If you want to pursue an education after the traditional/formal years of one's lives dedicated to that pursuit have long gone! I, like the fool that I am, applied for a Master's degree at the University of Karachi, Women's Studies Department, and was duly called for an interview to which I obliged, all confident that they would be grateful at this royal addition to their group! Boy!! was I in for a shock! They denied me admission. Yes, me, myself and moi, the great Lubna Khan, was roughly brushed aside in an interview conducted by three witches of the North and tossed out the building in a little less than a minute! HMMMM
And, my magna cum laude from the University of Oregon, my perpetual presence on the dean's list of the university for my entire tenure, my 4.0 straight A's all through the four years of my degree, all came crashing down and I was left stunned and stupefied.
What was the reason of my being shown the door before I even set foot in the room - too much gap in studies?????????? What? Exactly my response, what difference does it make if you didn't graduate two months before? and yes as a mature student I am welcome in all the acclaimed institutions abroad, not only welcome, they make you feel comfortable and encourage you to pursue an academic career at whatever age. But, this kind of logic apparently does not make any sense to the harbingers of knowledge in this land of pure knowledge and garden of Eden. If you are older, hell what right can you possibly have to an education? And how dare you have the audacity to apply in the first place? I mean what right do you have to be alive?
Well, being the silly person that I am, at being told of this 'stupid' University policy at that infamous 5 second interview I had to go on to criticize the bloody rule! and hell that sealed my fate! No admission to this pompous ass, I could feel this message oozing out of the very skins of the three witches sitting across me like some pulpous phlegm from a scene in b-rated horror movie! I am now told on the phone that all 50 seats have been filled up so there is no space(literally) for me, and if in case someone fails to show up they will contact me as they have my name on the waiting list. UFFFFF! I can't breathe for the suspense! as if I give a bloody shit!
I am surprised at myself, NO, I am exasperated with myself - How could I for even a fraction of a second think or believe in the equality of all people in having a right to something as simple and common as education in this most wonderful of countries (which, by the way, gives National ID cards to Bengalis at the first instance.) Nothing is easy in Pakistan, and nothing that has merit in context somewhere is easy. Who cares if you have the potential and the desire to study further, you can't! who cares if you want to acquire a new skill or invest in your personal and intellectual growth, you just can't.
The University and its policies like this country and its policies is outdated, provincial, and archaic - high time for a change please!
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