Illusions…

Classically speaking of course in the esteemed words of Dr. Cox ‘People are just bastard filled bastards with bastard coating.’

It’s so true. We all like to live in the illusion of some security. Security of any form. Some of us think that emotions are far fetched ideas, living in their own little introverted world of friends and circle and life carries on as such. Unscathed. Unabated. Some like to think that they are the biggest thing to have walked the planet in their world of people.

We can go to very far extremes of trying to ascertain what our illusion can achieve for us.

• Power
• Love
• Fame
• Security
• Immortality

At times this little voice in our head that’s been propogating the dream or the perception of a certaing element of our existence is confronted with the non-existance of the very such element. Then it turns ugly. Denial and anger accompany a whole bag of mixed emotions that you are going through. For example, there are some of us who live under the perception that the best way to survive whatever is going on in our country is by escaping it while they still can. But escape to where. Escape from what. The roots of your own motherland never leave you. In fact they will haunt you forever.

Men, desire power more than anything. The illusion of power, of might, of strength, of invincibilty, helps the the dreams of immortality. The key to combating the sands of time. The way to live forever. To write your name in the concretes of history, never to be written over or washed away. Until that very power consumes them. It liberates their darkest natures. To the point where your 2nd nature is non-existant unless it’s on evil mode.

Funnily enough, and here’s the irony in all of this, illusion is as defined by wikipedia:

An illusion is an error in perception.

Now the people who are the victims of this, are probably who know this meaning the best.

Karachi Monsoon

The monsoons have finally arrived. And that too in dramatic fashion. It is quite fitting a day for the monsoons to have started in our very own city of lights ( or no lights … or hypothetical lights ). The biggest power breakdown of the summer, the SBP giving a stern message to the government in the monetary policy speech ( that the government has to retire 84 Bil Debt this financial year and no more borrowing! ), have dug up roads and half closed rain drains, and the all glorius force of nature that is the wet and the wind i.e. the Monsoon. Quite the theme, and again, quite fitting. It was almost theatrical. Even so much that it the monsoon made a pleasant knock on our doors in the afternoon before the full blast in the evening. There were sprinkles of droplets in the sunshine with people actually thinking that someone had dropped water from one of the flats above!.

So what now ? The techical fault for the day was yet another tripping. I was beggining to wonder where all the trippings from last year had dissappeared to. And now that the rain has started, the KESC in all it’s humanity, decided to turn off lights during that period so as to avoid any casualties dure to short wires or wires fallen in the inevitable pools of water, waiting to electrocute their next victim. And to top it of, KESC wasn’t getting / isn’t getting any electricity from WAPDA. For whatever reasons.

I don’t think we need to get into a blame game here. The culprits are pretty much obvious, at least to me anyway. The government, the coalition partners and the lawyers for keeping up the fantastically long running drama of the Judiciary, while energy problems, and food problems, and oil prices and inflation in general continues going up without being properly or sincerely addressed. This is, according to the Acting President of the Sindh PML-N, a ‘glorious’ opportunity for the nation to rid itself from future martial laws and army interference and that of course such ‘glorious’ opportunities should not be just dealt with in haste. They should be stretched out till the economy actually crumbles. Till people dying of hunger actually reaches a hyper number. I am sorry sir, with all due respect this is not a glorious opportunity for any such thing. The mandate by which you came into this power you have already let down by persistently being after the judiciary and the impeachment. Two things I can assure you will have no fricking impact whatsoever in helping with the real problems of this country and this economy.

But I digress. For I don’t want to get into the shambles that is our country’s leadership. I was talking about the culprits. The goverment as I mentioned for the growing energy crisis. The DHA, in all it’s splendor for starting something in a way which was always going to be impossible for them to finish off, and create double the problems come the rain season. Well the rains started today, and a fresh digging was taking place today at Zamzama. What more can I say. Karachi city planning division. And by divisiong I really mean division. Our Nazim, Mustafa Kamal, in most press conferences emerging out of crisis situations, has to half the time explaing to people that those areas are not under his jurisdiction. This city has 14 jurisdictions apparently. KPT, DHA, Nazim etc. Now how can there be any coordinated development work in a city which has 14 various agnecies looking after the jurisdiction of various areas. Shahra-e-Faisal alone is divided amongst 6. He is absolutely right to say that put it all under me and then if something happens put my head to task. I agree with him and feel sorry for him. Because of this problem and the obvious inefficiency of the other agencies in doing their jobs, his good work is always overshadowed by a lot of people. The city cannot move in the right direction in this way. It just doesn’t happen.

The rains are now bound to start in the fashion where it’s almost non-stop. Half the roads are dug up. The drains are not complete. The roads are still going to flood, only with mud and wet slippery conditions as well making matters more the worse. And the energy problem is only going to increase. Again, quite a thematic, theatrical and fitting way for the monsoons to arrive in our very own city of lights ( or no lights … or hypothetical lights or maybe even candle light…).

