ROOFExpress

Face to Face Networking Matters

2011-10-24T05:27:00.001+05:00

Few days back there was a debate going on if face to face networking is of any use when you can connect with the person electronically and meet him/her up later. Both the groups didn’t have any data to back their view point.

So I thought of conducting a small private survey to see how people like to connect in this digital world.

This survey was executed via two methods.

1) Face to Face Networking
2) Social Networking / Digital Networking

I reached out to a dozen people from both genders in each method half of which were from Pakistan. In one to one meeting on bus stops or at Accelerator Centre, I introduced myself and what I do in Waterloo. Cards and contacts were exchanged and later on digital/social network, around 75% (9/12) of them accepted my LinkedIn, Foursquare or Facebook request.

Moving to the other method, I wrote a script and found the same audience from Social Networks. Pakistanis in the list were extracted on the basis of Home Town: Lahore/Islamabad and currently living in Waterloo. A generic but personal introductory message was sent to everybody from my “original profile” about my name and background. Surprisingly, only 16.6% (2/12) people connected with me in 48 hours whereas 2 replied without accepting connection request that they’ll be glad to know me if introduced through mutual friend.

Concluding this I can say that though I am a big supporter of online networking, but still even in this digital age, face to face networking is the most successful way of connecting.

P.S: I apologize to all those who got my random social networking request and messages in the second method. I have cancelled all pending requests on my own knowing the output. Those who accepted are welcome to stay in my network and we should meetup soon. :)

Why not to go paid on Google

2011-07-18T15:10:00.000+05:00

We all love Google but the thing I hate about Google is that they treat their paid customers like freebies too.

Yesterday, I was wondering why Google considers itself a serious contender in telecom services. The reason for this was obviously Google Voice. I was on an important call and ran out of balance. So I topped up $10 before retrying but as usual Google has still not developed a mechanism to automate their transactions. Like it takes them time to upgrade from free to paid email account, similarly you have to wait for long in order to get your calling credit topped up since they manually process your request. I waited for almost 1.5 hours before cancelling my order. Later, I used my cell phone to make the call and now I am seriously looking forward to move from Google Voice to Skype Number.

Google Team, when one wants to use your paid service, they normally want to avail the service right away. If you can’t keep your paid customers satisfied, keep yourself to the free stuff.

Fixing Time Mismatch in PHP, mySQL and Server on CentOS

2011-04-22T02:20:00.001+05:00

Recently, I was informed by my development & networks team that there's a timing mismatch on one of our dedicated servers which is affecting cron execution and that they are unable to fix it. Most of our servers don't have Webmin, Kloxo or any other WHM, and we manage them via Putty/Commandline or FTP.

This one had Kloxo/HyperVM installed and even the Time Zone function in the Kloxo wasn't fixing the time offset. Server was showing the correct local time, mySQL was 7 hours behind whereas the PHP was one hour ahead. The fix for all entities wasn't listed at a single source so I had to search from various sources to fix it.

I normally don't blog about technology but I thought I should publish the fix so if anyone of you ever comes across a similar issue, may be it helps him/her too.

Setting Server Time

Stop ntpd if running

# /etc/init.d/ntpd stop

sync time with ntp server

# /usr/sbin/ntpdate 10.2.3.9

27 Aug 01:10:56 ntpdate[27008]: adjust time server 10.2.3.9 offset -0.048726 sec

Keep the original zone file

# cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/City/usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/City_orig_YYYYmmDD

Make a new zone file

# cat /tmp/Karachi

Rule Country Min Max – Jun 19 04:20:59 1 PKT

Rule Country Min Max – Oct 28 23:59:59 0 PKT

Zone Asia/City+5:00 Country%s

compile the new zone file

# zic /tmp/City

See the time has changed

# date

Thu Mar 28 02:05:34 PKT 2011

See if ntp daemon is still running

# ps -ef | grep ntp

root 1982 1188 0 Aug18 ? 00:00:05 /usr/sbin/ntpmon

root 1996 1 0 Aug18 ? 00:00:02 /usr/sbin/ntpd -g

root 31246 30980 0 02:06 pts/0 00:00:00 grep ntp

or SIMPLY

first, make a backup of the existing localtime file. It’s always good practice to make backups of original config files.

# mv /etc/localtime /etc/localtime.bak

Next, create the link:

# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Karachi /etc/localtime

Run # date to confirm the correct time.

PHP Time Fix

For checking the php time, put the following code in a file, say test.php

Code:

$time = time();

$result = date(”Y-m-d (D) H:i:s”,$time);

echo “Current date and local time on server = $result “;

Execute the php script.

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# php -a time.php

Interactive mode enabled

Current date and local time on server = 2011-04-21 (Thu) 18:04:25

To get the server time , issue the following command :

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# date

Thu Apr 21 17:04:25 PKT 2011

You can see the difference of one hour between the server time and the php time.

For fixing this, you need to install the PECL timezonedb module.

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# pecl install timezonedb

At the end , you might see the following message :

==========================

Build process completed successfully

Installing ‘/usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20060613/timezonedb.s o’

install ok: channel://pecl.php.net/timezonedb-2009.6

configuration option “php_ini” is not set to php.ini location

You should add “extension=timezonedb.so” to php.ini

==========================

So , add the line ” extension=timezonedb.so” to the php.ini file and restart apache using command /etc/init.d/httpd restart

There shouldn’t be any mismatch in time now. Use the test.php page again to confirm

mySQL Time Fix

Execute the following command on commandline.

mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | mysql -u root -p mysql

username root didn't allow modification due to security reasons so I used another DB Username. You'll be prompted for DB User Password as well.

So this is how I synchronized all clocks on my server. If you want me to write more about similar stuff or the technology challenges we come across daily, do let me know by posting your comments.

The Young Unsung Entrepreneur

2011-02-09T07:37:00.005+05:00

Images via Google Images. Not of the original kiosk.

As I walked into a market last night, I heard a voice “Sir Jee!”. I initially ignored it but then I saw a 18-19 year old boy running towards me. I checked my wallet and cell phone to reassure myself that I am in possession of my stuff and have not dropped anything by chance.

The boy came up to me and I gave him chance to catch up with his breath. “Jee Bhai” was my response to him. “Sir Aapne Mujhe Pehchaana Naheen?” (Didn’t you recognize me?). I took my memory into test. The face was somewhat familiar but I couldn’t recall him. “Sorry Yaar Yaad Naheen Aa Raha” (Sorry, I can’t recall). The story that he later told me was the reason that made a sariyal person like me smile all day.

I think those were last days of October 2010 when a friend stopped his car against a Burger Khokha so we can have a quick dinner instead of going into a fast food chain’s takeaway. This chap who was working for the owner as a road marketer and client handler was weeping. While our burgers were being prepared, I asked him the reason to which he replied that the owner didn’t pay him the committed commission for convincing pedestrians and bringing them in as clients. It didn’t come up as a surprise because that’s a common affair here. Also he shared his family’s financial situation and I felt really sorry for him.

To be very frank, I didn’t like that burger. Both fries and burgers were too much oily and didn’t come with an add-on. Moreover the outlet only had the option of Anda Shami Burger and French Fries. I cursed the decision of my friend to eat at this particular spot and was about to move on towards car when I saw him coming towards me in expectation of tip. While handing over the amount, I told him “Dude, this burger is pathetic. You can make a better one using less oil, good vegetables, mayonnaise etc. Also there is no tea/coffee for a caffeine addict like me so I would advise you to establish your own setup as a competitor to give your boss a tough time. Better service and good eatables will give you an edge over him and you can start off initially by saving your daily wage for only 10 days.”

Now the same kid was standing in front of me telling me story how he saved money and only sold 6 burgers on his first day of business with no proper khokha to support his kitchen items. Moreover, how he was bullied by his previous boss and work colleagues while he was establishing his unit near his previous work place. Now he serves three different kinds of burgers, employs two more people at the moment and has brought in his brother as a partner. If his previous boss sells 25 burgers an hour now, he’s selling 30. I took excuse from him for 5 minutes so that I can courier a document. When I came back, he showed me his kiosk and presented me his "outlet’s" two burgers and a pack of french fries with coleslaw. He wasn’t willing to take the money against these items and kept on saying “Sir, aap try tu karein! Aapse paise kaise le sakte hein hum. Aap tu hamaray ustaad hein.” (Please Try First. We cannot take money from our teacher), though I didn’t do anything for him. Upon my insistence, he finally took a discounted amount and I came home thinking that people like him should be the guest speakers at Entrepreneurship Summits. We keep on organizing such events to inspire youth but those who want to do just need one comment.

Good Luck Aslam! Your burgers were delicious and even if they weren’t, it wouldn’t have mattered to me. What mattered to me wasn’t in those burger buns. May you expand this business and life brings many bigger opportunities for you.

The power of 8052

2011-02-09T05:10:00.002+05:00

Image Courtesy: liafa.jussieu.fr

9th Feb 2011, 5:04:AM, ROOFExpress Office: When Bao G and Shaban Bhai used to teach us Microprocessor Interfacing & Programming Course, some of us took it as a useless course till I realized its power in my Final Year Project. Tonight, I solved 3 problems on a whiteboard using an 8052 with a Pseudocode, and now I seriously wish to go back to the life of Wires, Boards, Assembly Language and Keil. All my friends including Khurram Siddiqi, Ahmad Raza and others who are teaching this course, the kids in your class can solve many social problems with these small tiny devices provided they are given commercial projects. I would request you to please make this course fun for them.

Insanity Prevails

2011-01-05T06:30:00.000+05:00

I knew that we are an intolerant nation but today I got to know we are even worse than animals. I declined dozens of lucrative offers in the past just because I wanted to do something for my country and people. Perhaps I was wrong. Our people will never change. Perhaps it’s time for me to pack up my bags and leave this insane place.

I'm moving on

2010-10-04T05:29:00.000+05:00

It was long due and I felt totally worthless. Even it didn’t end as I expected it to be but at least I am happy that it’s over. I have surprised myself in last year or so. Whenever I had a similar situation earlier, I went down for weeks but lately when I get hurt for some reason, it’s just one bad day. Life has made me stronger and tougher somehow.

Big “NO”’s have always led me to greater decisions and redefining myself as I believe everything happens for a reason. I sincerely hope that this comes as a similar moment. I have never lived in yesterdays and am now a strong believer of moving on no matter how I am treated.

As I left with heavy heart after the conversation, I wished the other side very best from the bottom of my heart. I tried to find peace in sleep. Couldn’t sleep. Then God came to my help. I thought about all those friends and family members who are concerned and decided I’ll start tomorrow with a smile. Over the last evening, I have realigned my brain, heart and soul. I have replanned matters and am now all set to take on this day as nothing happened. I am ready to rock the office team and a business development meeting today. :)

Na Khedaange, Na Khedandayange Policy of Pakistani Telcos

2010-09-29T07:55:00.001+05:00

Everybody of us knows about the power of cellular phones in Pakistan. Practically, there is no comparison between the cell phone subscribers and internet users. However, these days software development in Pakistan is mostly being done for Smart Phones, web or other conventional desktop solutions, and nobody is interested to touch the other side.

Some friends ask me why can’t we make innovative solutions for the telecom companies. Why aren’t there any interesting business solutions and apps for mobile phone users who don’t own a smart phone? The answer is simple and straight, “Because Telecom Companies are not themselves interested.”

As per my experience, most of the individuals working in their Business Intelligence (B.I.) Teams only have “Basic Intelligence.” But they are not the only one responsible. The upper management in these telcos is only concerned with the new packages, call and sms rates. They have miserably failed to analyze what their infrastructure can provide to masses.

Telcos normally don’t have big IT Departments and VAS is normally outsourced to a vendor like in case of Tower Planning and Deployment. Even if somebody makes a good VAS application, he’s offered peanuts for his work. Also the 80-20, 70-30 Business Model and Setup Costs etc. are way too unjust. But this happens once when you go into advanced stages of negotiation. Prior to that, reaching out to the value added services team is somewhat an impossible task for new comers and application developers. The planning managers would never respond to your emails and if they do, it would be an email expressing no interest in the product.

I have seen various individuals who wanted to make a difference by running their services independently, leaving their idea or product half heartedly because telcos never believed in them nor provided them white label short codes at an acceptable price. Also if they were able to get a long code from a telecom solution provider (TSP), either the developer/organization failed to monetize the product or the telecom solution provider stepped up with a heavy invoice. Availability of same service on all operators is something not acceptable to them and they will try to bitch you up in every possible way. Their ultimate goal would be to own the product exclusively. Millions of rupees would be spent on publicizing “Bacha Bachi” packages but you will never see advertisements of products that can add real value in the lives of people.

Mobilink has come up with an online store, Mobistore which primarily focuses on the smart phone apps on a 50-50 revenue sharing model. This is certainly a good effort but before moving onto smart phones, we need to explore the huge potential in conventional SMS and MMS infrastructure. So it’s high time that telcos should let go of this “Na Khedaange Na Khedan Dayange” (Neither will we play nor will we let you) policy, and open up their platforms on relaxed terms and services for voice/text solutions. Let people innovate with your infrastructural support. If you'll rub their back today and play part in their success, they’ll definitely love to rub your back by sharing the revenue stream.

Groove Resort - Check-in & Enjoy The Musical Chords

2010-08-07T22:22:00.001+05:00

It’s now a full decade since I am promoting underground musicians via texts, spam emails :D and since the arrival of orkut on social networking sites. PMR, UMR, J4Jumpy, KoolMuzone, PakiUM and others can somehow give me credit for their visitor development. In January, I was asked by an Indian Media Group to be part of their International Screening Panel for a Battle of the Underground Bands. The post “The decade long affair with pakistani underground music finally pays off” is pretty much self explanatory.

Those who know me well have an idea that I only promote young and underground musicians. Once they are famous and into the mainstream media, I abandon them. Same is the case with other promotions that I do including local technical and software products. During the screening process, one of the other judges asked me why I never took Band Management professionally. After all I have connections with both B’s, the Brands and Bands. My answer was simple and straight. “Because I love staying underground and only promote those who need promotion.”

Lately, few of my family members and friends who are now abroad working or studying sent me few requests for songs and I eventually had to make up an Online Music Repository for them. This made me think over the process again. Why bands contacted me before the age of social networking? They needed technical assistance to promote their songs online. Now things have changed with more awareness amongst us all about web tools. They have their fan pages on Facebook where they can upload music, pictures and videos. Also they can update their fans and interact with them. So practically people don’t need that “ROOFI” anymore and I am really happy things have changed for good. I remember JAL’s "Aadat". This is one of the biggest promotions that I have done in my life. The song was released in underground circles in 2003 and it took the band around 15 months to take the video to masses. That’s why Basim, on of my college friends taunted me with this. “Tu wohi ganay sunta hai jo koi naheen sunta and baad mein wohi 2-3 saal hit ho jatay hein and har koi sun raha hota hai”.

Cutting it short, one of my best friends recently convinced me that you should continue the practice even if things have changed and in fact bring all musicians on a single platform where fans can come and interact with them. So we thought about the idea of Groove Resort.

Groove Resort, a project of ROOFExpress is a social networking place for artists and their fans. It primarily acts as a bridge between the artist and music listeners. It has potential to become a powerful music community to share any music related information. Artists can register for free and share their musical experience through blogs and other sharing tools. The artists can provide information about upcoming shows, add albums, add fans, add photos, add videos (also embed video links via YouTube), create customized profile page and do other related tasks. Moreover artists can even give iTunes and Amazon links to buy the original work.

Any internet user can come onto musician’s profile page and can listen or download (if allowed by the artist/band) their work or videos. Registered listeners have privileges to create a customized profile, add photos, add albums to favorites, comment on blog, and do lots of exciting stuff.

Once you will sign up for your account, you will get to know about dozens of options that are available to you. Groove Resort would be a complete failure unless and until supported by artists and their fans so now it’s up to them how to make use of it. I have done my part so that no artist comes up to me and say “Roofi Bhai/Jigger, mera gaana and video upload kar dein and please post this as your status. I need your support to hit masses. Aap sirf apne doston ko promote karte hein.” They now have all the control in their hand with this automated system. Ending this post, I would even request the mainstream artists and bands to also consider it as an option to promote their music and show the rest of the world about the strength of our music community.

How "I" saw this year's TEDxLahore

2010-08-01T07:46:00.006+05:00

Yes John G. Rives it’s exactly 4 in the morning when I have started writing this post as the call for prayer is being given at the moment in Lahore. If you ask me, great ideas and thoughts come to me after 3 a.m. most of which are archived by the office time. I never wanted to write this post as Tajdar, one of the organizers at TEDxLahore assured me that he’ll post the post-event details but right now I feel should jot down few random thoughts that some people may or may not like. So let me begin.

