To Human,

Sitting in a meeting, with 20point something agenda in your hand and almost a never ending task list; just 48hours before your long family vacation, you suddenly feel the urge to write. Yes that's me right now. 

I checked my phone right before going into the meeting and I couldn't stop smiling. There are times when you are appreciated for your expressions. For your ideas. And for sharing them with the world. 

What the world sees is the finest of ideas, redefined through your lens of perspective and defined in the linguistic skills acquired over time. However, what the world does not see is the raw material. The thought pattern. The humans, the observations, the experiences behind it. What the world does not see is the inspiration behind it. And just like our innate desire to express to the world, we often feel our urge to share the gratitude with the very entity which provoked that inspiration. 

We all have something, somebody, some suffering, some happiness to attribute and acknowledge for what we are thinking and feeling. Our skill is merely the language we use to express. Our expression is more than that. It is, as if, we are standing and experiencing a beautiful sunset, excitedly illustrating its intricate details to somebody who is not there to enjoy the sight. At the same time, we feel the need to share our joy, our newly found ability with the very Creator of the Sunset. 

And then, there are times, you can't thank your inspirations in life enough. For those humans who made you realize. For those inspirations that they gave you. Because just like our suffering and joyful experiences, these humans can't be thanked enough on the literal level. It seems demeaning to the gift they have given you. The gift of what is within you. The gift of inspiration. They act as the Agents of God on the planet. For many a times, just like we are thankful to our sufferings, tests and joys for teaching us something, these humans too teach you - knowingly, unknowingly. And often a times, to bypass the questions, biases and stereotypical paradigms of our society, the only thing you can truly do for them is remember them in your prayers. For you can sense God talking through them to you. 

I Fly like Paper - Get High like Planes

We all make planes. Paper planes. As children. In school. With friends, cousins or even siblings. As children, we loved tearing the pages from our notebooks, from our friends' notebooks and making planes. And just the access to coloured papers made us excited. Because we could then make colourful planes. Free periods was the best of our times. Those few minutes felt like the uttermost feeling of freedom. Freedom from studying and boring teachers. Specially, if the free period meant freedom from scheduled tests or heavy homework due dates. 

The feeling of standing on the desk, with a paper plane in our hands was priceless. The sight of standing on the desk, excitedly throwing the paper plane in the air, and seeing it glide through the classroom boards, dodging chairs and hitting the blackboard, was absolutely priceless. I bet, the innermost satisfaction derived standing there in that very moment is far stronger and beautiful than being crowned the King. 

And then we all grow up. Become boring. Driven by our growing impatience, we foolishly, look everywhere for that lost feeling of happiness in and around places and things. Places and things which fail to react or give us that lasting moment of happiness. It happens so because instead of making planes out of paper, we busy ourselves in making money out of paper. We forget the joys because we forget the process of tearing the papers from our notebooks. Instead of tearing the pages out, we busy ourselves in keeping the notebooks intact. Disguised in the beauty of calling it "Civilized and Mature adults", we fool ourselves. We stop making planes because we start following the herd. We never pause our pseudo-civilized life. Instead of closing our laptop and noticing the humans around, we search for happiness in the web of digital interactions. Instead of experiencing the power of "Contagious Smile", we prefer mulling over work and coffee. 

We stop dreaming and start searching for dreams in places which do not manufacture dreams. We stop making planes, and start searching for happiness in places which were not created to provide happiness at the first place anyway. We look for being crowned the King in places where no Kingdom of Joy exists. 

A child is considered impulsive and impatient. He wants everything now. As we grow up, we tone ourselves down to become civilized. We think we are gaining patience, becoming mature and rational, while in reality, we are just diverting our impulse and impatience to other things. As a child, we were impulsive for a paper plane. As adults, we become impulsive for luxury. 

Joy and Happiness is listening to the Soul. And as children, we knew the process. Because that's inherent in us. We all inherently absolutely love and enjoy the feeling of elevation and happiness and contentment. Smile is the most contagious emotion. As children, we taught it to elders. As adults, we delve into pseudo intellectualism of finding peace through expensive therapies in air conditioned rooms. As children, we experienced our Soul's joy standing on the table, in hot and humid weather, drenched in sweat yet excitedly making paper planes. 

