Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Ali Ahmed Kurd was visiting Lahore recently to mobilise lawyers and civil society for the Long March slated for March 9. This campaign was also charged with January 24 visit and address of 'deposed' CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to a gathering of lawyers. The News on Sunday took this opportunity to have a chat with Kurd on the future of the Long March amid widespread rumours that the lawyers' movement is, once again, being hijacked by the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) to gain political mileage and to start an anti-Pakistan People's Party (PPP) campaign for weakening the ruling coalition at the federal level. Excerpts of the TNS interview with Ali Ahmed Kurd follow:

The News on Sunday: So a Long March once again?

Ali Ahmed Kurd: This is movement started by 100,000 lawyers of Pakistan and is fully supported by the people of Pakistan, including political parties and civil society. We have been running this movement for the last two years on a single point agenda: independence of the judiciary through the restoration of 'deposed' Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. This was a powerful movement against a dictator, aimed at undoing the steps taken by him. This is a movement of civil society and all political parties. We believe that the sitting assembly came into being because of this movement and as a consequence of the 'Go Msuharraf Go' campaign. Our last Long March was also successful and was largely attended. Then there was this criticism that we were trying to destabilise the newly-elected democratic government. After my victory in the SCBA elections three months ago, we have been waiting for the government response, but to no avail. We have to announce this Long March under duress. But, remember, we have been peaceful and we will remain peaceful. This is a historic movement without any particular support; rather, it is a cause publicly embellished.

TNS: But how will be this one different from the last year?

AAK: We have already started visiting and mobilising people across Pakistan. In the past, Muneer A Malik and Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan had been leading this movement as SCBA presidents and now this task has been assigned to me. I have started mobilising lawyers and civil society visiting them across the country. My current visit to Lahore is also in this connection. I feel no shame in claiming that we have set a target of 10 million people for the forthcoming Long March. This will be a march of the people of Pakistan, reminding the rulers of their promise to restore the 'deposed' CJP and the judiciary to its November 2, 2007, position. This is a collective cause, thus this is a movement of every Pakistani.

TNS: How can this movement succeed without the support of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP)?

AAK: We respect the PPP. It is one of the largest and most popular political parties of the country. It has been striving for democracy for years. The party was also supporting the lawyers' at one time. Even PPP Chairperson the late Benazir Bhutto lost her life struggling for democracy. Now her party is in power. We still believe with us the majority in the PPP supports this cause and movement. Results of Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), SCBA and district bar councils' elections are evident of lawyers' support for the movement. Most of them are with us. However, the focus of the movement is the SCBA, and not the PCB, now.

TNS: If you believe that the majority of PPP leaders are with the movement, then what is the hurdle in addressing this issue?

AAK: I don't care about the strategy or reservations of the ruling elite. I am not thinking about what they are thinking. I believe in restoration of the judiciary to its November 2, 2007, position, and we will continue our efforts for that purpose. We are committed to our cause. We believe that the goal is not too far.

TNS: Do you agree with the growing perception among a section of the society that Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry should also step down because he has become too politicised?

AAK: This is principally wrong. This is unacceptable for the campaign that is based on the constitution's supremacy. Why should he step down? Not at all. The issue is not politicised. The popular sentiment must be realised. This is not a matter of a job or a key post; this is a matter of principles and of negating what a dictator did. Why should he step down when his "No" has nurtured this movement and created a democratic mindset among Pakistanis encouraging them to say no to dictators? And do remember lawyers have no financial or political motive to gain through this movement. This is just one cause. We believe this is a god-gifted movement to change the destiny of Pakistan. This is first time in the history of the country that more than 5,000 lawyers were arrested, tortured and even killed, but they are still united and committed to their cause.

TNS: Are there any efforts by the government or lawyers to engage in dialogue? There are also reports that after being elected SCBA president you wanted to approach the government for talks, but Aitzaz Ahsan opposed. Federal Law Minister Farooq H Naek has also said that he wrote a letter to you, but you rejected the offer talks.

AAK: Not at all. Since my taking over as SCBA president, we have been running the campaign peacefully and collectively. This also happened in the past, but unfortunately the government did not take it seriously. The attorney general and the federal law minister, despite being part of the lawyers' community, have been giving wrong adviceto the government. They have a non-serious attitude, which has compelled us to go for the Long March. Neither is our demand a secret nor do we want a deal with the government. We do not want any give-and-take. When our point of view is crystal clear and our demands are in black and white, the government should have contacted us. Since my taking over as president of the SCBA, no government functionary has contacted me. There was only one meeting of the PBC, in which Naek and I were both participants. He did not even congratulate me on becoming the SCBA's president.