As I was about to leave to attend TEDxLahore, the rain started pouring and the only thing on my mind was if I would be able to make it. Thanks to my brother that I did and to my surprise every confirmed attendee did. Wasn’t that some kind of achievement with majority reaching the venue an hour before the actual event time in Pakistan?

Some people hate me for calling spade and spade so I won’t tell the organizers that they were perfect, awesome etc. etc. since they are my friends because if I’ll do so I’ll be dishonest with them. They won’t be able to improve. The event had technical glitches yet it was a great event because the positive things overshadowed few negative ones. I say this because the “Haters” who are criticizing this event should take into account the stupendous effort that has been done behind the scenes to make this event possible. Being an event organizer myself for the last 7 years with dozens of events in my profile as volunteer, I can understand the side of organizers.

Those who missed the event, I won’t tell you what speakers talked about as videos would be soon uploaded by the TEDxLahore Team and you can watch all talks for yourself. After combining the both sessions, you’ll see that both inspiration and information were present in the event. Those who left after the first session should’ve sticked back.

What I most hated about the event was everybody including myself complaining for one reason or the other. It didn't come as a surprise as we are a nation of complainers and commentators with expert opinion on every issue that the world faces.

The doors are not open yet. What’s the purpose of First Come First Served?
Why is there no security check on the gate?
Who made the pathetic choice of speakers?
There is too much mismanagement.
The organizers are from elite class and they know nothing about TED.
Why they have put MAC for presentations if nobody knows how to use it.
What are musicians doing at TED? (Hello, "E" standards for Entertainment retards)

Well my friends, should I lodge another complaint that somebody hit me accidentally from behind and made my famous iPED hit the floor to break its touch screen. In fact I didn’t say a single word to the guy because I left my attitude at home when I came to attend this event. For God Sake, it’s not a paid Concert or Research Conference where you are expecting VIP treatment. If TEDxLahore team would have asked me to sit on the grass to listen to the talks, I would have loved to do so. It’s an event for sharing with each other, the ideas and the experiences even those of organizers. Those who have attended earlier events of TEDxLahore would know how far they have come since last year and Insha'Allah they’ll improve more in next events.

Coming back to the speakers, I feel that it’s not an easy task to pick ones. In my point of view, Khurram & Asim did marvelous work in selecting the ones who presented. Where the speakers had to come from? They had to come from our society. Our leaders are corrupt because majority of us as individuals and Pakistanis are corrupt. Moreover did you take your precious time out to nominate a good speaker? Seriously did you? Most of those who don’t know, Dr. Zeeshan Usmani (whom I now call the Dr. Charles Eppes of Pakistan) was not even on the watch list of TEDxLahore Team. Somebody nominated him and therefore TEDxLahore reached out to him. Apart from that there were dozens of speakers that were asked by the organizers to join in but they couldn’t due to their commitments and busy schedule. Those who were expecting James Cameron or Steve Jobs like speakers at the event should admit the fact that we don’t live in the innovative society for the moment. As Dr. Nadeem said we are “mimickers” so let’s accept the ground reality. We deploy or use what becomes obsolete in the western world and then feel proud in sharing it. So unless we have a good entrepreneurial culture, investors, people appreciating each others ideas, you wouldn’t produce great speakers either. Having said that, I don’t buy the argument that speakers were not inspiring. They were the best mixture of different professions at a single event that I have ever seen in Pakistan.

Moving onto selection of attendees, the other type of “Haters” emerged who didn’t get accepted to attend the live event. They only had a mission to propagate the few negative things that TEDxLahore had onto every social media platform or forum. I would ask them to get a life. Over 1000 people applied out of which TEDxLahore could only accommodate 400 at the venue. They wanted an audience of individuals from all walks of life and let me assure you that the rejection rate would increase in coming events of TEDxLahore as more and more people would become aware of it. But did anybody stop you from viewing the proceedings of the event? There were 4 Viewing Parties within Lahore, one in Islamabad and Karachi each as well as one in Pakistan’s Embassy at Netherlands. Moreover the event was being live streamed and anybody could have joined by just logging onto their broadband internet. They didn’t because they were too busy posting negative comments for the whole world to see.

Those who are criticizing the organizers should seriously shut up. I am harsh on this because those who are doing so are themselves a bunch of douchebags. This event was not managed by a professional event management company. It was done purely by professionals and students between the age 19 – 30 while taking time off from their other daily commitments. Did anyone stop these "Haters" from acquiring a TEDx license? After all the international conferences are going for so long and they should have applied for license before Asim did. They didn’t because they can only sit back and complain about things going wrong everywhere. Did anyone stop them from volunteering for TEDxLahore? Was an IP jammer/blocking done by the TEDxLahore team for them not to submit their forms as volunteers? If Yes then if they can find a way to access facebook in countrywide ban then they surely could have used some proxies to submit their form. What are their contributions to the society? So if they can’t support or volunteer for such a positive endeavor, they don’t have any right to bitch about the event. They should better get out, organize a better one for others to see and I can assure all possible support in my capacity. The TEDxLahore team deserves kudos and appreciation at all forums for coming forward and putting up a good show.

This long blog post was some sort of an indirect message for all Pakistanis to please get up and start bringing the change. If you can’t change others, at least change yourself. If we want to see positive things happening around us, we would have to complement each other. If such a culture is developed and we in real terms become “A Developing Country”, things would start changing on their own and we would automatically have better professionals and experts to speak on such events.

TEDxLahore team burnt the incomplete original soundtrack on the TEDxLahore Music CD. So let me share the complete version below which is available at Youtube and I would soon post the Mp3 Link and Arafat's wonderful speech on stage before the song was played. By doing this, I have at least reduced one complaint about the event before ending this note.

What to Express and what not to

2010-07-19T07:38:00.000+05:00

As I start writing this while sipping hot tea, I have just entered inside my house experiencing the wonderful cool breeze outside. It might rain too if Lahorites get lucky enough.

It’s been an exact week since the football world cup final and this post should have come at that moment. However I felt writing it now before going for a power nap.

As soon as Iniesta scored in the extra time, I jumped off my table spilling tea into the keyboard of my laptop making it dysfunctional and making everything around caffeinated. I was still jumping around for no apparent reason with no one except my grandma at home. I felt happy doing crazy stuff.

I was still cleaning up the mess that heavy rain started resulting into power shut down as well. I went onto the rooftop in my T-Shirt and Shorts to experience the first Monsoon of the season. In all these long years, I almost forgot how the rain felt. I went straight into the middle of the rooftop at around 3:30 and stood against the winds. It was a lovely rain accompanied by marvelous lightning and thunder. I kept bathing for around 40 minutes and yelling like a happy lion against the winds. I wanted to express myself out and the rain definitely provided me the chance. Even after the rain stopped, I kept watching the thunder and lightning till 6 in the morning. These were the best I have ever seen or perhaps I didn’t have a memorable rain earlier. I was alone. I didn’t need anybody to be with me in all my craziness, wildness and remembrance of recent years. I caught cold later yet I enjoyed every moment of it.

It’s almost a year since I have shifted into my current office and life has been a roller coaster ride since then. I properly started my first venture from my pocket money and taking a loan of Rs. 30K from the dad, conducted interviews, hired people and did hell a lot of stuff which I couldn’t have done while being on a job. Fights with my co-founders at DesignMyWork & PrintMyWork, dusting of office furniture, cleaning the toilet, washing utensils, making tea and snacks for the employees and friends somewhat made me jack of all trades. Those around me never believed in me. I remember people feeding negative things about me to those who wanted to work for me. We wrapped up DMW on friendly terms in November 2009 for the reasons I mentioned in the post “DesignMyWork: My Stunt with the Graphics Design Industry in Pakistan”, and because one of our co-founders couldn’t differentiate between friendship and business. The entrepreneurship and risk taking should have been over for me but I stayed put and God took me to the right direction.

What happened in last many months would require many lengthy posts which I might write at some other time but I am having amazing time at the moment. A lot has happened and is happening and we are MashAllah growing. I am at an ideal position with two amazing people around me. They are mentors, friends, well wishers, my current life makers and what not. They have faith in me and I have in them. Without taking their name, I would like to thank them for believing in me and trusting me. A bigger “Thank You” goes to Allah Almighty for guiding me to select my new partners amongst the lot that offered me to join their respective teams.

A lot of things have changed in my life in last 1.5 years or so. I am currently cruising in the ocean of success and every few days we have some new achievement to talk about. In the last couple of months, I have also somewhat learnt the art to say “NO” though I don’t say that much often :) . I have definitely reduced my college lectures and other social meetups. This can be evident from the fact that I didn’t even go to collect three awards and souvenirs in last two months. We have been nominated for an upcoming International Award with sponsorship of company delegates for Travel, Tour and Accommodation but all of us are not going as we don’t want to waste our days while we can do few more amazing things in that time.

My CTO keeps on convincing me that I should now start charging for everything I do whether it be a college guest lecture or a social initiative as both Dr. Laltein and the Guru think that I am really bad at monetizing stuff. “Aapne Thayka Uthaya Hoa Hai Poori Dunya Ka Gandhi Sb.” I do things from my heart while they do it from their brains and that makes us a wonderful combination.

The yelling that night was my answer to the life and to those who termed me a failure. For those who were sure that I have ruined my career by not accepting the job offers of some really good multinationals. For those who mocked me. I am still standing in front of you happily whereas you are still trying to find happiness. Now I don’t need your certificate of achievement. If a Director or a VP of an MNC calls you and requests to join him for a dinner, it speaks for itself. You have been calling me “Senior” and you have made me one.

What the hell is going on?

2010-07-17T06:20:00.000+05:00

Wait! Wait! Wait!!! Sorry Peepz! I am here. I am here to answer your queries and yes I apologize for the time off.

Ever since I won the Google & CIO Pakistan Blog Award in May 2010, there have been lots of queries that what’s going on and why the hell I am not blogging on my personal blog. I should at least show some “SHODISM” on the blog but why I am not doing so. Those who are in my FB list or following me on twitter knew that I have been micro-blogging as well as writing on other blogs. So why not here?

Well it’s a weekend so let’s sit down, turn on your AC (if there’s no power shut down at your place), be patient and I’ll try to answer as much as I can. When I wrote my last post, I decided that I would write the next post after couple of months and those who are regularly following should know that I am blogging less here since some time due to professional commitments & busy day schedule.

To be honest, I wasn’t writing here because I didn’t want to. A friend of mine advised me that I should only share exclusive news with my best friends and I have been giving his advice a shot. This experiment of sharing news with only close friends has been marvelous and I plan to continue it for a while. Meanwhile, let me broadcast now what’s been going on my side.

May and Early June 2010 were pretty much down for me. Though there were good news but yet I was overburdened with negative stuff. I lost one of my great buddies and yet couldn’t do anything about it. The thing I liked the most about me at that moment was that though I wasn’t talking, I managed myself to the office at 9 a.m. the next day. Organized couple of events for few of my friends in last few months as well as helped P@SHA organize one at Royal Palm.

With the help of IEEE Lahore GOLD Team, placed around 23 students/recent graduates in summer internship program so far and am somewhat content with our performance this year.

Dad gifted me an iPed (http://roof.pk/bs) on Father’s Day and I loved sharing pictures with all my Facebook Friends. Even gave a test drive of it to few people at the P@SHA LaunchPad 2010.

So yes, before I close this post and move to another one let me get into some Shoda Mode. I won the Google & CIO Pakistan Blog Award in the “Gossip Blog” category and Yes I publicly admit that I am happy about that :) . Couldn’t attend the event due to some office commitments and would sometime soon collect my trophy from the organizers. A very special thank you to all lovely people out there who voted for me.

The announcement slide and a congratulation note from Sidra Iqbal’s “Status Pro Inc" follows this text.

Don’t you want to be like Umar Saif?

2010-05-03T17:25:00.000+05:00

I have known Dr. Saif since like 4 years when he joined LUMS and believe you me he’s a great inspiration for all young entrepreneurial minds out here in Pakistan. He certainly has a league of his own and he along with his team has done some outstanding work for sure.

Sometimes when I am in a difficult situation, my friends are fond of uttering these words “These things happen and bear such things buddy. Don’t you want to be like Umar Saif? If he can do it, you can too.” In some cases, being quiet was the best weapon I had. But lately when somebody posed this question to me, my reply was simple and straight. “I don’t want to be like Umar Saif. I would better like myself to be known as a low profile and not that successful Rafaeel Akbar than to be termed a successful person’s clone.”

A Cute Post

2010-03-17T23:48:00.005+05:00

Those who are looking forward to a complex topic for their thesis, I would request them to please undertake the word “Cute” as a suggested one from my side and I am even ready to fund this research. Throughout my life, I never understood what women mean when they say “This so cute”. Every second thing that women in my network see is CUTE. “This cup is so cute”, “Did you meet her cute nephew?”, “Uska Doggy Itna Cute Sa Hai”, “CUTOOOO”, "I love him because he's so cute", “Your socks are so cute”, “It is such a cute pencil”. I wonder how a vegetable can be cute. Even voting for the American Idol and other TV shows is done on the basis of cuteness.

I remember when I was in FAST-NU, we were informed that there is a rat in the fountain area and before filling the tank, we have to take it out. The rat made us run all across the front lawns and as we were about to capture it, a lady yelled “Please, don’t hurt him! See it’s so cute”. It frustrated me so much that if I had the power, I would have thrown her in the fountain later in the evening saying “See! You Look So Cute!”

It would not come as a surprise if this post is also termed as “Cute”.

DesignMyWork: My Stunt with the Graphics Design Industry in Pakistan

2010-02-20T03:27:00.002+05:00

There have been speculations about it since I joined Aeon Technologies. But till now, I have been maintaining balance between both things. However now its time to officially announce that I would be leaving the active management of DesignMyWork and 13^th March 2010 would be my last day as the CEO of this company. PrintMyWork affairs were already transferred to Salman and Shigrif back in October 2009. The reason of leaving DesignMyWork is somewhat the same as of PrintMyWork. Though being a techie, I am an admirer of design and beauty, yet admiration of great designs and art work doesn’t add any value to the company. I want to enjoy whatever I want to do professionally and somebody who dreams about innovative products was finding it really difficult to adjust in services of low cost projects. Yet the experience of jumping into an industry of which I had no idea was truly marvelous and I thank all my employees, partners, friends and mentors for being there when I needed them. The tenure taught me the designing issues, HR and Financial issues, problems in the BFA/MFA curriculum here in Pakistan as well as managing the Design HR. You surely cannot treat a designer as a software developer and apart from that awesome designers are really scarce these days. This venture would certainly help me in future with my professional life.

The problem with design business in Pakistan is that a design which might be awesome for one would be pathetic for the other and as Steve Jobs says that “You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new”. Also that “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works”.

Most of the time people called us and said “2 Din Mein Website Banna Dein” without even realizing what pain one has to go through while making an original design. Even if you see our website, we did a wild experiment with it. Everything was developed from scratch. Even the music was specially produced for the website. But most of the clients don’t understand and perhaps the post http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell on OatMeal explains it beautifully. Also we were being tagged as a web design firm and that’s why we have been very selective in taking projects. We tried to maintain our focus on original graphics designs. Our initial idea was even to provide the IPhone Developers & Application Builders with original designs and music as most of them are currently using the ones copied from web.

Now that I am becoming busy day by day, its becoming increasingly difficult for me to manage things. I am shedding off most of the extra affairs, volunteer activities as Saad Bhai, Khurram Bhai, Adil Bhai and Irfan Bhai advised me to concentrate on one thing instead of putting my legs in multiple boats. This also means that I would also be reducing my frequency of guest lectures in universities. I have one plan on mind at the moment and I want to concentrate all energies on that and Aeon Technologies.

DesignMyWork is however still the brand of ROOFExpress. I have not yet finalized to sell it off or to keep it with ourselves as a freelancing/full time firm but all I know is that I am done with it.

Rowgs of Employees

2010-02-18T06:40:00.001+05:00

When i did my first venture, one of my mentors and friends Adil Saleem told me that 99% of the employees are not happy with their work environment. Knowing that i always kept my attitude at home whenever i came to office. I open/close doors for them myself, make tea for them and throw frequent office parties to make sure they are comfortable. Even though i don't smoke, i stand with them at the "Soota Gate" and discuss affairs other than the office work. Games, Social Networking sites are not banned on network. You can do whatever you want to do provided you are giving the input required from you. Even when i hired at DesignMyWork, i hired everyone on their "Expected Salaries" without a bit of negotiation.

