The Lack of Diversity

“He’s Not Busy Being Born Is Busy Dying”, this quotation fascinated me.

The words had such a powerful effect over me when I read it yesterday. It compelled me to write over its occult and esoteric interpretations. The maxim is basically the verse of a song by Bob Dylan, the world famous writer and song lyricist.

He offers us an insight to change the phenomenon that remains unchanged or isn’t changing. It’s to have infinite births and renewals and rebirths. To be in uniform mode is to be “busy dying”. It is really thought provoking. It steers thoughts towards growth.

It actually demands from people to throw out the wave of uniformity. It awakes us with the spirit of change.

But here is the point to be noted.  It doesn’t shelter a subject to adopt change but to be adaptable to change. The point is not to set a particular goal but to keep ourselves in this course and meet it through evolution. The change automatically gets adopted. If we set a goal, we stick to it and side outputs termed as by-products can’t be achieved.

There should be variety of thoughts and ideas, diversity in the ways we take things. An ideology of “sticking to one level” or “constant motion” is a bad approach barring the novel themes.

Diversity actually means change in the state or condition, under some circumstances, in any field with any scope, of any sort.

Evolution is basically essential for life. It’s the core and it’s the purpose. We should learn to grow and go through the process of evolving self.

I envision the rule of being changed, the change signifies the immortality and rebuts the mortal world. Because being mortal is being dead. It squeezes the essence out.

Iqbal also says:

“Jis mein na ho inqilab, mout hai woh zindagi

Rooh-e-ummam ki hayat kashmakash-e-inqilab”

“Life without change is death

The tumult and turmoil of revolution keep the soul of a nation alive”

The Turkish eminent Novelist Elif Shafak said once in her interview to British Council:

“In Turkey, we have failed to understand the value of cosmopolitanism, coexistence and diversity. By losing these, we have lost a lot.”

Change is something to adopt and embrace, not to avoid. We all should embrace diversity and cosmopolitanism with open hearts.

Life moves the same way the days and nights change and time moves. We have to be diverse and cosmopolitan in our attitudes. We have to move like time and change like days and nights.

The Forty Rules of Love, a blend of Love and Wisdom- Rumi’s Dominion

The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

Earlier now, three days ago I have done with "The Forty Rules of Love". I am not talking about any 40 points. Yeah, this is a novel written by internationally acclaimed eminent Turkish Novelist Elif Shafak. The novel is actually based on the life of majestic king of Sufism and master of mysticism Mawlana Jalal ud Din Rumi, known as Rumi with his beloved companion with whom he had a fierce bond and association, the Shams of Tabriz.

The story is such beguiling it carries a man into a new world, a world of Love. It has been portrayed exquisitely with a contemporary family's housewife and six centuries before Rumi's Love and comradeship with Shams Tabriz. How a woman of this epoch reads a manuscript as a critique by her job and her life begins to change. Rumi's story brings revolution in her life and she embarks on a journey to see the author of novel.

This is, all in all, a motivation to open the house of hearts to exhale love. It's a provocation to fill the void with only one thing, that's love. The hearts devoid of Love are mere stone pieces that grieves us and others as well-the hollow one.

There are too forty precise and concrete rules have been included which define the way of Love and conceals in them a true wisdom. All forty rules glorifying the beauty of love are imparting the message of leading life with love, each with versatile and universal meaning, delivered by Shams Tabriz. Each rule is universal in its own proportion but I shall here mention only one of all forty rules, rule thirty one states:

“If you want to strengthen your faith, you will need to soften inside. For your faith to be rock solid, your heart needs to be as soft as feather. Through an illness, accident, loss or fright, one way or another, we all are faced with incidents that teach us how to become less selfish and judgmental, and more compassionate and generous. Yet some of us learn the lesson and manage to become milder, while some others end up becoming harsher than before. The only way to get closer to Truth is to expand your hearts so that it will encompass all humanity and still have room for Love”.  

