tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84157168257358882032024-03-13T05:38:34.141-07:00Wilderness of MindA blog about almost every thingMuhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-15453968670958740582011-02-19T10:14:00.000-08:002011-02-19T10:17:35.885-08:00BACKWE ARE BACK!!!!<br />YES!!!!<br />WE ARE BACK!!!!!!!<br /><br />STAY TUNED GUYS<br />AS FROM NOW ON, YOU GUYS WILL BE READING SOME MESSED UP STUFF....<br />MY VIEWS ON THINGS....<br />KEEP WAITNG FOR A NEW POST AS THINGS ARE TALKING A NEW SWINGMuhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-45808694952427215072010-06-19T15:26:00.001-07:002010-06-19T15:26:44.272-07:00Switching LoyaltiesI purchased my first sim around 5 years ago. It was a 0333 number. I flipped the sim pack and saw a bunch of teenagers pictures printed on it. One particular face caught my attention as he was the son of one of the most famous character of our tele history Kabacha. I joked with my cousin that “Hey look, Kabacha junior is a star now thanks to Mr. Kabacha.” We both laughed and went home.<br /><br />The thing left my mind and life just moved on. All the telecom operators kept on bringing new services and kept on filling the air time. The slogans and chants just kept on buzzing in my head. Now what’s interesting is that the biggest cellular network provider of the country launched a new service of credit sharing. The ad they made was quite catchy. What surprised me is that Kabacha junior was in that ad. Endorsing the particular brand. This raised my eye brow a little but I was like “who cares”. <br /><br />Days passed... the telecom market just kept on becoming more competitive day by day.<br />Now the third telecom giant launched a new campaign and guess what Kabacha junior is there again. Amazing isn’t it. One guy in his early 20’s with no experience of acting on the main stream or having any ramp experience endorsing 3 competitive firms one after an other.<br /><br />The story doesn’t end here. Recently the first provider I mentioned launched a new package called the youth package and who’s the star of the campaign. No rewards for guessing but you have guessed it right. Its! Kabacha junior. Mind blowing isn’t it. One person just keep on switching companies at his free will. I wont be surprised if a year later he is seen endorsing the only remaining telecom provider.<br /><br />I some where along my studies studied some thing called ethical behaviours. The whole world is crying about ethics and after looking at this particular example I have to say Ethics are for losers. Who needs ethics when your daddy has strong connections eh. <br /><br />What’s more interesting is that no one is saying a word about it. It seems no one cares now as there are more examples. Ali Zafar and Waseem Akram also did the same thing but even they just switched once.<br /><br />I am sick and tired of people coming on the tele and saying Pakistan has a lot of talent. What talent are those people talking about? One person is endorsing 3 companies changing loyalties at free will. If there was talent all the companies would have hired those talented people to be there brand ambassadors. <br /><br />With great sorrow I have to agree to my model friend Mir Khan that talent doesn’t count in our industry. Just get some links and you’ll be a star in no time.<br /><br />P.S<br />You can judge the popularity of that particular person that a big tv buff doesn’t even know his name.Muhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-88942466239814309012010-05-11T23:54:00.000-07:002010-05-11T23:54:15.452-07:00big corporation man<object style="background-image:url(http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/vlcVJfN5uL0/hqdefault.jpg)" width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vlcVJfN5uL0&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vlcVJfN5uL0&hl=en_US&fs=1" width="425" height="344" allowScriptAccess="never" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />PS<br />No Posts Till June. Mean While enjoy this awesome track by HaroonMuhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-78776538059696899372010-05-10T02:16:00.000-07:002010-05-10T02:18:35.999-07:00Eradicating PolioIn the last week of April I got a 3 three day job offer to work at the polio control cell. I was more than happy as they were paying good and the work sounded really easy.<br />On the first two day I worked as the data entry operator and on the last day I used my call centre experience in to good use and attended the calls coming from all over the country.<br /><br /><br />All in all I can say that it was a fun job and it was a very easy way to earn some much needed quick cash but when I look back at those three days my heart fills up with sorrow and I feel guilty as I was a part of this campaign that was a total flop in my eyes.<br /><br /><br />The purpose of the campaign was to dispatch polio vaccination teams to the areas where the polio teams didn’t reach. Sounds really easy but thanks to I don’t know who the process has been made really complicated. They have made it a 3 step process over the years.<br />Step 1: receive the call from the effected areas.<br />Step 2: forward complain to the call forward team who call the DHO of the effected area, he/she dispatches the team.