Dubai Works

What Living in Dubai Taught Me

2016-01-01T13:04:00.000+04:00

Due to last night’s unfortunate fire incident in Dubai, lots of things have been on my mind. Watching The Address Downtown Hotel burn in front of my eyes, affected me the same way, as if it was someone close to my heart or a precious family member in distress. My attachment with Dubai does not only limit to the fact that this is a city where my home is and where I earn my bread & butter; but it extends to the whole city, its buildings, and its people.

Last night I felt like if I had the power and the means, I would have personally gone on site and helped douse the fire out. It gave me heartache to see that hotel on fire, not only because the building was on fire, but because I was vary of the mixed reactions and publicity Dubai will get regarding the incident on International Media and Social Media. I was right of course, a lot of bitterness and hatred came out last night from people that don’t live in Dubai; a lot of jokes about the fire, a lot of jokes about Dubai in general, and it tormented me.

People that don’t live in Dubai or don’t have an attachment with Dubai will never understand the pain; or even why we hardcore Dubai loyalists get so offended when we hear anyone say anything remotely bad about our dear city, Dubai. We have seen Dubai progress from an oasis in the desert, to a world-class multicultural city and this fact makes us proud. After living 13 years in Dubai, after seeing a lot of changes happening – changes to the infrastructure, to the logistics, to the people, to the city in general – one feels a part of this city and loves it deeply.

Mistakes and unfortunate incidents are uncontrollable and sometimes happen due to extraneous and extrinsic factors, which are not in control of anyone. Last night’s fire incident was not something anyone could have controlled or even fathomed it would happen. Dubai has world-class security, safety teams and departments working overtime, to ensure the safety and security of all its citizens & residents. Dubai Police is one of the best Police departments in the world; despite all of the security and safety preparations, if this happened, it is extremely sad and disheartening.

However having said that, hats off to the Civil Defence, Police and Emergency services last night for reacting swiftly and smoothly to the fire incident and averting a major disaster. Apart from few minor to moderate injuries, there has been no incident reported of a loss of life. The firefighters worked overnight to ensure the fire is contained, doesn’t spread and that everyone in the vicinity is safe. The safety & security teams in Dubai ensured that the city is given its saving face opportunity with grace and panache; ensured that the fireworks continued.

Apart from the security and safety teams, the people of Dubai itself rose up to the occasion and showed what living in Dubai means; living in Dubai means spreading love & solidarity in the time of need, it means opening up their homes to people who are looking for a space to sleep & get through the night and it means expressing generosity and kindness. People from every nationality, race, religion and culture tweeted using the hashtag #NeedAnAddress and offered space in their homes, to displaced people due to the fire.

Living in Dubai from the past 13 years has shown me that people from different race, religion etc can in fact live together harmoniously. Yes, there are the odd cases of discrimination or racism, but on most parts, Dubai is a multicultural haven and a true global village. This city has raised me to be a good resident and to be a good human being. This city has taught me to be charitable, because Dubai itself cares. Dubai rises to the occasion, time and time again, to do remarkable charitable acts; which gives me the motivation to be charitable too, since it all starts from the grass roots.

Dubai has shown me a side of people that I would never have seen, living in any other normal city. Dubai has Pakistanis which are friends with Indians and they live peacefully, Dubai has Muslims and non-Muslims peacefully coexisting, Dubai has holidays celebrated throughout the year – not only Islamic holidays, but Easter and Christmas etc too. Dubai has a great mix of tourists and residents. Dubai has its urban modern futuristic side to it and at the same time, got its old city charm in the form of the Creek, Bastakiya and relevant areas. Living in Dubai, people make friends from literally rest of the world; because rest of the world comes to Dubai.

Like the lyrics of the Emirates Airlines in-flight song say “It is nice to go travelling to Paris, London and Rome, but it is so much nicer to come home.” Frank Sinatra was right, Dubai does feel like home and it is always nice to be here. Burn the passport.

Narcisstic Pakistani Parenting

2015-08-02T12:16:00.003+04:00

Majority of the Pakistanis will be able to relate when I say, we’re born in to the culture where we have to put our parents on the pedestals and treat them like royalty, no matter what they do – good or bad. If it is bad, talking about it or talking about them amounts to seditious libel. It is blasphemy and forbidden. No matter what the parents do, the bottom line is, at the end of the day the Pakistani mentality rules. We have to silently accept it and live suffocated and jarred lives.

Degree of suffocation differs from person to person, but every one of us suffers to some extent. Some suffer more, some suffer less; not to say that there aren’t healthy and happy relationships or families, there are, but that might be very rare. We might never know the exact details, because in Pakistani society and mentality, it is looked down upon to frown upon your parents and their actions.

We are meant to tolerate it all and live our lives without complaining.

The best thing about your Pakistani parents is, usually one of them will be suffering from malicious narcissism. Sometimes both of them. What is malicious narcissism? It is a psychological syndrome where there are a mix of different mental and psychological elements for instance narcissism, antisocial behaviour personality disorder, aggression and sadism.

Usually in Pakistani families, it is the father that is suffering from such a disorder, not to say there aren’t mothers that are like this; there are. This might be much more rampant than we think and each one of us are either going through something, are about to go through something, or we have gone through something at the hands of our parent(s).

Usually it is the daughters that are subjected to this narcissistic behaviour. Sometimes the sons too, but majority of the times it is the daughters; especially the eldest daughter. Sometimes it is so severe, that the eldest daughter might think to herself “I would have been appreciated more if I was born a son”. No amount of good behaviour or obedience will ever change someone that doesn’t want to be changed.

It is not your fault your parent is like that. They’re like that, because their nature is like that. Unfortunately, we have to put up with it all our lives. The guys separate themselves and live alone, or with their own family. However, because being a girl in Pakistani society comes with completely different dynamics, we’re bound to stay with our parents, unless we marry. That’s the only way to get rid of your woes, but that’s also not a sure fire way of getting rid of your troubles, because marriage means even more struggles and marriage in haste with a wrong person is chaos.

The girls that want to separate themselves from their family because their parents are making their lives miserable, are looked down upon, shamed, humiliated, embarrassed and dissed, all because they want to live their lives according to how they want to. If a Pakistani female wants to go abroad and live alone to get tertiary education, there are rumours in the extended family and people threaten her that no one will want to marry her. If she wants to live alone and work, when she comes back to visit her family no one might say it to her face, but everyone is thinking ‘’easy slut”.

People can’t seem to fathom why a girl would want to live alone or live her life the way she wants to. It is always a dictated life for her. She gets raised by her parents, until the point where they can in a way get ‘rid’ of her and then she gets married. Marriage is almost always on the cards, very rarely do parents allow their daughter(s) to go off and live the life that they want to. Even the pseudo liberals that support female education and women emancipation don’t expect their daughter(s) to live on their own. They can do whatever they want, as long as they return back to them, or live in the same household.

But why would a daughter want to live in the house where her dad or mum is exhibiting unappealing behaviour towards her? Why is it that the parents can say or do whatever they want and we just silently keep taking their behaviour? Why is it that the parents can shout at us, but we don’t even have a right to speak in front of them, let alone shout back? Respect for parents is one thing, but when your parent(s) are mentally torturing you and/or physically abusing you, it is quite another.

Malicious narcissism is a brutal and vicious thing. It might be difficult for people from functional families/backgrounds to understand why someone would want to cut off from their father or mother because they can’t take it anymore, but sometimes the situation is such that you just can’t take it anymore. Sometimes the circumstances that surround your life are so hard, that bearing with it is no longer an option that you entertain. Sometimes you want to distance yourself from your dysfunction family.

Intention behind distancing yourself temporarily for a few years, or permanently from your family forever, is to free up your mind from all the negative thoughts and issues that bog it down. Dealing with a narcissistic person is extremely hard work and it is much worse when it is your own father or mother. You hate it when they shout at you, when they find pleasure from making you feel down, when they smile after giving you pain or hurt etc. In the Pakistani society, we’re brought up and conditioned to believe that blood is always thicker than water and our parents are everything.

Well, blood isn’t always thicker than water.

If blood was thicker than water, our father or mother wouldn’t find gratification from causing us emotional or physical pain. This is sadism. Sadism is the tendency to drive pleasure from inflicting pain on someone. Sadism fuels narcissism. Narcissistic personalities like to boost and inflate their egos by putting down others, because it makes them feel powerful. Dealing with such an individual in your family, in the parent capacity means you’re always challenged and you have to rise to the occasion every single time. There is always friction between the parent and the offspring.

Wish this wasn’t the case, but this is how some families are. Where the father or mother, likes to physically abuse their children, or even just one child, amongst their offspring. That child is subjected to all kinds of torture. Screaming, shouting, physical hitting etc. The child tolerates it all its life until it can grow in to a self-sufficient independent adult that can move away from the abuse that he/she suffered at the hands of their parent(s). When the child grows up in to an adult, it is torn between the desires to finally let go and live their own life and the duties that it feels burdened by towards his/her parents.

In the Pakistani family, it is emphasised a lot on the children growing up and looking after their parents. It is unlike in the West where it is understood that the children will live their own lives once they reach College age and that the parents will have to fend off for themselves in their old age. When we’re brought up with that mind set and mentality that we will have to look after our parents once we become independent, it hinders our path to self-determined life that we imagine for ourselves. Emotionally exhausted, physically drained, generally abused, we are tired from dragging the baggage along with us everywhere and there comes a time when all we want to do is cut off from our parents.

Yes, parents give birth to us and raise us. But nowhere is it written that parents have the right to emotionally and physically abuse you. You can become parents by having a baby, but to be good parents, it takes much more than that.

Supporting Independent Films - Crowdfunding 'The Chop'

2015-06-14T19:41:00.000+04:00

The film industry has immensely evolved over the past decade, not only in how films are made, but also about how films are distributed and relayed to the audiences. In the past, conventional film making involved traditional means of capturing motion pictures and then projecting them to the audience in a theatre. As we evolved technologically and as the film industry’s popularity with the general public grew, there were a lot of developments and advancements made; even in the conventional cinema viewing.

These days however, due to the rapid growth fuelled by social media and the Internet, not only has the ‘viewing’ part of film making evolved, but also the ‘making’ part of the industry has developed greatly.

Internet has made it easy to cost effectively distribute films; this phenomenon has propelled more people to get in to the business of film making. This is pushing a change in trends. No longer is the film industry controlled by big budgets and big name film studios. Independent film makers are starting off with tight budgets and low resources, but at the same time, they’re managing to produce worthwhile quality material.

Before, a film maker had to pitch their idea to investors and big name personalities, to get them on board as executive producers, who would fund the film. More often than not, this was a very tedious thing to do and a long process to go through, before you could find a Producer that would back your film; especially if you’re not a well-known individual in the industry and are not tied to a big name film studio or company.

However, with the practice of crowdfunding, the trend by which people are managing to achieve their dreams is changing, ever so gradually. It has revolutionised the way by which independent film makers fund their projects. Crowdsourcing on the internet has helped get financial contributions, not only from locally, but also internationally. Sky is the limit when it comes to reaching out to people, especially on social media platforms.

The trick is to market your film correctly, over the internet and the funding will come.

There are different crowdfunding websites on the Internet, that help people ask for funding for any kind of their projects. Indiegogo is one such website that facilitates independent film makers achieve their dreams. It the largest crowdfunding platform and it empowers you to reach out to the world. There are many crowdfunding examples that can be found on Indiegogo. One such example is the currently in production indie-comedy short film project called ‘The Chop’.

'The Chop' is a comedy about Yossi, a charismatic Kosher butcher who loses his job, cannot find work at other Kosher butchers, and therefore decides to pretend to be Muslim in order to get work at a Halal butchers.

‘The Chop’ is the kind of project that should get funding. It is also the kind of project, whose script might get lost in the pile of other scripts that reach the desks of big name film directors and/or producers. It has a quirky and unconventional plot, something which we don’t generally see in mainstream films and Television projects. It is something exciting and interesting. Indiegogo is the best place for ‘The Chop’ team to advertise about their film and get funding from the public, from people like us.

Not only does this give an opportunity for people one hundred percent dedicated and involved with the film industry to further their ambitions, but it also gives a chance to us normal people to be a part of something exciting in the world of films. If you think ‘The Chop’ is an exciting project and you would like to fund it, go to the Indiegogo page of ‘The Chop’ and help them in any way possible. Any donation amount could mean a spectacular ending for all.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-chop/x/11064006#/story

Kindness Knows No Religion

2014-06-01T00:45:00.000+04:00

Lost faith in the dark days, but few people make you want to believe. They call it kindness and love, despite differences. They say that differences put aside, we have one in thing in common and I wondered what that is, they said “humanity”. You don’t need anything else, but humanity to be nice to someone. To smile at a stranger walking by, to make someone’s day by a little act of kindness.
They say in Islam, that if you smile at someone and make them happy, it is an act of charity. But, I say leave religion out of this. If you smile at someone, you are being nice and kind. Forget making someone else happy and feel good about themselves, you feel good yourself!

Religion is important to a lot of people, but at the same time, people should realise that they shouldn’t be too engrossed in religion, that they forget basic humanity. People follow their cultural beliefs and religion so closely, that they knowingly or unknowingly become biased and racist. They discriminate and don’t want to interact with people from other religions. This shouldn’t be the case. We are human beings first and Christian, Muslim, Hindu etc. second!

In the process of being good followers of religion, they go against their religion itself. In Islam and Christianity too, the emphasis on treating your fellow human beings right is strongly there. Hinduism also has similar teachings and many other religions. But people forget that and don’t do what their religion asked them to do; be nice and kind to fellow creations of God.

Few people judge others on the basis of their skin colour, nationality, ethnicity and most importantly these days – religion. Stereotypical and biased thinking, thanks in partly promoted by the media, has caused differences to arise between people from different religions and people don’t give the other person a chance and judge them to be a bad person to know, without even knowing them. It is a tragedy and a shame.

Once you get to know someone, you find out that they are a good person. Knowing someone from a different religion shouldn’t endanger your own beliefs and values. If you think your beliefs and values will get affected just by knowing someone from a different religion, then you are insecure about your own religion. The hatred and biassed behaviour related to knowing someone different, is fuelled by your own insecurities.

If you are strong in your beliefs and faith, nothing can affect that. In fact, knowing about someone else’s religion and culture will give you deeper insight in to who they are and how they function. It will help contribute to make you an even more effective human being, because you will be able to deal with and know different people. It will help you appreciate your own religion more.
So, be kind to someone. Being nice knows no bounds, least of all religion. Break the misconceptions and stereotypes. Be human.

Studio Photography

2014-05-30T17:29:00.000+04:00

Way Back To My Happiness

2013-11-14T19:26:00.000+04:00

As I sit here in the park, I watch people walk by and smile at one another. I watch the kids play tag and have a good time. I even watch the birds’ chirp and fly about. All this while, what am I doing? I am just sitting here, so still and quiet. I had become quiet over the past few months, because of many different reasons. I had lost my will to talk and even more, I had lost my will to smile and be happy.

I was never the negative pessimist, but circumstances had forced me to become such way and lose my smile and happiness. My heart wasn’t happy and neither did I ever feel like smiling. People around me tried their best to cheer me up, but there was this hollow feeling inside me always. It wasn’t anyone’s fault but mine that I was in such a state. It wasn’t even the fault of the person, because of which I had lost faith in people.

It was purely my fault, because I had allowed myself to sink to such depths of sorrow and resentment that I had lost my way back to happiness and cheerfulness.

While I was lost in my thoughts, looking at the kids playing in the park, I noticed that a lady had come to take a walk in the park. She was old and frail, with pale looking skin. She had a walking stick with her and she took one careful step at a time, towards the bench I was sitting on. She saw me staring at her and gave me a big warm smile.

Something about the way she was smiling warmed my heart immensely and I sat there staring at her. Suddenly this thought came in to my mind and I got up and hurriedly walked towards her. I got hold of the lady and helped her walk towards the bench. She sat down and then I sat down next to her. She looked at me and gave me a thankful smile, acknowledging my gesture. I have no idea why, but I actually felt different.

Could it be? Can I dare say it? I felt a bit happy. It was amazing to experience such feelings, after so long. Her smile had completely melted my heart and maybe that is why I had gotten up to go help her. Whatever it was, I was glad that I had done that. My mother would have been proud, bless her. She always taught me the importance of kindness and generosity. How we should be helpful and nice to other people, especially the elderly.

After giving me the smile, the old lady had turned her head towards what was in front of us. There was a walking path, on which people were walking past by and then there was a playground in which kids were playing tag, amongst other things. There was a set of swings too and I could see the children have a good time.

I remembered my childhood and how I used to have so much fun having a go at the swings. How I used to sit on the swings, kick my feet in to the sand and then launch myself in to the air. How I used to scream at the top of my lungs, because of the exhilarating feeling and adrenaline rush. But I also reminisced about something else right that moment, when I was thinking about my childhood. I remembered how I used to laugh and smile, while on the swings. So carefree and happy, I used to be. Not caring about anything, or what people would think.

What had happened now? Is it that when we grow up, we become so engrossed in our complicated and messed up lives, that we forget to have fun and be happy? As a child there were many moments in my life where I was truly happy and I had smiled carefree. I had smiled from my pure and innocent heart. Now? As an adult, I had to think before I smiled. There was something missing from my life, despite being so successful and now thanks to someone hurting me, I had completely stopped believing in a thing called happiness and had started to hate everything. I hated smiling too.

Until today that is, thanks to that old lady, I had smiled once more. I had smiled after ages and I owe it all to her. Her smile touched my heart and soul; it forced me to smile.

Turned my head towards the lady again to see what she was doing and saw a tear trickle down her face. Snapped out of my thoughts and immediately pulled myself back to reality. Got so shocked at seeing her having tears in her eyes. Took her hand in my hand and asked her what was wrong and why she was crying. She stayed quiet for a few seconds, with her head looking downwards. Then she looked at me and smiled again.

I was so confused. What was happening? One moment the old lady had tears in her eyes and the next moment she was smiling at me. I held my breath unconsciously and waited for the old lady to say something, anything, to me. It seemed everything had gotten really quiet and that there was just the old lady and I in the park; no one else. My every bit of concentration was focused on her and what she would tell me. I was staring at her really intensely and had cancelled out the world. Even the birds had stopped chirping.

She patted my hand and smiled once more. Then she relayed an emotional tale, which literally broke my heart in to pieces. She told me about a rough childhood; how she was physically abused as a kid and that she never had the privilege of going to a park and playing around like the other kids. That she had become an introvert, cutting off everyone else from her life. That she had suffered at the hands of her father, who beat her up so badly at times, that, she couldn’t even walk.

She told me how due to her beatings, all her life she had problems sitting cross-legged on the floor and how she wasn’t able to carry heavy loads because it pained her back. She told me how she craved for a normal childhood, because hers destroyed her. She wanted to be a normal child, but due to her physical abuse, she had become mentally scarred and cautious of other people, especially men. Particularly men like her father.

All the while the old lady was speaking, tears had started to well up in my eyes and I was on the brink of crying. Physical abuse is a horrific thing and my heart broke every time I thought of her as a child, getting beaten up by her father.

Lots of things were told and heard. Finally, she let go of my hand and told me something that I’ll never forget. She told that there is a strange glow on my face and that it makes people smile. I got so surprised after hearing what she had said. I immediately smiled and thanked her for what she had said and then asked her why she had said that. She told me that I had an angelic innocent face and that when people looked at my face, she was sure, they felt like smiling. She also told me that that is the reason why, when she had seen me staring at her, she smiled and walked towards me.

She told me that despite whatever had happened to her in her past, in her old age, she comes to the park and sits on the bench every other day when she can and stares at the children playing, because it reminds her of a happy childhood that she could have had. She sees a part of herself in every happy and smiling child, because that is what she wanted her whole life, to be happy and to smile.

Her whole life was spent worrying about what others would think, not interacting with people, shunning social gatherings and occasions, remaining silent, yearning for happiness and finding reasons to smile. She had spent all of her life, escaping what had happened to her in her past, instead of coming to terms with it and moving on. It had destroyed her completely and now in her final years of life, she had understood what she should have long back.

That we shouldn’t be happy just for the sake of it and that there is a deeper reason to why happiness is required in a person’s life.

Happiness stabilizes a person and keeps a person sane. Happiness is the phenomenon that helps us stay intact and stops us from breaking apart, emotionally and physically. We have to have such a state of mind, in which we experience pleasant emotions, ranging from mild contentment to intense joy. Mental state of ‘happiness’, in the broad sense of the term, makes us feel alive, because every other positive emotion and feeling is linked to happiness.

If we aren’t happy, we are not alive. We aren’t alive, because we aren’t experiencing our life and living it. A day of not being happy is a day of our life wasted away, that time, which could have been put to good use. What had sadness gotten me anyway, the past few months? I had missed my old self, my actual real self. What I had become was not what I was. I had started to hate myself too.

Why was I blaming myself for things going on in life between few people and me, especially this one particular person? No, it is not always our fault and it isn’t always in our hands. If someone has to leave our life, they will eventually, no matter what. I blamed myself all these months and had felt guilty of something that hadn’t even happened because of me! It was destined to happen!

Meeting the old lady had proven very beneficial for me. I smiled again after ages, I felt happy and I got thinking again about what I was doing to myself. Life is too short to spend it in guilt, resentment and anger. We only get one life to live and there is no point if we spend it not ‘living’. If we are just passing time on this earth, then we might as well die, because there is no point. We weren’t born, just so we could wait for us to die again. We were born, so we could do things we want and accomplish few things in life, before we reach our final destination. The old lady had come to me in the form of an angel sent by God. I understood what she told me and there was a point to it all. The more I thought on the matter, the more I started to smile. I was glad that the people who had hurt me were out of my life now. I was happy!! I was ecstatic.

It just meant that I was free to go look for other people, for better people who deserve to be a part of my life and that with whom I would be well off, than the ones who hurt me. I looked up at the sky, smiling and prayed a silent thank you to God. I closed me eyes and a sense of calm had overcome me. I felt a strange new feeling in my heart and I smiled again. I couldn’t stop smiling, because I was overwhelmed with the feeling of happiness. Wasn’t it enough that I was alive and in good health? I had a lot of my youthful years left and I decided there and then, that I wasn’t going to let them go to waste, by being bitter due to someone else.

I stood up and started to walk away. I looked back towards the old lady and smiled at her. This time, I had tears in my eyes. But this time, they were tears of happiness, not tears of pain and sorrow. I waved at the old lady and she waved back at me. I slowly walked towards the park gates, to go to my car and I realized something else. That I too would frequent the park more now, in hopes of running in to the old lady again. Who knows what lessons I learn, next time I talk to her?

Peshawar Church Blast: A National Tragedy

2013-09-23T05:29:00.000+04:00

It is a shameful occurrence and nothing else can be said about it. At least 75 people have been killed and over 100 have been injured. What was their fault? Why were they targeted? Their only crime was that they were Christians, in a country called Pakistan. Whenever something like this happens, I feel slightly ashamed at calling myself a Pakistani.

Be it the massacre of Ahmadis, Shia genocide or in general terrorist activity in the country, it all is a reason to be shameful. Pakistan is a great country, but we have to get rid of the menace that is ripping our society and country apart. How much more blood is going to be spilled before the government realizes this?

TTP are barbarians who don’t want peace. They have proved that by showing disinterest in the proposed peace talks by the government – backed by parties such as PTI. First they killed mercilessly, Army personnel in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and now attacked a church in Peshawar. Their justification for this attack is that those people are non-Muslims and they don’t have a right to live.

Who gave them authority to decide whether someone has a right to live or not? Aren’t Christians human beings too and Pakistanis? As Pakistanis and as citizens of this country, they have full right to live fear free in Pakistan. Unfortunately, over the past few years, we have seen this is increasingly difficult to do so; first the attack on Christians in Lahore last year and now this.

What TTP is doing is destruction of humanity, by using wrongful interpretation of Islam. They use Islam for their own means, misinterpret the religions scriptures and only follow what suits their bidding, while ignoring the rest. It is a harshly unfair portrayal of Islam.

How long will we allow TTP militants to keep taking innocent lives in Pakistan, whether they are Muslim or minority? Unfortunately, the 90% green part of the Pakistan flag couldn’t protect the 10% white part.

TTP the so called warriors of Islam and propagators, don’t realize that even suicide is forbidden in Islam. Then how can they wage holy war against the Christians in Pakistan, by the use of suicide bombers. Isn’t that forbidden in Islam as well?

TTP apologists and those that keep defending this incident by saying it transpired due to delay in peace talks need to comprehend that, we didn’t lose lives of Christians in Pakistan. We lost lives of Pakistanis. They have full right to live and the state has an obligation to provide them security. You can’t hide behind the excuse of delay in peace talks and keep letting incidents like this happen.

Whenever something happens in Pakistan, all the big leaders condemn the incident. Statements are released to the media, which convey a tragic message of condemnation. Well, it is time to stop playing the sympathy card, stop with the political scoring and actually doing something. Action is required more than condemnation now. The nation is sick of it. Leaders are sitting at top positions and all they do is condemn and make speeches.

Those who encourage violence or teach killing innocent people are against the teachings of Islam and TTP are clearly against it. TTP are also clearly against the interest of Pakistan and want to create rifts between the different people that live in the country, for their welfare. Anything that disrupts peace and harmony in Pakistan is welcomed by this militant group.

What happened in Peshawar is a national tragedy! Instead of blaming it on different political parties, the government or external forces, everyone should come together and collectively think of a solution, because peace talks is definitely not working. Stop with the blame game already, people are losing lives. Also whenever something like this happens in Pakistan, instead of condemning the attacks, thinking of it as a sad tragedy, people end up defending their political parties, start badmouthing and political scoring.

It is time for all of that to stop and for the nation to unite against these animals, because that is what they are. They kill without remorse and they fully intend to keep doing that, unless something is done.

The Psychology of Literature

2013-09-21T02:49:00.001+04:00

Where does Psychology come from? What is Psychology and how does it relate to Literature? Before the answer to that, the meaning of Psychology will be explained. Psychology is the study of the mind and how it thinks; in a nut shell. There’s basically two types of Psychology; one is the research in Psychology and the other is the applied part of Psychology. One where we think about the behaviour of the mind and one where we then apply that knowledge to solve different problems and confusions.

The critical thing over here is the ‘thinking’ aspect. In Psychology, we think about the mind, in order to gain knowledge about the mind. We investigate the mind’s behaviour; which we term it Cognition. This should give a hint to where the subject and art of Psychology comes from? Psychology is directly linked to a bigger and more vast subject, Philosophy. There’s two parts to Psychology. It comes from Biology and Philosophy. We think about the mind/brain and then we focus on the parts of the brain and which part does what; in the thinking process.

Literature is the art of writing down notable words and thoughts, which become classics and are read and acknowledged by everyone. Literature does not only have to be memorable, anything written in poetry or prose form, can be literature. Even if the quality of the literature is bad and this is why we have coined the term ‘trashy literature’. There’s good literature and bad literature. Literature has less to do with how famous, someone’s written work or thought/quote got, but how memorable it was and what an impression it has left. This is why, you have the artsy films and the less commercially successful novels, but are really good none the less and are termed as literature.

Not to say, there can’t be pieces of work that haven’t received their fair share of recognition and acknowledgement. Just to give an example, would be the works of Jane Austen. Her classic pieces of literature like Pride and Prejudice, are widely acknowledged in the scholarly world, as well as by the general members of the public, so much so that, artsy films as well as even commercial film adaptations have been made. Few works of literature get all the glory, while the rest of the greats are refused the honour.

