Teachers’ Respect is not limited . . .

Saturday, June 26, 2010 Heba Moeen 0 Comments


You would have heard elders saying that teachers are not respected anymore as they used to be when they were kids. However, I disagree, teachers are still respected, though, maybe not all, and times have changed, things have evolved; they don’t treat by the crook, they don’t beat up students. Virtual beating could be harsher . . . *hehehe*

Procedures have evolved so have attitudes, they don’t beat you up if you have plagiarized, they simply award an ‘F’ that is worst than any form of beating and it might hurt forever as opposed to a simple punch or some spanking or a slap for that matter. However, such an ‘F’ is quite understood and reasonable for plagiarism plagues, people should get what they deserve.

Being a part of a business school when it came to opting for electives, people chose various courses while some ended changing their choices as well but what seemed surprising and disrespectful was an act shown by some students. Some of them have a habit of attending the class and gauging what kind of teacher it is. If you are interested in a course, you should plan to study it rather than testing the teacher.

During introduction in the first session some have a habit of saying, ‘I’m just attending the class but I’m not sure if I would study this course or not.” Oh well, genius why were you there in the first place? This is the profound level of disrespect one can present to a teacher, especially an Elective teacher, if you are not interested in the course and have brought your existence into a teacher’s class, at least don’t express how much you are disrespecting the teacher by saying that you are just here to see things around and might not study the course. And yes! It is considered to be a high level of disrespect.

There are ways of respecting this profession and I’m still proud to say that I belong to a place where teachers are still respected and there is not just one way of respecting teachers, respect is shown through actions not words. For example, some people would end up informing a teacher about their absence beforehand or if they need to leave early they would take permission, this is respect!

Some care free students, on the other hand, have a habit of making their choice between so called, ‘chill teachers’ and ‘difficult teachers’. Eventually summers are there for them as the coordinator understands their thought processes and just won’t allow to opt for some other teacher than the one assigned. Some students do have a habit of taking undue advantage of such thought of as ‘chill teachers’ and would end up availing a lot of absences or bunking classes thinking the teacher would not notice or wouldn’t bother. Mind you . . . Test this attitude with such teachers during term report presentations and serious assignments, what some might be considering as a chill person would end up being extremely fair, now . . . being chill does not mean the teacher isn’t fair. Just because they give you some room for creativity or leniency does not mean they would let you take undue advantage of them.

I remember I was taking a Summer course last year, the teacher was good and nice and thought of as easy by many. During the term report presentation, one over smart group presented an ‘already presented in the past’ report, they didn’t even have the courtesy of removing the previous group members’ names from the report and rather decided to paste a paper with their names. The teacher peeled off the paper and showed it to them. There you go . . . They got an ‘F’ from the so called chill teacher. Eventually, chill can even become cold when treated with such surrounding conditions. And term reports do not get completed over night . .. they might take weeks and even end up going beyond the word or page limit if worked on enthusiastically thus presenting the teacher with a nightmare to check . . . Knowledge is acquired not copy pasted . . .

A semester back, I had a pretty hectic day, I was in school since the morning, had my 6:30 pm class and the next day I had an hourly. Quite a number of students decided to avail their absence for that particular class to study for Brand Management hourly the next day. There were hardly 10 students in the class that day. I thought of availing my absence too since I hadn’t availed any for that course up to that moment and I also knew the teacher had seen us, many of us who won’t be in his class that day. I thought that was disrespectful if most of the students are absent from a class and that would make the teacher feel bad. I was silly enough to go to that teacher and ask him for permission to leave because I had to study a lot for the next day. He told me that a lot of students would be absent in class that day but then he also mentioned, ‘It’s your wish if you want to leave, you have your absences.’ Hmmmmmm . . . At least show your physical presence if most of your class mates are absent, I finally decided to stay, ‘I can stay up the entire night to revise for the hourly the next day . . . no worries, staying awake is nothing new to me.’ *not that I am a vampire but I can behave like one* I don’t know why I was silly and crazy enough to ask a teacher’s permission to avail my own absence but the fact is that I have never even bunked a class my entire life and it seems bad if you just run away from the class. I never even bunked my awfully boring Pakistan Studies classes in O’Levels.

