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.
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.
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.
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.