Our inherent happiness and freedom is not listening to our animal instinct, it is listening to our Soul. And there is a huge difference between the two. For, if we listen to our animal instinct, it impatiently makes us keep the notebook intact in our bags, greedily and impulsively and selfishly. It does not know that the real joy lies in opening up the bag, taking the notebook out, tearing the pages down, making paper planes and seeing them glide through the air. Our animal selves look into the future for happiness and joy and freedom. Our Soul, patiently looks into Now for the Happiness, for the Joy and for the Freedom. 

Our Soul says, Smile and the world smiles with you. Our Soul says, Make paper planes and see the world come alive again. 

Humanity at Work

God is the Best Craftsman, thinks the craftsman on Earth while observing the perfectly carved mountains and beautifully flowing rivers, with the sun rays casting its magic on the water in a precisely intricate manner. Every single day. 

God is the Best Salesman, thinks the salesman who is completely sold to the Ideology of God and undeniably the Best Bargains offers. It seems, He is so closely connected to every single of  7 billion, that He just knows what, how and when to strike the Best Offer. An Offer His creation can't refuse. 

God is also, the Best Project Manager I say. In His Grand Scheme of things, He has a Mega Project of connecting Humanity, making us feel His Presence. Individually and Collectively. The only difference is, He doesn't need to conceive the idea. He says, and it exists. He works through His people in the most beautiful and astounding of ways. 

While, there are human brains trying to calculate, recalculate, evaluate, re-evaluate, assess, reassess and draw inferences and write conclusions and conceptualize projects and measure the impact, He Comes, Smiles and Shares Across just a Glimpse of One of His works, leaving the human brain surprised. Shunned. Taken aback. 

One such work with Mysterious Mechanisms and Intricate Connections, One such place where you see Him, Feel Him and Sense His Magic the Most is a Hospital. 

Step into any hospital. Sit in the waiting area or just take a walk into emergency. Picture the life moving in slow motion. Notice those guys. Observe those emotions. Feel the Humanity connected. Frustrated, stressed out, over worked, stretched over limited resources, Yet, Connected. Connected to Work on the mechanisms of Free Will yet on the Path Laid by Him. 

Forget family, forget relatives and forget friends. We all are already somehow connected to them anyway. He comes to us in the rarest and least expected of moments. He whispers to us what needs to be done. It is only when we hold the hand of a stranger, step beyond the realms of practicality, shut our senses to rational boundaries of personal comfort zones, that we Feel Him. It is only when we squeeze our eyes and pray for a soul that has absolutely no material or blood connection to us, That we sense the Strong Connection of Humanity. 

Forget doctors, nurses, surgeons and admin staff there. Forget them. As an individual creation, with a conventional brought up and from just another profession, walk into the hospital. Sit there as "you". And Let Him come to you as Him. When we walk in for a test at Aga khan, the strongest smell is that of band-aid and medicine. But when we walk in as humans without a need, the strongest smell is that of Humans. 

When we walk in as just us, we are indoctrinated with the Powers of His Project, when we whisper words of Hope and Faith, words which we had never even thought of before, into a dying body, We feel the Warmth of Existence and of Life. And after all this, when we walk out, we Feel Alive. We walk out not with a heavy baggage of despair or helplessness but with a Firm Presence of God. We walk out smiling for what we have just experienced is one of His Best Projects, for He is the Best Project Manager working mysteriously and majestically through his people. 

There are two kinds of damages. There are physical damages and dents on our body. And then, there are damages and dents on our soul. Our vacuum within, our yearning of indescribable is what needs just as much attention as our bleeding wounds and declining body health. Once in a while, when our body seems fit, it seems wise to walk into the hospital with a wounded soul, even if we think its not wounded. Get it diagnosed by the Master of all. For every human we hold there, for every human we hug there, works as the Best Medicine for our soul. For our soul can only be healed by healing others. By feeling them. By connecting with them. 

