Day I spent with myself
Friday, September 28, 2012
Get togeher of 55 PMA Long Course is being held at Mangla on September 29-30, 2012. Here are a few images of last year get together.
Labels: 55 PMA, Get Together
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 11:16 AM,
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Urban Sense
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Human beings like other organisms, have always polluted their environment with the byproducts of their action. As an organism man creates waste. As a social creature, he removes things from his environment and adds residue to it. So long as population density has been low on the planet, the environment was able to accommodate these alterations. Now with the world population about 8.5 billion people and increasing by 220,000 each day, the concentration of population in cities and resulting deterioration of environment is sounding alarms. The situation is urban Pakistan is worst.
The process of economic development over last 58 years has brought number of changes. One of the most critical dimensions of the process is urbanization of rural society. As the development has taken place primarily from agricultural to industrial economy, large scale rural to urban migration has taken place, changing the face of our cities as well as villages. The concentration of more and more people into urban areas is regarded as one of the major environmental threat today. The process is expected to escalate in Pakistan though many of our cities have already reached the point where further population concentration (by natural birth or migration) may jeopardize the delivery of basic civic services to all.
Read more »The process of economic development over last 58 years has brought number of changes. One of the most critical dimensions of the process is urbanization of rural society. As the development has taken place primarily from agricultural to industrial economy, large scale rural to urban migration has taken place, changing the face of our cities as well as villages. The concentration of more and more people into urban areas is regarded as one of the major environmental threat today. The process is expected to escalate in Pakistan though many of our cities have already reached the point where further population concentration (by natural birth or migration) may jeopardize the delivery of basic civic services to all.
Labels: Environment
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 8:48 AM,
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Village Museum
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Labels: Thatta Kedona, Village Museum
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 8:52 AM,
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Sand in the Castle
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
From dancing to masking, the Pakistani woman drudges through in her search for home. In this collection of eleven short stories, author Syrrina Haque explores the concept of home. Is home a physical entity or a spiritual domain? For some people, is home merely a façade? Demonstrating the diversity of the socio-cultural terrain of Pakistan, these stories of life revolve around the theme of physical, spiritual, and psychological displacement and how this relates to the concept of home. In “From Boundaries to Boundaries,” a thirty-nine-year-old mother of three leaves her abusive husband and Pakistani home for Canada; she hopes for a fresh beginning and a break from her past. In “Burka,” thirteen-year-old Burka-clad Gulbano flees her home to escape marrying a fifty-year-old Talib—but her fate is worse than she could have imagined. These true-to-life characters search for new horizons to appease their hidden side and arrive at castles built with only with sand. They try to traverse from boundary to boundary in search of a destination, but they find themselves entrapped in their own cocoons.
“This is your new burka. Oh, how my daughter has grown. This is what you will live in from now on.” “Live in?” “Yes, live in. This is going to protect you, just like a house protects you—your shelter, your refuge.” “A burka?” “You don’t know what’s out there, beti, my little girl. There are wolves, ferocious wolves, out there.” “Well, then, shouldn’t they be kept in a cage, with a muzzle? Why me? Why do I have to be trapped because of the wolves?”-BURKA “He is going to be called Thomas Sunil Patel,” proclaimed my father-in-law rather pompously. “Thomas! Thomas! But it’s such an Anglo name, so English. Why would I call my child Thomas?” “You will understand in good time, child. He will carry the British legacy of this hotel forward.” “You mean the legacy of enslaving the inhabitants, colonizing them, torturing them to work in extreme conditions, burdening them to carry their loads of tea leaves for their cups of afternoon tea in an English drawing room while they boasted of their successes over the black man and tsk-tsked over the black man’s incompetence.” TEA LEAVES
Read more »
Labels: Books
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 8:00 AM,
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Emoticon impact
Monday, September 24, 2012
This article appeared in Spider.tm
The idea of graphically depicting human emotions is not new. BBC claims that, “the original smiley was created in 1964 by commercial artist Harvey Ball.” Russian writer Vladimir Nobaokov who authored Lolita, answering a question in 1969 was quoted by Scott E. Fahlman as saying , “I often think there should exist a special typographichal sign for a smile- some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket.”
