Transition Point

The First look at Malaysia - Entering UTP

2011-03-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Palms trees, with height lower than the palms we see there in Pakistani, there were lots and lots of them. This is the first thing I noticed while landing procedures began for Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). The next thing, to amaze me was the expanse of KLIA. I walked and walked a long lounge with a couple of turns just to find that I needed to board on a bus to reach the immigration department.

I had a chance to pass by the labourers and workers waiting for the travel agents to pick them up. For a moment, I thought if this is my chance to see real milita. (for years, I had spelled the word as 'Malaysia' when it really was militia - the men in dark gray shalwar qameez and peshawari chappal carrying big guns. I was told when in first grade that their uniform cloth comes from Malaysia and so the force is called as 'Malasia walay'). The security personnel on the other counters, meant probably for visitors or may be aothers except workers category, were nicer and wont at all fit into my definition of security or police.

There were long queues of people and would get longer and longer with each minute as a layer of people would be added to the zig-zag path leading to the counters. As I made it out of the airport TI was greeted like , "I am gonna kill you, you made me wait for so long" by an Egyptian foundation student who had traveled around 21 hours in multiple flights. He fell asleep in minutes as we started for the 3-hour drive to university with Mr. Hiduwan from UTP. All the way, I kept him busy in answering my questions all the way.

After an hour of so, I began to feel like I am missing something here, I could find on roads in Pakistan, what it was, definitely the beautifully decorated trucks saying 'Tere Yaad Aye Teray Jaane k Baad'. All of a sudden, it appeared as if there were going to be a traffic jam. Hiduwan predicted it would be an accident on the other side of the road. People are too curious, he continued, to see what happened until the persons and the vehicle is carried away, so an accident is the only option he felt could slow down the traffic. He told me about the Malaysian oil company Petronas, if the company collapses, so does Malaysia, and the various local car brands like Proton. My calculations, in Pak Rupees, revealed cars here are cheaper but not the way, friends as in US are.

For once I could not believe my eyes, but it happened again and again. Women on bikes, were to be seen all along the highway. That's the norm, Hiduwan corrected me, equal rights, equal opportunities for all. Lately, I found women would work in all sectors just like men including office jobs, running shops, police or whatever it is. As we entered the university, a vast mosque with a dome and a sort-of-lake on two sides welcomed us. I came to learn that the people here don't hesitate in having one, two, any number of "Jamaats" after the first one. The warden at the hostel was playing football but soon returned to hand me the keys to my room. I bade Riduwan with "Terimah Kasih". I had met more number of Pakistani students here than I had even expected could be found here at Universiti Teknologi, Petronas, before getting the keys.

That was my first look at Malaysia.

I am learning new things each day but some of them have already gone old. Probably, this is how it goes.

Lahore Horse Race June 2010.mp4

2011-02-20T12:57:00.000-08:00

Thoughts About Flopped FYPs

2010-09-16T18:44:00.000-07:00

All I am jotting out here is not at all supposed to be taken seriously. Its just a random listing of my observations and experiences with Final Year Project while I spent about two years of life in project lab sharing the joys and woes of students, faculty and staff.

The most prevalent and relevant issue, I have observed, is project selection. I do not mean finalizing the topic but finalizing the objectives and coming up with a verbal description of claims you have in heart. People, fail to come up with a list of specifics and claims about the device, hardware or software, whatever are planning to create, design or just borrow and display and label it as their Final Year Project . “Sari Hasrtain Dil mein hi reh jati hain.”

Often when project selection and specifics are unclear, there can’t be a way to allocate times for constituent tasks and components of the bigger task – The FYP. Synchronizing your individual timelines and coming up with a balanced schedule incorporating studies, the project, and your curricular, extra-curruculiar and “Gharicular”- home related activitvities is a big challenge.

If not accustomed to working in teams, it’s difficult to fairly and purposefully delegate tasks to individual team members according to our likes/dislikes, abilities and the demand of the hour. There are a lot of things around that hurt our “Anna”. I will like to put it as ‘Ego Issues’.

When the tasks are loosely delegated and there’s infinite time of a whole year, timelines also are too flexible, it’s not hard to fall a prey to procrastination – laziness and putting things off on a ideal, dreamy tomorrow.

More to follow Inshallah.

I will wait for your comments and feedback.

Let's Save Ourselves

2010-08-14T06:10:00.000-07:00

“Where the government or the opposition felt was some lack of trust on part of nation and/or the international community”, was the question raised by a couple of journalists to PM Gilani and Nawaz Sharif. The reply as I expected was mere diplomatic play just reiterating and emphasizing the objectives of new commission being formed.

