As I start writing this, a partial lunar eclipse is taking place and my cell phone is constantly vibrating thanks to all those New Year wishes. Okay I get the point its 2010. We have only two more years to live thanks to the Hollywood flick 2012.
I can’t believe ten years have passed since all of my cousins from Dads side stayed over for a sleep over just to watch the millennium celebrations on telly and it was so kind of my parents to let us watch it in there master bed while they slept in my room. Ah! Sweet memories.
So another year has passed by and 31st December 2009 marked my Dada’s (Paternal Granddad’s) 39th death anniversary. The only reason that stops me from going outside to party. 2010 has started and how lucky we are that it’s a Friday and our country’s major population will attend the mosque for Friday prayers. I hope our molvi’s ask dua for our country’s brighter future, peace and prosperity other than the cliché dua for the destruction of US of A.
Back when I was a little kid my Dad once called me into his bedroom at exactly this time and told me that “what lies in the future is unseen but it can be foreseen and predicted by one’s hard work and commitment”( i am sure we all have heard that). At that time I didn’t understood what my dad meant by that but some how the words just got saved in the thing that some times we refer to as brain. Over the years the true meaning started to unfold in front of me and now that 2010 has started I believe that it’s been fully unfolded and I make a commitment to myself that Inshallah this year will not be wasted like all those past years.
Oh @#$^! Power cut. I wish we hadn’t gone all against the governments’ rental power plants scheme, it was a good project to over come the deficit of electricity but then it’s our nature. We judge to conclusions before going into details.
In the end I wish all of u a very happy 2010 and may all your dreams come true. While I typed this out of the blue I thought about the people who used to print greeting cards.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
waves of nostalgia
As I roll in my bed I look at my cell phones display and find out that its 4.10 AM. As the warm hug of the sleep goddess moves ever so far from me I decide to open up my laptop. By now its 4.15 AM and unintentionally I open up word. Basically having no idea of what I intend to do at this hour my mind drift into wilderness and waves and waves of nostalgia just start to pour in.
Taking a pause, lost in the old memories not knowing why on earth I am remembering or still remember these memories. The first thing that hits my mind is my dad taking me to Islamabad’s zoo on his bike. Unable to type in this posture I change position. Much better, so where was I, ah! Yes the bike. Asking my dad to ride it fast and my dad obliging to my insane request. Sweet days, I used to get what ever I wanted, its stil the same but now it takes time. Anyway all of a sudden my mind flips and I remember long forgotten friends. Friends from F-8/4, the guys I haven’t meet in approx 9 years. Playing a lot of basketball with them, un able to dribble properly but still being able to shoot a perfect 3 pointer and practicing the half court throw.
My memories change again and I remember the wedding I attended at some place in F-7 markaz a.k.a Jinnah Super when I was 7 or 8. The nans were finished and the waiters started to serve milky bread. On our way back my chacha blaming the organizers for doing a lousy job. Still on weddings my chacha’s wedding was amazing. The fireworks. the mehndi. The food. Every thing was perfect.
Ahhh my mind is going nuts. All of a sudden I start humming the tune of the song I once adored. Music the food of soul. Always wanted to be a famous singer like Michael Jackson but my dreams were crushed way back in grade 4 when my teacher told me ay a music audition that I have a horrible singing voice, never lost hope and about 4 years back I pulled off my first and last solo. It never made it on air but I made sure that my friends over the globe lend an ear to it.
Speaking of friends from across the globe I find myself sitting in Mr. Shan’s physics class swearing out loud at asela bond 009. Mr. Shan the best physics teacher that I ever came across. Playing football at gateways basketball court with the un official joke society of our class and by total fluke kicking a banana kick and wowing every one by my skills. Playing snooker at shooters, potluck and a couple of other places that I cant remember.
My first traffic accident at bajra mandi when I goy hit by a Suzuki bolan. Don’t remember much about it but what I remember is that I was not knocked out cold. Watching my younger cousin got hit by a car and seeing him falling after a small flight. The car driver running away and my dad and uncles following him, what I heard was that they beat the #$@% out of that driver. Maybe he deserved it. The first ethnic clash I saw in G7, the christians shooting down 2 guys from our street and one christian trying to injure one with a sword.
My buddy Fahad who recently passed away. Still can’t believe that he’s no longer between Us. May Allah rest his soul in eternal peace.
The memories that always bring a tear in my eyes are the times I spent with my NANA JAN and NANI JAN. May Allah rest there souls in eternal peace as well.
Still remembering stuff from the past. TPS! It will remain an urban myth. The best script ever written, that I co wrote with a good friend.
