Pakistan Students Forum

Students sensitized about nature conservation!

2012-10-04T16:11:00.000+05:00

To promote the awareness about environment and nature conservation amongst the school children, Dawood Public School organized a workshop about Conservation Photography for the A Level and secondary section today. The workshop was conducted by known nature photographer Ghulam Rasool, who has been associated with WWF for 8 years.

Ghulam Rasool gave the students a presentation consisting of almost 40 slides, showing photographs he had taken himself to promote the nature conservation in Pakistan. The variations of topography from snow-covered mountains in the north, to the green plains and plateaus, sandy deserts and the beaches and oceans were shown to the students to sensitize them about nature conservation.

Through this interactive workshop girl students were made to realize how natural resources are deteriorating not only by industrial activities, but how we are polluting and harming the environment through our daily life actions.

The workshop taught the students how to help in the efforts of WWF to conserve nature and our natural resources. Students were taught how photography can be used as an effective means of capturing the treasures that exist on our lands such as trees, plants and animals and how students can join in the efforts to conserve many of our treasured areas.

Students of Dawood Public School undergo different set of environmental activities enabling them to change their mindset to a caring, eco friendly and a responsible citizen. Different awareness Programs are held to foster sense of individual responsibility and accountability in future generation of Pakistan towards nature conservation.

The objective of such sessions is to give students regular insight into the eco dynamics and the overall environmental challenges faced at global and regional level and to broaden students’ scope as a responsible custodian of valuable natural resources.

Sana Lasani Magazine (My Style)

2011-06-12T22:06:00.003+05:00

http://issuu.com/sanalasani1/docs/new_one

tooba's magazine

2011-06-10T21:24:00.006+05:00

http://issuu.com/tooba.shah/docs/www.toobashah.com

maleeha's magazine

2011-06-10T20:26:00.000+05:00

http://issuu.com/www.miscellany.com/docs/maliha_s_magazine

Magazine

2011-06-10T00:11:00.000+05:00

http://issuu.com/urooj_khan/docs/womenza

2011-06-08T23:47:00.000+05:00

http://issuu.com/washal.khan/docs/my_magazine_final3

Magazine 'TeenScene'

2011-06-08T01:18:00.000+05:00

http://issuu.com/mavia/docs/teenscene

CHANGE OF FONT SIZE

2011-01-24T14:41:00.003+05:00

It is to remind every one that, it's already written that NO CHANGE OF FONT SIZE OR SHAPE ALLOWED.

and i have seen that the participants are not following the rules. Kindly make sure that no one disobeys the rules.

TAKE CARE AND HAVE A NICE DAY.

Collage-

2011-01-23T15:47:00.000+05:00

Interfaith Among Muslims and Hindus Part 3

2011-01-23T01:31:00.003+05:00

The experience of visiting a temple was marvelous, I shared my videos, pictures and the knowledge with my family and friends. Before going there, I researched a lot about them especially about their caste system. I was told that they have only four castes which are

• Brahman
• Khatri
• Veish
• Shudra

Brahmans  highly literate people
Khatri  warriors
Veish  farmers and have agricultural background
Shudra  minor workers
But the priest told me that they have another caste below shudra too and that is Pachium which are also known as Achooth. The ones who are not touchable. The higher class ties a bell across their neck so that it can be easier for them to identify them. Shudra’s are also known as engineer. The way an engineer whether mechanical, electrical or technical fixes the work/ problem at home, same way shudra’s are known as the care takers.
The history which he told was interested and I tried to write it as quick as possible but I wasn’t getting the words. The pronunciation was different from the writings. For example: the word Shiva is pronounced as SH-V unlike SHI-VA.
So there were loads of words which were spelt differently and written differently. He further told us that there are 4 basic rules of Hindu religion.

• Not to steal
• No use of drugs
• Away from other gender (not to touch)
• No mass taking (no meat)

By following such rules one can become a pundit.
I asked him the use of their sacred cow and he replied that in their religion, slaughtering is not allowed. They are not supposed to kill any living being that’s why they prefer plants. He further told us that we are not suppose to take onion or garlic too because though they are good for the heart and low down the cholesterol level but is also an element which increases anger. To in order to reduce anger, one should not opt for onion and garlic.
I didn’t understand one thing, he explained that in our religion we are not suppose to slaughter any living being, fine agreed but what about chicken??, they have it without slaughtering?? What about killing Muslims? What about the brutal acts with Kashmiris??
These are the questions whose answers are still pending and I guess will be for the future.

Interfaith Among Muslims and Hindus Part 2

2011-01-23T01:17:00.009+05:00

As Dalai Lama says

All religions are essentially the same in their goal of developing a good human heart so that we may become better human beings.

It is known to us that whenever the word Hindu comes in our minds, we develop hatred without think about anything. Think that they are always in a mood to harm us in every way. The same set of mind goes for Hindus too. They think and are trained to think that Muslims are terrorists, whenever a terror act takes place, they point out towards us. As we are the master mind.

By working on such a project was very much hard to control on my feelings for them *Hindus because I have never been to any temple before. Never thought that after meetings them they will change my thinking point for them. We know that they are wild like animals but we don’t know that among them there are few who are generous, kind-hearted, amicable and tolerable. I really don’t want to pay a visit to one of their temple which is situated in Lines areas (Sadder, Karachi) because of their brutal acts towards Muslims.

Before going there, I asked my co-worker Urooj to go there and have a look at the place, whether it’s worth going there or not. By my word “worth” meant the surrounding, environment instead of the people. We know that minorities living in any country are not given their whole sole right and freedom to perform their religious tasks and to promote their culture openly; that’s why we wanted to know that the place we were visiting is situated in aright place or not.

Hindus are always seen as the fiercest people in the world. Before my visit to their holy place, I thought the same way too. My friend visited with her mother and told me that we are suppose to go there in FULL dress/ covered dress. By her this words, she meant that the crowd isn’t up to the mark and above all her mother didn’t allow us to go there alone so we planned to take her too.

It was Thursday, 30th 2010, that we planned to go there. I got to the given spot with my father, waited for Urooj for 10 minutes to join me. After 10 minutes she was there with her mother and then we moved to our destination. When she told me to cover our self, I wondered why she said so because the day we moved to that specific area, I saw a number of people (young, old, adults and kids) enjoying their moments. We entered their area which was a narrow passage and was difficult for us to cross. The dirty water, litter all over was making me feel worse. The crowd was too bad, people there were gazing us as if we were murderers and were there for the judgment. There were boys who were giggling and were whispering + acting weird in order to attract our attention, I tried not to pay heed to their activities and prayed that Allah make our passage clear.

That place was not all in all for Hindus but Christian community was there too. They were basically celebrating the birthday of Jesus. After a walk of hardly 10 minutes we came in front of the temple but waited for 5 minutes for the pundit to come and open the gate of temple for us. Though Hindus are attractive, so I thought that may be the person I will be meeting would be handsome too but to my expectations he was just like us *sighed.

He, whole heartedly greeted us ‘Namastay’ which was really touchy. He opened the gate for us and guided us towards the main area. We stepped the steps, took off our shoes and walked inside. The floor was too cold for me to stand for long, but tried and managed for the sake of our task.