<br />Step 3: the data of the call is entered into an excel sheet.<br /><br />Fair enough, but all of this didn’t work because the people were only in it for the easy cash and no one had the motive of social welfare. <br /><br />Really innocent people from the rural areas kept on calling and only 10% of the complaints were properly answered.<br /><br />I seriously don’t want to go into all the dirty details of the campaign but I’d like to highlight just one thing. Only 25 complaints were received via sms and the officials ran a ticker on the official television network that more than 15000 sms were received.<br /><br />Now you people can guess what was going on at the polio control cell.Muhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-57767773525438178422010-03-31T08:13:00.000-07:002010-03-31T08:16:46.121-07:00I'm CrackingMr. Rauf Kalasra is one of those journalists whose columns always create a buzz in the society. Most of the times the stories he break have the power to melt the stone hearted people. I agree to the fact that on some points I keep my differences with him but this place will not be used to discuss his political stance. This column is strictly related to his column published in TDJ on Friday 26th march 2010.<br /><br />After reading this column I felt like a sick dog whose body is filled with blood sucker fleas and he’s inching away to death. The pain in the column is so strong that it can dumb struck anyone. As I am typing this my fingers are shaking with sorrow and grief. I can’t even think straight. I feel on an all time low. Why do incidents like this keep on happening on such a regular basis? I’m sure many of us hear these kinds of stories every day. I remember my ammi telling a some what same story on 10 October 2005.<br /><br /> <br />The column is about an 11 year old girl from swat whose life was turned around by the GOD forsaken Taliban’s- the real enemies of Islam. The story is very short. The father of the girl joined Taliban’s because he received a ticket of heaven from them. He quitted on his family and started a quest against his own country men. He died when the forces started the operation. Her mother died a medical death soon after. At that point the girl left the house and ended up in the red light area. Just imagine a girl who is just 11, who has seen nothing in her life, who doesn’t even know the meaning of life properly ended up in the SIN HEAVEN and would have lived or died there had it not been for the merciful taxi driver in pindi who instead of dropping her to an alien place took her to his home and kept her with his family. Later on he took her to the Edhi centre. <br /><br /><br />Have we become so morally corrupt that for our own pleasure we don’t even resist from playing with young girls lives. The girls who have already lost every thing they have and the only thing they have with them is there pride. Yet we take that. How low can we get? How many girls have suffered through the hands of such morally corrupt people? How many stories are buried under the ashes? Who will look after these girls even if they are rescued? Who will marry these girls? Will the society ever accept them? Will they ever get justice?<br /><br /><br />Questions like these are just popping into my mind. I have started to loose it. I have come to a conclusion that it’s because of incidents like these our prayers don’t get answered and our nation is not making any progress. Unless and until we become morally pure we won’t be able to make any progress and will keep on lurking in the dark shadows.<br /><br />P.S<br />I always try not to preach in my posts but some how I end up doing the same thingMuhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-48420760536564975022010-03-22T02:39:00.000-07:002010-03-22T02:42:08.828-07:00My National HeroI for one am a strong believer of the fact that Pakistan is the greatest country on mother earth. The potential that we hold is way beyond the limits of our imaginations and now As 23rd march is approaching fast, our media channels have started to broadcast special patriotic program’s. I’d like to ride the band wagon and write some words for a very special person who apparently is neglected by the material media these days.<br /><br />That individual is my hero, our hero, pride of our nation, the founder of Khan Research Laboratory and the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program Dr. Abdul Qadir Khan. <br /><br />Words are not enough to praise the services of this certain individual. If you ask me Pakistan till the Judgment day will not be able to repay the debt that we owe to Dr. Khan.<br /><br />Dr. Khan left a very prosperous career for the security of Pakistan. In 1976 started he uranium enrichment program in Kahota. Since that point onwards there was no looking back. Pakistan came under severe pressure for its nuclear program by the western world but luckily this was one issue on which our leaders showed consensus. <br /><br />From what I have heard Dr. Khan conducted 2 soft tests in early 80’s and that was the time Pakistan had unofficially become a nuclear power. <br /><br />Dr. Khan is not just a scientist but he is a multi talented person. He writes a column in Daily Jang and it gets published every Wednesday. His column on the first mosque of sub continent was indeed an eye opener for a huge amount of the readers including me. Then his knowledge about the current developments in technology is also applauding. He single handedly sabotaged the American plan of locating our nuclear assets in 96 via the Permissive Action Links is also something amazing.