Amazing People - Tahir Wafai

when i thought of writing about amazing people the first person who came to my mind was my father - tahir hussain wafai - he was amazing to me not only because he was my father but because of his love for books, reading and research and collection of different things!

we proudly say that we have got around 4000 book in our home - sort of a library of our own - most of the books in that library are collected by my father. he would spend thousands of rupees every month to buy books, magazines, dictionaries and what not!

the first book that he has retained was bought by him when he was 12 years old and since then there is no looking back. he also kept record of every book he bought. there is actually an index number written on every book that he bought and later when we started buying our own books, once a month he would sit down and ask us all to bring our books to be numbered. he bought books from everywhere - from the most prestigious bookstore to the second hand books sold on footpaths.

he also had deep love for our language - sindhi - he bought sindhi books thinking that if sindhis will not buy these books then no one will. so we have got two or three books from the same editions. he not only bought books but he was an avid reader as well. being an auditor he hardly stayed at one place, so he bought books and read them in buses and trains. the best quality was that he retained all the information that he read about. my mother called him walking encyclopedia in her book.

he also collected stamps, coins and quotes. one of his habits was to maintain the english language dictionary! we used to have that ferozsons dictionary, it was a basic dictionary, but as our class advanced our needs for more words increased. if he would read a new word in any newspaper, he would insert that word in that dictionary. then i asked him to buy me OALD, but this didn't stop him, he wrote allt hose words in a separate diary that i call - tahir wafai's own dictionary.

he encouraged us to buy books even, he would take us to book fair that was held in haiderabad every year and give us an allowance for buying books. he would remember the name of every book that anyone of us asked him to buy.and when he was posted in karachi, he would go for walks and if he saw a book about embroidery he would buy it for me and cooking for my sister, Archie comics for my brother and any other crafts books for my mom :D

brought up in poor circumstances, he never let go of his love for books, reading and stamp collection. he said that best investment is to buy books and spend time reading them. Amar Jaleel in one of his articles said that, "when people have money they don't have time to buy books and read them, and when they retire they have all the time to read books, but they don't have money to buy the books". so he bought books saying that when he''ll retire he would read them, but life did not give him enough time to finish all the books he bought.

another of his quality was his patience. he would listen to everyone and answer all the questions patiently. it was fun to talk to him. ask him about everything and he was able to discuss it. this quality is in very less people.

all in all my father was an amazing man. being from a middle class family and facing many problems during his childhood, he never let such things ruin his life or cause hindrance in his path of achieving things. he proved that if you are meant to be nothing would stop you .:)

i love you baba and i miss you!
Sugandh

What to write?

Sometimes there is nothing to talk about. and this generally happens when there is a lot to talk about. there are so many problems in this world that they leave you confusing and dumbfounded! but in reality, we all are confined in our own little worlds, too busy to think about big problems of the world because we think that we are unable to do anything anyway...

this has happen to me as well, i am so busy with trivial problems of my job and studies and hobbies that i don't even have  time to think of what is happening to the world or even to my country. i think that my responsibility ends when i listen to news bulletin. blissful ignorance.

i hope that things change in the coming year!

Sugandh

new things i did this year

2010 have not ended but i have done a lot of new things this year and it was fun!

this year i finally read 'to kill a mocking bird' and 'love in time of cholera'. two wonderful books i must say and amazing read. i was dazed even after days of reading 'to kill a mocking bird'

and i made my first ever baby blanket and completed the baby sweater and booties

i ate kiwi jam for the first time in my life 

i actually completed one year at a job and i taught 'geography' 

i maintained my blog pretty well and i knitted some lace.

i did a lot of shopping and bought and tasted nestle fruit yogurt!!! 

and i even tried new Vaseline body lotion and new perfumes.


 i shopped a lot and read a lot. i read 27 + books this year my best till date :D

i tried new wheat biscuits from peek freans and they were good 

 all in all 2010 was a wonderful year =)
Sugandh

Attitudes

kids in the school where i teach are very reluctant to pick up the trash and the wrappers that they have thrown on the ground, if i ask them to do that they instantly reply that i have not thrown it! so to encourage them to clean their school and to pick up any wrappers that they see lying around, i started picking it up myself. and i thought that it had a pretty good effect on the students.

sadly the dustbins are placed at very far away corners, instead of being in every corner. so i can't leave my duty, one day i collected all the wrappers and kept them in my hand, a teacher passed from their and passed a remark, 'kachray wali miss' [the teacher with trash!!!] and that was quite shocking.

