Emptiness.

Written By: Mishaal Alvi.

Original link to the article at : http://mishaalalala.tumblr.com 

In one of those moods, where you find everything surrounding you absolutely stale. Even the morning light seems to fade because of the strong darkness within you that overshadows everything. What hurts the most is feeling empty without any particular reason, when you wake up. Mornings are supposed to be beautiful aren't they? And yet you feel so suffocated and as if something is eating you away from the inside. What's more frustrating is not knowing why you are suffering so much in that moment. Nothing seems to make sense, it's all purely blank. You wan to scream away your error but you know it is useless because it would be as if you are screaming in a vacuum where no one seems to hear a single thing - where no one seems to bother. And you lay there numb, broken, miserable and helpless, trying to feel better but end up feeling even more dreadful.

Miracles of God

When Allah wants things to happen they happen such miraculously and everything falls into place so beautifully that it amazes you. For sure it is amazing. For sure it is so beautiful. A human mind just can not even think how and why and when it happened it just happens. Whenever we want something we look towards Allah, because we know no matter how sinful we are, how much wrong we do, how much we disobey him, we know that He will listen and he will let things happen if they are right for you. For sure Allah is the greatest.

Self Belief

Times rough and days dark,

hope was thin and bleak.

But I have come a long way,

to stand on my own two feet.

And as the road gets steep,

I will carry on with belief.

Heroes of Pakistan - Ayesha Farooq

With an olive green head scarf poking out from her helmet, Flight Lieutenant Ayesha Farooq flashes a cheeky grin whenever she is asked how does it feel to be the first fighter pilot of Pakistan. As light as she may sound, she is proudly the first combat-ready female fighter pilot of Pakistan.

Ayesha Farooq's father passed away when she was just 3 years old. And it was her mother who has supported her all the way uptill now. “My mother raised me to be strong, to a point that if one day, I was left alone, I would be able to take care of myself,” Ayesha Farooq says with a determination on his face.

Her slim frame offers a study in contrast with her burly male colleagues. She now fly missions in a Chinese-made F7PG fighter jet alongside her 24 male colleagues in Squadron 20. While it didn't start out the perfect way being a woman, today her male colleagues treat her like one of them.

When reporters interested in her story inquire about their "female colleague," it surprises the male pilots. "They ask, 'lady? What lady? She’s just an officer, like all of us." 'It feels just like other male pilots,' she says. We do the same activities and same precision bombing.

That perhaps is her biggest success in the most complicated society when it comes to women.

Pakistan is proud of her, hopefully she will become a motivation for so many other women in the country and hopefully we will give her the recognition she deserves.

She promises to defend 'the best country in the world' with all she has, she promises to give her life if needed because that's what her late father would have wanted. I wan't to make him proud, she says, with the same usual determination on his face.

Questions Stuck in my Head

Written By: Anonymous. (AM)

Why not me? Just tell me this today. Even when I promised you an eternity, why did you leave? What was in her that wasn’t in me? Did you leave because she’s prettier than me? Do looks matter that much to you that the amount of my love could not overcome her beauty? Why can’t I be loved by you the way I love you? Why couldn’t I be the one to be held in your arms? Why can’t I be looked at, like you look at her? Why can’t you just pick me? Was it a hard decision choosing her over me? If it was hard, why did you even do that? You’re asking me to move on, where the hell do I go? Why can’t you just come back to me? Why did you play with my feelings? Why did you lie? Why did you tell me you loved me when she was the only thing on your mind? Was I just a side-girl? Was I just someone to kill time with? Did I even mean something to you? Why did you choose me to screw and not some other cold-hearted girl? Don’t you think I was too young to be messed with? Was it all my mistake? Where did I go wrong? Did I hurt you? Why didn’t you tell me? Was it all me? Did I give you a hard time keeping up? Was I mean? Was I selfish? Actually, I am selfish. But, isn’t that what love is about? Can’t we just accept the fact that it was just love? It was love that made me act all clingy, was it annoying? Did my annoying attitude made you run to her? Does she love you the way I can? Why did you leave, anyway? Was my love not enough? Why can’t you just tell me what made you so tired of being with me? What about the promises, did you forget them? The pinpoints on the maps? The plans to kiss under the Eiffel Tower? The smiles we passed? The dreams we shared? The hopes I had? Did you even want any of that? Where did I go wrong? Why can it not be me, when to me it has always been you. Please. Tell me. I beg you. Just please let me know so I can sleep at night. I really do love you. 