<br /><br />In the end I’d like to say that words are just not enough to praise the greats like Dr. Khan. The single shake hand with him when I was on class 7th was one of the most memorable moments of my life.<br /><br />Long live Dr. Khan! You are and will always remain my Hero.<br /><br />PAKISTAN ZINDABADMuhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-60759871802751273792010-03-13T05:31:00.001-08:002010-03-13T05:31:43.688-08:00C.P.E electionsBack in high school, a very good friend of mine contested in the school body elections. Unfortunately she lost by a huge margin. It was a good experience though.<br /><br />Now after some years I found that C.P.E is organizing student body elections. At first thought of contesting but immediately dropped the idea because the election is for only two posts- President and Vice-President.<br /><br />Two posts! just two posts. What on earth are they thinking? It seems that they don’t even know the whole concept behind elections. As this is not a place to give lectures or preach I’ll just highlight some of the funny things that I have noticed till now. The voting will be on Wednesday so actual winners can’t be predicted.<br /><br />First thing that amused I was the sms alert by the management which said that Rs. 150 should be deposited to obtain a student card. As students without the card will not be allowed to vote. Excellent idea to mint money out of this whole plan. Kudos to the guy who came up with such ingenious idea.<br /><br />The second thing is the party slogans. Quoting some of them right now:1. vote for me if you think life is beautiful<br />2. Vote for the lukyz<br />3. I am the solution to all your problems (it should have been I am behind all your problems)<br />4. Vote for evolution and revolution<br />5. Vote for justice for all<br /><br />I haven’t been to C.P.E for past 3 days so I don’t know how things are turning out to be with the slogans and the chants.<br /><br />The third thing is the interesting photographs on there banners. I mean do you have to put up pictures in which you are not even recognizable. Most of the candidates have printed pictures in which the flash of the camera is more visible than there face.<br /><br />The most interesting thing is the distribution of ribbons by the candidates to the potential voters. One great person is distributing red ribbons every where as he’s running HIV awareness campaign.<br /><br />There are some more interesting things as well but I am censoring them. As I don’t want to start controversies over here.<br /><br />In the end, all the best to all those who are competing. Thanks for providing us with some much needed amusement.Muhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-17710144618893112572010-03-13T05:27:00.000-08:002010-03-13T05:30:40.420-08:00Savour FoodsHailing from a family that is notoriously famous for its excellent home made cooking (I am sure my foreign friends will testify to that) I was, is the first person to drift away from the home made delicacies to experiment on the food at the fancy restaurants, cafes and the desi restaurants. In my journey I discovered some excellent places to eat and on occasions paid a jaw dropping amount of bills pursuing my endeavors.<br /><br />However, today I’d like to write about a restaurant which offers a lot of quantity and qua… well let’s just stick to quantity at a very reasonable price. Savour Foods Pulao Kebab has literally just one thing on the menu as every other thing they introduce fails miserably.<br /><br />What started out as a humble place on college road offering cheap pulao for students and working people turned out to be the biggest revenue generator in the food and beverages industry of the twin cities. Now operating through four branches Savour by par is the most famous place for a quick meal among students. I bet there is very little number of people who have never been there or have never eaten pulao of Savour.<br /><br />So what makes the very simple dish like a pulao so successful on a commercial scale? Well it’s a sum of number of factors. One the price, two the quantity, three the provision to get extra rice and curd at no extra cost. What more does an empty belly want.<br /><br />Yet there are cons to this establishment. The biggest of them is that you have to share tables with random people. Sometimes you end up sitting next to a tableghi dude who starts his lecture at the spot. Once I sat next to this old timmer who was telling everyone his love story.<br /><br />Yet no matter what time you go to Savour the place is crowded. On occasions I have waited for as long as 15 minutes to get a table.