Moreover, there is no rift among the lawyers' community and leadership. This is all propaganda; an attempt to malign the lawyers' movement. There is no group of lawyers that wants dialogue with the government unless it makes the offer itself. Our demand is clear: restoration of the 'deposed' CJP. Finally, how can we have a dialogue with the government that thrice made the offer and then backed out?

TNS: What is the role of PML-N? Is the party not using the lawyers' movement for its political gains? Is not another IJI-style alliance in the offing under the garb of the lawyers' movement and Long March? Who will take credit for this movement at the end of the day?

AAK: I again say this is a movement of the people of Pakistan. This is a movement of every civil society group and political party that has been participating in it since the beginning, including the PPP. Since this is a public movement, everyone is welcome to support it. This is for the cause of constitutional supremacy and we believe most Pakistanis are with us. If political parties support it, we would be thankful to them for supporting a cause of saying no to a dictator (Pervez Musharraf). But I disagree that there has been any dictation from any side since I have become president of the SCBA. If someone claims that certain elements are financing the lawyers' movement, we are willing to be held accountable. Neither have we taken dictation from anyone nor will we do this. This is all political blame game.

We are also not confronting the government. Our movement is not aimed against the government. If people say that the current situation of the country does not afford this type of anti-government elements' supported Long March, they must remember that this will be a peaceful movement on a single point agenda. There will be no negative activity. We will not support the agenda of any political party. We are thankful to whosever supports it. We have invited people from all over Pakistan.

Moreover, the credit of this movement will always go to the sacrificing lawyers. I have been in the limelight for the last 15-20 years and everyone knows how apolitical I am. I have not been associated with any political party during this period. We are running the lawyers' movement with complete honesty. The rest is propaganda, fears and negative thoughts.

TNS: What about the proposed names of the people to be inducted as judges in the Lahore High Court? Has the situation not changed after the majority of the 'deposed' judges have taken a fresh oath, and now there are also reports that another lot of judges is being nominated to fill the vacant seats of judges in the higher and apex courts? How do you see this move?

AAK: We have repeatedly said the judges who preferred to take the fresh oath earned a bad name for themselves. They gave in to the government's pressure. Secondly, right now, we are not concerned about whether the government is filling the vacant posts of judges or how is it filling them. At the moment, we have the sole agenda of restoration of the 'deposed' CJP. The Long March is all about it and nothing else. There are other issues, but they are not our priority right now. There is only one priority of lawyers: to hold the Long March for restoration of the deposed CJP.

TNS: Don't you think that the Charter of Democracy can lead to the problem's solution?

AAK: We respect mutually-agreed documents, including the Charter of Democracy, prepared by the two major political parties of the country. So, they should be followed. But we have nothing to do with the Charter of Democracy. As said earlier, we have a single point agenda: and that is restoration of the judiciary to its November 2, 2007, position. We will keep on waging this struggle until the goal is achieved.

Pakistan's lawyers are, once again, planning another Long March, slated for March 9. The lawyers' movement, which many higher circles believe is dimming day-by-day, started on March 9, 2007, when then-President Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf removed Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry after the latter refused to step down on what he termed "baseless" charges levelled by the government of that time. The movement – supported by all major and minor political parties, except the then ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PMLQ) – was at its peak before February 2008 general elections.

On July 20, 2007, the Supreme Court of Pakistan cleared CJP Chaudhry of all charges and restored him to his position. However, lawyers continued their movement against Musharraf, declaring his actions and his rule illegal. On November 3, 2007, Musharraf, in his capacity as the Chief of Army Staff, imposed 'emergency' and ordered the detention of more than 60 judges, most of them who refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO). Lawyers from across the country, along with political parties, spearheaded a movement against the imposition of 'emergency'. On the same day, the Supreme Court – headed by Chief Justice Chaudhry – declared the 'emergency' unconstitutional.

The CJP and other deposed judges remained under 'detention' amid a vibrant movement, also supported by the ruling PPP, for their restoration. On November 28, 2007, Musharraf took off military uniform and the lawyers' movement took a break waiting for the results of the general elections. But, later, lawyers announced a boycott of the elections and changed their decision to take a break. A PPP-PML-N coalition government came into being as a result of the elections. On March 9, the PML-N and PPP signed the Murree Declaration, announcing the reinstatement of all judges within 30 days of the formation of the new government. On March 24, 2008, newly-elected Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, in his maiden speech, ordered the release of all detained judges.