I was too excited to see the Mortees, when I saw them, I was bit surprised owing to the reason that they were different from the ones which are shown on television. There was a gong hung at the entrance. I asked the pundit the use of gong to which he relied that we hit it in order to tell our Lords our presence in the temple. He then asked me to hit it too. Before doing so, I was bit nervous because it wasn’t that easy like to ring a door bell. I thought of some consequences that what if I hit it and it fell down? What if I couldn’t make up and will be embarrassing? Though I was nervous but he encouraged me with a smile and made me do it and hence I did it =). It was a great experience doing it because I have never done it before to tell Lord that I’m present to offer prayers. In Islam we say ‘ALLAH HO AKBAR’ whereas they hit the gong. For us saying it is something important and for them hitting gong is obligatory.

After that he asked one of his assistant for assistance. He asked him for a cloth/ chataee for us and asked him for refreshment. He told us the vast history of Hinduism which was interesting and made my view broader. There were certain things which weren’t clear to me but his vast knowledge made them clear.

A long discussion of around 4 hours, we asked him to explain the history of the placed statues. I liked the history of Lord Ganesh the most. After the exercise of 4 to 5 hours, he asked us to meet his family and have lunch with them. It was so kind of him and that was the point which started changing my views towards them. Every one is not like one another. There are good people and bad. Good people like pundit and bad people like the ones who has developed hatred for Muslims.

We went to see another temple which was situated at the top of his house. That was a small one which was greeted by a lord and a lady. He showed us the thaali for pooja. The elements which are require performing pooja. We saw shunk too, and asked him to blow for us. He did it and told us that it is difficult to blow shunk as it requires loads of energy. It is only blown at the time of prayer. He showed us Shiva ling which is a kind of blessing for the women who are without off springs. He told us the process that they pour milk in it and the women are suppose to drink it through this and prays to have a baby.

His wife was a beautiful lady, she gave us her sindoor which she said that is holy to us and should be kept safe. It is the fact that any one who tastes it or even smells it may become handicap. There was a Tulsi plant too. No one is suppose to touch it or even cross it without taking bath or else it will burn.

We thanked them for their precious time and thanked pundit for his knowledge which was helpful.

The visit changed me as a person towards Hindus because before I used to believe that they are wild animals but now, not all of them there are some who are really humans and spread peace.

Hinduism- expanding knowledge in new dimension

2011-01-22T21:39:00.008+05:00

Good judgment comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgment. ~Rita Mae Brown

It was the new task for us to conduct detailed research work on Hinduism. Maliha, Tooba and Washal were there in my group and we all wanted to finish our project before 'finals'. We talked to one of our teachers who was Hindu, to get us permission to visit any Temple where we could meet Pundit and talk to him and take snaps also. Our teacher Santosh Kumar asked us to wait for few days so that he could take permission from Temple's management about our visit. As clicking pictures and recording video is strictly prohibited inside Temple. After few days he broke the news that he couldn't get in touch with any of the member in management, we didnt feel appropriate to delay our visit further so we went to the Temple which is situated inside Bin Qasim Park, we got to know that we could visit it after 6:00 pm so all four of us went there with my mom and brother as we couldnt go alone at this time.

As we reached the park we asked a guard to tell us the Temple, he directed us towards the gate. We saw dome of the temple from a distance of few feet, we moved forward. But soon we were stopped by guards, they told us that we cannot get inside as these are not visiting hours for people of other faiths (we were recognized as Muslims because Tuba was wearing Hijab which is not worn by Hindus). We tried to explain him the purpose of visiting the Temple and tried to convince us to let us get in but he didnt listen at all. Then I called Santosh Kumar and asked him to talk to the guard and take permission for us, eventually guard got convinced and he asked us to move in. We all stepped forward but suddenly one of the guards stopped my brother and asked him to stay outside, this was very surprising, we asked him the reason for retaining him but he never gave us the answer so we went inside leaving brother waiting for us outside. There was a long staircase leading to the basement, we followed it and soon we reached. We saw there was a vast area where few statues were placed in show cases decorated with different ornaments. We carefully watched them and moved ahead, there was a woman sitting with different items for sale behind a stall. We went to her and bought some pictures of Hindu Gods and Mata’a Chunri.

Then there were further stairs which were leading to the further depth of the Temple, we followed them and soon we reached a place where many statues of different gods were placed on the left and right hand sides in show cases. We moved ahead with the stairs and finally we reached the place where most of the Murtis were placed, we walked through the aisle and watched each of them carefully. There were statues of Ram-Seeta, Laxmi-Narayn, Hanumaan, Ganpati, Shiv, Kaali, Krishna, Durga etc

There were many worshippers who were praying individually with folded hands in front of different Gods. We stayed there for some time then went back.

We couldn’t click any pictures because the guards had already warned us not to take pictures.

Our first attempt to talk to any religious leader and click pictures was failed. Now after few days we decided to go to another temple which is situated at Natives Jetty Bridge named Laxmi Narayn Mandir. We went in Tooba’s car, this time we were without support of any elder or male. After searching for a long time we finally reached the Temple.

There we met an old man who was sitting with few ladies on a bench outside the Temple. At first he refused to even talk to us as he saw Tooba in hijab from distance, so he signaled us not to move ahead and leave.

But we talked to the guard and showed him our University letter, the guard talked to that old man in private for sometime and eventually that man allowed us to go inside. I and Tooba went inside, Maliha and Washal were talking to that old man who was explaining them why he stopped us. As I entered the Temple I saw a vast rectangular area, at front side there were stairs which were leading to water, the left hand side there was a dark room and there was another locked room on the right hand side. That old man asked us to go to the dark room which was on left. I couldn’t see what is in that room so I entered the room abruptly with Tooba coming after me. Suddenly I heard someone shouting: ‘Stoppppp!!!!! Stopppp right here!!!’ when I turned back I saw few girls and that old man yelling at my friend and me. He was asking us to take off slippers and scolding us that how could we even enter such holy place with slippers on. The reason we did that was we couldn’t see what that dark room was, that man directed us to get there without even telling us what that place is. And it was so dark there that we couldn’t see anything.

We took off the slippers and got inside. There we saw different statues and pictures of Hindu Gods. Few people were praying with folded hands. We clicked some snaps and that man asked us to get out of the room so that he could show us the other room. Maliha nad Washal followed him and I and Tooba stayed there and continued taking snaps.

After sometime we followed them. They were sitting on the bench with the room on right. We joined them, we asked him to tell us about the religion but that person said if he stared telling us history of the religion it would take hours, so he asked us to come after sunset and stay till late, this statement of that old man made us feel awkward when he felt that he further stated: ‘You can trust a Hindu more than a Muslim because we are more trustworthy’. Now this statement was very offensive, we ignored him and asked him about the treatment done with them as a minority group in Pakistan.

It seemed as if that question ignited him, he said they are treated harshly over here and discriminated in every field of life, when we asked him about any example he got silent and failed to answer. That meant he was saying everything without any valid reasons. So we didn’t further the discussion and asked him whether we could take the pictures of the other room.

Maliha and Tooba got busy in capturing pictures and I still wanted to gain more information about the religion so I and Washal turned back to the old man and asked him a question and he started to talk about discrimination again and this time his tone was high and he was very hyper. we got scared, I stepped back and Washal joined Maliha and Tooba. I don’t understand what happened to that man he started shouting on us

Old man: ‘Why are you not listening to me? You guys are ignoring me, I am really mad at you guys now this could be dangerous too. Leave this place now! Else I will kick you out of here. Proceeed!!!’

