A Voice From The Past

i wrote it more than an year ago, but never got the chance to post. now something has happened, something has changed which encouraged me to dig it down and write it out.
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wednesday 22nd feb 2006 at about 3 o'clock noon
I received a call from my home. My father was on the line. The conversation went somewhat like...
My father: "someone is here to meet u".
Me: "who?"
My father: "ask urself!!".
He handed over the phone to that person.
The person: "hello".
Me: "Assalam o Alaikum".
The person: "pehchana?"
As i recognized the voice, A thousand images changed in front of my eyes in a split second, and it took me some time to recompose myself.
Me: "Qari Mushtaq sahab", how can i forget u?
"pehchaan liya hai g is nay", I overheard him saying to my father.

They were not expecting me to recognize him so quickly. Its definitely not easy to recognize someone's voice after nine long years, but HOW could I forget him? The conversation ended after a few more sentences, but it took me on a ride to some years back in the past... I used to
meet this person daily for 5 years...
How can I forget him?
How can I forget the Quran in my heart?
How can I forget the dent on my nose?
How can I forget the hatred i have for maulvies?
How can I forget a person I respect a lot, and at the same time hate from the core of my heart?
How can I forget my teacher who taught me the Quran?
How can I forget my student of english and maths?
How can I forget those post-torture sleepless nights?
JUST HOW can I forget???

By the time I left the madrassa, I had a mission. I had a vision. I had a dream. I wanted to create an institution where the world's best islamic and non-islamic education will be offerred. An institution which will not create clerics, And nor it will be an assembly line of atheists. But I also knew that it wont be easy.

Once I left madrassa, I never went back. I never looked back. Of the ppl I know/knew, only three went on to persue worldly education. others... well, thats a separate sad story.

I got busy in other stuff. This world is the best illusion. My mission kept being pushed deeper into the dust, but it never left my mind. I kept hoping for the right time, and i kept praying for the strengths needed to achieve my dream.

Night Functions

A few hour delays have always been part of the wedding functions. But now that night functions have become kind of a fashion, these delays become a torture. I attended such a night function some time ago which went way off-schedule. luckily I had a camera, and here are a few thousand words from that function through the lens.