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Awarded We Stand

This is in response to your article regarding the iifa Awards. Personally, I think the awards are a sham altogether. But there is also the aspect of the local awards. For instance, just recently, there was a big star gathering in Pakistan pertaining to Pakistani music awards. It created a lot of hype and the result was as good as the hype itself. You guys should write about these interesting awards and occasions. They are a good source of analytical information as well as fun read. Or call it infotainment? That is what seems to be the requirement of the day. But whatever the case or name, the thing is that, such awards that are based locally and are from amongst us are worth mentioning in publications. These are expected to show up in publications but sometimes don’t. Anyway, they are a ‘cool’ thing to have in a magazine. I also checked out your new look and it was not disappointing in the least. Still, I hope you guys would make it even more engrossing. The astrology was quite informative though.

Saima Ashraf
Islamabad

Haughty Selves

Last week I went to a local hotel to have lunch with a colleague. There were other guests already waiting for the three of us. I drove straight to the hotel’s parking and I got a shock when I learned that the parking lot had been, for the day, closed down by the police as there were some foreigners arriving at the hotel. I do understand that security measures demand strange measures that least of all, normal civilians; the policemen don’t even fully comprehend. After our car was completely searched and checked then why was there a need for the policemen to prohibit the car from parking in the lot designated for the same? And if no cars were allowed at all then what were two civilian cars doing parked in the standing lot? Our security is something that is not completely understandable. The ones who make it don’t understand it, rather, they break it. The ones who are subjected to it meet ill mannered policemen or security officials. If at all measures have to be taken for such security then at least the policemen including their Assistant Sub Inspectors and the likes be taught to talk to other humans with due respect. Just because the IG or some big shot orders the subordinates, the subordinates think they have in fact become the IG themselves. We and our haughty selves.

Naveed Akbar
Karachi
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EXCELSIOR

The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!

His brow was sad; his eye beneath,
Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,
And like a silver clarion rung
The accents of that unknown tongue,
Excelsior!

In happy homes he saw the light
Of household fires gleam warm and bright;
Above, the spectral glaciers shone,
And from his lips escaped a groan,
Excelsior!

"Try not the Pass!" the old man said:
"Dark lowers the tempest overhead,
The roaring torrent is deep and wide!
And loud that clarion voice replied,
Excelsior!

"Oh stay," the maiden said, "and rest
Thy weary head upon this breast!"
A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
But still he answered, with a sigh,
Excelsior!

"Beware the pine-tree's withered branch!
Beware the awful avalanche!"
This was the peasant's last Good-night,
A voice replied, far up the height,
Excelsior!

At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monks of Saint Bernard
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,
A voice cried through the startled air,
Excelsior!

A traveller, by the faithful hound,
Half-buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!

There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell, like a falling star,
Excelsior!

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow