POV You Accidentally Started A Cult
Monsoon hit Lahore on Thursday so Sheharyar submitted his two-month leave to the dean on Friday. By Saturday, Sheharyar was standing on the balcony of his newly rented house in the historical city of Attock. He could see the Attock fort and the river Indus from his threestorey building. He had booked the third floor for himself. Plagued and rotten by a thousand years of isolation, his apartment seemed the perfect site of his internal chaos. Sheharyar sat in the chair, looked at the ceiling, and for once thought what he had done. Later his contemplation seemed futile to him. By Sunday night, Sheharyar got up from his chair and went to bed for a sound sleep. He had been researching and writing for the past 14 hours. Sheharyar worked as a researcher and lecturer at an institution concerned with pharmaceutical sciences. In his 3rd year, he decided to write stories based on his inner demons and imagined himself fighting them. But writing stories won’t make him get an Alto and drive through the Main Boulevard of Gulberg searching for new eatery outlets. He went
something near to writing and that was academia. Reading ten papers and writing one line was all he did in the past 3 years. His thoughts and ideas remained inside him and never came out properly or how he wanted them to see. After three years of endeavour, he got a Ph.D. in one of the Scandinavian countries. He had to move in October. Before that, before starting a life as an immigrant in another country, he wanted to enjoy the monsoon. His last desire was to witness monsoon and to write to his heart’s content. He was now doing it. Made an anonymous Twitter account and started tweeting threads on his ideas about the world. His
perspectives. He wanted to write every unhinged thought he had since 3rd year which he could not because financial stability is the priority. He still remembered his Pharmacology instructor’s words. Now was the time, and so he did. Sheharyar studied literature, and from Russell to Goethe, he moved to everyone. From existential crisis to hope, he moved to every point and wrote hundreds of threads. He did not care how many followers he was getting or whether anyone was reading them or not. He did what he always wanted to do. It rained in Attock, the ancient Indus showed its monsoon colours, and instigated him to fulfill his last
desire. Sheharyar compiled 157 threads and tweeted them all on Twitter with the anonymous name of “Campbell.” Taken from Campbellpur. The old name of Attock.
On September 15th, Sheharyar stood from his chair and uninstalled Twitter. It was done. What? Sheharyar had accomplished his long desire of studying literature, of presenting his chaos in words, and of tweeting 157 threads on Twitter. He looked at the Attock fort. The Attock Fort had assisted Akbar in his battle against Maratha and protected his empire from the mannerless Afghans. Attock Fort like the sub-continent witnessed several owners. Everyone acknowledged its importance and used it. It assisted Sheharyar too. The river Indus was there. It is believed that the Indus civilization started here too. India derived her name from Indus, but it is not there. Pakistan derived her name from Purity which is not there!
Sheharyar had in his eyes the sense of accomplishment that Babur had when he built this fort. Sheharyar opened google scholar and searched for targeted delivery of drugs. It was what, he had to do in Sweden.
By December, Sheharyar was in Sweden. By the start of the next August, he was in a biopharmaceutical firm working on novel therapies for cancer. In one year, he never thought of what he had done in Attock. He did not go near Philosophy and all his wild ideas.
Remained loyal to science and academia. He completed his Ph.D., and he worked tremendously on his projects. He went to Germany for the holidays. There at a café in Frankfurt, he overheard some Germans. They were speaking in an alien language. Sheharyar was not interested in their language or anything. But he continued to hear one word “Campbell.” As soon as this word entered his ears and was processed by his brain. He remembered everything he did in Attock. He was baffled for a minute but ignored thinking that it meant something different in their tongue. Later on, on the metro, he heard the same word. He eavesdropped on his landlord talking to his wife. He used the same word again and again. The next day, on BBC, he understood what had happened. Mr. Sheharyar had accidentally created a cult!
