With Love From Russia

The so-called ‘Trees of Love’, with padlocks placed by newlyweds to seal their passion, dot a Moscow road. A new Russian tradition involves newlyweds placing a padlock at an iron tree to ‘lock’ their love. As long as the padlock remains, the couple’s love will remain locked, so believe the lovers.

Taking Off at Hyderabad Airport Runway

Owais Mughal

Hyderabad used to have a decent civil airport with a 7054 ft long runway and regular flights to Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. The airport got closed in 1998 due to losses. There was an announcement recently to reopen the airport on July 26, 2008 but the event got postponed after the runway was declared not upto-mark for commercial service yet.

In the meantime, Government of Sindh announced 10,000 posts in Police department and found a novel use for the Hyderabad Airport runway. In the photo above, candidates for police posts are seen running on the runway of Hyderabad Aiprort as part of their physical fitness test.

Photo is from July 22, 2008. Looking at the ‘jazba’ (motivation) of the runners in the photo below, a poetic verse comes to my mind:

rau meiN hai rakhsh-e-umr, kahaaN dekhiye thamay
nay haath baag par hai na paa hai rakaab meiN

Photo Credits: Farhan Khan at APP

Stories from Greece

On our first night in Athens, after walking around the hotel for a short while, we eventually found a restaurant. We were all starving, so "pizza, bar, restaurant" was music to our ears. We all ordered pizza. Silvi, my mom and I took two family sized pizzas, to mix the flavor, while bf ordered another one for himself. Little did D know about how long it will actually take to get his pizza as they were kind of understaffed that night.

What to drink, we asked? Well, a local beer, what else! We checked the menu and also asked our waiter, who was a pretty crazy and dizzy fellow, which of the beers was local. And he recommended Mythos. Silviana and I smiled at each other. Yes, we had the same character in mind, another Methos! Yes, my friends, the oldest of the immortals from the Highlander series! Mythos beer was our instant choice. Well, all except my mom, who ordered a Heineken.

How does it taste? Well, it tastes like Romanian cheap beer...But who cared? It had to be local! I for one thought the others where to picky. I personally loved the beer, as it was kind of sweet and not that strong, so I could actually drink an entire bottle.

The pizza was great though! My friend Cris was right when she told me about what great pizza the Greeks made! Yes, I know, not really local food, but when you are starving and you get Mythos for the local touch, does it really matter?

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Recalling a Conspiracy

Anwar Syed

When two or more persons make plans to commit a crime, they may be said to have hatched a conspiracy.

Discussion of the project does not become a conspiracy unless the participants have agreed to carry it out.

It has been said repeatedly in recent weeks that conspiracies are being hatched in the presidency to disrupt the rapport between the PPP and PML-N. If this is indeed happening, the enterprise may be called dirty politics but, strictly speaking, it is not a conspiracy since breaking a rival coalition is not a crime.

We have had only a few known conspiracies in our history. There was the Rawalpindi Conspiracy to overthrow Liaquat Ali Khan’s government in 1951, a conspiracy between President Iskander Mirza and Gen Ayub Khan to dismiss the civilian regime and bring in military rule (1958), and a conspiracy between Gen Yahya Khan and some of his associates to use military force to crush the separatists in East Pakistan (1971). One may also refer to a conspiracy between Gen Ziaul Haq and his commanders to overthrow Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government (1977). Participants in only one of these cases, the Rawalpindi Conspiracy, were arrested, tried and convicted. The specifics of this case are not generally known and I should like to share them with readers.

Maj Gen Mohammad Akbar Khan was its author. Born into an affluent Pakhtun family in 1912, he went to Islamia College, Peshawar, after finishing high school, entered the British Indian Army, graduated from the famous Sandhurst Military Academy, returned to the Indian Army as a commissioned officer (1934), fought the Japanese in Burma during World War II, received a gallantry award, and joined the Pakistan Army as a brigadier after independence. He commanded the regular and irregular forces fighting Indian forces in Kashmir, did not approve of the ceasefire and wanted the fighting to continue.

He was greatly dissatisfied with what he considered was the inadequate support the government extended to the Pakistani men fighting in Kashmir. Gen Douglas Gracey, chief of the Pakistan Army at the time, and on his advice the prime minister, did not want the army to get too deeply involved in Kashmir. That is why they were circumspect in their support of the operation.