The rule is indispensable clamoring to be gasped by our society. Tolerance has got mysterious in all circles of life even lacking in expecting role models. I’m not talking about all but exceptions are everywhere, a few does comply. If I interpret it, I construe the translation this way, “Love nourishes all, carries away harms and miseries, and thus brings felicity filled by allocating space for entire universe in our hearts”.

Each word of novel is spinning seeking Love, each is in absolute harmony with other, precisely put together, neither it should have been forth nor back, swaying in world of Love, ecstatically blooming, each word should have been really where it is, not slipped aside elsewhere, combining to convey a profound meaning, prevailing wisdom and sagacity being burnt with Love, ready to infuse through one’s existence, shattering soul retaining apparent demeanor into man of oneness, nothingness prevails but Love, oneness dominates that is Love.

This is accurately portrayed in jeweled precious words, exuberant its each word is.

Another but not a rule by Shams but utterance of Rumi, the master of Love, excerpted from “The Forty Rules of Love” reveals:

“Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi or Zen. Not any religion or cultural system. I am not of the east, nor of the west…. My place is placeless, a trace of traceless”.

Yes, Rumi is right. He belongs to the world of Love. He is associated with beloved. He has nothing to do with anyone else, not with East, nor of west.

This is the message what Rumi wanted to inculcate in us with profoundness and eternity. This is the effort Ms. Shafak made and we all should adore it. 

Tolerance, love, mercy, compassion, harmony, interfaith harmony, mutual interests, peace, unity, and brotherhood, these were all things we have to long for, not to chase after materialistic world.

Rumi had an extraordinarily massive bond that appealed world's modern authors to research and translate his work, from Elif Shafak (The Forty rules of Love) to Muriel Maufroy (Rumi's Daughter), from Coleman Barks (The Essential Rumi) to Rabisankar Bal (A Mirrored Life).

Elif Shafak deserves tribute on scribing a story of Rumi and Shams and carving it in such a mesmerizing way. By her effort, at least who fail to have an eye on Sufism but read novels, will ultimately get aware of Sufism and Rumi’s life. Her effort is really commendable.

I personally suggest everyone to brighten and illuminate himself with this novel and Rumi’s poetry as well.

Treatment with waiters in Hotels and Restaurants: Think and Vet it.

A waiter spilling food

With the idea to pen over the topic, I’m grabbed by the notion, just before starting and putting pen to paper, it reflected into my mind if I will be able to write with the right they are entitled to, about the downtrodden class of my society. Anyhow, I’m going to write it with all essential points that must be inscribed here under this heading to highlight the issue.

Here’s to be an attention demanding piece raising the absurdity of ours in this so called self-acclaimed advanced society.

Now, when a waiter or whatever you call to serving person approaches us for serving whenever we plan to reach out any restaurant or hotel for having luscious meal, sometimes staring to him scornfully why he is late, blurting out claptrap in much contemptuous way we don’t have any idea. Basically, that’s usually the offense actually needs to be flashed over someone else owing to any reason or one’s own worst translation.

It is the filth inside, lacking forbearance. Think the situation.

Having done with order,people have also been noticed sardonically babbling about after the meal has been served. When they find taste really unrelished or not meeting to the desire of their tongue and heart as well, a waiter is simply called and mockingly slurred down, not caring it has nothing to do with the proficiency of a waiter, rather he is meant to take orders and bring and serve the food, not to take the hearth and prepare delicious food with the recipe conferring to the flavor they feel comfortable with.

If sometimes, due to delay in carrying out the order that requires more time than usual, a waiter comes late or sometimes called before the serving of food, he is rebuked on what he shouldn’t be reprimanded. Not ever have I struck to any comprehension for why there is outburst over the fine style but because it’s not of ours’ accord.

