Abdul Latif Khalid (1944-2007)

Bjkumar,

Every bit of your post was malicious... your "Theek hai..." crap was a pithy way of getting to the point your desperately want to drive home about pakistan india and other such nonsense.

Same goes for your brother from another mother: masadi. His first few lines of condolences was the most insincere piece of crap I have read. He wanted to score points about the one thing he has been unable to accept.

So spare me the crap about not being malicious. People like you and Masadi are nothing if not malicious and disgusting...

All I can say is that my father was the kind of person who would have never agreed with small and petty people with lack of humanity of the kind you've displayed here. (If really wanted to make this controversial I would have quoted my father's views on Gandhi.) If you thought hamidm was bad... ah well.

I am done debating things with people like you.

The real well wishers of YLH will offer him advice and strength as a colleague rather than make do with standard cliches'! I did the same with my Iqbal's couplet.

My own two parents have been intermittently in ICUs from time to time during the entire 2007 and barely climbed off from their death-beds each time only to return there one after the other a week apart. I know it HAS to come. And, when it does, I will look for serenity rather than compassion. They would have played their innings damn well and I would give them a standing ovation upon their return to the pavilion rather than grieve over why there couldn't be an encore.

There cannot be. That's why they equipped me with the shin guards and gloves to go out there and take my turn at the crease.

Yasser, come off it!

You know darn well there was not a shred of malice in what I wrote.

From what I have seen, it is perfectly okay to try to create humor at the time of a memorial service and there is nothing “inhuman” about it!

But I fully understand that you are not in that frame of mind.

* * *

Ranjit miaN, since you have appointed yourself a judge of my intentions, let me do the same for you. I think that you and a few others like you are absolute hypocrites who do not have an ounce of sincerity in your bodies.

Yasser,

As I commented on facebook, life moves on.

You never stop to mourn a fallen colleague in a battle field. You move on, cause in doing so, you fulfil the purpose for which the colleague fell. They say that in the Air Force that when a jet crashes, everyone gets airborne. So get airborne.

Life is a battlefield. There are no straight lines. Only steep curves.

From experience I tell you that time is the best balm for healing. When the going gets tough, the tuff gets going.

I was barely five when my Baba died. I just have some vague images. My mother proved to be more of a man. I recall her happiness when we were expecting our first child. She began stitching baby clothes. Then just four months before Danielle was born she passed away. I thought that was the end of life.

My boss cut short my leave because of pressing requirements. My wife stayed back in Lahore while I moved to Quetta. I cursed him. He overloaded me with work. But in the final analysis, his attitude helped me get out of the trauma and live in living memory. So take the inhuman words of masadi and not so inhuman BJ, who I feel meant well as a blessing back to the world of the living.

Danielle was born in Lahore while I was in Quetta. As time moves, I find so many things in Danielle that relate to my mother; her enterprise, dedication, zeal and dexterity to name a few.

This is what living memory is about.

'Cheerios, in my jargon means to move on.

I read both the accused's interacts with interest. Masadi did condole with sincerity but also admired the late father's judgment over YLH as regards ZAB.

BJK's post was more fatalistic I think but didn't appear callous to me. I think he criticised the ritualistic social occasion of condolence offering where everyone who never bothered about the deceased during his/her lifetime but shows up upon the 'soyem' and men talk politics while women talk about 'rishtas' for their children before rice and curry is served, and then everyone disappears till the next such occasion.

I think the judgment on the two offenders may be a bit hasty and harsh before examining their posts closely. They meant well in the spirit of their posts.

Re: # 37

Yaar BJ,

Can you see the contradiction in your post? condemning YLH for posting his eulogy and then sharing your thoughts about his father? Comeon BJ what was the real reason for this knee jerk reaction? This does not gel with the BJ we know.

Thanks Ranjit.

YLH, please ignore idiots like BJ and masadi. They cannot even respect someone's loss of a parent. Please take care.

Also my father loved Pakistan and instilled that in me. He was very proud of his community's great contribution to the Pakistan Movement and I have tried to reflect that in my articles and will continue to cause heart burn to inhuman bigots like BJKumar and Masadi.

Most Pakistanis watch Indian cinema.. it is probably their favorite past time. It doesn't mean that they want to be one country. It just shows that most Pakistanis (and I am sure Indians) are mature enough to separate politics from entertainment and art... something that people like BJKumar are too small and petty to realize.