We were all in awestruck condition. I tried to explain him that we were not ignoring him we were just doing our work. But he didn’t listen a word and pushed us out of the Temple.

All of it happened so suddenly that we couldn’t even understand what actually bothered him. With heavy hearts we left the place.

We headed towards another Temple which was located after 20minutes drive. When we reached there we were already very cautious because of our past experiences. There also were stopped by the guard and when we told them about our project they allowed us to go inside. This temple was comparatively larger than the other temples. There were residential apartments of Hindus inside, many vendors were sitting with the stalls and at the front side there was the praying place. We got there and asked a man over there that we wanted to meet any religious leader, he asked us to wait. Till then we captured pictures and after waiting for some time an old man appeared. He asked us to follow him. He took us upstairs and sat on bench and there our discussion about the religion started which lasted for around two hours.

After getting the desired information we said him good bye but we were stopped by another person who was calling himself coordinator of the Temple. We discussed some questions with him and then we moved out and bought Sindur from the vendors outside and left.

Journey to Hindu Temples. Part 3

2011-01-22T19:19:00.011+05:00

One should be given a second chance but we were trying our luck for the third time. On the very same day we all made our way to lighthouse. We weren’t aware of the routes so we had to face trouble since our much of the time was wasted while roving around in search of the Temple. Tension was mounting because we all were well aware of that Sadar is overcrowded and congested. The situation of traffic was pathetic, it was jam-packed and once we were trapped there then it’s not easy to get out. Adding up, it was almost dusk therefore we got to pace up fast. By asking many people on our way we finally reached somewhere near the temple. Since the traffic was jam-packed due to one way we asked the driver to park somewhere from we could get out this place easily. We all decided to take a little walk and look for the Temple.

We were standing in front of the city court, took few more steps and asked a man passing by about the Temple. He pointed the Temple which was exactly in front of us across the road. We crossed the road and entered inside the gate of the Temple that led us to a huge space which seemed like a colony where on the left side of us were some old apartments and at right side there were few vendors. This time we didn’t have to face problem while entering being a Muslim because there the Temple situated was in the centre of the town where Muslims and Hindus both are found.

We entered in the premises of Temple and found that on the left side of us was the main house for praying at a little height. I saw there were peacocks roaming around which fascinated me. On the right side was a huge open area where many Posters of Hindu Gods were placed on the wall and children were playing there. The children were probably the one who lived inside that colony. A man asked us the reason for being there so we explained everything about our interfaith awareness project. He then asked us to wait there and gone to call the ‘pujari ji’ or pundit. We waited near a huge old tree where numerous colorful threads and pieces of cloths were tied on. We took some pictures there until the pundit came who led us towards the main worship place. We climbed up the stairs of the Temple following the pundit who then sat on the bench at our left side and was prepared to tell us about his religion.

When Mavia turned on her recorder, it came to us so unexpectedly that the old pundit asked us for money if we wanted to record his voice. For a minute we were awestruck and looking at each other faces skeptically but then we decided to drop the idea of recording and start making notes. The pundit was so eager to tell us about his religion that he started from the history about their first God who made the world and told us so comprehensively that it seemed that was never going to end. It was even hard to understand him because he was speaking in Hindi but he tried to put in plain words us as he knew quite a bit of Urdu.

He told us about history of all the Gods. Then we asked him about the concept of marriage about for which he told us that they believe on ‘janam kundli’ that is they match the name, date of birth, etc. of the man and woman to be married. If they matched then there is no chance of getting separate. He compared this with Muslims that the reason behind divorces among Muslims was that they don’t match ‘janam kundli’. However, we told him that we take out ‘estakhara’ for that which means to see if the certain decision is going to be in favor of a certain person or not.

He ended up at it was the time of their pooja and it was getting late for us too so we decided to leave. As we were about to leave a person stopped up our way and claimed that he was the general sectary of the Temple and we could any of his help if needed further. His name was Hari Ram Das, who told us that it was God house and everyone was permissible to pay visit there. With his permission we took more pictures there and then we stayed a little more for getting more knowledge from him. Meanwhile we noticed that there was small 'Gurdwara' for Sikhs where they worship.

The man told us about the concept of ‘saat janam’ that is seven births. He told us that one’s soul has to go through many phases for several years to take a new birth. And this was if the person goes in ‘swarg’ that is heaven and if he wishes to go back to world then for the fulfillment of his wish he is send to earth again and that is called the next birth. He told us about the concept of not eating meat is that they worship cow. But there was a time when there was famine and people were dying since there wasn’t any production of crop due to no rainfall. So they were allowed to eat meat of like goat, chicken and fish except for cow.

We told the man about the incident that happened with us in previous Temple and asked him if he too got the same complains like that old man. He said that they all are living contentedly in Pakistan, they are free to worship as they wish, he thought that their rights had been fulfilling by our government and he even the people around had no as such issues with Muslims. He assumed that the old man might be from the one who were leading miserable life and that was the case with every poor person living in Pakistan Muslim, Hindu or Christian. He then gave us his number if we would need any further help and farewell us good-bye.

We then left the Temple and approached the vendors from where we buy ‘sindur’ that was available in different colors of red. Sindur is a kind of red powder that a groom put in brides hair or by filling the fraction of ones hair a woman is denoted as married. We also saw ‘mangal sutr’ which is a necklace made up of black beads. It is too for the married women who wear to signify their status as married which is very sacred to them. After that we left for our homes as we were very tired and it had been dark.

I concluded that there are good and bad people in every religion, in every region and culture. It is only that what one comes across with. This project wasn’t a good experience like of Christianity but still we can always make quite a room for our perceptions if we want. It is all about understanding and mutual consensus of each other, if we want to maintain harmony in the world we need to read between the lines the things.

The expedition of interfaith awareness continuous...