Whenever we want to amend our ways, we first acknowledge and accept our follies or whatsoever mistakes committed by us so far. Then we can proceed to work for improvement. Without realizing what our weak areas have been and fully acknowledging the mistakes committed by us in past, we cannot expect much improvement in any process whatsoever.

As citizens, all of us have our own reasons for distrust in government bodies and other agencies. Even if we ignore the financial crunch and recession, how can we trust those who have looted our nation for years? How could we easily forget the brilliant utilization of our money in “Qarz Utaro, Mulk Sanwaro Scheme”, the scandals of Steel Mill, the rampant corruption in each and every office of the state, the utterly shameless fake degree holders and those who have backed them? The wounds of 2005 earthquake have not healed yet and we know what government has done in rehabilitation of affected areas.

Now that government and opposition want to emerge as a hero again, we wanted them all to acknowledge, at least in between lines, that they have made mistakes; that they realize the BIG blatant black sheep (let’s ignore the normal anomalies) among them, and show clear intentions of their willingness to work for rehabilitation of affected areas without political point-scoring. As any such part was missing in the press conference, the distrust is still there rather enhanced in degree.

The distrust is not solely on part of politicians. We have very few around us to trust. From and office clerk to the milkman all of us have been involved in blatant and unrestricted money-making without any respect for right and wrong. This dishonesty and corruption is biggest cause of distrust. This has been devastating our nation.

Now that we want to rise as a united nation again, we can make the process easier if each one of use contributes positively in the process. If we start caring a little for our own dignity and respect as humans; if we think of what Pakistan has given us and what we owe to our homeland; if we take our duties as responsible citizens once again, we can make the process of nation building faster. We must realize that if we fail to act now, the menaces like terrorism, insecurity and unemployment are not going to affect all of us for coming years.

What a relief it was to hear names of Rana Baghwan Das, Adeeb Rizvi and alike, some honest and dignified personalities whom our disgruntled nation could still trust. If we could simply forget our selfish interests for a while and follow footsteps of our own heroes, we could realize real independence and liberty. Independence always brings with itself responsibility. Let's start to believe again in the universal principles our honesty, hard work, courage and persistence. This message may not be new but it reiterates and embodies the essence of 14^th August, our independence day.

Save a Life, Have a Juice …!!!

2010-08-12T23:44:00.001-07:00

He was from our class. That was all I knew about him. He was searching for a blood donor. I knew my blood group matched but I had doubts. I had never donated before. I was weaker than a lot others around. Why did they not donate? What will my parents think about this? What if something wrong happens? I could create excuses. I could say look for someone else and keep me as the last options. That’s we what many of us go through when faced with donating blood. We may think donating blood as noble act. But when it comes to ourselves, we tend to pull ourselves away. I will say, this is our natural reaction.

I had a parallel thought at the same. He was a classmate going through the same tough routine and schedule as the rest of us. And now that he was in problem, he would naturally be looking to his family, friends and class for help. If I did not help him and make him look for other options, to what avail was my existence? And, I should have some solid reason to deny. I had none. Whatever I had read or heard said nothing bad about donating blood. And internally I wanted to provide some relief to my classmate right from the moment. There is a right time for everything. There is time to take decisions on your own. I have no words to define what courage is but that is what we need at times. The next thing I asked him was when will I be leaving with him to the hospital? Do you think I will ever be able forget the sigh of relief and the smile on the face?

The donation itself, depending upon the staff there, is normally an excellent experience. The medical staff tries best to make you feel normal. They may crack a joke with you at times. The worst possible part, if you want to explore for the heck of it, may be when they inject the needle into your arm. Do you really think it is something deadly? How many injections you have on your count? Perhaps, you never counted. You just lie there for few minutes while they arrange juice for you. That’s a tradition around us even in blood banks; they have drinks to offer you. No matter how much you resist, they won’t let skip that part of the exercise.

I have been through this exercise around half a dozen times now. By the way, I have never felt any weakness ever after a donation. . The only precaution to take is not to rush up when you are done. You should wait for a 5-10 minutes so that blood circulation is normal. Otherwise you may feel a little dizzy, nothing to be afraid of by the way. At the end, you are amongst the happy ones. You definitely relish those moments of real satisfaction. Just to put it for you, I have basically been a lazy freak with no regular exercise or play in my routine. My friends, once, timid like me have gone similar experiences. Often it started when someone real close to us was in dire need of blood. But gradually we learn it is a little sacrifice worth it. What can be better service than saving a life at the cost of almost nothing? No fears now.

