Something I Wrote...

Beneath the Veil

Hidden beneath the tagline of terrorism, violence, corruption, cricket controversies and poverty, Pakistan has always been deprived of the admirations it deserves when it comes to beauty which speaks right to the heart and soul of a person. Jaw-dropping cliffs, dizzyingly high mountains, preserved shrines rich with the ambiance of past and lush green lands speckled with flowing rivers and impressive lakes in the palms of alluring valleys; this is the Pakistan under the veil.

The name Swat is an automatic update in our minds for the hardline Islamic fundamentalist Taliban and innocent smiles like Malala Yusaf Zai who are subjugated to women oppression. Yet, what the powerful Western media fails to highlight is the sheer beauty of the Switzerland of Asia. Swat acquired fame as a place of Buddhist pilgrimage. It is said that the Swat was filled with fourteen hundred imposing and beautiful stupas and monasteries, which housed as many as 6,000 gold images of the Buddhist pantheon for worship and education. There are now more than 400 Buddhist sites covering and area of 160 Km in Swat valley only. Among the important Buddhist excavation in swat an important one is Butkarha-I, containing the original relics of the Buddha. This rich historical past with rushing torrents, bone-chilling lakes, fruit-laden orchards and flower-decked slopes are like a vacationers dream come true.

One of the must-see spots on the Swat Valley Tourism list is Daral Lake. Located in the heart of the Valley Swat, Daral Lake can be found to the northeast of the Sidgai Lake. A long, winding trail leads to the lake and is almost as popular with tourists as the lake itself. Along the trail, travelers will be treated to breathtaking mountain scenery and glimpses of the majestic river sellouts. Other great lakes to visit while in the area include Spin Khwar Lake, Bashigram Lake, Kundal Lake, and Pari Lake. The pristine lakes nestled amid towering peaks provide a chance to reflect and revel in the calms of nature. Gushing through narrow gorges and snaking through verdant valleys, the River Swat is truly a sight to behold too. If the majestic lakes are not enough to soothe the growling beast craving for beauty, the person can hold his breath for more. The Mahadun Valley is a picturesque place surrounded by imposing peaks and is also known to be bliss for fishing fans. The Ghabral Valley is a town in itself which holds timeless traditions, local vendors and tranquil beauty. Snow-clad peaks dotted with small hotels make a postcard perfect picture for the eye in places in Upper Swat. The Malam Jabba ski resort is breathtakingly alluring sight with its affordable luxuries for a modern lifestyle stay instead of the traditional village resorts Swat is bedecked with.

The territory of Azad Kashmir is dotted with a vast chain of scenic and natural beauty spots amidst flowing streams, gushing springs and flowering plants. The mountain tops over the valley look like circular and rectangular caps. The panorama is really enchanting. The picturesque beauty of Peer Chanasi in Muzaffarabad is a unique opportunity for paragliding amid the hills and velvet green plateaus. The valleys, dense forests, winding rivers, turbulent foaming streams, majestic towering mountains, bracing climate, historical & cultural heritage, holistic shrines & festivals and diversity of flora and fauna all go together to make up this striking heaven on earth; Azad Kashmir. The area is full with variety of landscapes. Hiking and tracking sites, trout fishing in the frozen waters of the Neelum River and the remains of the Buddhist civilization in the Sharda Valley are other areas of tourist attraction. The beautiful wood work, the famous Kashmiri handicrafts, traditional Kashmiri foods and above all a clean and pristine environment presents other areas of delight for the tourists on this ‘heaven on earth’.

Laying in the lower Himalayan mountain range, the Kaghan Valley has a name for its bewitching splendor and gifts of nature. It offers resplendent beauty surrounded by magnificent mountains, magical glaciers, enchanting waterfalls and sweet lakes with plenty of flora and fauna. Noisy Kunhar River is seen twining its way through the peaks and the valley. Lying on the banks of the screaming river is a small town embedded with beauty, Balakot. Balakot is a spectacular joyride; the entire route unfolds ornamental natural wealth with lush green hills, sweet brooks and sprawling green thick natural forests on either side. A view of these aesthetical treasures of nature especially between Attarshisha and Garhi Habibullah is mesmerizing.

Another small package of overflowing beauty is Naran. It is a place so lavishly beautiful that the nature’s soaring sentries speckled with lofty, lush alpine trees reaching right up to the sky seem to be communicating with the clouds. The silky meadows and gushing streams with heart-halting bridges provide a ride worth captivating in the books of memories.

As Naran ends, another fascinating journey begins to the thrilling fascination known by the name of Lake Saiful Maluk. The journey is full of panoramic view of some magical scenes of panoramic view of some of magical scenes of the high Malika Parbat, popularly known as Queen of the Mountains in a cool and serene atmosphere. A beautiful bowl of water sparkling like diamonds surrounded by gigantic crests, the lake is grandeur to the eye.