**********************

people will not like you because you are beautiful or intelligent or rich, even though it is not ur fault that you are any of this. i always had problems because of my knowledge, i never had friends and few that i had were what you call 'fair weather friends'.

*************************************************

i attend a sunday class for B.Ed. the reputation of that class is that you are only supposed to get the certificate and thats about it. and you don't have to study because cheating is mostly allowed during such exams! and for some weird reason, i love to study and i do that and people get ' but you are attending off-campus, why study?'

***********************

things need to be changed

Sugandh

Theory of relativity by SW

:( :( :( [sad face bcz u might not agree with what i write :(]

i m a lazy person when it comes to keeping up with ppl... there are many reasons for that
i. i don't understand ppl in the first place!!! most of the times
ii. i don't agree with them rest of the time.....
iii. and they don't agree with me as well :(
iv. and i think that most of the ppl are double faced, cheats, liars and two timed scoundrels. and
v. i m very rude!!!!!!

and i don't really believe in long distance relations 'meri ammi ki khala ki nand ki beti ki jethani ki bahu ki bhanji' khuda ki pannah. as if i don't hv anything more interesting to do in life than to remember these ppl!!!!!

i believe that your only relatives are ppl who r near to ur heart and understand you and rest are just acquaintances. even if they are ur blood relatives. :)

Work is love made visible...

When i read this quote i instantly fell in love with it. the complete quote is 


"Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy."

~Kahlil Gibran

how true! i have experienced it time again and again that when someone loves you and they do something for you the result is outstanding, the love is made visible through that deed, no matter how small the task is. :)

for example i know someone who keep doing things mechanically and not enjoying at she should, the result being her work is just work done... without feeling and warmth and love.

if you cook food... u need your love for ppl ur cooking for as well as ur love for the cooking itself to make tasty food, or else u'll hv something to eat on table and nothing more. ever wonder y we all love our mother's food? bcz she puts a bit of love in it.

i made this quote my philosophy of my life, whatever i do i love it and if i can't love it after trying for sometime i leave the work [very reason for me leaving my various jobs]. jokingly i tell ppl that i don't do much bcz i don't love much! ;)

and in the end the faiz's poem "kuch ishq kia, kuch kaam kia" is the best example of scenario that is created bcz of lack of love

vo log bhut khush qismat thay

jo ishq ko kaam sanjhtay thay

ya kaam se aashqi karte thay

hum jeetay jee masroof rahay

kuch ishq kia kuch kaam kia

kaam ishq ke aaray aata raha

aur ishq se kaam uljhta raha

phir aakhir tung aakar hum nay

dono ko adhura chorr diya

The Yarn Ball

knitting is one of my hobbies... but it has changed ever since i started it... it has become an exercise to save me from hyper tension and bouts of depression that i can undergo.

Knitting for me has turned into a therapy and not just knitting but everything related to knitting is like a medicine to me. from yarn buying - to casting on - and knitting - purl knit purl knit - bind off - stitch and sew - all of these are medicine to me.

before i start knitting i have to make a yarn ball, the wool is available in the loose form that u can not directly knit from so i have to make a yarn ball that in itself is a great exercise in patience and reflection!!!

just imagine making a ball with a seven ounce yarn and u wind it around a paper or ur hand first and then the ball becomes bigger and bigger and u keep doing it... unable to stand as the yarn is around ur knees [if you get up it would get all tangled up] and sitting quietly thinking and doing what you are doing... keeping to the task silently...one get a lot of time to think about things that you otherwise not get a chance to think of.

just this evening i made a yarn ball with TV on but after sometime i lost track of what was on TV and started peering inside my own world. :)... thinking of what should i do to shed off the feeling of being burned out and ignored... of what i can do differently next time and how to clean up the mess that my procrastination has created around me...and after i finished making the yarn ball... i got up and started putting things in order .:)