2011-01-22T19:03:00.003+05:00

The year 2010 had gigantic influence on me, many vivid changes had occurred in my life. I tried to become better human with positive and polite approach towards other; when someone had misbehaved with me I focused on remaining calm and I was surprised when I saw others favoring me in that dispute. The journey doesn’t stop here; I also focused on being a better Muslim.
When semester 4th started I befitted pretty excited as I was about to finish two years of my degree. The courses which were offered had more concern with the practical work like reports and assignments; there was one of the courses named ‘Culture of Media Production’ which made me to question myself that what we will be studying in this course.
Soon my self-raised question got answered when I read out the teacher’s name as Azfar Rizvi in the list. Mr. Rizvi has always got something very exciting and unique to teach. He is a Favorite plus loathing teacher of mine, favorite as his teachings has made me a far better person than I was and broaden my thoughts in every feature of life, and dislike because he is very strict when it comes to submissions and gives many assignments. Well apart from these two factors he has been one my favorite teacher throughout my academic life.
In the very first class of Culture of Media Production, he announced that we have to make two reports based on the religions Christianity and Hinduism which will be included as our examination part. He wanted to create interfaith awareness among Islam, Christianity and Hinduism. He clarified initially that all the data would be from primary sources, evidence of visits should be given by pictures in which we had to be present. I already mentioned that Mr. Rizvi has every time got something innovative to impart, so here he has once more verified my insight about him as truth by giving this project.
Exploring Christianity and its core beliefs was very foreign experience for all of my class mates. We were divided in two groups; my group was with my batch mates Maliha, Mavia and Washal.
All three of them have never come to know any Christian personally neither visited any church but my case was little unalike because I had already visited church once in my childhood when I used to study in St. Mary’s Convent School in Hyderabad and I had a very close Christian friend in my childhood named Jessica, I only remember one thing about her that she used to have golden hairs and a very fair complexion.
Moving away from oldie goldie (past) memories, lets continue from when we were given assignment and told about the dead line which was before our midterm exams, all four of us tied the buckles of our shoes and started to visit the city in research of the Church. Meanwhile, Maliha got to know about a church located in the area of Clifton, Karachi, which ultimately became our final destination after paying many visits for getting permissions. The early visits were little trying but once we got permission to enter the church it was finally a pleasing and delightful experience for us.
We interacted some of very well educated and well organized personals of the Christianity community including Father Robby Delima, who is no doubt a prestigious Christian leader.
They served us in every possible manner they could and we also had been in continuous follow up with them for better Muslim Christian relations.
Exploring Christianity, changed my way of perceiving life, I became more interested in meeting other people from different religions for healthier ties of Muslims with other people around the world.
After the completion of Christianity report we prepared ourselves to begin working on a polytheistic religion i.e. Hinduism. It appeared an easy project compare to the Christianity exploration because I had one Hindu friend and my father knows many Hindus because we belong to a village with huge number of Hindu population. But when we started we realized how tough it was, we had handled many difficulties which we didn’t face in our previous assignment of Christianity.
One by one condition were going in contradiction of us, first we were out of transport but luckily it was organized, but the problems look like to be started in an unbroken fashion. We somehow managed to find out a temple at natives jetty but the authoritarian personnel of the temple was not favorable to us and didn’t cooperate with us to tell about Hinduism and its primary beliefs.
He was more concerned in talking about that minorities are not given rights in Pakistan when we asked him to specify any in justice made to him or anyone else by the Government, he failed to provide any significant information, this caused us to loosen our interest in his talking.
While he was blaming the Government and other people Washal turned over to take pictures of the temple while Mavia was trying to bring him on the focus point which was to find out the beliefs of the religion, the man got offended with turning of Washal and took it as his insult, though we apologized him and tried to settle down the situation but the man got outraged and didn’t even want to talk to us and asked us to leave.
After such a traumatic incident, we were very miserable and worried about our project, time was running and more work was getting pending. We somehow managed to visit another temple on the same day in Sadder, Karachi. We were surprised to see a huge society around the temple of Hindus, we asked a person who passed by us about a Pundit, he told us to wait and after several minutes we saw a man coming towards us with a Tillak (red mark on forehead), we assumed him as a Pundit which was proven correct.
He asked us about the reason of meeting him, we told him about our interfaith project, the pundit was looked to have only religious education because to made him understand about our project was a huge task. When he finally understood our idea, he asked us to sit and waited for our questions, he didn’t allowed us to take pictures of Murtis inside the temple and even he wanted us to pay him if we wish to record his voice. After listening that we droped the idea of recording and noted whatever he delivered to us, we came to know that Hinduism is totally a different religion than Islam and Christianity, their beliefs are vast far from our believes though we found some similarities in Christianity and Islam but we couldn’t relate Hinduism with any of these religions. Hinduism, so far I have understood is very complex religion with many gods and goddess. They believe in the worship of animals and stones even trees which was an alien thing to us.
While concluding the sitting, Pundit told us about the Burial system in the respective religion which is to burn the dead for the sake of purity, they also believe in the rebirth of the human.
In the end of our session, while going back we came across a person who was the society leader/representative. By having a little conversation with him we got to know his perceptions about the country and Muslims which was far different from the man who met us at the natives jetty temple. The leader was very broad minded and loved Pakistan; he said that he has passed his life in the country without any injustice. He appreciated our efforts and offered us to visit at any time. With that note we completed our visit to a temple.
Understanding the other faiths and building a dialogue among the people can make the situation of the world improved. Religion is the very sensitive and noteworthy topic in one’s life. All the religions are not similar but have their own diversity, we should respect others religions so that we can seek respect in return. Such awareness activities would provide us space for constructing enhanced relations with other people from different faiths. I want to thank my teacher for giving me a chance to understand the two major religions of the world, I at my own end feel that I have become a human with healthy thoughts about others, this activity has expanded my vision of observing the world as a total community.

Interfaith Among Muslims and Hindus Part 1

2011-01-22T16:55:00.006+05:00

The following link is the collection of our memories which we took on thursday, 30th 2010.
Little information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBlIVXfoebE

Journey to Hindu Temples. Part 2

2011-01-22T15:46:00.008+05:00

We poor girls now took the next step with no guidance to another Temple named ‘Lakshmi Narayn Mandir’ which was situated on natives’ jetty. The idea of going to natives’ jetty made us reluctant to go especially alone when there is no one to guide us the route for the Temple. That day fortunately tuba arranged the car and driver that was quite an enough help to boost our morale to go next Temple.

It was 30^th December, Thursday when we had only one class so we planned to collect our letter head for permission to get inside the Temple and take pictures. But our planned of leaving earlier was hindered by Sir Azfar as he informed us he would be taking an extra class with us. We collected our letter head for recommendation and waited for Sir Azfar but he didn’t show up due to some problem and he was unreachable as well when we tried to contact him. After waiting an hour or so we finally left for the Temple.

When we reached Bahria Complex, Washal called her father for asking the route that would take us to Temple. After wandering several times on the natives’ jetty bridge near the Temple we asked someone who told us that it was situated under the bridge of natives’ jetty and we had to take a long route to reach it. As we were near the Temple I had a bizarre feeling about it because the location in itself was strange, plus it was almost the end of town near port where big ships and container were anchored. And the site of the water and smell made me feel quite afraid as I already got some fears when I see the water of the sea. Meanwhile Washal showed us the food street that was under construction there. She told us that her father told her if you see this food street from the map or from a height you would observe that it is in shape of a big ship. I somehow tried to imagine that distracted my fears for a moment but I was back to reality when we approached a barrier where a guard asked us that where we want to go. We told him about our project and showed him our ID cards and get inside to park the car.

As we stepped outside the car, there was stagnant and smelly water on the left side of me and on the right side there was an office while Temple was in front of us. A guard was also there on the gate of that office who asked us the same reason for being there for which we explained him everything. He told us that we could go further, when we proceed near the Temple a man who was sitting on a wooden bed made up of jute waved his hand across from a distance to stop us from going further. His reaction was because he recognized that we were Muslims as Tuba the symbol was an indicator. We turned back and told that guard that he wasn’t allowing us to enter for which he asked us to follow him.

There was an old huge tree on the entrance of the Temple where many colorful threads were tied. When we move forward the man was sitting idle and couple of women who were cutting vegetables. There were few children who were playing around running after hens. The guard explained him about our project and showed our letter head to him due to which the old man allowed us to proceed with our work. We took slightly left turn where temple was actually there near water of natives’ jetty. We all were moving slowly and cautiously as we were afraid of violating any rule about which we weren’t aware of.