It is astounding how the humans combating bodily diseases there can heal the deepest of our imperfect souls by just asking us to help them. 

In essentially, they don't need us. We do. For its the only natural way of Healing and Experiencing the Best of Humanity at work. 

A rich man's tale

Once upon a time, there was a man who was extremely rich. He absolutely had everything he wanted. From fancy properties across the globe to his private jet to his own range of cars. It was as if there was a dedicated angel at his service. He was however not born with these luxuries. It had taken perseverance, falling to negative and tonnes of courage. 

He had stemmed from nothing to being everything. Hence, despite resorting in the materialistic heavens of the world, he knew the ground realities well. From his heart, he was still a lost poor soul. His heart still yearned for a soul connection. 

He somehow believed, people only less richer than him can make him feel connected. 

One day, overwhelmed with the nostalgia of old neighbourhood, he decided to go and sit with the poor of his country. However, wherever he went, he was shunned away. Scorned off by the poor. Mugged, looted and even pushed back. He was welcomed with a sway of curses. His richness was looked down. His appearance was criticized. He couldn't understand the reason behind this part of world's hatred for him. Why couldn't he win these people over? He kept wondering. 

He then decided to visit the middle income/fixed earning class of his country. He thought maybe over a cup of coffee with them and they'd understand. They'd listen, associate, connect and would love to spend time with them. However, to his amazement, he was again scorned off and ignored. Perhaps their manner was not as brutal as the poor, but they still detested him. He wondered why. People sat with him, not for what he had to say, but for what he could give them. For how he could help them climb the clouds and reach where he was. Fair enough, he thought, it was after all a type of charity too. So he sold his skills in exchange for just spending time with them. Maybe, just maybe, he thought, one day, they'd see the poor heart and the real soul beneath him. Yet, he just couldn't. The world seemed to fail him. 

His richness began cannibalizing his soul. Just the mere fact that he was worth billion dollars troubled him the most. He was confused and astounded. He had preciously saved his soul from getting lost on the journey up in the materialistic struggle. Because he had seen how the rich often struggle with loneliness and how their own rich possessions start haunting them after sometime.

Wherever he went, he was judged for what he wore, what his degree said, what his status in the society was. Women secretly adored him, men openly speculated how he was handsome because of he could afford cosmetic surgeries. Everyone saw an Ivy league degree, draped in the best, modelling across the ramp of worldly riches. Everyone speculated his monetary worth, from the poorest to the rich, but nobody seemed interested in evaluating his soul's worth. 

Dejected, disappointed and disgusted, he took a firm stand. He decided he won't let his children acquire any rich possessions. He decided not to send his children to ivy leagues. He decided not to let them get good jobs and acquire status in the society. Only then, at least, they'd remain with the masses. Only then, he thought, the masses would let them mingle with their worlds. He realized he was not fighting humans, he was fighting human nature. His realization was a deadlock in his own combat. Checkmate. Human nature is beyond humans' control. How could he blame the humans for seeing him through materialistic lens, how could he blame them for just being attracted to his apparent beauty when the lens of beauty has been inherently given to them by the Creator himself? 

He looked up. Blamed God. He questioned and wondered. Why has God made humans so animal that they involuntary are only attracted to apparent beauty of materialistic riches? If He has put a soul inside the body, why then His creations are not attracted to Souls more than merely apparent riches? 

Tired, he gave up and grew silent. And in his silence, he found his answer. 

He stumbled across a poor man, who came and sat with him under the lamp post. It was raining hard. The poor offered his torn umbrella and began talking. The billionaire wondered. Why is this poor man talking to me? He shared his wonder. His disgust at humans from poor to rich. He shared how God is to blame for Natural Attractions in Humans. He shared his conviction of how he would never let his children become materialistically rich. 

The poor man listened. Listened patiently. and Smiled. He said, maybe, just maybe, you've got it all wrong. God did put Powerful Attraction in the Hearts of Humans. He did make it a law of Nature to be attracted to Beauty. He did give them a lens to see the world. However, the lens was somewhere blurred with the vision of materialistic prejudices, it was clouded with the misguided definitions of beauty. Today, from poor to rich, all view and are attracted to the limited, myopic ideology of it. And hence, nobody indulges beyond to be Attracted to the Soul. 