Ashes of You

Written By: Aqsa Naveed.

There was blood in my eyes, burning ashes in my heart, ache in my skin from my fingertips to my toes. There were thousands of sparks to ignite my body. The electricity surging through my body but all I could do was to think about you. I'm living with the fear of losing both of us. I went home elated, the whole car ride I drove but I only had you on my mind and I wondered if this was love, a word I detest since it is frankly over used, or just a strong liking, a feeling everyone has had at one point or another, but this to me was not something that anyone has ever felt. This was something different to me. And when I reached home I found you around, it completes me. Yes I need to embrace you, and I need you to hold me back but all I really need is you to just smile at me, and realize whether it is love or not, I want to be with you I hope my plea doesn’t fall on deaf ears, or that you aren’t too blind to see that I am captivated by you.

Life of Pakistani Politician and Cricket Legend Imran Khan

Only a decade ago, Imran Khan’s just-completed mansion on a hill outside the Pakistani capital Islamabad was so remote that he was attacked by armed robbers on his way home.

“There were hardly any houses and there was a dirt track all up here and I actually got mugged with my children, armed-robbed on the way back because it was so isolated,” says the man who has transformed himself from a cricketer and social celebrity into a political leader in one of the world’s most populous Muslim countries. “But the first night I spent here I still remember it felt like home.”

The 62-year-old, cheerful but sweating in the monsoon heat, explains in the sitting room overlooking the lawn that it was his first wife, Jemima Goldsmith, the British journalist and heiress, who organised the building and decoration of the spacious, colonial-style, five-bedroom house with the help of an Australian architect.

The two are on good terms despite the divorce and there is no awkwardness discussing the history of the house in front of Khan’s new wife, Reham, a 42-year-old British-Pakistani social activist, television presenter and former weather forecaster for BBC South. She has moved in with a massive Belgian Shepherd dog called Hugo Maximus or Max.

Keep Hope Alive

Even when there is no hope, there is hope. 

Written By: Maliha Javed.

Three words that can change your life and no I don’t mean about ‘I love you’, I guess that too can impact your life but these three words that I’m talking about can help you survive the greatest endeavors you face over your lifetime; ‘keep hope alive’.

I came across these three words while reading a book a long time ago; it was quoted by reverend Jesse Jackson in one of his brilliant speeches. Well at that point in time I didn’t much understand the significance it held up until a few years ago. As a kid, majority of us couldn’t wait to grow up and be the adult once and for all, now I feel like adulthood is simply overrated because the older we grow the more intricate life seems, although this may not imply to many people I’m sure. Yes most of us achieve the freedom that we’ve been craving for, the lucky ones among us live the dream they hoped for, life seems awesome but at some point we all do hit rock bottom. We become numb or clueless as to what we want further. We get lost and insecure. Few might endure exceptionally difficult and unfortunate challenges. For some, a sense of loneliness creeps in and the feeling of not fitting in ambushes our fragile minds. We aspire to grasp the world within our hands, to introduce a difference, while others are desperate for a simple answer to “what on earth am I doing with my life?!!”

Point being stated, it’s alright for most of us to feel this way as long as we remember one thing; to keep hope alive! For me hope is what gets us through the good and bad and positions us a step ahead always but never behind. Put it in this way, it’s like an adrenaline rush or a butterfly feeling we get as we anticipate for what lies ahead, without hope the world would seem to be such a tedious place with nothing to define our purpose and existence in life. No matter where we are and under any circumstance, with even the slightest bit of hope in our hearts there will always be a tomorrow to look forward to, a chance of being acquainted to a possibility ahead, a maybe who knows? So no matter how big your dream is, no matter how impossible a situation may seem, no matter how pessimist one maybe and even when all the doors close shut, just ALWAYS keep hope alive within you because that smallest amount embedded inside of us can facilitate each and every single being to revolutionize our lives significantly.