I look at the time and its 5 AM. Still can type for hours but my machine is not charged and I think I should try to hug the sleep goddess.
Taking a pause, lost in the old memories not knowing why on earth I am remembering or still remember these memories. The first thing that hits my mind is my dad taking me to Islamabad’s zoo on his bike. Unable to type in this posture I change position. Much better, so where was I, ah! Yes the bike. Asking my dad to ride it fast and my dad obliging to my insane request. Sweet days, I used to get what ever I wanted, its stil the same but now it takes time. Anyway all of a sudden my mind flips and I remember long forgotten friends. Friends from F-8/4, the guys I haven’t meet in approx 9 years. Playing a lot of basketball with them, un able to dribble properly but still being able to shoot a perfect 3 pointer and practicing the half court throw.
My memories change again and I remember the wedding I attended at some place in F-7 markaz a.k.a Jinnah Super when I was 7 or 8. The nans were finished and the waiters started to serve milky bread. On our way back my chacha blaming the organizers for doing a lousy job. Still on weddings my chacha’s wedding was amazing. The fireworks. the mehndi. The food. Every thing was perfect.
Ahhh my mind is going nuts. All of a sudden I start humming the tune of the song I once adored. Music the food of soul. Always wanted to be a famous singer like Michael Jackson but my dreams were crushed way back in grade 4 when my teacher told me ay a music audition that I have a horrible singing voice, never lost hope and about 4 years back I pulled off my first and last solo. It never made it on air but I made sure that my friends over the globe lend an ear to it.
Speaking of friends from across the globe I find myself sitting in Mr. Shan’s physics class swearing out loud at asela bond 009. Mr. Shan the best physics teacher that I ever came across. Playing football at gateways basketball court with the un official joke society of our class and by total fluke kicking a banana kick and wowing every one by my skills. Playing snooker at shooters, potluck and a couple of other places that I cant remember.
My first traffic accident at bajra mandi when I goy hit by a Suzuki bolan. Don’t remember much about it but what I remember is that I was not knocked out cold. Watching my younger cousin got hit by a car and seeing him falling after a small flight. The car driver running away and my dad and uncles following him, what I heard was that they beat the #$@% out of that driver. Maybe he deserved it. The first ethnic clash I saw in G7, the christians shooting down 2 guys from our street and one christian trying to injure one with a sword.
My buddy Fahad who recently passed away. Still can’t believe that he’s no longer between Us. May Allah rest his soul in eternal peace.
The memories that always bring a tear in my eyes are the times I spent with my NANA JAN and NANI JAN. May Allah rest there souls in eternal peace as well.
Still remembering stuff from the past. TPS! It will remain an urban myth. The best script ever written, that I co wrote with a good friend.
I look at the time and its 5 AM. Still can type for hours but my machine is not charged and I think I should try to hug the sleep goddess.
Evovlution of our Electronic Media and Elephants Of Porus
I remember the time when we used to get only 2 channels on our telly1. PTV
2. NTM/STN
Ptv used to start its broadcast at 3 or 4 if my memory serves me right. The main attraction for my folks was the 2000hrs drama and 2100 news. For me it was the daily 1900hrs cartoons on NTM. Even though I didn’t understand a single word of it but I still used to watch them. Every one seemed to be happy those days. They used to watch the evening news and some times discussed politics over the dinner table.
As time moved on the variety of programmes started to expand. A special 2 hours time slot of cartoons was introduced by STN. That was my all time favorite. Just sitting in front of the telly, watching cartoons under the watchful eye of my mother. A number of tv dramas added up. The viewer ship of the telly increased rapidly. PTV introduced another channel by the name of PTV WORLD giving us an extra option of flipping channels.
Then once I over heard my Dad and uncle who were talking about installing a satellite dish. Within a week we had 2 satellites on our roof top which gave us 40 new channels and thus began my journey of drifting away from our local TV channels.
Over the next couple of years I learned a lot about different countries thanks to national geographic, got dragged into Hindi movies and music. Then a blessing in disguise happened and the Indian channels stopped there free viewer ship and thus disconnecting my link with ZTV( I saw ZEE after a gap of 8 years on a foreign soil). But the damage was done. I had lost the charm in the local channels and even the cartoons that I used to love (still love them) became boring as they were repeat telecasts.
Then we changed our residence and in the new place I was introduced to cable TV. That’s when I found about channels like HBO, Star Movies and our very own satellite channels group the Indus TV network. By now I was a telly addict. Used to regularly watch at least 4 hours of telly. The advertisement jingles were always on the back of my mind.