Literature comes in two basic forms. There is poetry and then there is prose. The difference between the two is that, poetry is formed in to a rhythmic structure and it flows well, while prose is general grammatical structure and continuation of speech. Both kinds of literature are studied, but the prose is the more popular form; since, it includes things like articles, novels etc. which are read by far more people, than poetry. Poetry is more restricted to enthusiasts and ardent lovers, or students of literature in Schools or Universities.

Basic reading develops certain skills. Skills like obtaining a good vocabulary, being able to write well – yes, reading does help in that – and having a vivid imagination. Delving in to the world of literature is like an extension to reading and we develop even more skills, than when we read just for pleasure. Not to say that, literature should not be enjoyed. It should be. If you do anything with your heart set in to it, you will feel that you can do that easily, rather than do something which feels like an obligation to you.

While enjoying literature, one should also study it. By studying, it does not mean learn it by heart or be ready to answer in depth questions about it, but rather think a bit deeply about it. When you will think deeply about literature, or what the words say, you will broaden your minds and develop the habit of analysing. Analysing words is a great quality, that can be then applied to the real life.

Analysing literature, gives us a new skill to master. Along with learning new vocabulary etc, we also start to critically think. What all of this leads to is, is the betterment of our understanding. We understand why the author might have written that, we understand what the purpose behind writing a particular quote or the literature piece was. Along with reading, the understanding aspect is really important. There is no point in just reading a book, it is imperative that you understand it too.

If you understand something, what that leads to is basically that, you learn. You learn something new, every time you read and understand a book. A big example of this theory would be the reading and understanding of religious doctrines and books. You don’t only have to read the text, but actually understand it and learn from it. There is no point in just skimming through the words and being oblivious to what they say.

Reading is not a competition. When you read, be it a short poem or an 800 page novel, it takes up a part of your time. Time is of the essence and it shouldn’t be wasted. Why read literature, just for the sake of reading literature. If you are going to spend time on reading something, then you might as well use your mind to actually analyse, think and try to understand it too.

It is important to understand and learn, because if you love what you read and understood, you will surely would want to pass on that newly found information to others too. It contributes to the sharing of knowledge and collectively increases general capacity to absorb knowledge as well and creates a desire to gain new knowledge.

The main thing is to read and understand. If you read good things, they will keep recurring in your mind and will generally give you a positive feel. You will quote lines that you thought were the best out of a book for example, or a poem written by some author will become the topic of discussion with someone. True lovers of literature, those that read and understand it – know of its importance as well – would know that, literature and reading gives them immense happiness.

Ek Dil Ki Kahani

2013-09-17T02:16:00.001+04:00

Kabhi jhankho meri ankhoun mai,
Tumhe kya nazar ata hai?
Shayed pyar dikhe un mai,
Ya ek bhuje dil ki kahani.

Bhol chuke they hum Aisha,
Pyar jaisi cheez bhi hoti hai.
Us ke dye ghamou ne dubou diya,
Dil ne pyar mohabbat ko thukra diya.

Na hi kisi cheez mai dil lagta tha,
Na muskurahat chehre pe ati thi.
Bus ghum le kar bethey they,
Aur absar mai shabnum rehti thi.

Phir itefaq se ek din mulaqat hui,
Ek ajnabi se beikhteyar baat hui.
Ashkoun ko jitna girna tha gir gaye,
Hum bazm-e-dillagi ke agey haar gaye.

Extra Lives on Candy Crush Saga (Only works if you play from PC/Facebook)

2013-09-09T20:28:00.001+04:00

Well. If you have a second FB account, that's good. If you don't, make one. If you have a password to someone's FB, then what you do is...

If you have your FB account/Candy Crush opened in Firefox, you open another browser and log on to the second FB account.

Open Candy Crush in the other browser, using the second Facebook account.

Send extra lives and gifts requests to the second account. Switch browsers and accept those requests.

Easy!! You don't have to spend money, rely on others or anything! Get playing!

Comprehensive The Cheesecake Factory MOE/Dubai Review!

2013-09-03T01:54:00.001+04:00

To be honest, this has been delayed quite a bit! I was meant to write this review much earlier, but never got the time to get round to it.

Cheesecake Factory isn't a posh formal dine-in affair in America and people don't hold it in much esteem, but boy has Al Shaya group changed all of that! Al Shaya group is the company which holds the franchise of Cheesecake Factory, Shake Shack and iHOP in UAE. The group has brought all of the restaurants to Dubai and people love it.

All three of those restaurants happen to have become on of my favourite places to go to, for food. iHOP for amazing breakfast, Shake Shack for a quick bite of juicy and tender burger and Cheesecake Factory, well... Cheesecake Factory has become my favourite formal dine-in restaurant and the best part, it isn't even situated in a posh hotel! It is in Mall of the Emirates!

The Cheesecake Factory's concept for Dubai/UAE has completely been revamped. Instead of a mediocre place you go to for food and basically 'cheesecakes' in America, it has been transformed in to a stunning sit down entity.

Lets get to the interesting bit. I think it is understood by now, that I was stunned by the décor, ambience etc when I visited TCF in MOE. I had not imagined that it would be such a grand affair! Went at 10:30 PM in the night with my family and thankfully, we found a table for 6 right away and didn't have to be put on the waiting list.

I did hear horror stories from my friends about the horrible queue times, to get a table at peak hours. One friend had to wait 1 hour and 30 minutes, before she got a table! Imagine!

We got a table right next to Ski Dubai. From our table we could see through the glass windows, what was happening inside Ski Dubai. The only problem with this was and was throughout the time we were there having our meal - that we felt really chilly and cold! It was freezing! If I had known we were going to be placed right next to the windows which looked in to Ski Dubai, I would have brought a jacket.

Menu was vast. Something expected, after seeing the size of the restaurant and the décor. Rest of the family ordered different kinds of burgers. I didn't want to try a burger, after coming in to such a posh restaurant, so ended up sharing with mum.

Burger/patty size was medium. Not too big, not too small. However, weight wise, the patty must have been heavy. It had mass. Come with an empty stomach if you want to have burgers. The Original Burger was more than lovely. The beef was really good - taste wise and quality wise. A burger item recommended from the menu is Macaroni and Cheese Burger - THIS IS A MUST TRY IF YOU LOVE BURGERS AND MAC & CHEESE. The combination drove me crazy.

Before we started on the mains though, we shared an appetiser. Let me just tell you, that even though prices of appetisers are tad bit higher in this restaurant, the portion sizes make up for that easily! We ordered a plate of Factory Nachos and it was massive by standards. I haven't seen any other restaurant in Dubai serve like this.

This was as pretty to look at, as it was tasty to eat. We went right at it and ate this up pretty quick.

Now, we come to what I had for mains. I did try my family's burgers, just to see how they taste like, but my own dish was different. Shared with my mum, because Cheesecake Factory's dishes portion sizes are huge. Apart from the burger meals, rest of the dishes have more than enough food on one plate, that can be easily shared between two people at least.

Do not over-order! Share dishes between people and this will divide the high cost as well, bringing down your bill!

Mine was Factory Giant Burrito.

The sauce on the side was spicy, tangy and just a tad bit sweet at the same time. Definitely could taste Cayenne pepper in it. The main Burrito had a mixture of rice, chicken, greens etc. I was apprehensive about the rice being there, but once I got eating, I quickly changed my mind. The starchiness of the rice, the juiciness of the chicken and its spices, along with the tantalising hot cheese on the Burrito itself, combined to give a unique flavour.

Have no idea if it can be judged by the photograph, but this Burrito was literally giant. Even though we split it in half and shared it, my portion was still big - but got eaten up real fast because of the amazing taste. A tip is, if you go for this, do not waste time in eating it. It is best eaten when the food is hot - especially the cheese! Nice to see strands of melted cheese on your fork and when you take that yummy melted cheese in to your mouth.

Anyway, there was a variety of drinks on offer to compliment the main meal. Some had free refills, some didn't. The cocktails etc didn't have refills on offer, so I ended up opting for something else. Discovered a favourite on the menu. I love lemonade! I can never get enough of lemonade. Any kind of lemonade. Love to try different varieties.

To my astonishment I found out that lemonade had free refills! AED 18 for the lemonade and free refills is a bargain! In other restaurants, lemonades don't come with refills. In TCF they do! Went for the Strawberry one and mum went for the Mango one.

Don't order a Strawberry Lemonade if you run away from tangy taste and brain freeze. It was tangy, quirky, extremely cold and sweet at the same time. It gave my mind kicks! It was just the way I like it. I tried and loved mum's Mango one too. Wish I could have tried all the different kinds of lemonades they have on the menu - maybe next time, which there is definitely going to be one.

Got done with the meal and the server politely took away our dirty dishes. Let me compliment the staff! Cheesecake Factory MOE branch at least, don't know about the Dubai Mall one - haven't visited that one - has one of the most friendly and professional staff around. Very cordial, I must say. Food was delivered to our table in a timely fashion, during our meal the server visited us from time to time to ask whether we needed anything and he always had a smile on his face. Again, something that can be counted as value for money.

Lastly, came the best part of my meal; the dessert. Had a variety of options to pick from, ranging from Redvelvet to Mango Keylime, but went for the very basic one. The original cheesecake was my choice, because I wanted to know how the original tastes. I kept all the other ones aside in my mind, for my next visit.

The cheesecake didn't disappoint one bit. Although, one can argue that a cheesecake can never disappoint, but yet, I think it is the best cheesecake I have had in Dubai. It was so light, so tasty, so smooth, - no graininess in the cheese - so amazingly balanced sweetness wise etc. Even the cream that was served along with it, wasn't sickly sweet, but actually really complimented the cheesecake. Eating both at the same time was a decadent fun affair. Wanted to go for seconds, but obviously was full beyond my capacity, so had to leave that idea feeling dejected.

Came out of the restaurant at 11:45 PM, a very happy person. This was one visit to a restaurant I really enjoyed and would go there again and again! I wouldn't even mind having the same thing again too and eat what I had that night. It was that good. Bundling the Cheesecake Factory food experience with a good family time and it was a trip really worth remembering.

How To Get Cheap Publicity On Twitter

2013-07-17T21:26:00.001+04:00

Have been using Twitter from the past 3 years or so and one thing that I have noticed is, the usage and Twitter environment has changed and keeps evolving/changing. Back in the good old days - yes, I can reminisce at least, about the good days - there were far less teenagers on Twitter and in general, far less people. Less people knew about it, everyone followed each other and a more important point, people 'actually' followed each other. What do I mean by this? Well, people actually knew what you were up to, you actually knew what the other person was up to and talked. Less was more, back then. No bullshit was tolerated and it was a clean decent environment.

As more and more people started joining Twitter, it has to a certain extent - let us say, become less uncivilized. There are so many teenagers, although I don't have anything against teenagers joining Twitter - just that there's more things related to teenagers and the 'youth' that have surfaced upon Twitter; which was safe to say, limited to Facebook before. One such thing is, fights. That also immature fights and fights for no reason. Another thing, because of a wide spectrum of people on Twitter now and especially my timeline (I follow a lot of people!), my timeline has become very colorful. I have noticed, people pick on other people for no reason, drag fights, curse & swear. Things that shouldn't really happen, but we all enjoy and watch silently; until it is us who are faced with Twitter trolling.

So, topic is how to get cheap publicity on Twitter!

Well, one of the things is and that I have mentioned already is, fights. A fight is one thing, which will give you sure fire publicity on Twitter. Especially if you are followed by a lot of people, or if you pick a fight with a person who follows a lot of people. If you are followed by a lot of people and there are people, that are you 'friends', they will escalate the matter like anything by pitching in and re-tweeting everything to their followers. Things will escalate to such an extent and then die down a day or so later.

If you are a Twitter NEWBIE or an 'egg', and want some followers, you can either pick a fight with a well known Twitter 'celebrity' and if luck is in your favor, they will get all judgmental and emotional. They will curse at you, make fun of you and re-tweet you. Giving you a lot of exposure. If you play your cards right, you can use the sympathy card on their sympathetic followers and gain quick followers that way. Another thing that you can do is, spam everyone.

BABY FOLLOW ME. BABY PLEASEEEE. BABY!!!! If you are a Desi, you will probably say this or not, MUJHSE FRAANDSHIP KARAGI/KAROGE? Please baby, follow back.

Or if you are that desperate, you can spam everyone with #TeamFollowback and pray someone follows back.

Now, one of two things can happen if you spam everyone with 'baby please' banter. Either baby can follow you back and ignore you. Or baby can insult you like anything, block you and ignore you. Your choice. Although, when baby will insult you, they will most probably re-tweet your lovey dovey friendship tweets to them and if again, you get lucky, you will get some curious minds to follow you.

Enough with the fights and spamming? One cheap publicity idea is to announce that YOUR PARENTS HAVE DIED AND YOU NEED MONEY. This idea isn't original, it actually happened and people were trolled really badly by the person. Not only were they stupid enough to believe the person, but they also paid them money and then regretted it badly. So anyway, create a drama on Twitter. BECOME A DRAMA QUEEN. It works especially well, if you have a lot of followers.

Keep posting melodramatic tweets. Personal tweets. People have a bad habit of bitching on Twitter. They will bitch about you to their friends. They will spread rumors about you on Twitter. They will re-tweet your tweet(s) and then talk about you on their TLs. But hey, you wanted cheap publicity right? and you will get it! Keep crying about your grandmother or someone dying and someone will probably say "Bitch who gives a shit? This is Twitter. No one cares. Sod off."

Another idea for a cheap publicity stunt that one can pull off on Twitter. Use your Twitter account and troll a singer/musician! This recently just happened with a Pakistani rapper/musician called Adil Omar. He apparently was direct messaging a fake account with the Twitter handle @VoldemortKiBeti. He thought it was a real account and the display picture, was of the girl, when it wasn't. It turned out to be a fake account and not only that, but the fake account user actually leaked a direct message (DM) that Adil Omar had sent her/him, in which he was asking her whether she/he used Skype. This has created a lot of controversy in the Pakistani twittersphere, as people are hungry for gossip and free to entertain such things.

