The day

Kal mulk bhar main lakhon farzandanay tauheed nay well-in-time-day/laaltain-day manaya. Is moqay per tamam chotee baree masajid main khusoosi duain mangee gaain. Is moqay per sadr-e-mumlikat nay qom k naam apnay khusoosee paigham main kaha kay Pakistan key jarhain well-in-time-day or basant mananay say or mazboot hon gee, lihaza hamain chahiyay k burh churh ker is naik kam main hissa lain. Is moqay per sadr-e-mumlikat nay apnee beshumar well-in-times ko gulab k phool bhaijay.

Critique

On comments made by anonymous in an earlier email:
thanks for the wish
if by standing and delivering you meant to ACTUALLY brought a change, I would like to know what you have delivered ..
No disucssion here. Neither you, nor I am a judge to this. Time will only tell.
i guess in order to deliver you need to stand-up and lead from the front, sorry for personal comments but ....
for how many times you were in the class ON-TIME for lectures
Zero. I was never on time. I was always late and always left earlier than the scheduled finish time.
how can you talk about bringing a change when you DID NOT EVEN CHANGE the few ROTED questions during viva
No I didnt change the questions.
talk about change, and I would like to know what changes had you made to the style of examination paper (asking for chunks from your notes)...
No, I didnt change that either.
i would like to know what you had delivered, and if you do not have the moral courage to face criticism and are eager to delete comments BECAUSE I DO NOT KNOW THE CIRCUMSTANCES , I wish you stop criticizing others as well because similar can be said for you as well
Yes, you're right. Me and my friend are both crooks. I was never on time, and didnt change anything that you mentioned. My friend is a greedy person who ceased the opportunity to earn some big bucks when he couldnt find anything to earn here in Pakistan anymore. You're right, we're both crooks who just talk about righteousness and dont practice it.
At least I changed one thing. I gave guys like you the ability and opportunity to criticize me, so yea, sure, go ahead and do it.

I would, however, like to mention a few things. Changing the examination style is beyond my control, and delivering involves doing whatever is in your power. I tried to do that. I guess a guy who got out for a duck is better than a guy who didnt show up for the games because he thought the game was lost before it was played. Sure, the ducker will be criticized, but this little ducker is happy that he did what he possibly could.
It makes me wish, though, that I should've been selfish, too. All those times when I was late to class because some ex-student was there, off from his job for an hour, to seek a recommendation letter, pleading that it had to be done right then, I should've refused then and there. And that department gardener and electrician who would catch me all the time, going to class to plead their cases of possible bonuses or other opprotunities to augment their otherwise meager salaries to support their poor families, I should've told them to shut up and talk to them later. I always thought, people dont understand when I say I have a class to take. I should've disregarded their not understanding, and been off with them nonetheless.
As for exams, there's no argument, that given the greater experience that I had than my students, I could've beaten them with challenging questions any day, just like my teachers did, for the sake of satisfaction to see them do poorly. But I dont believe that there's a point in doing that, we're not equals. It's a tricky bit, I'd get criticized if I ask tough questions, and I'd get criticized if I ask easy ones.
That said, what you've said is right, and as said earlier, I accept it all. Dont forget to write once you've brought some cool changes to your surroundings, because I will truly be pleased to see that, and not jealous, only inspired. Doesnt matter where good comes from. It should keep coming. It didnt come from me, there's an opportunity from everyone else. With that, I hope that with my confession, this discussion would be over, unless, of course, you want to deliver a sentence, too, which I'll have to serve since I have made the confession. The other entry was supposed to be from a friend to another friend. It got taken into an entirely other, unfortunate dimension.