This is Us

Written By: Aqsa Khan

Today, I was walking through streets with my broken arm just to spend sometime alone. And I found a tree without any leaves on it. He was begging for his needs, his desires. He was beseeching and craving for the thirst of water. But he couldn't find anyone to listen his voice, his needs. He kept spending his all time alone in sorrow, in sadness. Days passed, months passed, years passed but he couldn't move from his place, he was helpless and he knew that nobody will ever listen to him but he was wrong because one day somebody came around him, she was a girl. At first she didn't know what's wrong with it but after sometime she starts getting that he is a dead soul, there's no one around him who can understand his feelings, his thoughts, his solitude, his sentiments, his emotions, his desires & she needs to do something with it. She thought she would provide him happiness, she would fulfill his thirst, his needs, she would never let him get into solitude but he was so stubborn to understand it. And actually it wasn't a tree, it was guy more like that tree which does not  have leaves on it. His soul was died, he wasn't living, he was surviving. He was pleading some angel to take him away from this world, away from the human beings. To the magical world of unicorns. And this could only happen if he will let someone enter in his life but he made boundaries of walls all around him, not letting anyone to cross those boundaries but that girl decided not to give up on him. She will keep trying, keep putting efforts to help him in finding delightful life and happiness.

Paris Attacks and Islam

For the first time since 1889 Eiffel Tower was switched off as a sign of mourning on November 13, 2015.

Written By: Komal Aziz.

What happened in Paris this Friday was devastating, not just for France, but for the entire world. It was an unfortunate and inhumane incident which should be and is being condemned by almost every human being on this planet. And honestly, coming from a country like Pakistan where these incidents are more than common, i can explicitly say that we feel your loss, Paris. We feel what you're going through because we have lost innocent lives the same way, because of the same monsters. But instead of uniting against such a monstrous group of individuals, blaming an entire religious community for such acts will do no good. We, Muslims, condemn these monstrous acts. No human being can do this. They are not people, let alone be part of a religious group. They are monsters and should be referred to as monsters. How would the people of Paris feel if they are called terrorists today, or if France is called a terrorist country? Their innocent people died because of these terrorists and to be called by their titles would make them feel terrible. We, Pakistanis, feel the same way. Not just Pakistanis, but the people of every Muslim country feel the same. What the world needs to understand is that we are not part of this group, we are the victims. And we want to end this brutality as much as you do. So instead of playing our favourite blame game, if we unite and try of understand each other's pain and loss, we might be able to defeat this common enemy.

I do not understand why people are blaming Islam for this. Instead of claiming that Islam is a violent religion, if you look into the main essence of this religion, you'll find that we are instructed not to kill innocent people.

 “Whoever kills a person [unjustly]…it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind.” (Qur’an, 5:32)

Additionally, it is heartbreaking how the world has been awoken by this Paris attack and has started posting about how they feel for the people of Paris, but have been turning a blind eye to all the brutal attacks in Muslim countries like Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Is Muslim blood not as important as the blood of the people who lost their lives in the Paris attack? Is our life not equally important? Do we, Muslims, not have the equal right to live peacefully as do the people in the West? We are losing innocent people every single day, yet no one speaks a word against the violence against us? Is this what you call justice?

We are fighting the same war as you, against the same enemy as you. Stop considering us threats, because we are not. Stop punishing an entire community because of what a group of individuals do. They are our enemies more than they are yours because they are portraying a wrong image of our religion. We hate and despise them more than any of you can ever imagine to. Please stop making it hard for us to fight this battle by calling us the monsters we are fighting it against. It hurts.

Lastly, our hearts go out to all those who lost their loved ones in Paris, and in all other countries of the world including Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and all the other countries facing these attacks. Every person matters, every single life, may it be of a Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist or of someone belonging to an ethnic minority, matters. Every life matters. May this world stop generalisations, and use common sense to understand that the vast majority of Muslims throughout the world are facing the same problems. And we need not your blame to make matters worse for us, instead your support. 