Mavia was the first one who initiated to enter inside the Temple. But as it was dark inside she couldn’t see it was the actual place where they do there ‘pooja’ so she entered with here sandals wearing on. Suddenly, a woman was shouting from our back, ‘take out your sandals, take out your sandals’! I stopped Mavia immediately and turned back when the old man approached us and was quite angry on us. He said; “do you not take your shoes out while entering into your mosques as it is a sanctify place to give respect where you worship?” I told him yes we do but we didn’t know this was actually where you do your worship and plus it was dark there so she wasn’t able to see properly. He said; ‘If you want to go in there you have to obey some rules.” I said him that we didn’t have any problem to obey your rules it’s just that we need guidance and that was the reason I asked him earlier to guide us. I tried to calm down the person and requested him again to guide us and give us the information as we were there to gain some knowledge about there religion. He seemed quite satisfied from my conversation and led us inside the Mandir. We all took out our shoes and step inside a room which was very old. We saw there

were two to three Gods were placed. He told us that the first was ‘Om’, that is they begin their worship with the name of ‘Om’. Then there was ‘Shiri Sattey Narayn and Shiri Lakshmi Mata ’ and then next to it was the picture of ‘Baba Ji’. We asked him that we saw in Indian dramas that everyone have there own God to whom they like to worship or have faith upon. For which he replied that no it’s nothing like that they believe and worship every God of them. Then we asked him if could met the pundit for which he told us that in an hour or so there would be pooja for which people would gather so we could attend that and collect that information.

That old man had some hearing problem due to which he was unable to hear us properly. He let us take some pictures and led us out towards water. Washal and I followed him outside while Mavia and Tuba still busy in taking more pictures. Now the opposite of this room was another room with their Gods. I thought he was taking us there while Washal was afraid that he isn’t taking us there but near water and stopped me to follow him. Mavia noticed our confused state and she came along with us while the man turned around and asked us if anything wrong, we shook our head and followed him. To our relief he finally sat on the stoned bench attached with the wall near by and asked us to sit with him.

He started his conversation by lot of complains that he didn’t like Pakistan and didn’t want to live here anymore. If he would get chance to leave it for India then he wouldn’t miss it. When we asked him to tell us about his religion, he said that it would take hours even couple of days to tell us about his religion. Then he gave us time for Sunday morning to visit there so he would provide us with information and let us meet pundit as well for which we agreed. When we asked him that the timings of their pooja that day, he told us that it would be in evening and we could stay there until then. We told him that we couldn’t stay longer as it would be dark and we live quite a far from there. He answered us that there is no problem and that we are like his daughters. He said that we should trust him and we should believe a Hindu person than Muslim for which we just nodded him. Then he again started to complain that Muslims do nothing for them, they are not given their rights, and government too didn’t provide any facilities in their favor.

The old man was of 62 years old and due to his hearing problem it became hard for us to explain what actually we want. We then asked him that if could take pictures of that another room which basically a ‘Mandir’. He allowed us to take pictures from outside but didn’t let us enter there for what reason we don’t know yet. There was something written on the entrance of that small room in hindi which we couldn’t understand so we asked him to translate it. He asked us if we know hindi or gujrati for which we replied no. that person was basically a gujrati. He then told us that the person who made this Temple and date was written over there. Mavia asked him more information about it so he told that he left Pakistan because he wasn’t treated well here.

Meanwhile Tuba was already busy in taking pictures, Mavia was recording his voice. So Washal and I thought to take some pictures from our cameras as well as we hadn’t taken any picture yet. This made the old man angry he suddenly became annoyed that we weren’t giving him any importance. The old man got outraged on us and said that we had made him angry, we were there just for our mean, and we didn’t give any importance to him. He said that people always go there for there personal motives and after getting there work done they forgot them and didn’t value them at all. Mavia tried to handle the situation by telling him that we were there to bring their problems on public and that we would even try to give this in newspaper but the old man was so ferocious on us that he asked us to leave at once from there and never come back, that he wouldn’t help us, all Muslims are same. He was outburst and insulted us so much that his hatred for Muslims was coming out through his words.

When we saw there is no point on arguing and staying there, when we were already kicked out from there so made our way to the car with our hearts sank that now what will we do at accomplish our project. Tuba and Washal left every hope and were very mad on him while Mavia was like now what? What would we do? How we would manage everything now? I then asked Mavia that we would try again in another Mandir we just need to know the locations. When we were going towards our car we saw a woman who apparently was Hindu, was sitting on the main entrance of Temple from whom we asked if she knew any other Temple near by. She told us about ‘Swami Narayn Mandir’ near lighthouse in front of city court. We thanked her and she passed a smile and welcomed us. It seemed that the old man had really got issues with Muslims because the other woman was pleased to help us.

This was the worst experienced that made us feel so reluctant to proceed for our work but we ought to do something so half heartedly we continued our search for another Temple.

Journey to Hindu Temples. Part 1

2011-01-22T01:35:00.001+05:00

The violent nature of India-Pakistan partition 1947, created an ambiance of mutual hostility and skepticism among Muslims and Hindus relationship which last till date. Violence that was caused by the extremist groups from both of the sides was so fierce, so brutal that it took million of innocent lives. About 12.5 million of people had been displaced from former British Indian Empire; Muslims and Hindus who were living on the wrong side of newly drawn borders had fled to their homes.
Differences in religions had become the main reason that divided the subcontinent and led the creation of Pakistan on 14 August 1947 and India on 15 August 1947. Pakistan being the country for the Muslims was created on ideological bases where Muslims could freely practice their religion according to their will that is directed by Islam. However, Pakistan’s flag which is in green and white color reflects that green part is for the majority that is Muslims and white part is for the minorities that are Christians and Hindus. This is simply obvious that where Muslims can live according to their desire there minorities’ rights would also be protected.
To find out this and for the sake of awareness my group mates and I were now given a second task after ‘Christianity’ that was ‘Hindusim’. This was the second part of our project ‘Interfaith awareness and understanding project’ given by our teacher Azfar Rizvi of course ‘culture of Media production’.
The term ‘Hindu’ was originally a secular term which was used to describe all inhabitants living in the subcontinent that is Hindustan, regardless of their religions. The word Hindu is derived from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, was the historic local title for the people who lived near Indus River. The word Hindu was further popularized by the Arabic term al-Hind referring to the land of the people who live across river Indus. By the 13th century, Hindustan emerged as an alternative name of India, meaning the "land of Hindu”. The term Hinduism was introduced into the English language in the 19th century to denote the religious, philosophical, and cultural traditions native to India. Hinduism is formed of diverse traditions and has no single founder. Hinduism is often called the "oldest living major tradition".