Being a music fanatic myself, i have been generous in providing my office colleagues with headphones or small dual speakers so that they can enjoy music to keep themselves up. Recently i walked into my office in the morning after a quick nap and i was like :S and :/ to see the following song being played on 2 office systems. Still trying to figure out what "Sitams" i have done.

How was the Valentine's Day?

2010-02-18T05:39:00.000+05:00

Many of my friends messaged or called and asked how did my Valentine's day go. Though i normally tell them that i spent the day with my family or in some social work initiative. But since i was so pissed off at how the media campaigns were run this year and wrong messages were sent to the youth of our nation most of the time, this year the reply was a bit different and loserish.

"Mera Din Aisa He Guzra Jaisa Aik Shareef Single Shakhs Ka Guzar Sakta Hai."

GunKali - A Fresh Breath for Pakistan Music Industry

2010-02-02T11:22:00.001+05:00

If there was one album that I was waiting for since long apart from The Rising’s, it would definitely be “GunKali” by Kaavish. I have been following this band from the day it released its single “Bachpan” on some Pakistani music websites. Moreover, I have listened to all their songs done for different plays as well the jingles for various advertisement campaigns.

The album, GunKali was released on 15th January 2010. Thus I recently got hold of a copy and frankly it doesn’t disappoint you. Jaffer’s mature vocals complimented by Maaz’s music have truly created wonders in this album and it is extremely difficult to figure out the best song. All the songs are fantastic, up to the mark and not ones done by learners and amateurs. That is why the album is selling like hot cakes. Hats Off to Jaffer and Maaz for producing such awesomeness in the tough times as well as Fire Records for believing in them. I can surely rate “GunKali” amongst the best albums of this year.

The decade long affair with pakistani underground music finally pays off

2010-01-28T07:56:00.004+05:00

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 09:51 PST

Mobile Phone starts beeping.

I wake up cursing the developers that I told them that I am going to sleep at 6 a.m. Can’t they just let me sleep for few hours? As I see the cell phone screen, the call is coming from an Indian number not in my phonebook. Yawning, I take the call.

Friend: “Hey, Rafaeel there?”
Me: “Yes, who’s this?”
Friend: “Dude, I am ******** (name not being mentioned deliberately). How have you been bro? Seem busy with your new ventures.”
Me: “Hey, whats new? I am good. What about you?”
Alah Blah Talking ……..
Friend: “Hey, I called you because I need a favor.”
Me: “Ofcourse, I know you have some work. Else tum itne achay jo you’ll give me a call.”
Laugh (both ends)
Friend: “So now that you have figured out, can you tell me when we can have a talk on Skype?”
Me: “At anytime convenient to you. I am not that busy guy. BTW give me an idea what’s the issue?”
Friend: “I have now joined this Media Group, (name not published) as an Associate Producer and we’ll be doing an underground battle of the bands here in India.”
Me: “Oh! Great!”
Friend: “Well there are large numbers of entries, like 200+ and I want you to be part of our International Screening Panel to shortlist them.”
Me: “What? Me?”
Friend: “Yes.”
Me: “Dude, I am not the right guy for this. First of all, I am not a musician. Secondly, I don’t have time. However, I can refer few good people to you whom you can contact for this.”
Friend: “Listen! I don’t need them. I need you. Regarding you not being musician, I don’t care. All I know is that you were the first guy from whom I got to know about Noori, Jal, Roxen, Call and the band of your close friends, The Rising. BTW where are The Rising people? :D Its been quite some time that you are promoting underground bands and I know your opinion would not be biased because if I only take in musicians, they’ll be inclined towards their own genre. I know you listen to all types of music, so you are perfect to be part of our panel. Your second excuse is quite lame. I know you always have time for good music. Hope things get better and in coming years we'll organize Indo-Pak Battle Of the Bands. Any more questions?”
Me (reluctantly): “Fine! Details?”
Friend: “On Skype. I’ll ping you. Amongst the 8 screeners, 4 are outside India. You all would have to judge the bands on the basis of music maturity, lyrics and image etc. I’ll send you the evaluation sheet. We’ll either upload all the 209 demos or courier you the DVDs.”

I woke up analyzing why God is pushing me back into the underground music scene one way or another while I have kept quite a distance from it for last couple of years. There were few other signs in last few days as well which led me to go into my old room (now a store) and open the things that I abandoned long ago. I captured few shots with my camera few of which I am uploading to show my craze for music in my teenage life. At that time, internet was all on dialup and CD’s market was still emerging. Also PMR, J4Jumpy, UMR and other music promotion sites were just starting up. I used to download the songs from some local website at 2.3KB/s :P and then manually record them via "Line In" on empty tapes so that they can be played on home and car music systems. I marked every cassette with the RMC number. RMC stood for “Rafaeel’s Music Library” but now these audio cassettes filled in almost 5 bags RIP due to my busy schedule and the new gadgets & computer systems.

Audio Cassette Line In System - 1 (Speakers still used. Cassette playing abandoned)

Audio Cassette Line In System - 2 & 3 (Totally Abandoned)

Music CDs

RMC Collection Image -1

RMC Collection Image -2

RMC Collection Image -3

RMC 8: Indus Music Album featuring Ahmed Jehanzaib's first song

RMC Collection Number 5: Top Underground Songs (perhaps 2003) including Noori and EP

These things took me back into the memories that how SHODA I used to be after making people listen “Ali Noor and Ali Hamza” songs in early 2000. Aadat by JAL was actually released in late 2004 and I remember how me, Hamza (Aitchison, Hammy’s friend) used to sing it during A-Level days on Acoustic in Summers of 2003. EP’s “Hamein Azma” and “Kahan Hai Tu” and then how I used to make people listen “Yaadein” by Roxen in 2005 before its release. Basim in the college life used to say me that “Tu wohi ganay sunta hai jo koi naheen sunta and baad mein wohi 2-3 saal hit ho jatay hein and har koi sun raha hota hai”. :) Also few of my friends used to say “Why you do all promotions for free? You should charge for such promotions and making us hear this crap. Nothing is FREE in this world. There are always strings attached.” So I feel today I have been paid up for promoting these underground bands (now the stars).

Lets see how things turn up in future. I have listened to 7 demos and 2 of them are covers of Pakistani songs :D.

Is Haftay Ke Aap Beetian - اِس ہفتےکی آپ بِیتِیاں

2009-12-12T08:19:00.007+05:00

It should have been a progressive week as planned but as Sir Aftab Alam says “Planned things mostly don’t end up as planned” so was this week for me.

On Monday, I was informed that my driver’s mother has passed away and he would be on a week’s leave. The same afternoon I was informed by one of the employees that there are some personal issues, he needs some cash and leaving for his city. All I could say was “Fine”.

Since the final exams were about to start so I anticipated that Salman & Shigrif won’t come to office either and I would be having a FREE week sleeping with all my enthusiasm to make a difference, on my bedside table.

But the week had more to it. Few of my friends are getting hitched this week so I planned to buy Gifts & Wrapping Sheets for them but postponed the plan for the next day due to the unavailability of driver. Allah Mian wanted to save me from the Moon Market Blasts that occurred on the Monday Night at the same time I normally do my shopping. Perhaps this is the reason my driver went on a leave.

The blasts were shocking and I didn’t feel like doing anything till Tuesday evening. Called up Sunny and he told me that we’ll be going for the PEC Registration tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. so get your documents ready.I went to the market for my photographs and prepared all documents overnight. Went to a two hour sleep around 9 in the morning on Wednesday.

As soon as I woke up, I had few messages in my cell phone to tell me that some people don’t consider me as their friends so I shouldn’t comment on their fb posts. This obviously did hurt me a lot considering the times I have taken their side in last few years. All I could say to myself was “FINE”. What more bitchiness this week has for me? Bring It On. Called up Sunny to confirm the plan and he told me that Sabih didn’t get the attestations done so the plan has been postponed till tomorrow. I threw my cell away and tried to sleep in the GARAM GARAM RAZAI in frustration. But my nani amman can’t let me in peace of mind. She came that your cell is ringing time and again. How can it be ringing? It’s always on vibration. Checked it and it was the message of my CTO “Where are you?” He wanted me to come online asap.

Nokri Kee Tay Nakhra Kee. Picked up my lazy ass and went to office. The CTO Sb. had an email in my inbox with many people in loop

"Rafaeel, Here you go with your first project. Please design a technical scoping document and share with all. Deadline: Tomorrow EOB :-)"

Thank you for mocking and making that smily at the end knowing that I don’t know a shit what you are talking about. Can you please tell me, “WTF is a Technical Scoping Document and what does EOB means?” Isn’t the client very clear in his email what they want from us? Anyways, I was just about to start that the Office Ke Safai wali maasi came with her dukhraas. I felt like sitting with her and sharing my dukhraas in return. I needed a strong dose of caffeine to concentrate so went onto making a cup of strong tea and I was welcomed back by my dad who wanted to get few of his documents typed, scanned and emailed. As soon as I got rid of them, my dad invited few of my uncles in my office who were insisting that I should go for Masters and I can’t study later. “Beta, Backup rakhte hein, Country Ke Halaat Ka Kaya Patta”. “Experience Lo Job Karke Aap.” “Mera Beta Yeh Karke Aaya Hai, Yeh Dekhain Inka Beta Masters in International Business Management Kar Raha Hai”. All I could do was to nod my head in accepting all facts & figures they were narrating. "Chalo Beta, Jao Baahir. Mein Aata Hoon Phir Kisse Din Aapko Guide Karne."

After seeing them off, I felt like killing myself. Back to desk and the colleagues asks “How much progress have you made on the document?” I politely ask them “Can you please tell me what is a technical scoping document and send me the company document template?” If Arslan would have been online, I would have asked from him but he’s never online when you need him. Anyways, the CTO is good enough to send me the company document template and the sample document which had absolutely no relevance to the project. Somehow, I managed to write something in 2 hours, emailed and went to sleep once again at 9 in the morning.

Dad sent back the driver at 10 after reaching office so I could go for my PEC Registration. As soon as the driver came, nani amman woke me up :S Can you just let me sleep? :( Nevertheless I woke up, took a bath and thought I should get my Office Phone repaired as well as get my driver’s license renewed before going to PEC Office.

After a waiting time of 15 minute, the lady at WorldCall Service Care tells me that there are no batteries so the phone can’t be serviced. I told her that I have been visiting for the last one month or so. If they don’t have the required stuff, why are they publicizing it after every 10 minutes at all their cable channels. Frustrated, I leave for the Motor Licensing Authority Office in Liberty to get my Learner’s License renewed. The duty wardens are absent and would be coming in the evening and one of officers tells me that it would not be renewed from here, you would have to go to Katchehry and get some other chores done. Didn’t shaggy tell me that it would be renewed from where it was issued? I call up Shaggy and as usual he doesn’t pick up. Alhamdulillah PEC Registration goes smooth.

I am coming back SARRA hoa and the CTO tells me that the document has some issues and I have given extra information and should minimize stuff. Straight into the office, modified and sent. At the same instance, IEEE GOLDies start asking me why i am not organizing GOLD events these days and why didn't i attend International GOLD events lately? I ignore the IM windows and get off to take the much needed sleep.

Friday dawns with lots of messages from friends. “You are invited to my birthday party tomorrow. Be there at 5:00 p.m. sharp”. “You’ll have to be in my wedding Mr.CEO else I won’t forgive you for the rest of my life”. Best way to blackmail people. “You didn’t still confirm if you’ll be attending Kiss Away 09”. The country is burning and you are partying. Kiss My Ass 09 times i say. I leave my cell at home and leave for office.

In the evening, Dad’s driver starts asking for 2 days leave as it’s his cousin’s wedding over the weekend. Dad is furious as he has to attend a Cardiology Conference and few dinners in next two days. He hushes up the driver as the other driver is also not available. Dad's driver is going back with sad face. I walk up to the dad and convince him to give him the leave. "We’ll pick and drop you. Let him go." I go to my elder brother and ask him to accompany me to my friend’s wedding tomorrow. He replies “Mein Apnay Doston Ke Shaadi Par Naheen Gaya Pichlay 3 din se, tumharay saath jaaon?” Anyways, I tell him the issue and convince him too.

Today as I go to sleep on this Saturday Morning, there are birthdays of 7 friends and other 3 good friends are getting married with their weddings planned on different corners of the city. Happy Birthday to all my lovely friends and best of luck to those who are getting hitched today. I am not sure how this day will end up and if I’ll be able to make up to your event or not but you very well know I care for you and am happy for you.

ZzzZZzzzz!!!

Homecoming 2009 Kay Mundarjaat

2009-12-12T04:51:00.000+05:00

Alumni Homecoming par gaya tu socha tha ke kutch logon ke shakayat duur ho jaeygee and na milne ka shikwa dam torega but shaid us maqsad mein kamyaab naheen ho sakka. Aaj jab Wahab Butt Ne Istafsaar Kiya “Aur Janab Kahan Ghaib Hein? It’s been a while” tu ehsaas hoa ke kutch likh dena chahiyeh takay sinad rahay aur bawaqt-e-zaroorat kaam aye.

Homecoming Se Aik Din Pehlay, Kutch Career Changes aayen. Sab logon ko SMS karke mutalah kiya laikin phir bhee har aikne poochna tu tha hee “Haan Jee, Aur Ajkal Kaya Kar Rahay Ho?” “Sunna Hai Masters Ke Liye Nikal Rahay Ho?” “Yaar Kabhi Mil He Liya Kar”. “Barra CEO Ho Gaya Hai, Ab Hamein Kahan Lift Karaega” jaise jumle sunanay ko mille. Jabke Jinke kehnay par Homecoming mein shamooliyat ikhtiyar ke, unhon ne nazar andaaz kiya ya phir baishtar ne shirkat karna he munasib na samjha.

Hamza Rana Ka Itna Barra Fan Naheen Hoon, Laikin Irfan Bhai and Ahmed Bhai Ne Jab Saath Chalne Par Israar Kiya Tu Socha Ke Is Azeem Hastee Se Bhee Mulaqat Kar Leni Chahiyeh. Hamza Bhai Se Goh Ke Pehli Daffa Milla Laikin Unke Aik Jumlay Ne Sharminda Sa Kar Diya. Woh Jumla Jo Bhee Tha Meri Zaat Se Mutaliq Tha, Meray Faislon Ya Career Path Se Naheen. Aur Sirf Mujhe Ussi Jumle Se Ehsaas Hoa Ke “It really is Homecoming”. iShukrofyYouRana

Asim aur Aqeel Bhai Ke Saath Bhe Acha Waqt Guzra Aur Phir Meinay Is Mehfil Se Ruksat Leina He Munasib Samjha. Saood Ka Shukriya Jo Usne Mujhe Wapsi Par Sawari Dee Aur Meinay Apne Driver Ko Zehmat Dena Munasib Naheen Samjha.

Ghar Aa Ke Sabse Pehlay Un 120 business emailon ka safaaya karna shruu kiya jinka mein pichle 2 hafte se jawab na de sakka tha aur thaana ke Monday Se Aik Naey Walwalay se zindagi ka aghaaz karoonga.

International Men’s Day – Why aren't we celebrating?

2009-11-19T11:08:00.000+05:00

While i write this post, only few people in Pakistan would be knowing that today is "International Men's Day". Why aren't we celebrating the day with the same enthusiasm as we celebrate "International Women's Day" on March 8th when all the social and mainstream media is occupied for days to make us men admit that we are the cruelest and dirtiest specie on the planet earth.

From midnight till noon, i haven't seen a single status message or any program on any television/radio channel to say few good words about us.

A few days back a "Women Workplace Harassment Bill" was passed by our National Assembly which could award three year imprisonment and impose Rs. 500000 fine against the offender. Fine. No Objections. But what if women do the same or misuse this bill in their favor? Does any law protect men or does this law has an article that women would be punished for abusing the law? I guess not.

Majority is facing basic problems to survive in the current system and our legislators have nothing else to do other than bringing "NRO", "Hudood Ordinance" and other Women Protection Bills in the assembly. After passing such bills, they hold press conferences and claim that they have achieved the milestone.

Though i endorse women development projects and have been associated with various such projects in past but if we want to promote gender equality, why we have allocated One-Third Quota in our Parliament for them? Why do we have separate compartments in transportation system, separate queues in tickets and billing? Shouldn't this gender behave normally and follow the same procedures as men do?

Anyways, lets come to the original point. When we celebrate a day, we consider something special about that day. Or we would not be celebrating it. Am I correct? What message do we send by celebrating Women's Day? Why not also celebrate Men's Day?