It is normally a half-hour exercise overall once you enter the hospital and are ready to leave. Sometimes, according to specific scenario, you may have to wait. At times, they may decide not to bleed you. Once I was in Mew hospital and it the process took around 3 hours. Government hospitals are overcrowded here, you know. What a surprise at the end, they handed me the bag of my own warm blood so that I could deliver it to the patient. OMG..!!! I held my (one pint) warm and fresh blood in my own hands and made sure it was injected to the patient within 30 minutes of donations. Once a school headmaster took me all the way from hostel to hospital on his bike and shared with me how he had been struggling to save life of his son for whole last year.

Well friends, on a lighter note, when you know there will be refreshments at end of match, you are definitely tempted to play. Now that I assure you of drinks at the end, can I hope you will be urged, just a little may be, for this noble cause?

Pakistan floods: Links to send donations, relief goods

2010-08-06T14:32:00.000-07:00

Pakistan floods: Links to send donations, relief goods: "

Following is list of donation links, relief resources, organizations and individuals working to support flood victims of Pakistan, compiled from a facebook note Do you want to do your part in helping the Pakistani people displaced because of the recent flash flooding? Here is How ! Some details below:

Besides sending cash through below the organizations listed below, you can support by providing following commodities (please do not donate old/expired stuff. Make sure edible items are hygienic and properly packed):

* Clothing: Clothes of various sizes, Bedding, Shoes

* Utensils: Jerricans (large plastic cans that hold 20 liters of water or other liquids), Crockery, Buckets

* Toiletries: Tissues, Soaps, Dettol (antibacterial cleaners), Towels

* Food: Rice, Sugar, Flour (Atta), Onions, Potatoes, Cooking oil, Tea, Milk (tetra packs or powder), Safe drinking water, Cooked Food

Medicines:

1. Water purification tablets.

2. Life saving drugs.

3. Vaccines for malaria, cholera, typhoid, influenza.

4. Pain killers including strong ones like morphine derivatives, tremadol, pethadine, kinz .

5. Antibiotics e.g. tetnus, amoxil, gentamycin.

6. IV cannulas

7. IV Drip sets

8. IV drips: normal saline, ringerlactate

9. Local anesthetics (injections)

10. Cotton bandages, cotton.

11. Surgical instruments: e.g needle holders, forceps, tweezers.

12. Suturing materials, Skin staples.

In Pakistan:

Edhi Foundation: Donate here

Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation

Title of Account: Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation

Account #: 0030445261000455

Name of Bank: MCB Bank (1028), Super Market, Islamabad-Pakistan

Swift Code: MUCBPKKAMCC

Tax Exemption: 6043/ATD/2008-09

SUNGI: Donate here

Pakistan Red Crescent Society (offices in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Muzaffarabad.

Pakistani Youth (facebook group)

Rescue & Relief Work ( Flood Survival)An independent group of students (facebook group)

The Volunteers/ Voice of the Civil Society: VOTCS – a registered (No. DSW 3369-K) welfare organization in Pakistan, operating as a Non-Profit, Public Charity in the North America, Inc. – 501(C)(3) Organization(Tax Exempted). Sending provisions to affectees with the help of Pakistan Army. For more info call: Hadia khan @ +92-3018245999 Sadia Haroon @ +92-3218251122 Irum Farooque @ +92-3002332142. (For donations: HABIB BANK LIMITED ACCOUNT NO: 1549-79001393-03)

RONAQ-E-QAINAAT – Young doctors are in the process of arranging a series of free medical camps in the flood affected areas. First Camp is at Nowshera. Please Contact Ms. Alina Akhyar at alinaakhyar@yahoo.com, to email you the Trust’s past activities, bank account details and other queries. They have reportedly done some pretty impressive work. (Account number: 00400101065364, account title: Khadija Nadeem; Askari Bank Chaklala Scheme 3 branch Rawalpindi). Khadija is the founding member, handling all donations.

International Charity Organizations:

UNHCR: Donate here. You can also mail your donations to UNHCR:

UNHCR - UNHCR Canada

UNICEF USA- Donate here

United Nation’s World Food Programme: Donations are tax deductible for number of countries. Donate here

Plan International ( Pakistan specific) donate here

International Medical Corps

IRC (The International Rescue Committee): donate here: http://www.theirc.org/news/irc-team-responds-devastating-floods-pakistan

Save the Children

Please share this Note. This is also a way of helping.

Originally Posted @ http://beenasarwar.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/2234/

Go Green Pakistan - The PowerPoint Way

2010-07-29T16:36:00.000-07:00

Go Green Pakistan is a Pakistani campaign on social media networks over the Internet whose purpose was to change the display pictures of every Pakistani and the people who are friends of Pakistan to a green image. People across the planet send them their images and the team at Go Green Pakistan edits those images manually and puts a green background with Pakistan's flag behind the faces.

