Pen and Paper

  Smiling outside. Breaking within. There are days when nothing feels physically wrong… and yet, everything inside feels unbearably heavy. No visible wounds. No dramatic breakdowns. Just a quiet exhaustion that settles deep within the soul. This is not a story of a moment. It is a story of a pattern—one that repeats itself in the quiet corners of someone’s life. She was never the kind of person people worried about. She laughed easily. She listened more than she spoke. She knew how to make others feel seen, heard, and valued. If you met her, you’d probably think “She has it all together.” And maybe that was the problem. Every evening, as the world slowed down, her thoughts began to race. It always started subtly a small worry, a passing memory, an unfinished conversation. But within minutes, her mind would turn into a crowded room, filled with voices she couldn’t silence. Questions without answers. Feelings without names. And the worst part? She didn’t know how ...

It Was Never Her Fault healing-from-self-doubt She once told me she was tired—not the kind of tired that sleep can fix, but the kind that settles deep in the soul. The kind that comes from hearing the same words over and over again until they start to feel like truth. They used to tell her, “You can’t do anything… you don’t even know how to speak… you won’t make it.” At first, she would ignore them. Then she would question them. And eventually, she began to believe them. One day, she asked me something I still cannot forget: “Tell me honestly… what is my fault?” I had no answer. Because the truth was, there was no fault to name. She did not choose the life she was born into. She did not choose the absence that shaped her childhood—the silence of a father she never knew, a presence she could never hold onto. She grew up watching others receive a kind of love and protection that always seemed just out of her reach. And yet, she was the one made to feel incomplete. What broke her the most...

ایک گھٹن زدہ ریاست:  جب  حکومت ناکام ہو  جائے  اور  عوام   ٹوٹنے لگیں پاکستان اس وقت صرف ایک معاشی بحران سے نہیں گزر رہا—یہ ایک نظامی ناکامی (systemic failure) کا شکار ہے۔ ایک ایسا نظام جو نہ صرف عوام کو ریلیف دینے میں ناکام ہو چکا ہے بلکہ ان کی مشکلات میں مسلسل اضافہ کر رہا ہے۔ ہر گزرتے دن کے ساتھ یہ سوال مزید تیز ہوتا جا رہا ہے: کیا یہ حکومت عوام کے لیے ہے بھی یا نہیں؟ “بول کہ لب آزاد ہیں تیرے بول زباں اب تک تیری ہے” مہنگائی نہیں—معاشی استحصال پیٹرول اور ڈیزل کی قیمتوں میں اضافہ اب محض معاشی مجبوری نہیں لگتا—یہ ایک منظم استحصال محسوس ہوتا ہے۔ جب ایک ملک کے پاس متبادل راستے موجود ہوں، جب خطے میں سستے وسائل دستیاب ہوں، تو پھر عوام کو مہنگائی کے اس عذاب میں کیوں دھکیلا جا رہا ہے؟ یہ اضافہ صرف ایندھن تک محدود نہیں رہتا:ٹ رانسپورٹ مہنگیا شیائے ضروریہ کی قیمتیں آسمان پرب جلی اور گیس کے بل ناقابلِ برداشت یہ ایک ایسا چکر ہے جس میں پستا صرف عام آدمی ہے—اور فائدہ کون اٹھا رہا ہے؟ یہ سوال آج بھی جواب مانگ رہا ہے۔ تعلیم: ایک تباہ شدہ نظام تعلیم کا نظام...