Also respecting does not mean you never disagree with the teacher . . . you can and students do but in a polite way. In my first semester when we had our Management class I disagreed with my teacher that students at this age still need pocket money and I expressed my views that we can earn ourselves for petty expenses. I felt she got offended and disagreed with me, well the entire class did and I still disagree with all of them but that does not mean you do not respect your teacher by disagreeing with what he/she has said. Use your brains and hands, depend less on parents, you can earn at home by being a writer, there are many options for availing your skills.

With social media gaining momentum, teachers and students have got more to having friendlier terms than just having a student teacher relationship; however, there will always be a thin line between respect and crossing that line.

I believe, this is a profession worth tremendous respect and teachers are still respected even to this day, it’s just that some leave a lasting impression on us in shaping our capabilities and some don’t. And enjoying such respect and a profession worth so much, I would want to see myself in such a position some day.

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Mallard Duck (Photo Courtesy: National Geographic)

Thursday, June 24, 2010 Heba Moeen 0 Comments


Acrylic on Canvas
June 23, 2010

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Nazia the Vampiress (Season 1, Episode 2)

Sunday, June 13, 2010 Heba Moeen 0 Comments

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Image Source: www.red-pieces.blogspot.com
“Vampires Forever”
 . . . She went to look outside the window; there was nothing there but just the party dogs of the night running after tires of moving vehicles subjected to inertia. As she turned around she realized that the sound was that of something weird in her own room.
“Oh my God! Lacoste!” She cried, trying to suppress her expressed ‘exclamation mark’. “But why did she just say , Lacoste? Why Nazia why?”
“Oh sorry! I got too overwhelmed by the recent SMS spree that  I completely forgot that it’s called a ‘lizard’ . . . We are having branded entertainment that we just studied in Experiential Marketing . . . HUH?! Lacoste!” With this, Nazia jumped around and found refuge on her bed since those two lizards were literally playing hide and seek on the floor, she had no way to escape, nothing at all. Hey wait . . . ever heard of a vampire who is afraid of lizards? No? Then this is the one who is afraid of them . . . a respectable vampire citizen around.
Nazia had one slogan she would always abide by: “No sucking of blood of friends and teachers”, well at least of those she considered to be good teachers which she was blessed with if not all. Over the years she was able to hide her true identity and befriend people who otherwise would have been scared of her. She and her coordinator, Ms. Sabiha shared a common, that is, an admiration of vampire stories. However, what Ms. Sabiha didn’t know was that Nazia was a vampire in her own vicinity of coordination and that she stayed in school at times from morning to night working the entire day making sure no one finds out who she really is.
“What’s wrong with you guys? Why are you creating such depressing stuff?” Asked Ms. Painda with an amused expression, the graphic designing teacher one day when she was surprised to see Nazia having made an invitation card on Freehand 10, titled: “Human Impalement Ceremony”. Another friend, Toots had made her death invitation card. Still it was a surprise as to how well Nazia was able to keep her true identity in the dark, what she just did through this assignment was to give a hint about her true self but no one still knew. She couldn’t suppress her evil smile which still seemed innocent behind the occasional evil traits.
However, what really appeared evil was some class rescheduling and the crazily hectic semester going on that made her suffer from insomnia and the lack of blood enriched victims made her pale and low on iron. Not only this, she had been changing a lot of her eating habits . . . she gave up consuming haleem and Lays. In her seventh semester Brand Management class she got enlightened with a lot of stuff she didn’t know before. “You know what these guys add in haleem to give it the texture it has? And you guys just eat away,” exclaimed the brand teacher with gleeful sarcasm, “They add a spoonful of washing powder, it probably helps in cleaning your intestines!” He laughed out. Then one day he told the class that truck drivers wash their tires with Johnson’s Baby Shampoo as it leaves the tires soft and helps in smooth driving. However, the day when he discussed how cooking oils used to be tasted . . . Spoonful going into the mouth for quality control . . . that was just too much and Nazia was on the verge of throwing up and then telling everyone how she tastes blood to pick the right type but resisted. Why couldn’t she let people know what she really was? Why couldn’t she leave the past behind that kept on haunting her? The ‘How Cow’ accident stuff . . . When criminals try to make peace with their past it comes to haunt them again . . . And this sinking feeling in her heart always kept her quiet and less social . . . After all she was still half human . . . No wait a minute, she was about 75% human. Only after her teeth grew back after having the dentures stuck in the cow’s throat turned out to be a proof of her being a vampire and she could spent days without blood anyway.