I can not photoshop images and at the moment I do not have a photoshop setup with me. So, I tried to turn pictures green in my own way using only Microsoft PowerPoint. I googled to grab few green images and after few attempts I was able to produce photos some of you may think are impossible to do with a simple tool like PowerPoint. But Microsoft Office is amazing powers. Last time it amazed me when I was able to produce a departmental newsletter using Microsoft Word 2007 only.

The first image is of Dr. Saquib Sarfraz, my mentor. I had to dig through 900 images of DICE 2009 to find an image in which he could exclusively be located with minimal clutter in background. I mixed his photo with three green images. Adjusted brightness, contrast, added some effects and got something to share with you.

Here's the same snap with a little variation.

Below is the results of experiment on one of my own photos.

Yaad - In Memory of Sir Masood

2010-07-10T10:40:00.001-07:00

Imamed or Imam-less (Part-II)

2010-06-28T03:20:00.000-07:00

Molvi Gullo, as I remember him, was quite old then with white beard and would carry a stick when walking. Each night, prior to the last prayers, he would visit a house in village and collect his meals for the day, for him and his old wife. Both of his sons had grown now and were doing jobs in some far off city. They urged him a lot to move to one of them but he won’t agree. He had developed a certain association with the village and the people around.

He was a simple man, simpler than anyone. When he bought a bicycle and did not know how to ride it, he would simply ‘walk’ 3 miles dragging the bicycle and his two sons laden over it to the only high school in the area. The bicycle had no lock on its own. For security, he would have one of his cot’s leg adjusted in center of bicycle while he slept until it was stolen one day while he slept soundly with all those security measures. The ‘simple thief’ perhaps did not knew himself how to ride a bicycle there were clear evidences of him training himself in the school ground and around. People often talked about Molvi Gullo’s prayers that were rewarded in the same world. The village had a concrete road passing through, houses had ‘lamps’ lit by electricity, the villagers had good yield and happier times. Police never entered the village during his time and until a couple of years after him, and lastly, no imam would persist in the mosque for more than a year or so. That was too weird for me to think of but I had seen this last phenomenon happen over the years.

Soon after Molvi Gullo, the villagers had a young and active school-going boy as imam. He studied in 9^th grade then. He took over all the responsibilities related to mosque. Children were very obedient to his stick. The villagers were happy until when one day his connections to an extremist sect made the villagers grew against him and he had to leave the village. What followed was an onslaught of arrivals and departures of imams each with own unique story.

One Ramazan , the Taraveeh prayers were offered regularly and almost whole Quran had been recited. It was around 25^th day of Fasting when someone had devastatingly simple question to ask. Why had the imam not offered ‘Sajdhas’ - a component of marking Muslims bow to Allah with their heads on ground – on particular verses in Quran as is obligatory. The imam just befuddled and in confusing tones replied as if the people could also do it own their own. He did not even seem to know how many ‘Sajdhas’ were there and how many he had left to offer. That was a big blow on the face of villagers. Eid was his last prayer as an Imam. He had to pack up for being deceitful about the Holy Book.

The village had an ‘imam’ who would fully utilize mosque’s loud speakers to rant about the devastations of television and would read Fatwas for the dish-antenna owners. Someone’s little son had taken a meal to Hafiz’s house and returned quite late saying he was watching ‘Ainak wala Jin’ at hafiz’s house. More children had casted such doubts of presence of a television set in hafiz’s house, however, all of them were reciprocally doubted by many had been slapped for lying so brutally about such a pious and TV-hating hafiz. Ultimately, the suspicious teens had the proof, each evening after Maghrib an antenna would rise amongst the dense leaves of the ‘neem’ tree in the yard aside the mosque and would be lowered before Fajr prayer. Villagers had never been mocked like this in religious affaris.

I had always been reported as an obedient student especially with the present imam who heard me recite the whole Quran for the second time in parallel with at least four or more friends /children around. We believed he would never let us skip with a mistake though. We would happily or at least obediently carry many of his household tasks. We would bring groceries; many a times get the fodder for his cow, get the woods chopped, and bring fresh water from the canal or the water-supply tank. In Ramzan and on other occasions, we would accompany to recite Holy Quran at people’s homes and we would often be amazed at the speed of our teacher – after all, he was a hafiz. Mom would warn me against over-involvement with hafiz. Most of my age-mates were only in 2^nd or 3^rd grade while I was in 9^th grade had to give more times to studies than my friends in the village. I knew mom was right but Baba Ji was happy over this and I had more time with friends on such pretexts; after all how could I say no to hafiz Ji.