Akbar Khan was inclined to be impulsive and rather indiscreet, and he talked too much. He freely conveyed his criticism of the government to fellow officers. His wife, Nasim (daughter of the celebrated woman politician Begum Jehan Ara Shahnawaz), was even more of a talker. She too went around criticising the government. Word of their talking eventually reached the intelligence agencies, who began to watch them.

Akbar Khan was nevertheless promoted to the rank of major general in December 1950. Gen Ayub Khan, who was now commander-in-chief, posted him as chief of the general staff at the headquarters, partly to keep an eye on him and partly to keep him away from officers out in the field. This, however, did not stop his tirades against the government. In fact he now began to discuss with friends a plan to overthrow the government.

On Feb 23, 1951 about a dozen officers (ranking from major general to captain) and three civilians met at Akbar Khan’s house. The civilians included Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Syed Sajjad Zaheer (general secretary of the Communist Party of Pakistan) and Mohammad Hussain Ata. Akbar Khan presented his plan: Governor General Nazimuddin and Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, who were expected to be in Rawalpindi during the following week, would be arrested. The governor general would be forced to dismiss the government and install an interim regime headed by Akbar Khan. Elections would be promised but no definite date given. The new regime would set things right (eradicate corruption, provide education, healthcare and other amenities of life to the poor). The meeting lasted more than eight hours, and reportedly the participants agreed that the plan should be implemented.

Akbar Khan had reached an understanding with the Communist Party along the following lines: he would stop the intense persecution to which the party leaders and workers were being subjected at the time, and he would let the party function like any other political organisation. This guarantee included the right to contest elections. In return the party and the trade unions affiliated with it would welcome his government, and The Pakistan Times, of which Faiz Ahmed Faiz was the chief editor, would support it.

A senior police officer in the NWFP, Askar Ali Shah, had been Akbar Khan’s friend and confidant for a time and had known of his opposition to the government. He did not participate in the meeting on Feb 23 but learned of its proceedings, got cold feet, and blurted them out to the provincial IGP. The latter reported them to the governor, who promptly informed the prime minister.

On the morning of March 9, Maj Gen Akbar Khan and three of his co-conspirators, including Faiz, were arrested. Begum Nasim, Sajjad Zaheer and several others were arrested a few days later. They ended up in Hyderabad jail (where a wing had been specially prepared for them) and were tried on the charge of “having conspired to wage war against the king.” A special tribunal consisting of Sir Abdul Rahman of the federal court, Justice Mohammad Sharif of the Lahore High Court and Justice Amir-ud-Din of the Dhaka High Court was constituted to try the accused. The trial began on June 15 and lasted several weeks. A.K. Brohi appeared as the chief prosecutor while Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, Z.H. Lari, and several other well-known lawyers appeared for the defence.

The defence argued that while the accused had met and talked, they had not all agreed to take any action. But two of the conspirators (Col Siddique Raja and Maj Mohammad Yousuf Sethi) turned approvers and were persuaded to testify that the accused had indeed come to an agreement. Gen Akbar Khan and the other officers were sentenced to imprisonment for 12 years but the civilians got away with four years in jail.

‘Enemies of the king’ are usually made reasonably comfortable in prison. Forced solitude gives them time to reflect. Faiz wrote some of his finest poetry during his years in jail. The charge of conspiracy did not lower these men in public esteem, Faiz continued to be honoured after his release and Akbar Khan landed a high post in the national security apparatus in Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government.

Aloo Bhujia, Aloo Chaat

Kalpana Sahni

Can we visualise India’s sedate prime minister sporting a broccoli flower in the buttonhole and his equally dignified wife decorating her bun with it — for the cause of encouraging the Indian farmers to cultivate this angrezi gobhi? The subcontinent being what it is, the only thing that would proliferate and flourish will be the jokes!

Today’s politicians might lack a sense of humour and not appreciate the advantages of this nutritious plant, but in earlier days the French royalty certainly did not suffer the squeamishness of decorating their personages with vegetables. Louis XVI and his wife proudly sported the potato flower to encourage potato cultivation. And it worked!

This potato button-hole policy reinforced with Marie Antoinette’s coiffeur a la potato flowers succeeded where Louis XVI’s two predecessors had failed despite passing legislation and issuing threats. Earlier, faced with a popular uprising over escalating bread prices, Louis XIV, on the advice of his botanists, passed a decree on the imperative of cultivating potatoes. It misfired. His successor decided that the fault lay with the government’s insensitivity to the French language. The ‘crude’ South American term “batata” was elevated in stature and received a regal nomenclature – pomme de terre or, the apple of the earth... again to no avail. Apple or not, the French peasant wasn’t interested.