Lastly, this is a really desperate attempt. Also, something that has surfaced to be true and done by a girl I know. Create a second Facebook account of yours or a Twitter account similar to yours and declare on Twitter, that someone is stalking you/annoying you and they made a similar account to yours. That a person is indulging in identity theft. Ask people to re-tweet your request to block that spam account and report it. People will give you attention and if luck would have it, if your tweet gets re-tweeted, some new followers will come in.

OH MY GOD, WOW. Well, those were some ideas about cheap publicity, which is the wrong kind of publicity. However, you know the saying, bad publicity is good publicity. High-five. Although, I would highly suggest people to not go for any of the ideas mentioned. It is for an awareness purpose. The WORST THING EVER and the one that I hate THE MOST, is when people fight on Twitter or spread rumors about someone else. YOU ARE NOT GONNA MEET OR KNOW THE OTHER PERSON IN REAL LIFE, THEN WHY BOTHER.

But anyway, some people have way too much free time on their hands and are bitter like anything, so this is why, ignorance is bliss. Seriously.

Post Gujarat Incident Analysis on CNG Situation in Pakistan (Report)

2013-05-29T18:18:00.001+04:00

Recently, more than 15 school children at least and a teacher were killed due to an explosion in a school van; in Gujarat, Pakistan. The explosion blast caused a big fire, immediately completely destroying the vehicle. Initial investigation pointed at the faulty wiring to be the cause of the fire. Due to a short circuit, the gas was ignited, when the van tried to switch from CNG to petrol.

It is common in Pakistan for public and private transport to have been fitted with compressed natural gas kits, because it is supposedly cheaper than petrol. However, these kits often pose a safety risk to passengers of the vehicles they are fitted in. This incident in Gujarat is not the first – nor an isolated one, but one of the many to have occurred due to a CNG kit being fitted in the vehicle.

One common misconception is that, the cylinder would have exploded because of it being heated by the harsh temperatures the vehicle is being driven in, leading to the expansion of the gas and eventually it exploding. While, this very well could be one of the reasons as well, there are many other reasons why a CNG cylinder can explode.

One of the reasons – like the one in the recent Gujarat tragedy – is the faulty wiring. The technicalities of the kit aren’t often checked and people opt for cheapest option in order to save money. Nevertheless, when it comes to the safety of yourself and others, money isn’t something that should be an issue.

When we try to save money, we are cheating ourselves and putting ourselves in to a health and safety risk. People also habitually blame the Pakistani government for not having enough vehicle checks. While this is a valid concern and the government should crack down on illegal CNG parts sellers/kit outfitters, people should also have some common sense.

Some of the other reasons for CNG cylinders exploding are: leaking of gas from the high pressure piping due to many different reasons, detaching of the CNG cylinder, sparking and igniting of the air-gas mixture due to various things like lighters, match sticks etc. Another set of reasons which is something the Pakistani government should look in to as soon as possible, are the malfunctioning of unapproved faulty parts in the CNG kit.

Many public transport vehicles have CNG kits and due to saving cost, people often go to the places where you can get it cheaply. In Pakistan, cheaply often means illegal. The drivers or owners of those vehicles do not care or bother to check whether the CNG kit has proper parts or not. Not only that, but if it has been properly fitted or not. One of the causes of CNG cylinder explosion is the detachment of the cylinder.

Bursting of unapproved cylinders, welded cylinders and cylinders that are not manufactured for CNG use is a cause of an explosion. Bursting of unapproved valves, leakage of gas from the cylinder valve, leakage of gas from the filling valve and bursting of gas from the CNG pressure regulator due to malfunctioning of the first stage valve; are also some of the concerns. Note that, the first stage valve only malfunctions, if it replaced with a dead plug and this practice has been known to occur, if CNG kit is outfitted cheaply.

Some of the CNG kit providers, to make money, often give second hand or faulty parts to the customers. The kit that they outfit in the vehicle has parts, which shouldn’t be there – sometimes to the client, they say that the kit is brand new and authorized, but it is far from the truth. This way they make money. They cheat their customers.

So who is at fault here? Who is responsible and who should be blamed? For the Gujarat van fire, for the devastating incident in Faisalabad last month – where due to a gas leak, the cylinder exploded in a van killing 3 people and injuring 5 and for all the similar incidents and CNG related deaths in Pakistan?

In the Faisalabad fire, it wasn’t only the case of faulty CNG kit parts or something that can be blamed on the government alone. It was also due to the negligence of the driver, that those people died and got injured. People in the van had complained about the smell of gas, but instead of stopping the van to check, the driver kept driving.

What can be done to solve the issue of CNG related incidents in the country?

There are two main schools of thoughts, to finding a solution to this issue. One solution is that, CNG kits should be banned from being used in public transport – vans and buses. The other solution is a bit lengthier and complicated than just banning the use of CNG.

Firstly, would like to clarify a misconception.

There’s a particular thinking which hints at the fact that, if CNG kits were to be banned from public transportation, accidents would not happen in Pakistan; that it is due to CNG kits peoples’ lives are at a constant risk. This is only partially the truth. Contrary to popular belief, no approved cylinders have ever been involved in an incident relating to public transportation, in Pakistan’s CNG history. All CNG cylinders of a particular approved shape and size have generally been considered safe.

A cylinder of standard manufacturing size of NSZ 5454 does not burst or explode and neither should it. However, some of the cylinders which have taken the lives of as many as more than 100 people over the past few months, weren’t of the standard approved size; hence they could have contributed to the incidents that occurred.

Findings/Literature Review:

The transport sector had been under scrutiny, for being supplied CNG, while it is deprived in other places where it is necessary. While in April 2013, the National Accountability Bureau had taken notice of the complaints by the industrial sector to reduce or ban the gas supply to the transport sector, nothing really came out of it. This is despite the NAB being in full acknowledgement of the fact that, CNG is needed for the CPPs. (Captive Power Plants) The power plants are closed or inefficient at the moment and not producing enough electricity, because of the lack of gas supply.

Fertiliser industry and other industries, particularly in Punjab, are also complaining about the lack of gas supply, even though these industries are listed as high priority for gas load management. Factories are running at sub-optimal levels due to shortage of gas, which has led to losses for many high-profile companies and the closure of smaller ones. What this has done is, it is has led to a lot of workforce redundancies, because if there is no gas, there won’t be no production/manufacturing and hence, no work for the labour.

While the CNG that is being supplied to the transport sector, has led to a multitude of CNG related incidents and deaths, in public transport buses and vans. The whole system of CNG usage in public transportation is wrong and should be revamped. Also, the CNG that is being supplied to the transport sector can be diverted to power plants and industries to power the economy. If people are working, if industry is running, then economy is climbing and there will be less inflation. When that is the case, people will have more disposable income and they won’t hesitate to spend it on petrol/diesel instead of CNG. Furthermore, if CNG is being out to good use and electricity is being generated using it, people aren’t faced with cruel load shedding, then people won’t voice out against a CNG ban for transport sector and vehicles in general.

People who have lost lives to CNG incidents would agree that CNG kits in public transport should not be there, even if they can be somehow assured of the fact that, if an approved CNG kit is placed in a public transport van or bus, then those losses of lives can somehow be avoided. Not all people want CNG kits in public transport and it is evident after a citizen went and filed a petition in Lahore High Court after the Gujarat incident, asking the government to ban CNG usage in public transport. The LHC in return, has also filed a notice to city district government and others, over seeking action and imposing a ban on the use of CNG in commercial vehicles.

Recommendations:

The easiest option, but with a lot of public outcry - would be to ban the usage of CNG in public transport. One of the reasons public outcry can occur is, if they ban CNG and transport owners/companies start to charge people more for their services; because they will have to use petrol or diesel. In this case, the government can either reduce the price of petrol or diesel, so the transport companies don’t have to charge the customers extra, or the government can give transport companies subsidies to compensate for the non-availability of CNG.

This is a good option, since the country is going through gas shortage at the moment and at the same time, something far worse. People are suffering from immense load shedding and there is ruthless non-availability of electricity in Pakistan. The gas that should be used to power electricity generating plants is being used in vehicles and it is being burnt off. It is being wasted. Instead of using CNG at homes and in cars, it should be given to power plants and to industries – on a ration basis – to power the economy and bring stability back in to the country.

CNG in vehicles shouldn’t be banned indefinitely, only until the electricity situation gets sorted in the country, because this is the top most priority at the moment and should be, for the government. People have enjoyed for roughly 10 years, by using CNG cheaply in their vehicles, when they couldn’t afford petrol. The government shouldn’t have approved CNG usage in cars in the first place – for a country highly short on CNG, it still has the largest population of CNG powered vehicles in the world – but it did.

What CNG did is, it added more vehicles on to the roads, but now with the current situation, the bubble is about to be burst. Government is short on CNG and needs gas to get electricity and plus with all the incidents related to CNG cylinders in public transport – a logical thing to do would be to ban it, so people should be ready for this. Think about it, do you value your lives and want electricity, or do you want to drive your vehicles using CNG, but be lingered with heat and frustration of no electricity?

The other option is more complicated. The government should implement stringent rules when it comes to vehicles – both public and private transport. Vehicle fitness certificates should be checked, CNG rules & laws should be updated – the last time rules and laws were updated regarding CNG usage in Pakistan was in 1992.

Not only does the government need to check vehicle fitness certificates, but the government needs to start a yearly inspection of vehicles. At the moment, there is no check and balance in the country. People can buy and sell vehicles as they please, no matter how old they are and get them registered or approved.

If CNG kits are to continue in Pakistan, then the government should at least inspect the vehicles on an yearly basis and check whether the kits are fitted properly and whether they have the proper approved parts or not. What this will do is, it will instil fear in to the faulty parts sellers and help curb such incidents like Gujarat, from happening.

Also, after a vehicle is converted to CNG/fitted with a CNG kit, it should be inspected by an inspector from HDIP (Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan) and then the owner should be given a stamped certificate to display in his public transport vehicle. Also, his CNG kit should be stamped to let people know that it is approved and safe.

CNG itself should only be provided to the vehicles which have the stamped certificate in the vehicle – upon asked by the personnel at the CNG station. This way, only approved vehicles will be getting CNG. What this will do is, there will be a dramatic decrease in the usage of CNG and at the same time, people would want to use CNG in their vehicles so they will go get their vehicles approved. It will be a win win situation for the government and people. Less use of CNG and vehicles would become safer, for people to travel in.

One of the problems with the CNG related incidents was not only the technical/mechanical failures of the CNG kits or the lack of interest in to the matter by the government; but also driver negligence. While the passengers kept complaining about the smell of gas, the driver paid no heed to their objections and kept driving.

This is a big problem in Pakistan. Driver negligence and how it becomes a hindrance, in the way of peoples’ safety. This isn’t only a matter of concern related to the drivers of public transportation, but also private vehicles. It is very easy to get a license in Pakistan – will not go in to the reasons why, as it would derail the topic on hand, but it is – and not only that, but people do not obey the traffic rules and regulations. Most of the times, people don’t even bother to get a license and drive without it.

For public transportation at least, it should be made compulsory for the drivers to go through training and some sort of road education, before they are given a permit to drive busses and vans etc. The licenses issued to the drivers of public transport, should be different than the ones issued to private vehicle owners. Traffic police of each province, should be asked to check the licenses on a regular basis and also, the license should be made in such a way, that it is hard to duplicate or fake.

Road education for people in Pakistan is very important. If the person had been given road education, it would have increased the chances of him stopping his vehicle, checking the gas leak and maybe preventing the loss of so many lives in Gujarat. There is an urgent need of such road education in Pakistan and also, to develop and implement stricter traffic rules and laws. If people are made to feel the burden of their actions and the consequences that follow, they just might start to take a bit more responsibility.

Conclusion:

First of all, regardless of whether CNG in public transportation is banned or not, the traffic laws and regulations should be updated and also, implemented. Licensing drivers, should be a priority and also, giving road education. Irrespective of whether a vehicle is running on CNG or not, first and foremost priority should be to reduce the amount of road accidents in Pakistan, in general too. This is due to the fact that people don’t follow traffic rules and regulations. People still speed, because they know that the fine isn’t going to be too much. Fines should be increased in value, so people feel the burden of paying them. A comprehensive national level safety plan should be formulated amid high levels of road casualties and incidents.

According to the latest WHO data published in April 2011 Road Traffic Accidents Deaths in Pakistan reached 20,154 or 1.58% of total deaths. The number of road deaths per 10,000 vehicles in the country is one of the highest in the world. The government puts the economic cost of road accidents and injuries at more than $100m per year, but only a fraction of that amount is spent on road safety and educating motorists. This is a national level tragedy.

Public transportation in Pakistan is mainly used by the poor, who can’t afford to use private vehicles and travel. Majority of public transportation usage is not inter-city, but country wide domestic – linking different cities to one another. This is not to say that other strata of the socio-economic population don’t use the public transportation, but the majority is held with the poor.

If CNG is banned in commercial vehicles for domestic travel, it will affect people in the sense that, the ticket prices for travel might climb and it will become an issue; since mostly poor people use it. However, if the government allows lowering of petrol/diesel prices, then the companies can use that instead of CNG. The people who are living in cities and can afford cars/those that are not using public transport should not have an issue with a ban on using CNG for commercial vehicles.

People are frustrated because of load shedding and want electricity; the rich and the poor alike. If the government bans CNG for transport sector for a particular time period and diverts its attention to industries and power plants, then it would be better for Pakistan and its people, rather than using up all the CNG for transportation.

Production of electricity equals to factories etc. running back up and people being provided electricity at their homes. The poor would overlook the fact that the cost of public transportation has risen because of alternative fuels, since they would be back to being hired by people to work in their factories and also, being provided with electricity.