On that day, we wished we never see the face of hafiz again. I tried to falsely calm my friends but they just beat grinded me to ground and took some sort of oath in name of Allah. We were only two and it was impossible to recite whole Quran. At 30 minutes per para- division, we had recited 10 paras and while fasting, we could not go further. Hafiz just remarked, “Okay, do some more. Well, skip one page and read the other. Okay, get this little one to just recite Bismillah over each line.” That was it, all the respect for hafiz had gone. The other two were furious. We came back to our homes and never listened to any calling from mosque or hafiz. But we had to accompany him on the funeral of his father after all.

That Ramazan, the whole Quran could not be recited fully in Taraveeh prayers. Someone said according to his idea, hafiz ji was reciting with errors and skipping ayahs. It was suggested another hafiz be brought as a listener for somedays. It was just the notion of bringing a listener to test hafiz ji’s memory that he sought out a way to handle it. That day, as I passed through the yard besides the mosque, the barber was massaging a bald head. As I drew myself nearer, I found it was Hafiz Ji. He declared Holy Quran had, all of sudden been washed from his memory. Alas..!!!

During all these years, there was just one hafiz ji who left respectfully and still visits the village. He left to move to city for he could earn more there with his tailoring skills.

Too much of everything is bad and in our case having too many imams was more of imam-less-ness. I feel like similar is the case with our country or the institutions in the country. Whether you are shocked or amazed or surprised or bored, I have a rather weird question in mind over the years: Why has not our village produced any doctor to date? We have a few graduates to name along with two engineers but why not a doctor? Has this if anything to do with imam-less-ness? What if I we see imam-less-ness in context of Pakistan.

Imamed or Imam-less

2010-06-24T07:01:00.003-07:00

The new water pump bought by the committee was not there, the pedestal fan donated to the mosque last summer could not be found and the 60-feet roll of rubber pipe was reported to be missing. I had to make wudu at home for water would not be found at the mosque premises. I could not clearly make up the recitation of Quran in low voice of Master Ji at Maghreb. The noise from the fan beside the Imam would make it hard. I left the mosque even without the usual handshake with fellows. I had to milk the cow, get the chopped woods to the kitchen and above all find out who had devastated my lovely little green ‘neem’ so horribly. I had it brought it, luckily, on 14^th August and persuaded my Dada Ji to plant it with me. From the trees ‘I’ had planted to date, it was the only one that survived and grew taller to me.

It was about the same days last summer when our village was ‘Imam-less’. There was no one to lead Juma prayers. Occasionally, Shah Ji from the neighboring village would be kind enough to pay a visit and take the charge. However, he had no beard. How could he lead the prayers? People felt being ridiculed especially if someone had guests from outside the village. Once asked about his beard, Shah Ji argued, “The nature of work I do compels me not to have a beard.” An instant response was, “Shah Ji, Do you work in theater?” Someone died that summer. People were curious and doubtful as to who shall lead and conduct the funeral and post-funeral proceedings. It could not be tolerated further. There had to be an imam, preferably a Hafiz, who would lead the prayers, funerals and teach the children how to recite Holy Quran. If I translate a fellow word by word, it would be, “Does not matter if there’s a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian. We want someone in the mosque appointed right now.”

The Friday prayer was led by a test Hafiz Ji. He made a speech, recited the Khutba and led the prayers. The mosque was filled to its capacity. People stayed after the prayers. Queries from both sides were entertained. Hafiz had studied in a school of thought the villagers did not approve of but they wanted an imam bad enough. Many decided to try him for the time being and settle their mutual differences later on. Others would hold onto sectarian grounds. Villagers met again at night, the next day and even on Sunday. Disparities grew. Two groups were formed in the mosque. Each would pray separately. As tensions grew higher, people took the case to police. The villages settled for hafiz saab and fixed his wages – wheat that he would collect from each house in the village, very small monthly stipend and whatever he could get out of his rapport on marriages and deaths. A good number of villagers were relieved to have been ‘imamed’ once again.

Our own family (Baradri) was divided over the issue. We, as children, were sandwiched among the choices of elders. One would send us to mosque; the other would stop us in the way. If at one hand, I and my friends had managed meals of Hafiz saab when his wife was away, at the same, we had stolen keys of mosque and his house, hidden his clothes, cut off his water and power supply: all on the instruction of our immediate seniors around the village. Local elections added fuel to fire. It was probably being harder, day by day, for the Hafiz to settle in village. People had started to dislike him for their own ‘worldly’ reasons. Some said he had debts to pay, others suspected he was attached to some extreme religious groups which they thought may distract their own children. He would also ask for leaves so often and would always return late. Hafiz had been hired by another village in the surroundings when he broke to us he will be leaving within two days.