Maybe, just maybe, instead of not making your children rich, try raising them with the Correct Laws of Attraction. When their lens is clouded with the animal nature of materialistic beauty and you see them running madly after just the apparent possessions in other humans, take their lens off, clean it for them and put it back again. So that they can See what you See. So that, they can get Attracted to Souls and not animals. So that, when they grow up, they find and connect with Souls rather than Degrees and cars. They would then, automatically reject the myopic attractions of animal beauty and Reach for the Soul. 

Don't fight the nature which is with you all along, listen to the rain extending its happiness with you. Don't feel disgusted at the humans, feel pity for them. 

Listen and Seek the Soul. Because that's the closest and the most powerful attraction on Earth, which will Help you in your Eventual Journey to the Beloved of Beloveds.  

Thank You Quetta

My close friend's father was shot dead. Because he belonged to a community disliked and detested by the Current Self Proclaimed owners of Islam. My uncle has been receiving threats. Because he too belongs to the same community. But then, it happens every other day anyway. 

Every single day, we discuss the humans in numbers. We discuss their names in community labels. We discuss them over dining tables, over coffee, over breakfast, over family gatherings. 

We discuss. 

And some of us, touched; write about it. And hence, we read. We read, we feel touched again and we share. We share, we discuss. We discuss and we talk. Followed by a minute of silence. A minute which we think is to observe and to mourn. But in reality, it is a minute perpetuated with the overwhelming power of the Current Self Proclaimed owners of Islam. Every second of this minute of silence is beautifully disguised. We are either ignorant or too timid to acknowledge the real reason for this silence. We call it respect. We name it honour. We label it mourning. 

Universe has a beautiful pattern of revealing things right when they are needed. When just a few minutes of silences turned into 86 dead bodies, the Universe began its game. It felt as if every single moment was fulfilling its purpose. There was no scepticism. No confusion. No doubt. No fear. No aggression. No talks. No dining table. No coffee. No breakfast. No family gatherings.

86 deaths made us die to our ignorance. Stirred the much needed within. Made us aware of the potential within. 86 Deaths dug deep beneath our hearts, dusted the air of accumulated minutes of silences and brought out the Real Us from Within. Just like how the soul painfully leaves our body at the time of physical death, 86 deaths painfully brought us Alive. 

Sitting amongst hundreds of women clad in black, thousands of kms away from 86 coffins, one was compelled to wonder. Wonder at why are these people here? Why is this kid holding this protest banner? On an individual level, not every single one of them have lost a closed one anyway. Yes the crowd does have relatives of the victims, but not all are so. What is connecting these humans then? Why are more people joining in? Why? There's a form of magical energy here. Its as if the purity of intentions and emotions of every individual is acting as a magnet. Creating a vast field of attraction. Enhancing the feelings. When shoulder to shoulder, you bow down to a Single God on the concrete MA Jinnah road, its only then you Truly Feel the Power of Standing United. With clarity of vision and innocent intentions, You sense your true belonging. You Feel the Connection. To Humanity. To the Universe and To God.

Our own understanding and ability to combat what we know often fails us. We think we know what justice is. What oppression is. What humanity is. What love is. Yet, we have been failing it for decades now. If only we pause and ponder, we will realize the gradual poisoning of our internal roots, humanitarian values and religious philosophies. Our constant series of failures have hindered our growth, pushed us back in the human race of evolution. From an individual level to a societal level, we have ensured our investment in every single disconnection from the Real God, Real Faith and Real Humanity. 

In the midst of all this, the sad episode of 86 deaths sparked a fresh sense of Hope. 

Thank You Quetta for compelling us to rip apart our cloak of hesitance.

Thank You Quetta for unmasking our fears of societal judgements. 

