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Question Set 3 of 3
lets get cracking!!!!
lets get cracking!!!!
After a terribly long gap! But deyr aayad durust aayad.
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tell me the interesting things? how do you define interesting? miraculous? dodgy? some sort of conspiracy?
Interesting would be unexpected, whether pleasant or otherwise. But it can mean all of the above because all of it quite reasonably falls into 'unexpected' no?
You know what. I have completely forgotten what interesting things I was going to tell. There have been quite a few unexpected occurrences during my travels in Iraq. I can think of the most blessed moment when a few members of our ziarat caravan had the great fortune to visit the original grave of Imam Hussain in the basement under the burial chambers. We had found an old khaadim (pl. khuddaam), one of those who kept guard at the shrine, a very old man with all-white hair who knew my grandfather from old days and recognised his son, my uncle, when we were there. It was totally accidental to have found him. He took us underground to the basement so we could touch and kiss the grave spot beneath the burial chamber open to public
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mashallah then it must have been an excellent training ground for you to plan these trips. now that you are used to planning even small details, and are (hopefully) a bit more mature than the youth who decided to visit afghanistan, if you could choose, and visas werent an option, would you "roam free"? if so, what would be your ideal journey? if we were to say you had a similar sort of budget to your previous trips.
Yes I'd definitely roam free without making mandatory meticulous planning beforehand. I'd go to a place, absorb it in my mind and heart, decide whether I like it or not, and then see where I am going to go from there, like a true wandering traveller of yore!
There are a few journeys I want to undertake, resources and opportunity permitting. The foremost is Lahore to London or the other way round. NO flights allowed. My uncles travelled this route back in the 70s a few times, once even on their own car. I am fascinated by their tales. I'd like one day to do it, but preferably before starting a family of my own so I can do my mutahs as I inch along
The other journey I want to undertake is on the old Silk Road or Silk Route. It's a long, convoluted and complex trail so have to think up an itinerary but it's definitely going to include the most illustrious of cities.
The other one is trans-Siberian train ride. Entering Russia from Europe and ending the journey in China.
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why the middle east? wouldnt that be the time where you NEED to plan more, because of the dodginess of the countries?
You are right. With hindsight I should be planning more carefully for dodgy countries or where tourist infrastructure is poor and that includes much of the Middle East. Europe on the hand has such a good infrastructure that even a blind man can travel without much planning. But it's a tad different with me. I see Middle East as familiar and feel comfortable and I can get around without much planning with few basic details at hand. On the other hand, Europe was an alien land for me when I first travelled there. Same with the second time round. I was pulling a solo trip and I didn't know how easy or hard it would turn out to be. So I planned as meticulously and gathered as much info as I could. Visa restrictions also made it mandatory on me to plan well.
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based only on the cities which you fell in love with, and the "x" factor we talked about, if you could design a town area which would make the average tourist fall in love with the city as you did, how would you do this?
Ah man it's a tricky question. No carefully designed 'tourist town' would be liked by everyone or even by most people. It all depends on what a tourist seeks in a particular place. Some go for history (Andalusia, Rome), some for beaches (euro coastline), others for trekking and mountaineering (Nepal), drinking and wh0ring (Thailand) etc.
For me a place doesn't need to be famous and have all the usual modern attractions to qualify a "place to be."
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how long did it take you to ascend the eiffel tower?
I think around 30-40 minutes with no more than 5 minutes brakes in-between. It was a scorching June day and I was out of breath like a dog on a ten miles run when I finally ascended to the uppermost station. Ah the view from there!
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bankrolled - past tense? you do not believe the pakistani army still has its hands in the taleban?
No, they are still being sheltered and aided but it's not as open and effective as it was back then. In those days the Pakistani intelligence controlled Taliban as a whole. Now the control has been loosened owning to the recent developments. Taliban, except Haqqani group, are no longer under direct command of Pakistani establishment.
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oh yaar im really sorry to hear this, but it makes a lot of things about your personality suddenly more understandable - most of all your independence. were you the stand-in patriarch of the family when you came of age, or did your fathers family step in on his behalf?
My dad's side of the family did not help at all. I was the one who took charge of the affairs as soon as I could add two and two. I concerned myself with the affairs of my agricultural lands during the time boys play cricket and watch sexy movies into the night. I had no time and no mind to do any of that.
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bro listen, get into reading comic books, i suggest you start with "the sandman" series by neil gaiman and go from there. soon as you get married the only thing your library will be used for is showing off to her guests.