I had finished my chores at home and it was after Isha prayers, I was officially informed that Hafiz saab had shifted with his family to another village. Along with few physical entities the village had lost an imam. Once again imam-less-ness prevailed over Chak No. 410 Gulabwala. They said, Molvi Gullo’s prayers had been answered. Hafiz(s) came to village but won’t stay. Within 7-8 years, we had had around a dozen of changeovers.

I hope I will be able to tell those interesting and thought-provoking tales in next part of this article soon.

Gur aur Garha - Silver Jubilee Birthday Present

2010-06-20T02:59:00.000-07:00

Grandma, Maan Ji as we used to call her and Bibi Ji according to dearest mom and dad, said, "You don't weep like others as you have already wept the most part of your share." when I asked her why tears did not even pass by my eyes on the death of dearest grandpa, Baba Ji despite all the sadness and gloom lurking around. It was second year of my life when she would weigh me against shoes before sending me to Jhang for check-up. Then, I was thin as a ‘broomstick’ and won’t stop crying once switched on. I had my share of cries.

She would always wait for my holidays and say, this time, I and she would be traveling by train to meet her six sisters at their places. I was among the eldest in my generation and she relied on me for according to her, I was brave enough to guide her to the places that were new even for her. It would be her second journey by any vehicle running on an engine, the first being by the train from India to Pakistan. She had felt dizzy, fell twice and fainted when the youngest of her sons coerced her to accompany him on his brand new Sohrab and had never dared touch a 'vehicle' again. As the holidays would arrive, she either would not be 'feeling well’ to travel or would have some other plans for me to work like helping the family on the farm. In the summer holidays, it was apparently hot enough to move out. It was on the day 99 cricket world cup had to begin when Baba Ji left us and that was first summer Bibi Ji did not expressed her wish. I waited all the summer but before the summer ended, she was not well even to talk. By the end of that year, I was deprived of my real mentors. All that was left was their memories, once sequential like a tape and now scattered among all the clutter I am obsessed with.

Along all his kindness, sweetness and charm Baba Ji, still played an angry young man when gatherings in village appeared moving direction-less or unfair to him. For four years in life, I would return from school and unload my bag in Baithak - guest room and be with him till the bag was loaded again on my back or that of the bike. In summers, I and he would be sitting under the shade of trees on Thara - a raised platform outside Baithak with a bunch of school children dumping their vacation registers with whatever they could get out of Khulasa jaat - solution books; and some non-schoolers or toddler who would play terrorists or one may say academic jihadists fighting this plagiarism and foul play with random drawings and blotches on pages of the registers or alternatively the faces of register-holders. Hawkers and passers-by would rest for a while in the shade and specifically ask for not-so-cold water preferably from the ‘Ghara’ – clay-made water pot.

Baba Ji would dislike us listening to songs on radio and had never allowed a TV to prop into house but he definitely would never miss ‘Sair Been’ on BBC Urdu Service. Someone would walk around and trivia - as it appeared to me when seen against the algebraic and chemical equations- like fights with landlords, crops not growing well, shortage of water, children skipping schools would be discussed for around an hour. I would open my notebooks to complete my homework but often would turn to listen to the talks and thus quench my thirst of ‘knowledge’ from these interesting chapters of the book of life. Many of my non-academic answers were found here and occasionally, I would be tested for my tenses of English and tables of Math as well.

Baba Ji would sleep earlier while I would often sleep when a Chacha- uncle from village will woke up to lay out clay bricks and I had provided him with water, this time from fridge and the bicycle-pump. No matter how late or earlier, I slept I had a clue to when Baba Ji would wake up and I would ‘silently’ rush up to be ready for mosque before him. He would stay there while I would return to do my homework or at the least read some Islamic books or clippings from newspapers available around in the archives of the generation next to Baba Ji and go again for Fajr.

The moment I grew 25 by the calendar, I had the share of cake presented to friends, I was just to run into the chain ‘25 Years: The Gains and the Losses’ kind of stuff, I decided to pick up my laptop and throw some random gains, losses and suggestions into the database of very friendly Evernote, however, Baba Ji tempted me again to listen to those chapters of life and the Gur- sweets- offered by Maan Ji put an end to all the idiot stuff running in mind and I have came up with a piece of writing, my first article in the blog, I believe I can share publicly and at the same is a private memoir into my life.

I present to you the gift from my mentors on the silver jubilee birthday of my life.

Its a gift on 'Father's Day ' for my Abu Ji.

