This week has been very depressing for me because my teacher
from NUCES-FAST, Professor Arif Khattak, has become a schizophrenia patient. He
has given his daughter access to his facebook account, announcing he is leaving
us. The disease is so severe that it even kills hope in the friends and
relatives of the patient. Professor Arif remained associated with science
institutions but he was man of social sciences. His anecdotes in lectures were
the reason I quit FAST and did social sciences (BA and LLB). He would go out of
the way to guide his students. I once wanted to know about Parsi writer Bapsi
Sidhwa. Sir Arif wrote an email to none but Ardeshir Cowasjee, asking him to
guide this scribe. I feel sorry for Sir Arif’s wife and daughter Sana Arif. And
I feel really bad to have written about him in past sentence. I even tried to
meet him after 12 years, but he was going to his hometown. My Bad.
The second depressing news is that one more friend (Jon
Haider) has opted to leave Pakistan and settle in Amsterdam. He has just
planned to two-year stay there but ultimately he will not return. Not a month
passes when a friend updates his facebook status or location. I don’t expect
this brain drain of more than 60 years to stop in my life. May be my
grandchildren will get to see the grand children of my facebook friends who left Pakistan.
I fear more depressing Saturday evenings.
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