These brands she was studying about drove her crazy especially their use by people, it was outright ridiculous. “You know what anti lice shampoo is mostly used for?” tested Mr. F in the class one fine Saturday, trying to find out if the class knew. “Pets!” she thought. “It’s used on cows and buffalos in rural areas by farmers,” he told the class. Ok . . . now it was pretty ok to digest this piece of information but what was told in the last class was a thing to remember forever and laugh at and feel pity for. At times, you can’t always blame companies; consumers can be fools which you cannot in any way hold the company accountable for.  Surf Excel’s pH level concept; ‘Khaara & Meetha Paani Challenge’ (Alkaline and Acidic) was so tempting for some people that they dissolved it in water, drained it out and drank it. God knows what would have happened to such silly people but the moment Mr. F told the class this thing, Nazia couldn’t help suppress her vampire laughter and later feared people might get to know what she really is. Only Toots knew about her past and what she really was capable of and none of the other friends knew her too well.
“Why do you worry? You got all your teeth grown out after that accident that took your precious time and career but . . . See smile . . . Now here you go! You even have these pretty canines back!” consoled Toots, “And please forget that cow now, it was MAD!”
“But I had to resort to a straw for those blood enriched moments until it took some years for my teeth to finally grow!” complained Nazia.
 Now that Toots meant a lot in her life, Nazia treated her like her best human friend and kept the most human side towards her with a nice single faced human attitude.
She had been lacking entertainment and TV had started disgusting her a long time back especially the cooking channels. She was dumb founded when her teacher, Mr. Furqan gave a question about ‘product placement’ for a brand in any of the TV plays or movies, that day she was convinced she would fail that hourly but then God helps vampires too when they try to acquire education. She possibly ruined the tea brand, Lipton by applying a downward stretch to it thereby placing it in one of the evening cheap TV plays whose target audience would not consume a light tea brand anyway such as Lipton. Later, towards the end of the semester she was all ready to destroy a chocolate brand like this. But then . . . It happens. If vampires become Marketing Majors then they find it difficult to get a job and this is what had been happening . . . Nazia was still looking for a job.
She was surprised when Mr. Furqan had enlightened the students about how much Star Plus plays had ruined the intellectual thinking of people who watch it and how adversely it had been affecting people. She was thankful that she never watched this channel; she was a well behaved and a groomed vampiress. What was really inspiring about this teacher was that he kept a keen ‘human’ eye on every student as to who had been working and who hadn’t been and graded everyone accordingly, even though it wasn’t humanly possible. And even though he had been teaching this particular course which was introduced just a year ago, he never claimed that only he teaches this course and no one else does or that good students are a proof of his excellence. When you become proud you lose your respect and are therefore not eligible to become a teacher because a teacher is a person worth tremendous respect not knowledge based self pride! And therefore, that other person was someone Nazia sensed B+ at.
While Mr. Furqan was busy delegating work for his project worth an ‘experience’, Nazia was busy counting blood prospects. Oh what a ‘thriller’ . . .
Hospitals near her home and her school had been complaining about blood being stolen though not in large quantities, however, B+ ranked highest among that stolen. That had been happening after 9:30 pm every week until it got to be thrice a week now.
Nazia had been getting pale as days passed by and weight was lost courtesy of some marketing courses over the span of the remaining two semesters. She had no choice but to resort to illegal means of getting her beverage and that had been happening after her fourth time slot classes, that is, after 9:30 pm!!
One night after her Experiential Marketing class, she was busy stealing blood samples again from a nearby hospital as she was too busy in one of her ‘Experience’ projects to go find a healthy human as all were too consumed in term projects to have a good blood level.
“Open up your mind, let your fantasies unwind in this darkness which you know you cannot find . . . The darkness of the music of the night . . .” Nazia sang from her favourite track from Phantom of the Opera, “let your soul take you where you long to be!”
Suddenly she was interrupted by the presence of somebody in the lab; she went to hide herself in the nearest corner she could find when she was accosted by a creepy shadow of a hunch back.
“Return of the Native! Oh no! No! Someone like me? Oh wait a minute . . . What the hell are you doing over here!” she inquired.
Now Nazia was convinced that she was not the only vampire in the business school where she had studied and thus vampires are forever . . .
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Disclaimer: All characters in this story are imaginary. Any resemblance to anyone dead, undead, haunting or trying to live is simply a coincidence. Don't start assuming things, try educated guesses . . . All the brands mentioned over here just helped give you a lame branded entertainment as a result of these 1,710 words. .. :P

