Thursday, September 30, 2010

talk about discrimination !


I remember visibly writing a letter to the editor of Pak Observer mentioning him about the class discrimination that I witnessed at the opening of one of the few huge super markets of Karachi, Metro Store. I still recall how stunned I was to see the sad faces of people returning to the exit gate as they did not fall to the criteria of the super store.
Few days back I was standing at international relations department, getting the handouts Photostatted where my sight caught a glimpse of a notice saying ‘interdepartmental sports’.
The two-sentence line caught my attention so bad that I could not think of anything but to read the whole page over and over again. The moment was not less than a moment of amusement, amazement and astonishment. For the first time of my life at Karachi University, the word ‘sports’ came across; something in which I had lost all of my hopes from the day I stepped in. All I did that time was jump, yell and run around to show my emotions.
The word ‘bias’ sounded so phony back in my mind for all those who brain washed me when I made it to Karachi University. That time all I thought was how to thank the people of my esteemed institution who proved all the talking mouths to be false and came up with such an exceptional activity where GIRLS can be a part of it too. Yes! ‘Girls’ is the word I am talking about.
I just could not wait for my class mates to get over with their ‘most scoring subject’ class sociology; where numbers are distributed on personal requests, demands or favors.
Running breathless to the girls and disclosing such information was not more than a surprise package! And I, the most hyper and excited amongst all, started up with writing the names of those interested in taking part.
Next day I walked up proudly with a never ending grin on my face, holding the paper close to my heart as if it was a graduation certificate and I am the next big thing of this institution. Eventually the lady holding the responsibility of the up-coming event looked at me with a fine-looking smile and said ‘beyta, yeh morning students key liyeh hain aur evening ki list dey rahi hain. Hahahaha’. I ignored everything. Everything. Even that witty and heart throbbing ‘hahaha’ of hers and realized, how discriminating is this?! Are we not the part of this institution? Don’t we have rights to take part in co-curricular activities? Aren’t we paying to the institution (although students studying in evening department are the ones paying the most,huh!)?
That was the moment when I understood the true meaning of discrimination and biasness. I felt mortified for publicizing the image of the store where they did not entertain the people who did not come up to their standards, when I myself is studying in such institution where the discrimination is done amongst the students by giving superiority onto one another. It was such an imprudent thing of me to look outside the box when the content is within!

28 comments:

  1. nice work madiha.. helping us to explore K.U. as well .....

    keep up the good words...!

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  2. Nice work Madiha.....Indeed, a thought-provoking blog...........Keep it up.........

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  3. Hmmm Interesting...However there's one thing you guys can do is to call a strike by evening students..but I have a feeling that wont work out as good...soo basically what you can do is to vote someone better then our current government or else things will never change and o yeah its Pakistan we still live in stone ages :)
    P.S : Great work made me read lolzz

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  4. amazing!! ya perfectly put ur emotions in ur words..truth of our soceity indeed.. i didnt xpected such discriminantion between students frm KU every stud shuld b treated same..activities shuld b encouraged ..discrimination shuld b discouraged.. m wid ya Madi.. gud piece ov wurk.

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  5. so ? what now? are we going to suffer in silence again even after reading this? well i wouldn't be surprised because i am sure most of the "evening" students will read it.
    its not just this particular issue, the level or standard of education in evening is way too low compared to morning even though we pay more and teachers earn more from evening. but the question arises "why"?
    what are we lacking in? are morning students more focused,more regular and more serious towards their studies? we ll have to find our faults first within ourselves and then do something about it.

    keep up the good work Madiha!

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  6. awwww... tht is sovery wrong... u shld gathr some support nd go on a hunger strike... soo unfair.. i feel ur pain :(

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  7. good work. but isn't Discrimination(n that too between batches) an over rated issue now.. specially when you have got numerous other important issues to handle?

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  8. First, lets compare the fees of both evening and morning programmes. Fees of Evening is almost 5-6 times more than morning and still the students have nothing but 'self-finance' label.