One less number in my phone book

In a couple of days, I'll be deleting a number from my cell phone's phone book, with a heavy heart. There'll be one less number of dial once in a while. One less number to receive calls from. One less pleasant face to see. There'll be another friend gone away. I dont even know if I'd be able to delete that number. It's tough, I can feel it. My trustworthy friend, one with whom I gave sweat and blood to the cause of INETA, one with whom I shared thoughts in social and technical issues, one with whom I shared my car, one who shared his car with me quite often, one for whom I always made time despite busy schedules, is going abroad. Adnan, adios, my dear friend.
Our hopes and dreams of doing a .NET session together one last time for sake of old times didnt materialize, alas. Maybe we'll be able to do that in the future. Maybe I'll see you sometime when I am at some conference in the US or you are at a conference in Pakistan as an honourable visiting speaker, or on a land where we're both foreign visitors.
I hope that you have a pleasant flight all the way to the US. I hope that you have a pleasant walk through the airports, a pleasant drive to your new home, exciting wonderful assignments on your new job and that life treats you well. I wish you would make great friends there. May all the thorns in all your paths vanish.
Keep smiling my friend! I will try to do the same, even though it'll be difficult knowing that you're not closeby anymore.

Hummer at bhatta chowk

Talk about seeing a Hummer at a location like Bhatta Chowk in Lahore. Well, here's a photograph of what was seen, if you dont know what I am talking about.

The location photograph is not there, but it's a pretty low area. The only reason I saw it there, perhaps is that it is between DHA Lahore and the Lahore Airport, so the owener or his dirver was going to the airport from his DHA residence, perhaps.
This piece of steel, rubber, glass and plastic costs about US$54000.

New girl in town

Yea, he's happy to have become a big brother, for sure and she's my niece, born Jan 17, 2007.

Visiting

I'll be visiting Karachi from tomorrow and returning to Lahore on Jan 2. A very short trip just to clebrate eid with parents.

Kallar Kahar

I went to Lake Kallar Kahar a while ago over the weekend with my wife, on a friend's recommendation. I was very disappointed by the experience. It is situated about 350 kilometers from Lahore on the Lahore Islamabad motorway. We boated in the lake full of dirty water. It wasnt worth all the travel. We wanted to touch Khewra mines, too, but scrapped the idea.
CNG stations along the way were low on pressure and I drove consider amount of the time on petrol. My recommendation, dont go there.

Miththu lost and found

We lost miththu a month or so back. He was sitting on top of his cage (we dont lock him in), and we were upstairs. The door was open. When we came down, miththu was nowhere to be found. Several weeks later, we were returning home and in the street we saw miththu perched on top of a kid's shoulder. He said that he brought it from his village 7 months earlier. But we tested miththu out and sure enough miththu exhibited all individualistic characteristics. My brother took miththu back.

Laylatal Qadr on MSN

This is interesting.

It's that time again

It's midterm time again. Got one three hours from now. Been here studying since 6 am at the university. Same yesterday.

Student at LUMS

Just ran into a student of mine in the PDC (Pepsi Dining Center) at LUMS. He has joined the MBA program here. It was good to see him after a long time. He worked at a software development company in Karachi for two years after his graduation from NED University before joining LUMS. He was appreciating the very tough studies here and mentioning the nighters that he is doing. I agreed with him and said that while we did nighters at the end of the year at NED, here we do it throughout the year. It'll be good to have a familiar face from the past at LUMS.

Change of fate

Well, he said he'd change the city's fate. You gotta give credit to the man, he's done it in admirable time. He said he'd change it into Paris. Well, maybe he didnt exactly make it Paris, but Venice isnt too far from Paris, is it. You have to give him credit for that. I guess we should rename to something like I. I. Chundrigar Canal, or M. A. Jinnah River.

