Perfect Women. Imperfect Men Accha now that I read this article, it was long, but a quick read. But it still didn`t give me any answers as to why things r this way and how to sort them out. Sorry. :(

Perfect Women. Imperfect Men ``Long`` key baad ``overdue`` add karna zaroori thi?

Truly Devdas Ridiculous. He killed a fellow. Love or no love, that`s no excuse for murder. And a dumbo who can`t see when a woman is not in love with him anymore, is not worth a note of the love songs he croons. True love is sacrifice, understanding, ensuring the other person`s happiness. Not losing your senses and running over people.

Hour of Separation Brat - :giggles: Is it that obvious? I just can`t help it. :)

Ummm...furst b4 I 4get.. fisherwoman (aloha) .. it`s sooo easy to say marriage with one and love with another just doesn`t cut it. But it`s sooo incredibly hard to do.

``How well with the girl in the story love the man she is married to if she is thinking of the medal man through out her own wedding?`` - hmm.. not very well in my experience, if she doesn`t let go and clings on to the past. But seems like the girl in the story has already let go, and is only thinking of past times as sweet memories. Looks like this girl will make it. That`s a good sign. :)

It`s hard to love someone, simply because love, like death... takes u somewhere u have no idea about. And u r not that eager to go there. Oh u may seem like u are, at that time.. but when u look back on it, and see the consequences of your love, you realize, that what went wrong in it was because of ur own actions/inactions... that u were not proactive in dealing with the situation. Instead of leading, instead of having courage.. u were lead by love. Into blind alleys.

This is why - this fear of the unknown - is why a person (1) doesn`t admit that love can take hold of u at any age (to answer Brat`s q).. and (2) doesn`t let go of the safety of a convetional marriage.. which will at minimum provide companionship if nothing else.

Halloween Shanzeh, Prem et al - my mind is reeling. I`ve ruffled some feathers that I like quite a bit, and I truly believe I shouldn`t have. Religion is a personal choice. So I`ll just leave it be. We all have our biases, no point arguing about them. I myself am still struggling to find out what Islam means to me.. if anything.. and it will in all likelihood be a life long learning and discovery process. So to each his own. Peace.

Land Reforms: A Landlord\'s Perspective And why cannot I rate this article? I would like to give it seven stars. Original, insightful, interesting, noteworthy and compelling.

Halloween # 69 I resent that accusation. These are my own beliefs. I am not (hopefully) forcing them on anyone else. U r grown ups, do as u wish. But don`t think of urselves as some gr8 human or god while doing it.

Land Reforms: A Landlord\'s Perspective The average income of a small trader or a restaurant owner in Karachi is much higher than that of many big landlords

Ahan.

The main difference is that the landlord tries to maintain a certain standard of living and therefore lives an ostentatious lifestyle and hence appears to be very wealthy

U mean to say.. all that excess wealth is a lie? Ahan.

Would the various learned writers on this subject agree to letting the workers have a share in all the respective industries and businesses where they work?

Yes. It`s called profit sharing.

all over the world it is the local who runs and primarily a local with sufficient means to pay for the enormous election expenses.

And those means come from making less than restaurant owners?
So how many restaurant owners run in elections from your district? Must be quite a few, since they`re obviously richer.

The reality of life is that the poor villager votes for his landlord not under coercion, but because he needs the support of the landlord to prevent him from all sorts of oppression. The first thing that a poor villager looks for is protection from the high handedness of the police, secondly he looks for someone who can provide him protection from dacoits and other villagers who may be of threat to him and thirdly to have a notable provide quick justice by acting in the form of an arbitrator in case of family or property disputes.

U mean he has a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea.

The primary reasons for low productivity are; lack of mechanization, irregular supply of water, expensive pesticides and fertilizer and reluctance on the part of the farm worker to use modern farming techniques and mechanization

Well, naturally there would be a shortage of machinery, irregular water supplies and fetilizers na... considering that landlords who make less than restaurant and boutique owners are running for elections which require mucho capital.

Reduction in the size of the land holdings will do nothing other than reduce the total productivity, as poor farmers will lack the necessary resources to provide the necessary inputs.

But wait! Are u saying.. the poor farmers are supposed to be buying all this needed machinery themselves? Ah! I C I C...

In countries like the United States and Canada the average land holding is between 2000 and 3000 acres

Accha, so u r saying that the size of Sindh is comparable to the size of Canada, therefore u should have 1:1 ratio of land holdings for landowners in Sindh versus landowners in whole of Canada. I C I C.

Let us stop trying to make agriculturists scapegoats for every ill in our society and try and identify the root causes of the ills in our society.

