I started blogging here in December 2009. This was always supposed to be my private space where I would vent, and think aloud, and try to make sense of things. This was also supposed to be my writing gym. I was never a regular but I kept writing on and off. 2009 seems like a different epoch. It seems so distant. I was so different. I had just finished my university. I was trying to figure out what to make of my life- what to do with it. Civil Service looked like an obvious answer. In 2025 today, with 12 years into the service, what was an obvious answer has turned into a vexing question. Grateful for many good things along the way, nonetheless. Loving family and amazing children. Meanwhile, I have kept writing. Not here so regularly. But I have been journaling on and off. I also started another blog and wrote a few entries related to my experiences in the civil service. My current job has kept me really busy. I have been meeting one deadline after another and havnt had the leisure to write aimlessly, something I used to do in these pages and something I have always cherished so much. So- on this rare lazy Saturday morning - I chose to rediscover the enchantment of aimless writing. And to check in on my writing abilities, to ascertain the extent of atrophy in the age of AI assistance. But I think I am doing fine which is also because I have kept up my reading. Perhaps not as much or as frequently as I would have liked, but just enough to not be totally lost. So, while I may have changed since 2009 and the pragmatic concerns of adulting have taken over, I do feel, and hope, that the basic essence of that idealistic spark still reside somewhere in the heart, and in the eyes.
The Simple Saga
Saturday, July 12, 2025
Monday, November 20, 2023
Friday, May 6, 2022
Smart Phones are changing us
I had disappeared from these pages because my job in field as Assistant Commissioner kept me really busy. I had continued voicing my inner demons in my personal diary which I kept writing whenever the noise inside my head was too loud. These days, though, I am on Eid break and don't have much to do so during my routine walk in the evening, I thought back to this space. I recalled how it was almost a decade ago that I had started writing here. Since then of course the digital landscape has 'metamorphosed' or 'metastasized' (take your pick) into something else. My page was a personal cathartic space which is also why I had never advertised it and most of my entries were personal and not some pontification or analysis on social, political issues.
Today, I have returned to my page after a long time. Now when I think about it, I guess this is so because I wanted a 'digital' escape from the social media frenzy. Smart technology is doing something to us and we don't realise it. Somebody needs to work on this. This is truly a momentous event in the history of mankind. These smartphones in our hands which moonlight as high-power cameras have truly been habit-forming inventions and how they are changing human behaviours is something we need a thorough study on. My hunch is that this smart little device has far reaching implications and I am not just talking about the usual overused buzzwords such as 'Communication Revolution' or 'Information Age'. I am not even talking about the contradiction of 'loneliness & depression' in the increasingly wired world which is a very serious implication in itself. I think I am referring to something even deeper. It is doing something to human behaviour at a profound level. It is changing our concept of time. It is certainly changing our conception of knowledge. It is changing who we are and what we become. I don't want this to come off as apocalyptic because I don't really know for sure what all it implies. But again, my hunch is that all is not well and we need rigorous scientific studies and research papers on this. I am sure they exist to some extent somewhere. I haven't been able to find them as yet. Be that as it may, we need to take notice of what is happening to us and study this phenomenon in a rigorous scientific manner.
Friday, June 1, 2018
Initial impressions in the field
P.S. Some housing societies here in Gujranwala do not pay tax/duty on internal transfers of property. When the administration presses them, ironically that's when our sub-registrars get their transfer orders. Thank you !
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Back to blogging ?
P.S. Did I mention that these District Utships tend to be quite a lonely experience even if you are not in a distant district and even if you are not alone.
Thursday, November 13, 2014
To 'THE SILVER LINING' 2014
PIONEERING 'THE SILVER LINING'
Sunday, September 7, 2014
It begins to shed...
Enchantment of aimless writing..
I started blogging here in December 2009. This was always supposed to be my private space where I would vent, and think aloud, and try to ma...
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I had disappeared from these pages because my job in field as Assistant Commissioner kept me really busy. I had continued voicing my inner d...
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I started blogging here in December 2009. This was always supposed to be my private space where I would vent, and think aloud, and try to ma...
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PIONEERING 'THE SILVER LINING' “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. ...