What do we want to think about women? Ideally, they should be treated equally in all the fields. Ideally when one thinks of a woman, one should not think about them different in any respect to men. Except that they mother a child and shoulder different responsibility for a certain period, women should be thought of as equal to men in all respects. Why label them as weaker sex or any such thing. But this is happening. Who is responsible for this thought process, where women are considered different? Men? Women? Historical processes? Who? Let us examine more.

Does media discuss the matter, if a man reaches top of a giant corporation? No. But it does, if a woman occupies that position. Why? Is it only because women have traditionally not occupied such positions or that they are in some way considered inferior to men? So it is a surprise if a woman reaches the top of a giant organization? Why cannot the media ignore such occurrences and not call them as news at all? Does media announce - the sun rose today! No. It is taken as a way of life and nature. Why cannot the media take this fact as granted that women are equal to men in all the aspects and stop discussing any issues that talk of sex difference and ability? With such categorization are we ourselves not treating men and women separately?

I know i'll end up writing a book of random thoughts here but this wouldn't matter at all. Women in Pakistan would keep demanding more and more. We would have more Support Funds, Gender Biased Scholarships, Gender Biased Job Openings but no one would ever raise a voice that men do have certain rights as well. Thus, the bottom line of the post is

Promoting gender equality:

Women’s empowerment and gender equality are two oft-repeated phrases today. It is sad enough that there are many who take great pride in wearing these labels while remaining completely oblivious of their true import. What is worse is that radical women’s groups and vested interests have successfully subverted the real meaning and purpose of women’s empowerment and gender equality, and are promoting discrimination, injustice and serious human rights abuses in the name of gender equality.

Domestic and social harmony will prevail only when women AND men are ensured their rightful, honorable place within and outside the home. International Men’s Day is an occasion to commit ourselves to ensure true gender equality in the society and under law, so that gender relations are improved, litigations are reduced, legal terrorism and extortion through misuse of the law is eliminated, and our human and financial resources can be employed to ensure a better society for ourselves and future generations.

Highlighting positive male role models:

We tend to ignore that every day,

•    Men render many services that make the society comfortable for everyone.
•    Men make many contributions to science, technology and health of all.
•    Men perform the most dangerous and difficult jobs in the world.
•    Men take risks and die to save other lives during calamities and war.
•    Men bring humor into our lives and make us laugh.

International Men’s Day is an occasion to highlight and promote positive role models in all walks of life. It is a day to remind ourselves to honor all men – academic achievers, social leaders, champions of the environment, artists, comedians, soldiers, farmers, fishermen, fire fighters, and those more humble males who, on a daily basis, clean our streets, build our houses, fix our vehicles, police our streets, deliver newspapers and milk, care for children, and dedicate themselves to others. It is a day to remember that we must celebrate all men in our lives – our fathers, brothers, partners, sons, male friends, neighbors and colleagues. That's my message. A "Very Happy Men's Day" to all my gender fellows out there.

Post References: Uma Challa and American Chronicle

Azad Jammu & Kashmir & Balawaristan - State Flag and Government Sign

2009-11-18T16:01:00.001+05:00

Some of my readers in their response to my previous post "The State Emblem of Pakistan and the need for change" emailed me to tell them more about the AJK and Balawaristan State & Government Signs (if any). Though i have limited knowledge about them but let me post whatever i know.

AJK Flag

The official flag the State of Azad Jammu & Kashmir was adopted on 24th September 1975. The flag was adopted by the passing of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir State Flag Ordinance, 1975 by the then president, Sardar Mohammad Ibrahim Khan.

Symbolically the flag represents following aspects of Azad Jammu and Kashmir

    * Three Fourths green background represents 75% Muslim population of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
    * One-Fourth Orange (Golden) color represents 25% minorities of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
    * The Green stripes represent the Valley of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
    * The White stripes represent the snow-covered mountains of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
    * The Crescent is the usual semblance of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

Government of AJK Sign

The AJK Government uses this sign for official correspondences. This is shown in silver thread, whereas the President of Azad Jammu & Kasmir has an identical banner, but of GOLD thread. This flag carries the state/province emblems. Here the obvious crescent and star, mountains, and the maple leaf, which is reflective of the abundance of this tree within the state.

Balwaristan Area

The above outlined area is also known as BALAWARISTAN which has recently got autonomy and general elections were held for the assembly.

Balawaristan Government Sign

As per my information, Balawaristan doesn't have any official government sign at the moment. Mostly people refer the following as the state flag which is actually the flag of Balawaristan National Front.

Hopefully, the newly elected government would decide their symbol in coming days.

The State Emblem of Pakistan and the need for change

2009-11-18T12:50:00.020+05:00

Sometimes while conducting my training sessions, I ask people if they know what does the following symbol mean.

Surprisingly majority doesn’t even have any clue about it and the best answer that I get is “This is the Government of Pakistan Sign”. This disappoints me a lot that people even don’t know about our state emblem. This has led me to write about the significance of the sign that goes on all official Government of Pakistan correspondences, documentation, and your NICs & passports.

* The State Emblem of Pakistan was adopted in 1954. The emblem's green colour and the star and crescent at the top are symbols of Islam, the religion with which most Pakistani citizens identify.
* In the center is a quartered shield, with each quarter containing a major crop of Pakistan at the time of its adoption: cotton, jute, tea, and wheat.
* The floral wreath around the shield is Poet's Jasmine (the national flower) and represents the Mughal cultural heritage of Pakistan.
* The scroll at the bottom contains the national motto in Urdu, coined by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, which reads from right to left: (Urdu: اتحاد ، ایمان ، نظم) Ittehad, Iman, Nazm translated as "Unity, Faith, Discipline".

(All the readers should write very frankly in the comments that how many of you earlier knew about this design philosophy)

The Need for Change

The two crops (Jute and Tea) are no longer Pakistan’s major crop after the separation of East Pakistan and formation of Bangladesh. To me its like not accepting the formation of Bangladesh. Thus, we should replace them with the current major crops of the country. I won’t comment on the “Unity, Faith, Discipline” motto for the very obvious reasons.

Am I objectionable?

2009-09-25T16:27:00.010+06:00

Recently, the fever of Go Green was catching up every Pakistani. The purpose was to bring in the spirit of national pride and to establish the unity, love and faith back in the younger generation of Pakistan. I uploaded my following greened picture in the personal info of a Pakistani Job Portal.

The reply that i got was [Click to see the Clearer Version]

Text:

Dear Rafaeel Chaudhry,

We were unable to approve a picture you uploaded to [Jobsite] recently. The picture was either objectionable in content or not an accurate representation of you. Please click here to review the [Jobsite] Picture Policy.

Please do not upload pictures containing pets, animals, nudity, portions of the body (hands, eyes etc.), sketches, scenery, objects, violence, inflammatory/offensive language or image, paintings/artwork, celebrities, cartoon characters or copyrighted images.

[Jobsite] is striving to bridge the gap between professionals and employers. We are also trying to educate our job seekers regarding different industry ethics and bring them parallel to international standards.

Therefore, we encourage you to upload your formal passport size photograph that depicts you as a professional job seeker. However uploading pictures on [Jobsite] is optional.

To upload another picture, click here:

Or copy and paste the following link into your browser: [Picture Updation Link]

Best Regards, The [Jobsite] Team

I thought that may be the Jobsite doesn't endorse the Go Green Campaign, so i updated the following picture and got the same message.

The last try that i would now do is to get myself photographed in a studio in a formal wear to confirm if i am objectionable or not.

Meanwhile i would like to know about your opinion. :)

Consistent Policies of Educational Institutes

2009-06-21T21:31:00.008+06:00

Admissions are in progress at various colleges and universities around the country. People in my family and social network sometimes ask me if they should send in their siblings or children to the institute from where i graduated. Apart from the academic rankings, I advise them to select the institute which doesn't change its academic and other student policies so often. Most of the people don't seem to get what i am talking about so i thought of posting a snap to explain.

Some of my ID Cards during my undergraduate degree. Came in different shapes and sizes. Every Director came and issued his own version.

The Five Year Foreign Policy

2009-05-13T06:13:00.006+06:00

Wednesday, 13th May 2009

The 125th Anniversary of IEEE.

Fifth Annual Foreign Policy Review Committee Meeting

2004-05 : Pakistan[*] and India[^] enjoying cordial relations. Pakistan joins the War on Terror [%].

2005-06: Pakistan becomes the frontline state in War on Terror and enjoys complete support of the United States [#] . India and allies not happy for being neglected.

2006-07: India comes close to U.S. Pakistan being unsure about its position is still fighting the WoT somehow.

2007-08: Who is conducting Drone Attacks? Pakistan or U.S.? Doesn't matter. It's one and the same thing.

2008-09: Pakistan realizes it wasn't its war but is prone to bear the consequences. What's done cannot be undone.

* Me = Pakistan
^ Table Smasher = India
# IEEE-NUCES Chairman = U.S.
% IEEE = War on Terror

Men's Rules

2009-05-05T16:07:00.009+06:00

Ladies, here are the rules you MUST know at least when you interact with me. Men really are quite simple.

1. Women, learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

2. Birthdays, Valentines, and Anniversaries are not considered by us to be opportunities to see if we can find the perfect present again!

3. Sometimes we are not thinking about you. Live with it.

4. Sunday = sports. It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

5. Don't cut your hair. Ever. Long hair is always more attractive than short hair. One of the big reasons guys fear getting married is that married women always cut their hair, and by then you're stuck with her.

6. Ask for what you want. Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

7. Shopping is not sport.

8. Anything you wear is fine. Really.

9. You have enough clothes.

10. You have too many shoes.

11. Crying is blackmail. Use it if you must, but don't expect us to like it.

12. Your brother is an idiot, your ex-boyfriend is an idiot, and your Dad probably is too.

13. We don't remember dates. . . .Period!!

14. Most guys own three pairs of shoes. What makes you think we'd be any good at choosing which pair, out of thirty, would look good with your dress?

15. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

16. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

17. A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem. See a doctor.

18. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

19. If you won't dress like the Victoria's Secret girls, don't expect us to act like soap opera guys.

20. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us. We've been tricked before!!

21. If something we said can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

22. Let us ogle. We are going to look anyway; it's genetic.

23. You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

24. Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

25. Christopher Columbus did not need directions, and neither do we.

26. The relationship is never going to be like it was the first two months we were going out. Get over it. And quit whining to your girlfriends.

27. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

28. We are not mind readers and we never will be. Our lack of mind-reading ability is not proof of how little we care about you.

29. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing", we will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

30. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an answer you don't want to hear.

31. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics like the shotgun formation, or monster trucks.

32. Foreign films are best left to foreigners. (Unless it's Bruce Lee or some war flick where it doesn't really matter what they're saying anyway.)

33. Technology and Political Discussion is as exciting for us as handbags are for you.

34. Get rid of your cat. And no, it's not different, it's just like every other cat.

35. Your Mom doesn't have to be our best friend.

Adnan Haider talks about Entrepreneurship and Engineering Schools in Pakistan

2009-04-21T03:01:00.005+06:00

Adnan Haider is the Co-Founder of Lootmaar, an online marketplace for Pakistan. In the 19th episode of ITLoW, he talks with Madam Jehan Ara about entrepreneurship, where Lootmaar is today, what their plans are, and some of the challenges that he and his partner Noman Turab have faced along the way.

Adnan Haider is a graduate of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST), worked in Pakistan as a technical specialist for IBM - focusing on computer storage solutions, before proceeding for his Masters in Engineering Management (MEM) from the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering under a Fulbright Scholarship. While at Duke, Adnan was part of the ImaGyn team that won a US$100,000 prize to develop a device to facilitate cervical cancer prevention in the developing world.

At the end of the interview, he also discussed the Engineering Schools in Pakistan and only his one gesture “And then we have FAST” says everything about the current state of affairs at NUCES Campuses. I already raised the same concerns like Lack of Incubation Centers and Experienced Faculty as well as recommendation of inter-disciplinary work in one of my previous blog posts “FAST-NU Engineering Fiasco.” Good to find somebody who thinks the same way :)

Click on the following widget to see the interview.

Dastoor-e-FAST - Modified

2009-04-19T13:23:00.003+06:00

When i wrote the first version in 15 minutes and posted it, I didn't anticipate such a wonderful response. Fahad Liaqat pointed out a technical mistake on Facebook, after which i am publishing this modified version.

Dastoor-e-FAST

Dastoor Jis Dars Gah Ka Badalta Rahey
Chand Logon Ki Khushiyon Ko Ley Kar Chaley
Woh Jo Sa'iye Mein Har Doctor Ke Paley
Aisey Dastoor Ko, Aisey Muntazim Ko
Mein Nahin Maanta, Mein Nahin Jaanta

Mein Bhi Kha'if Nahin Takhta-e-Daar Sey
Mein Bhi Student Hoon Keh Do Director Sahib Sey
Kyoon Darratey Ho DC Ki Talwaar Sey
Zulm Ki Baat Ko, Aisey Ehtesaab Ko
Mein Nahin Maanta, Mein Nahin Jaanta

Daad Rassi Student Ke Hone Laggay, Tum Kaho
Graduation Waqt Par Hone Laggay, Tum Kaho
Nokri University Lagwane Laggay, Tum Kaho
Is Khulley Jhoot Ko, Zehan Ke Loot Ko
Mein Nahin Maanta, Mein Nahin Jaanta

Tum Ney Loota Hey Har Semester Hamara Sakoon
Ab Na Hum Par Chaley Ga Tumhara Qanoon
Chaaragar Hum Sabke Bantey Ho Kyun
Tum Nahin Chaaragar, Koi Maney Magar
Mein Nahin Maanta, Mein Nahin Jaanta

Dastoor-e-FAST

2009-04-17T02:56:00.006+06:00

It's almost 5:30 in the morning and i thought of modifying Mr. Habib Jalib's famous poem "DASTOOR" as follows.

Dedicated to all FAST Family. :)

Dastoor-e-FAST

Dastoor Jis Dars Gah Ka Badalta Rahey
Chand Logon Ki Khushiyon Ko Ley Kar Chaley
Woh Jo Sa'iye Mein Har Doctor Ke Paley
Aisey Dastoor Ko, Aisey Muntazim Ko
Mein Nahin Maanta, Mein Nahin Jaanta

Mein Bhi Kha'if Nahin Takhta-e-Daar Sey
Mein Bhi Student Hoon Keh Do Director Sahib Sey
Kyoon Darratey Ho DC Ki Talwaar Sey
Zulm Ki Baat Ko, Aisey Ehtesaab Ko
Mein Nahin Maanta, Mein Nahin Jaanta

"F" Theethon Ko Milne Laggein, Tum Kaho
Course Chailon Ko Milne Laggein, Tum Kaho
Pre-Req Courses Ke Roz Badalne Laggein, Tum Kaho
Is Khulley Jhoot Ko, Paison Ke Loot Ko
Mein Nahin Maanta, Mein Nahin Jaanta

Tum Ney Loota Hey Har Semester Hamara Sakoon
Ab Na Hum Par Chaley Ga Tumhara Qanoon
Chaaragar Hum Sabke Bantey Ho Kyun
Tum Nahin Chaaragar, Koi Maney Magar
Mein Nahin Maanta, Mein Nahin Jaanta

Why Women Cry..

2009-04-14T19:44:00.005+05:00

A little boy asked his mother, "Why are you crying?"

"Because I'm a woman," she told him.

"I don't understand," he said.

His Mom just hugged him and said, "And you never will."

Later the little boy asked his father, "Why does mother seem to cry for no reason?"

"All women cry for no reason," was all his dad could say.

The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry.

Finally he put prayed to God who would surely know the answer.

When God responded he asked, "God, why do women cry so easily?"

God said: "When I made the woman she had to be made special.

I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world, yet gentle enough to give comfort.

I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children.

I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining.

I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very badly.

I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart.

I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly.

And lastly, I gave her a tear to shed. This is hers and only hers exclusively to use whenever she needs it. She needs no reason, no explanation, its hers."

"You see my son," said God, "the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart - the place where love resides."

Mobile Services Survey

2009-04-08T20:15:00.004+05:00

I am conducting a mobile services survey. I'll be grateful, if people from different walks of life can fill in the following form and submit it to me.

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Startups Exhibition at SOFTEC 2009 [Register Now]

2009-03-31T12:25:00.005+05:00

SOFTEC 2009 (www.softec.org.pk) , the 5th International and 14th National IT & Technology event would be held on the 4th and 5th of April 2009 at FAST-NU Lahore Campus. Like last year, they will be promoting startups at the event. There is a separate enclosure for startups in exhibition so that they can exhibit the services that they offer or the product they have developed. On the other hand, its a good opportunity to network with like minded people, industry professionals and P@SHA reps.