BY gathering the above information about Hinduism, my friends Mavia, Washal, Tuba and I were now on a journey to explore entirely different religion that doesn’t have any similarities with Islam. I already had an instinct that this was somehow going to be quite a complicated task than Christianity. How earlier we wanted this project to be done that much obstacles were there in our way to this project that delayed our work. There were various variables that seemed working against us like we tried hard to get into temples through our Hindu teacher Santosh Kumar. We asked his help to guide us for which he tried to get us contacted with the controller of the temple which was situated in Bin Qasim Park, but somehow we weren’t able to reach the controller. I asked assistance from my uncle who got a Hindu friend. His friend agreed to guide us but he was only available on Monday which was pretty difficult for us as we weren’t free due to our long sessions of classes. On the other hand Muharram and its rituals were on peak due to which our family was afraid to send us somewhere far till 10 Muharram, just in case of any mishap happen. Moreover, we weren’t mobile as well this time as Tuba who always contributes in that case was not having the car. When the time was running out, we finally decided to convince Mavia’s mother and brother who would take us to pay at least a visit in Bin Qasim Park’s Temple.
It was late December evening when we all gathered at Mavia’s place for visiting the temple. But as I said this time the situations were worst with us, the moment we all sat in the car along with Mavia’ s mother; her brother exploded us with the news that car isn’t working! Oh God! We were all like exasperate by this news that we wanted to kick the car or hit our heads on the wall but of course we couldn’t. We were calling out names on the verge of our lungs to take out our aggravation even that we ultimately end up laughing as if we had gone totally mad! Anyways, we gathered some patience and waited till the car was fixed up.
We finally reached the temple while already made up our mind for another hurdle that we would be facing was because of Tuba who wore hijab and gave the signal that we were Muslims. The guard stopped us on the gate and didn’t let us go in like previously happened in case of Church. We then called our teacher Santosh Kumar who became an angel for us as we were allowed to enter inside the temple due to his source. I still couldn’t figure out that why the guard had stopped mavia’s brother outside the temple as there were already many gents inside it but rather he let us enter in along with Tuba and Mavia’s mother. He asked us to take out our shoes and submit to a person who gave us a token for let us take our shoes back when we would be returning on giving back that token.
We all were walking in clutter and moved down the stairs that were leading us into the basement. After taking many steps down, we could see a wider space where a huge Murti of a female Goddess was placed on the left side in a glass on blue carpet. While in front of us was a murti where a woman was standing and praying with both hands clasped. The man who was guiding us didn’t allow us to take pictures or shoot any video. And at that time there wasn’t any pundit available who could give us some information. So we carried on with our visit by moving forward to vendor who was selling different things like rakhi, chunri, lockets and stickers with pictures of their Gods. We bought few things from there that might help out for the presentation of our report and moved further where a man was sitting and separating the pulses from rice. Then we found out that this wasn’t it but there was more to explore. As we moved further, there were more stairs that were leading us in the depth of the Temple. When we took more steps down we saw there were many different Murtis placed in the glass showcase on the either side of us in a line. I observed that they were tagged by their names written in urdu ‘Ram Seeta, Shivli, Ganesh ji, etc.’ People were looking at us in curiosity that what Muslims were doing in temple and similarly we were looking at them in curiosity whatever they were doing there.
A man continuously followed us as he had doubts that we might take pictures. When we moved forward we saw small baby cot where one of their baby God was placed. Mavia’s mother asked out of curiosity on which a young boy answered that that was their baby God Ganesh ji who was sleeping. Then we saw a God named Shivli which had other faces as well. On asking they told us that they milk them and in night their God comes and have the milk. This was something which was completely new to us.
Then there was no point of staying any further there because there wasn’t any proper person who could guide us so we left the Temple by thanking the guard and returning back their token to collect our shoes.
When I got back home my family was very curious to know about things. They asked me how I felt being there for which I couldn’t answer properly due to my ambiguity that we weren’t able to collect much information and being there was entirely something so new that it made me felt like I had been inside the television where we watch Indian dramas.

Journey to Temples. Part 1

2011-01-22T01:18:00.001+05:00

Differences in religions had become the main reason that divided the subcontinent and led the creation of Pakistan on 14 August 1947 and India on 15 August 1947. Pakistan being the country for the Muslims was created on ideological bases where Muslims could freely practice their religion according to their will that is directed by Islam. However, Pakistan’s flag which is in green and white color reflects that green part is for the majority that is Muslims and white part is for the minorities that are Christians and Hindus. This is simply obvious that where Muslims can live according to their desire there minorities’ rights would also be protected.

To find out this and for the sake of awareness my group mates and I were now given a second task after ‘Christianity’ that was ‘Hindusim’. This was the second part of our project ‘Interfaith awareness and understanding project’ given by our teacher Azfar Rizvi of course ‘culture of Media production’.

The term ‘Hindu’ was originally a secular term which was used to describe all inhabitants living in the subcontinent that is Hindustan, regardless of their religions. The word Hindu is derived from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, was the historic local title for the people who lived near Indus River. The word Hindu was further popularized by the Arabic term al-Hind referring to the land of the people who live across river Indus. By the 13th century, Hindustan emerged as an alternative name of India, meaning the "land of Hindu”. The term Hinduism was introduced into the English language in the 19th century to denote the religious, philosophical, and cultural traditions native to India. Hinduism is formed of diverse traditions and has no single founder. Hinduism is often called the "oldest living major tradition".

It was late December evening when we all gathered at Mavia’s place for visiting the temple. But as I said this time the situations were worst with us, the moment we all sat in the car along with Mavia’ s mother; her brother exploded us with the news that car isn’t working! Oh God! We were all like exasperate by this news that we wanted to kick the car or hit our heads on the wall but of course we couldn’t. We were calling out names on the verge of our lungs to take out our aggravation even that we ultimately end up laughing as if we had gone totally mad! Anyways, we gathered some patience and waited till the car was fixed up.

We finally reached the temple while already made up our mind for another hurdle that we would be facing was because of Tuba who wore hijab and gave the signal that we were Muslims. The guard stopped us on the gate and didn’t let us go in like previously happened in case of Church. We then called our teacher Santosh Kumar who became an angel for us as we were allowed to enter inside the temple due to his source. I still couldn’t figure out that why the guard had stopped mavia’s brother outside the temple as there were already many gents inside it but rather he let us enter in along with Tuba and Mavia’s mother. He asked us to take out our shoes and submit to a person who gave us a token for let us take our shoes back when we would be returning on giving back that token.

We all were walking in clutter and moved down the stairs that were leading us into the basement. After taking many steps down, we could see a wider space where a huge Murti of a female Goddess was placed on the left side in a glass on blue carpet. While in front of us was a murti where a woman was standing and praying with both hands clasped. The man who was guiding us didn’t allow us to take pictures or shoot any video. And at that time there wasn’t any pundit available who could give us some information. So we carried on with our visit by moving forward to vendor who was selling different things like rakhi, chunri, lockets and stickers with pictures of their Gods. We bought few things from there that might help out for the presentation of our report and moved further where a man was sitting and separating the pulses from rice. Then we found out that this wasn’t it but there was more to explore. As we moved further, there were more stairs that were leading us in the depth of the Temple. When we took more steps down we saw there were many different Murtis placed in the glass showcase on the either side of us in a line. I observed that they were tagged by their names written in urdu ‘Ram Seeta, Shivli, Ganesh ji, etc.’ People were looking at us in curiosity that what Muslims were doing in temple and similarly we were looking at them in curiosity whatever they were doing there.

A man continuously followed us as he had doubts that we might take pictures. When we moved forward we saw small baby cot where one of their baby God was placed. Mavia’s mother asked out of curiosity on which a young boy answered that that was their baby God Ganesh ji who was sleeping. Then we saw a God named Shivli which had other faces as well. On asking they told us that they milk them and in night their God comes and have the milk. This was something which was completely new to us.

Then there was no point of staying any further there because there wasn’t any proper person who could guide us so we left the Temple by thanking the guard and returning back their token to collect our shoes.

When I got back home my family was very curious to know about things. They asked me how I felt being there for which I couldn’t answer properly due to my ambiguity that we weren’t able to collect much information and being there was entirely something so new that it made me felt like I had been inside the television where we watch Indian dramas.