First and foremost importance that a citizen of Pakistan gives to, in recent times, is the availability of food and water, plus electricity. If there is electricity, you can power plants, industries and a whole country. If there is electricity, you can even cook food using it – if you are faced with a shortfall of gas. If there is electricity, you can recycle water, you can produce Oxygen and so much more. Point being is, since Pakistan is faced with a severe electricity crisis, the government should take steps regarding CNG, to relieve the people of their misery. What the steps include is for the government to decide and may not be limited to banning CNG for use in commercial vehicles.

Here is the PDF format of this document if anyone is interested: http://bit.ly/132YO00

Pakistani Politics and Exploitation of Social Media

2013-05-17T00:24:00.001+04:00

Over the past few days during the build-up to the Pakistani elections and the days after, it has become evident on how social media has been exploited, for your own personal gain. Not to rule out the fact that, social media has indeed been pivotal in doing some sort of campaigning, from all political parties; but the fact of the matter is, that such a platform can easily be abused and exploited. The biggest danger of social media includes the fact that, whether whatever that’s posted on a platform, has been checked for credibility or not; whether whatever that has been posted, is the out-and-out truth or not.

Social media platforms are a great way to connect with people, to spread awareness and news and to exchange ideas etc. But along with the benefits of using social media platforms and indulging in social networking, comes few disadvantages as well. Those disadvantages or flaws in the social media ideology are applicable in all situations, especially becoming evident during Pakistani elections 2013.

There is a saying, “the way you use something, determines how good or bad it is for you”. One of the biggest flaws of this amazing idea – which we call social networking, is that, you can literally post anything on it. The downside of it is, it doesn’t matter what you post is, true or not. You can make up things, post them online and no one will question the authenticity of what you are saying. You are literally cheating yourself and others, out of the truth. This leads to a lot of things, including people spreading around what you say to others and the biggest thing, actually ‘believing’ what you say.

Mahrukh, a Twitter user from Pakistan says that, “everyone feels the need to be heard and what better way to be heard, than on a social networking platform; where you get to say what you want.” The logic of that statement can be applied, not only to people of Pakistan, but also elsewhere. She further adds that, “there are too many disadvantages to using social networking as well. One is the fact that whatever we say is getting saved, and maybe used against us one day. It promotes attention seekers, who instead of getting rid of their habit, get further engrossed in to it, because on social media they do get attention one way or the other.”

On the subject of information sharing on social media networks she says “too much information sharing is a curse anyway. People sometimes share few things which shouldn’t be shared in public which leads to grave consequences. For example, once this person admitted to a crime, in a Facebook status. What led to his arrest was the visual evidence for everyone to see; a written confession on a social media network.”

What Mahrukh said, has a lot of weight. With Pakistan’s first democratic transition of government almost complete, social media has empowered Pakistanis to actively participate in the election discussions, campaign for the party they support and voice their opinions on social media. This had never happened before, because social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter weren’t that popular before in Pakistan. However, the dynamics of it all has been changed by the popularity of Twitter and Facebook. Notwithstanding, there has been negative implications of Pakistanis actively discussing politics on social networking platforms too.

Unlike the past, where a Pakistani only got to know about the elections through conventional media and the internet; this time around, the people had the option of the social media platforms. Social media platforms had become involved, with politicians, news outlets giving out information, campaigning and gathering support. Not only that, people actually were more involved this time around, because they could interact with the politicians, gain news more quickly and share news. The sharing part is very important, because in a participatory culture, you don’t only gain news and information, but you also share and interact.

Many Pakistanis actually participated in the election 2013 activities, by taking photos and making videos of speeches, gatherings etc. of their respective parties. They also wrote articles and voiced their thoughts regarding a multitude of matters relating to the election, on social media; in a way, becoming a pseudo-journalist and participating in what is being termed as – alternative participatory journalism. While, this is a good thing and this kind of journalism – which is separate from mainstream journalism – allows people to discuss serious topics etc. it also has a lot of downsides.

People posted a lot of information on Twitter mainly – and even Facebook, during the run up to the election and afterwards. But was most of the information factual and true? Unfortunately it is not the case and this is a big danger to using social media. People don’t know the credibility of the information and just post things on Twitter etc. In the race of being the ‘first’ one to provide information, people make up information, post incomplete information or exaggerate the truth. In all three cases, there is no credibility or truth.

In a sea of information provided by the Pakistani Twitter users, where a lot of information was either made up, not true etc. it was hard to distinguish the truth from the lies. The problem is, where a lot of information is false and repeatedly shared between people, a majority of the people stop questioning the amount of truth behind what’s shared and blindly believe it. When that is the case, if something true is shared, people start doubting whether it is true or not and deem it as false. The lies become the truth and the truth gets overshadowed by all the false information it surrounds.

During the elections, people shared a lot of information on Twitter and Facebook. While some of it was true, a lot of it was false. People had started to spread false information, to strengthen their political party’s image and at the same time, taint the image and reputation of their major opposition. A lot of propaganda was going on and an attacking campaign was carried out on the social networking platforms, against other political parties and its supporters. Not only that, but there was ‘trolling’ occurring from all sides; mostly being done by the supporters of the party hell bent on disrupting the operations and image of their opposing party and supporters.

A big example is the making of false twitter accounts by supporters of the political party, PTI. This is one party, whose supporters have been involved the most in these kinds of activities on social media, although, it can also be said that other parties and their supporters were ‘also’ involved to a certain extent. PTI bears the brunt of the onslaught of objections and complaints against them, because its leadership and supporters are the ones who were the most involved in spreading propaganda, involving fake and bogus information online.

One such way of doing that, is the making of fake Twitter accounts by PTI supporters, of well-known and prominent Pakistani journalists and then posting biased anti-PMLN tweets, to defame the party and its supporters. An example is the making of fake Twitter accounts of the journalist Saleem Khan Safi. A PTI supporter or ‘Insafian’ as they like to call themselves made a fake Twitter account of Saleem Khan Safi @saleemkhansafi1 and started posting tweets on behalf of PTI; also, such tweets whose objective was to malign PMLN leadership and also, propagate fake news about PMLN. This gave a bad image to Saleem Khan Safi and made him look like a biased journalist, in favour of PTI.

Saleem Safi himself clarified on television in various programs that that isn’t his Twitter account and his actual Twitter account is @saleemkhansafi. He also posted various tweets regarding the matter on Twitter, because people were copying tweets from the fake account and spreading them on Twitter and Facebook, thinking they were actually written by the journalist himself, when they weren’t. The most catastrophic thing was, even after repeatedly being clarified by the journalist and various other people, supporting PMLN and other parties; PTI supporters kept on believing the tweets to be the truth and not only that, kept on sharing them forward.

The various accounts of Saleem Khan Safi:

Apart from the one in the middle, rest of the two are clearly counterfeit, since only one can be the actual account. People got infuriated on this act by PTI trolls and condemned this act online, by posting on Twitter and Facebook.

Even PTI supporters – some of the intelligent ones out of the lot, who didn’t blindly believe the false information being propagated and didn’t spread it around – condemned the fake accounts of Saleem Safi and the tweets that were being posted using them, to praise PTI.

PTI trolls didn’t stop at just Saleem Safi, but made fake accounts of various other people like, Talat Hussain, Dr. AQ Khan etc. Here’s the real account of Talat Hussain, with his tweet condemning the action of PTI supporters.

One of the dramas started by the PTI trolls online for their twisted needs that misled not only the PTI fraternity and supporters, but also the leadership, is the creation of a fake article maligning PMLN and accusing them of paying off people, to rig the elections in one constituency; when it wasn’t true at all. It was supposedly written by a well-known journalist Javed Choudhry, but was later found out to be a fake article written and spread by PTI trolls for propaganda purposes.

In the case of the fake article the damage done by it, didn’t just stay in the online world. Not only did PTI supporters read that article, but also PTI leadership and they actually believed that article to be the absolute truth, without verifying it and without checking for credibility. PTI leadership is ‘apparently’ full of educated individuals but I guess having degrees doesn’t mean you are educated or you have the capacity to use your mind. Without checking whether it was true or not and actually written by Javed Choudhry or not, the article started getting quoted by PTI supporters and members of the leadership.

Fauzia Kasuri a well-known Pakistani politician & the former President of Women’s Wing of PTI came on a talk-show ‘Off the Record’ on ARY News and quoted something from the fake article. One would wonder a well-educated woman would be well informed too and know that the article she is quoting from has fabricated information; but that wasn’t the case. When she was challenged by the talk-show host, an overzealous Fauzia Kasuri asked the host to call Javed Choudhry to clarify, having astounding confidence which was later bitterly shattered.

Javed Choudhry on record, in front of Fauzia Kasuri, the host and the thousands of people watching the program said that, he never wrote such an article and never posted anything about it on Facebook or Twitter. He said that he was being cheated, as his name was being used for ulterior motives by unsaid persons to spread propaganda. Right there and then, Fauzia Kasuri’s reaction to Javed Choudhry’s confession was remarkable. Instead of admitting to her blunder, she kept arguing that she didn’t know that the article was a sham and she shouldn’t be blamed.

Here comes the point of social media responsibility. Pakistani people that use social media – not only limited to the masses that support PTI – should have some sort of sense of responsibility when sharing content on the Internet. Like in the case of the fake article being spread around, which reached PTI leadership and they actually - without checking - thought it was true and started quoting from it; in the process discrediting themselves as honest politicians and people. You shouldn’t be irresponsible about the content you share, because you never know how or when your content will be seen, read and shared forward by people. People should remember that the pen is mightier than the sword and what you write on social media, leaves an impact.

Whatever you write, influences people. Now, it might be that your target audience would be segmented or you might have a wide reach and appeal; but written words are read, especially those on social media networks. A lot of rumours were being spread around and still are being spread on Twitter and Facebook, regarding affairs related to the elections. One such rumour that spread like wildfire just before the Election Day was due to a media institution’s fault, which was later circulated by PTI supporters on Twitter and Facebook. It was the issue of a tiger.

Apparently, a tiger had passed away while at Maryam Nawaz’s political rally (she is the daughter of Nawaz Sharif, the President of PMLN) because of heat and exhaustion. This news was reported by DAWN News, which is supposed to be a really credible source of news and information in Pakistan. Everyone – not only limited to PTI supporters – started tweeting about the incident and hurling insults etc. towards PMLN and its supporters; saying things like PMLN are inhumane, they deserve to die, where are the animal rights groups? What is happening in Pakistan! While the sentiment can be agreed upon to a certain extent that live animals shouldn’t be used in political rallies, lies related to the incident cannot be tolerated.

The next day DAWN News re-published the article saying the tiger is not dead; it was suffering from a cough and was taken to the Veterinary Hospital. After getting injected, it was discharged as it was deemed fit and normal. The sad bit is, even after DAWN News published the truth, people on Twitter and Facebook kept quoting the old article and kept diffusing lies throughout the social media networks that the tiger had died. No one was ready to believe that the tiger was alive, because there was so much false information and lies around them. People’s minds were so infused with bitterness towards PMLN that they ‘wanted’ to believe that such an inhumane act was carried out towards the animal and that it must have died.

The truth finally got a chance to appear after a call was made to the Veterinary Hospital’s Officer in Charge who on record said that no such incident had happened and that the tiger was alive. International media stepped in to help things a bit, after a freelance journalist based in Pakistan working for the BBC, went and investigated the issue and confidently claimed that the tiger was alive and well. Maryam Nawaz herself tweeted that the tiger is alive and wasn’t even at her rally, since she wasn’t conducting one on the day the tiger was supposedly taken to the Vet. She later further clarified, that the tiger belonged to a supporter of PMLN and was alive.

People were quick to speak out against these rumours as well, in the list of which the BBC journalist was also included.

These were some of the big examples of social media exploitation and lack of social media responsibility, during the Pakistani elections and afterwards; but there are many small examples as well. One of them is the everyday rumours that trolls broadcast on social media networks, to brain wash people and mislead them. Some of the examples include the announcement of the death of Altaf Hussain, which caused uproar in the MQM fraternity on Twitter; that led even Ali Raza Abidi – newly elected MNA and member of MQM – to tweet against it.

MQM fraternity itself was involved in a big trolling incident on Twitter, because of their hatred against the political party PTI. They trended the hashtag #WeRejectPTI and very soon, it was trending at the number one spot in Pakistan trends. MQM supporters posted all sort of tweets and obscenities against PTI, PTI leadership and their supporters; which caused PTI supporters to react by making a hashtag in return, #WeRejectMQM and hurling curses at them.

Another very recent rumour that was going around the circles was that Najam Sethi (the current caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab) was going to be given the post of Ambassador to the USA. Everyone was talking about it on Twitter and Facebook, but this rumour proved to be a lie as well, because Najam Sethi himself tweeted that he was nowhere close to being interested in such a position.

Unfortunately for Pakistan, it doesn’t have a Cyber Defamation Law, which can prevent trolls from posting false and incorrect information online, regarding different people or political parties and that can stop them from defaming people. Pakistan is years behind and seriously lagging compared to other world countries, when it comes to laws etc. and getting proper justice regarding something. In Pakistan, people are barely punished for defamation, libel and slander, let alone cyber defamation, libel and slander. People get away with saying so many malicious things about one another in the media, face to face and that’s such a pity.

With people like Fauzia Kasuri, a well-educated high level politician of PTI and Arif Alvi, reading fake news on social media networks and then forwarding them on to their supporters; it is high time to think of some solution and take an action against this exploitation of social media. Arif Alvi, a respected and educated PTI official, from time to time re-tweeted Saleem Safi’s fake account (even after being told by various journalists and people, that it was a fake account) and also, tweeted a link to the false news by DAWN. After finding out the truth about the tiger, it was his social media responsibility to delete that tweet, so his followers aren’t misled, but he didn’t do that. Shireen Mazari, another official of PTI, shared a video of NA-250 as evidence for their rigging claim at NA-125, but that was far from the truth.