Then one day I got up and found out that the cable tv has been disconnected. Now I was back to our local tv and telly became boring again. But now I had started to realize that our channels are more interesting because they show something that we can relate to. News became interesting, political discussions sounded fun as now I had started to understand what’s going on in our country. On 12th and 13th October when I stayed up the whole night listening to the patriotic songs, the vigorous political debate and waiting for Musharaf’s speech at my uncle’s house will always remain in the back of my mind.
Then came Musharaf and he opened up the doors of freedom of media. A lot of new channels were started. Most of them being news channels which were started by leading news paper groups of the country, Geo and Aaj being the prime examples, Dawn, Express, Duniya and many more later joined the band wagon. Initially there programmes on moral and ethical issues gained them mass following and popularity. Local channels were preferred over the foreign news and entertainment channels.
As they kept on growing they started to follow a different track. Earning big money became there motto. The tv anchors have started to believe that they have gained command over every topic under the roof. They started to pass verdicts not comments on Banking, Politics, Economic issues and even sports. In there programmes these anchors give long lectures on moral and ethical values. One such anchor when he was doing a programme in a women’s university was questioned that “Why isn’t Begum Nawazish Ali is taken off air as the host of that programme is cross dressing and talking dirty things on air” that anchor merely replied that its not possible as that very programme is getting there channel the highest number of advertisement and even now that very anchor can be seen talking about ethics and morality.
Now what has happened over the period of 5 years is that all our channels are in a race of increasing TRP. They don’t care about the damage they are doing to the society. Fake news are broadcasted as breaking news and later on when its confirmed that the news was not correct they just show a ticker which just say that the news has been denied by an authentic source. No sorry or apology is ever heard from the news channels.
Some specific anchors are busy following an agenda which portrays a negative image of the country to the foreign world. They always talk about a fragile government in our country, some of them even say that they have had it with this democracy and want the army to take charge of the country. Our country is already going to a volatile phase due to the suicide bombing and the war on terror.
As a result of this negative propaganda the direct foreign investment decreased by 53% this year as compared to the last year.
There reporting has lead to a lot of agitation in the public especially in the mind of the youth who now consider Pakistan as a failed state or a banana republic.
I hope that in these tough times the media will think beyond its recent success and will realize its national duties and will follow democratic, moral, ethical, professional and national duties or else it will result as it will act as Elephants of Poras for the newly elected democrative government under which it is allowed the complete freedom of expression.
P.S: for those of you who don’t know what are Elephants of Poras?
Poras was a king who in a war against Alexander raised an army of elephants and those elephants ended up crushing his own army.
2. NTM/STN
Ptv used to start its broadcast at 3 or 4 if my memory serves me right. The main attraction for my folks was the 2000hrs drama and 2100 news. For me it was the daily 1900hrs cartoons on NTM. Even though I didn’t understand a single word of it but I still used to watch them. Every one seemed to be happy those days. They used to watch the evening news and some times discussed politics over the dinner table.
As time moved on the variety of programmes started to expand. A special 2 hours time slot of cartoons was introduced by STN. That was my all time favorite. Just sitting in front of the telly, watching cartoons under the watchful eye of my mother. A number of tv dramas added up. The viewer ship of the telly increased rapidly. PTV introduced another channel by the name of PTV WORLD giving us an extra option of flipping channels.
Then once I over heard my Dad and uncle who were talking about installing a satellite dish. Within a week we had 2 satellites on our roof top which gave us 40 new channels and thus began my journey of drifting away from our local TV channels.
Over the next couple of years I learned a lot about different countries thanks to national geographic, got dragged into Hindi movies and music. Then a blessing in disguise happened and the Indian channels stopped there free viewer ship and thus disconnecting my link with ZTV( I saw ZEE after a gap of 8 years on a foreign soil). But the damage was done. I had lost the charm in the local channels and even the cartoons that I used to love (still love them) became boring as they were repeat telecasts.
Then we changed our residence and in the new place I was introduced to cable TV. That’s when I found about channels like HBO, Star Movies and our very own satellite channels group the Indus TV network. By now I was a telly addict. Used to regularly watch at least 4 hours of telly. The advertisement jingles were always on the back of my mind.
Then one day I got up and found out that the cable tv has been disconnected. Now I was back to our local tv and telly became boring again. But now I had started to realize that our channels are more interesting because they show something that we can relate to. News became interesting, political discussions sounded fun as now I had started to understand what’s going on in our country. On 12th and 13th October when I stayed up the whole night listening to the patriotic songs, the vigorous political debate and waiting for Musharaf’s speech at my uncle’s house will always remain in the back of my mind.