SOFTEC 2009 team wants full participation from the startups and are offering extremely affordable packages to accommodate everyone.The purpose of the registration fee is to assure your presence at the event. Few startups have already registered themselves.

Please spread the word and let the startups know about this wonderful opportunity.

For registration, you can contact me or Mr. Ahmed Muzammil of Startups.PK.

Roxen's "Bhuj Hai Gaya" a rip off of Omer Nadeem's "Dil Ka Diya"?

2009-02-15T19:59:00.003+05:00

I heard Roxen singing this song at RockBall 09 and i was like "Wasn't this verse in Omer Nadeem's song 'Dil Ka Diya'?"

"Bujh Hai Gaya Yeh Dil Ka Diya, Teray Bin Lagay Na Mora Jiya"

Recently, Roxen has released the video of their version "Bujh Hai Gaya" as well. Apparently, Omer Nadeem was the former drummer of Roxen and was working with Haider Haleem on a separate project "Sifaar". As per my information, Omer composed some 5 songs in the album Roxen-e-Deewar which were

1. Chaltay Rahay (formally owned by Sifaar),
2. Jag Chor Diya
3. Aaj
4. Tu phir Aao
5. Sapnay

Is Roxen's version a rip off or the true thing? I am still looking for some official statements, blame games etc. because both sides are somewhat playing cool at the moment. Omer was caught up in the Atif Aslam and Gohar Mumtaz controversy as well.So, he might think thousand times before stepping up.

By the way, I personally think that Omer Nadeem's version is way better than Roxen's :)

Should Senior Speak Up? [Part 2]

2009-02-13T16:44:00.005+05:00

A heartbroken guy got something to day dream about expecting that the answer might be "YES" this time over. It was infatuation, crush or whatever, I came home and messaged my best friends especially sahelis about her. As usual, no cheering response from their side. :(

As i have my own quotation, "If you like it, stalk it". Thus, I went to university the next day and scanned academic office's list to know which people appeared in that subject's retake. There were only 2 female students that appeared in the retake exam of that subject. Now the question was how to identify her.

Days passed and I couldn't get to see her. Perhaps I was forgetting her existence because I didn't even remember her face by that time. Then one day, Basim and Zombie were as usual on their "POONDI" campaign and then I got to know that Basim's "Crush List" has a new addition. According to Zombie that lady didn't even have straight legs and she walked clumsily. Basim wanted a second opinion so suddenly one day he yelled "Roofi!!” I turned back and he gestured towards a group and his face expressions meant "That One". Man, I was like WTF! WTF! because the group of girls that he was talking about had my angel in it. Basim's one was technically way prettier for me :P . All my sahelis were also of the opinion that Basim's one was the best amongst them. Don't know what women see in other women :S. Since this great PS deserves the best and I have never been after the prettiest bunch on the planet earth anyways, I had to be honest with him. Thus like an Indian Film, 2 best male friends were stalking 2 good female friends.

When I recapture all those moments, I see all those craziest things that i have done in my college life and still people call me a boring person. Why? Even if I am an introvert, any problems? I would also like to give few dear female friends some credit for confusing Basim's crush with mine and they know what they did :@ It went like that till SOFTEC 2007. At SOFTEC 2007, one of my female friends did a mistake after that I couldn't resist.

Arafat, Sohail and Choi’s Project PC was the heaven where I talked to this angel for the first time. Since it was Haider and Asad’s last semester, we used to get together at their Project PCs in Lab 2 for all the important “SOFTEC” and “The Rising” talks. I remember how Ahmed Sajjad used to seek the attention of the whole lab by with his trademark laughter after seeing the SOFTEC 2007 Registration System made by Cyco. “Sir AJAX Ka Scene Hai!”

Anyways, post SOFTEC 2007 I was working on something at Arafat’s Project PC. I moved from my seat to gossip with a friend who was sitting on a nearby PC. Suddenly, I noticed that one of the girls from this gang has taken seat of my PC and is about to restart the PC. In those days, it was really hard to find a PC in the lab. She and her other friends were standing nearby. Don’t know from where I got that courage. Rafaeel Akbar Chaudhry identifies the target, start moving towards this girl gang, reaches the target and says “Excuse Me!” She turns around in astonishment and fear. Her Fearful Questioning Eyes! OMG! After that all I could say was “This is my Project PC”. She didn’t utter a single word, their eyes talked in some alien language and all of them moved away. Does she has a tongue? I still don't know. All I can think after this was “You accompanying little chipmunks, take all the PCs of the lab but let me talk to her”. But it wasn’t my day.

Finally in mid May, I said that to her anonymously in the creepiest way. Senior thus did the cheapest and most junior mistake on the planet earth. Perhaps not saying it altogether was a much better option. Why the hell I can't tell the actual feelings in person? Why can’t her girl gang let her stroll alone? I didn't get any response and now that I think I am mature enough, I know that even if would have been at her place I wouldn’t have replied.

Interestingly, Basim’s crush transferred herself to another college after Spring 2007 semester. However, I would like to publically thank Mr. Qureshi for bearing my seniority issues and advising appropriately at times.

Q. Why am I writing this anyways?
A. For all those who kept asking me about my Valentine’s Day plans.

As Basim says that girls look for their Prince Charming and they don’t get to see that in their daily life. So, in his opinion successful people in this domain are mostly jerks and liars and I should act like one to score a girl. ”Enjoy a Crispy Life Man” .But after all these random thoughts, I still think I am a one woman guy. I don’t want to play with anyone’s emotions and then break up on a pity reason. I want to be with the sole entity that my family approves of. Being a “chickless virgin” is better than having a one night stand.

As for her, she is important for me especially her birthday :) but not important than my family. Perhaps that’s the most practical approach. Love is not about bringing that person in your life. For me, it’s more of seeing that person happy. I like (not love) her and would always pray that she gets the best in her whole life.

Saood has already commented on the post’s first part that I should wait for the right time. Thus, I am waiting for the right time. It’s her or anyone else, time will tell.

Concluding this long note, I would like to say that this may be the same old Valentine’s Day for me. But for the first time, I would like to dedicate it to my family and best friends, who have always been there for me through thick and thin. “I LOVE YOU ALL! MUAH MUAH! ”

“Happy Valentine’s Day” :)

Should Senior Speak Up? [Part 1]

2009-02-13T07:26:00.001+05:00

The clock of my notebook is telling me that its 5:12 A.M. and I should take a nap if I intend to attend the Friday Prayers and the Startup Insider Session today at LUMS. It has been a night full of questions and random thoughts. Questions and issues that are perhaps not so complex but they are critical ones for which my soul needs immediate solution.

Since yesterday, most of the stuff on the TV, Radio & Web has been "valentined up". I also saw the video of Fuzon's song "Khamaj" tonight and loved the "seniorism" shown by Shaan. So, the upcoming valentine day initiated this thought process.

We the 3 Musketeers, Rafaeel, Basim and Salman were once like inseparable friends who lived by the motto "one for all, all for one" as Salman & Basim didn't have all these girls roaming around them like 2 years back.

I clearly remember that it was 27th December 2006, when I entered the university campus to give my final exam of "Probability & Random Processes". I already wasn't feeling well in that winter morning and then suddenly I got the news that I have scored an "F" grade in Electronics-2 exam. I sat down on the university's pathway in disappointment. Now the question was that should I give the final paper with this state of mind? If I would have done that, I am sure there would have been another "F" on my transcript. The 2 musketeers jumped in to say that they are planning to skip the final as they couldn't prepare. Thus that day, I paved the way for my only retake exam in my whole undergraduate life. Unluckily for the first time, the retakes were intentionally delayed by the administration and thus were scheduled for mid February in between the Spring 2007 Semester.

It was Monday, February 12, 2007 when I noticed this beauty for the first time. I entered the Seminar Hall at 4:50 p.m. and she was standing there in front of the front sofas with her friend, waiting to be seated for the retake of her final exam. Since I respect her privacy, I wouldn't mention the retake subject and the batch. Luckily, she was allotted seat right in front of me (at 45 degree angle). Though the allotted time for the paper was until 8:00 p.m., I did my max effort till 6:45 p.m. Salman and Basim were already out before 7:00 p.m. considering that only 3 of us were appearing for Prob & Random Processes’ retake ;) . During the whole examination period, this magnetic beauty didn't let me concentrate on the paper. I made myself sit there till 8:00 p.m. and finally handed over the paper to Mr. Aftab Khadim. When I came outside, Basim was already on his way home whereas Salman was standing on the highway cursing me that what the hell I was doing in the paper. As we were moving towards the university gate, I noticed a Black Corolla (not sure) right outside the gate and someone who apparently was father of some student standing at the gate. Then suddenly this angel appeared from the side, talked to that person and sat in the car. As the car was plying away, I was still wondering who this lovely angel was.

Call The Band - Ho Jaane De [Valentine's Day Special]

2009-02-12T23:01:00.002+05:00

Call The Band is releasing the video of their song "Ho Jaane De" on AAG & Geo TV Network on 14th February 2009. The video has been directed by my favorite Umar Anwar. Enjoy!

FAST-NU Engineering Fiasco

2009-01-29T20:46:00.007+05:00

I recently received an email from OSAF, The Old Students Association of FAST to provide feedback on the curriculum and quality of FAST-NU graduates. I normally try to stay away from political discussions and useless exercises as these never bring any outcome. However after having discussed the situation with one of the CEC members, I finally decided to jot down certain points as my last-ditch effort for the welfare of engineering students and fresh graduates of FAST-NU Lahore. These points might be useful for the FAST-NU Alumni Association (FAA) for their forthcoming meeting with the honorable Rector, Dean and Registrar of the university on February 7, 2009.

Having seen 3 Directors and spending almost 5 years at this campus, it puts me in a great position to write these notes.As Maria rightly pointed out an issue in her feedback

“I believe that the greatest quality of fresh graduates of NUCES FAST is that they are not afraid of putting in the hours i.e. have an ability to work hard. They generally know their stuff as far as their field of expertise is concerned. One of the important weaknesses, in my opinion, is a general lack of exposure owing to too narrow a focus on academic excellence promoted by FAST. Fresh graduates are not as well-rounded or confident as they potentially could be.”

However, I don’t consider it the prime reason and major weakness of FAST-NU graduates. To me, the major weakness is the FAST-NU Lahore’s administration itself. Let us compare ourselves with institutes other than LUMS and LSE, which are majorly business schools. Our technical graduates are much more professionally groomed than even UET Lahore.

Let me just first put the ground facts in order.

1. TE & CE students of Batch 2002, 2003 and 2004 underwent experimentation during the PEC recognition phase.

2. It’s a pity for someone to know that an estimate of only 15 students out of the intake of 250 engineering students graduated on time.

3. Only one student of TE 2004 is in the Dean’s List (without any F, withdraw and CGPA above 3.5)

4. Most of those who graduated on time and those who graduated late are jobless. Only a minority could secure good jobs and that too through their own family references. The rest of the lot is either sitting at home, doing CCNA qualification for VoIP jobs or doing internships at small telcos, VOIP companies and software houses. No serious effort was put in by the management to place the graduates thus resulting in accumulation of great frustration and hatred towards the Alma mater. If a topper of the batch is offered a 12.5K job before the global financial crisis, what more can you expect? Hence, most of the top students joined as Lab Engineer jobs at the campus against their will.

5. The students cannot apply for good Post-Graduate programmes & Scholarships due to the low CGPA. Most of the institutes reject them in the initial screening considering the STAMPED “F”’s.

6. It is not the dearth of good students. In fact, it is the dearth of good faculty, good leadership, and very limited resources. Getting good-quality faculty, and more importantly, retaining them, is a serious concern. A recent statement issued by a senior faculty member (who few years back used to claim that wants to bring in the best faculty) says that he has CV of individuals who are willing to teach at Rs.8K per month and all those who are not satisfied with the pay scale can leave the campus. To me, this is a serious crime and he should be taken into task by the high-ups.

7. The senior level courses whether it be Digital Communications, Microwave Engineering, and Wave Antenna & Propagation Theory etc. etc. are most of the time taught by graduates who are just a year senior to the graduating class. For God Sake, this is not an evening tuition center! I mean these are the courses which should only be taught by senior faculty members to broaden the horizon of students. To be very frank, I can quote that I never got an “F” from any Doctor or Senior Faculty Member. All the F’s that are sparkling on my transcript are the ones that I got from young faculty members and lab engineers.

8. You are bound to do Final Year Project under the faculty members and Industry Projects are discouraged. The faculty member who has just graduated 6 months back, how would he/she be able to guide you on an R&D Project as he possesses the similar knowledge as the students themselves. Moreover, the aim and vision of the FYP is mostly that it’s *DOABLE* and has lots of hardware associated so that FYP evaluation committee doesn't reject it. Thus, innovation is discouraged, projects are not continued and every year we see similar projects being done again and again as were done by their seniors.

9. Theoretical Courses like Satellite Communications are offered as elective whereas the university itself knows that Courses like Database System or Web Programming can enhance the technical skills of the graduate.

The list goes on and on and on. However, we should now realize that what’s done is done. We cannot right what’s been done to the already graduated lot. Perhaps, we can suggest solution and how can we help them out.

My Proposed Solution:

FAST-NU Lahore has one of the best human resource of the country available at a single campus. Whether you speak of business minds, IT and Engineering Geeks, you have it all here. The need is to channelize their potential and take it towards a goal which benefits all. I accept that Telecom Market is low due to the slump. However, we can establish a business incubation center which involves people from all domains. The recent graduates who are jobless or are working in small software houses should be called in to work on the Startups and Commercial Product Development. This can also help in improving the Industry-Academia relationship. This center of young enthusiasts and entrepreneurs should be supported by the NU administration with the facilitation of necessary funds and infrastructure development. Graduating students and juniors should be involved in this process too. For example, a mentor can be assigned to a group of people and if this group comes up with a commercial product by the end of the year this would be certainly more beneficial than doing a worthless non-commercial engineering project which would never be continued by the following batches.. This is one of the ways FAST-NU can distinguish its Engineering School & help the frustrated lot by supporting them in their respective endeavors.

These are my two cents on this topic.You can pen down your opinion in the comments section.

The fear of NO

2009-01-08T04:07:00.003+05:00

Having said that twice in my life and getting those big "NO" slaps in return, the heart doesn't feel like taking any more steps on this path. The 'NO" on this road shatters and ruins you down & its really really hard to get up and move forward. My self confidence went to an all time low.I converted from a social to an anti-social animal. However, its life.You have to move on and so did i.The good part is that you can now feel the pain of others which was unimaginable earlier.

I know i am pathetic at expressing my feelings in person.Thus no matter what i feel, I don't have the courage to stamp another "NO" on my heart.I don't want to decompose my body and soul again.Perhaps that's the fear which has kept me from saying that again.

A Productive Day

2009-01-08T04:00:00.002+05:00

I called up Sheraz Bhai and Jerry Bhai the other day in the evening.Both of them were unable to take my call.5 minutes with Irfan Bhai and Adil Bhai and a 20 minute chit chat with Salman has taken me one step forward.

Tuesday, January 6, 2008.What a productive day!

I've Learned

2008-11-22T15:25:00.002+05:00

Things that people like me have learned over the years have been beautifully jotted down by Omer B. Washington

I've learned that you cannot make someone love you.
All you can do is be someone who can be loved.
The rest is up to them.
I've learned that no matter how much I care,
some people just don't care back.
And it's not the end of the world.
I've learned that it takes years to build up trust,
and only seconds to destroy it.
I've learned that it's not what you have in your life,
but who you have in your life that counts.
I've learned that you can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes.
After that, you'd better know something.

I've learned that you shouldn't compare yourself
to the best others can do,
but to the best you can do.
I've learned that it's not what happens to people,
It's what they do about it.
I've learned that no matter how thin you slice it,
there are always two sides.
I've learned that you should always leave loved ones with loving words.
It may be the last time you see them.
I've learned that you can keep going
long after you think you can't.

I've learned that heroes are the people who do what has to be done
When it needs to be done
regardless of the consequences.
I've learned that there are people who love you dearly,
but just don't know how to show it.
I've learned that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry,
but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.
I've learned that true friendship continues to grow even over the longest distance.
Same goes for true love.
I've learned that just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to
doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

I've learned that no matter how good a friend is,
they're going to hurt you every once in a while
and you must forgive them for that.
I've learned that it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others.
Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.
I've learned that no matter how bad your heart is broken,
the world doesn't stop for your grief.
I've learned that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are,
but we are responsible for who we become.
I've learned that just because two people argue, it doesn't mean that they don't love each other.
And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.

