Kithay Mihr Ali Kithay Teri Sanaa’: A Masterpiece of Punjabi Poetry Naqsh - AA/Hi. Hope you have been doing great. Thank you for the good work. Prior to this write-up, I always had a difficult time gauging the context of this poem. Once you understand the context, then the magic begins :)

Shukrun.

An Hour at Datta Darbar Bushra - Hi. Glad to read that your visit was free of any hassles. I have read and heard that even in the House of God, there are people who are busy in stealing chappals/shoes of the worshippers. The prevalent practices are not surprising at all. These shrines are supposed to serve as sanctuaries, but are devoid of the required and needed sanctity. There is too much shor sharaa'ba. Thanks for sharing a personal account. Probably the excessive usage of loud speakers should be made to jolt the conscience of the pickpockets and thieves vs. alerting the visitors:)

Fall Pretty :)

A Letter To President Musharraf Re: # 236

"strain on the eyes"

You need better glasses :)

A Letter To President Musharraf Re: # 236

"strain on the eyes"

You need better glasses :)

A Letter To President Musharraf Chowk Admin - Nice layout for threaded conversations! Font looks fine. Sweet!

What Lies Beneath: Dispatch from the Frontlines of the Burqa Brigades Fawzia - Thank you for the tour of Lal Masjid.

A Letter To President Musharraf Re: # 204

Karzai's action was kind, but he is a lunatic par excellence when it comes to his senseless and ridiculous random statements.

A Letter To President Musharraf Pardon for child `suicide bomber`

Afghan President Karzai pardons 14-year-old would-be suicide bomber

Boy was caught wearing a suicide vest intended to blow up a provincial governor

Boy had been sent by father to a madrassa to learn the Koran
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KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- A 14-year-old would-be suicide bomber from Pakistan, caught while on a mission to blow up an Afghan provincial governor, was pardoned on Sunday by President Hamid Karzai.


Afghanistan`s president, Hamid Karzai, pardoned 14-year-old Rafiqullah in a ceremony on Sunday in Kabul.

Taliban insurgents and their al Qaeda allies have launched a wave of suicide attacks against Afghan, NATO and U.S.-led forces in the last two years, seeking to show the government and its Western allies are incapable of providing security.

Most of the victims are Afghan civilians.

The first whiskers of a moustache on his top lip, Rafiqullah stood to one side of the Afghan president, his father, with a full beard, stood to the other, at a ceremony in the capital on Sunday.

Rafiqullah`s father, a poor tradesman from South Waziristan in Pakistan, had sent his son to a religious school, or madrassa, to learn the Koran. Later, when he asked where his son was, the teachers there brushed him off, he said.

Then last month, the 14-year-old was caught wearing a suicide vest on a motorbike in the eastern Afghan city of Khost.

``Today we are facing a hard fact, that is a Muslim child was sent to madrassa to learn Islamic subjects, but the enemies of Afghanistan misled him towards suicide and prepared him to die and kill,`` Karzai told reporters, his arm on the boy`s shoulder.

The boy and father bowed their heads as Karzai spoke.

``His family thought their child was learning Islamic studies. That is not his fault, nor his father`s, the enemies of Islam wanted him to destroy his life and those of other Muslims. I pardon him and wish him a good life,`` the president said.

``You are now free and forgiven by the people of Afghanistan,`` he said turning to the boy and smiling.

Walking to the gates of the presidential palace with his father, Rafiqullah said: ``I am very happy that I am pardoned and released.``

Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of harboring Taliban and al Qaeda militants and trying to destabilize its neighbor, a charge the Islamabad government denies.

Kabul officials say many of the suicide bombers and Taliban fighters are recruited from impressionable youths in Pakistan`s madrassas and sent across the border to kill.

Asked if he had a message for Pakistan, Karzai said: ``I have a message, it is a message of peace, forgiveness, a message pleading for better relationships, not cheating the children and encouraging them into terrorism and suicide.`` E-mail to a friend

Preventing More Lal Masjids Re: # 79

Saleem - I am doing perfectly fine by the grace of God. Thank you for asking. Your sense of humor is getting refined and crisp with the passage of time. In my humble opinion, you owe a special thanks to Chowk for introducing you to some interesting characters who provoke you to write ``some`` beautiful posts.

Just wanted to let you know that :)

Preventing More Lal Masjids Re: # 74

:)

Meeting Poet Ahmad Faraz Re: # 16

James - Indeed, an appropriate time to remember the Pakistani Afwaaj!!!

:)

Newspapers all over the world carried the sad news on the recent fiasco in Islamabad where the jan`baaz faujis had to do what they should have done 3-6 months ago!!! Glad that the faujis took the action.

I hope the poem has good things to say :)

Meeting Poet Ahmad Faraz Indeed,

Yeh Alaa`m Shau`q Kaa Dekhaa` Naa` Jayae`

:)

Bad Vibes Re: # 11

Sweetie - Since you have started hanging out with the religious extremists, you have been confusing ``career`` for ``carrier``. Something to look into :)

Bad Vibes Dear Ahmad ``the story teller`` -

Thank you for sharing a very sweet, interesting and engrossing account of your life.

The details made me revisit the days when my brother and cousins used to be naughty and were subjected to ``the`` special treatment at Aitchison and Burn Hall. They are all grown-ups now. No matter how wild or crazy young boys may be, they should NEVER EVER be subjected to brutal treatment. That`s inhuman and really wrong. I guess it`s part of the culture -- ``spare the rod and spoil the child`` :)

Your well written account certainly left the reader with a ``good`` vibe about the writer :)

All the best!

Just a Woman Aisha - Thank you for sharing your experience. I believe that there is no right or wrong how a woman responds to these types of incidents. And only the person IN THE situation is the best judge of the kind of response she needs to give. One person may like to take the hooligans to task. The other person may completely ignore the nasty fellows. None of the readers can provide any suggestion in that regard.

On a different note: I am a little unclear on the following:

[The Colonel said that it is hard for these guys to differentiate between the “type” of women they see. Some women hold men’s hand in the parking lot. What he meant to say was, this was a simple case of miscalculation. ]

Was this Colonel in his senses when he uttered the above? This sounds real silly.