There is a never ending list of breathtaking places in Pakistan. And words can certainly not do justice to the palpitation causing peaks, the menacingly lofty cliffs, the roaring rivers, plush carpets of green adorned with flowers and the lakes mirroring azure skies.     

The distance between us is like 4000 miles..
Yet together v are sharing smiles.. :D
The buzz of ur text and the pop of ur chat..
And all ur tantrums about getting fat.. :P
The never ending photo-sharing..
Is all a gesture of missing n caring.. :')
Be it now or be it the decade to come..
U ll b my bestfriend, my bestie, my chum.. ♥

Room of Shadows!

In the room of shadows, sat a girl, forlorn

Voices echoing everywhere yet she was all alone

Drowning in the darkness, engulfed in the black cloud

What was it that broke her? Real lies or doubt?

Crumpled on the floor, shielded by her arms

So fragile they were, they could not impede the harm

A tremor so painful, ran through her spine

Slicing her heart in half, leaving her to pine

Lies and lies, convolving her mind

Shunted now and then, no love to find

All the wounds and bruises, blue and sore

But then came a time when it hurt no more...

Liberty for Teenagers - A Big No!

Henry David said and I quote

“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty.”

To all of those in favor of liberty, do you really want to be stamped as the disobedient or would you rather prefer the antonym? I, for sure, would like the latter better.

Liberty for the teens is certainly an idea which ought to be shunned to encourage the appropriate development of young minds today. What is liberty actually? Freedom? The power to do anything without any supervision?

Have you ever seen a puppet show? Can the puppets entertain their watchers and serve their purpose without the strings attached to them? No… the better the hands holding the strings, the enriched is the entertainment. Teens, similarly, need to be directed towards the path of righteousness and this is not possible without an upper hand of adult.

I once heard a person saying,

“Raising teenagers is like nailing Jell-o to a tree”

This shows how difficult and mind-boggling this job is. Why would this be said if the teens ought to be given full freedom. Surely this would ease off the burgeoning responsibilities on parents. But would it satisfy the needs of a well developing child? Surely not. A teenager is a ripening mind and unless it is provided with good care and conditions, it fails to create the sweetness and innocence it deserves. A strict hand is required for this purpose which means giving liberty at this fragile age is a bad idea.

Today, the concept of TV lounge has been eradicated! Unjustifiable liberty to young fellows has diminished family values. Today every other teenager likes to sit in privacy hidden behind the laptop screen sowing seeds for themselves. Good or bad, who knows? In early times, families used to spend time together and the use of TV, Internet, Computer, and Telephone was strictly under parental guidance. But unfortunately, the teens today have no idea of right or wrong, obscene or well rated, good or bad. I ask the question why? Because in this modern world of ‘society cliques, wealth worshippers and fake statuses’, the parents have granted superfluous of liberty to their kids.

Teenage, as in high school, Allan Bloom rightly said

‘Only Socrates knew, after a lifetime of unceasing labor, that he was ignorant. Now every high-school student knows that. How did it become so easy?’

In schools, a person has to face a lot of new personalities all with a different grading of ignorance. Some are completely foul, while others a little bearable but some are plain victims of an infection which is widely known as ‘peer pressure’! A teen would give anything for popularity. But if the child is under the right guidance, they may refrain from falling into this trap. Having the most extravagant, appealing cloths, the most popular and wealthy group of friends and in some insane cases, even having the best looking guy’s cellphone number counts. Who can prevent this type of misleading among teenagers? Of course the strict check and love of parents or guardians!

In America, an average of 1.3 million students drop out of schools annually. According to another research in USA,

 Underage drinking costs the United States more than $58 billion every year. 63 percent of the youth who drink alcohol say that they initially got the alcohol from their friend’s homes.  20 percent of 8th graders report that they have tried marijuana. 28 percent of teens know a classmate or friend who has used ecstasy. More than 60 percent of teens said that drugs were sold, used, or kept at their school.

But the point which I would like to highlight the most is;

Teenagers whose parents talk to them on a regular basis about the dangers of drug use are 42 percent less likely to use drugs than those whose parents don’t.

Do I further need to elaborate that how much parental guidance matters?? I don’t think so. The statistical report speaks for itself. Liberty? Doesn’t seem very tempting now, does it??

But in countries such as Pakistan, this condition is not very common. Because even today parents are held responsible for the upbringing of their children and I proudly say that teenagers in our country turn out to be much better than those abroad even though the restrictions seem pinching at early stages.