I've learned that sometimes you have to put the individual
ahead of their actions.
I've learned that two people can look at the exact same thing
and see something totally different.
I've learned that no matter the consequences,
those who are honest with themselves get farther in life.
I've learned that your life can be changed in a matter of hours
by people who don't even know you.
I've learned that even when you think you have no more to give,
when a friend cries out to you,
you will find the strength to help.

I've learned that writing,
as well as talking,
can ease emotional pains.
I've learned that the people you care most about in life
are taken from you too soon.
I've learned that it's hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice
and not hurting people's feelings and standing up for what you believe.
I've learned to love
and be loved.
I've learned...

Me & My Fluffies

2008-11-19T20:15:00.010+05:00

As far back as I can remember, I was afraid of cats. Those fluffy little things that millions adore. But I was terrified of them. Their presence caused me absolute terror.But God gave me these wonderful cats which came in my life four years back whom i have ignored throughout my college life, without even realizing how much caring they were. Fluffies, you might be mad at me for being such a bad and self-obsessed friend who has never been there for you.As you know, I was trapped somewhere and now i have set myself free.Today, i am there for my lovely dovely fluffy cats out there for all the talks and gossiping because you are the ones whom i eventually need in my life. Here's the modified version of Mr.Fluffy Cat's poem for my sweethearts.

Fluffy, the day you were on my life's board
From that moment on, you are the one I adore.
4 years of fond memories have passed,
My love for you will always last.

You are the best friend I have ever had,
You are always there for me when I am sad.
There is not much you ask in return,
Yet, from you, so much I learn.

You have taught me to laugh and smile,
To be sensitive to your meows when you haven't seen me in a while.
To realize that people like you too are family,
But most of all, to love what surrounds me.

I cannot imagine my life without you my friend,
But to think you will always be with me, I can not pretend.
We have an understanding between us that will never die,
Even after you must say goodbye.

You make my life so worthwhile,
Through your purrs you make me smile.
So let us give cheers,
Baby, its been great to spend some beautiful and meaningful years.

Love, Goofy!

Open Invitation to take part in the Global Entrepreneurship Day at NUCES Karachi.

2008-11-17T16:19:00.002+05:00

NUCES Karachi is holding a Global Entrepreneurship Day on November 19th, 2008 at the Auditorium of NUCES Karachi, Main Campus.

All students, faculty, staff, NUCES-Alumni, companies, colleges and other universities are welcomed & encouraged to attend the event.

Important:

Attendees external to NUCES should register themselves through sending an email to sami.ullah@nu.edu.pk, with the following details before Nov 18th, 2008, 2 p.m.

Name:
Designation (CEO, student, IBA-Alumni, HR Manager, Principal):
Organization/Company:
Contact number:

Note: If multiple members are coming from the same organization, their head can register via a single email with the list of people coming from that organization.

Type of Girls, you should avoid

2008-11-15T23:48:00.002+05:00

Someone sent me the following email.I am blogging his words as i know all my male friends out there would like to read such a thing.So, pardon girls for this highly chauvinist post ;)

In general, men are looking first for physical attraction at a woman. Many of them consider that if she is beautiful and well dressed, its the perfect partner they are looking for. But they don't know that behind this appearance its hiding something worst.

Maybe this happened to you too. After you began a relationship with her you found out that she is not exactly what you want and what you expect. She hurt you and dumped you when you last expected. Many men are chasing after a woman who lied them and used them. But, in order to stop this, you should know from the beginning which types of girls you should avoid for to not be hurt again.

Desperate girl

-it is the type of the girl who spend all her life laid out, looking for a perfect life, and suddenly she discover that she gets old and she doesn't get married yet because she hasn't met the perfect man for her
-she wants desperately to get married no matter who the guy is or what he does
-she is pressed by the time and is ready to marry with a jerk as long as he has marriage material
-watch out because if you marry one of this, you have to spend the rest of your life with her

Materialistic girl

-usually is good looking and well dressed
-is looking very well outside but inside it is a bunch of money hungry taker
-she is looking all the time after boys which are staying very well with their wallet
-she expects that a man should finance her entire life just because she is biologically female
-she is very friendly, nice at the beginning but after some time you'll see that no matter how much you give her, she wants more
-she is greed personified
-she is interested only in what she wants and not others feelings
-stay away from this kind of girl because she will dumped you after she spend all your money

Angry girl

-she is the type of the girl which sees life like a battle
-anything what is happening or is told to her is seen as a insult at her address
-has also a bad opinion about man, sees only the wrong sides of a man
-she is always upset and angry
-usually she likes to take out of context everything what is said to her and to interpret the words like she wants
-you don't have any future with her, she has a simmering anger at men which can explode at any moment

Insecure girl

-she is very nice and treats men very well
-but she suffers by frustration
-is wracked by anxiety about making the wrong decision
-she has to think twice about what to do, what to wear, where to go, what to eat
-she needs constant reassurance that she's attractive and worries incessantly

Stupid girl

-this type of girl likes to speak a lot but she doesn't say nothing smart
-she likes to say always gossips about the others, but when you want to talk something important with her, she is not able to make conversation

Uptown girl

-she is very rich
-everything she has is better than yours and she wants to make sure that you know it
-she only dates the best of best
-is entirely focused on herself
-she is very selfish, self-indulgent grown up as '' daddy's little girl''
-needs to be constant center of attention no matter what she does or where she goes

Childish girl

-everything in life hurts this kind of girl
-is the type of girl who cries a lot, every innocent comment or criticism will upset her
-avoid this kind of girl because if you are dating one you will have to spend all the time apologizing even if you didn't make any mistake
-avoid also long term relationship with her because she is capable of suicide if you want to leave her and all the blame will be thrown on yourself

Elusive girl

-is the type of girl who is afraid to start a relationship
-she might be hurt in a past relationship and so subconsciously avoids or sabotages new relationships in the present
-she look interested at the beginning but after a while she runs away
-is the type of girl who likes to send mixed messages so you'll never understand her

Talking girl

-it is a big difference between somebody who is able to make good conversation and have sense of humor , and somebody who always have to make a comment about everything
-it is the type which is very hard to please and always has to say something about everything is happening or speaking around her

Romantic girl

-this lives in her own world, of movies and romance novels
-she is very dreamy, imagining things, expecting Prince Charming to come after her
-she doesn't know how the real world is
-she was grown with the idea that she is a princess

Dragger girl

-this kind of girl will always make you feel bad even there is no reason to feel that
-it is always worrying and she can never be happy, everything around her is a total drag
-even if a wonderful thing happen to you, she will make you feel like it was the worst thing that could happen ever

Controlling girl

-she likes to have the total control in your relationship and on you too
-wants to control you in everything you do, you wear or eat
-if you try to control her too, she will get angry, cry, scream or use any deceptive female tactic until you give up

Flirting girl

-she flirts with anybody and flaunt her sexuality at every opportunity
-has a big power of attraction
-exist the risk to dump you in any moment if somebody better comes along

With all these types of girls you should avoid, it is now more easy for you to make a good choice about your next girlfriend; but remember that not all the women are the same, maybe there is somewhere a good, carrying woman just for you

Evelop Design website re-launched

2008-11-13T17:06:00.004+05:00

We have launched a design-specific web presence for Evelop - Evelop Design. You can view the web on the following link

http://ww w.evelopit.com

Kindly provide your feedback on the revamped website.

Faiza Mujahid - Kahan Hoon Mein [Bandeya Girl - Khuda Ke Liye]

2008-11-13T05:09:00.004+05:00

Faiza, the bandeya girl suffers a relentless blow to her name and her talent, while the incorrigible Khawar Jawad enjoys his 2 minutes of fame, marketing Faiza's composition as his own. The masses know her as the Bandeya girl, but long before that, Faiza was already composing and that was when "Kahan Hoon Mein" happened. However, a business split resulted in a jilted Khawar releasing the composition as his own. In order to right the wrong, Faiza released the song this October. However, due to lax copyright rules in Pakistan, she might not be able to do much, while her song gets publicized, sold, mixed and remixed without her consent in other countries, all without single credit to and the link

http://allpakmusic.blogspot.com/2008/09/download-now-kahan-hoon-main-by-bandeya.html

for free downloading.

This may not reap any monetary benefits for Faiza, but will help in correcting a moral wrong. Stop Piracy. Download her song with HER name and more importantly, HER consent, from here.

Comments are also welcome at Faiza Mujahid's Page on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=29291241399&topic=5882&ref=mf

On the footsteps of Umair Moheet Khan

2008-11-08T20:22:00.009+05:00

When kids from 2007 and 2008 batch come up to me and say "Rafaeel Bhai, i have been inspired by your personality and want you to guide me", the only thing that comes to my mind is "WTF? Are they fools giving me such an honor? How can a highly unstable person like me help them out?" Perhaps, its not their fault.I have always looked up to my seniors as well but the culture was somewhat different at that moment of time. We have been like obedient siblings to our seniors.There used to be conflicts and few disagreements with them at some moment of time but the most important and beautiful thing was that we never let the disrespect come in between that.Nowadays, the attitude is that you have been paid to help the juniors and they have the right to insult you in campus or other public forums .Anyways, lets not deviate from what i should be writing here actually.

The person photographed above on the left hand side is also one of my mentors. I was a volunteer in IEEE WEEK 2004, when suddenly Waqas Bhai asked me that we need to do invitations for SOFTEC and you are in my team.I was reluctant to join as by that time i had made up my mind to work for IEEE and had no idea what SOFTEC was all about.Sohail Athar (Batch 2003) told me more about the scale of SOFTEC and i thought of giving "SOFTECing" a try.

I think it was late September 2004 when Waqas Bhai took me into the SOFTEC office for the first time.Those days it used be in the "A" (Now called 'M') Block, infront of Academic Office.This room is currently the "Accounts Office" of the university. It was there when i first saw this bulky dude giving instructions of setting up the office table, computers and other office equipment in place.By that time, i didn't know that he was the President of the society.Anyways, Waqas Bhai asked me to help Aemad in clearing up the mess and getting things right in the premises.That's how i started out my SOFTEC journey.

I spent like 9-10 fruitful months with this gang.But being the president of the society, Umair Bhai had been a true inspiration. After a discussion session with Nauman Bhai in Spring 2005, i planned that i'll go for SOFTEC as per the 'A' plan.I always had been following Umair Bhai and others to learn out maximum before they eventually leave the campus, after their graduation.

Though me and Umair Bhai have so many similarities but i wouldn't discuss them all because some people would raise objection of a long blog post :) . Quoting few, turning from smart dudes to fat asses during our stay in FAST-NU, being cry babies, volunteer to AVP to President, once in a blue moon asthma, deviation from technical undergraduate degree and various other things make us men from the same pathway. The biggest similarity which has made me write this post is something that i don't want to share at this moment of time but that is surely something exciting which i would share with Umair Bhai personally some time.

Coming back, Umair Bhai forgot about SOFTEC last year and he didn't even realize that one of his kids is striving hard out there struggling to pull of an event under crucial circumstances. However, i think this is somewhat personal and i think one is not bound to be there for you as he/she has other tasks in life other than helping out people at FAST.

After graudation, Umair Bhai opened up a company called "Gambittech". I planned the next day that i'll be going the same way.However, few months later Umair Bhai abandoned the project and moved to Mantaq Systems.

Currently, i plan to do a startup right after my graduation.There are dozens of people out there who are saying "You'll fail like Umair Moheet! because when you graduate , you think you are ready to take on the world but in reality you even lack basic work ethics. See the example of Sharjeel, Adil and Yaser.They have worked for 2-3 years before starting their own successful venture."

But, "What Roofi is a Roofi who can listen to anybody" ;). I am not afraid of falling down because i know i would atleast learn out of it as in the case of my past bad experiences.

"Please, don't stop me! I want to play this game! Let me follow the footsteps of Umair Moheet Khan! May be there is a light in this tunnel this time over."

My Celebrity Look-alikes

2008-11-04T21:52:00.003+05:00

I just ran face recognition software on some of my pictures.Find below the resulting collage and morphs. ;)

"I Beautify Lahore"

2008-11-02T13:24:00.003+05:00

On Sunday, 26th October 2008, i took part in the "I Beautify Lahore" campaign with my FAST-NU colleagues which was arranged by Samaa TV , Ankahi and Loose Ends Pakistan.It was great to do a community service project and give out the message that together we can "make a difference".

After the whole exercise, what i realized was that we need to change the basic human attitudes in Pakistan first.If we manage to do that somehow, nobody can stop us in becoming a developed nation.

The sad part was that none of those lawyer movement supporters and other student committees turned up raising slogans "Hum Mulk SAJANAY Niklay Hain, Aao Hamaray Saath Chalo".

Anyways, i would like to thank Sir Faisal, Ma'am Reema, Adnan Bhai and the rest of the Loose Ends Pakistan team for providing us a wonderful opportunity to express the tiny patriotism left inside us.

Cleaning up the real filth

2008-10-25T05:37:00.010+06:00

If you follow Mr. Faisal Qureshi at the Television Networks, I would prefer that you stop reading this post further. If you have been a big fan of his “Youth Responsibility” talks, I would request you to please click the “close” button and navigate away immediately.

Whenever Sir Faisal, Ma’am Reema and Mr. Adnan Maqbool team up for a show in Lahore, I try my best to attend the talk hoping to listen something new. But this

“Youth Responsibility” “Youth Responsibility” “Youth Responsibility” “Youth Responsibility”

always ends up on not littering, driving lessons and what not.Ok fine, we are uncivilized citizens living in a jungle but is this the only responsibility we have as a nation?

On 23^rd October 2008, while sitting on a comfortable chair of the FAST-National University, Lahore Campus’s Faculty Meeting Room at 7:00 p.m. with representatives of 3 top event management companies and one of the socially conscious CEO of our motherland, I was thinking something and wondering if Sir Faisal has ever wondered why people like me come again and again to listen to him. I wish it would be have been great if i would have attended sessions of Ms.Marryam Chaudhry (M.D., Corporate Communications) instead who was just sitting right opposite to me.

People like me know Sir Faisal as C.E.O. of Kolachi Advanced Technologies, Managing Director of Blue Ice Technologies and nonetheless as one of the successful entrepreneurs in Pakistan. We, the engineers, computer scientists and business administration students look up to him as a mentor but he has other issues at his hand to take care of. He wants to tell this educated minority that they have created all the mess and they should be ashamed of it. What about the majority that is creating all the fuss?

I know i am an animal but I do not smoke, I don't eat "PAAN" and we are the minor crime partners in all what he has been blaming us for. We are not the targeted audience. Sir Faisal is lecturing those people who'll eventually leave this country and his efforts and time would go to waste. Perhaps if I come to the point straight, Sir Faisal is also a partner in making people leave the country because being the head of 2 technology companies, he never lectured multinational and his colleagues about the "Corporate Social Responsibility".

Does "Corporate Social Responsibility" only means that you have to donate to Edhi Foundation, fund ads of Fatmid and other NGOs.No Sir No! I don't know Sir Faisal's view point on CSR but all i know is that none of these CEO's have ever done any serious effort in retaining the youth within this country because they too are SELFISH. Though i am exactly half of his age at this moment of time, but i have been through the CSR policies of all major Telcos, Multinationals, Banks, Software Houses and Engineering Firms."Educate A Child" programmes and what not? But what about the people who as per their college or university degree are considered as "educated".

Few reasons that why educated lot moves out of the country and becomes "parasites”. The amount of money these graduate students take home after all the hard work, bills and related taxes is peanuts. Government takes income tax and what not but fails to provide medical and other facilities which are normal outside the Pakistani territory. Same is the case with the corporate sector. These engineers and technicians are offered about $5000-$9000 salary with all other facilities outside the country and thus they move out for a good future because eventually they have to support their existing family members as well as raise their own family.

"Cleaning Walls" would be of what use to most of us? Lets take Pakistan as a wall of height 20 ft..Considering that i am 6 ft. tall, without a ladder I would only be able to reach the max height of 7 ft. At that 15-20 ft. height, our leadership and future leaders who are currently being educated at Cambridge and Oxford would come and would throw paint balls to spoil what i have cleaned. They'll drop black paint from that height and this would eventually affect the wall that i have cleaned up till 7 ft. All of us know that children of these "OWNERS OF PAKISTAN" would come after getting foreign degrees and would be made the Ministers. Pakistanis have been made to understand that these are your limits and we are the land lords. You are peasants so never ever try crossing us if you want to live here else you are welcome to move to the other land.