Re:bjkumar#37

BJ,

Your post was one of the most insensitive and disgusting posts that I have ever seen on chowk. Generally people attack each other based on religion or even personal matters. But I have never seen anyone make fun of someone's loss of a parent. The poor guy has just buried his dad. Cant you at least respect that you idiot?

Kaal is absolutely right about you getting drunk before logging into chowk every now and then. An uncivilized bihari will always remain an uncivilized bihari, even after getting an education and coming the US. Shame on you!!

bjkumar, masadi,

Both your responses and lack of humanity stands on its own.

If there is God... may he help you overcome your mental conditions.

BJChamar wat time is the lock-down in ur mental-institution....must be on pacific time

Yasser, what the heck is this stuff?! What the heck is going on here?!!

Jesus Christ, I step away for one day – ONE lousy day, and when I return – here you are crying on every shoulder you can find – and this is no more the chowk site I know – it has become a regular matam-khaana!

All these folks – although well-meaning folks, they all coming in – some from woodworks, offering their two lines of ghissa-peeta words of condolence about a person they hardly knew, and then vacating the dais – their part over!

Is this a roll-call of some sort?! Jesus Christ!

I need to be careful leaving this place unattended! Before one knows it – in the twinkling of an eye – it can transform itself into a paagal-khana!

Theek hai, your dad was a great insaan!

Theek hai – he was a gem of a person!

Theek hai – he was a self-made individual who, from all accounts, was a highly inspiring gentle soul who raised himself by the bootstraps! (If I did not know he was Pakistani – I could have mistaken him for an Amrikkan!)

Theek hai – he was a great man, not that that ought to make a difference to you – since he was your dad – and that simple fact ought to be enough to feel the loss!

I understand all of that.

Yet, all those things – if one were to look at this tragedy the right way, would be reasons to celebrate! Not to mourn – but to celebrate!

Hey, as far as “jaana uss paar” is concerned – everybody would need to do that eventually. The guy did all the positive things, he lived a good life and he lived a clean life, he did not hurt people and – when the time came, he returned whence he had come – whence we all come – without suffering too much!

What else is there to be asked for?!

So what is there to be sorry for? For yourself?!

Do the following!

Just celebrate his life – and be thankful you were a part of it!

* * *
Also…

I agree that your dad had good taste in what filmy heroines ought to look like!

Madhubala, Nargis, Nimi, Hema Malini…

Theek hai, a bit older – but nothing to sneeze at in the looks department!

Yet, may I ask why ALL the filmy heroines that your dad liked were Indians?! What happened to the Pakistani actresses? Not good-looking enough?!! HaaaN?!!

That is the one problem with some of these folks born before independence – they never got used to the idea of thinking the two countries as separate from each other! He probably thought of India as his second home, too!

* * *

Not to forget…

Let me offer you an alternate scenario on one of the issues you brought up here – which nobody on this site – being the likely numbskulls that they all are – could ever guess in laakh janams!

Let me explain to you why your dad – may the good Lord provide rest to his soul – liked the Shahanshah Akbar so much in Mughal-e-Azam!

Some might think that was because that Akbar guy was a noble ruler – because he was a role model of fairness – somebody who put duty above personal gratification – somebody who was a remarkable person, not the least of whose virtues was a tolerance for those who were different from his own kind – a ruler who, above all – valued insaaniyat!

Some might think so.

To that I say: “Balderdash!”

That was not the REAL reason your dad liked the fillum and the Akbar!

The real reason was as follows.

Your dad watched that Mughal-e-azam movie with great interest, especially the part where the great Akbar whips the ass of his son in a one-on-one – then your dad most probably exclaimed happily:

“What a great man! I wish I had done that to that Yasser!”

Re: # 35 I felt sad reading loss of your father and your friend and mentor.
My deep condolences
Ahmed Madani

I am sorry for your loss. May your father be at peace, and may you and your family be at peace.

Let me first put aside our major differences (and my detestation of MAJ and your shallow intellect regarding ZAB) and offer my condolences on the loss of your father. For those of us who have suffered similar loss, our empathy is real. I lost my father when I was 20.

The High Priest of the Church of MAJ writes " In what were to be his last days, he was perturbed by what he viewed as Benazir Bhutto’s betrayal of her father’s ideals. Ironically this is precisely what has attracted me to the PPP, i.e. BB’s willingness to undo her father’s wrongs."

Your father was right on the mark while your comments on the BB reflect your enslavement to the colonizers in the tradition of the MAJ.