On April 30, another deadline of May 12 was given, which also lapsed without any action being taken. On March 17, 2008, the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) announced a Long March from Lahore slated for June 10. The call triggered rifts in the lawyers' movement with the PPP supporting the People's Lawyers Forum and issuing statements against the Long March, considering it against the government. On June 14, lawyers held a Long March; however, its abrupt end against the will of most of the participants lost much of the support for the movement.

Since the Long March, weekly rallies have been poorly attended and most lawyers have become disillusioned with the movement, considering it as endless and inconclusive. The PPP has also disassociated from the movement. After talks on August 5, Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif agreed to restore the 'deposed' judges, but after ousting Musharraf. On August 18, Musharraf stepped down and on September 6, Zardari was elected as the country's new President. But the commitment restore the 'deposed' judges was not honoured by the PPP government. On October 28, Ali Ahmed Kurd was elected as new president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA). With his victory, the lawyers' movement has once again been infused with momentum and lawyers are promising a show of strength in the Long March slated for March 9 in Islamabad. – W. Gillani

Like the year before, the 2008 Degree Show was held at the main campus of the college and at the relatively new venue, the Old Tollington Market, which originally was the Punjab Exhibition Hall and has been restored to the Heritage Museum a few years back.

In most of Pakistan, a beautiful weather does not necessarily bring smiles on the faces of those who love to walk. The Mall was filled with knee-deep water and the visitors had no choice but to either use their vehicles or wait on either of the venues. It was made worse by the constant power failure, when the spectators could neither go out nor watch the display.

The museum space was dedicated to the disciplines of communication design and textile design. A common theme among the communication design works was that very few were up for selling any product, and even those who were, had picked the products with some sense of belonging to the land. One thesis, I'm Not for Sale!, went as far as completely rejecting advertisement and branding, which is a full U-turn for a use of the discipline that was envisioned by Freud's nephew Edward Barnes at the first half of the twentieth century to create artificial need for products that people do not need. Similarly, most of the works were dominated by challenging issues like national identity, environment, rights, and responsibilities. The final output clearly showed a lot of gray matter being utilised behind the fabulous works produced by the young designers and the much improved teaching standard.

The textile section showed some pretty pieces and work but was not offering much that one could muse one's mind with. The attempts of stretching textile design over the domains of something that borders abstract expressionism and pop art, or the literal interpretation of the psychedelic is not likely to help this pragmatic discipline, even on the pretexts like search of the original thought.

Ceramics of Halyma Athar were meant to be seen in motion in a claymation. The fusion of genres in this particular instance was among the best in this degree show. Her eye for details and the colours achieved through glazing creates a beautiful dream landscape. Fahad Alam's fusion is not of the genres but of different glazing -- like raku, resist firing, and different smoke techniques -- with that of calligraphy from the architecture of Aybak's times. The pottery and murals produced in the process are stunning.

The works shown by the students of the department of fine arts (according to their catalogue, 'the art making' department) was as varied as ever, offering some really insightful works along with the usual. As the global village is dominated by fear and misery, the work of the students responded accordingly by depicting wars and suffering. Where their fellow students from architecture department were trying to design structures for utopia, they were showing the disturbing yet true face of the dystopia they are forced to dwell in.

Starting from miniature, where needle and scissor was present as always and the scale of the wasli ever expanding, the selection of themes and mediums show a much liberated class of future miniature painters clearly showing some major transformations in the primal practice. Replacing dots with more than ten thousand miniature terracotta bricks, Noor Ali Chagani moves the miniature of Pakistan into a domain yet to be explored and much contested by the traditionalists. Sajjad Hussain's theme of living in war times is a vivid translation of our times. In one instance, where he is showing a soldier in camouflage enjoying his slumber with his boots on a 'flipped' version of Hafiz's poetry, and a Persian gilim -- small rug used by Persian soldiers in the field -- beside him. The flipped verse under the boots is a very powerful metaphor used by Hussain. All boots are made for walking, but some boots are made for walking over everything. The presence of a machine-gun along with a surahi and wine-cups in the same setting shows the intoxicating quality of unprecedented power enjoyed by the war machines in some of the left-over states of the post-colonial times.