Why don't these CEOs show some social responsibility in making "Leaders". Making the youth stand against those forces who'll come from outside and start ruling us. Have they ever tried contributing for an Innovation, development of Incubation Centers or Social Services Centre for the nation to contribute back? At least people like us can develop products and solutions in order to make the life better for the people of Pakistan. We can commit 3 hours a day for developing technologies that could help Pakistani public.CAP (Citizens Archive of Pakistan) as he covered in one of his programs is doing a similar job. If this is done, the youth would take ownership of these community projects or I would say one day taking my kids around the city i would say "We developed Traffic Solution for this area which was funded by some ABC Software Solutions and XYZ Engineering Firm and then we eventually gifted it to the Government of Pakistan".

However, if you'll go to these socially responsible organizations and ask for sponsorship in terms of Drama, Concert or Fashion Show, from Brand Managers to Marketing Managers to CEO's everybody would be interested to pour everything for partying. But why they hesitate in contributing to projects that add to the development of society and the young educated lot?

I have been attending Startup Insider sessions of P@SHA and other organizations. I would also like to acknowledge their efforts of developing the entrepreneurial germs inside me. The speakers who are mostly CEOs would encourage you to be entrepreneurs, do something mind blowing but after these sessions whenever some of them are contacted to help in setting up the own company or proper mentoring, they'll show you cold shoulder or would want you to develop the idea for them which they'll eventually sell out as their organization's product. We are producing 8000 engineers a year whereas India is producing 500,000 engineers a year and all the educational institutes and organization there term it as their social responsibility to place these students in the right organizations. Mostly the organizations select their targeted talent in his/her 3rd year at the undergraduate school and start working on them. Here, its been 6 months and most of my batch mates having sound knowledge of Telecom Engineering are helpless and jobless.T hey are ready to work free for organizations but no one wants them to even enter their premises as they don't have any "reference". If they try to do a start up, nobody is there to help them financially and morally. One of my friends who never wanted to leave this country even if he would have got minimal pay, had to move out because of the HR managers of these top multinationals and "socially responsible" organizations. What he said to me before his departure was "Rafaeel! Friend, I always wanted to clean up this whole dirty car (Pakistan) but they didn't even let me wash the tyres. My father has retired and we both have found jobs outside the country and I am relocating just because they don't put faith in me. I would even advise you to relocate because at least they give us the opportunity to earn bread and butter." His words seriously made me weep that day.

All my seniors took education from here and now working in big giants like Microsoft, Google, IBM and what not. Today, i think they made the right decision for themselves, their families and the country because people like Sir Faisal never came to an institute saying

"Son! If you have got that fire and spark inside you, I would mentor you in setting up your own firm and making a difference"

He's a techy guy but his organization perhaps never felt it necessary to take responsibility of few students and develop them as leaders. Here, I would like to appreciate those institute professors like Dr. Umar Saif (SCI) and NUST's Technology Incubation Centre director who are more socially responsible than the CEOs of these Socially Responsible Firms in Pakistan.

Did Ma'am Reema and the other partners from her company ever thought about instructing some FREE courses for the "Management Students"?

Did Adnan Bhai ever open himself to mentor students who want to know about TV Production?

The answer would be perhaps "NO" because all of us seem to be very busy and selfish. We would never ever want a kid of today to bring his/her own firm and enter the competition. This is how much socially responsible we are.

Profile: Evelop Solutions Inc.

2008-10-22T11:57:00.005+06:00

Evelop provides an extensive range of design and development services. An atmosphere of creativity blooms at Evelop where every viewpoint is heard and brainstorming sessions result in innovative perspectives. Every project is tackled on an individual basis from scratch tailored to what the customer requires.

Design Projects are taken from the first step of understanding what the client is looking for the final delivery of design tailored to revised according to what the client is 100% satisfied with. Quick Mocks are a trademark at Evelop where we realize how urgent projects can be and how quickly clients need to make up their mind.

Communication is the core of our business strategy. Whether its IM, Private Messaging Board or Email Communication, we are in contact 24/7 through one medium or another. It is our vision to be a completely client-driven enterprise.

The development services are extensive. With a core strength in Information Systems and Business Process Optimization Software ranging from Customer Relationship Manager, Enterprise Resource Planner to Management Information System, Supply Chain Management System. Our understanding is not just limited to the technical implementation of these software but, as our proposals will showcase, our skills are excellent in the literature based understanding of these platforms making us an excellent firm to opt for. It is this understanding that allows us to be a consultant firm as well, one that can drive you through the whole process of automating your processes, increasing your ROI and optimizing your life cycle.

We thoroughly enjoy Web Projects. Ranging from the simplest implementation of an E-Commerce Solution to complex Web 2.0 Applications, we thrive on providing value to these solutions. Increasing your business intelligence through the provision of high end data mining abilities in your solutions, our services are meant to strengthen your understanding of your future.

Our development team has experience in

• .NET • ASP • Ajax • C/C++ • CMS • CSS • Cold Fusion • Data Entry • Delphi • Flash • Graphic Design • Handheld • JSP • Java • Javascript • LDAP • Links • MS Access • MS SQL • Marketing • Multimedia • MySQL • Oracle • PHP • Perl/CGI • PostgreSQL • Python • SQL • Script Installation • Search Engine Optimization • Security • System Administration • Translation • Visual Basic • Website Design • Wordpress • Writing • XHTML • XML • mSQL

Come to us and allow us to Evelop your solutions.

For further details, contact

Evelop Solutions Inc.

15-R, Model Town, Lahore.Pakistan

Office Phone: 042-6133985

E-Mail: info@evelopit.com

Web: http://www.evelopit.com/

What Roofi never wanted - Part I

2008-10-20T16:25:00.004+06:00

Today, i am writing something that might relate to Burhan Bhai's post "What Farid never wanted"

August 2004 till present, i associate myself to this institute called "FAST-National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences" . Batch 2001* is what i call my mentor batch.

* (Every Junior Batch considers their final year the best batch and their first SOFTEC as the "Best SOFTEC".That's a fact)

Batch 2001 and partially 2002 have mentored me to the present "Rafaeel".Tribute to senior batches is over due but that would come on this blog on a later stage.But on a short note, these are the people who taught me how to deal the world and most importantly developed "sense of ownership for the Alma Mater" and contributing back to the institute.

It was early 2005 when Burhan & Nauman Bhai said to me "Roofi, Be Selfish!".Though, I realized the true meanings of these words at a much later stage but i kept wondering

"Why Burhan Bhai said so?".
"Isn't he the nice guy that we all know of or he's another politician out there?"

Lets fast forward this story uptil the year 2007.Til now, apart from other stuff i got to know one thing that seniors surely know much more than us.Moreover, some incidents took place during these years which made me firm that i would never contribute back to this institute no matter what.

[Continued...]

What i have to say to my first love?

2008-10-14T19:33:00.003+06:00

Perhaps the Ainslie Henderson's song explains all the feelings that i have hidden in there.Frankly, sometimes i act as an optimist and think that every thing happens for good.So after a long struggle, i have now moved on wishing her the very best in her life.I sincerely pray that she gets whatever she wishes in her life :)

Keep Me A Secret

I'm trying not to feel you but
you just brushed by
and if you dare to cross that line you know
my toes will step on fire

ohhh sizzle when its face on face
and skin on skin
i'm trying to keep you out and i'm trying to keep me in

100 million eyes behind these walls
watching ya, hearing ya, knowning ya

keep me a secret, keep me out your arms
keep my kisses off your lipstick
stop me swallowing your charms
keep yourself a secret, lock up all your doors
i'll keep you out of my dreams just you keep me out of yours

i needn't not to notice you but
you unwrap my eyes
and don't let embraces linger try to keep our arms untied
see there you go again
you're making me mad
cos i'm drawn to this danger ohhh
and its making me mad

100 million reasons to ignore
wanting to be with you

100 million eyes behind these walls
watchin ya hearing ya knowing ya

all im asking
is for nothing
and if nothing is enough for you
ohh leave it i said keep me inside your head
under your breath

The First Love

2008-10-14T19:01:00.003+06:00

When you have it for the first time, you think you've got what you have always wanted.The feeling is inexpressible.The whole world seems beautiful.But when you are out of it, you roll off like a fish out of the water.Same happened with me.

SOFTEC 2008 Closing Ceremony Speech

2008-10-04T08:55:00.004+06:00

SOFTEC 2008 Closing Ceremony (Evening, August 31, 2008)

“The winds of change are in the air. The future becomes reality in the blink of an eye, as quickly as the reality of today becomes history. Never before has the pace of technological advancement been so rapid, and never before has it offered so much in so little time.”

Respected faculty, Chief Guest, sponsors, participants, ladies and Gentlemen,

Assalam-o-Alaikum!

I stand before you today as President of SOFTEC 2008, hardened by a thousand tough decisions, having faced hardship, toil, and the constant threat of event cancellation. A long way indeed from how I started out. In 2004 I started as a volunteer in the first international SOFTEC. It was a rigorous and fitting initiation for what was to come later. We volunteers (like these) stood there terrified as a larger than life Belal Hashmi proceeded to drill into us the numerous merits and benefits of being a part of the SOFTEC society. I remember even now that he managed to communicate to us what a privilege and honour it was to serve SOFTEC.

Fast forward four years. I was handed over the team, and I took over with the idealistic belief that things would start getting done automatically as soon as I take charge of the office. I could not have been more wrong. The first piece of news imparted to me as SOFTEC President that Mr. Belal Hashmi, a constant in all the previous SOFTECs and without whose guidance, help and support none of these events would have been possible, would be stepping down as society advisor. It took me the grand total of 72 hours to realize what a huge blow that was to SOFTEC 2008 and the university in general. Hurdles were encountered at every turn, hurdles that were so smoothly handled by Mr. Belal Hashmi with such complete control, were turned into obstacles and obstacles into obstructions. And that was just the beginning. The political situation in the country continued to deteriorate, with security becoming more and more of an issue every day. I think it would be folly to turn a blind eye to events in the country and pretend that they did not affect us. A substantial amount of sponsorship which is provided by the Government of Punjab to SOFTEC was not received this time due to the political instability in the country. A number of other sponsors were also reluctant to be involved. As recently as last Thursday the event was at the threshold of cancellation. But I would like to give special thanks to REDMATH’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr.Raja Akbar Hassan who understood and acknowledged the efforts put in by the students for this largest student run event in Pakistan.He has been a true inspiration.I salute you Sir!

I would also like to thank PTCL’s GM Consumer Services, Mr.Irfan Chaudhry and Manager Mr.Hassan Zafar.Gratitude goes to Mr.Faizan Mubarak and Mr.Shahid Latif at GEO Television Network, Ms.Saadia & Mr.Imran Bhatti of The News and Mr.Sarfraz Niazi of FM91 as well as Mr.Farid Sabri of Sabri Stores without whose help it certainly would not have been possible to hold this event.

Bao Jee is an engineer. Thus, he conducted as many “stress tests” as he could in order to test the capabilities of his product called “THE PRESSEDENT”. Fortunately, I was able to survive most of them.SOFTEC 2008 was planned to give a befitting tribute and farewell to Sir Belal Hashmi but unfortunately due to shortage of funds, I could only implement 35% of my initial plan for the event. I take this opportunity to announce that with the consent of alumni and faculty advisors, SOFTEC’s famous programming competition has been renamed as the “Belal Hashmi Programming Competition” in order to acknowledge the services of this Guardian Angel to the SOFTEC Society for the last 13 years.

SOFTEC Society in collaboration with Student’s Blog is also announcing 3 scholarships of 1500, 1000 and 500 pounds respectively in order to support the higher education of students intending to continue their education in United Kingdom. Lucky draw was conducted for the registered students at the Student’s Blog stall

The lucky students selected after the draw are

1) For 1500 GBP-> Mr. Iftikhar Malik (Lahore School of Economics)

2) For 1000 GBP-> Mr.Salik Nadeem (Garrison)

3) For 500 GBP-> Ms.Maimoona Shehzadi (FAST-Lahore)

I congratulate all the winners of this lucky draw. Student’s Blog Team would contact you shortly.

Managing an event of such magnitude throws pressures of its own. While this pressure is extremely challenging and motivates us all to give our best, there have doubtless been occasions when this pressure might have been taken out on the wrong person or things might have been said that were not meant to be said. I would like to apologize for anything that I might have said or done in the heat of the moment that may have offended anyone. None of it was personally directed towards anyone, and it was all due to the pressures of organizing an event like SOFTEC.

A successful event can never be hosted without a dedicated team working tirelessly behind the scenes. When SOFTEC was originally postponed, much of the final year team resigned. It seemed at the time that canceling the event entirely was a better alternative, seeing that most of the batch would have graduated by the time SOFTEC finally came around. It is at this point that I would like to offer my sincerest thanks to my entire batch mates especially Associate Vice President, Salman Ahmad. Had he not shown the strength of character and determination in the face of disappointment, the whole event would have come down like a house of cards. The Vice Presidents, Bilal Munir, Abeer Hamid and especially Rabia Mohyuddin were instrumental in pulling together all aspects of SOFTEC.

Two sweet batch mates who’ll always remember me as an “animal” for the rest of their lives are the Manager, Marketing & Branding Noaman Azhar and Manager, Software House Enclosure Maria Batool who have been always there for me. Always listened to my crap. Banged their heads in every nook and corner of the region to get the finances for the event. I would like to appreciate what they have done for me and SOFTEC 2008 under such critical circumstances.

Moreover, I would like to personally thank all the volunteers and team members who have done the re-setup of the event 4 times since yesterday afternoon due to the bad weather conditions. Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like you to give a round of applause to these young dedicated volunteers who have spent sleepless nights in preparation for this event and are looking after the security and management of all the respected guests and visitors since last 48 hours.

I would also like to thank my parents especially my mother for being so understanding about my being out of the house for days on end, our Director, Dr. Arshad Hussain for his continued support, our faculty advisor Mr. Aurangzeb, Mr. Agha Ali Raza, and last but definitely not the least, Dr.Imtiaz Tarique, who was the guiding force in the end when all hope had been lost. I would also like to appreciate the efforts of the FAST-National University’s administration for assisting us in hosting this event, and their dedication to the cause was clear the way they fixed the broken underground power line by working day and night to have it repaired in time for the competition.

Many times during this journey, I was pushed and blackmailed on the personal front for taking stand as the SOFTEC President. I thank the Almighty Allah for keeping me steadfast during this course. My believe in the Allah has strengthened in last few months so much so that I am now a firm believer that everything good or bad happens for a reason.

There were some reservations from the junior batch that they would not be given the opportunity to organize SOFTEC. I would like to assure them that they will certainly be hosting SOFTEC, and very soon the new executive body of SOFTEC 2009 will be announced. I sincerely hope that by the time SOFTEC 2009 comes around, the situation in the country would have improved, and the new team will be able to put on an even bigger, better and more well organized event than SOFTEC 2008!

Thank You!

SOFTEC 2008 Opening Ceremony Speech

2008-10-04T08:38:00.003+06:00

There were lots of RSVP smsz on the event day.Some of the friends were out of the country.Some in different cities of this beloved land and yeah some lot was busy in their daily routine work.Moreover, SOFTEC 2008 team members were also busy organizing their respective events.They were anxious to know what i spoke at the Opening and the Closing Ceremony and whether i fired harsh words at the FAST-NU Administration or not :) .Thus, i am reproducing my opening and closing ceremony speeches for them.

____________________________________________________________________

SOFTEC 2008 Opening Ceremony (Morning, August 30, 2008)

“Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time”

Honourable Chief Guest, Director, Faculty, participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Assalam-o-Alaikum!

I would like to welcome you all to the 4th international and 13th annual SOFTware Exhibition and Competition, PTCL SOFTEC 2008! Progressing from a small, national competition to mega international event for people of all ages, SOFTEC over the years has evolved into a platform for some of the most creative minds of the country, and in recent years, the world. In this respect, SOFTEC 2008 aims to eclipse previous years’ events by reaching new standards of excellence, creativity and hospitality.

The world today is changing around us. We are dependent on technology in ways we don’t even realize. Machines have pervaded our lives to such an extent that it is impossible to imagine life without them. As the world shrinks around us, information travels around the world at ever increasing rates. The role of Information Technology takes on ever greater significance, and it is fitting that the leading I.T. University in the country plays host to the largest technological event in the country.

When my team and I were handed over the society, work on SOFTEC 2008 began in earnest. Dreams were dreamt, plans were made and a general air of enthusiasm existed which was evident for all to see in the way the entire team set about their tasks with zest. But it is a sign of the fragility of our times that postponements and the threat of cancellation became the norm. Security threats were all around, with a general air of uncertainty existing that hindered attempts to pull the event together. Participants were afraid of traveling, sponsors were being cautious and there was an overall resistance to SOFTEC 2008 being held in such an atmosphere. The future looked dark for SOFTEC.

