responses to my letter published in The News on 20th July 2009.
UK visa woes
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
I can relate completely to M Murad’s letter “UK visa woes” and want to share my own dreadful entanglement with the UK visa process. I have applied for a British visa but meanwhile I came upon a great opportunity to travel to India and Afghanistan on a student exchange programme. I have repeatedly written emails at addresses provided by the Gerry’s call centre to express my urgent need for the return of my passport. Mysteriously slow to respond at first, I was eventually told what to do and mailed a visa application withdrawal form to the visa section of the British High Commission on July 8 but as yet I have not received my passport. Retrieval of one’s passport should be a simple matter. However, I hope some steps are taken soon to address the numerous complaints of visa applicants and take the necessary corrective measures.
M Dost Khan, Islamabad
*****
This is with reference to the letter by M Murad published in your newspaper on July 18 titled “UK visa woes”. I applied for my student visa on March 5 and was supposed to travel to the UK for summer school at the LSE on July 4. After numerous emails, faxes and a couriered letter to the British High Commission in Abu Dhabi I was told (after more than seven weeks had passed) that there were some biometric errors with my application — something which Ms Murad also faced. Eleven weeks have passed, I had to bare extra financial cost in the form of cancellation charges for residence at the LSE and still there is no clue of where my passport is. I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto and I have to say that I never got such shoddy treatment from the Canadian High Commission. Now all I get from Abu Dhabi is that my application is with the High Commission in Islamabad, and Islamabad staff say my application is still with Abu Dhabi staff. I am literally sick of this and want to seek forgiveness for actually applying to a university in the UK and considering it as a destination for higher education. All I want is for the British High Commission in Islamabad to simply return my passport and forgive me for ever applying!
Qazi Hassan Manzoor, Lahore
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
incompetence & visa applications do not mix
The News, Pakistan, 19th July 2009
you can click on the image to enlarge it and read it, or check it out at:
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=188729
Saturday, July 18, 2009
it's a great day for an exorcism
today i wrote another short story.
it is a gloomy story, but that makes sense, since the monsoon rains have hit Karachi. thus, it has been dark since last night, and gloomy for the past 10 months of my life.
work with what you're given, i believe. so i did.
and now i have a tale of what was once heartache and the loss of power. but now, i have used the pain and transformed it into my story.
so, it has become a tale where i am in charge, and where the power is mine.
and you can't take that from me.
it is a gloomy story, but that makes sense, since the monsoon rains have hit Karachi. thus, it has been dark since last night, and gloomy for the past 10 months of my life.
work with what you're given, i believe. so i did.
and now i have a tale of what was once heartache and the loss of power. but now, i have used the pain and transformed it into my story.
so, it has become a tale where i am in charge, and where the power is mine.
and you can't take that from me.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
stories will be told
i have now completed 3 short stories, and have ideas for 2 more, which i hope to work on very soon. the stories i have already written contain some semblance of hope; those that have yet to make it to the printed word are dark and macabre.
i look forward to writing them.
i look forward to writing them.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
preface
as a preface to my last post entitled 'double standards', i would like to mention that i was not bashing at anyone, but rather at how things work. my family loves me dearly. however, what this love means and entails, that i am learning and discovering everyday.
as one would, with any love, really.
as one would, with any love, really.
double standards (the censored version)
pakistan is a great place to visit if you want to learn more about double standards. usually these pertain to the complexities and intricacies of gender, race, class, sex and sexualities. however, double standards are not limited to just those realms.
my own educated, privileged, and ‘western’* household is a fantastic example of these double standards. let me elaborate via an anecdote.
a few weeks ago my father had a few of my friends over for dinner. all but one of these friends work abroad. my father told them how wise they were for leaving a country that is slowly falling apart. moreover how brilliant they were for obtaining those jobs and smarter still, because in 5 years of working in that particular country they could apply for citizenship and a passport. having a foreign passport is a dream come true for most pakistanis: it allows for you to be treated as (almost) human at most airports (and not a convicted felon which is the norm), and it gains you entry into countries you may as well forget about if you hold a pakistani passport.
but, i digress. so anyway, here my friends were being praised as i sat flabbergasted, for when i have mentioned working abroad, i have been told in various ways that i am abandoning the family and shunning responsibilities (as if living/working abroad is a life without responsiblities and stress). but to make the sitiation worse, my father then turned to my one friend who works in pakistan and said, “you should get a job in london! you should leave! this city is going to the dogs…”
of course, once again these words of wisdom did not apply to me, which is hysterical almost, because as a woman i am in far more danger than any man in this country (or any other?).
but what is danger anymore?
i have grown up having had parts of my body touched and grabbed when i knew it was wrong. but how could it be? i was in public, everyone saw and no one did anything. surely it was a mistake right? a mistake every single time. i mean, i was only 10.
and then 12. and 14. and 16. and now 24. and nothing really changed much at all. nothing really does in this country. except that things get worse. that’s a change though, i suppose?
and yet despite the perpetual imminent danger, and the constant impending doom and disaster that lurks within each house and outside of it, i must stay. because that’s what families do - they stick together, through thick and thin, right?
Wrong.
this is not a life i carved out for myself.
this is not at all where i want to be. or who i want to be.
* i am having huge problems with the term 'western' and all that it is believed to encompass.
my own educated, privileged, and ‘western’* household is a fantastic example of these double standards. let me elaborate via an anecdote.
a few weeks ago my father had a few of my friends over for dinner. all but one of these friends work abroad. my father told them how wise they were for leaving a country that is slowly falling apart. moreover how brilliant they were for obtaining those jobs and smarter still, because in 5 years of working in that particular country they could apply for citizenship and a passport. having a foreign passport is a dream come true for most pakistanis: it allows for you to be treated as (almost) human at most airports (and not a convicted felon which is the norm), and it gains you entry into countries you may as well forget about if you hold a pakistani passport.
but, i digress. so anyway, here my friends were being praised as i sat flabbergasted, for when i have mentioned working abroad, i have been told in various ways that i am abandoning the family and shunning responsibilities (as if living/working abroad is a life without responsiblities and stress). but to make the sitiation worse, my father then turned to my one friend who works in pakistan and said, “you should get a job in london! you should leave! this city is going to the dogs…”
of course, once again these words of wisdom did not apply to me, which is hysterical almost, because as a woman i am in far more danger than any man in this country (or any other?).
but what is danger anymore?
i have grown up having had parts of my body touched and grabbed when i knew it was wrong. but how could it be? i was in public, everyone saw and no one did anything. surely it was a mistake right? a mistake every single time. i mean, i was only 10.
and then 12. and 14. and 16. and now 24. and nothing really changed much at all. nothing really does in this country. except that things get worse. that’s a change though, i suppose?
and yet despite the perpetual imminent danger, and the constant impending doom and disaster that lurks within each house and outside of it, i must stay. because that’s what families do - they stick together, through thick and thin, right?
Wrong.
this is not a life i carved out for myself.
this is not at all where i want to be. or who i want to be.
* i am having huge problems with the term 'western' and all that it is believed to encompass.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
please
please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please .......
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