2005 and the New Year

It has been more than a week since I last wrote anything. I did not mean to do it at all but it happened. For two days after my last post, the cold had me in its shivery snare. Rivulets of tears copiously streamed out of my eyes, ample enough to make any Star Plus soap proud. Reason number two was my cousin’s (and one of my best friend) absolutely startling arrival from England. Everybody did know that she was coming one of these days but thought she might be arriving near Eid or something. So I did have to do a lot of meeting and visiting and all of that. Not everyday but on Sunday but that’s the main day I can do a bit of writing. Reason number three: another cousin of mine celebrated her 16th birthday on New Year’s Eve. She turned 16. The fourth reason …J…: My father had a lot of office work this week … sometimes he lets me do some of his googling or rather when he himself is not willing to do it (Not complaining. I love it. Only thing I can complain about is that he doesn’t let me do it enough). And finally the last reason which isn’t really a reason especially characteristic of this week … my study of course has to be squeezed in to somewhere J ). I wasn’t even going to write today (had to study) but then I thought I had let too many events go by without any sort of comment at all: Christmas, Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s birthday (though somewhere I read it is at the moment disputed), Tsunami’s anniversary. I could not therefore bear to let the first week of this New Year and the now gone 2005 to fade away without a mention some kind. Two Thousand and Five: Painful. Too painful. A year of natural disasters: of earthquakes and hurricanes (I cannot believe it was the wrath of God as we hear a million times from the people around us … not to say of course that the collective humanity has done much to make God proud.).A year of more bomb blasts (Amman
,Bali,Quetta), suicide bombings, rail crashings and derailings (one in India, one in Japan). So much misery. How can we even begin to comprehend it? It is beyond what our minds are capable of digesting. How can such colossal amounts of pain even exist without turning this world upside down? Why does it go on, silently peacefully, revolving the way it has been doing for billions of years, when so much wretchedness exists within it? I hate, completely hate the callousness of every one. Hate my own callousness. I am writing this with the realization of the queer disease of forgetfulness we are stricken with (I shudder to think that it might not soon compare with Orwellian public forgetfulness) Let a few days or weeks pass. I am going to forget or at least these deaths will not feature in the top 5 of my daily thoughts. My own trivial desires and disappointments will push their way up. And so much else. We have plenty of distractions, we peoples of the 21st century. Too many. Who will then mourn those who have gone? All those nameless, faceless people, a part of those statistics featuring the number of dead of 2005. A mother weaving rich dreams for her child might have been in the rubble of Kashmir. A teenager perhaps was bombed out of existence in London, on 7th July, his abundant future plans, his visions, his achievements along with him. These are just two people. Try giving names to those 80,000 dead in Kashmir, some 1400 during Katrina, hundreds in Iraq, in London, in Amman and others. Try to imagine them in some setting, with their friends, their relatives, those they loved and you can not go on. Wait … I have an idea. Let us give our few moments, a single minute to them. Put your hands away from your mouse or keyboard. Close your eyes. Think about them, each of them around the world, in this single silent moment. And pray. For the peace of the souls who have gone. For the peace of those they have left behind. May God give them solace and courage enough to bear their distress. And pray that this new year of 2006 isn’t going to bring the distress, is not going to repeat the pattern of hardship we have seen.

There were important deaths too.Those of note-able people. Pope John Paul II’s, Rafik Hariri. May God rest them in peace too.

Meanwhile the people of the earthquake zone had rain and snow greeting them on their New Year Eve.

Now on a lighter note: The Half-Blood Prince was of course released this year to the frenzy of everyone. Lived up to my expectations (unlike some people). Goblet of Fire is still my favourite though. The absolute thrill and the excitement have not yet been matched in the later of JK’s books. And then there was the movie. I would not have liked it all if you had shown it to me a year ago. But now, to my surprise, I did like it, all of it minus the Dumbledore. The reason … I have begun to see the movies as quite separate from the books … and have kind of let go of my expectations to see it match the book exactly. I know it never will. The directors have to include their own fancies and their own trying-to-appeal-to-everyone (as they say). So it wasn’t much of a disappointment as Prisoner of Azkaban. Though I still cannot fathom the haircuts. They looked absolutely horrid. At least to me. Especially Ron’s.

And to my absolute shock … I am still reeling from it … they are showing King Kong in Pakistan. Released on 30th December. They say its thanks to this new company Cinepax that a Pakistani duo from America
has formed: to bring quality cinema to Pakistan. I will remain eternally grateful to them. Finally someone who cares. I couldn’t see LOTR in cinema, couldn’t see Revenge of the Sith. And now at least I can see King Kong. All I have to do now is to convince my dad to take me. I assure you it’s a stupendous task. I hope they start showing the others too.

I have to go now.

A Happy New Year to everyone!