The Warrior

He is ready. He can sense the air around him, the air of a battle. He is ready for one. He was born for this. To live out like a war machine. A man created soley for war. A true image of the mighty Achilles. The mighty Ajax. He stands motionless. Waiting for the forces to charge. Waiting for the next in line to feel the cold of his steel. Sensing all that is around him. Taking in all the sounds, the movements, the momentum and the magnitude of the battle. Of the blood fest that will surely follow.

He can see them now. An army of men without a mind of their own. Sent forth by the king who sits behind the safety of his own fortress. Men without the ability to judge what they get into. Men who don’t even know at times who they fight for. Pity, but they were born on the wrong side from him. And he can’t help that. Aries would enjoy this probably. He doesn’t. He was just born this way. He was simply created for war. It is in his nature. In his blood.

He stands ready. His form perfect. His blade cutting through the wind. His armor sun drenched. His eyes focused on the faces of the men who are about to die, those who he will show the courtesy of his sword. Men whose faces he will long remember after killing them. Each and everyone of them. The mindless drones who died without a cause of their own. But does he himself have a cause? This real life force. This human war machine. The only answer is: he was born for this. Created soley for war.

A hero of every battle, of every war. Even if the next king is a far better man then the one leading the army he fights for, he doesn’t care. Because he was born for this. If not them, then someone else. He was created soley for war. Soley to engrave his name into history through the instrument of war. Battle. Blood.

No warlord dare mock him. No warlord dare lose his alliance. For he is the perfect warrior. He was born the perfect warrior. He was created the perfect warrior. A hero of every battle. Of every war. The warrior, who even the mighy herculeus would have found a mighty match in. A warrior who even the King of all Gods, Zues would not reckon with. The perfect soldier. The perfect warrior. His gaze, his form, his blade, his agility, all perfect. All in tandom with another.

The first of the lot come. 10, perhaps 12 of them. The fools. They thought it’s just one man for now, we don’t need to guard for one man. They draw their swords, spears and bows. They point it towards him. Each a master in his own right. The first one swings and then, the war machine sparks to life. His purpose is about to be fulfilled, once more. He moves swiftly to dodge the tip of the enemy’s blade and thrust his own into the centre of his chest. Piercing through his armor. Quickly retracts his sword and raises his shield against the second’s attack, pushing the sword from the top of his shield into his face. Before the other’s can react, he is already racing towards them, at a head on. He jumps, far more than a normal soldier, and throws his sword like an axe, cracking the helmet and skull of the other 2. And then uses his dagger to slice the front of all the archers and spearsmen. A matter of mere seconds. The 12 are down. He is standing. His form still perfect. Still ready. The blade back in his hand, wielded to kill. His armor sun drenched in the blood from around him. His eyes still focused. Beyond these mindless drones. His prize, waits beyond them. The prize of another battle, a hero once again of the battle. The carving in time becoming more and more concrete with each victory.

This is what runs in his blood. What he understands. What he was born for, created for. The Warrior.

Serpico

One of the most interesting movie titles ( just talking about the name ) that I’ve come across is ‘Lions for Lambs’. Quite the ring to it. Reminds me of a lot of qoutes. The most striking one being ‘The old declare war, it’s the young who must fight and die.’ I can’t say that’s the exact accurate qoute, but its the gist anyway. It was said by President Cooper (If I am not mistaken) of the United States.

Now in the present day and circs that I am writing this, it might seem obvious that I am writing about the various ‘Wars on Terror’ and the ‘Jihad’ calls being sung around the world. Where young innocent people who don’t know half of what and why there orders are what they are, are dying for the Long Term plans of their masters. They are mere pawns in this galactic global multi player battle of chess. However, this particular blog is not on that.

No this, ‘Serpico’, takes a lot from the actual movie Serpico. The internal battle. The movie being based on the true story of New York City policeman Frank Serpico. Serpico eventually went undercover to expose the corruption of his fellow officers, after being pushed to the brink at first by their distrust and later by the threats and intimidation they leveled against him.

I say internal, because I believe that everyday, and in most of the activities and the encounters that we are invovled with in our lives, there are always two forces at work. The good mana and the evil mana. The one who influences the more, wins and hence the action of a person. That’s kind of like the movie. Where a cop within is against the bad cops within the entire police department.

These two forces make us carry the burden of are actions and reactions. The key being control. Your emotions, your rationale. Control your temper and your passion. Control.

Inadvertently we tend to bounce on a point to fight or argue, which if we think over later on, realize was nothing to get all that worked up about. At other times, we tend to hold on and never let go of certain things. Ghosts of our past one could say. Angst becomes a regular feature in our daily routines.