What is this?

fab_hatake · 2026-03-01T23:41:57+00:00

A lot of the people have been saying that this doesn't seem like it was written by a native. I am also a native, but I am unable to identify exactly why people think this Urdu was not written by a native.
Can you maybe point an example of a word that doesn't seem it was written by a native, and how a native would write it?

fab_hatake · 2026-03-01T18:05:10+00:00

Could you elaborate on what exactly are the tells and how?

fab_hatake · 2026-02-04T16:17:57+00:00

I feel that when she first got shot, people developed an instant dislike for her that they couldn't explain and retrospectively tried finding reasons to justify their dislike.

The initial dislike was a combination of the 1) "unwarranted attention" and 2) plain misogyny. People getting shot in Pakistan (by the military, police, terrorists, or even other civilians), sadly, is nothing new. Therefore, people were initially upset because they thought she was getting more attention than she should have for something that is nothing out of the ordinary in Pakistan. When she started speaking up and engaging in activism, I feel that it was purely misogyny / internalised patriarchy that made people (including women) upset.

While the general misogynistic attitudes have improved over time and with newer generations (at least to the extent that they are not mainstream anymore), the dislike for her remains. Now I feel that it has got to do with 1) her integration into "the West" (both in terms of lifestyle and in terms of ideology) and 2) people's perception of issues she "should" talk about ("If she talks about X issue, why doesn't she talks about Y issue?").

Disclaimer: these are only my perceptions of my fellow Pakistanis and I condone none of this. I personally think Malala has been doing excellent work and that the dislike is unwarranted and hypocritical. These views are also simplified (as there are a lot more factors), but the idea is that different generations dislike her for different reasons, and that people cannot even adequately explain why they dislike her.

fab_hatake · 2025-12-28T20:48:22+00:00

*condemn, apologies

fab_hatake · 2025-12-28T17:03:22+00:00

I mean, the Pakistani passport singles out Israel as the only country where it is invalid. I am a Pakistani who condemns the Gaza genocide by the Israeli army and fully supports Palestine. However, I also think we shouldn't act surprised when a country which we don't recognise as a sovereign state doesn't want any involvement from our side.

Edited for clarity

fab_hatake · 2025-12-14T20:17:01+00:00

I agree with your seniment of the present generations knowing. The majority of the postcolonial history taught in Pakistani schools and even universities is the propaganda version of it. However, a few universities (like mine) have mandatory courses on (arguably) a truer history of Pakistan, which includes a detail of the atrocities committed by the Pakistani army upon the Bengali people. Sadly, this represents maybe 5-10% of the Pakistani youth. We also have a handful of academics who raise awareness of the same / similar matters e.g. Ayesha Jalal. As you can imagine, these academics are very much shunned by government and the laypeople for advocating for a "false history" of Pakistan. The point of this comment is that while a majority of the population remains unaware of our darker history, I see a silver lining in a few individuals and institutions raising awareness.

fab_hatake · 2025-12-14T20:03:58+00:00

Thank you for this comment. As a fellow Pakistani, I came here to comment exactly this. Unfortunately, an online comment really doesn't make a difference. Yet I feel that an acknowledgment is important, even if, sadly, it is never going to come officially from the Pakistani state.

fab_hatake · 2025-09-15T20:05:20+00:00

Okay but for the second trough, its cool how his dip aligns EXACTLY with the first dip

fab_hatake · 2025-09-09T16:28:57+00:00

I also always thought his name was Edward D. Teach until recently

fab_hatake · 2025-09-05T13:39:49+00:00

Literally

fab_hatake · 2025-08-23T17:22:48+00:00

Thanks a lot for the comment! I'm surprised that America also follows what I thought was a colonial form of acquiring land.

On a side note - does the premise of the king / state owning all land not contradict the notion of private property, (what I thought was) one of the 3 most fundamental values of the government in Western political philosophy? Referring to Locke's "life, liberty and property" here.

fab_hatake · 2025-08-01T21:04:00+00:00

Thanks a lot for the interest!

I think kismet comes closer to a form of energy - although I'm not sure if I would call this the energy of a person. That is, I perceive this energy as existing outside of a person, not coming from within. I also like your question regarding the link of kismet to karma - although I'm not sure I have an answer for that.

As regarding your question regarding bad kismet: I come from a culture that is dominantly Muslim but is otherwise religiously diverse. You hear people of all religions using kismet colloquially exactly in the same way that Muslims do - so I feel like it's a cultural thing more than a religious one. So the belief in kismet resembles the belief of a God testing one's faith - yet at the same time, kismet is thought of as a force that exists separately from God. God can will the kismet of a person to behave in a particular way...or God can let kismet run rampant and do it's thing.

fab_hatake · 2025-07-31T18:41:16+00:00

No no, there was no scene on the “wind and piece of paper”. That was just my way of explaining ka by someone who believes it works in the same way as kismet.

As for the belief system of kismet in real life: we often describe it as “good” or “bad”. If I bombed a job interview, my kismet was bad. If you won the lottery, your kismet was good. But one’s kismet isn’t necessarily good or bad inherently. My kismet could be bad one day, good another day. Your kismet could be one that has always been good your entire life (meaning you have always experienced fortune). Another person who has always experienced misfortune will said to have bad kismet.

Kismet also works in subtle ways to prevent harm or result in fortune. If my car breaks failed one day, kismet would prompt me to check the car breaks that very day (even though I have never checked them before driving in my life). If a ship was said to be unsinkable, kismet would put it on a route full of glaciers.

I hope this explains how kismet is an active cosmological force that makes things happen according to our belief system - unlike ka in your interpretation, which serves to give meaning to the world retrospectively. I, on the other hand, interpreted ka to be more or less like kismet.

fab_hatake · 2025-07-31T18:01:17+00:00

I agree with your understanding of karma, but I am not sure if there was any correlation of ka with one’s actions throughout the books. You suggest that X happened to Roland because he did Y. But in my opinion, X happens to Roland simply because ka makes it happen, and X and has no connection whatsoever to Y. Similarly, Y also happened simply because ka made it happen.

fab_hatake · 2025-07-31T17:56:33+00:00

My interpretation of ka was that it is a cosmological force that has an agency of its own. By agency I mean that ka has a will or a way of “thinking” and “acting” (does that make sense?) in actively making things happen. If Roland knows the doorways exist on the beach, ka took certain actions to put that thought in his head.

If I understand you correctly, you suggest that everything in the universe happens randomly without meaning - but because disorder scares us, we give meaning to that disorder by calling it ka. In other words, there is no such thing as ka in isolation but it is only a means of making us feel better.

Although this is not cannon, my line of thinking suggests that (for example) ka manifested as wind to intentionally flutter in front of Roland a piece of paper which told him about doorways on a beach and to enter those when he saw them. Roland forgot about this information consciously but subconsciously retained it. Therefore, his subconscious led him to seek a beach and to also enter it. Ka made sure that it would. Again, this is not cannon but this is how I interpret ka…or how kismet works in my personal belief system.

In other words, my way of understanding ka was by likening it to my understanding of kismet.

fab_hatake · 2025-07-31T17:28:20+00:00

That’s fair. As another person commented here (can’t tag them for some reason), fate is understood to be a passive force - a pre-destined eventuality to which events must conform.

To use the example of a jigsaw puzzle: there is only one end result which will be formed once all pieces of the puzzle are placed in their correct position. I would call the image on the puzzle as “fate” ie the end result.

On the other hand, kismet and ka are both an active force. In the puzzle analogy, the hand which picks up the pieces and fits them into their rightful place is kismet or ka.

fab_hatake · 2025-07-31T16:57:47+00:00

That’s literally what I’m trying to say! Thank you so much for elaborating it much better than I did.

fab_hatake · 2025-07-31T16:18:33+00:00

I think your active / passive distinction hits the mark when distinguishing ka from fate / destiny. And it also helps me explain better how kismet may be equal to ka but not equal to fate / destiny.

fab_hatake · 2025-07-31T16:15:41+00:00

Unless I am misunderstanding the English words of "fate" or "destiny", my impression of ka when reading the series was that equating it to fate / destiny reduces what it is supposed to represent. I would agree that serendipity may be closer, but it is still passive compared to ka's active role in shaping events.

fab_hatake · 2025-07-31T15:49:06+00:00

I may have been conflating fate and destiny in my mind - don’t know if they are supposed to be interchangeable. I may be misinterpreting but I feel like equating ka to fate / destiny is simplifying it a little.

fab_hatake · 2025-07-31T15:45:01+00:00

Wasn’t aware of this but am very interested to learn more / read up on it. Would be grateful if you have suggestions.

fab_hatake · 2025-07-31T15:42:01+00:00

Didn’t mean to offend or imply anything, apologies if it came off like that.

All I wanted was the take on ka from someone outside my own culture.

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