This lump of starch, which today is taken for granted in nearly 250 countries and territories as a basic diet, has had a turbulent history of acceptance. It had to fight its way inch by inch to get onto dining tables.

For nearly 200 years the European peasant resisted all government attempts to impose potato cultivation, convinced that this bland tuber was the cause of leprosy, sexual debility, syphilis and early death. How were they to know that this tuber, brought back by the Spaniards from Peru, had been grown and consumed for centuries by the Incas, who were adept at drying and storing this root which came in a large variety of colours and shapes.

In those early times, little was known of this imported item. One Elizabethan English enthusiast decided to introduce it to the aristocracy. He made the fatal error of cooking just the leaves and berries and throwing away the ugly misshapen tubers. The result was food poisoning of the royal guinea pigs. The potato vanished off the English menu for a long time.

The struggle for acceptance did not succeed any better in neighbouring Prussia. Frederick the Great passed a potato cultivation order in 1774. The citizens of the town of Kolberg responded: “The things have neither smell, nor taste, not even the dogs will eat them, so what use are they to us?”

Frederick threatened to cut off the nose and ears of those who refused to comply. His obsession with potatoes seeped into Russia where, Catherine the Great, also a German, passed a similar order but to no avail. In Russia the church too resisted and termed it the ‘devil’s weed’. Revolts were met with repression.

Finally in the mid-19th century, after two failed wheat harvests and a famine, the Russian peasants eventually turned to potato cultivation. Within 50 years the volume of potato cultivation rose by 400 times. Today it is difficult to imagine Russian cuisine without potatoes. The best vodka is of course made from potatoes!

And then there are the Irish who consider the potato plant as the queen of the garden. They even get lyrical over it: “It is easy to halve a potato where there is love,” or “ two things in this world are too serious to jest about, potatoes and matrimony.” The colonised Irish peasants, impoverished and dispossessed of their land by the English, were forced into growing potato as a mono crop on their tiny land holdings.

By the mid-19th century the Irish had become completely dependent on potatoes as their staple diet. Three major potato crop failures in four years (between 1845 and 1850) led to famine and death of half the population, widespread unrest, followed by the exodus to North America. (It was, ironically the Irish and Scots who brought the potato back to the American continent).

Stranger things were to occur once potato cultivation had taken off in Europe. Prussia and Austria were engaged in a stalemated Potato War in 1778. With neither side winning the two armies plundered each other’s potato fields in a bid to starve each other.

In our subcontinent, we fortunately, absorbed this tuber, brought by the Portuguese in the 17th century, without coercion or threats. Instead of boiling it like Europeans, we transformed it with spices: aloo tikki, aloo bhujia, aloo chaat, dum aloo, aloo dosa, batata vada etc — in the north calling it by the Persian word aloo meaning “plum”. In the south it remains batata.

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Pakistan in Washington’s Smithsonian Museum

Owais Mughal

Outside Pakistan any reference to mother land naturally catches our attention (see Beijing’s Pakistani Connections and Pakistani Towels in Missouri). Last week I got chance to visit Washington DC’s Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). This museum was opened in 1910 and was among the first building built for Smithsonian to house national treasures. Among other treasures of knowledge and research preserved in the museum, there is a section dedicated to Pakistan. The whole theme of Pakistani pavilion is around a ‘bazaar’ being the center of social activities in a Pakistani village.

Shown above is a scene of Pakistani village depicted at Smithsonian Museum of Natual History in Washington D.C.

While the information given about Pakistan in the museum is correct and displayed articulately, my only comment is that it does not cover the whole story. It gives an impression as if Pakistan is all tribal or nomadic and it completely ignores the well-settled, pretty modern and educated urban centers. The display also seems to date back from 1960s or 1970s as evident from the truck photos below.

Pakistani Trucks Also Made it to the Smithsonian Museum: As mentioned in one of our earlier posts, the indigenousTruck Art of Pakistan is also featured in the museum. I apologize for the average quality of photos but the originals were quite faded too. The truck photos seem to be from 1970s therefore they are not as colorful as present day truck photos. The trucks also show an interesting image of a boeing with PIA (Pakistan International Airlines) written on the tail. This got to be pre-1980 image because in 80s all trucks changed their aviation related art from commercial planes to F-16s and then in 90s to Titanic.