But it is the hour before dawn that the night seems darkest. And so it was for SOFTEC. Just when it seemed that all hope was lost and cancellation seemed the most likely possibility, decisions were made. Resignations were given, appointments were made, and it was decided that the show must go on. That was the time that team members stood up to be counted. Jobs, commitments and classes – all went along with preparations for SOFTEC, and when I tell you that the campus was only handed over to the management team at 8 P.M. last night, you will soon see for yourself the stupendous effort that has gone into preparing this event.

It is here then that I would like to offer my deepest and sincerest thanks to all those team members who quite literally burned the midnight oil in preparation for this event. I would like to thank our Event Partners [PTCL & PITB] Media Partners [Geo, Jang Group of Newspapers, FM91], Redmath and all other sponsors, the participants, and in particular the administration, without whose support it would not have been possible to organize such an extravaganza.

I am also thankful to the High Commission of Pakistan in India & Bangladesh as well the Embassy of Pakistan in Iran for issuing visas to our student delegates.

A little on the theme for this year’s SOFTEC before I end. Innovation is the heart and soul of every idea, every person that plans to be a success. The need to be something different, to do something totally original, to stray from the beaten track – that is the vision for SOFTEC 2008. Who knows, a decade on it might be one of the ideas you see here that will revolutionize the world. Thus it is not about winning – it is about dreaming, daring to try, that matters here at SOFTEC. Come, join us in inspiring innovation at SOFTEC 2008!

Thank You!

Story of the Cute Model!

2008-09-27T02:12:00.009+06:00

TML clipboard
Most of you especially all my female friends out there know that I have been a big fan of Sunita Marshall since last few years. I know most of you would say that what is so special in her. I would rather agree to your statement. Well, its all about "eyes" I guess. She seems to have so many hidden stories in her eyes. That's what makes her charismatic for me.
In April and May 2008, a news "Dhoom dharakka for Sunita" appeared in various newspapers. Many of my friends wanted to know more about her relationship status. I was busy, so I couldn't respond to all the emails and smses. So those of you, who don't know the history of this young, pretty and talented model cum actress, Sunita Marshall tied the knot with a co-model Hassan Ahmad. In fact, Hassan turned model & actor to work with her as he was the event manager and met Sunita at one of his shows.Isn't that sweet?

I would like to wish Sunita the very best with the marital life and pray that she achieves many more milestones in the coming years.
I am posting her mehndi, wedding and some other bridal pics for all the female readers out there because that's actually what they wanted me to do. :)
Work profile of Sunita follows the picture set. If you want to know any other thing from this fan, do send out an email.

Sunita Marshall Profile
Sunita Marshall (born 9th April,1982) is a Pakistani model.

Marshall was born in Lahore, Pakistan. Marshall was introduced into the modeling world by her aunt, Angie, who runs a famous beauty salon in Lahore. She made her first appearance in a Garnier Fructis commercial. After doing a few more commercials for hair products such as Pantene, Head and Shoulders and Kuene, Sunita disappeared from the world of television commercials.

Marshall made a come back as the Gul Ahmed new girl. Sunita Marshall was on every Gul Ahmed billboard and in every Gul Ahmed spread in all the magazines. This was enough for people to notice this new up and coming model who was before only known as the Fructis girl. After her contract ended with Gul Ahmed, Sunita decided to work with big fashion designers such as Deepak Perwani, HSY, Bunto Kazmi and Nilofer Shahid.

It really was not until Marhsall worked for Bunto Kazmi, that she received true fame. Sunita was chosen by Bunto Kazmi to model her clothes in 2000 for a Milan fashion show. For the first time Sunita received international fame and recognition and that did wonders for her. After a little international exposure, Sunita was brave enough to muster up the strength and submit her portfolio directly to fashion designers such as Dior and Gucci.

Sunita landed the job with Dior right away but it was not until a little while that Sunita started working for Gucci as well. Sunita opened Dior's show in Karachi and then in Dubai, London, Paris and Moscow.

Sunita Marshall's fame was further increased when she decided to star in Abaraul Haq's music video Preeto (Pretty). After her first success Sunita decided to star in the music video for the Shehzad Roy song "Jana". Sunita also decided to try her hand at acting and started off by doing a television movie called Tere Bina (without you) in which she played a young spoiled girl who elopes with her boyfriend and then later learns about the responsibilities of marriage. After that Sunita Marshall got to play the lead in the very successful television drama Malika in which she plays a Fashion Model/Actress who gets ahead of her friend in show business.

Marshall has worked with countless famous Pakistani designers and has had contracts with many big companies such as LUX, Revlon, Jazz, Mobilink, and Sunsilk. Sunita has also been offered to act in Indian Films but since most Indian Films are musicals, Sunita turned them down and in an interview on the famous talk show Bushra Bushra, she revealed that she is interested in doing more serious work.

Finally It Happened!

2008-09-04T14:06:00.003+06:00

Slideshow of SOFTEC 2008 events.

Khuddi

2008-07-03T22:25:00.000+06:00

These days I am reading Iqbal & especially the concept of “Khuddi”. Thought of sharing some stuff that I read on the web.

Concept of Self Respect

*. Nigah-e-faqr main shaan-e-sikandari kya hai?

Khiraaj ki jo gada ho, wo qaiseri kya hai?

Falaq nay ki hai ata un ko khaajgi kay jinhain

Khabar nahin rawish-e-banda parwari kya hai?

Kissey nahin hai tamanna-e-sarwari lekin

Khudi ki mout ho jis main, wo sarwari kya hai?

Buton say tujh ko umeedain, Khuda say no meedi

Mujhey bata tou sahi aur kaafri kya hai?

(Meanings: Nigah-e-Faqr main shan-e-sikandari kya hai = What is the worth of kingdom in eyes of a saint?; Khiraj ki jo gada ho, wo qeseri kya hai = Such a rule in which ruler is always worried about keeping it secure, is worthless; Falaq = Nature; Khaajgi = Ruling class; Khabar nahin = Ignored; rawish-e-banda parwari = Sense of serving humanity; tamanna-e-sarwari = Desires to rule; Khudi ki mout ho jis main wo sarwari kya hai = Such rule is insulting to gain which, self respect is required to be sacrificed; Buton = Idols (referring to fellow human beings here); umeedain = Expectations; no meedi = Disappointment; Kaafri = Non Muslim who donot believe in Oneness of God)

*. Aey Tair-e-Lahooti, uss rizq say mout achi

Jis rizq say aati ho, parwaz main kotahi

Aain-e-jawanmardi, haq goi-o-bay baaqi

Allah kay sheron ko, aati nahin rubaahi

(Meanings: Tair-e-Lahooti = Simile, addressing to Muslim youth; Rizq = food/income; Kotahi = Laziness, denotatively and connotatively referring to slavery here; Aain-e-Jawanmardi = Conditions to live with dignity; Haq goi = Honesty; Bay Baaqi = Bravery; Rubaahi = cunningness, hypocrisy)

*. Hai Fikr mujhey misra-e-saani ki zyada

Allah karey tujh ko ata Fuqr ki talwaar

Jo haath main ye talwaar bhi aa jayey tou Momin

Ya Khalid-e-Janbaaz hai, Ya Haider-e-Karrar

(Meanings: misra-e-saani = proceeding verse; Fuqr ki talwar = Strong Faith; Khalid-e-Janbaaz = Khalid Bin Waleed (May Allah be pleased with him); Haider-e-Karrar= Ali Ibn-e-Abu Talib (May Allah be pleased with him))

*. Wo kal kay gham-o-aish per kuch Haq nahin rakhta

Jo aaj khud afroz-o-jigar soz nahin hai

Wo qaum nahin laiq-e-hangama-e-farda

Jis qaum ki taqdeer main imroz nahin hai

(Meanings: gham-o-aish = thick n' thin; khud afroz-o-jigar soz = A person with motivation and determination; Laiq-e-hangama-e-farda = worthy to survive anymore; imroz = Present)

*. Paani paani ho gaya sun ker Qalander ki ye baat

Tu jhuka jab ghair key aagey, na tann tera na mann

Apney mann main dub kay pa ja suragh-e-zindagi

Tu agar mera nahi banta, na ban, apna tou bann

(Meanings: paani paani ho gaya = ashamed of oneself; Qalander = Saint; Ghair = Stranger (British here); tann and mann = Body and Soul; suragh-e-zindagi = Connotatively referring to secrets to live prestigious life)

*. Ho terey bayaban ki hawa tujh ko gawara

Iss dasht say behter hai na Dilli na Bukhara

Jis simt main chahey, sift-e-sal-e-rawan chal

Wadi ye hamari hai, wo sehra bhi hamara

Ghairat hai bari cheez jahan-e-tag-o-dou main

Pehnati hai derwaish ko taj-e-sir-e-dara

Afraad kay haathon main hai akwaam ki taqdeer

Her fard hai millat kau muqaddar ka sitara

Deen haath say dey ker agar azad ho millat

Hai aisi tijarat main Musalaman ka khasara

(Dr. Iqbal is addressing British here)

(Meanings: Bayaban = referring to Britain here; gawara = acceptable; dasht = Desert denotatively (India connotatively); Simt = Direction; sift-e-sal-e-rawan = Continuous flow; Wadi = Valley; Sehra = Desert; Ghairat = Self Respect; Jahan-e-tag-o-dou = World of struggle; Derwesh = begger here; Taj-e-sir-e-dara= Royal crown; Afraad = People; Akwaam = Nations; Fard = Individual; Millat = Nation; Muqaddar = destiny; Deen = Islam; Tijarat = Deal/Trade agreement; Khasara = Loss)

*. Kabhi aey, Naujawan Muslim! taddabur bhi kiya tu ney?

Wo kya gardon tha tu jis ka hai ik toota hua tara

Tujhey uss qaum nay pala hai aaghosh-e-mohabbat main

Kuchal dala tha jis nay paon main taaj-e-sir-e-dara

(Meanings: Taddabur = To think; Gardon = Sky (Simile, group of Prophet (PBUH) and his companions here); Qaum = Nation (Muslims here); Aaghosh-e-Mohabbat = Caring protection; Kuchal = Trample; Taj-e-sir-e-dara = Royal crown)

*. Hawa-e-byaban say hoti hai kaari

Jawanmard ki zarbat-e-ghaaziyanan

Paltna, jhapatna, jhapat kay palatna

Lahu garm rakhney ka hai ik bahana

Parindon ki duniya ka derwesh hon main

Kay shaheen banata nahin aashiyana

(Meanings: Hawa-e-byaban = Deserts (referring to challenging tasks here); Kaari = Influential; Jawanmard = Brave man; Zarbat-e-Ghaziana = Daring strike; Lahu = Blood; Bahana = Excuse; Derwesh = Saint; Shaheen = Falcon (Muslim youth here); Aashiyana = Permanent residence)

*. Utha mat khana-e-shesha-e-farang kay ihsaan

Sifaal-e-Hind say meena-o-jaam paida ker

Hazar chasshmey teri sang-e-rah say phootey

Khudi main doob kay zarb-e-kaleem paida ker

(Meanings: Khana-e-sheesha-e-farang = Referring to British here; Sifaal-e-Hind = Referring to former united India (sub contient) here; Meena-o-jaam = Referring to necessities of life here; Chasshmey = Denotatively means fountains but connotative meanings here, referring to obstacles; Sang-e-rah = Track/path; Phootey = Emergence; Zarb-e-Kaleem = Powerful Strike)

*. Nahin tera nash-e-mann kasr-e-sultani kay gumband per

Tu Shaheen hai basera ker paharon ki chatanon per

(Meanings: nash-e-mann = home; kasr-e-sultani = denotatively, it stands for royal palace but here, it means ease and laziness; Basera = Shelter; Chatanon = Rocks)

*. Aghyaar kay ufkaar-o-takhayyul ki gadai

Kya tujh ko nahin apni khudi tak bhi rasai?

(Meanings: Aghyaar = Referring to British; Ufkaar = Policies; Takhayyul = Theories; Gadai= to beg; rasai = access)

*. Khudi ko ker buland itna kay her taqdeer say pehley

Khuda bandey say khud poochey bata teri raza kya hai

*. Ghulami main na kaam aati hain shamsheerain, na tadbeerain

Jo ho shok-e-yaqeen paida tou cut jaati hain zanjeerain

Koi andaza ker sakta hai iss kay zor-e-bazu ka?

Nigha-e-mard-e-momin say badal jati hain taqdeerain

(Meanings: Ghulami = Slavery; Shamsheerain = Swords; Tadbeerain = Plannings; Shok-e-yaqeen = Sense of self respect; Zanjeerain = restraints; Andaza= Guess; Zor-e-Bazu= Strength; Nigah-e-Mard-e-Momin = Glare of a Muslim (connotatively referring to strength of a strong faith Muslim); Taqdeerain = Destiny)

Sweetheart Unveiled

2008-06-16T23:23:00.010+06:00

Since I have been bombarded with messages and queries that who this “sweetheart” was, I am attaching herewith some pictures to reveal the identity.

For rest of the details on Valentine Gift, ask Nauman Bhai himself :)

First Valentine Gift to My Sweetheart

2008-06-14T16:14:00.008+06:00

It all started in August, 2004 .The bond got pretty strong till October, 2004.Affection for each other was on its peak in December, 2004.Then came the February 14, 2005 and I finally said it all anonymously. I was identified & our relationship started deteriorating after that. I was ignored and neglected on various occasions. But I kept these pictures with me to cherish the great memories that we had together.

Sweetheart, I love you and would love you till my death. :P

You can’t run away from me :)

SOFTEC 2008 Team Reassembled

2008-06-14T16:00:00.002+06:00

We have resumed the SOFTEC 2008 work.Website & relevant documents are being updated at the moment.

I recently met P@SHA officials & am glad to let you know that P@SHA would be conducting an Entrepreneurship Show at SOFTEC 2008.Moreover, PASHA Starup Award would be given to the best starup company in the "StartITup", an enclosure for startup companies with their service domain related to technology.

For further details, keep visiting http://softec.org.pk/

Event Video Promo is also available at the SOFTEC 2008 Website.

What went wrong till now

2008-05-30T21:29:00.007+05:00

I welcome you to my place where you’ll find Doctors (Medical/Ph.D) except me. Since all the elder kids were on their perfect way, my parents might have thought that he'll make it too but unfortunately i couldn't. Or perhaps there has to be an exception in a family. It all started from the basic education. I was never good at English, Mathematics & Sciences but my parents still wanted me to take "Additional Mathematics" at O-Levels and opt for the engineering field. The same happened with my eldest brother who was forced to opt for medical though I think he would have been an Engineering/CS Guru if he chose any of these fields. But still he managed 2nd slot in King Edward's MBBS Final Prof Exams & doing good Mashallah. I had never been a straight A's guy but still managed to get away with O/A Level with average grades. Few A's, lotsa B's and some C's ain't that bad in my point of view. I thought my parents might let me opt for my choice of higher education but perhaps they needed an "Engineer" at their place. During A-Level, I got into some good Engineering Schools in U.K. but you pretty much know how much expensive they are for International students.

Luckily, I scored good in all the entry tests that I gave & made to some reputable engineering institutes in Pakistan like "Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute" etc. But since my father wanted to keep a check on me, he asked me to opt for the Lahore Campus of "FAST-NU" (A recognized CS institute which just started off its Telecommunication Engineering program).By then I was also of the view that Engineering is the right field for me so I didn't go for any BBA/NCA tests as I pretty much knew that it would be a waste of time & energy as my parents won't allow me to go for any of such degrees.

At FAST-NU, things went as expected. I was a very good student till first semester as there was nothing much to do but later the extra-curricular activities fascinated me so much that I forgot all about my purpose of coming to FAST-NU. Few days back the Batch Rep 2004 TE , Ahsan Hasan told me that only 16 out of the intake of 250 engineering students of our batch is graduating on time. Since the convocation is in July, most of us will now get degrees with the junior batch. So, I’ll push hard to get away with this engineering degree by the end of December somehow. May Allah be with me.

I always read my horoscope for fun. Pisces are Artistic, Creative, Musical, Romantic, Imaginative, Emotional and Sensitive people. At least, I agree with the statement. After coming to FAST & getting exposure to the world, I realized that management work, theme & campaign design, creative designing & film making were the actual things that fascinated me. But perhaps that was too late. Moreover, I wanted to complete this degree off for my parents.

I am really unsure what I’ll be doing after my graduation. Job, Masters, Switching Profession are all the possible options in front of me. All I know by now is that "Electrical Engineering" is not the right word for me. What do ya say? :)