Investment

The other day, I was watching a program on TV which was addressing the concerns of overseas Pakistanis wanting to invest in real estate back home. Give me a break! As if the pseudo-investment from within wasnt enough to blow things out of proportion. Property prices have increased to at least 4 times what they were about five years ago. House rents have sky rocketed. Anyone renting a house is obviously a salaried class person. In my opinion seven or eight years ago, any salaried person renting a house could never hope to own a house. Now, it's even worse. I am seriously wondering if we'll be able to rent a house one or two years later.
What the hell is this? I dont buy any such thing as investment in real estate. It's the most selfish thing I ever heard, which is benefiting one person and hurting millions of others. If it were investment in real estate in the form of hotels and stuff in the tourist districts, I'd understand, because that would give tourists better facilities and create employment. But no, I dont see people going that way. All they want to do is to buy a piece of land in a housing society somewhere, keep it till its price is three times its buying price (which, imho is at least six times what it reasonably should be), or erect a house and rent it out.
No one cares! And how about the masoor key daal selling at Rs. 70 per kg. To my overseas friends who think the present regime is good: Yea, sure. If they'd only leave us able to live. We might not be able to sustain livelihood for more than two years if these trends continue. OK, so the price trends are the same everywhere in the world, there's a slum, but we're getting subsidies, and aid, and still not getting it. Our oil prices are decided based on international market prices even though we are sold oil at much lower rates. But who cares, right! Not until you find the chokehold too tight for you to breath. Await that moment, my countrymen. I can only pray that at that moment, we depart as less painfully as possible.

In dependence day

So the "in dependence" day is drawing close. I just cant get myself to be happy on this day. It pains me greatly to see the very plight of us. 59 years we've been banging our heads on the walls. At least we should've developed some civic sense, of which we have none. We have no sense of responsibility towards the country that we live in. Nothing but selfishness abounds. I wish someone would come up with a way to set things right quickly because there's very little time left.

Whoever is guilty....

So, our Federal Minister for privatization said to the press guys that following the detailed judgement of the supreme court, the Pakistan Steel Mills will be re-offered for privatization. He also said that whoever is found guilty in the misdeeds of doing a bad deal in the previously held privatization process of the same indsutry will be punished.
It's funny that the same people who were happily claiming the privatization as their success will have to look for people responsible for a discovered failure in the same.

I just want you to know who I am

And I'd give up forever to touch you
Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now

And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
Cause sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything seems like the movies
Yeah you bleed just to know your alive

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

Business proposition

Forgot to upload a site image to explain what I am talking about, when I published this post originally. Here is a pictorial view.

Well, I've got an excellent business idea. I cant put it in action since I am not in Karachi. But it's yours for free, if you are up for it.
Thinking of the submerged underpass turned swimming pool is right there in Clifton, and the dockyard is nearby, one might as well run a submarine service to get people and their vehicles across the underpass.
Dont like that? Here's another one. Suck out a little bit more of water (if the surrounding area could use some more, so that there is some head clearance in the underpass to operate a ferry. Operate a cruise across the damned thing. From that, you can go crazy about the opportunities and value added services. Here's another free idea, throw in a few fish as well, makes for a great cruise. There's money to be made here.

Dont blame them

"It wasnt our fault. It wasnt the drainage problem. It wasnt rain water. It was a sewage line nearby that burst." The sewage line is someone else's problem. They probably beat the shit out of the person asking the question. Go figure!

Iron

I was watching Spider Man 2 (again) this morning, and as Mary Jane Watson ran away to Peter Parker's apartment and vowed to be his, and Peter's friend Harry was being prepared to become a vilain, it was fun noting how we'd see M J in Spider Man 3, ironing the spider man costume for her beloved husband cursing who the hell came up with the idea of the heavily ribbed suit.
On a more serious note, it was worth grasping that we shouldnt be disappointed by how people hate us even though we're doing the right thing. There are people who think highly of us, it's just that we dont see that when others say bad things about us or treat us badly. When you fall trying to stop a train headed for disaster, you will find people who will lift you on their shoulder and stand by you.

Sense

Surprisingly, some sense has gone into the brains of the powers that be controlling the Internet connectivity tap to Pakistan, and the blogspot.com domain is viewable again in Pakistan. Better late than never, I guess.