More depressing news

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.

Two of my most innocent friends

I am really impressed by the innocene and naivety of two of my friends. They were so ridiculously naive that whenever I tell people about their innocent remarks, people get cramps in their bellies due to laughing.
Sheikh was my class fellow and roommate in Islamabad’s National University of Computer Sciences (NUCES). One day I was watching a documentary about the development of child in the womb. Sheikh asked me some questions about human reproduction and I answered them. Seeing Sheikh’s curiosity in the subject, I asked him, “Do you know how unborn baby gets feed while in the mother’s womb?”
Sheikh gave an answer which I can never forget. He said, the would-be mother inserts the nipple of a feeding bottle in her belly button and baby sucks the milk from inside the womb. Sheikh was 20 years old then.
Akhtar and I shared an apartment in Lahore. He was doing his MBA. He was a soft spoken and sensitive person. We never saw him angry or yelling at anyone. He had an effeminate personality. He would blush like a girl whenever we used to discuss girls or anything girly;).
Akhtar didn’t know two things. He had not seen the zoo during his whole life and he did’nt know female anatomy. He remained our apartment’s butt of all dirty jokes during his stay in Lahore.