A visit to Hindu Temple Part 2

2011-01-21T19:48:00.007+05:00

The incident of our first visit to mandir made me upset and after that I couldn’t understand what we can do to complete our project. As we had to visit any of the mandir’s on that day, so it was difficult to find any of it. Tooba and I was extremely saddened, while Maliha and Mavia were still trying to hold the situation, when we got out of the place we saw a woman sitting on a bench having tea, both my fellows went to her I stayed back and asked her whether she knew any other Temple nearby. Luckily, that lady was helpful; she told us that there is another Temple in Sadar, known as Swami Narayan Temple. She then explained the location, though we all couldn’t understand it but it was enough for us.
We all were unaware of the exact location so we asked many people around and then at last after half an hour we reached there. The name of that temple was Swami Narayan Temple. Towards the inside, we saw a huge area where there were apartments on the left hand, Mandir was at the front and on the left hand side there were stalls of many vendors. We stepped forward and moved inside the Mandir. We saw a room where people were praying with scarves tied on their heads, the scarves remind me of Sikhs and I was thinking right, it was their praying area which is called Gurdwara. On the right hand side stairs were leading upward, towards the Mandir. We asked a guy who was standing near the staircase about Pundit, the guy asked us to wait and so we did.
After some time the pundit came and ask us about our concerns, we give them the whole information about our project and asked him to spare some time for us, he agreed.
The man took us upstairs and sat on the bench which was located on the left hand. He asked us to sit, when Mavia asked him permission about recording his voice, his answer surprised us, he was asking for the money to get his voice recorded. We starred at each other faces questioningly and after mutual consensus we dropped the idea of recording his voice and took out papers and pens to write. we all were shocked after listening to his demands. we asked him about the basic concepts of Hinduism for which he answered very extensively and provided us the whole information about each and every thing we asked for.
It had almost got dark and we had to get back home early. We all were starving and were extremely tired. While leaving the Mandir we were clogged by a man who claimed that he was a general secretary of that Mandir. We asked him if we could take pictures while standing inside the Mandir for which he replied that, this is a sacred place and house of God, everyone is allowed to pay visits; so indirectly he allowed us to take pictures.
That man was very pleased to tell us about their religion. He gave us his number and told his name, Hari Ram Das. He invited us to visit them again and after that we left.
Outside the temple there was a vendor who was selling different things which attracted us and we turned our way towards that vendor. I got excited and was trying to see all of the things that were displayed. I saw a necklace known as mangal sutar which the groom ties around the neck of the brides at the time of marriage to show the bond between the couple, at the same time the keeper showed us, Sindoor. It made us more thrilled and we bought it as to present it in our report and then soon we left.

A journey of Knowledge

2011-01-11T23:58:00.002+05:00

Exploring Hinduism……………Step towards Interfaith Awareness and Understanding

2011-01-09T20:25:00.017+05:00

Sitting in a Temple and having a cold drink was some of the unique experiences of my life. In spite of being a victim of flu I could not say “NO” to him when he offered me a glass.The hospitality and courtesy he showed to us were much more than my excuse of getting flu.

He took us to a journey of knowledge where he introduced us to different characters, practices and rituals. It was him who shared a part of knowledge with us.

He was Kaishor Das, a father of 3 little daughters, a Pandit or better to say a care taker of Hanuman Temple (Mandir) situated in Lines area, Saddar, Karachi. He was the person who helped us a lot in completing our project “Hinduism” which was based on the concept of interfaith awareness and understanding.

You have to walk for 5 minutes at least from the gate of the colony in which it is situated to reach Temple. It is a colony which truly shows the unity of minorities and Muslims in Pakistan. A very small percentage of Muslims with high percentage of Christians and Hindus are living together for a very long time in that area peacefully. They celebrate each others festival and posses respect for each religion.

It was an evening when me and Salimah visited the temple. Having a lot of doubts in mind we asked Kaishor Pandit for their permission to shoot Temple and to take his interview. He was pleased with the thought that someone who belongs to another religion is interested to know about his religion (Hinduism). He said “Yes” to us which made us smile. Next time when we paid a visit it was an afternoon. He was waiting for us.

Beforethe interview he made it clear that he will not be talking about the rights of minority (Hindus) and politics. It was shocking to me because if he is living with so many different communities in which one is the majority of Pakistan’s population without any fear in the same area, than why he was afraid of saying anything in favor of or against minorities’ right and politics in Pakistan. May be because sometimes to maintain peace you need to stay silent and remember that silence speaks itself.

In temple there were at least 8 deities and he told us about each of them like who they are? What is their religious significance and why do they worship them? Each and every Holy day had a long tale behind and it was quite interesting.

In spite of being a care taker of temple where there is a number of deities were present he reveled that he is a BHAGT (worshiper) of RADHA and KISHAN. It is his responsibility to wake up 4 o clock in the morning and after taking bath he prepares his deities for Pooja (Worship) which includes change of jewelry or the other stuff of deity. Another Pooja takes place in the evening around 6 O clock.

There were so many things to discuss from the birth to the death of a person, we tried our level best to hit each and every aspect of human life.It was really amusing for me when he disclosed that he listens to Quran to learn about Islam and has a CD of it. He goes to Church and try to learn about Christianity. When he was telling us about Hanuman, he gave the example of Hazrat Ali (Son in Law of Holy Prophet Peace BE Upon Him). He knew about Hassan and Hussain like why and how did they fight against evilness.

All of the things made me realize that the people from different communities are able to live altogether may be just because they have knowledge of each others religion. They know that each religion forbids evil things and want their followers to good things. An interview with Kashor Pandit made me feel that the concept of interfaith awareness is already prevalent in our society but we do not pay attention to it, we do not acknowledge it.

Now the situation what people around the world are facing highlights the need of interfaith awareness and understanding. There is a strong need for the people to realize that each and every religion has something common with the other religion. This is the only thing which can stop someone blaming the other religion for spreading terrorism and the only thing which can make the extremists to realize that nobody is against their religion and the followers of other religion shares something common with you. Interfaith awareness has the ability to promote peace and to bring all the faiths closer to each other. If not collectively then on individual level all of us should promote this concept so that one day we will be able to enjoy the same peace and love in the air what we had in the past.

A visit to Hindu Temple part 1

2011-01-04T00:44:00.012+05:00

Religion is a set of beliefs regarding the cause, nature, and purpose of life and the universe. Many religions have histories, symbols, traditions and sacred antiquities that are intended to give meaning to life.
The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with faith or belief system. Most religions have organized behaviors, including congregations for prayer, holy hierarchies, holy places, and scriptures. Every religion has its own sets of belief and traditions.
Pakistan has a population of around 170 million and it has 2nd largest Muslim population along with a lesser trace of minorities such as Christians and Hindus. The minority’s population in Pakistan is of 5% whereas the rest 95% are Muslims. As to create understanding and awareness of different faiths, our teacher sir Azfar Rizvi who is currently teaching us a course that is “culture of media production” has given us a project of interfaith awareness and understanding. Our mid-term project was to explore the Christian faith which my friends and I did with enjoyment although in the start we haven’t got any permission from the church management which eventually turned our excitement into pressure because we had lesser time left for our submissions but later then the issues were settled and we had our meetings with the priest of saint Anthony’s church. We all had a great time while doing this project as our Christian friends were very welcoming. They had invited us in all of their recent events like Christmas, New Year and All souls day. It wasn’t only an awareness project but it created friendly relationship between two different faiths.

