Some wise words by George Orwell.

"In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

"War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength."


"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.


"The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history."


"Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." 


"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them."


"The best books... are those that tell you what you know already."


"Big Brother is Watching You." 


"But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." 


"Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know what no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me."

"All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting."

Posing Humility - Earning Cheap Spirituality (by Samima)

It’s a trend these days of ‘Posing Humility’ in ones social circle. The extent to which beautiful the concept of humbleness is in its original unadulterated form, such masquerading makes it unbearably treacherous. This show offing of piety starts with a lie and ends in an even bigger lie. Its dodging one self, ones society and betraying God. It’s the same as people act religious these days coz this might earn them respect in the social circle. Such  ‘pose down to earth attitude’ sect of people, act according to situation while meeting a high material status person.  These shallow personalities exist all around us, we just need to have an eye for such opportunistic actors.  
by: Samima shah

Islamic History (600-750 A.D) by Shaban - A review

Islamic history- A new interpretation by M.A. Shaban as the name says is giving a relatively different historical perspective. The details of even the smallest events provided  is quite impressive. This read clearly shows that Political and Economic factors were inevitable and were given due importance by our then leaders in early years of Islam's dispersal. I came to know many leaders other than Khulf e Rashideen whose works are undermined by Historians like Amir Muawiya and Marwan Alhakam. The never knew terms like Ridda warriers, Muqatila, Khawarij, etc. were explained in the book. On the whole a good book to read.
by: Samima Shah

The Seasonals (by Samima)

We all have experienced seasons, read and heard about the Noun all the time from the Weather guy to poets. But today I feel like discussing its Adjective form the Seasonals, no I’m not talking about seasonal fruits n veggies, yes they do effect out lives considerably, but my Seasonals are the moving ones showing their  talents quite explicitly all the time.

Seasonal Chefs: impressed by Zubaida apa, Chef Zakir etc etc , are mostly women, proving their passion for cookery by clinging to cooking channels 9 to 5 some times even after it . Though some do excel while other will try another recipe. You should be careful here as your stomach is their testing ground. An advice: be nice and careful with such seasonals.

Seasonal Readers/ Writers: as the name explains a lot these people start to show others during discussions or  via fb status that they have a reading/ writing habit since long. Even their fellows and parents can’t give you any idea how all this developed out of thin air (without any warning to the rest of us). Afterwards they prove to be from the very early age readers of some Big authors whose names were alien to them 2 yrs back. We come to now after every couple of days that they have finished a 300 – 500 page book  in mere hours and  in weeks they review half a dozen of books (via fb status again).  Now they think they can write and afterwards one can actually experience  how jumping and somersaulting can be done in writing. The incoherence and stupidity I won’t dare to discuss, as its already getting pretty personal.

Seasonal Philosophers: These seasonal  are most dangerous of all , as they directly affect u , your ears and your brain. They start by sharing some poetry or philosophical quote. Don’t bother to use quotation mark, leave alone any reference, as they themselves are the philosophers now, real deep thinkers, so why to give presumably a dead person any credit (I just drowned).  They must have heard the lines “every person is a philosopher” so why not try the easy way, be like some philosopher, think like him, even write like him (which of course means copy him all the way). You call them copy cats to copy cows or even copy donkeys, they don’t care, perhaps they also heard the lines  ‘every great man’s  genius wasn’t acknowledged by people of his times’.

  

Father and Daughter - A short film