Life

and there you have it PM, the world according to feroz. which is of course, the world according to feroz. :) samjha karo na? *grin*

``life to me is all about hypocrisy. . .``

the longer i live in this world, the greater the problem i have with definitives, absolutes and totalities. hypocrisy is a huge part of many if not all of our lives, including the writer`s. those who visit chowk on a regular basis can attest to that. thankfully, there are crushingly sensitive souls who believe that life is more than ``all about hypocrisy`` and challenge hypocrisy within themselves and others rather than making cynical fun of it.

i wonder if once we say that something is ``all about`` something. do we not limit that, and close ourselves off to other possibilities we don`t wish to or choose to look at anymore.

being cynically sarcastic myself from time to time, i could appreciate what this article is saying, which is why perhaps it can also be read as a justification of hypocrisy? a `why bother with whatever since this is what life is all about` attitude?

just thinking aloud here.

re: PM, Ana, Wahajat

Thanks, this was unfinished article which was typed along time back. There is no hidden meaning in this article. However, PM, I have to disagree with you on the score that the article is grim - it has to be read with a cynical sarcasm to be appreciated! The article makes fun of life and does not feel sorry for life, because life to me is all about hypocricy and it is the denial of hypocricy in our lives that makes life so pathetic! As a French duke once said, ``hypocricy is the homage which vice pays to virtue`` lol ;)

re: atif2 # 2

Thanks for correction, I appreciated your comments. The allegation came from a person and to me, it was a joke and as a joke I posted it in the ilog.

Ciao

Feroz,

Some real gems here, even if embedded deep in the folds of this rather needlessy grim piece.

Sure, we`re all the time working with self-interest as a primary motivator deep down, but there`s little reason to despair the efforts to marry that with the happiness of others-- so long, as you obliquely make the point actually, that we`re not sucked in to the cortex of a value system that prizes stuff and power over the joys of simple living.

But like Wahajat said, it really is all about choices in the end. Of course the `right` choices tend to get more and more difficult to make with each wrong one made. But if you`re sufficiently motivated or disillusioned by the falsity of the Packaged Promised Land, well, you have another choice...

You`re a crushingly sensitive soul. I wish you true happiness.

Wahajat
Well said, man! Enjoyed reading your posts!

``Whoever coined the phrases ``ignorance is bliss``, or ``fool`s paradise`` knew what s/he was talking about.``

I agree with you, ignorance is terrible thing, my argument about simplification of happiness however is not ignorant at all. I personally find fleeting happiness to be a kind of a refuge, you find it in nooks and cranies, where you least expect it and then immerse yourself in it. Our lives are full of contradictions and we turn into people we did not want to be, if we burden ourselves by our existential realities then we have really had it. Happiness is also an acquired taste that we render early on in our lives, again small things and events, that remain with us all our lives. Have you ever wondered why Eid doesnt feel like it used to when we were 8. We grow up and ``Realise`` the fabrication in everything and slowly loose our faith.

If you think of it, we have all made to it to where we are against amazing odds, yet we dont even consider our achievements for two seconds. We are all amazing stories, written through a long struggle, yet when we look back, there is nothing to regret. I guess when i talk about Mangoes and Zahid`s Nehari, these were probably a set of some really happy memories as a child sitting with my father and my uncle`s in a really shabby restaurant eating delicious nehari, As a Child, that made me really happy and something that have stuck with me as the ultimate realisation of satisfaction and complete and utter happiness. Since then many of those people present at that time have passed, changed or moved away, I myself changing into an Adult. I go there now and for a brief moment I can see them all, together, Laughing, sharing stories and unpreturbed, just as I saw them when I was kid. And I tell you, its sheer bliss.

Ignorance has nothing to do with it.

I am sure that what you reflect upon here is something like ``KHAIRUDDIN`` WRITTEN BY Wajahat/Syed. For people like you, there is always an element of beauty every where specially when the fountain sprouts from a passionate and humane heart.

Yes we all live in a very selfish world and thats how it has always been. As per your well qualified grasp of international politics, it is but a realist paradigm and has never been anything else.

I guess you are better off at core issues.

well Done!!

Cheerios

the tree of knowledge is bare and withered and will not bear fruit again. . .

Whoever coined the phrases ``ignorance is bliss``, or ``fool`s paradise`` knew what s/he was talking about.

A plate of Zahid`s Nihari can give happiness to someone - but i wonder if that person really knows how meaningless that happiness is. Maybe he knows, but he has compromised with life and is content with finding happiness in Nihari`s plate.

Bravery, Valour, Love, Hate, Passion are beautiful qualities to have - when they are not adulterated. `Knowledge` brings adulteration to these qualities. Those who fight with valor at the forefront, or those who get beaten by police in street protests, are typically the people with least knowledge. If they knew what their leaders know, they would not be out there.

Knowledge helps us give meanings to daily occurences in our lives. It gives us that dreaded ability of ``comparative analysis`` - where we begin to compare our lot with others. And there is little, if any, happiness in that.

In the final analysis, a ``happy life`` is an oxymoron - unless you are ``ignorant`` or live in a ``fool`s paradise``. The word ``ignorant`` never sounded so good to me.

Tonight, I have decided to find happiness in smoking a Cohiba cigar, while sitting on a secluded bench near Potomac river.

And I will stay happy through the weekend, by not knowing anything more than I know at this very moment.

ORRR

Life can be what you make it. If you want to suffer than there is no remedy to your ailment. True Happiness is a simple thing, indeed a very simple thing, the more complicated you make it, the unattainable it becomes. You can be alone and yet be on the top of the world, we forget that within each of us lies a fountain and an interminable source of life. We just have to find it all within ourselves. Bravery, Valour, Love, Hate, Passion, is all in the human spirit, you can either untangle it and live, or tangle it up completely and suffocate whilst you live. The choice is always yours. You decide and you keep blaming others and everything around you. But just as the answer to everything is within you, so is blame.

What makes you break this cycle of lonliness that you talk about. Love, Eyes who say they love you, A Stranger`s Smile, Mangoes, A hot piping plate of Zahid`s Nehari in Saddar... It can be anything you want, and that is the most beautiful thing about being alive...

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Even if this is not a journal, this seems to be a thought being put out in front of us like a hot out of the oven pie, i will most happily take a whiff, or maybe even a bite?

feroz,

trying to stay on topic here. . .

this monologue of course is just one way of looking at life, a rather cynical one (big surprise there!), and this reads like it could be a journal entry (i happen to think it`s an amalgam of many of your ilogs). a confessional perhaps?! more justifications to explain away justifications?!?

whatever it is, there is definitely some food for thought here. and you express yourself beautifully, as you do quite often.

a.

and then there are those of us (myself not included) who would not even know who this Walter Mitty character is that they are following. . . :))

you wrote in your ilog that Fazlur Rehman`s father recently got married to a 19 year old girl. You seemed to be overjoyed at having found a fodder for making further jokes.

However, the problem is that his father is long dead.

If your above false allegation does not come from the long simmering hate and denial or insecurity, then I don`t know what hate is.