Abdul Ghaffar Afridi's sculptures are the most distressing visual experience, where he had put his installations in a closed space where the very light was black. Coming from an area that is now ruled by terror, his choice was obvious to show the Dark Ages his people are going through now: the power of media in forming the popular views over the untold facts, the people's reliance on the news chosen for them by the media, and the sorry state of affairs that is created by this dependence. One can better understand the feelings of the artists coming from the marginalized lands by Nuruddin Farah's (a Somali novelist) remark that, "To starve is to be of media interest these days." Like Ibrahim Ahmed's attempt to protect the innocence against the brutality that is inflicted on the children of his region. Covering books and writing boards with steel and dolls with body armour are very strong and disturbing images. The conviction with what these sculptures are produced is as unsettling, as the artist says to have enjoyed the pain that he had to face through the cuts and bleeding while handling the material with bare hands. Though the overall theme of the show was very gloomy, these instances show the seriousness of the situation around us.

Imran Mudassar showed the body armour in his drawings, Figurative, from a different perspective. His personal experiences, like his campus being barbed-wired to protect the students from the unseen threat, made him question the very tools that are used for protection. The irony of weapons is that their producers claim to protect some but in fact are used for destroying the others. The sarcastic title, Life Drawing, is of a drawing of human figure on the digital print of a wall in Kabul that is splattered with bullet holes. The most appalling of his works is the video installation, Dinner for Two, in which a video is playing under a transparent container showing the common people from top. The container is 'surrounded' by cutlery with weapons and barbed-wires printed on them. The use of common people as a 'main course' consumed by wars and conflicts is the most appropriate metaphor for these times, yet serving as a fuel for the war lords and the media, hence given the romantic title.

The subject of the academic result, unlike other art exhibitions, is common with every degree show when one interacts with these fresh graduates. The factors influencing and shaping ideas of the young artists at art institutes are somewhat different than the rest of the practicing artists: mainly the need to justify their work to a select audience, the peer pressure, the need to get approval from their teachers and the like. While not undermining the importance of the process that harbours learning and better understanding of the arts, a linear application of it sometimes has adverse effects on the creative individuality. This creative milling produces the individuals who will form the future expression of this region on varied mediums. Gloominess aside, the hope in their eyes and their smiles aspire nothing less than a better future.

The moody scumbling, planar layers, and primarily vertical format of Noorjehan Bilgrami's indigo-stain works on paper, a selection of which were exhibited recently at the new Nomad Gallery in Saidpur Village, Islamabad, signal a strong affinity with the paintings of Mark Rothko. Noorjehan uses dense black and dark, diffuse brown exclusively, whereas Rothko also deployed luminous colours, and he sometimes introduces sudden "horizons" of piercing white, but the two artists share the same peculiar blend of intimacy and what Roger Fry called "cosmic sensibility" -- a somewhat laboured sense of the epic, inseparable from a search for emotional paydirt. Both artists strike it rich, though the feelings they concentrate on are different -- our sensation of insignificance in the face of the immeasurable in Noorjehan (I once described her works as negatively sublime), and an over romanticised sense of tragedy in Rothko. The latter is a humanist, even a sentimentalist, in abstract disguise, whereas Noorjehan illustrates Adorno's idea that "abstractness in art signals a withdrawal from the objective world at a time when nothing remains of that world save its caput mortuum."

Noorjehan's 'The Sacred Square' family of paintings -- a neologism invented by the artist to signify beyond black, a light which is transmuted by black -- were exhibited in a concurrent show 'The Nocturnal Song' at the Alhamra in Lahore. In this series the artist shifts her emphasis slightly but retains the same general focus. Black has two faces in avant-garde painting: It is the colour of death, but also, after Ad Reinhardt, the noncolour of hermetically pure (nonrepresentational) art. The 'Sacred Square' paintings in oils on canvas are neither symbolic -- unlike the works on paper, which seem to derive from or at least echo Noorjehan's first emotionally realistic works -- nor noncommittally pure. Instead they are Gnostic; that is, they deal with the challenge of separating light and dark, emblematic of the metaphysical -- and metapsychological -- problem of differentiation.