Then came Musharaf and he opened up the doors of freedom of media. A lot of new channels were started. Most of them being news channels which were started by leading news paper groups of the country, Geo and Aaj being the prime examples, Dawn, Express, Duniya and many more later joined the band wagon. Initially there programmes on moral and ethical issues gained them mass following and popularity. Local channels were preferred over the foreign news and entertainment channels.
As they kept on growing they started to follow a different track. Earning big money became there motto. The tv anchors have started to believe that they have gained command over every topic under the roof. They started to pass verdicts not comments on Banking, Politics, Economic issues and even sports. In there programmes these anchors give long lectures on moral and ethical values. One such anchor when he was doing a programme in a women’s university was questioned that “Why isn’t Begum Nawazish Ali is taken off air as the host of that programme is cross dressing and talking dirty things on air” that anchor merely replied that its not possible as that very programme is getting there channel the highest number of advertisement and even now that very anchor can be seen talking about ethics and morality.
Now what has happened over the period of 5 years is that all our channels are in a race of increasing TRP. They don’t care about the damage they are doing to the society. Fake news are broadcasted as breaking news and later on when its confirmed that the news was not correct they just show a ticker which just say that the news has been denied by an authentic source. No sorry or apology is ever heard from the news channels.
Some specific anchors are busy following an agenda which portrays a negative image of the country to the foreign world. They always talk about a fragile government in our country, some of them even say that they have had it with this democracy and want the army to take charge of the country. Our country is already going to a volatile phase due to the suicide bombing and the war on terror.
As a result of this negative propaganda the direct foreign investment decreased by 53% this year as compared to the last year.
There reporting has lead to a lot of agitation in the public especially in the mind of the youth who now consider Pakistan as a failed state or a banana republic.
I hope that in these tough times the media will think beyond its recent success and will realize its national duties and will follow democratic, moral, ethical, professional and national duties or else it will result as it will act as Elephants of Poras for the newly elected democrative government under which it is allowed the complete freedom of expression.
P.S: for those of you who don’t know what are Elephants of Poras?
Poras was a king who in a war against Alexander raised an army of elephants and those elephants ended up crushing his own army.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Mr. Khwaja Asif
Initially when I switched on my pc today I had planned to write some thing about the role of our media. Then by sheer luck I found an old news paper in my room. In that particular paper I found a very interesting statement by Mr. Khwaja Asif one of the leaders of PML (N). After reading that I decided to write about the media some other time and write something about the particular statement. The statement was “Mr. Sharif-ud-din Pirzada should be given capital punishment because he helped dictators to find loopholes in our constitution which resulted in elongated dictatorship in the country”
Indeed it’s a very bold statement and it also sounds really good to the ears. What’s interesting is that who is giving this statement. Mr. Khwaja is a very bold politician and some times he is referred as the hawk of the party he represents. My point here is that very few people know that Mr. Khwaja is the son of the person who was the chairman of the shourah founded by the worse dictator in our history- Mr Zia-ul-Haq.
Amazing! Mr. Khwaja Asif also forgot that the leader of his party was a great supporter of the above mentioned dictator and served as the Minister of Finance and as the Chief Minister during the regime of Mr. Haq and was officially celebrating his death ceremony till 1999 before he was kicked out by another dictator.
For someone else you are recommending capital punishment but for your own self you are just trying to escape by saying a mere sorry. A very famous saying is that “Charity begins at home”. First try to fix your house and then try to fix other’s houses. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at other houses.
Indeed it’s a very bold statement and it also sounds really good to the ears. What’s interesting is that who is giving this statement. Mr. Khwaja is a very bold politician and some times he is referred as the hawk of the party he represents. My point here is that very few people know that Mr. Khwaja is the son of the person who was the chairman of the shourah founded by the worse dictator in our history- Mr Zia-ul-Haq.
Amazing! Mr. Khwaja Asif also forgot that the leader of his party was a great supporter of the above mentioned dictator and served as the Minister of Finance and as the Chief Minister during the regime of Mr. Haq and was officially celebrating his death ceremony till 1999 before he was kicked out by another dictator.
For someone else you are recommending capital punishment but for your own self you are just trying to escape by saying a mere sorry. A very famous saying is that “Charity begins at home”. First try to fix your house and then try to fix other’s houses. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at other houses.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Our CJP
Call me biased or Call me a moron, I some how have to utter this out.
Over the past few years our very own CJP has gained so much of fame that if he decides to enter into politics he would win the election by record margins. My question here is that Is he really worthy of all this Fame? I mean what has he done to rise the staircase of fame- standing up to Musharaf by saying that I will not resign and not taking an oath under the infamous PCO. Amazing! Now lets just analyse What our CJP has been doing in real.