When politicians on Twitter and Facebook are going to spread rumours and false information, what can be expected of the people? Half of the problem is the sharing of false information that happened by Pakistanis on Twitter and Facebook during the elections and afterwards, but the other half of the problem is the fact that, people are gullible and naïve enough to believe in the false information and actually share it forward; even after repeatedly being told that the information they are sharing is false. Like in the case of Saleem Safi’s fake account, people were and are confused and majority still believe that the fake account is the real one; while the real one is the fake one.

Dear Pakistanis, please do not cheat yourself out of the truth; do not believe in fake news and information being relayed to you through fake accounts. Do not be so susceptible to brain-washing and propaganda. Find out the credibility and the truth and then believe in it and share it forward. Like the say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Either be completely ignorant or know everything completely. Don't talk without knowing the truth.

How To Disable Facebook Chat - Sneaky Way

2013-03-18T13:38:00.000+04:00

Well, not all of us are fond of the Facebook chat. Not all of us want our so called Facebook 'friends' to message us all of the time. It gets extremely annoying, if you have a lot of 'friends' in your list, or you have people in your list, who just had to be there and you can't do anything about it. It feels so annoying when they message doesn't it?

It feels extremely annoying, when even after 'disabling' the chat completely, or switching it off, the sidebar still pops back up and you are online again, after logging back in to Facebook or opening Facebook again in a browser window.

Some applications which you use in Facebook, makes you be online on chat again, even after switching it off. There is no point clicking on the cog and clicking on 'Turn off Chat' because it is going to go online again. It is highly frustrating.

One game that I am addicted to on Facebook is 8 Ball Pool. Ever since I started playing this game, this issue had started with me; the chat feature going back online, without my consent! Now, every time I only go to Facebook to play the game and NOT talk to people, I would still appear online to people and they would message. This would make me mad.

So, to get past that, I used one of Facebook's innovating new chat features. One of the things you can do with Facebook chat is, you can set different privacy levels. One of the options is to appear online only to selected few friends. This command is good, because you can choose which friends you want to appear to. I used this to sort out my chat problem.

I set my Facebook chat in such a way, that I ONLY appear online to ONE person and that is it. I chose such a person, which I know doesn't appear online on Facebook chat a lot and even if they do, it is such a person that I love talking to. What this has done is, since that person is offline most of the day, they don't send me an FB chat message. This effectively means, I am signed out of FB chat. No one disturbs me and it is peaceful.

I have tried to log out of Facebook a lot of times and also, closed browser tab and went to Facebook again. The settings of 'appear online to one friend only' remain. This bending the privacy commands, has sorted out my Facebook chat issue for now. I have in a way, effectively disabled Facebook chat. My life is peaceful again.

My Problem With Valentine's Day

2013-02-15T01:56:00.001+04:00

I am not in a University or a school, those days are long gone. Educational institutions are the usual places where hormonal teenagers, participate in the one-day festival and interact with one another on this day. A boy will come up to you with a rose, or a girl might give a boy one heart shaped chocolate. Sure, this used to happen a lot when I was younger and in school. It increased in intensity in University; people started dressing up for this day and gave their crushes or lovers elaborate gifts.

Growing up in a house with a father who was not so strict in my upbringing and a mother who was, I knew what Valentine's Day was and that I should not indulge in the activities. I was tolerant; I did not bad mouth people who participated in it, or even those who wished me - but I never wished anyone or gifted anything to anyone. My mother always stated religious reasons and while younger, I did keep those reasons in mind, to not celebrate this day. As I grew up and my mind developed, logic took over extraneous reasoning and I started to think on my own. Even with logical reasons, I still didn't see a reason to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Now, grown up and supposedly a mature, intellectual, logical thinking adult; I still don't see a reason to celebrate it, even though I do have a person in my life who I madly love and adore. Before you even think about it, no I am not particularly religious and no, I am not a Burqa clad, veiled supposed extremist individual. Over time, my tolerance level has exceeded expectations. Many things which I abhorred before about this day, I have slowly accepted them. For instance, colleagues at the workplace wishing you. That, or people talking about 14th February, the whole day, on a social media platform. I am of the principle, that one shouldn't 'hate'. So, keeping that principle in mind, I do not hate this day. I just don't celebrate it.

Won't even bring Islam or religious reasons in to it, because as Muslims, we do a lot of sinning. This Valentine's Day is just one of the mediocre problems that we have. Yes, I called it a problem. It is a social problem. I see it that way. I think of this day to be fake. Just a means of monetary gain for monopolistic and capitalistic corporations, marketing goods to people that think they want them, but they don't actually need. I see Valentine's Day as a means of making people feel bad about themselves; those people that are deprived of 'love' and have nothing to celebrate about. I see Valentine's Day as a day where people are complexed enough to gift each other expensive things, where the amount of money you spent on a gift or dinner arrangement, means more than the thought put behind doing something special for your special loved one.

Basically, I think of this day as a waste of time. I do believe, that any day can be made special. You don't need to have a dedicated day for love. Then again, this is what I believe. This is what I think. I don't have anything against those people who do celebrate it; those people who go out and buy roses or heart shaped balloons. If they want to indulge in Valentine's Day, it is up to them. That is the whole point of everything; even though I have problems with this day, I have accepted them and I don't hate. I am tolerant. My solution to it is, just don't celebrate it. I don't go out of my way to tell people that you shouldn't. If I would have celebrated it, I wouldn't have told people that they should.

That's the thing. Live and let live. If you don't celebrate it, fine. If you do celebrate it, fine. Do whatever the fuck you want. Don't enforce your opinion on other people. On 14th February 2013, the social media platform Twitter, was abuzz with tweets from different mindsets. Few wished people Happy Valentine's Day. Few talked against it. What did I do? I mostly stayed quiet about the day. Didn't tweet anything related to love or 14th February. It was well and good until, people started to argue and fight.

The people 'against' this day, started personally attacking the people that were celebrating it. What did the people in return do? They started personally attacking those people, that were against Valentine's Day. It got down and dirty, to the point that insults to Islam occurred as well. Not only was Islam humiliated, but jokes about this one particular girl were made on Twitter and everyone started tweeting her name as a hashtag. Seriously feel pity on the girl. Now this is where my REAL problem with Valentine's Day is going to be stated. I have already said, that I don't mind people celebrating it. However, I do have a problem when people argue over Valentine's Day.

I have a problem when people readily diss other people, when people forget to look at themselves first before pin-pointing at others, when people personally attack other people and are mean. Valentine's Day is supposed to be a day of love and prosperity right? Then where did the hate come in from? Where did the propaganda come in from? Where did the brainwashing come in from? It seems patriots of Valentine's Day, turn hypocritical when it comes to celebrating their beloved day. Point is to celebrate love right, not spread hate. Then why all the hate and bad mouthing?

Take for instance, the Pakistani lady Journalist of Express Tribune, who personally saw to it to go out and have a photo shoot with posters etc. in Karachi, promoting Valentine's Day and so called love, in front of advertisements set up by anti-Valentine's day groups. Propaganda right there. On the other hand, there were people promoting 'Haya Day', instead of Valentine's Day. No offense, but even Haya Day's existence is not Islamic. Since it is also a day and anti-Valentine's Day groups were promoting it and urging people to 'celebrate' this instead. Celebrating any kind of days outside of the religion is un-Islamic, which makes Haya Day un-Islamic too. Not highlighting this, because I am pro-Valentine's Day or something. Just wondering where both sides are going so badly wrong.

There is this thing, if you stop someone from doing something, they'll get irritated and go do it. If you want people to stop celebrating Valentine's Day, irritating them is not the way to go about it. Lot of mixed thoughts, stereotypical biased opinions etc. floating around. Stereotypes should be erased, not enforced. There are stereotypes in the mind of Liberal Fascists who think that, only Burqa clad women and people with beards don't celebrate this day. Well for your information, this is not the case. So there. People have their own reasons for celebrating or not celebrating something; the reasons could be religious yes. It is up to them. Both sides should seriously calm the fuck down and stop fighting. You wanna be all red and merry, go ahead. You wanna avoid this day, be my guest.

Selfish Humans

2013-01-30T03:33:00.001+04:00

When I read the word “human beings”, one word amongst others comes to my mind; it’s “selfishness”. Like it or not, we all are selfish; each has his/her own way and his/her different level of being selfish. Part of being human is to be selfish and what counts about that trait is how much you can control applying it into your daily life.

Take a herd of Buffaloes for example. When they want to cross the river from one side to another, what they do is form into a herd to protect each other from getting eaten by crocodiles; yes, a lot of them fall victim to the crocodiles, but the fact that they all crossed the river as a group, saved a lot of buffaloes in the herd; which could only imply that in order for a race to survive, each and every individual from that race should be ready to sacrifice.

Unfortunately, that isn’t found within human beings. Take them for example, if there are crocodiles in the river and a group of human beings want to cross, I bet you each and every individual will throw another into the water against their will, in order for the others to survive. In rare odd scenarios, will the humans not be selfish and work together to find a solution.

These are human beings, we think that in order to survive we have to step on each other, even if it means killing one another.

Life is nothing but a circle of human beings connected, and in order for this circle to stay connected; one has to sacrifice for another to keep it all in balance, connected and firm. And to your selfish self that’s now going “so if I sacrifice for someone else, what do I get out of it? I will only lose something out of my life and give it to others”; my answer to you is “when you give, you receive”. I’ve already mentioned that life is a circle, and a circle will rotate back to you; when you give someone, make sure that someone else will also give something back to you.

Now a days, people are more like a straight line; the one standing at the beginning of the line only gives, whereas the one standing at the end of it is only receiving; last but not least the one standing in the middle gives and receives, but the line still has remains of gaps. Whereas in a circle, everyone is benefiting.

I’ve watched us humans, how we claim that we are so tightly close with others, that nothing at all can shake our bonds. Suddenly, the bonds we share are easily broken, and what is annoying is, both parties that have broken their bond off, become desperate to dig out reasons in order to explain why they let a bond break so easily.

I do not care why the hell would someone break up a bond they thought was too tight with someone else; no matter what reason there is, you do not completely break it, after you spent a lot of time building it with someone. I’ve seen people who knew each other for years, simply not talking to each other again because “they’ve changed” or because “they betrayed their companionship”. See now that’s what forgiveness is for. Where did forgiveness go? Where did loyalty go? Where did sacrifice fade to? Why can we not forgive?

Why do we easily forget all the good times we spent sacrificing for each other, rather than make up reasons to break our bonds? Why is it so easy to let go of a friend or a lover; rather than to move on, forget and forgive? If one knows it’s easy for him/her to break a friendship/relationship off, then do not say “nothing can shake my relationship off” because believe me the smallest things apparently will destroy your relationship. One has to live up to his/her claims.

Wait For You In The Moonlit Night

2013-01-30T02:35:00.001+04:00

Moon light shining thin and bright, thinner and a little brighter, this change in intensity being caused due to heavy clouds swarming the dark sky. Stars twinkle some here and there, drenched through holes made by the lace of those thick clouds. They don't stay still for even a single moment. The clouds race past my existence, as if they are on for a win and I am looking at these mysteries with transfixed eyes.

One moon and this huge sky above my head, what courage does it confine in itself, that it has this desire to lull darkness in it's full cry....alone, in the dark...and yet...since centuries, it's fate unsurpassed, it's desire unfulfilled, and it's achievement.... well it doesn't say, actually, it might doesn't even know, it doesn't even care. Seems as if it's happy in what it does, giving out light, without asking anything in return, anything.

And I am watching this extravagant festival of twinkling lights, these shades of blue, moon's indispensable yet obligatory smile, and it makes my heart smile as well, for I see no other reason to make myself aloof of such charismatic event and claim to be unmoved. Oh yes I have a heart, a heart that's got it's own brain, it's own soul, it's own existence.

And my heart tells me to relax, they would be coming soon. They would be on their way. They would make it back in no time.

A few moments later nature turns its tides on my festival. Thicker clouds take their course. They are more subtle and organized; covering the last remaining features of what was once a moon. Darkness crept with all its hideous features and the moon light died faintly, inevitably.

Droplets; the first one struck some where deep in my heart, gave earth its bathe and freshness. It was rain that makes u feel like you are naked when it's cold droplets hit your neck and eventually soak up your clothes; some where some how, they were also immersing my last lingering optimism.

Here I am, in this rain, cold blooded God forsaken rain and..where are you?

My heart, with the slightest remaining stroke of beat makes a sigh. Maybe they would come after this rain, maybe they won’t, maybe they’re stuck. God knows but there might be something obstructing their path, I am not there how would I know. And so, I hold on to this last, faint, slim, enduring feather.

It's been ages now but that feather have not seized to spun it's dances in the air, a territory where even winds have become my enemy, that feather have always been flying, flying with colours, making my heart a feather with it's soar and lift.

People argue and disagree, quarrel and flee, but for this heart to set free...
They say I am a madperson, and yet, I live another day, and die another glee...
Heaven have looked upon my soul, and I have showed no spree
for my heart has his own master, its own door, its own key.

Psychology of Missing Someone 2: Kitani Mohabbat Hai

2013-01-25T03:42:00.000+04:00

This song 'Kitani Mohabbat Hai' has so many memories associated with it. This is why whenever I hear it, I start crying. This song just reminds me of bad memories that I want to dissociate myself from. Something that happened, it took me 1 whole year to recover from it and it happened when I used to watch the drama, whose title track this song is. This drama makes me emotional and so does this song.

Whatever that might have happened, it is always tried to be forgotten; but sometimes a song or some other thing triggers the memory and everything comes rushing back. A song doesn't have to be particularly in the language that you speak, it can be any song that can hold so much meaning for you. You don't even have to understand the lyrics. Only the music is enough to turn on the emotional, sentimental part of your brain.