Black is the "colour of the origin of painting," Noorjehan states, reminding us of the absolute darkness of caves in which the first paintings were made. All of us live in the womb's blackness and are born in blackness before we are thrust into the light of day. Black is anterior and doubly fundamental, linking the origins of painting and life, hence these paintings' focus on the problem of the origin or emergence of light from pure darkness. Sometimes, as in Raat Ke Andherey Mein their light appears in a series of sullen slanting streaks sandwiched between black planes. Elsewhere, the light boldly asserts itself in a series of parallel horizontal streaks. But invariably, there is a sense of a difficult birth, and a troubled relationship.

The unexpected revelation of divine light from the midst of the black indifference of the cosmos that these paintings suggest is precisely the point of Gnosticism. Noorjehan's "beyond black" calls to mind the Gnostic paradox of an unconscious self that is of the same fundamental substance as the Godhead, while the blackness that is inseparable from it remains the fundamental substance of the alien world into which it is blindly thrown. Noorjehan's emphasis on the physical singularity of her paintings, underlined by the quantitative and temporal descriptions that constitute their titles, is self-deceptive, although her stated interest in origins suggests that she is concerned to become aware of the unconscious self that ultimately gives rise to them.

Since its introduction to the public in 1915 at the 'Last Futurist Exhibition' in Petrograd, Kazimir Malevich's 'Black Square' has intrigued and bewildered artists and critics searching for its meaning. Vervara Stepanova, conveyed the painting's conceptual instability when in 1919 she concluded in her diary: "If we look at the square, without mystical faith, as if it were a real earthly fact, then what is it?" This reluctance to accept the black square on a strictly formal basis has endured. Indeed, any hope that the recent exhibition would finally clear Noorjehan's canvases and paperworks of all charges related to mysticism was dispelled by the statement that the black square is a passage into another, spiritual world, equating it with the traditional conception of the icon as a visual representation of the next world in this world.

Noorjehan initiated each of the large paintings on canvas with abstract brush marks, upon and around which she has built complex, roiling seascapes, co-joined by the black square. Stylised geometric patterns suggest choppy waves, spouting water and whirling winds. Precisely cut shard like areas of overlaid gold leaf act as broad strokes to signal the iridescent effects of extreme weather.

Loopy calligraphic swirls animate one painting. She masterfully incorporates the summarising effects of graphic and decorative devices in her formal mélanges.

Perhaps the most accomplished painting includes landscape features indicated by geometric patterns. A triangle pattern suggests a mountain range; a column of staggered parallel lines delineates a waterfall. Noorjehan slyly plays with the discrepancy between these iconic patterns and the more naturalistically rendered environments into which she inserts them. The process invests the commonplace decorative motifs with new pictorial urgency, such as the rubbings of a carved wooden piece from Sri Lanka (gift to the artist by the architect Anja Lendran) that she incorporates into her paintings.

But Noorjehan holds back from any windswept embrace of Romantic excess. The gold leaf adds accents to hues of indigo, so tastefully muted that the storm paintings seem like luxurious ornaments or backdrop screens for opulent operas. Showing no race of human presence, these scenes of meteorological might indulge in pure percussive effects and theatrical flourishes.

Deceptively simple, they reveal rich contrasts of light and dark, dewy and dry. Noorjehan has succeeded here on several fronts by making more authoritative use of colour, adroitly realising her vision on various scales, and tinkering provocatively with her established method. The once straightforward grid is now more like netting in a breeze, bunched in some places and undulating in others. Similarly, some paintings offer up the potentially gaudy combination of bright red dots on an indigo background, but the use of red is sufficiently restrained, which diffuses the impact of the indigo and transforms the effect from jarring to meditative. The less saturated ground of these works with a blue-green colour of oxidized copper seems weathered and dry in comparison. Dappled in gold, it suggests celadon porcelain and the dreamy landscapes of Thomas Wilmer Dewing. Noorjehan, like Zahoor ul Akhlaq, balances fastidiousness with controlled chaos. She finds strength in restriction and uses contrasted subtleties as passages to revelation. Foliage and wind shiver throughout the painting as complementary colours speak to one another in surprising colloquies. Here we witness an artist unfettered by homages and art history, as she answers to no one but herself. Construction loosened, process revealed, these acrylic paintings move between surface and depth, and are breachable. One can see into them. The strokes play across plush, velvety surfaces -- art for the fingertips, but don't touch -- as markings of a free-floating plus-and-minus system that advances and recedes. Bilgrami is revelling in a beauty that is more in the foreground than before.