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"Memoirs of a Joker"

Saturday, June 12, 2010 Heba Moeen 1 Comments

Image Source: www.layoutsparks.com



Life made fun of me,
I became funny.
What's inside my heart no one can see,
but can guess that the thing inside my hat is a cute bunny!

All I do is entertain people . . . 
I let them laugh at me.
At times I wonder how I can be so brutal,
to let myself decay from inside and set on the laughter spree!

What haunts me,
 is the silence inside so loud.
It really taunts me,
that no one can see me through, from the large crowd.


Entertaining everyone is my assumed profession,
what it actually is, is sadness and suppression . . .
of emotions so invisible,
that seemingly translate into smiles.


I hope it rains happiness,
in my garden of hope . . .


Yours Truly,


JOKER . . . 

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"Little Tim's Remaining Time . . . "

Wednesday, June 09, 2010 Heba Moeen 1 Comments



Little Tim spent his remaining life proving people wrong,
those who challenged him just made him strong.

Some thought he was incapable and had a weak mind,
but it was his determination that left a huge legacy behind . . . 

He got the life, the career he had dreamed of,
it killed the uncertainty and the rusted dagger of scoff.

But what worried him was the loud silence;
left by the feeling of being left out with late achievement . . . 

It was a matter of self fulfillment and it's absence,
that shattered him into tiny fragments.

Little Tim wanted an end to the voices in his head,
they haunted him every minute of the day till he was finally dead!

1 comments:

"Nazia the Vampiress" (Season 1, episode 1)

