Not even funny now...

Yes, this isn't funny... it never was in the first place.

Everytime I say, 'I'll be back in a week' or 'I'll do so and so in two days', something always goes wrong, even though I make a point of punctuating almost each word with 'InshAllah' (if Allah wills).

"And say not of anything: Lo! I shall do that tomorrow, except if Allah wills." (Surah Kahf 18:23-24)

All I can say in my defense is that things really did go beyond my control.

• First, I came back to Karachi to discover the monitor, which had been making cracking sounds before we left, was now in a worse state. It emitted three loud, hair-raising cracks before failing to function altogether. By the time I was able to borrow one from my Mamoo (Uncle), we discovered the CPU wasn't working either. It took almost a month to get this contraption up and running again. InshAllah, it'll work okay now... though there's a problem with drive F.
• A few days after we returned from Tabuk, it rained heavily in Karachi, with thunder and lightning (which are rare here), and in two hours, water was standing upto four feet in our area, and adjoining parts, of the city! We watched from the balcony as water rose in our building's parking about ankle deep. The famous Three Swords round-about and all roads are around it were inundated for the next three to four days as water slowly receded and the footpaths became visible again! The problem was due to the recent construction of an underpass in the locality and laying of small drain pipes during the work. The storm water drains, almost non-existent or clogged with trash, failed to function and as such water accumulated in our area. Needless to say, the electrcity disappeared too for about 30 hours in our building itself, with just a single one hour break.

These days again, there's some power outage occassionally. The silly thing is that all this happens in Karachi mostly. Other cities of Pakistan rarely complain of such weird things as long powere outages in this day and age. However, Karachi inherits a hoard of problems from every out-going government and despite contributing a whopping 60% to the economy, it gets very little back in terms of services and attention. Fellow Pakistanis in the northern parts, for example in Islamabad and Lahore, are suprised when we talk of power cuts and water shortages!

One can only pray that the problems in this city are cleaned up for good. These days, the city government is digging in a posh locality, Bath Island, visible from my balcony. They're uncovering a large drain canal that crosses the locality, to clean it up and lay proper drain pipes. They say next year, "Karachites will enjoy the rains!" My response to that: InshAllah!

• I'm also studying for my final exams - the 'Proffs' - that commence in December. They do seem far away but with a load of Anatomy (the upper and lower limbs, and the thorax region), Physiology and Biochemistry to master... that's a short time, especially with Ramadan just around the corner. I've loved every bit of M.B.B.S. so far, and I hope I always will, inshAllah but the exam time is indeed testing.

And guess what? We've got to attempt BCQs... that's Best Choice Quesions... instead of the MCQs that normal, sane human beings attempt all around the world. It means that I'll have five options, A through E, all correct! The trick is to pick up the most suitable answer. Imagine that! We got a taste of BCQs in our Biochemistry second stage test paper... and it was a cute little nightmare in itself. Check this our for example...

Q. Cats...

A. Are quadrupeds

B. Are Carnivorous

C. Have slit-like eyes and can see in the dark

D. Have sharp hearing

E. Make 'meow' sounds

Choose the best answer. What is the best answer? Wouldn't it depend on the examiner on what he thought was best?!

So, to sum it up, that is what's been going on for the past month. During this time, I'm also trying to prepare for Ramadan in some way and strenthen my Iman. I'm also trying desperately to not be angry or irritated, especially with my mother, when something unpleasant happens. InshAllah, it'll be okay. The new channel, Peace TV, that I've been watching has really helped... some good character-building and Iman strengthening programs broadcasted by the Islamic Research Foundation owned channel.

Several interesting new debates and programmes on the channel by famous Muslims such as Bilal Philips, Abdur-Raheem Green, Ahmed Deedat, Yasir Fazaga, Dr Zakir Naik, Dr Israr Ahmed and Suhail Baghdadi are broadcasted throughout the day, making for good, quality TV. The only alternative before this channel was QTV, which, I'm sad to say, failed to supply authentic programmes in accordance with the spirit of Islam but rather turned out to be promoting a special kind (not that I say there could be a different kind) of Islam, with their own interpretations instead of sticking to the pure Deen.

Got to go for now. InshAllah, the blog should be back on track now. It feels great to blog, to be able to write down what one observes, and I've got a lot of statements to make here. Upcoming topics...

- Taking the Public bus in Pakistan... a unique experience!

- Innovations in the Deen: Khatams... being invited, forced to attend and sit in one!

- What to do when Da'wah/Islah fail to reform?

Assalam-o-alaikum wa rehmatullahi wa barakatohu!