With another fact, people goes very barbaric and fiery while food spills out of waiter’s hand by mistake. It’s acceptable that one can get hyper and be enraged by it, but one must not take notion of any sort of privilege and feels freedom and permission to cross the monstrous side. If one hits the waiter with unruly side, he needs to ponder over his conduct and reconsider his act why a poor waiter would throw the food over someone. He has no private enmity with customer. Has he not inflicted with a fear of losing his source of earning? And it’s too not a case that they don’t care, they certainly do but they are human beings first. It should be considered the case of coincidently made mistake.

This kind of attitude of customers not only influence a waiter intensely but also scare him with the fear he will be fired of job because he is aware that the management of particular restaurant may be on a stance to satisfy their customer, neither they shall bother to inquire what transpired nor they might acquiesce him. The only thing they shall definitely take questionable why he spilled food, and shall rather prefer to heed who disburses.

Often it’s so that snootiness brimmed inside is exhaled just to belittle poor or others. The impoverished society is awfully disgraced with the utmost brazenness and the worth is pointed to those who are affluent without minding whether they deserve it or not. Some people due to their dingy minds feel comfortable with it and does so.

More often than not, the grumpy talks are not only made in higher proportion but also appreciated and impudently continued. This ridiculous attitude is just the reflection of what ones’ capability of possessing norm is.

In fact, we have entirely plunged into the dreadful course of materialism, feeling no indulgence, and gone too austere in our conduct to make out the liquefaction of destitute.

In the end, I would just mark it the decline in the ethical status of one’s own personality. It is the filth inside, lacking forbearance. Think the situation.

Genuineness in a belief: ALLAH’s Will, What can we do?

Have we ever thought of belief “What does ALLAH will?”? How much is it genuine?  

No, the matter is we have a much production for this fake belief and letting it breed more. The definite bad phenomenon is the filth inside us.

A week before we had been allotted a room in our Hostel in UET, Taxila. The room we had been allotted was extremely dingy and dilapidated. The whole room was badly struck by termite and the walls were covered. Some of the mud-houses were also built by termite. It seemed there lodged some beasts here who now left us in this scourge. However, it was highly strenuous for all of us but we managed to renovate the room and took back it to the previous situation.

But the problematic thing was the comments of my roommates after having seen the rotten condition of the room. They all said there must be God’s will behind it. There might be any good-will of God. We compromised the situation. We went to Residential Tutor (RT) of the hostel and told but didn’t protest in a way it should have been.

We didn’t protest or challenge though we were paying for it. We let it move on so and thus catered for burgeoning the incompetency. We didn’t challenge the inept management and let it flourish.

But what I felt later, we should have protested before Warden or RT of the hostel. We should not have compromised.

We’re not acceding ALLAH’s trial rather we are attributing this evil in the name of ALLAH.

We are bad at identifying reasons and taking our rights. We don’t clamour to achieve our rights.

We’re more prone to conceal flaws behind the counterfeited belief; God wills, what can we do? There must be any good behind it, some people name it the furtive aid by ALLAH Almighty. We actually try to safeguard us and rid of the genuine blooper we caused just to meet a safe exit. If sometimes we ourselves make mistake, we don’t let the tongue even silently hiss out the fault occurred so that we might remain safe as no one would bother to the attention it this way.

We don’t have an idea we actually disguise the reality in the name of this fake belief.  If we have a rapt analysis of the belief: We’re not acceding ALLAH’s trial rather we are attributing this evil in the name of ALLAH.

Now, we have to feel the stench of forged conviction of “What God wills we are satisfied with it?” as it is turning situation grimmer.

We should rather mull over our will than God’s will. What transpired was God’s volition or our own shortcoming which let it emerge. God surely makes everything possible to happen but actually who caused it is considerable and attention requiring.

Some people also put an assumption like “There must be any good behind it by ALLAH”, I demurely ask them, “If there might have been so, should we not say ALLAH managed to hide incompetence?”  

We should rather mull over our will than God’s will. What transpired was God’s volition or our own shortcoming which let it emerge.

This belief has got shaped like a dandy notion. One who masks himself under this cover actually tries to put all the human blunder towards ALLAH and detaches him of the matter.