The second task of the same interfaith awareness project that is given to us by our teacher for the finals is to explore the core concepts of Hinduism. We were a group of four that are; Mavia, Maliha, Tooba and I. Unfortunately this time we all were unable to arrange any driver and car so we delayed our visit to Hindu temple as it was far-off from our houses. As time was a constrain so my group member Tooba arranged a car and driver and on Thursday, 30th December 2010 we decided to officially visit Hindu temple which is situated near Natives jetty. On the same day we got the letter ready. He made 2 printouts for us on the letter head of Bahria University because we were not sure whether the management of temple will allow us or not to conduct detailed interview session, so for the safer side we had 2 more letters for alternate temples.
After 3 pm on Thursday, we made our way to the temple which is near natives’ jetty, as we all were not known to the route of that temple so I asked my dad about it. He guided us the way and after so much turbulence we got there. While entering, we saw a guy sitting on the couch and other three ladies were working, in the middle of our way I saw that guy pointing at us through his hands and giving the gestures as if he doesn’t want us to enter. We turned back and proceed towards the parking where the guard was standing, we ask him to let us enter and we showed him the letter, he took us to that man who was sitting on that couch and described our concern. That guy was a middle aged man, he had some hearing problem and he was basically from the management. We told him about our project, first he denied but somehow we convinced him to let us enter the temple and to take the overall look of it.
There were childrens roaming around and were looking at us with questioning eyes. Mavia progressed and rest of us were behind her, suddenly I heard people and those childrens shouting “put off your shoes”, Mavia didn’t hear the scream and keeps on going, I snatched her back and pull her off, meanwhile that guy came and started yelling at us that; “this is our sacred place, how are you going along with shoes? Do you visit your mosques along with shoes? Then how come you are going in our temple with shoes? Get out of here, we won’t let you people in”, Mavia calmly handled the situation and apologize him that she mistakenly did it and she ask him to guide us.
After a long debate we made our way inside the temple, we all put off our shoes. He showed us different things that were displayed inside and was giving us brief information about it. He allowed us to take pictures as well, Tooba was taking pictures and we three were listening to him. He took us outside and ask us to sit, there we were discussing about at what time he will manage to give us time to meet the pastor for interview. He after thinking appointed us a time, Sunday evening after 6. We gave him excuses as we wouldn’t be able to visit the temple as late as 6 pm. We asked him to make it early as we would not be able to manage this late for which he replied; “you can trust us, we are more reliable than Muslims”, at this point he offended me, I don’t know what he was trying to say about Muslims but during the discussion he was totally against Muslims. We went to the churches six times but the people didn’t show us their hatred for Muslims in any way. We all looked at each other questioningly and kept quiet but convinced him some how to make the interview appointment early.

We all were in confused state as during the Christianity project, we hadn’t gone through all this, they were very welcoming and they didn’t offend us in any way. I don’t blame the whole Hindu community but the people whom I met first made me think negative as it was my first experience of visiting any Hindu temple or even the first experience of talking to any Hindu.

After that Maliha and Tooba started taking pictures and Mavia and I were listening to him, while discussing he raised a point that; “being minority here, we are not given the rights, if I get a chance to leave Pakistan I will, although I have been living here since years but we suffer a lot”. We understand all his points and wanted him to tell us the main problem or problems that he goes through for which he replied; “you are educated, you are well aware of what is happening around”, we asked him to elaborate any of the problems that he has faced u till now. He wasn’t giving any answer and was just saying that; “many people came here and ask about the problems but no action has been taken up till now”. As he wasn’t answering so I turned up and left Mavia behind to listen to what he was saying. As soon as I focus my angle he started yelling and literally he was shouting. I suddenly turned around and looked at him, he was addressing us all and stated that; “you are not giving importance to me, half of you are taking pictures, as soon as I started telling you about what are the problems that we are facing here, you turned your back, you are giving no importance to me, you can leave, I am not giving you any permission please leave”, without giving any chance he was constantly saying, leave. There were people laughing at us. We all were in a state of shock, Mavia was trying to make the situation controlled but that guy didn’t give us enough time to be stabilized. In between he also said that; “don’t even come on Sunday, I will not entertain you people, just leave and proceed”.

We all were having the same feeling of discouragement and left the temple. While proceeding towards the parking that guy who helped us asked; “are you guys done?” We said; he asked us to leave the temple, In reply he laughed and told us that many people came here but they do the same with all Muslims. Then for further visits to other temples, maliha and mavia asked the lady who was siting outside the temple,they ask me to come along but i refused as i was badly dishearted.
I don’t know why he did this, but from the start he wasn’t giving us positive signals.
In every religion there are good and bad people the difference is only this, the people whom you meet first, gives you the first impression . I don’t blame the whole community but the people whom I first met made my opinion negative about them. As a famous saying states that; “the first impression is the last”. I had the first impression which made my mind thinking twice before visiting any Hindu temple again.

IKAE PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

2010-12-06T20:29:00.003+05:00

THE PROCEDURE FOR I KNOW AN EXTREMIST (IKAE) PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION.

1# Register yourself on IKAE facebook profile

2# Like IKAE facebook page

3# Add IKAE facebook page to your favorites

4# Download the poster from their website.

5# Take that print to your church contact (the person who will help you coordinate with the church)

6# Tell them about the competition .

7# Tell them that they have to introduce you to '10' people who will be sending 20 individual pictures to you of their 'moments'.

8# Tell these people about the competition.

9# These people DO NOT have to necessarily be in Pakistan.

10# Make a form that these 10 people can fill. It should be general information form so we know different things about them.

11# These 10 people will get you pictures from their homes/or churches.

12# Tell them these are for the competition .

13# The pictures should adhere to competition standards.

14# You have to repeat on steps 7 to 14 for yourself and 4 Muslim friends each.

I KNOW AN EXTREMIST

2010-12-06T20:27:00.001+05:00

Compilation of report "Exploring the Soul of Christianity".

2010-11-20T17:37:00.017+05:00

This is the front page of our report.

Although it was a wonderful experience exploring Christianity but all our excitement waded when it came for compilation of our exploration in a report. It was a very difficult task to compile work of each member of the group at one place. Tuba, Washal and I used to get at each other places for combine work. I used to listen the recording and Washal used to type and vice versa. We used to contact Mavia through emails and phone to update her for the final editing as she wasn't in town at that moment. Every time we called her to say; "we have finally sent you an email please check it and put your input and send us the final copy", and then several times we found there was something missing when we used to go through it. Then again we had to make additions and send it to her. Tuba used to search materials for us and then in the end Tuba and I had gone on many shops for our binding of report the way we want but returned hopeless. It took hours when Washal and I were sitting in the print shop to get the print outs in front of our eyes as we couldn't afford anymore blunders. It took almost five days to compile our work. We had spent the entire days at each other places working hard but in the end we felt relief and a feeling of excitement was there when the final copy was in our hands wondering that whether it would impress our teacher or not.

St. Anthony's Church.

Repairing of cross was is progress.

Statue of Marry holding Jesus

Marry holding Jesus

Vestments are worn by priests.

Green shows fertility, purple shows mourning, golden vestments are worn on feasts like Christmas.

We took this picture when the prayers had been ended.

Holy Communion.

This was an unblessed Holy Communion which we took as a sample. After prayers it is being blessed and only a believer of Christianity can take it.

That's a cross and beads just like tasbees.

Those clothes in red and blue colors are duppattas that people buy on different occasions. I was thinking to buy that for Sir Azfar but it was out of my range :P.

I bought crosses from here along with my friends.

Report's back page.