Saturday, June 05, 2010 Heba Moeen 9 Comments


Nazia had just graduated and was on a job hunting spree. She had applied almost everywhere she could think of so much so that it seemed she had spammed the entire nation with her resume.
One fine day Nazia was walking back home from her school when she heard faint footsteps follow her trail and they seemed to get closer and closer. She was terrified for the safety of her mobile phone which though was dying out and failed to produce any sound during phone calls was her only hope for a good contact list she had. “Hey beautiful lady what are your strengths and weaknesses? Your resume seems attractive!” a crisp voice from behind uttered. There she wondered how many places and people she unconsciously mailed her resume to that an unsolicited pervert interview was in her face.
The shrilling noise of the alarm finally woke her up . . . But hey! Wait a minute her phone was half dead and failed to produce any sound . . . ok, ok, it was the phone’s vibration right next to her head that jerked her off her scary slumber. It was over, the nightmare was over . . . Anyway she needed not worry for any stalker paving his way towards her in the streets because she knew self defense. She was not just a business graduate but a young, capable vampiress as well. However, such perverts’ blood wasn’t simply her taste as the thought of such obnoxious blood made her puke.
What she actually developed a taste for was her second semester’s ‘Oral Communication’ teacher who had flunked her to her utmost surprise because presentations were something she wasn’t really that bad at. She still could not forget the last and the only class that she missed due to ill health and that was the day her teacher conducted a 10 mark quiz. “It’s not my fault that you were ill!” the teacher exclaimed when approached by Nazia and despite her overall good semester average for this course she ended up with a D grade. No wonder the lady was a sugar coated one of her own species. That day, Nazia was devastated as the uncertain thought for her future haunted her once again; the pain she had endured to get to college life struck her badly yet again making her wounds gangrene. “This is it! This is the end . . . I was sure I’m never going to be a graduate and this event has just made it possible . . .” she thought to herself. After all she valued this one last hope (bachelors degree) more than her life.
Revenge was on her mind when she went to attack this teacher at night, she impaled her, however, the blood enhanced her taste buds and was just the right blood group to quench her thirst. Nazia later found out through experience that this blood was extremely rare in humans, usually absent . . . This was the blood so sweet and yet notorious that it initially gave her a heart burn. But whatever it was like, it was sweet and since her sweet tooth never let her rest she always loved to eat sweet things. This time she was drinking one and finally over the span of her eight semesters, this poor old teacher became so weak and tired due to impalement that she finally announced her retirement while she stayed oblivious to Nazia’s cold touch of sharp teeth.
“Stop feeling guilty about your past! It’s ok and no one cares about it so you stop fretting about it! Get over it Nazia, it’s over and this is what matters,” exclaimed her friend, Toots while trying to convince her to shrug off the issues with her past. A bad blood reaction compromised her vampire capabilities and fiddled badly with her professional studies thus causing some delay. It was the start of her vampire existence when she accidently pierced her teeth in the jugular vein of a mad cow . . . it was for practice that she opted for animals instead. What she didn’t know was that somewhat like her, the cow had an upset mind. “Muhahahaha! I am a ‘How Cow’!” the cow had told. “My mom was a cow and my dad was a vampire . . . and hey wait! Jeeeez !!! You forgot all your teeth in my throat . . . Boooo! Hahahahaah aka LOLz! I’m going to make a necklace out of these!”continued the cow when asked about what exactly a ‘How Cow’ is. Whatever animal saw that weird cow thought, “How can a cow be like this,” hence, the title, ‘How Cow’.
“I know, I try to make peace with my past but it was because of that incident that I lost my teeth . . . my canines to start off with and then I went on to steal blood samples from hospitals . . . I still feel so ashamed that I just can’t socialize much . . . I changed myself completely after that even my subjects . . .” said Nazia. “What matters to me is the kind of person you are, you are my best friend and you are capable of a lot!”convinced Toots.
The next morning came in a hurry when Nazia reached her Advertising class just in time, exactly at 8 am, however, her teacher’s watch had something wrong with it and always used to be ahead of Pakistan Standard Time, thus, arousing her worst fears of being late. The last time when one of her class mates was late he had asked her to sing ‘Baba black sheep’ to allow her to attend the class . . . but she didn’t have any absences left and had to go through this funny embarrassment in front of the seated class to avoid getting her absence limit being exceeded. On the other hand, Nazia had her absences remaining which put her at ease but she was still on time according to Pakistan Standard Time then was why Mr. F’s watch running ahead of time???
“Why are you late?” asked he in his starched voice. Nazia was about to answer when she was woken up by power failure courtesy KESC. Well the dream was a recap of what actually happened in the last semester and she was used to getting recaps now.
Nazia got up, distracted by a weird, faint noise, she sneaked out of the window when . . . 

Disclaimer: All characters in this story are imaginary. Any resemblance to anyone dead, undead, haunting or trying to live is simply a coincidence. Don't start assuming things, try educated guesses . . . =P

9 comments:

Why do some people think no one’s watching them?

Thursday, June 03, 2010 Heba Moeen 2 Comments


Yes . . . why do some people that nobody’s watching them? Well, if no one is then at least God is watching them seven skies above . . . God is watching all of us especially those creating filth and doing obnoxious acts on His Earth. Now you see, some people are such animals that they become blind when it comes to using proper toilets when nature calls and they find what they think of as private corners though they are visible from all angles . . .
The picture that you are about to see my friends is the backyard of Dolmen Centre where such morons throw their garbage in spite of daily cleaning by janitors and come to take a leak, however, the mosque toilet is hardly 10 feet away. What? They can’t afford Rs. 2 into the loo? As far as I have heard it usually does not even cost. And these idiots . . . well ‘idiot’ is a minor word for them . . . They shouldn’t even be called Muslims, for Muslims are supposed to be clean people and does this act let them stay clean for prayers? Well those who pray don’t find corners like them, they go to the appropriate place.
Since, God has blessed me with a digital camera and thanks to my brother who gifted me one, this guy who was doing his job didn’t know that a human being was also watching him other than God. Take a look . . . he first looked here and there to make sure that no human is watching but shame on these morons . . . Don’t they know that God is watching and this act would anger him?


 
I usually keep used, spare batteries to delight such morons with a sudden impact produced as a result of gravity . . . Trust me, it’s fun shooing such pieces of trash away.
Now a closer look,
.
.
.

And the closest look,
.
.
.



What a big shame on these people for not keeping the streets clean . . . they probably are proud of the marginal contribution of filth they give to our beautiful country, Pakistan!
May they be rendered toiletless all their lives!!!


2 comments: