Labiyk Allah Huma Labiyk by Masood Sadiq Whenever I recall my meeting with a lady standing outside of a lawn at the Haji Camp Lahore, beside the Badshahi Mosque, till now I can't help censoring myself. It was one of the frequent pictures that I am unable to remove from my precious asset of the past. When I caught sight of her, on seeing her appearance, first I thought of her that she was not a pilgrimage at all. How could she perform the Hajj?        About twenty-five years ago I was lucky enough to accompany my dearest mother to perform the Haj. Before this privilege, I was quite busy fulfilling all the pre-requisite documentation for the submission of the Hajj application. As per rules and regulations, the females can perform their Hajj in the company of a Mehrum (blood-relation relative). The financial package was supported by my elder brother, but he was not going to accompany her. And my mother was reluctant to perform that Hajj pilgrimage any Non-Mehrum . So one day, at an

   8| Virtue Never Goes Unrewarded It was about ten o'clock in the morning that I had a view of a middle-aged person sitting along the road. I was on my bike and passed away without noticing him. Actually, he needed a lift. I should have stopped there, but soon after realising I  applied the brakes and got to him after a few minutes. I was happy with this timely service.  While heading towards the destination he told me that he had come from a village on foot. He started walking early in the morning and still, he was far away from his destination. He also narrated to me the purpose of his visiting the city on that day. He had to go to someone to get some money. After getting the money, he would go to the fruit market to buy some fruit to sell to earn his livelihood. I heard his hard-luck story and dropped him near the fruit market. I gave him some money and asked him to go to the market and buy the fruit. He didn't want to get the money. It was not a big amount but he still he

     6|  A Stroke of  Good Luck Self -knowledge , self-confidence and self-esteem are the basics of our education and pieces of training in life. If we lack these basics, we are always at loss. Everyone should try to learn these basic pillars of education. Without this one cannot achieve success in life, and with the help of these basics, he can face the multi-facet challenges in his life. Every day he has to face problems and issues that he has to deal with. If he has learnt these basics of education, he can overcome these challenges comfortably.   In our early childhood, we used to listen to the stories that were broadcast daily at 8. P.M. Before we did our homework and lay in the bed to listen to the stories and before the end of the story, sleep came swiftly and peacefully, more like a mystic intensifying of perception than any changeful entrance into another world.  We , my elder sister and brother, were happy on the day when we got the final results of our respective classes. The

5| My Passion for Paintings It   was really hard to believe that I read the whole storybook of Urdu subject overnight, but I did it. It was Fifth grade when I got free books from the government- primary school administration - about a half-century ago. There were different short stories in the Urdu textbook with many colourful pictures. All of them were drawings and beautiful paintings. When I opened the book its pictures attracted me a lot. It was too good to be true. I turned all the pages one by one and found different beautiful pictures within the passages of short stories. Many a picture was really stunning and marvellous. It was my keen interest in short stories . I started drawing the parrots, their red beaks and green colours gave me utmost satisfaction and fascination. Later it was a favourite subject of mine in school. My class fellows asked me to draw their drawings in their books. It gave me a golden chance to practice more and more.   Our teacher asked us about reading the