Happy knitting

I Realize - then...

in one of my earlier posts i hv written that realization is the step towards change... now i had this conversation with a colleague and she said that our life is too complicated and we can simplify it. we r so much into worldly things that we hardly pay attention to Allah and Prophet (PBUH). she said, for exapmle if we start wearing an 'abbaya'  [a loose coat worn by Muslim women on clothes] we would save so much time that we spend fussing over clothes every morning!

i said ok, when u realize that why don't u do that! she said, i just don't have determination, what will ppl say and we have to fit in with the society.

after this i realized that 'realization is not always the first step towards change' :(

BURNT OUT...

I like being a teacher in my own particular way.

But management is always telling teachers what a good teacher is supposed to do ... I wonder who will going to tell them, how management is supposed to treat the teacher. In this country teacher is a meagerly paid, over burdened, ignored, humiliated and belittles creature. No matter where you teach, people will always end up saying, "but you have an easy job, you are a teacher." someone said, "we are in the business of people management."

Teachers should be considered a person as important as a scientist, a law maker and even a law keeper, because it is the teacher who is supposed to shape the nation's behavior. Someone suggested that teacher can take up to 28 periods a week and school management made sure that they all do. Over burdening them with substitution and extra duties. In turn the teachers does everything else except teaching and feeling burned out.

With the loads of workshops conducted by schools telling teachers how to be good, the result is zero.... the teachers still dislike being a teacher, having to go to classes, putting up with students, who don't even take you seriously and parents, who treat you like personal servants.

In one of the workshops, they told us about loads of things that we shouldn't do to our students, but there was not one suggestions about what to do when a certain situation arises.

Another point was a child's behavior is the reflection of the teacher's or parents' behavior; fine, being a teacher I am responsible for my behavior with the students, but how the hell I am responsible for parents' behavior at home? Gimme a break!!!!!! [mostly parents don't even listen to our advice at PTMs abt change of the behavior with the child]

"Write down a diary note", this the comment or suggestions that I hear when there is a problem, only to find out that all the diary notes were torn out by the student!!!!!

Then there is professionalism of fellow teachers. Topics, such as, management, planning, communication skills,training are good but no thanks, they are not working out. People - the helping staff - is often unprofessional and try to get personal. Procrastinating and lethargy prevails over them. They can come up with one thousand one reasons for not doing what they were told to do and at the end of the day emphasizing their importance!!!!!!

I don't think that I've a solution for any of these problems, they are just the problems.

One more irritating situation is the linguistic capabilities of the ... umm...everyone. Either we should be proud of the language that we speak or learn the language that we are required to speak at work. I always have problems with language skills of people. [ basically i hv a problem with ppl]. For example, during one of the training sessions, the trainer asked if anyone of us can define "icebreaker activities" and most people thought that activities used to end the boredom are the icebreakers activities!!!!! Worst is that they are not ready to learn even!

Treating parents and students as customers is one of the drawbacks of private schools. I know many teachers who want to own their students in their own personal way; but the management and the parents create hindrance in the process. Let me reassure everyone reading this, in no way a teacher is the enemy of the child, they love the children, and want their very best, but give them a break, stop telling them all the time, what to do and how to do!

Personally, I'll never treat my students like customers, because then I can never be honest with my profession. I might never be able to satisfy a customer, but as a teacher I do my best to satisfy my students.

Customer  is a tricky term to deal with and brings up the image of a hardcore corporate setting; but school brings up nice, warm image of teachers and children, formal yet friendly, neat with a lot of interaction taking place, let it be like this ... let the students be students and teachers be teachers. Don't turn students to customers and teachers into customer services personnels!!!! [i wanted to be a teacher... not a customer services officer]

So, the workshop on 'Customer Services' is useless for teachers. Instead the workshop on dealing with fussy parents and living up to the expectations of students would be more welcome and realistic.

and in the end i would like to request all the people in the school managements all over Pakistan that please treat your teachers with respect, care, love and affection. they run your schools 'businesses' and satisfy your 'customers'. they train your children to be good and successful citizens of the world society and achieve their targets... [which most ppl think that teachers failed to achieve]

and i like being teacher in my own casual way and i'll never do anything to become what they expect of me :P

Today's findings....

i wonder if any one of you felt disloyal when not learning?

i experienced it today. i went to attend a workshop in school. it was basically for maths teachers, but they always put computer teachers with the maths group... so there i was ready to get bored (or so i thought) and waste my time (as a precaution i took a copy of reader's digest with me)but suddenly i felt disloyal to learning!!!!!! i felt as if i was not doing what i was supposed to do there... so i started paying attention and found out these things.