<br /><br />So if you’re short of cash and want to eat out. Savour is the place to be.Muhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-90246847592752961412010-01-22T12:18:00.000-08:002010-01-22T12:28:52.876-08:00The damage is yet to followAfter ditching the dinner at home today, I went to a night out with a good friend. “1969”, Jinnah and KC proved to be the places that were blessed with royalty. After reaching home at about 2300 hrs I found out that the guests have left and my dad was waiting for a friend who works for some organization that I cannot disclose here. So as always I asked Ammi for some food. Fortunately she had saved some malai chicken for me.<br /><br />While I was helping myself to a huge serving I heard the door bell ring. As expected it was my dad’s friend. I ushered him to the drawing room and left to finish my food. I was done in a couple of minutes and started to watch the highlights of the cricket match that we lost today. My ammi called me to take the coffee for the guest. I entered the room with the coffee mugs and the home made cookies which smelled great (I smuggled one into my mouth before entering the room).<br /><br />Upon entering the room I heard the guest saying that at the unfortunate moharam incident in karachi the biggest illegal money market in Pakistan was robbed. My jaw dropped straight away. The Bolton money market was known for entertaining every customer. Once in a sting operation a fake customer exchanged $100,000 for Pakistani rupees. That’s a jaw dropping 8.3 million PKR. No wonder no claim has been filled by the owners of those shops for compensation as that would expose them to the tax authorities.<br /><br />Since it is proved that the whole incident was well organized, does this mean that robbing the market was also part of there plan? A place which can generate 8 million rupees in 5 minutes must be holding at least 80 million worth cash in both local and foreign currencies. Just imagine the kind of destruction can be done from that money. People say that the total damage was 5 trillion rupees but I say the damage has yet to start because I am sure that this money will be used for funding the terrorist activities.<br /><br />Beware my country mates the damage is yet to follow.Muhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-51140270551706851162010-01-17T11:56:00.000-08:002010-01-17T12:02:36.632-08:00IslamabadHow’s Islamabad?<br />If you ask this question from a person who grew up or lived some years here the most obvious answers would be “Aaaallaaa”, “Awesome”, “Cool town”.<br /><br />Islamabad was the brain child of General Ayub Khan who wanted to shift the capital of Pakistan from Karachi to a strategically safer place. So the work was started in 1960’s (the foundation stone can be found at shakerparian). The city is par excellence when compared to any other city in the region.<br /> <br />For me growing up in Islamabad a.k.a Isloo was a privilege. Back then the city was less populated. Sectors G-11 and F-11 were not developed. The roads used to be empty and by maximum 2100hrs it was rare to find traffic on the roads. It used to be so quiet. No noise of the traffic. On Eid’s Isloo was almost deserted as most of the population used to travel to there ancestral homes. Thus Isloo got titled as “the city of living dead” by the Karachi walla’s and the Lahori’s.<br /><br />Now I just laugh at the people who say that Isloo is a dead city. They are just misinformed and living in an illusion that they have created. I mean calling a city dead where a 7 star hotel is under construction is just so lame. That’s not all, it’s the city which is the hub of the political activities of the nation and still they call it dead. Amazing! I ask these people to please come and visit this place for a change and then make up there minds.<br /><br />Islamabad as I recall it has always been like a dream place to live in. Sometimes I imagine as if it’s a place described in a romantic novel and we are just mere characters of that epic saga. the stunning margalla hills and the lovely Faisal mosque on one side, the mist that overtakes in winters, the sunsets in summers, the blooming flowers across the town in spring, ground covered by fallen leaves due to autumn and finally the thunderous rains in monsoon. Which place on earth will have weather like this?<br /><br />To conclude the article a sad note, the dove monument at zero point which was the original monument of Islamabad has been removed due to the on going flyover construction over there has been removed.P.S<br />As it was the symbol of peace I wonder if they’ll put it back when it peace will be restored in the country.Muhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-31783950233866189172010-01-11T10:44:00.001-08:002010-01-11T10:46:57.726-08:00Style IconOver the past few days there has been a great debate going on in my friends circle that who’s the biggest style icon in the history of this region. Most of the people just acted orthodox and ended up naming the film actors from the bollywood or some models. The justifications they gave were also not just lame but were very pathetic as well.<br /><br />I still stick to my first choice and that is the founder of our nation Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah a.k.a Quaid-e-Azam.