Pervez Hoodbhoy: Another Strange Character

Hi Blog,

I came to know this character through Dawn's Opinion page. He caught my attention from the very first of his articles. There was something unique about his writing. That uniqueness is the ability to utter truth. People generally lie. They lie a lot. And the worst thing is they lie to themselves. One of his articles I will never forget. The article on so-called 'PhDs' in Pakistan. Now I had been wondering for a long time why Pakistan is lacking behind in so many things. From my experience in schooling I concluded it was poor standard of education. Teachers don't want to teach. Students don't want to study. Collective time wastage. This is how I view most of education system in Pakistan. However it made me confused to see so many PhD holders. How come with such poor standard of education can we produce PhD holders. Most of them are more interested in writing doctor with their names than research. Mr. Hoodbhoy's article filled the gaps. He explained all about the mafia in our education system. Its sad. You can read the article here. So finally my quest for solving this puzzle completed. Incompetence is the key word. You don't have competent engineers to run industries. You don't have competent teachers to teach. Interestingly enough, teaching is a profession opted by leftovers from everywhere. Moment of silence must be observed on this sad reality as well. So you don't have competent people anywhere. So no struggle to be seen. It's hard to change people's mentality. We need to accept this and mend our ways. We need to research.

     Now coming back to Mr. Hoodbhoy. Recently I started digging on him. I watched his TEDx talk. One of the few people in Pakistan who wont be going to their grave with an unused brain. This character thinks. Thinking is the key. It has been the key for long long time. Thinking and reasoning go parallel. So what he was trying to explain was that when you hear something you must scrutinize it rationally. The same kind of lesson has been given by Ibn-Khaldoun in his Muqadimmah. It is a life changing lesson for those who take it.

    Whenever I come across these characters, after a certain period of familiarity with them, I try to read about their lives. They are always interesting. So was the life of Mr. Hoodbhoy's. I found his life here in the shape of an interview. Interestingly enough he mentioned in his interview reading Bertrand Russel, a person for whom I have a lot of admiration. I envy him that he could go to US so easily and study at MIT. Studying at one such institutions is my dream. So is visiting US. But I am afraid going to US is not that easy anymore. I concur Mr. Hoodbhoy would have some interesting things to say about this. 

    His lecture on Idea of Pakistan is interesting and thought-provoking. It was delivered at T2F whose director Sabeen was assassinated back in 2015. We have fallen to such levels now. Credit goes to a lot of people.

   Will be developing my views further after digging more.I hope that I become this character's student. Looking forward to meet him someday.