Life

Its very interesting that had you began writing ``Life`` or as I see it ``the hipocracy of the hollow and lonely`` you could never have completed it while consoling a friend at 2am over a bottle of good cognac...you have truely reached an all new high of cynicism on the high wire act!!

Its very interesting that had you began writing ``Life`` or as I see it ``the hipocracy of the hollow and lonely`` you could never have completed it while consoling a friend at 2am over a bottle of good cognac...you have truely reached an all new high of cynicism on the high wire act!!

feroz:

i`ve been biting my tongue long enough to avoid saying this, but since it hurts, i can no longer be silent! khuda na khaasta i should inform chowk of something they don`t already know!! ;) LOL.

ciao bello!

re: Ana

The inside joke was your comment to PM about the world according to Feroz. As you already know, the world according to Feroz, as accepted by Feroz, is quite weird, I was simply saying there is no need to inform Chowk that I am really and actually weird in real life also! ;) lol

re: atif2

I hope this clarifies the confusion.

Ciao

ana # 16 - ok, now its MY turn to be confused. what was all that about? seriously, i could not understand ANY thing you wrote in that post. Could you repeat it please?

Thanks

feroz,

at first i was confused. yaar, what is this inside joke that i`ve shared? i reread my post. .was it what i said to PM? noooooo. . . then i went through the rest of it feeling nonplussed as ever. then i reread your last post, arre, you know the one where you say everything around you is a joke, and it dawned on me, my whole post was a joke. so where is the ``inside`` in this joke? and does it matter? i must still be confused. :)))

re: Dost-Mittar # 14

I hope, sir, that you know, how ill equiped I am to afford a sombre mood. Alas, it is one luxury, which has always been beyond my reach. If, and when, I am not cynical, then I tend to be skeptical and that always rebounds into cynism. Sirji, everything around me is a joke and if I took this circus seriously, I would end up in a lunatic ward....come to think of it...I am already there and it called....well, you know what it is called and as to the life being beautiful, I think I saw that movie a long time ago and it was ok! :)

As to August, who cares about winter when there is another August to suffer in the future! lol

re: Ana # 13

It is not fair! You are not supposed to share inside jokes! lol

Ciao

feroz:
You write best when you are in a sombre mood. But sometimes, it helps to be not so cynical. Life is also beautiful - at least at times! [think of the experimental farm in full bloom now! of course, one can also say, if it`s august, can winter be far behind?]

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...