    Morning students have the facility of points, gymnasium, radio station and others, this is called discrimination.

    Director evening programme Abuzar Wajidi says that evening doesnt get funds as its a self-finance programme, all the funds go to morning programme. Question appears, isnt the huge fees enough?

    Anyway, well-written! keep writing... but you came to the point a bit late! like after 60% part... more elaboration was required. :)

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  9. @ jibran
    lord! i saved other points for my next blog lol! you just love spoiling everything, dont u? =P

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  10. well you have a valid point out there but the question is what can we do to fight it back. Everywhere we see we find discrimination of all sorts and it has somehow become part of our lives now....we don't panic, nor do we react aggressively to it, we just pretend to be busy in our own lives. We just let it go and wait for others to take an initiative.Injustice, discrimination, violence all these names are part of our routine now and its no big deal for us to hear anything related to it.
    Anyways nice effort madiha and keep up the good work.

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  11. Thought provoking !! Keep going :)

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  12. @ asad
    very trueeee i never knew that you are so philosophical.. GIK is teaching u alot hehehe the point of raising this topic is indeed to STAND UP and fight for what one deserves rather than waiting for someone else to show up!

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  13. Madiha you have written very well. and this discrimination makes us all feel very sad. We should send a letter to newspapers regarding this.

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  14. u sound pissed :P :P but i liked it. well written

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  15. looks like a movement babe, good luck, this is nicely written by the way. you really expressed yourself through this text.

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  16. Very well written Madiha. For an institute like Karachi University, this should not be happening there. Any sort of discrimination can not be tolerated at any cost. KU management should seriously look into this.

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  17. @ Madiha ... a very thought provoking blog. But remember to make changes the best way is to write and create the awareness first and then instigate the awareness to make a positive change!!

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  18. Really Really thought provoking article Madiha :) Good Job keep up the good work :)

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  19. Good job!
    keep it up madiha!
    i never knew u had a blog!

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  20. Ah, Finally the little girl opens her eyes and sees the grim reality of life. Tis a hard world out there and the sooner you realize it, the better. Whereas in some cases you just cant pretty much do anything about it, in other cases you must take a stand. This is a good way to vent your feelings but if you intend to just write about it and expect your friends to sympathise and curse together, then your pretty much on the right track. However if you want to tackle the bull by the horns and draw some blood, then first of all you must get the right peoples attention. Friends of Friends is a good start, then the faculty who favour you and then slowly the popular kids. Keep singing those notes of injustice and whammo, you will have a well orchestrated crowd swaying to your beat. Then a little strike (Nothing violent because that serves no purpose apart from resentment and ill feelings). So may the righteous be rewarded. Au Revoir !

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  21. just read the blog !! amazingly written...anyone who read it can feel the pain behind it !!;) n also feeling a lil bit sad about the evening students who r really intrested in activities like this !!

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  22. Madiha you have written very well. keep it up in future :)

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  23. writing personal blogs gives her a space to write whatever she wants to write. anyway i think good effort to put ur feelings in words and let others know what u think abt some issues. Dialouges... is something what our nation need to resolve the issues with. so keep it up and my advice for u all youngster to always take things one step further, if they need to... best of luck!

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  24. superb piece of writing :) !!
    keep it up !!

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  26. first of all i have to say it is a very well written blog...

    you came up with a good point about how the evening students are not given the opportunity to be a part of most activities ...like sports, field trips or education related forums...you are right its not fair ...but i wont exactly call it discrimination...thats a bit too harsh ....i would rather thing its the laziness and irresponsible attitude of the evening staff, management and student-body/students' union.
    i think you guys should try to make the change ..take an initiative ....organize something ...a field-trip, a sports competition ..or just a simple youth forum discussing this issue...

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  27. ‘beyta, yeh morning students key liyeh hain aur evening ki list dey rahi hain. Hahahaha’

    hahahahha BENAZIR ....

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