Labels: In Print, Spider, Technology
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 12:22 PM,
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Fine Art of Calligraphy
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Labels: Calligraphy
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 8:35 AM,
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Gwadar on the Global Chessboard
Thursday, September 20, 2012
The author of this holistic book on Gwadar, is also the moving spirit of the modern Gwadar Concept. For a detailed analysis the book is a must read, however as an introduction to the concept s presented here.
The author emphasizes on the importance of the Gwadar port as the converging hub of all future trade and transit routes emanating from the Central Asian Republics, China and even Russia as this is the shortest of all routes leading to the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean.
Read more »Labels: 55 PMA, Books, Men At Their Best
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 12:17 AM,
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If heritage is lost, all is lost
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
As a traveler, I have been all over the country paying tribute to Pakistan’s wealth of ancient sites. Starting from Karachi where 600 buildings have been listed by a heritage foundation to Multan and Lahore with their own distinct architectural style to Peshawar where legendary character of Qissa Khwani bazaar is changing and its old landmarks like city walls are disappearing. I also touched Thatta, Ptttan Munara, Uch Sharif, Sialkot, Nandna (in Salt Range) and Mansehra in the way. In my pursuit, I have traced the routes followed by conqueror Alexander the great and Chinese traveler Hieun Tsiang in the part of the world we call home. I have seen many extraordinary sights feeling comfortable and at peace and completely in the grip of history as I stood before each of them.
Read more »Labels: Built Heritage
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 2:49 PM,
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Appropriate Technology
Monday, September 17, 2012
Center for Appropriate Technology (CAT), is NGO based in Bamenda, Capital of North West Region in the Republic of Cameroon.
Vision of the NGO, founded in 2001, is development, presentation on exhibitions and promoting of appropriate technology. For men, do-it-yourself usage of appropriate technology gives a hope of independence from central technical infrastructure. And for women handmade dolls, dressed in traditional attires from the different provinces is a means of additional income generation in rural areas. CAT also involves children in different initiatives through Youngsters Club.
CAT has develop active cooperation with foreign NGOs like Technology Transfer and Training Centre in Pakistan, Institute for Planning and Consulting, German Society for the Development of Culture (DGFK) and Bamenda University of Science and Technology (B.U.S.T).
Read more »Labels: Cameroon
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 1:00 PM,
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Thatta Kedona Souvenirs and Toys
Friday, September 14, 2012
Visit Thatta Kedona Dolls House, for Questions contact Dr. Norbert Pintsch and for appointment at Lahore Show Room, Call Ilyas (0301-8456986) or visit Thatta Kedona Display Centers worldwide.
Read more »
Labels: Souvenirs, Toys, Tthatta Kedona
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 2:33 PM,
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Calling Facebook friends
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Keeping a blog (or blogs) going seems enough (not everyone's a procrastinator like me:P ask Jalal HB). On the other hands, Facebook is no more for students only, nor is it for friends and family only. Facebook has already become a market place to do business and engage people in related commercial activities. At best it is brings together common interests or like minded people. It is in this milieu that I am explaining what friends can do for bloggers and calling my friends on social media sites, to do, in addition to what they do already do on Facebook.
Bloggers mostly have their blogs on FB’s NetworkedBlogs, one of the best blog networks after Technorati suspended their popular network that used to give ranking also. Bloggers mostly spend all their time on blogging and syndicate blog contents on Facebook. Those bloggers who have not claimed their blog yet on NetworkedBlogs must do so now. I can see this becoming a measure of blog popularity soon. Ask friends at Facebook to follow blogs that interest them. Similarly, most bloggers have created fan pages for their blogs. Ask friends to visit blogs fan page and ‘like’ them.
I ask my Facebook friends to follow my blogs (Light Within, Logic is Variable, Doodh Patti) and Like Light Within, Logic is Variable, Doodh Patti pages. What else are friends for?
Labels: Facebook, Fine Art of Blogging, Social Media
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 7:15 PM,
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Fine Art of Travel Writing
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Travel is prosperity and leisure pursuit, which is a result of many things: history, heritage, culture, natural beauty and a quest to know what is unknown and meet wonderful people. Pakistan is a land of geographical, geological, and natural contrasts and has every thing nature could bestow; from some of the places like Mehr Garh in Balochistan and Harappa in Punjab where some of the initial human activities began, Lots Valley (NWFP) once home to Gandhara Civilization where Chinese Hiuen Tsiang who is regarded as an early trendsetter traveller treaded, or ancient city Multan that, as per the legend, is living since the time of Hazrat Noah (A.S.), Kalash community existing in an on the edge district Chitral still holding awaiting for anthropologists’ conclusive research about origin of their unique identity against all outside pressures for development and modernity, unsolved riddle where rivers were lost (River Hakra in Cholistan) to pristine locations in Northern Pakistan (tree line in Himalaya Range) where one can see two seasons at the same place — winter above and summer below, and thematic pilgrims for Sikh and Buddhist communities, to name just a few.