I fully agree. Let us try to do that. But first dissecting this article.

Halloween dost mittar - no I did not write b4 under any other ``nick``. Ana is my name. And yes, my religion is not so fragile, but my mind is. That is why I have no wish to distort it and mess myself up anymore.

hamidm, u can say as u like. Islam is not wahabism, sunnism, shiaism, plasticism, whateverism. It is 6 things - Shahdah, Salat, Zakat, Sawn, Hajj, and the Qur`an. U can or cannot believe in the Hadith, that is ur own choices. But to believe in the final prophethood of Muhammed SAW is not a choice. To believe in the angels, the books, past prophets and the Day of Qiyama is also not a choice. It comes down to these few - very very few basic tenets in this world of 1,500 page books and 1MM choices.

Shahadah means NO GOD EXCEPT GOD AND MUHAMMED IS HIS LAST PROPHET. Is that so difficult to understand?

Salat - prayer. Five FIVE - not one, not two, not half - FIVE times a day. Like clockwork. Also not difficult to understand. If not sunnat, if not wajib, if not nafil, ATLEAST only farz. It is not difficult to understand.

Zakat - Charity. Open hands. Not difficult again. Simple concept. Make money here, dispense there. Keep what u need, give away the rest. Keep your needs basic, and be happy. See others happy.

Sawn - Fasting. One month. Daybreak to dusk. See the light around the corner, say ``I fast``, see it getting dark, say ``I break fast``. That`s it. Simple. Niyaat. No chants, no mantras. Only niyaat.

Hajj - If - not necessary now, but IF - u can afford it.. go see the kaaba. Shopping trip to Malaysia.. make a small detour. Not difficult to understand.

Can`t read or write .. learn the Qur`an by rote second-hand. Like music.
Again, not difficult. What is learning by rote? Memorizing something gibberish like music.. u memorize it everyday for your own pleasure.. why not memorize for God? Is He asking that much? Except for ``Remember Me, Do Not Forget Me``.. what more is He asking? Is it a lot? U r human, He has given u a heart to feel someone`s pain, someone`s need .. He has a need... tell me, is He asking a lot of u?

What is so difficult to practice these basic things? Where is the wahabism in this? where is the shiaism, sunnism, sectarianism? Do u see it? I don`t.

All I see is laziness. Greed. Hypocrisy.

I don`t see people who are willing to spend 5 minutes every few hours remembering God. I see people who will spend 5 hours every day refuting Him.

I see people who do everything in the world except keep their hearts pure. The most important thing, they neglect. He asked us to return this body to Him in the condition He gave it to us.

When He gave us our eyes.. were they filled with sights of sin?
When he gave us our ears .. were they filled with sounds of evil?
When he gave us our hands .. hand they committed such atrocities?
When he gave us our hearts .. was it so impure as it is today?

What part of our bargain are we keeping?

How much are we going to cheat?

Is this being human?

Halloween and hamidm - I did not use the word Kafir.. read my post again. If u don`t understand something, ask.

Halloween I think I came off quite badly down there... didn`t mean to snap at u shanzeh, or diss Saminasha either. I have a lot of respect for her, and I respect yr views too. Just that... some things get mixed up sometimes, and I`m trying my best not to let them.

Ana

Hour of Separation ummm.. why does it always have to be the woman who is seen to have the burden of making a marriage work? No.. a lot of times, it is the man who is struggling to keep up with a grossly unjust incompetent woman he is forced by social dictates to call ``wife``.

The pendulum swings both ways.

And this story could also have been of a young boy who has to marry to satisfy his family, of a girl who he ``loved`` from afar and could never tell his feelings to... happens all the time too.

It`s not sad at all. It is, at that time. Feels like your world is caving in. But time heals everything. For boys, as well as for girls. Both have hearts y`all. And a heart is a living breathing beating thing.. it won`t stop experiencing new emotions no matter how much u restrict it to.

Marriages are different. Love is something that dies.. and that`s why a lot of marriages collapse. But it`s also something that if u give it a chance, it keeps getting re-born, in different forms... it`ll move from love to dislike to hate to spite to tolerance to acceptance to compassion to pity to empathy to compromise.. it`s not a static freezeframe feeling at all. As a person, and a marriage, matures, love is always moving about. After 50 years, u don`t see couples all lovey dovey and falling over each other.. but they still have that spark in their eyes that says we`ve accepted each other, for good or for bad, and this is love, and this is life.

Halloween ummm... shanzeh, b4 u say anything, read my post again. I did not call u or myself anywhere in my post a ``kafir``. Kafir mean one who engages in kufr: denial or rejection of One God, and I do not reject that.