Man I dread the time when I wouldn't be able to enjoy the company of my book-girlfriends at will!! Those books are like my unlimited mutah wives. So dear they are to me
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are you a fan of mutaharis works? what is your opinion of him? my formative years were oddly spent reading books by sun tzu, the 48 laws of power, eMyth and books along that sort of mindset.
I like Mutahari's attempts to explain the tenets of Islam in the language a modern, educated person would understand and relate to. He has been remarkbaly successful in expounding basic Islamic beliefs in a series of books. I think some of them are collections of his speeches. Of course I have disagreements with him especially with regards to his views on Islamic governance in modern times.
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I KNOW! punkassho's 
your abida parveen man kun to maula is still one of my favourite videos ever. she is/ was simply sublime. so much soul in her voice. i love her bulleh shah one, you know the one where she reads "masjid dhade mandir dhade" etc? that used to be my tagline before stupid shiachat shrunk the length you were allowed to post, so i condensed the whole thing into "dont break anyones heart; your rabb lives there" which is a poor replacement i feel.
your abida parveen man kun to maula is still one of my favourite videos ever. she is/ was simply sublime. so much soul in her voice. i love her bulleh shah one, you know the one where she reads "masjid dhade mandir dhade" etc? that used to be my tagline before stupid shiachat shrunk the length you were allowed to post, so i condensed the whole thing into "dont break anyones heart; your rabb lives there" which is a poor replacement i feel.Yeah "masjid dha de mandir dha de" is also one of my favourites lines from Bulleh Shah. He was a legend par excellence. I can't fail to enjoy his poignancy and spontaneity whenever I read his verse. Abida does wonders with his poems.
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there was a study in america of girls who had sex before marriage. those that chose to wait for marriage had a significant factor in common - their closeness to their father/ father figures. how would your relationship with your daughter be, and do you think you are in danger of the "madonna wh0re" complex that most "old school" fathers have of their daughters?
I think if the daughters are loved and appreciated and welded to their fathers in a strong bond, then they don't deviate in the sense we are talking. However this doesn't negate the fact that humans make mistakes and falter when difficult choices are put in front of them. Yet, I don't think I am going to be an 'old school' father with a complex toward my daughters. I would want to befriend them and create a trusted and amicable relationship. But this also comes with the understanding that they still mightn't share everything with me as they might share, say, with their sisters or mother. It's part of the family game man.
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why do you think saddos like me and you stuck around so long?
LOL. I don't know really. Familiarity? A certain comfort that we derive by being here that we miss in our social circle? Just plain SC addiction? Or the mix of all? Who knows yaara.
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wow! mash'Allah! can i request some pictures (if possible)?
I can get the pics of the old silver threaded overcoat and possibly the sword. The rest sits under the protection of my uncles and I don't know where they had stored those items these days. But I saw them as a young teen when my uncles were moving out of their 130-years old ancestral home into newly built houses in the new urban suburbs.
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can you explain to me the difference between a run of the mill "wahabbi" and a "deobandi" does it mean "two" something
"Deobandi" in our country is synonymously used to refer to a Salafi or a Wahhabi. It is a wee bit misleading. Deoband movement, which gave rise to an ideology and a group which came to be known as Deobandi sect of Sunnis in Indo-Pak subcontinent is in fact influenced by the original movement of Ibn-e-Abdul Wahhab of Nejd. Yet, Salafi and Deobandi aren't synonymous. I don't know their doctrinal differences in detail but one obvious departure is that whereas Salafis reject Sufism in all forms, Deobandis have a tradition of a type of Sufism, but it's different from the general Sunni Sufism in Indo-Pak that we are aware of. Ahl-e-Hadith sect is in fact much closer to original Salafi sect of Saudis.
As for "Wahhabi", we use this term widely for Salafis and their affiliates. It's not a name they use for themselves. "Wahhabi" was originally used as a pejorative name for the followers of those Subcontinental scholars who supported Ibn-e-Abdul Wahhab policies in Arabian peninsula. However, when it comes to hateful Jihadism and anti-everything, all these different groups become indistinguishable from each other. "Jihad" in Pakistan is overwhelmingly Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadith, with some Barelvis also taking part in nefarious activities.
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i think you would make a fantastic tutor bro. seriously. one of the old fashioned ones who dedicated themselves to one family for the whole childs life.
what prevents you from writing a book? you obviously have all the things you need
what prevents you from writing a book? you obviously have all the things you need
Inshallah one day. I have a few things to write about. Some personal (fiction) and others research based. For the latter I lack the necessary access to source material and academic guidance. Probably if I do indeed enroll in PhD in history, I will take it as a lead to write a book.
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i have three 1p coins on my desk. what is the most ingenious thing i can do with them?
Do tell us what you did with those three 1p coins!