A believer in the spiritual possibilities of abstract painting, Noorjehan has long been drawn to the portrayal of light as pure illumination. Painting effectively delivers the viewer into a realm that combines sensuous materiality with a drive toward the absolute. Noorjehan's well-considered, deeply felt meditative paintings require time to be fully experienced. Her subtle colour schemes are gently structured by parallel lines so fine that they make themselves known as atmosphere, giving depth to darker areas, more than as individually discernible elements. Her merger of lyric minimalism and dusky tonal values deftly combines modes of Asian expression.

There was a mood of contemplation in the Nomad gallery; the paintings quietly communicated with each other and collaborated in an effort to engage the viewer. Noorjehan's art delivered its meaning through the construction of low-keyed colours and close shading.

Dear All,

A little kindness goes a long way. A day in which a stranger has helped you with something, or shown you some little courtesy or consideration or even just smiled and was pleasant is always one of the brighter days of your existence. An act of kindness, done without ulterior motivation or premeditation is somehow a reaffirmation of our common humanity and basic goodness.

I suppose we all realise this although we may not reflect on it or articulate it too often, but what I find surprising is how stingy people seem to have become with kind deeds or words these days. Perhaps it is a reflection of the insecure and violent times we live in that acts of courtesy are becoming rarer and rarer.

I am reflecting on this because I have a parent in the hospital intensive care unit and whenever somebody there -- staff, visitors, or anxious relatives with many worries of their own -- is kind and tries to help and reassure us, I reflect on how powerful and uplifting and deeply impressive such human gestures are. A smile is a simple case: the power of a smile is awesome, and the sort of chain reaction of smiles and good feeling it ignites is very interesting. But some people seem to not smile on principle. What exactly that principle is, I'm not sure but they are extremely stingy with smiles and as a result they are people one does not feel happy meeting or spending time with. I'm thinking now of the particularly joyless wife of one of my cousins. Granted my cousin might be a difficult person to live with, but having such a grim expression is not easy for your partner to tolerate either. I've often wanted to tell her: You have a good life -- and besides, SMILING IS FREE!

Yes, no tax on smiles. And besides that, smiling also has many health and beauty benefits. A smile can make you beautiful and radiate joy, it can help to prevent your jowls drooping and stop those frown lines forming….

There was a time when the traffic system of roundabouts used to work in Britain because everybody abided by the law with immense courtesy. Traffic coming from the right has the right of way at UK roundabouts so motorists would stop, and in quite a civilised manner allow the person coming from the right to go first. No longer. Now it is all a vicious race where motorists will speed up in manic fashion merely to reach the roundabout before the car on the right, and aggressively squeeze in first, thereby achieving some strange sort of victory and endangering road safety no end.

Or look at people at airports. The frenzied mob mentality when people leap up from their seats after the plane has landed, no matter that the seatbelts sign is still on. The way they push in to you in queues or knock their bags and backpacks into you carelessly, and the way they keep pushing despite the fact that pushing actually will not make a queue move faster…

I often see frail, elderly people on public transport in Britain who are not offered seats by the able-bodied people sitting on the seats particularly reserved for people with various special needs. Those same seats above which the sign reads 'Please offer these seats to those less able to stand than yourselves', a sign which also has a visual depicting disabled or elderly people, small children or those with infants. People are similarly careless about not allowing people to go ahead first -- a tiny courtesy which does not really cost you anything but which just shows consideration as opposed to expressing a pushy "me first" attitude.

Part of the problem, of course, is that we do not really teach courtesy to our young people any more. We fail to tell them to defer to age or to try to help others. So they neither know courtesy nor know how to respond to it. Recently a friend offered her seat on the train to a pregnant woman who was standing. The woman politely declined but then after a couple of minutes -- she exclaimed loudly "Did you … think I was pregnant?? OH MY GOD, I CAN' T BELIEVE IT!" and then more aggressively and accusingly "Did you think I was pregnant? I don't believe it!" My friend, who was just trying to be helpful was given a public lambasting by this woman who was not pregnant, just very fat!! And this fatso was not just rude but also completely unaware of how to respond to a courteous gesture.

It's a tough old world but the more aggressively we deal with it the more desensitised and unpleasant we become. Ingraining basic courtesies and trying to be generally polite, helpful and pleasant in our everyday lives rather than mean and unsmiling would be no bad thing. The kindness of strangers has always moved me deeply, their kindness really does go a very long way.

So try it out, especially the smile thing. It's the secret weapon of humanity.

And it's free.

Best wishes

Umber Khairi