Building a Model of San Francisco One Toothpick At a Time

2010-06-18T09:15:00.000-07:00

Building a Model of San Francisco One Toothpick At a Time: "

Last night I was constructing an architectural model out of foam core. As I was procrastinating, I searched online for inspirational models. To my delight, I discovered Scott Weaver and his toothpick model of San Francisco. He started building the toothpick structure at age 17 and 3000 hours and over 30 years later he finished his brilliant creation.

Read Full Post"

Starry Starry Night

2010-06-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

Starry Starry Night: "

06.17.2010

2010-06-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

06.17.2010: "Archive

Nokia Introduces Bicycle Charger for Cell Phones

2010-06-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

Nokia Introduces Bicycle Charger for Cell Phones: "

Nokia has launched new cell phones for developing countries. Check out the Bicycle Charger Kit which costs about Rs. 1500. The Bicycle Charger Kit consists of a little bottle dynamo that is attached to the wheel of the bicycle to power up the phone by movement of the pedals. Now go get that old bicycle out and get it ready before this charger becomes available in Pakistan!

Here’s what Fast Company had to say about this launch.

It’s a wonder that no other phone manufacturer has thought of this before.

Maybe that’s because Nokia is the dumbphone ruler of the world. While other companies push ahead in the smartphone market, Nokia is concentrating on keeping less wealthy nations connected. And in parts of the world where access to electricity is limited, or unavailable, this Nokia kit is golden.

Can you see the charging stations in villages miles out in the African bush, staffed by a bunch of kids on stationary bikes, cycling away to charge people’s cellphones?

The Nokia Bicycle Charger Kit starts to work when you’re pedaling at just under 4mph and clicks off at 31mph. Hit 7.5mph and your bike will be charging your cell as quickly as a traditional charger would. Ten minutes at 6mph will give you 28 minutes talk time or 37 hours of standby time– if, that is, your phone is one of Nokia’s new models, which have a standby time of up to six weeks.

Mobile Innovation Contest Pakistan

2010-06-16T13:35:00.000-07:00

Mobile Innovation Contest Pakistan: "

COMSATS Institute of Information Technology has launched a new initiative to support mobile innovation in Pakistan. Called Best Mobile Innovation in Pakistan (BMIP) Contest 2010 is open for any “Made in Pakistan” innovation related to the mobile industry and technologies. As the official press release says:

It can be new technology, concept, product or business model; related to networks, devices, connectivity, software, hardware, content, applications, usage, mobile marketing, mobile payments, education or social issues.

Each winner will receive cash prize of $10,000. Furthermore, the awarded innovations are taken further into an establishment process creating new company around the innovations, creating new telecommunication or information technology companies in Pakistan.

This year we have seen a number of other activities which encourage mobile application development and mobile innovation. See Jehan Ara’s post here, my report from Mobile 2.0 expert conference and Nokia’s award announcement.

Details and judges are announced here on the FAQ page of BMIP website.

Kudos to COMSATS for starting the initiative and for encouraging our students and youth to think creatively.

Wille Eerola, CEO of RIDDES CORPORATION, the Founder of BMIP Award said:

We have plenty of Pakistani and international professional people joining us to this process supporting young Pakistanis to show the world what they can do. We all know that this country has so many innovative people so we would just invite everyone in Pakistan to join BMIP; this is done for the Future of Pakistan, to see the New Rise of Entrepreneurship in Pakistan.

Identity Theft and Password Security – Infographics

2010-06-12T15:12:00.000-07:00

Identity Theft and Password Security – Infographics: "

via onlinemba.com

It’s scary…isn’t it.

Posted via web from Guturgu

Identity Theft and Password Security – Infographics
Originally published at Knowliz by Anurag Bansal.

Random Posts

Position Zara Tight Hai by Javaid Choudry

2010-06-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

Position Zara Tight Hai by Javaid Choudry: "

Javaid Choudry columns

Time is right for clockless design

2010-06-10T18:29:00.000-07:00

Time is right for clockless design: "The demands of consumer applications to combine high performance with low power are forcing continued innovation in how the chips that power them are designed. After many years in the research labs, asynchronous technology has arrived as a viable approach, thanks to an emerging set of tools and capabilities from specialized suppliers who understand that the technology must not just work in concept, but also meet certain market requirements in order to be more broadly accepted and used.

Technology - Design - Research - Innovation - Components"

Wold Cup Team Strategys for the World Cup

2010-06-10T08:11:00.000-07:00

Wold Cup Team Strategys for the World Cup: "

via files.sharenator.org

Wold Cup Team Strategys for the World Cup

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Murgha Position: Crime and Punishment During Phet

2010-06-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

Murgha Position: Crime and Punishment During Phet: "

Sehar Tariq

This is, what is called the “Murgha position” in Pakistan.A way to punish someone - often young students in school - for minor infractions. But this particular story of crime and punishment in Pakistan is slightly more novel.