<br /><br />He was known for his exquisite taste of branded Italian suits and leather shoes at the time when Mr. Gandhi used to roam around semi naked. His portraits at the national library are a showman of style. The tree piece suit, leather hat and shinny black leather shoes would even fit perfect in the modern age.<br /><br />One of the most successful lawyers in the history of the Indian sub continent didn’t restrict his taste to just clothes. His mansion in Mumbai which was constructed under his watchful eye has been declared a national heritage by the Indian government and these days is valued at an estimated value on $300 million housed a wardrobe that would give a run for the money to the biggest designer stores of this era. A very close source once revealed that Mr. Jinnah had about 500 stitched suits in his wardrobe and approx 300 leather suits.<br /><br />In his last days he developed a liking for sherwani and a cap which became so famous that people actually started to call it a Jinnah cap.<br /><br />So here’s a person who was respected in whole of sub continent and was influencing the british and at the same was maintaining an exquisite sense of style.<br /><br />For me Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah a.k.a Quaid-e-Azam is and will always remain the biggest style icon of Indian sub continent. No Khan or Bachan can come close to him when it comes to style.Muhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-29782524870007996132010-01-03T12:24:00.000-08:002010-01-03T12:28:08.628-08:00when it comes to sexIf nations were to be tagged with mental disorders, Pakistan would be within a second, diagnosed as a “split personality” when it comes to sex.<br /><br />Lurking in the shadows are things like hudood laws, gruesome honour killings of people (almost always women) who were “allegedly involved in illicit behaviours” and students threatening to expose other students for holding hands or being a little chummy. We constantly want to be the upholders of modesty and chastity.<br /><br />On the flipside, Pakistan tops the charts as the country that searches for the word “sex” and is always somewhere in the top ten nations that enjoys watching porn. Our favourite’s jokes are about sex. Our modesty flies out of the window, while a thousand eyes stare at a female that walks on the road.<br /><br />The obsession with sex maybe worldwide but here the thought of sex for most people (read men) in Pakistan triggers dogmatic feelings of control, disgust, evil and degradation. The truth is that sexuality is just the opposite.<br /><br />P.S<br />The above piece was printed in TNS on 3rd January 2010.i thought of sharing it with u peopleMuhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-47304263038151994822009-12-31T12:34:00.000-08:002009-12-31T12:36:18.092-08:00New Years EveAs 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />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.Muhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-6274952881595508592009-12-28T16:11:00.000-08:002009-12-28T16:13:26.118-08:00waves of nostalgiaAs 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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.Muhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-39085442033017034102009-12-28T11:57:00.000-08:002009-12-28T12:02:51.737-08:00Evovlution of our Electronic Media and Elephants Of PorusI remember the time when we used to get only 2 channels on our telly1. PTV<br />2. NTM/STN<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /> 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /> 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.<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />As a result of this negative propaganda the direct foreign investment decreased by 53% this year as compared to the last year.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />P.S: for those of you who don’t know what are Elephants of Poras?<br />Poras was a king who in a war against Alexander raised an army of elephants and those elephants ended up crushing his own army.Muhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-71996013645355830412009-12-26T11:00:00.000-08:002009-12-26T11:01:38.985-08:00Mr. Khwaja AsifInitially 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”<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br /><br /> 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.Muhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8415716825735888203.post-84804705861880823072009-12-25T13:10:00.000-08:002009-12-25T13:54:08.096-08:00Our CJPCall me biased or Call me a moron, I some how have to utter this out.<br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Where were all his principles and Morality at that time. I guess Money overshadowed his moral values.<br /><br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><br />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"<br /><br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><br />P. S<br /><br />I wanted to write some thing else but driffted away, i guess thats what happen when u blog for the first time.<br /><br /><br /><br />Inshallah Next post will be to the point and will be about our mediaMuhammad Abbas Hassanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320265575660981569noreply@blogger.com2