The Role of Education in the Socioeconomic Conditions Prevailing in Pakistan

The other day I was walking down the road, lost in the midst of my thoughts. I suddenly heard a shrill scream from behind. The heart rending voice slashed the silent air like a knife and brought me back to my senses. I doubled back, running towards the mayhem and what I saw next drained my body dry of blood; a pleading mother, a terror stricken toddler and the terror himself – a man with a gun. I was no hero, yet my humanity put me into action and I grabbed the masked teenager from behind causing his pistol to jerk out of his hand. ‘Don’t hurt me please!’ the young thief beseeched as I threatened him with police, ‘I meant no real harm! The gun is fake!’

I am sure that I am not the only one who has witnessed such stories of teenagers going astray with guns in hands and menace in eyes, yet with a scared heart in search for money to run their families. After this disturbing face-off with the deadening truths of society, I could do nothing to take it off my mind and ponder over the basic cause and cure behind these scenes: education. All I could ask myself was that what is actually the role of education in all social and economic problems written in our country’s fate? Would they continue to prevail given that Pakistan has a high literacy rate? Or do they occur because the country is growing in the education sector, but the education sector only?

Before the inception of Pakistan in 1947, Quaid-e-Azam tried to take the Muslims to an exalted level of education, benefitting from the British, yet the adamant Muslims did not want to change courses. They refused to adapt to the modern education concept as according to them this was disgrace to their old cultural lifestyle. Unfortunately, the same ideology persists in our nation today. The literacy rate in Pakistan has always been at low ebb with only 49.9% of the population educated out of which 63% are males whereas the female education is as scarce as mere 36%.

The most of the uneducated populace is from the Baluchistan and NWFP provinces which are now flowing into the urban sectors, thus spreading the illiteracy web throughout Pakistan and providing a boost to the socioeconomic problems in the country. Baluchistan is scarcely populated as its population is migrating to Sindh attracted by the flaring city life and jobs in that more advanced province. What they did not foresee was over-population in Karachi, which despite being an Industrial hub ran out of jobs. These were the people who then arose with weapons and terrorist activities in the city making it the heart of thefts, kidnappings, killings and many other social problems.

If the Balochis had been educated enough, they would have realized that development in their province would not only solve all their problems but also become a major economic lift for the whole country. On the contrary, what they do is resist any development in that area as the old school ideology still lingers among the people there. Instead of cooperating on the development of Gwadar, the people of Baluchistan ended up abusing and thrashing the Chinese workmen who came into Pakistan for the growth of the port. This placed a full-stop on China aided Gwadar development program and increased the life-span of economic problems in Pakistan.

Another social issue persevering in Pakistan is the reluctance of girl education. Only 22 percent of girls, compared to 47 percent boys, complete primary schooling with the female school life expectancy to be merely 6 years long. Women make up as much as 49.17% of the total populace in Pakistan and the averseness towards female education further drags the country down. This result in early marriages which become the origin of over-population, thus, initializing the circle of socioeconomic issue in the country, i.e. joblessness, poverty and the final stage: crime. If the educational needs of the country had been met, the people would not be giving their daughters away in the thirst for dowry and nor would joblessness persist which has become the major cause of the growing crime rate as people start feeding their families by selling their consciousness. Even the educated lot is often found seeking money by stealth rather being able to earn with a head held up high in dignity.

 Although agriculture accounts for more than one-fifth of output and two-fifths of employment in Pakistan, the Industry sector is required to make the country grow yet the industrial production growth rate is 3% only which is extremely low for a country with this many problems. Unless the industrial sector nurtures, Pakistan will continue facing the problems of unemployment where the official unemployment is 6%, but this fails to capture the true picture, because much of the economy is informal and underemployment remains high. This can be overcome by proper edification in the country. Yet, even today, the expenditure on education is only about 2.7% of the total GDP making Pakistan the 142^nd country in this regard in comparison to the world. The social strife in the country given birth by the lack of education also keeps MNCs and NGOs out of the country due to security issues. This adds to the mountain of reasons keeping the economy level of Pakistan buried underneath.

Pakistan’s strategic location is very ideal for a developing country. Lined with the Silk Road, developing and developed countries as neighbors and a sea available for ports at the other end, the country can improve trade. The untapped resources in Baluchistan can feed the whole country with electricity, ending the load shedding crisis too. The variety of weather and the agricultural built is a plus too. Yet, the lack of unity among the diverse cultures of the country and the adamant ignorance and selfishness of people has led the country on the warpath against its own possessions. If with the assistance World Bank (working for educational progress since 2004), Pakistan overcomes these key challenges effectively, efficiently, and transparently across the education sector, the country can resurface as one of the leading nations of the world, bringing all the social and economic issues to a timely and badly awaited death.