Quetta, just three days and you truly gave us the Glimpse of what Grandson of Prophet (as) stood for. Suddenly all those discussions, quotes about Hussain (as) and Humanity make so much more sense. My grandmother always narrated how the real villain is not the face committing atrocities. The real enemy is the concept of Evil. You're not Combating a human, You're combating a mentality, an evil thought which gives birth to evil actions. And just like Positive, Evil too evolves in expression and intensity over time. And in today's time, one form is Evil is our lack of Understanding of Justice and Humanity. We are averse to committing more evil if we don't know what Justice truly is. 

Theologians say, the significant difference between us and the rest of the creations is, that they have been sent down in their perfect form. An animal on the planet today is how it was suppose to be. On the other hand, humans have been given tools of intellect and wisdom to attain Perfection. Every realization of our Connection with Him is a step Towards Perfection. We are the manifestation of God's attributes. We only need to discover and attain them.

If He is merciful and kind, He is also Adil and Just. Hence, Thank You Quetta, for letting us experience the glimpse of His attributes in the humans of today.  

Whether it stops the brutal atrocities in the society or not, regardless of what eventually happens, Thank You Quetta, for correcting our definition of Evil, of Justice and of Humanity. 

Thank You for letting us take a Real step towards Him. It is not until we experience our inherent disgust for oppression and injustice, do we realize the Real Meaning and Power of Love. 

What was in the air in those peaceful protests was a Magical Aura of Human Connectedness. And yes, we created it, conspired secretly by the Beautiful Nature of Universe. It was just a mere small Reflection of what happens when we interact with the Purest of Intentions and Unified Purpose of Passion. 

Thank You Quetta for making me Feel Human. 

States

Every minute, every hour, every day, every week and every single second of "now" is evolving. And each one of the moment respectively is demanding something out of us. The physical plane of existence has an evolving set of demands from us, just like so, our inner system has an evolving thirst too. When our mind gets tired of rationality and materialistic race, it yearns for intellectual drift. Our mind quenches it by seeking intellectual wisdom in places and areas never explored before. We go digging into the avenues of reading, writing, painting, talking and thinking on lines and ideas which we had never dared before. Or which may have seemed totally mundane earlier. 

But then, our inner thirst evolves. And we're taken to another level. Not higher or lower than the previous, just simply described and felt as another level. Here, the thirst is for something for passionate never ending and aggressive momentum of work. Our mind switches gears and churns into a production machine of eternal ideas. Non-stop ideas. Our mind aggressively starts searching. This time yearning for producing for outer plane of existence. This time, demanding physical results, expecting material outcomes. It such a case, judging the behaviour as animal search for material growth will be unfair. this very state, this state here is nothing but another level of thirst for thinking. So what if its thinking on a different level. 

Some people switch between these two states at long periods of interval. So long is one phase that it often stretches over one's whole youth or almost all life. Thus, we see some people totally engrossed in quenching their thirst for growth, for material outcomes, trying to compete with their own brain, trying to complement the rate at which their own mind is producing ideas and generating thoughts. 

Then, we see some people who are totally engrossed in quenching their thirst for intellectual or inner growth. For internal outcomes. For outcomes not evident to the world. Trying to match their settled internal pace of anxiety yet calmness. Calmly yet painfully looking for answers. Seeking solutions to bigger internal questions of Life and Growth of their soul. 

And, well, then there are people who switch between two states at a rapid pace. They are looking for answers one day, one second, one moment and then, they are tirelessly engrossed in matching the pace of their own mind's idea generation the next day, the next second, the next moment. 

We all have in-built gear boxes which switches our gears between the two states. Some ignore the gears and let the one thirst rust and die out. Essentially, the success lies in swiftly manoeuvring the gears according to the quality of roads, bumps and internal thirsts. The kind, type and quality of roads trigger the inner mechanism of our cars to adjust the gear accordingly. In failure to switch the state, we end up failing ourselves to ourselves. We end up committing an act of injustice to ourselves.  We end up living an understated and undermined life of our own. 

When we switch gears according to our own inner thirst, or when Life handles us a bumpy road making us switch gears, it feels alien, alien for a while. Alien for sometime. But that feeling is accompanied by a complete faith and internal peace with Self. With that path tags along the Concrete Hope and Strength. 