Our very own Youth icon took oath under PCO twice before. He was the one who gave the verdict in which he validated Musharaf's actions and that allowed Musharaf to extend his rulling days.
Where were all his principles and Morality at that time. I guess Money overshadowed his moral values.
When the CJP was questioned about his PCO oath his reply was jaw draopping for the author. He said that the 17th amendment of the constituion provided him indemnity. Unbelieveable! like we all know that the 17th amendment is against the soul of the constitution of Pakistan, the CJP is actually taking refuge under the umberrela of that particular amendment.
Now one more thing, before the whole Drama started CJP was getting into headlines because of the lost personnal case. His spokesman during the Lawyers movement Mr. Atherminallah was giving high profiled press releases which basically said that MR. CJP is fired because of that particular case. Now that he's fully restored "WHY ON EARTH IS HE NOT FOLLOWING THAT CASE"
The episode doesn't end here, recently CJP announced that since our government is unable to fix the price of sugar we will take this into our hands and they actually fixed the price at 40/kg. As a result the sugar that was available in the market at 44-48/kg rocketed to 55-60/kg. This verdict was against the simple economics laws. What it did was that it gained some more popularity for the CJP. Now if i give it some thought, What if the most powerfull institution of the country decides to take action against the democratically elected government they will simply say that we are just following the lead of the supreme court.
Now moving to the more recent NRO verdict. the question was very simple. Is NRO legal or ill-legal? We all knew that it was ill-legal. The govenment decided not to defend the ordinace. Then why on earth did he dragged the president and other politicans into this case? Even extending it so far that he ordered the government to open the swiss casses. the swiss courts however have declined the request raised by the Pakistani Judiciary by saying that they should try to resolve the matter internally.
So why are we glorifying a person who is following a political agenda while he is on the most respectable post in the country. all his life he acted as the b team of the army and by just one dead we have made him our national here. Why? Are we so desperate for a leader that we have forgiven all his sins in the past but we are not willing to give our politicians a second chance and have removed there margin of error.
P. S
I wanted to write some thing else but driffted away, i guess thats what happen when u blog for the first time.
Inshallah Next post will be to the point and will be about our media
Over the past few years our very own CJP has gained so much of fame that if he decides to enter into politics he would win the election by record margins. My question here is that Is he really worthy of all this Fame? I mean what has he done to rise the staircase of fame- standing up to Musharaf by saying that I will not resign and not taking an oath under the infamous PCO. Amazing! Now lets just analyse What our CJP has been doing in real.
Our very own Youth icon took oath under PCO twice before. He was the one who gave the verdict in which he validated Musharaf's actions and that allowed Musharaf to extend his rulling days.
Where were all his principles and Morality at that time. I guess Money overshadowed his moral values.
When the CJP was questioned about his PCO oath his reply was jaw draopping for the author. He said that the 17th amendment of the constituion provided him indemnity. Unbelieveable! like we all know that the 17th amendment is against the soul of the constitution of Pakistan, the CJP is actually taking refuge under the umberrela of that particular amendment.
Now one more thing, before the whole Drama started CJP was getting into headlines because of the lost personnal case. His spokesman during the Lawyers movement Mr. Atherminallah was giving high profiled press releases which basically said that MR. CJP is fired because of that particular case. Now that he's fully restored "WHY ON EARTH IS HE NOT FOLLOWING THAT CASE"
The episode doesn't end here, recently CJP announced that since our government is unable to fix the price of sugar we will take this into our hands and they actually fixed the price at 40/kg. As a result the sugar that was available in the market at 44-48/kg rocketed to 55-60/kg. This verdict was against the simple economics laws. What it did was that it gained some more popularity for the CJP. Now if i give it some thought, What if the most powerfull institution of the country decides to take action against the democratically elected government they will simply say that we are just following the lead of the supreme court.
Now moving to the more recent NRO verdict. the question was very simple. Is NRO legal or ill-legal? We all knew that it was ill-legal. The govenment decided not to defend the ordinace. Then why on earth did he dragged the president and other politicans into this case? Even extending it so far that he ordered the government to open the swiss casses. the swiss courts however have declined the request raised by the Pakistani Judiciary by saying that they should try to resolve the matter internally.
So why are we glorifying a person who is following a political agenda while he is on the most respectable post in the country. all his life he acted as the b team of the army and by just one dead we have made him our national here. Why? Are we so desperate for a leader that we have forgiven all his sins in the past but we are not willing to give our politicians a second chance and have removed there margin of error.
P. S
I wanted to write some thing else but driffted away, i guess thats what happen when u blog for the first time.
Inshallah Next post will be to the point and will be about our media
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