A North Korean gap year

Life as a student in North Korea for Alessandro Ford was an interesting experience. 

Alessandro Ford had a gap year with a difference. His movements were monitored everywhere he went; he spent hours discussing the merits of Juche ideology over American imperialism; and his only contact with the outside world was a 10-minute phone call with his mum once a week.

From August to December last year, the 18-year-old was enrolled as a student at the Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang, learning Korean. Whilst the university takes in foreign students from countries including China and Russia, he was the first “western” student to ever study there.

The trip was arranged by his father, Glyn Ford, a former Labour Party member of the European parliament who has been on multiple diplomatic trips to North Korea and has long argued for sustained diplomatic engagement with the pariah state.

Royal Parks of London

The Royal Parks of London are lands originally owned by the monarchy of the United Kingdom for the recreation (mostly hunting) of the royal family but more recently, one of the biggest touring attraction in the United Kingdom. There are a total of 8 parks that cover an area of 500 acres.

Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens (which are adjacent), Green Park, Regent's Park and St James's Park are the largest green spaces in central London. Bushy Park, Greenwich Park and Richmond Park are in the suburbs. The Royal Parks agency also manages Brompton Cemetery, Grosvenor Square Gardens, Victoria Tower Gardens and the gardens of 10, 11 and 12 Downing Street. Hampton Court Park is also a royal park within Greater London, but, because it contains a palace, it is administered by the Historic Royal Palaces, unlike the eight Royal Parks.

The public does not have any legal right to use the Parks, as public access depends on the grace and favour of The Crown, although there are public rights of way across the land.A brief introduction of all these parks is given below.

Bushy Park

Bushy Park in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is the second largest of London's Royal Parks, at 445 hectares (1,100 acres) in area. The park, most of which is open to the public, is immediately north of Hampton Court Palace and Hampton Court Park and is a few minutes' walk from the north side of Kingston Bridge. When Henry VIII took over Hampton Court Palace from Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in 1529, the King also took over the three parks that make up modern-day Bushy Park: Hare Warren, Middle Park and Bushy Park. A keen hunter, he established them as deer-hunting grounds. The area now known as Bushy Park has been settled for at least the past 4,000 years: the earliest archaeological records that have been found on the site date back to the Bronze Age. There is also evidence that the area was used in the medieval period for agricultural purposes.

Life in the beautiful Shimshal Valley of Pakistan

For centuries, this tiny village in the far northern tip of Pakistan has been known as the home of some of central Asia’s toughest inhabitants.

From this rugged, 10,000-foot plateau in the Karakorum Mountains, residents used to have to walk for up to a week to reach another settlement. The journey, which involved crossing an icy river dozens of times, was so grueling that monarchs banished prisoners to live here — assuming they survived the walk.

About a decade ago, the opening of a one-lane road — after 18 years of construction — brought comforts such as factory-made blankets and water filtration systems over the mountains, as well as some concern that the route that freed the village from isolation would doom it as younger residents left in search of jobs and Internet access.

Note to Self.

Times rough and days dark,

hope was thin and bleak.

But I have come a long way,

to stand on my own two feet.

And as the road gets steep,

I will carry on, with belief.

Love and Delusion

If I fall, I'll fall for you.

If I rise, I'll rise with you.

If I'm afraid, I'm afraid of losing you.

If I'm about anything, I'm all about you.

Sinful World

Written By: Khulood Bahaa.

My back leaned as I carry the heavy weight, 

as I carry the burden on my shoulders, 

I can't stand straight.

I fell onto my knees, 

as my body trembled in unease, 

I lost all hope.

Oh Allah, this world has deceived me, 

I feel lost, hopeless, but to you alone I plea, 

and I know my sins' amount,

but on your mercy oh Allah I count.

I'm alone, 

and what better company than yours,

It's all to you known,

and you never shut your doors.

So when the dark night extends,

may your mercy, oh Allah, descends.