However, similar to this feeling, is another alien feeling. An alien feeling created by us by deliberately ignoring the gear switch. Turbulence this time is not accompanied with Faith, because this turbulence has been created by our own unaligned state. In our resistance and denial to accept and acknowledge our own inner thirsts, we end up choosing highways and roads which we were never meant to. And the biggest indication of such roads is its smooth path. A smooth path yet disturbed ride, a path which suddenly seems alien. If the path around seems alien, if there is even a bit of lack of alignment with the internal thirst; that uneasy smile; that quiet period of unknown; then know well, it is all indicating that the car is not in the right gear for the moment. 

Bubble Kingdom

On a scale of Reality, we first learn to create bubbles and then we learn to burst them. 

When we are born, we can't talk or express ourselves in any language other than crying and laughing. It is not until we have at least spent 200 days on this planet amongst humans, that we learn to speak the way others talk. 

But by then, our tiny bodies have become accustomed to its own communication mechanism. We cry and we get. We smile and the world smiles. As children, the world unintentionally equips us with the mechanisms of acting and attention seeking. It teaches us to make bubbles. Here, if you're sad, have this toy car. Here, if you're angry and shout, the world will fearfully agree to your demands. 

As we grow up, we learn to talk, to speak, to think. We learn different languages. Complicated words. But somewhere, somehow, we fail at learning to communicate and express. While talking to 7billion in this world, we fail to talk to ourselves. And eventually, we disconnect ourselves from ourselves. To compensate for our internal disconnection, we start looking outwards. We start creating bubbles. We learn to talk to bubbles but never to ourselves.  And soon, it becomes our life. Bubble within a bubble within a bubble. The deeper inside the bubble kingdom, the further the disconnection we feel with ourselves. 

We divorce ourselves from ourselves in order to marry the world. 

According to time and situation, our bubbles take different colours. Let's say, if we're going through a sad period in our lives, instead of talking to ourselves, we colour our bubble black. Making it appear dark. Darkness complements our victimized role of sadness and despair. It makes us seek outside attention in a unique way. 

But then, there comes along a needle bursting the black bubble, and we feel liberated. We feel light entering our lives. Only, it is not truly light. It is just the bursting of the black bubble which causes us to see a little in the light. It is not liberation, it is a step toward liberation.

Settled and satisfied with little light, we trap ourselves in yet another bubble. Until again, there comes along a needle bursting our bubble for us. If it is a good happy bubble, we stand a choice. We can either draw ourselves further in back into another bubble. Or, at this vary point, we can pause to ponder. we can stop ourselves from creating comfortable painful victimized luxurious bubbles for ourselves, we may see the connection. We may feel liberated. A step closer. By bursting just one bubble at a time. 

Just like the addiction of bubble creation, the process of bubble bursting is equally addictive. The pain of bubble bursting is far more beautiful than the pleasure of bubble creation. 

Slowly and gradually, we fall in love with the process of bubble bursting. Every bubble burst makes us see the Brighter side. Every bubble burst leads us to another conversation with the self. Every bubble burst hands us back our tool of free will.. Every bubble burst sparks a Conversation With the Real King of the Kingdom. 

Our understanding of the world is then, thus not based on a few bases of colourful bubbles, but Exists on a vast Canvas of Infinite horizon with endless possibilities. 

We all have created gazillions of bubbles for ourselves at millions of times in our lives. We have helped so many others in creating their bubbles as well.

Maybe its time we start bursting and celebrating the Liberation. 

So next time, when we catch ourselves drawing in and creating a black bubble around ourselves, Pause and Think. Maybe, we can just be the Needle we desperately need right now. For beyond that bubble, lies Liberation and Connection with Reality. 

The biggest and the most common complain we as mankind have been making over centuries is that the world does not understand us. It is not the world. It is ourselves. We don't understand our own selves. Because we did not learn to talk to ourselves. Lost somewhere in the bubble kingdom and drawn inside a black bubble, it is not the connection with the world but with our selves that we need to reignite. 

We live in the hopes of magic, but the question is, are we Ready to Burst the Bubbles to Experience the Magic?