an optomist believes we live in the best of the worlds. a pessimist fears it is true. so i was going to answer Bfiler's unfair accusations :) but i dont know where to begin. i know how to be happy. i know how to giggle... and i still do it. i can enjoy my ice-cream. and my mom's. and my brother's. (they are old ppl. they dont need ice-cream) i laugh at elephant jokes. i crack up at sardarji jokes. and jokes that go: Q: what do we have when a lawyer is buried up to his neck in cement? A: not enough cement. life is beautiful. no one would advocate that more fiercely than i would. but then there are times. youve been out with your family, having a blast, blowing off half your monthly salary... until on your way back... you see afghan refugee children sleeping in deserted shopping markets. or 3-4 yr old beggars on the road... who've had both their arms and hands broken-off (little portions jutting out like stumps). and then there are these REALLY REALLY old, frail men pulling 200 times their weight... so they can earn enough that would keep them alive for another day. or maybe get their daughters married off. and then there are children who should be in schools, who are slaving away in houses to feed/house their families, when they should be in schools. lets see... what else? or like when youve had a snazzy meal at a flashy restaurant, and yer on yer way back... your mom tells you a story of someone she knows, who's finding it difficult to pay for their hepatitus C treatment... or when you see your cook, your driver, your housekeeper (PC: domestic help), police guards, two cars, a 4-bedroom house in the city's poshest locality, you wonder what you've done to deserve it... or how yer gonna explain it to God. lets see... what else bothers me? a few months ago, i promised myself id help out at teh fountain house, or the facility for the mentally challenged(!?!?!) children... and the fact that ive been so busy minting money, i havent had tym. or how about the romanian sex slaves? i watched a file on CNN... here's a global report on the issue. it says: There are nearly 15,000-20,000 child prostitutes present in Lahore in the areas near bhatti and railway station. dude, i LIVE in lahore. and thys is the first tym ive read abt it. more like i live in a fairytale. sleep over these thoughts doesnt make it any better. they stare right back at ya next morning. its been 12 hrs since i saw thys one accident. and the faces of those two girls are still haunting me. what if that man (their father) has died. supposing he was the only breadwinner of the family. what are they gonna do? and the fact that the tamashbeen were fighting over who would get to keep his cell fone. what sort of animals are we becoming anyway? we tend to take a lot of thyngs granted. you and i. we can see, smell, speak... we have fresh clean water running in our taps. we can have 23 cups of chai a day, and still not run short. we dont have to go thru garbage cans to hunt for food. believe me ive seen it happen. outside the idiot box. we have friends and family who care for us. you and i are safe in our homes. you and i HAVE homes. maybe im blowing thyngs out of proportion. maybe not. but everytym i laugh, i cant help thynk of those who are crying. and i know ill have to answer to god for my happiness, when the world he created was falling apart. -------------------------------------------- "come lets to bed," sez sleepy 'ed, "tarry a while," sez slow. "put on the pan," sez greedy nan "lets sup before we go." -------------------------------------------- here's some interesting stories i picked up on the telegraph New York's last Mafia don on trial for murder Taking a dive after uni The transition from university to work can be a shock... temme abt it! Growing up with Harry Potter(pweeez! we loves harry potter master!)