When we hear songs, we hear songs for many reasons. The songs that are newly released, we might hear them for the hype factor. Let's see what this new singer has to offer. After we hear the song once, why do we hear the song twice? Why do we hear the song more than once? Sometimes, we might hear the song on repeat the whole day. If you ask someone why they do that, they'll always tell you "because I love the song." They will never really tell you why.

There is always a reason why you listen to a song more than once. When you listen to the song once - that is if you fully listen to the song and actually like it - you are just enjoying it and not really paying attention to the lyrics that much. I know there are people, some people like me, who actually pay attention to the lyrics the first time around too; however, there are many who don't. The second time is when you actually start to pay more attention towards the lyrics.

Once you pay attention to the lyrics, your mind starts to tell your subconscious, things. That is when the trigger to get all your memories from their storage is pulled. The more deeply you start to pay attention to the lyrics, the more attuned your mind gets to the song. Then it is more about the song and not the music. Some lyrics really get you and you start remembering things. Flashbacks start occuring in front of your eyes.

Now, songs are a good way to remember things. Whether you want to remember things is another story. Songs can be used to remember good things, but they can bring back horrible bad memories too. Those kinds of memories, associated with hurtful and tragic events in your life. Such events that sometimes you don't want to think about. Songs are also a good way to miss someone and also, remember them at the same time. Especially, when the person doesn't live near you and you have to wait months to see them, meet them and talk to them.

Songs are tools. They bring happiness when you are sad. They bring sadness when you are happy. However, sometimes it is the happy kind of sadness, which you want to revel in. If you are missing someone, you play a song which might make you remember that person and then two things usually happen. Firstly, it hurts. If the person is or isn't still in your life. It fucking hurts you. There is this piercing pain in your heart. You deliberately do this to yourself. You deliberately play a song which makes you remember a person you really want to remember.

Secondly, it makes you smile. After the initial searing pain subsides, you go in to a self-induced melancholy mood and mode, you listen to all your favourite songs which remind you about them and then you smile. You finish listening to a song and then you smile some more. If the person is not in your life anymore, you don't bother telling them that you missed them and smiled. If the person is still in your life and you two are on good terms, more than often you 'will' mention it to them that, "hey I listened to this song and it made me remember you or miss you." That usually follows with a 'I love you'.

Sometimes though, people listen to a song and they won't mention it to the person directly, that it reminded me of you or I was listening to this, because I was missing you. That's such a shame really. You should tell the person that you were missing them. Experiences have taught lots of things and one of them is that, you should never hold yourself back from speaking your mind. You should never hold yourself back from doing what you and your heart wants to do. You should go for it. Do you want to live with the regret, for the rest of your life, that you didn't try and they got away?

Trust all those heart-broken lovers who write that they are in depression, because they lost the person they love. What is the use of missing someone afterwards? You should miss them while they are still in your life, in the good way. Don't cry and miss them when they are gone. Do something now. Even if they are angry at you and are not speaking to you, you should tell them how you feel. You should tell them you want them back in your life. Missing someone really hurts. Whether they are no longer in your life, whether they are but ignoring you, whether they aren't ignoring you but are too busy, whatever may the reason be for you missing them. Let them know!!

Dubai International Film Festival 2012 (Movie Review) - Don't Stop Believing: Everyman's Journey

2012-12-14T19:14:00.000+04:00

By Aisha Yaqub

Not everyone is born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Not everyone is blessed to be part of a family in the middle-class or high-class society. There are many of us who have to struggle in life, to get somewhere; many who have to put in the effort to reach somewhere knocking at their door, in order to move up in life. The film Don’t Stop Believing: Everyman’s Journey is one such movie, which gives out a strong message to the audience. The message is very simple. Hard work and persistence is the key to succeed and make a name for ourselves, many who are waiting for opportunities to come knocking.

The film, Don’t Stop Believing: Everyman’s Journey, chronicles an interesting story about a lowly man from Manila, Philippines and his passion of singing; especially singing the band Journey’s songs. Also, the film is about how the band Journey actually found Arnel Pineda and Arnel’s Journey from just singing the covers of Journey’s songs in Manila clubs – as part of a classic rock cover band, to actually getting plucked out from his obscure life and becoming their lead singer and going on tours with them.

As soon as the documentary starts, we are shown Arnel Pineda – the lowly man from Philippines – in a high school in Manila. He then exits the place and is shown walking on the street. First impression of Arnel Pineda is of a simple guy next door; with long hair, wearing a t-shirt and cargo pants. The film then takes us, the audience, on an exciting journey of self discovery and perseverance; which happens to be a key element and message in the movie as well.

What is exciting about Don’t Stop Believing: Everyman’s Journey is that, it is a story that will excite many of us. Human beings have the habit of getting excited and happy, when they see a small town girl/boy making it big. Few of us can actually relate to this kind of a story as well, when it is shown in the movies. Another interesting thing about the documentary is, the way it shows us the audience, how the band Journey found Arnel Pineda through Youtube and his own personal journey from Philippines to the United States and back.

One thing that could have been explored in the film, which wasn’t, was the fact that they could have addressed the question of, the difficulties that arose from recruiting a lead singer for such an iconic band of the 80s, from a different cultural background. Surely, in some parts of the film, we are made aware that people dislike the fact that Arnel replaced Steve Perry – the most iconic lead singer of Journey and that people would have preferred a lead singer from ‘America’, but it could have been spoken about more in the film.

Despite being a bit long and dragging at times – due to the fact that there were two stories being told in one; one of them was Arnel’s discovery by Journey and his own personal journey from rags to riches and the second one, the history of Journey and what happened with the band throughout its 20+ years of formation – it is a good film to watch. The message that the film gives is good, it is indeed an everyman’s journey and we all go through self-discovery. Plus, the soundtrack is great!

Highs and Lows of Academic Writing

2012-10-27T19:42:00.001+04:00

Well, first of all I would like to say, I hate academic writing. Why I hate academic writing? The style is old and going in to extinction.

Whoops? My first paragraph of this article is only one line and it doesn’t even have the ‘thesis statement’ at the end. Yeah. It doesn’t. That is because, this way of starting an essay/article is becoming increasingly rare. You will only find it being used by academic institutions etc. Everyone else has adopted new ways of writing and writing itself, is a very evolved process. It keeps evolving and changing. The way we write and communicate, isn’t a stagnant fixed process. It keeps changing.

When you are in school or when you are in University, you are told that an essay has a particular format. It has an introduction, a body and a conclusion. The introduction has the thesis statement at the end and it can’t be more than 4-5 lines. The body should be maximum three paragraphs and we are supposed to restrict our thoughts to just three ‘big’ paragraphs. Then there is the conclusion. You should re-phrase your thesis statement and end your essay with a personal reflection.

Meh.

You see what was done up there? One paragraph consisted of just one word. Yes, that is possible; but not in academic writing. If you do that in University, your lecturer or professor will cut your marks. It is simply annoying isn’t it? Following one particular format, which absolutely sucks by the way.

If in Academia, there can be a few different ways to reference – to avoid plagiarism – things (Different Referencing Styles), then why can’t there be a few different ways of essay writing that can be taught to students? In school they should still be taught the basic essay format of 5 paragraphs, but in University, lecturers and professors should be allowed to tell the students, that it is okay if you change the way you write your essays and it is okay to go above 5 paragraphs.

Students are taught in University, to jumble up their ideas and put them all together in one paragraph, or a maximum of three. This format or structure works in some cases, if the essay is not of a long length that the student is to write. What if the essay is supposed to be of 1500 words? How can you seriously fit everything in 5 paragraphs. They are going to be long and boring. It will be a daunting task to the eyes, to read those paragraphs and what has been written.

Yes! People in the past did it. Now it is time to change the way we do it and it is changing!

A professor who used to teach Journalism in American University of Dubai, said something which still sticks to the mind, every time a write-up is required and the mind is put to task. He said “A paragraph does not have to be long. An essay or article does not have to be only 5 paragraphs. One idea equals one paragraph. Now whether it takes you 2-3 lines to convey that idea, or 5-6; that is up to you and how well you put your thoughts down to paper.”

He was the first person to ever say such a thing. Every time people tell you otherwise. Stick to the format. Stick to the rules. 3 main points. Conclusion. That is it. He was also the only person to say that one word can be a paragraph too, if it is necessary.

What University teaches you is the basics. To a certain extent, teaching methods have become a bit archaic, considering all the advances human kind have made in the way we communicate and network. It has especially been accelerated due to the internet revolution and the boom of social media. The way we write an essay in University? It won’t help you when you go out in the real world and perform a task which requires writing. Like stated before, things HAVE changed.

Before, it was just print media. Now, it is the online media too and that has completely changed the ‘ball game’. People actually had time to read before and could stomach large chunks of text. Not only that, professors in University had the stamina to read long essays full of words fit in to 5 paragraphs. This doesn’t work any more. NO ONE is going to read huge blocks of text, because frankly speaking it is boring.

This is what people would think when they are reading long paragraphs. It is especially worse if people don’t use punctuation, there are grammar and typographical mistakes too isn’t it?

Forget online media, even the way news stories are published in the newspapers have changed. Before, they were long and with barely any images. Now, there are images and news stories have become to the point. One sentence paragraph is usually the lead in to the story in the newspaper; be it the online or the printed version. The way we write has evolved and now a days is more to the point. People don’t have the attention span capacity any more.

Now, not saying that the whole essay or whatever you are writing should be of one line paragraphs. Even that would look bad and seriously unprofessional, but there should be a balance. Neither too short, too many; neither too long, barely any.

A paragraph is a unit of thought that develops an idea. A traditional paragraph contains a topic sentence that states the idea to be developed, plus additional sentences that develop the idea stated by the topic sentence.

One paragraph is one idea package. You state your idea and then develop it; by giving examples for e.g.

Academic writing is useful while in freshman year of University at most. It helps students to articulate their thoughts and write them down. It gives them a basic foundation to writing. Once students know the basics about how to write and reference, they should be given the freedom to write the way they want. Then, they should shift from academic writing to real-world writing. In real life no one writes academic essays any more. There are barely any people that do that. Doubt it if journalists or people in the media even do that now. This academic writing is basically going to be useful if you are going follow the Academia career path and become a scholar or something along those lines. Otherwise, it will not help you when you are at your work place and your boss asks you to do a report of 3000 words.

Life completely changes for a student, the day the student decides to enter the real world. Doesn’t really matter whether the student is still studying or has graduated. If you work, your life will change. In the real world, things are different from the theory you are taught at University, in most cases. Basic rules still apply, but sometimes you have to bend the rules. Also, in real world you have to apply yourself and your learning. It isn’t always the same. You will also have to improvise on many occasions; you won’t have a University handbook at your disposal telling you how things will work.

Academic writing, take it with a pinch of salt. It will be difficult for you as a student, to be obliged to force your ideas in to 5 paragraphs and think of a thesis statement every time; but this thou shall pass! The tip for success to academic writing, while you wait to progress to real-world writing and situations? Always reference and always read your essay, paper or article that you have written once or twice, before handing it in. You will find many mistakes, even in a perfectly written piece. Occasionally, pretty minor ones. Academic writing is important – it teaches a student how to write and express - but a person shouldn’t be bound to the structure.

That will be all. Yes, my conclusion is a one line paragraph.

Riding for a Good Cause: The Goodwill Journey

2012-10-18T20:22:00.001+04:00

One thing that caught the eye at the Gulf Bike Week 2012 Expo was, the dirty odd looking bike being showcased at The Chapter Dubai’s stall. Upon inquiry, the story behind the dirty bike was told, by the owner himself. The bike belongs to Wissam-al-Jayyousi, the founder of ‘Goodwill Journeys’, a charity organization whose target is raising awareness about the suffering and hardships that Palestinians endure daily. As a Palestinian himself, this cause is very dear to his heart.

Wissam was present at Gulf Bike Week Expo to promote awareness about ‘Goodwill Journeys’ and his recent trip the ‘Silk Road Journey’ that he undertook using the bike, in order to raise awareness and funds for the PCRF and carry the message of Palestine. He travelled from Dubai to Singapore, passing through countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan, in a specially equipped Harley Davidson. The touring model of Harley Davidson which Wissam used to undertake the journey is fully equipped for life on the road. Electronic cruise control, 80-watt Advanced Audio System by Harman-Kardon with passenger sound system, vented removable fairing lowers and adjustable fairing wind deflectors, luggage liners and intercom are all standard equipment.

Wissam isn’t new to riding for a cause. He has been doing that all of his life. In 2010, his charity Goodwill Journeys collaborated with a charity in the UK, to make possible a road trip to London. The trip was aimed at raising funds and awareness for the education of children with special needs in Palestine. The trip was of 40,000kms and lasted 60 days, during which he rode through 36 different Middle Eastern and European countries. In May 2012, he collaborated with the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) to undertake the journey to Singapore, the same one he is promoting at the Expo. The journey’s aim was to raise funds for the construction of a cancer ward at a Hospital at Beit Jala, Palestine.

The Goodwill Journey is committed to raising a million dirham for the PCRF and to help in raising awareness about the plight of children in Palestine. According to Wissam, more support from people is needed in order to raise that money. There should be more awareness about the condition of children in Palestine and according to him they do need as much help as they can get. This is why; soon, Wissam is going to once again ride off in to the sunset, yet another time – this time the journey taking him from Dubai to Glasgow.

Wissam-al-Jayyousi at Gulf Bike Week Expo 2012

Saving Face Middle Eastern Premiere at ADFF12 (Film Review)

2012-10-17T19:08:00.000+04:00

On 13^th October 2012, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and Daniel Jung’s Oscar winning documentary ‘Saving Face’ had its Middle Eastern premiere, as part of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. The documentary film chronicles the work of Dr. Jawad, a plastic surgeon of Pakistani origin from the UK, who travels to Islamabad, Pakistan to help acid attack victims. He helps and performs reconstructive surgeries on many of the disfigured victims, but only two such victims were highlighted in detail in the film. Saving Face is dedicated to Rukhsana and Zakia, two women from the Saraiki belt of Punjab, Pakistan.

