ROOFExpress

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.

 
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. 

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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”

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

“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.