Labels: Travel Writing
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 9:46 AM,
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Paradox and the Joy of Pakistan
Thursday, September 6, 2012
One of the earlier recorded monument goers was Herodotus, the Greek historian who voyaged to Egypt 2400 years ago to stand in awe before the pyramids. One of the valid causes around the world these days is raising awareness about historic monuments and national sites in need of repair. Awareness can make the difference.
As a traveler, I have been all over the country paying tribute to Pakistan’s wealth of ancient sites. Starting from Karachi where 600 buildings have been listed by a heritage foundation to Multan and Lahore with their own distinct architectural style to Peshawar where legendary character of Qissa Khwani bazaar is changing and its old landmarks like city walls are disappearing. I also touched Thatta, Ptttan Munara, Uch Sharif, Sialkot, Nandna (in Salt Range) and Mansehra in the way. In my pursuit, I have traced the routes followed by conqueror Alexander the great and Chinese traveler Hieun Tsiang in the part of the world we call home. I have seen many extraordinary sights feeling comfortable and at peace and completely in the grip of history as I stood before each of them.Labels: Travel
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 9:28 PM,
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Abbas Khan in Sabaq-e-Urdu
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Labels: Abbas Khan, Books, Fiction, Literature, Urdu
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 10:40 AM,
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Fly by Arik
Travelling is a need, lifestyle and a way of life. Best thing is that needs to travel are growing in direct proportion with increase in human activities like business, pleasure and or leisure. This growth has given birth to demand driven travel services that facilitate travelers and help you travel in style, get tickets, save money on airfares at different destinations around the world.
Arik Air is proud to offer the service on maximum number of flights on almost any route in Africa. With Arik commuting to and from Africa will be like going next doors. Air Airk fleet of aircrafts consists of international make airplanes including a number of renowned Booing and Air Buses. Not only that, we offer lowest fare, luxury and comfort to each and every passenger. In addition, we also offer many discounts to make travelling in class even cheaper. We keep announcing different deals on our website.
Have a look our neatly laid out and uncluttered website and see what we offer and how. Navigation is utterly easy and you can get any information you need. If you still have a question, feel free call or email us (0207 183 0392) now for our flight schedules, bookings or anything else you might like to know and our top of the line customers service staff will always be pleased to serve you. You are always welcome on board at Arik.
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 8:00 AM,
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Green Traditions
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Promotion of green environment and motivation for the residents, read the story of preserving traditions over 18 years here.
Labels: Thatta Kedona
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 10:56 AM,
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Mohammad Muzaffar Ali
Monday, September 3, 2012
Pakistani Siyasat Ke Raazdan Sahafi [Safdar Mir se Hamid Mir Tak] - a book by Mohammad Muzaffar Ali (MMA), the initiator and co-founder of SPARC (Society for the Promotion of Art and Culture) and an inspiration for a whole generation of journalists.
Despite of all the stress of his journalistic tasks, he was always available for events and special projects together with his colleague Anees Yaqub and other members of the SPARC team. What MMA accomplished during his lifetime will always remain as a beacon light for us.
Consisting of interviews with the journalists who are usually the eye witness of history being written, this book is a very comprehensive record of events, many of them unpublished, covering the eventful era of 70s and 80s.
Available at Ahmed Publications, Malik Building, 19-A-1, Abbot Road, Lahore
Despite of all the stress of his journalistic tasks, he was always available for events and special projects together with his colleague Anees Yaqub and other members of the SPARC team. What MMA accomplished during his lifetime will always remain as a beacon light for us.
Consisting of interviews with the journalists who are usually the eye witness of history being written, this book is a very comprehensive record of events, many of them unpublished, covering the eventful era of 70s and 80s.
Available at Ahmed Publications, Malik Building, 19-A-1, Abbot Road, Lahore
Labels: Mohammad Muzaffar Ali
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 8:54 AM,
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