* a circle touching all the sides of a triangle is called an inscribed circle
*to draw means that we do not need compass and
* we are ruled by coordinates (here i forgot spelling of coordinates and wrote it with 'Q' and then i remembered that it's written with 'C'.
*space and time are coordinates
*if you cease the motion of earth the times stops
*time is the flow of events
*quantum mechanics says that if events stop taking place, the time will stop.
* speed is the way through which we can get free from the gravitational force.
* if you are unable to identify all the atoms of hydrogen, then you can say that they are symmetrical with respect to each other.
*global symmetry
*local symmetry
* global means universal
* local means [trainer to forgot to mention this]
* in theory of relativity time will lose its global symmetry.
* twin paradox!!!!! [to lengthy to explain here simply story of two sisters, one moving with the speed of light and one in the normal earth's circumstances... time - a fraction for one and ages for others]
* before big bang time is considered to be zero.
* invariant means never change!!!!
*The zero time is called 'Max Plank Time'
* there are three types of symmetries...
1. Reflected 2. Translated. 3. Rotational
* reflected means inverted by negatives, but the resultant is same. example ur mirror image. [trainer forgot to explain other two!]
* periodic functions repeat themselves after an interval of time.
* sine is always odd.
* cosine is always even!!! [i thought it other way round]

so all this info might not be useful for me in practice because of the subject that i teach [information and communication technology] and the level i teach [4 and 5!] but i felt good after taking these notes. i felt back in my element! :) and in the end it wasn't as bad as i imagined it would be :)

teacher's day

i really wanted to write badly about my teachers today, but somehow i didn't get much time..so all i want to say is thank you teachers for giving me experiences that you gave me :) and when now i am a teacher myself, i realize how difficult it was to put up with me and all the questions that i had [and i still have]

:(

'rebelling' was such an interesting post, but due to some problem it was not published, khair i removed it... it was a lament about the new tax that government is imposing and the attitude of the government, and the minister saying that corruption is their right!!!!!!

now that pervaiz musharaf as well want pardon and jump in the active political scene, things are very confusing... i generally don't talk against the government, though i don't own it as well, [i never went to vote and caused my father to get angry with me!!!] because i believe that it's all for our best, but lately i don't see the point!!!!

help is all that i need.

QUESTIONS OF TODAY'S STUDENTS!!!!

a message for all my fellow teachers who thought that kids doesn't know a thing and please don't tell me that they are westerners and these things do not happen in Pakistan trust me they do :) kids know a lot more than you do please learn :) please, please, please...

Quality of Parenting

i have experienced that in recent years the quality of parenting has gone considerably down, but this fact got proved when i formally joined teaching. these days all parents are interested in are grades and marks, they don't appreciate the value of learning, the joy of learning or simply the experience of learning.

i remember watching 5 minutes cartoon on TV in the morning (7:05 on PTV morning show with chacha jee) and 5 minutes in the evening and that was that, the first gift that i remember that my father got me was a box of color pencils, and we had books, loads of them and then he got us audio cassettes of stories and nursery rhymes. i remember going to parks and book fairs with my parents and siblings, but these things just don't happen today! the gift means an automated car, an expensive bag or dool or something and outing means a trip to restaurant!!!

as the prices of presents went up, so did the expectations. a parent was boasting to me that his child studies 16 hours a day and he got three different tutors come to his place to teaching him different things and on PC he is only allowed to access encyclopedias!!!!!!!! and that kid was rebellious in class, all he wanted to do was talk and talk and talk, not the fault of poor child! he was simply deprived of simple pleasures of childhood.