A person from the Free Democratic Party in the Bundestag (Parliament of Germany), mentioned some revolutionary ideas. The source of these theories of how man’s journey can impact society and what it means to be an elected representative came from an anonymous Twitter user named Campbell. The 736 members of the Bundestag were shocked to hear these ideas. The resolution citing how mayors should act was passed and Campbell was hailed in the Bundestag. Sheharyar’s night did not pass. It felt like night had taken over everything and would remain there for eternity. Sheharyar installed Twitter and searched Campbell. His followers had surged to 45.7k. His threads reached a million views. Random people inboxing him to tweet more. On Reddit, a separate subreddit was created to discuss
Campbell. A meme page on Instagram had 20.2k followers and there a “Campbell Fanboy” was posting memes elaborating and spreading his theories. People were inspired by his ideas of how an elective representative should work and demanded that politicians should behave like them. Parents were inspired by his ideas of an ideal student and were forcing their kids to behave like one. Campbell mentioned how a person in different fields should act. He did not go like conventional philosophers discussing how a man should act. He considered people in different roles as separate deities and their collective roles and mutual harmony would help to achieve an ideal, utopian society. Every person was reading his threads to find out how Campbell had told them to behave. Experts from different fields were astonished to see his ideas. In Japan, he became Campbell-sama. In Japan, the residents of Hokkaido, staged a protest,and they demanded the resignation of their governor. After public pressure, Naomichi Suzuki resigned. Shizume Hatake took over Hokkaido with her Campbellian ideas and vowed to make society a Campbellian utopia. While Campbell worked in his laboratory, people were discussing his ideas on Discord, impostoring him on social media platforms, and criticising his ideas. A gentleman found out that a Pakistani had started all this cult. But it did not take much attention. What people wanted to know was his whereabouts. Distinguished figures were editing his ideas and finding the origins of his ideas. The Campbellists were showing unwavering devotion to his ideas and beliefs. A Campbellist compiled all his threads in a book and published it. Making it to The New York Times bestseller. Capitalists, Communists, and Campbellists were everywhere fighting and rebuking one another. A Campbellist took command of Campbellists and led them with his interpretations of Campebllian ideas. Campbell II provided vast interpretations of his ideas. He told people how they could live their lives. Hundreds of professions were included. Every person was getting inspired. Sinners, slackers, virtuous, etc. all were seeing him as the saviour of mankind. While Campbell I was celebrating the birth of his son after a disturbing, childless marriage of 7 years, people stormed his house in the Netherlands. They were standing there, displaying banners of how he had helped them, and rejuvenated their lives. Other people were mocking them. Taunting how they were worshipping and admiring him. Campbell II demanded people’s strict adherence to Campbellian ideas and took hundreds to the Netherlands. It was to show their loyalty to Campbell I. Campbell II told people how Campbell I came in his dream. In his dream, he gave the Campbellian psalms to him, and he appointed Campbell II as his successor whilst he was in occlusion. As per Campbell II, Campbell I was in occlusion and was generating further ideas that would sway everyone. Once he had completed his book, he would rampage human minds with eternal ideas. The liberal Muslims were labelling him the reviver of Islam and were idealising him. The strict and orthodox Muslims were labelling him as the promised Dajjal. But all this was not going to change the fact that a cult had been formed.
When the Campbell I was unveiled to the world. He was invited on BBC. Millions streamed BBC. Campbell I presented how going to a field to generate new ideas was his long desire. He had successfully invented alternative dosage routes for hundreds of molecules. He modified the existing transdermal route and made it more important and common than the conventional route of drug administration. He told BBC that he was working on nanomedicines and was expecting them to overtake the pharmaceutical market in the upcoming years. He discussed his son, his microbiologist wife, and her contributions to microbiology and antibiotics. The BBC reporter stopped him and asked him about his Campbellian ideas. Sheharyar had not studied literature and philosophy since his Attock
adventure. He had forgotten everything and considered soft sciences as the waste of the human mind. He told how drug delivery and nanotechnology were the future. People were disappointed. Campbell II was perplexed and labelled him as an impostor. He kicked Sheharyar out of the studio. Talked to the Campbellists about how they were played by the anticampbellists. As per him, Campbell I was still in occlusion and other Campebllists should not fall into a trap by the haters. Sheharyar got into his car. He was happy and missed his Sheharyar life that got disturbed by the brief Campbell I’s fame. He opened the chat of his wife to text him that he was coming
home. His wife had already sent him a message. It was a meme. A picture she took when Sheharyar came to know that his son’s first words were mama, not papa. A picture of disappointed Sheharyar edited with the text, “POV you accidentally started a cult.”
Note: It was intended to be a submission for the literary festival of Fatima Jinnah Medical University (FJMU). The submission also helped me to win a category there. It is “the best” literary piece of my existence. The fulfilment I got after writing it was and is unexplainable.
