Hasan Aftab Saeed

3 weeks ago | pakistantoday.com.pk | Hasan Aftab Saeed

Mice, so long as they keep finding food in a nook, go to it again and again. Cats, once they get a shock upon touching an electric fence, refrain from repeating the act for a while. From their experiences and observations, animals figure out how the world works and regulate their conduct accordingly. Human beings do the same, but they do more: They tend to make general theories out of specific instances.

1 month ago | pakistantoday.com.pk | Hasan Aftab Saeed

A village chieftain was given to narrating over embellished tales of his hunting exploits. Owing to his social standing, none of the poor villagers dared being rude to him. But from the meaningful and amused glances that they exchanged, he knew that his tales were making him a laughingstock in his absence. Still, he could not help magnifying his adventures. To prevent further damage, he tasked his able secretary to cough discreetly whenever he said something that defied belief.

1 month ago | pakistantoday.com.pk | Hasan Aftab Saeed

Correct random guesses can hardly be categorized as knowledge. Since they have been arrived at by virtue of mere chance, they could equally likely have been incorrect, sometimes absurdly so. For mysterious reasons, many people struggle to wrap their heads around this. Way too many people similarly mistake information for knowledge. A man who can memorize and reproduce a great many facts and figures can no more be called knowledgeable than an encyclopaedia can be labelled learned.

2 months ago | pakistantoday.com.pk | Hasan Aftab Saeed

It has been my custom to try and avoid social gatherings for many years now. Of course, I do participate when it would be too impertinent not to– but reluctantly and under protest so to speak. This has not escaped notice, and I have consequently been awarded various epithets from ‘asocial’ to ‘downright misanthropic’, with everything in between. On my part, I plead not guilty to all such allegations.

2 months ago | pakistantoday.com.pk | Hasan Aftab Saeed

There is this time-honoured tradition of dividing everything into three categories. Like numerous other things, this custom traces back to classical Greek thought. Without in any way intending to disrespect the Greek sages however, I have found two to be a much more useful number instead. Male and female, smart and silly, ugly and beautiful, in-tune and tone-deaf, prodigal and dutiful, good and bad (cholesterol, Taliban, etc.), fortune and misfortune… the list goes on.