Second thing that has gone down is the quality of food that parents give to their kids. i remember having to eat cauliflowers and turnips and fish and occasionally a burger and French fries. we used to take home made lunch to school and we never got any money to buy stuff on our own. my mother used to keep candies and cookies at home and we had our quota fixed of them every day [one candy and two cookies]. but now parents would buy their kids pizzas and McDonald's and KFC's food as regularly as possible, not taking care of the amount of calories that kids need or the nutrition!!!! in turn making their kids fat and unhealthy. and the reason for doing this is...we can afford the stuff [in Pakistan, Pizzahut, McDonald's and KFC are considered to be for rich]

just today other teachers in staff room were discussing a problem child who sleeps in the classroom, not for the first two or three periods but the complete school day!!!!! despite a note sent to the parents and a meeting called to convince parents to put their child to be early, there was no response!!!! Mothers love staying up late to watch all the Indian saas bahu soap operas neglecting their child's need of sleep of 9 to 11 hours. just where this will take those poor kids. second thing this habit does to these kids is damaging their language and ruining their innocence and fantasy. God forbid, i'll never ever allow my own child to watch these dramas because of the language they use and the scenes they show and things they talk about [Allah ki pannah!!!]

all in all the conclusion is that parents are ruining the future of their children, they might grow up to be good doctors or engineers but they will never become good citizens and kids if  parents will not put their sincere effort into bringing up their children. sending kids to a big and fancy school is not enough, a child is the mutual responsibility of teacher and parents!!!!!

confusion unlimited 1

well this starts with the blog name and its gonna be a long time before i solves my confusions.

today's confusion: studying in Pakistan.

its been always difficult to find books related to my subjects, whether they were about software engineering or education! the basic subjects like introduction to software engineering has many books available in market but as you climb the ladder up and go for more specific subjects like requirement engineering, software architecture or documenting software design, software process model, the books disappear from market and those that are available are way too expensive for one to afford [thanks to my father, he bought me most of them :)]

and now that i am pursuing a degree in education, there are no authentic books available. books written by local authors are either out of date or incomplete and my instincts tell me not to trust them. event he course outline that we got from university is so out dated that one can easily discard it. the latest book referred for 'school organization and classroom management' was published in 1978!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and now i have problem finding the book on 'teaching of physical sciences'

research is unheard of and even at university level students are afraid of putting forward their ideas in  front of teachers and the arguments they have are the sack of arguments not learning!!!!!

my confusion will never end, i guess. :(

Things Unsaid

The world - a lousy place i live in.

People - they r very unlikeable!

Job - something i do to earn money! honestly!

Children's parent - self righteous human beings, who think that their child can never do anything wrong!

Books - sheer wastage of money

Reading - an outdated hobby, fit for introverts and a pure wastage of time!

Embroidery - girls who are good for nothing do it.

Writing blog entry: copy, paste, borrow, cheat, or ask someone else to write for you!

Human Relations: 'Valid until you fall off the ladder of success'

Cell phones - loss of hours-money

Jewelry - something that consumes half of my pay check.

School - Factory for manufacturing engineers and doctors, not human beings.

Goal of Education - to make best inhuman humans!

Knitting - an almost extinct hobby in Pakistan.

Food - base of the 80% of world problems

Creativity - something that people are obliged to end in you.

Success - easiest way of making enemies

Pakistan - the largest state in the world, despite innumerable efforts people have not succeeded in gulping it down.

the pictures are the property of their respective owners.

Innovative Teacher

During the teaching of scientific subjects a teacher must learn to be innovative. It is wrong to think that all children are destructive and can not be trusted. The truth is otherwise. Children are constructive, happy and energetic human beings. They like to be trusted and taking responsibilities. In the same way people in the surrounding environment of the children are not as vice as a teacher may think.

Trying out new techniques, in itself, is not a bad idea, neither any sensible person would deny it. Trying out techniques that fail, again and again is a bad idea. Any teacher should be able to reflect upon his/her teaching methods. They should be able to point out the weak and strong points of their teaching and overcome his/her weakness.

An innovative teacher is one, who is never scared to learn. Innovative teacher is ever ready to experiment with established teaching methods and techniques. An innovative teacher is open to criticism and use it positively to eradicate his/her weaknesses. (s)he is always learning and trying out new things. Teaching and experimenting with the new techniques and mechanisms.