This fake belief should no longer remain to deceive others or let others deceive us. Why do we always have to say, “ALLAH wanted, so happened” while it is not so rather it is “We ourselves let it happened”.

Finally I would say we should wipe out our minds with this belief and target it wherever it seems to be getting flourish. 

Unethical norms create depression which hinders the evolution of thoughts

A Depressed Person

There exists a secret to be revealed as it seems to be the giant conundrum. The dilemma of our society in the scorching heat of depression and anxiety merely inhabits a furtive fact that is unfortunately not unwrapped by human psyche by unravelling the knots of quarrelling thoughts being collided within the container of the human brain and isn’t usually overtly divulged to curb the intensity. The fact is framed up by comprehending all the causes propelling the society towards such a grim situation which comprises of all psychological effects like depression and anxieties caused by the behavioural activities and moral based values being audaciously overlooked.

The depression takes the charge and governs over the minds with its malicious influences. The question arises how depression produces and adversely affects and how the problem can be got over and cured soundly. Therefore, I have sorted out root causes which propagate the wave of depression in order to eradicate the evil.

If we have a look over our surroundings and society, we observe all where tumult and turmoil. Everyone is in a quest of his desires and is avidly striving to approach his lust and struggling hard to make his life better and luxurious whether by hooks or crooks. We’ve switched our lives from simple to complex mode. No one even tries to care about other. There seems to be selfishness everywhere. Hatreds are getting promoted. Most of the people behave in an inappropriate way and tend to be coarse. The brazenly inappropriate aspect of conduct by one side is not considered interacting with others as if concealed behind the curtain but is instantly taken into view when unleashing from another party. The disparaging pattern of talking style with the texture of mockery has rooted its seed swiftly which makes the environment endowed in anxieties. The sole cause behind it is gradually dominating misconduct with each other.

Tolerance has now become the lost and anonymous thing in our society.

As here sharing with you my own experience, I realise and consider it the problem of everyone. I find myself often sitting with my friend making routine gossips or conversing over the serious topic. Often confronting over the difference of opinion, one of us tends to be ignorantly abrasive just to make his stance accepted. We often allegedly talk to each other and sometimes utter the harshness and disparage each other and then we get depressed and dismayed by the exchanging coarse attitude.

It often baffles and exasperates me when someone slanders me, denigrates me and throw even a single allegation over me that’s fallacious. I get agonised and tormented by the scathing remarks uttered by someone against me which then brings depression. Everyone now experiences the same case because tolerance has now become the lost and anonymous thing in our society.

Furthermore, another major cause dropping the growth of mentality is also the deterioration (depression) made by the evil intentions among the community. Depression always makes the thoughts wrestle with each other. Consequently, the thoughts get frozen with orthodoxy and we don’t even try to escape from the particular conventional mindset similar to net or shield around leaving no option to peer out.

As a result of depression usually caused by unethical behaviour shown by others, trammeled thoughts doesn’t let one extricate from the generating befuddlement and therefore staunch the evolutionary flow of probable solutions and innovative ideas which could not be conceived before its refine remedy. This envisages a society dull and doleful leaving the powerless and potential free impact over it.

Having no idea that the downfall of thoughts explicitly drives over the road of constant hardships and even failures, most people being the victim of depression sometimes remain unwilling to abandon the conventions and keep on going with them and deprive themselves of the novel thoughts. Hence, the evolution of innovative and creative thoughts remains suppressed and the outcomes don’t behave in the favours.

Having known the causes, we can lead towards its remedy and solution which is favourable to the healthy society. This contentious issue needs to be identified and resolved as it obstructs the way to better growth which is tremendously perilous to the advancement of society. Depression drifts away when the notions become correspondent to the moral and ethical norms. Ethics and good moral norms come forth from planting the seed of tolerance, love and compassion in hearts. The tenderness in behaviours is the essential demand of time as the ethical landscape of the society is crucial to its wellbeing. As a result, thoughts become clear and transparent like pure water.