From what I wrote in my last line, u assumed that I am in your league, ie. one who accepts all else in addition to One God. I am not.

The diwali and holi examples I gave, were to tell u that I too have been on that path that you are currently on, and I rejected that as well as many other paths, but retain the experiences, and therefore know what I am talking about. Unlike u, who have simply seen that one path and that`s it.

U are upset because I have mocked your ``beliefs``. Yes, I have mocked them. From my experiences, this way of life is shallow and devoid of meaning, just like for you my thinking is shallow and devoid of meaning. But I have seen a lot of people like you and Saminasha, who ``accept`` so much of the ``goodness`` and ``humanity`` in other religions, that they lose sense of themselves... and become disoriented. You ``love`` humanity, but have no idea where it starts and where it ends. You deny it, but it is nevertheless a fact. And you cling on to the claim of being a ``Muslim`` but you do not make a point to state that you are NOT the regular run of the mill practicing ``muslim``, you have different views from the majority crowd. A religion is made by followers who hold sacred a set of certain values, ideals, principles… the majority. When one is not in accordance with the mindframe of the majority, one is either a minority, or still wanting to remain in and identify with the majority, one is a hypocrite. This hypocrisy is what irks me. Atleast I do not do that. I cannot call myself a regular practicing Muslim, no. A version of a Muslim, a radical minority… a variant trying to stay within the folds of Islam, yes. Adhering to certain Islamic principles, yes. Rejecting some, yes. That is what my post dealt with. Accepting what u r, coming clean.. not maligning a religion by claiming to still follow it to the letter, when we are not. U call yourself a Muslim proudly on par with other Muslims. That, to me, is a shame, because that means you are still trying to align yourself with the billions of people who practice that religion in good faith. That is also a total let down for whatever u claim to believe in.

Look, while we live on this earth, we are still human. When we die, we will become souls or light or whatever and we will all be equal and on the same playing fields and have the same beliefs and whatnot. While we are alive, there are differences, it is human nature, we must accept them. There are different religions, just as there are different people. It is hypocrisy to try and be all things to all people. And if we MUST be different, we must atleast respect those people who are NOT like us, and make it clear to them that we are not one of them. This is simple common courtesy lest someone fall into an erroneous frame of mind about Islam. It is not justification of one`s personal beliefs, it is a service we do … practice of that ``humanity`` we so much preach from every treetop.

Saminasha did not have the gumption probably to respond to my comments directly. Her encouragement to you was instantaneous, but no word directly rebuking my post. I wonder why.

Why is it that people who are NO LONGER practicing Muslims - simply refuse to accept this fact? Does it scare you to deal with it? What threatens you - criticism or rejection by conventional society? You practice Holi as well as Eid - what religion is this? Don`t tell me it is Islam.. no where in Islam is the practice of Holi advocated. Now, you will come back with ``but in my brand of Islam``.. WHAT brand? And if it is your brand of religion, then please make sure you say this clearly and leave no doubts in your OWN mind what exactly you are.Do not try to be a spokesperson for that belief system, when u r not of it. If one cannot follow the majority views on a religion, one is not of it, and it`s as simple as that. Is that so difficult to comprehend?

You claim to ``love`` humanity. What kind of love is this where you are adamant about infiltrating the ranks of believers of a certain religion, equating yourself with them, when you do not practice the basics that their religion demands? This is love of humanity, or stabbing someone in the back? You cannot be truthful to your own self about what your real actual beliefs are. Start showing your love for humanity by beginning with yourself.

You say your faith is between your god and u. Yes, it is. So is mine. But first realize and accept who or what your god is. It is certainly not the God that this world`s billion or so real Muslims bow down to as asked by their God, five times a day.

A Tale of Two Countries: Comparing India and Pakistan’s Economies Godot - Lucy is right. This article is presenting nothing but raw statistical cold hard economic facts that are documented in plenty of sources. It is not written to incite patriotic fervor. Pls. treat a business analysis as a business analysis and learn to see the numbers on paper.. performance is reality. Were this article some emotional number with a political or shadi-barati angle, one could see where your statements would fit it.

Just a friendly piece of advice. Stay happy. :)

Halloween rsax.. whatever. I`m not going to sit here and justify my beliefs to u. I already said all that I wanted to, and that`s it.

A Tale of Two Countries: Comparing India and Pakistan’s Economies This is by far one of the BEST, most concise and relevant articles making a case for free trade in the Asian subcontinent, that I have ever read.

note to the authors - May I have permission to utilize this material for classroom discussion purposes (am a student)? Credit will be given to you, naturally.