During the training class teachers came up with the following arguments against using new teaching methods.

There is a general conception that children in our public schools are destructive and unaware of using various equipments used in science teaching, because of the backgrounds they come from. I think that the reason behind this concept is that teachers never try new methods with them and never trust them with anything. If a teacher take students in confidence and tell them about the value of equipment and the practical they are going to do, kids will very careful with the handling of the equipments and other  resources.

The other reason that most teachers give is that they have got limited time to complete mammoth syllabus. I think that by involving students in research and teaching process, teachers can lessen their burden and make the syllabus interesting and easy for children to understand. it only needs dedication on part of the teacher to think of new ideas.

There is a lack of resources and limited resources are kept safe, was another argument. A teacher should be able to design and collect his/her own resources. A teacher has every right to reason with the custodian of the resources. Trust should be built and expectations should be met to get access to those resources.

One last and general advice for teachers is to use effective time management routine. Instead of wasting time and chatting or doing personal work they should concentrate on teaching and making it easier for themselves and their students. All great teachers did not wait for someone to come and wake them up or make them do great things. They took initiative themselves and started changing things.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

May be this was the first nursery rhyme that i learnt, but today i found out that it was way too beautiful than i realized. here i m posting it for everyone to read it and enjoy!

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are!

Up above the world so high

Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone,

When he nothing shines upon,

Then you show your little light,

Twinkle, twinkle, all night.

Then the traveler in the dark

Thanks you for your tiny spark!

He could not see which way to go,

If you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep,

And often through my curtains peep,

For you never shut your eye

Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark

Lights the traveler in the dark,

Though I know not what you are,

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

Jane Taylor

In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
 By (the Token of) Time (through the ages), 
 Verily Man is in loss, 
Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds,
and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth,
and of Patience and Constancy. 
                              
                                 -  translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali 




I was watching the news on TV about the match fixing fiasco that is created by our very dear cricket team and they show this very cute picture of Salman Butt, our captain and Muhammad Aamir and I realized that if proven guilty they have ruined their careers!!!!! "Man is in loss!"


yesterday, we were having a discussion in school as to why people sell off their faith? how much money do they need to spend good life? is honesty has come to nothing? and I said that, "i think that in order to spend good life, I only need 50 lacs. I could go back to university and get my home repaired and that's about it." 


One of my colleagues said that," S 50 lacks are not much, we at least need 25 million to spend a good life. you can't even buy a house in 50 lacs." 


But now i think that it all depends on how materialize your world is! my good idea of life is to have enough money to get good education and have food three times a day on your table. Obviously if i need to expand my view, living in the new modern home will be  a good idea and driving a car of new model every year and going to foreign countries on vacations would be sooooooooooo nice. but there has to be a limit!!!!! and we have forgotten our limits!!!


and that is why we are in loss...

Realization - first step to change

Teacher: I know all of you are very intelligent! [humorously] or anybody has objection?
Me: Sir, I have objection.
Teacher: I know you would have!


X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

convo ended, we carried on with the teaching. this is the part of conversation that took place today in the CI [Curriculum and Instruction] class.

now the question is why do i have an objection on being called intelligent?
because if we don't realize the truth about ourselves, we'll never change ourselves. and the truth is that we are far away from being intelligent. [individual cases ignored]
 Most of my colleagues during the sunday class come to enjoy themselves, or to get a degree for sake of a rise or teacher's allowance. there are no people there who go there to learn. and i mean seriously learn. our ground realities are far from being ideal! we cheat, we lie, we copy, we waste time, we joke...  but we don't realize any of that.

I love thinking of myself as intelligent, I love to hear it from people, but when i assess myself, I have got a long way to go before I finally end up being intelligent. this realization will help me change whatever is wrong in me, whatever needs improvement, whatever needs to be corrected, avoided, deleted, updated...etc etc. but if i run away from realizing that i have got room for improvement, i'll end up being mediocre, just average not intelligent. so i don't want my teacher to call any of us intelligent!!!! we are in for "Rude Awakening!"

