It’s working! It’s working!! The ban has been lifted!!! I LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just when I had convinced my boss and his producer to plan a show on this ban placed on Blogspot…it has started working. I can read my thoughts now!

Which believe me, did not prove to be a very good prospect since I have decidedly been down these past couple of weeks. Thus a perusal of my posts makes me question how easily I let things get to me.

Since, blogger was inaccessible and I figured I spent too much of my free time doing absolutely nothing productive…I searched online and found this amazing online library. Now, the wisdom of Aesop, the Brilliance of Oscar Wilde, the insight of Turgenev, the elegance of Jane Austen, the intensity of Dostoevsky, the feminism of Virginia Woolf and the timeless intelligence of Homer, are just one click away.

Ever since I discovered this website, I have been reading and reading and reading. I’ve read Austen’s Persuasion, Machiavelli’s Prince and am about to start ‘the art of war’, have re-read Oscar Wilde’s ‘the picture of Dorian Grey’ and am nearly done with Turgenev’s ‘the house of gentlefolk’.

Sana told me something the other day that really touched me. When I was teaching a lifetime ago in beacon house, one of my students that I really liked was Zainab Zaman. Zainab was generally referred to as ‘the hell raiser’ by the faculty. Probably because unlike most girls her age, she wasn’t concerned with looking good, was smart enough to know her mind and determined enough to get what she wanted. I guess, she could have been difficult with me as well, but I like girls like that. I guess, probably because I understood her, she respected me. And much to everyone’s surprise, she who was a habitual back bencher, started sitting in the front row in class and when someone tried to distract me, she actually told them to shut up and pay attention. Needless to say, teaching her was a pleasure.

It did get me into trouble because she was bright and as soon as she started paying attention to her lessons, she started securing top grades in Economics. So students and some teachers thought I was giving her good grades because she was my favorite. She was, I don’t deny it. But I only gave her the grades she deserved. This attitude on the school faculty’s part made me reconsider teaching. I eventually left b/c I got this offer from Aaj that I just couldn’t refuse.

Now after this whole preamble, I can narrate what happened that touched me. Zainab’s class is graduating this summer and in their farewell assembly, despite the fact that I don’t teach there anymore, haven’t for two years, Zainab thanked me in the assembly for being someone who recognized the person she truly is. She didn’t have to, but she did anyway. And that means a lot.

I still haven’t heard from FPSC. The case I guess is still pending. I am not very enthusiastic about civil service but nine months training in Lahore sounds exciting. Let’s see where the winds of change take me.