Resting with Saints

After a long journey i have reached half way mark and just recenlty clocked 3000 Km. 

For past 72 hours i have been in Multan, eating food and sleeping while i wait for a friend to join me in Lahore. 

Multan is also called city of shrines and is one of the oldest cities in the world, not much to do in the city apart from visiting shrines, eating food and if you have an interesting taste you can watch Mujras and eat more food.

Just yesterday i contacted Muree Brewery in Islamabad to see if i can visit them, still waiting for a response but i have been told that it is possible to visit on Saturdays.

Next stop Islamabad. Again.

Islam-abad

The name has got religious significance but nothing religious about the city except Faisal Mosque. I stayed there for quite a few days but did not hear a single call for prayer(Azan), which in very unlikely Pakistan where most of the Mula's would prefer to cover whole of Pakistan with their voice. Favourite past time of the city is to go approx. 4000 feet on mountain to have food or just sit home with a glass of non-religious beverage.

Islamabad was made for foreigners and not for Pakistanis, while driving you stay in your lane, stop at every signal, let others pass, minimal use of horn etc. but right next to Islamabad is the city which will give you true essence of Pakistan. Rawalpindi, its winding bazaars and highly coordinated traffic chaos.

I would prefer to live in Islamabad any day, it is calm and quite but after my retirement. 

Routine Life

It has been 2 weeks today that one of my closest friend is missing, well not really missing but kidnapped but to me he is missing as i haven't bee able to watch any football match, not even a single game Fifa on xBox and above all i find it extremely difficult to even take a sip of booze. This is not because i am literally staying at his house to keep the atmosphere lively and support his family in this difficult time but purely because our life revolved around xbox and boozy nights.

Life must go on but with your routine missing it is difficult to carry on. That actually made me think life at the other end must be going in a routine - Life of a kidnapper, pick your target, keep him at a safe location, negotiate with the family and knowing that police is looking for them - just a job for them. I wonder if they are happy at their job, are they also having difficulties in sleeping or its just the victims?  I have been meaning to write this post for sometime but find it extremely difficult to write as it breaks me to say my dear friend is missing whom i have a lot to share.

So i have decided not to write about my friend but simply write about Pakistan and my love for this country. I know almost all my friends are planning to move out of this terror stuck country and i don't blame them, we were born and brought up to hate our surroundings, since the nations birth we have been doing this. and i am sure we will be doing this forever and the day we get a chance to move out we will move out. It hurts to say may be i will do the same but the basis of my desision will be different, i will only move to get knowledge and always return home, as home to me always will be Pakistan.

This blog is in reaction to reading this piece on Dawn regarding Wasim Akram and match fixing allegations. http://www.dawn.com/news/1285348

I am still a fan but a confused one. As a normal being we pick and choose based on our liking and that makes it easier for us to forget and forgive.

Heroes are picked based on their talents, so it doesn't matter what kind of human being they are, for example, Afridi is my hero and on a cricket pitch I forgive him for everything but as a human being i can't stand him, when it comes to Wasim Akram or even Imran Khan i can go on for days praising their talents but as an honest human being I have my doubts about their character.

There is fine thin line between right and wrong and that line further shrinks when its between 'my right' and 'ethically / morally wrong'. Perhaps more and more cricketers are being convinced that its their right to earn more and more by all means simply because its their right.

This goes beyond cricket, every field of work i have encountered, money matters and its not enough no matter how much it is. Recently i have been struggling to cope up with this and spoken to few about it and to my surprise its not just cricket, my field of work or our country, its global and its too late to fix it. We are so corrupt now that the fine line is gone, we simply pick and choose based on our liking of whats wrong and whats not. We have our own interpretation and names for various corrupt activities we are involved in, kickback is commission, bribe is speed money, bookies are our friends, agency/ clients own startups with zero investment and property is the new currency to play with taxes.

Having said that we all like our close friends no matter what they do, so how can we not love our heroes and forget or turn a blind eye towards what they do on the side.