Something Beautiful

there is so much going on around me, personally, nationally - internationally, i am unaware of :#, that we miss ramzan as we used to have it in yesteryears, all the festivity and religious zeal and happiness it cause, i heard this naat on tv someday back and i just love it - wonderfully said. i hope that you enjoy it too :)

Politically Aware - Humbug

today - as it happened kids were off due to the flood threat and teachers and librarians were free to do whatever they wished. and i went to my favorite spot that happens to be library. there a heated conversation was going on about the condition of flood victims and what everybody is doing about it and what is the duty of government in this situation and what it is not doing [we tend to keep an eye on what government is not doing, rather than on what it is doing]. everyone was busy criticizing all the people for not doing what they ought to do and then i jumped in!!!!! [that i gather is my favorite thing :P]

and i asked them what they are doing???? and everybody started counting what they had given in donation [i admit that i personally have not done much apart from praying :#]. then i invited everybody if they are ready to come along and we'll go and help people out there or stage a protest against government... and guess what??!!! everyone backed out.... nobody was in. easy to criticize, hard to demonstrate. we all are very much into politics and government policies when it comes to talking, we would read newspapers, magazines, listen to endless minutes of news, hear programs and read reports on what is going wrong but we will not do anything to change it practically... we are so comfortable in this situation that we don't even think of doing it. "It is easier to sit in your cozy drawing rooms and criticize government, but very hard to go on road and tell them to correct it."

one of my colleague's father was into MRD movement, a long time back and he was sent to jail for being into, i asked her what is wrong with us, we still know what's going on, and we still can differentiate between what's right and what's wrong, but why we don't do anything anymore? she simply replied that we don't have courage anymore. "we have gone deep inside rabbit's fur :("

and then as i was reading reader's digest Asia, i came across a regular feature called "heroes"  in which people write about other people who they think have done something outstanding or are doing something outstanding, this hero was a woman who went to homes of old people or orphanages to help people there along with her family and friend. she would give them packets of food and other items and instruct her volunteers to ask them what do they need, and they will try to bring it next time, no matter what it is!!!! WONDERFUL. and it made me wonder, why can't i be like this? why can't i do this? why do i wait for abdul sattar edhi to show up? why can't i be what abdul sattar edhi is? why blame others for not doing enough for my people? why don't i do it myself?


ANSWERS ANYONE?????!!!!!


We live in a country where
Pizza reaches home faster than ambulance and police.
Where you get car loan @18% and education loan @40%
Where rice is Rs 90/- per kg but sim card is free.
Where the shoes are sold in AC showrooms but vegetables, we eat, are sold at footpath.
Where lemon juices are sold with artificial flavours while dish wash has real lemon.
Where our leading class is having fake degrees while educated youth is jobless.
What a NATION!


WE CAN CHANGE THAT, IF WE WANT TO...


P.S this post was written on 24th august 2010, but i was unable to post it due to electricity problem.

In the Beginning

who ever thought that life would end up being an online diary? in the beginning none of my contacts knew about blogging and it was alien word and so many of my software engineering friends still runaway from blogging because we just do not know what to post online and what will happen of our posts???

it is a genuine reason not to start blogging [well i think so] this is the very reason that kept me from blogging for a long time. i have another blog, called Rambling of Lunatic and there i post all the fictitious things that i think about or read about!!!! it is far far away from reality and this blog of mine mostly contain my comments and views on different things.... [sadly those are not very nice comments] but then my blog is not my personal diary [i actually keep one, and i have had one since 11 years] so it gets quite confusing what to post and what to censor!!!! [censoring oneself is a big problem]. the blogs have given us freedom to express our thoughts, political and social mostly, and to reflect on the attitude of our nation and to praise or condemn them!!!!

there is so much going on around us and the youth of my country has turned somewhat radical and they have got enough energy pent up inside them, which in turn make them destructive.... but venting those emotions out and saying everything to people makes it easier for them to bear the hardships of life in Pakistan. Blogs give us this freedom of writing our heart out!!!!