The film is a roller coaster ride of emotions. It starts off with Zakia a 39 year old woman, who states that she cannot bear to look at her face any more. Her face haunts her and that’s why she has stopped looking in to a mirror. She shows the audience her past photos and how she used to be, before she got disfigured by acid. She tells the audience that she used to love taking photographs of herself; how when her mother used to buy her new clothes, she would wear them and get her photographs taken at the photo studio. However, now she feels terrible after looking at the photographs and how she used to be. A face filled with melancholy explains that now that face does not want to see the light, now that face has to get used to remain covered with a veil and sunglasses, in order to hide the face from the society and people, so they don’t get scared.

It goes on to show different women briefly, all victims of acid attack and all having one question on their lips “why me?” It is a powerful question and certainly something that should be pondered upon. Why were these women targeted? Why is it that there are over 100 reported cases of acid attack in Pakistan each year? What was their fault that they got so brutally punished? 23 year old Rukhsana, the other protagonist of the documentary, was also a woman with that question in her mind. Why was she punished like this and why did she become a victim of acid attack? Her husband threw acid on her; her sister-in-law threw gasoline on her and her mother-in-law set her on fire. These women had no hope and thought they couldn’t return to normal life, but due to Dr. Jawad’s efforts, these women got a new lease on life; especially Zakia who had a facial reconstructive surgery done, which helped her shed the veil, make her like her face again and bring her happiness back, to a certain extent.

Saving Face is an emotion driven documentary which will make you cry, or at least your eyes will well up with tears, as you can’t help but feel bad for these women and sympathise with them. There are many instances and painful moments in the film which will leave you with mixed emotions. You will be angry and sad at the same time. One such moment is when Rukhsana finds out that she’s pregnant with the same man’s child who attacked her with acid and because of this; she can’t have her reconstructive surgery. She becomes sad, but happy at the same time; thinking that maybe this child will bring her happiness. She can’t even leave her husband and family, because she has no other way of supporting her children and she doesn’t want them to suffer. She is stuck.

Take out 52 minutes of your time from your day, to watch this gem of a documentary, because Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and Daniel Jung have done a good job. Granted that it could have been made better or better explained – like if Rukhsana’s sister-in-law and mother-in-law conspired to set her on fire, why weren’t they arrested by the police or why weren’t they featured in the film? Or they could have showed how the other acid attack victims were doing, in a bit more detail than they did. Regardless, this is a film of female strength and courage; how these women, even after facing such harsh and cruel treatment, managed to overcome that and live their life. How after her reconstructive surgery, Zakia, dressed in bright red clothes and no burka or veil in sight, walked confidently on the street and even smiled; as if nothing had happened. That gives out a strong message that, even if something bad happens, your life shouldn’t stop. Like the age old English idiom “time and tide wait for no man”, one has to keep moving forward under any circumstances.

Malala Who? Pakistan Just Knows Veena Malik

2012-10-12T02:25:00.000+04:00

The recent state of affairs has caused uproar in the local and the international community. The shooting of a 14 year old girl in the neck and head by the Taliban has caused online activists to post 'tweets' and comments about the incident on social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter. People from Pakistan are the ones who mainly comprise of the online activist community, voicing themselves against this heinous act by the Taliban against Malala Yousafzai. However, what has the actual community of Pakistan done for Malala? It is mostly always the case that when an incident happens, people protest on social networking platforms, instead of in real. But, what good does online protesting do? Will it stop the Taliban?

According to the Taliban, they are ready to attack the girl again if she survives the attack. This is a statement given by Pakistan Taliban spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan:

"If she survives, we will attack her again to kill her."

There have also reportedly been threats issued to her family by the Taliban. What is Pakistan going to do about it? Many in Pakistan and definitely the world, didn't even know Malala until a few days ago when she was attacked. Now, all of a sudden thanks to the media exploding the news in our faces and along with that the social media spreading the news like wildfire, we know who Malala is. What are we doing about this incident? We are voicing our anger on Twitter and Facebook. Many prominent people/personalities as well as other people have spoken about the issue on Twitter, but would it help Malala? Would it stop the Taliban from attacking her again? Can people tweeting about the incident and making a picture of her's their 'display picture' on Twitter and Facebook going to assure Malala's recovery and safety? The simple answer to all of this is 'no'.

As much as Malala would like people tweeting about her and putting her pictures as their display pictures, she would like it more if people actually did something that would help her be safe from Taliban's clutches. Also, Pakistan should do something about the safety of its citizens, especially the girls and stop such incidents from happening in the future. As much as we would like to think Pakistan cares about what happened to Malala and the other girls; and wants to improve the situation, it isn't evident.

Why haven't the people of Pakistan and the law enforcement agencies risen against this heinous barbaric act against a 14 year old child? Why hasn't few buildings been destroyed by now or few cars set on fire by now in protest to what the Taliban has done? Doesn't the shooting of a 14 year old Pakistani girl who was working for the betterment of Pakistani females warrant that? We do seem to set fire to everything in sight for the smallest of issues, otherwise.

A person on Twitter tweeted this:

His claim is, a new controversy related to Veena Malik - a controversial media personality from Pakistan - has more power to evoke a reaction from the Pakistani nation and make the nation forget about the Malala incident in less than a week. His claim doesn't come without a backing. In the past Pakistani nation has voiced their unrest about Veena Malik's antics, the most famous of them being her appearance on Bigg Boss - an Indian reality television show - her link up with a co-star from the show, her sentiment filled comments about the show and the anger she expressed towards the Pakistani nation on a news talk show on Express News.

In a way if we think about it, a bigger drama incident is always next after the drama that is created because of Veena Malik. It is a game that Veena Malik and the nation play when everyone is bored. Veena needs to get popular and 'infamous', people need entertainment and something to divert their minds to, so everyone starts cursing Veena Malik after another of her publicity stunts. This has been going on so much, that indeed there are more people in Pakistan who would know who Veena Malik is; in comparison to if we asked them who Malala is. Malala who? Pakistan just knows Veena Malik and the likes of her, who are constantly in the media limelight for one thing or the other.

Well, people of Pakistan can be angry at Veena Malik participating in a naked photo shoot or when she recently came out with her latest controversial music single called 'Drama Queen', but why can't they be angry at the same level when it comes to Malala? A girl who was injured seriously because she wanted to propagate her right to an education? A girl who was an activist in support of education and equality for girls?

Ali Raza from Sialkot, Pakistan had an interesting thing to say to the question posed by Mr. Qamar Rajpoot on Twitter, "few revealing photos of Weena can make whole nation forget Malala in less than a week..." He says that,

"Pakistanis are very sentimental about religious affairs. Malala Yousafzai was attacked by Taliban because the Taliban claimed that she was spreading anti-Islamic secular views and opinions. The Taliban are clearly wrong and felt threatened by her, so attacked her. The Pakistanis take religion seriously and this is a matter of religion. Pakistanis won't forget Malala, even if there is a Veena Malik controversy. She can publish many naked photos of her; it won't cause them to shift their attention from Malala to elsewhere."

However, Imran Khan from Dubai, UAE had something else to say. In his opinion, "people of Pakistan are tired of hearing about target killings, attempted assassinations, bomb blasts and suicide bombing." He also added that,

"Pakistan has been experiencing Malala like situations since 2001. They are now used to target killings etc. Drones are killing innocent civilians; there are target killings in Karachi on a daily basis. Somehow people in Pakistan have learned to live even in these worst situations. Incompetent government has just killed the hopes for a better living standard and situation in Pakistan."

On the topic of whether the nation can forget Malala if a Veena Malik controversy occurs, his answer was a "yes". He talked about the fact that when a terrified nation like Pakistan, frustrated and sick of target killings, assassination attempts, bomb blasts - along with other issues like electricity load-shedding - find something incredibly interesting in the media, they start discussing about it; whether it is Veena Malik or Shahid Afridi. Veena Malik gets discussed more, because she is brazen and provocative, the lust - instead of religion - forces people to discuss Veena Malik in the country and indeed outside the country, thanks to Facebook and Twitter.

Media has really controlled the way we see and perceive things these days. Not only that, media is controlling the things we know about and think about too. Media talks about a particular person or incident and that's the talk of the town; on the tip of every person's tongue. It was the same with the case of Arfa Karim Randhawa, a completely unknown Pakistani, until media highlighted her illness and later, the fact that she died. It was then only, that people in Pakistan and abroad found out about her great accomplishment - that she was the youngest person in the world, at the age of 10 to become a Microsoft certified professional. It is sad that in Pakistan, you have to either get shot with the bullet by the Taliban, or die in order to make it to the news; that also if you are someone worthwhile. Otherwise no one cares.

Media chooses one person to highlight and then people start talking about that person and posting sympathies and prayers towards that person. Surely, many people that are tweeting about Malala, didn't even know before who she was. They found out about it and started talking about her. Media creates hype and we people follow that hype. Once the hype dies down, media throws another subject at us and we start talking about that. Don't the rest of the girls injured in the attack, as well as the teachers deserve to be talked about too? After all, they were attacked by the Taliban as well. So why single out Malala that also after an incident has happened? There are thousands of people - innocent children, girls and women - who have died in drone attacks or other attacks in Pakistan, such as bomb blasts; most of them done by the Taliban as well. Why don’t the media highlight those people? Why don't we pray for them? Are they inferior and not worthy because they weren't advocating and speaking out in support of something? Didn't they deserve to live?

What has happened with Malala isn't a good thing and shame on Taliban for orchestrating it and shame on Pakistan for letting it happen. But, we shouldn't forget all the other girls and people that are a target of terrorism as well. Putting Veena Malik and tabloid like controversies in the media aside, we have other important issues to talk about and discuss. Not only that, we have important issues to tackle and protest about. Instead of talking about Malala on Facebook, Twitter and remaining an online activist, why don't people of Pakistan take it one step further and use their online networking skills to gather people to protest in real. People should demand from the government of Pakistan that the law enforcement agencies do something about this; that the agencies prevent such incidents from happening in the future. Are we that coward?

Various groups in Pakistan have protested against the cowardly and barbaric act by the Taliban. The Swat Jirga - a committee handling the area where Malala was targeted by the Taliban - had a protest against the attack on her and her schoolmates and called on the Taliban to stop targeting girls in the Swat valley. Women in Islamabad rallied against the act by Taliban and demonstrated their support for Malala Yousafzai. Lawyers in Lahore, Karachi, Quetta, Rawalpindi and other cities of Pakistan held a strike and boycotted court proceedings, because of Malala and to show the government their disappointment and anger over what had happened. Not only in Pakistan but outside Pakistan too, people have been enraged over what has happened.

International pop star and singing sensation Madonna, dedicated a song to Malala Yousafzai, during her performance at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles on the night of 9th October. Madonna was clearly devastated after hearing about the incident, because according to her, it made her cry. Madonna also had a surprise for everyone. During her performance the singer stripped off her costume and turned to reveal the name "Malala" written on her back.

Malala wanted to save Pakistan ("...save our schools, our world, save our Pakistan") but Pakistan couldn't save Malala from Taliban. Pakistan couldn't stop Malala being targeted. The government and people of Pakistan owe it to her and all the other victims of Taliban's terrorism, to sort out the situation in the country, make the living conditions better for the people of Pakistan security and safety wise; so that no one has to live in fear any more, all the while that they are living in a country called Pakistan. Pakistan is the land of the pure and it is high time, this impurity in the form of the Taliban is washed out of the country. It is high time Pakistan did something.

Open Letter To Ramiz Raja

2012-10-01T00:15:00.001+04:00

Good way to take out frustration, no? This is regarding his horrendous commentary during the Pakistan vs. India match, in the T20 World Cup 2012, Super Eights stage.

Dear Ramiz,

We lost. We get it. We are gutted that we lost. We all know that Pakistan team succumbed to psychological pressure against India and did not perform well at all out there in the field today. We know that the team players had a mind block and were feeling pressured. We kind of also knew that Pakistan would lose this match. We were prepared for that from the beginning, but one can have hope right? One can pray for a slight chance of victory against India right?

But what is your problem? Your comments against your country’s players were very harsh and at times, uncalled for. You were consistently badmouthing the players of the Pakistan T20 cricket squad. You were commenting and making it seem like if it was a player’s fault, when in reality it wasn’t really, at times too. We all know that commentators are supposed to be unbiased and balanced! However, you were belligerent in your quest to keep on bashing players of your OWN country.

Harsha Bhogle, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri had the tact to remain quiet and cunningly go ahead forward, without elaborating on their players bad points during their turn at commentary and that was smart on their part. They didn’t talk much about India’s poor form while Pakistan was batting and India was fielding & bowling. They kept the commentary going by only pointing out praises for India’s cricket team and giving out facts, which supported India’s pursuit to win the match.

You were constantly spiteful towards Pakistani players and kept bickering about their poor performance and supporting India and praising their performance. If you can’t stay neutral and give an unbiased commentary, at least stay loyal to your country and not say anything bad about its players unnecessarily? You do however are a Pakistani and we would have appreciated if you could have said a few good things about the Pakistan cricket team as well and also their brilliant performance in the World Cup so far. You didn’t even speak out against the umpire who wrongfully dismissed Nasir Jamshed, even when he wasn’t out.

Your bread and butter depends on the Pakistan cricket team playing matches and keeping that in mind, you should be a bit loyal towards Pakistan; or at least a bit unbiased in your commentaries from now on. If Pakistan pack their bags and leave the World Cup, then you pack your bags too. So, instead of bashing the players unnecessarily, you should support them, give them a morale boost and also be a positive role model to your thousands of fans across the world, which follow you; be it in real life or on Twitter. Either you do that, or we request you to stop appearing in advertisements that you do with the Pakistan team/players from the Pakistan team. You don’t need to praise the opposition on television for a few more dollars, Ramiz. Stay true to Pakistan and who you are. It is a humble request.

Not so best regards,
Lot of dejected Pakistan team supporters.