was from Pakistan, he greeted me with an “Asalam-Alikum” (he assumed that I must be Muslim). I asked him about the recent situation in Yemen and what he thought about Pakistan’s involvement within it. He told me that he had lived in Berlin for the past 3 years, did not care about politics at home and didn't wish to speak about it with me.

He spoke German (he didn’t speak English at all) with an extremely Arabic accent, had a beard, and on his head he wore the traditional head cover. Coupled with the dress, it was quite stereo-typically Arabic. I thought to myself that maybe during the three years that he has lived here, his old Arabic clothes might have worn out, but here he was, carrying his Arabness and Yemenness proudly in this bar. But what amazed me was this. I wondered why a man who looks like in his late 20s, thinks he should represent a certain culture. I mean no one asked him if we wanted to be born in Yemen. This decision was entrusted upon him by where he was born.  His culture, like his religion is nothing he chose but something he just inherited. I wonder how much reason he thinks he has to claim that it is his.

I see this happening a lot, people from the Middle East would be Arab and Muslim, and dress in a certain way. I say this not from an observer’s point of view, but from the point of view of people who wear their culture in foreign countries. Why do they feel the need to represent their culture? Why do people even think their culture is the culture of the place they were born and raised into? Couldn't they just choose something that they like? Say could this guy start acting all Argentinean or say Russian? And if he does, would he become representative of that other culture? I know people can change religions, but can they also change their cultures? I guess not. But what if they HAVE to change it because maybe they don’t fit into their own culture?

The reason I ask this is because there might be people who are just forced to live a certain way because they are born into it. (Women in Saudi Arabia?) Also imagine transgender people who claim to be in the body of the other gender. Like transgender people claim they don’t belong in the body they have currently posses, people might also argue that they don’t belong in the culture they currently have let alone feel the need to flaunt it.

This guy then asked me about my plans for the coming Ramadan, and that where do I pray in Berlin (he continued to assume that I was Muslim and that too a practicing one). However, while he asked me this, he sipped the beer that he was carrying all the while that we were talking to each other, so I guess he follows religion selectively, but does he also do the same when it comes to culture?

The Left is right.

After having followed YouTube religiously for quite some time, I can safely say that what ails the relationship between the Muslim world and the West is not religion, culture, or heritage but differing opinions on the political spectrum.

Take for example a pastor in the US who posts something online which might be considered sacrilegious to Muslims. The direct aftermath is a series of Fatwas from the Muslim world that would put millions of dollars on the pastor’s head as bounty. US embassies are raided, scandalized, and attacked all over the Muslim world. Effigies of US presidents are burned, US products are boycotted (well except KFC and Coca Cola of course) and the West is tarred with the same brush as being generally insensitive to the sensitivities of Muslims. Muslim clerics make sure that people start to believe how EVERYONE in the US is against Muslims, and how they chant anti Muslim slogans day in and day out. They would also convince people that everyone in the world (which is generally the US, and Israel) is against their religion and their country and therefore they need to be protected.

Meanwhile, when aforementioned events are made public through television or the internet, people in the US begin actually fearing the worst. They start to think that maybe ALL Muslims hate the US, and that maybe ALL of them are crazy nut heads hell bent on destroying effigies, and embassies, and killing their ambassadors. Subsequently, this becomes impetus for another round of hatred from both sides. Essentially each side feeds on the anger, and ignorance of the other. These people are also convinced that they are in danger and in need of protection.

However, I think most of what we hear in the mainstream media is the opinion of the right and the centre right. Basically, we are told what the rightists in the West think about the rightists in the Muslim world and vice versa, which is almost always ugly. Most people, but rightists in particular in Pakistan (my country of origin) don’t even know that there are people in the US who are anti war, anti discrimination, anti immigration prohibition laws, but NOT anti Muslim. These people stand for liberal values, and generally will not shy away from criticizing their own country, religion, or political association. Progressives like Jon Stewart will tell you when they think that Protective Edge is the Möbius strip of issues.

In the same way, I am sure that there are some people in the US, mostly working for Fox News, that don’t know that there is a growing, blooming, and thriving community within the Muslim world which recognizes itself as liberal and progressive. These people do not hate everything that is Western, and in some cases may as well cherish Western principles. Agreed, sometimes it may be difficult for them to speak out openly against their governments for fear of their lives, but they nevertheless stand for liberal values.  Furthermore, these people may just be as Muslim as all others that we stereo typically consider Muslims and yet these liberals are included in the generalized statement or even the consideration of the statement that “All Muslims are terrorists”. This obviously makes no sense whatsoever.

So what the liberals from both sides need to do is to be more vocal about their point of views. We don’t want wars, we want intercultural, interfaith, inter-sex, and inter-race harmony. It might take some time but we will have it. The best way to do it is speak out more and more often and tell everyone tell we exist and this is what we stand for. Like I just did.