Jeeaye Blogging :P

100 Edits on Shelfari...

i was introduced to shelfari in 2007 by a friends [he never used it after inviting me] shelfari is a website that is all about books and readers. in the beginning it wasn't much fun, all you could do was add books that you read or have read in the past and make friends and join groups, but gradually shelfari improved. now it offers you to add information about your favorite authors and books, add characters, write synopsis, recommend books and as for recommendations.

yesterday i completed my 100 edits on shelfari and that is simply great for me because it took me one complete year to understand this editing facility and after that i was hooked, continuously searching for new books and editing their info.

Shelfari is fun, do try it.

14th August Independence Day - Zong

A wonderful advertisement and a message full of hope. this poem is inspired by Jonathan Reed's

"lost Generation"

LOST GENERATION

BY

Jonathan Reed

I am part of a lost generation
and I refuse to believe that
I can change the world
I realize this may be a shock but
“Happiness comes from within.”
is a lie, and
“Money will make me happy.”
So in 30 years I will tell my children
they are not the most important thing in my life
My employer will know that
I have my priorities straight because
work
is more important than
family
I tell you this
Once upon a time
Families stayed together
but this will not be true in my era
This is a quick fix society
Experts tell me
30 years from now, I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my divorce
I do not concede that
I will live in a country of my own making
In the future
Environmental destruction will be the norm
No longer can it be said that
My peers and I care about this earth
It will be evident that
My generation is apathetic and lethargic
It is foolish to presume that
There is hope.

And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it .

Read the message, then read it again in reverse.

Reading

I had free time in the school today, as the attendance was low and the classes were merged, so i went to the library there i started reading "Reader's Digest", that's what i usually do, when i m free in school and don't hv classes to take.

there i came across an article, a true story about a woman, who had lost everything and was forced to live in a car for many days, then she discovered blogging and started writing one, first time admitting that she was homeless. She named her blog WanderingScribe and started writing about her failures and hope and things, I am following that blog and I want other people to take a look at it!

I also read an article in Spider and read an article about plagiarism, it is interesting how people use other people's work as their own... sometimes i feel that i do that too, but then i mention the names, is it plagiarism then too?  I've yet to find an answer to that. and it was sad to observe that people don't enjoy reading much these days....

But whatever the truth of people be, I love reading and Books and everything about them :)

P.S. I recommend people to read, To kill a mocking bird, it is a fascinating book =)

Picasa Web Album

i was desperate to display my cross stitch work on my blog, and i searched and searched, but in vain, finally i came across slide show option of the blogs, it wanted the address of the picasa web albums and i was not very keen on making one more account, so i chose my facebook albums, to display my work!!!!!!!

But guess what, the link was not working and there was no slide show! :(

So, i decided to make an account on Picasa... but i hate the upload tool, it'll take me ages to upload all my pictures. :(

Any suggestions for faster upload????

Flood 2

The flood have not yet reached Haiderabad, but it has caused a lot of destruction in the northern Sindh, it has crossed the dangerous level! Well,  you must have heard it in news several times...and that's not why I m writing.

I was talking to my friend, and she said that people are really angry at the biasing of the Urdu media of the country, because according to Urdu media, the flood is only in KPK or Punjab, Sindh isn't very important. Then why do Government expect from us, Sindhis, to act Pakistani??????

MY friend and her family has started calling Geo News, as Joota News, because all they are obsessed with is the throwing of the Shoe  at President Zardari in London. [Aur Urdu mein Jeem se Geo or Jeem se joota]

When the shoe was thrown at President Bush, there was the full media coverage, and one can watch the clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWt3-kPBQ4A, and when the shoe was thrown at Chinese Premier there is a video of it, which can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SruwzgddXY, and when the Indian Home Minister was thrown shoe at, there was recording, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFMiC-dkHbY, but i have yet to find the video of shoe being thrown at President of Pakistan. I think it is all a lie, and it is just a trick to get people's attention by the channels.

If there is one dead in Karachi, the Urdu media [read Geo News] start to cry over it, airing the news again and again, but there are thousands of dead in the flood and not even a 5 minute report on the incident!!!!!! What would you call this? How can I remain Pakistani, when my problems, as Sindhi, are not considered important?

This is not the time to protest against the banning of channels or burning of newspaper, but it is time to come together and help people in need!