In anticipation of cyclone Phet, the government barred people from going into the Arabian Sea. One daredevil rickshaw wallah paid no heed to this warning and decided to use the unusually quiet beach and

boisterous waves to wash his rickshaw.

But his crime did not go unnoticed by the vigilant Pakistan police. The offender was caught and duly punished albeit in a rather creative way. But I guess there really aren’t any laws on the books about punishments for rickshaw washing in the sea when a cyclone approacheth!

This picture has been doing rounds on the internet and I don’t have a way to validate its authenticity or timing. But it does give us some food for thought. And since yesterday, I have been thinking whether to be appalled, amused or appreciative of the vigiliance and creativity of this police officer!

What do you think?

A Common Man’s Take on the Budget

2010-06-08T13:17:00.000-07:00

A Common Man’s Take on the Budget: "

Owais Mughal

This photo is recently been making rounds on the internet. The text, though a bit out of ‘qaafia’ and ‘wazan’ is self-explanatory.

For the past few years, writings on Rickshaw backs have started to emerge as a commentary on Pakistani society. We’ve covered them at ATP atleast three time. It also makes us curious whether it is the same rickshaw (see here and here) or different rickshaws with the same painter at work. Note the top most line and the words ‘Always Speak the Truth’ at the bottom are the same in all three rickshaw photos.

Introducing MATLAB Mobile – an iPhone app to connect remotely to your MATLAB

2010-06-08T13:08:00.000-07:00

Introducing MATLAB Mobile – an iPhone app to connect remotely to your MATLAB: "

This week I’d like to introduce guest poster Leslie Mehrez from our marketing team. She’s going to tell you about an exciting new frontier for MATLAB and scientific computation.

Today is an exciting day for MathWorks as we take our first step into the world of mobile computing with the introduction of MATLAB Mobile, a free app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. MATLAB Mobile provides a lightweight MATLAB desktop for your iPhone OS Device, giving you a remote connection to the MATLAB running on your own computer.

MATLAB Mobile gives you command line access to MATLAB and all the products that you are licensed to use on your computer as well as the ability to view MATLAB figures on your iPhone. In order to use MATLAB Mobile, you’ll have to download the app from the App Store and install the MATLAB Connector on your computer. Check out the MATLAB Mobile page for more information and a video of how it works.

With MATLAB Mobile, you’ll no longer worry about forgetting to start that script before you leave your office. Give MATLAB Mobile a try and make your friends jealous. Let us know how you use MATLAB Mobile and what features you’d like to see next.

-by, Leslie Mehrez

Microsoft Mouse Mischief Home

2010-06-07T20:58:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Mouse Mischief Home

What do you know about Bottled Water?

2010-06-06T22:10:00.000-07:00

What do you know about Bottled Water?: "

Many countries including United States spend billions of dollars on bottled water though perfectly clean tap water is readily available at much cheaper cost. Instead of working out ways to improve the tap water cleaning processing, these countries have started becoming dependent on Bottled water plants. Below infographics created by Online Education provides a quick comparison between Bottled water and tap water along with its consequences. Check it out:

Let us know your views about this. And if possible, try to reduce your bottled water consumption. However, if you can’t reduce that consumption, then at least make it a point to recycle those bottles.

[via The Fact about Bottled Water]

What do you know about Bottled Water?
Originally published at Knowliz by Anurag Bansal.

Transition Point

The First look at Malaysia - Entering UTP

Lahore Horse Race June 2010.mp4

Thoughts About Flopped FYPs

Let's Save Ourselves

Save a Life, Have a Juice …!!!

Pakistan floods: Links to send donations, relief goods

Go Green Pakistan - The PowerPoint Way

Yaad - In Memory of Sir Masood

Imamed or Imam-less (Part-II)

Imamed or Imam-less

Gur aur Garha - Silver Jubilee Birthday Present

Building a Model of San Francisco One Toothpick At a Time

Starry Starry Night

06.17.2010

Nokia Introduces Bicycle Charger for Cell Phones

Mobile Innovation Contest Pakistan

Identity Theft and Password Security – Infographics

Random Posts

Position Zara Tight Hai by Javaid Choudry

Time is right for clockless design

Wold Cup Team Strategys for the World Cup

Murgha Position: Crime and Punishment During Phet

A Common Man’s Take on the Budget

Introducing MATLAB Mobile – an iPhone app to connect remotely to your MATLAB

Microsoft Mouse Mischief Home

What do you know about Bottled Water?

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