Scenes From a Pakistani bazaar: As written above, a traditional village bazaar of Pakistan is featured and modeled in the museum. Following write-up on a plaque is how it is described in exact words. On another plaque it was written that people from all ‘quarters’ of a city meet at bazaar and mosque. The plaque reads: People from all ‘quarters’ of a city meet at bazaar and mosque. Though they may live in separate, often walled and hostile, parts of the city, the various groups are economically independent. To satisfy the need for a safe meeting area, both customs and religious law guarantee the neutrality of the market. In addition to conducting business in the bazaar, people visit with friends or relatives, hear news or proclamations from the market crier, and conduct legal affairs with scribe, official witnesses and judges. Tea shops in the bazaar have long been the common meeting ground for men.

I doubt if the above plaque’s writing is completely true anymore. There is no village crier for sure. There are no more walled cities with hostile population. Only Lahore, Multan and Hyderabad have people living in walled cities now which also constitute less than 1% of the city population. That is why I think some of the information needs to be updated at the museum. Photo to the right above shows Smithsonian NMNH’s entrance.

Yet another plaque describes a Pakistani village bazaar as the center of economic activity in following words.

In the market the necessities of life, as well as the most expensive luxury goods are available. Though much of the material sold in bazaar is also made there, the owners of individual stalls ofter have special ties, based on kinship, to producers in oultying independent villages. These loyalties have often been in conflict with the aims of the central government, which throughout history has treated the bazaar as an important source of revenue through taxation.

Following photos show a bazaar scene as displayed in the museum. The photo to the left show various household items seen in a village bazaar for sale. The photo to the right is the wooden seat used on a camel.

A Balochi Village:

There is this life size black and white photo in the museum which shows a temporary village of nomads in Balochistan.



Reference:

1. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

With Love From Pakistan

By Jyoti Kalsi, Gulf News Report

Authentic Shahi Haleem from the famous Kausar restaurant in Karachi, a variety of delicious sweets, hand-embroidered salwar suits and shawls, trendy leather jackets and handbags, traditional handmade shoes, glittering jewellery, intricately carved wooden furniture, beautiful carpets and entertainment by well known performers — you can get all this and more at the Pakistan pavilion in Global Village.

The façade of this pavilion is modelled on the Baba E Khyber Fort in Peshawar, while the interior is a recreation of a typical Peshawari bazaar with over 80 stalls offering a taste of Pakistani culture, cuisine and creativity. While all the people managing the stalls and the items on sale are Pakistani, visitors will be surprised to find a German manning a stall here. Roman Laube is a media designer from Berlin and is spending his annual vacation as a volunteer for an NGO called Thatta Kedona. He has flown down to Dubai especially to help manage the organisation's stall at the pavilion.


"Kedona means ‘toy' in Punjabi and this began as a self-help project for women in a small village called Thatta Ghulam in Pakistan's Punjab province. It was established in 1993 by a German social worker. The project began with five women and now we have over 120 women working with us.

The money raised from worldwide sales of our products has been used to build a healthcare centre, a school, a deep borewell and training centres for young boys and girls in the village. We are grateful to the organisers of the Pakistan pavilion for giving us this space and we hope that visitors to the Global Village will support us whole-heartedly," said Laube.

The colourful stall has an array of products hand-made by the women. These include dolls in the traditional attire of different areas of Pakistan, embroidered dresses, cards, bookmarks,
beaded key rings, finger puppets, jewellery including necklaces with miniature doll pendants, block-printed bedcovers and Christmas decorations.

Also on display are beautiful hand-painted tinsheet miniature cycles, rickshaws and trucks made by young men from the village. The goods range in price from Dh3 to Dh200.

Experiences by Sophie

On June 21, 2008, the adventure of this year’s summer school started for three women from TGD, Shama Bibi, Sarvat Bibi, and Meraj Bibi and their teachers Monika (arts and handicrafts) and Sophie Kuppler (English). Unfortunately, in the last moment three of the originally six participants had to stay at home due to family problems. After 25 hours of sitting in the car they arrived at the guesthouse in Altit, Hunza where they stayed for 18 nights. The days were filled with learning English, enhancing handicraft skills, especially in pottery and doll making, cooking, and playing games.

For learning English the women were separated into two groups. One of them already knew some English and a school book was used to enhance her reading, speaking and writing skills. The other two women did never visit a school and thus never learned to read or write. In their lessons most weight was put on being able to communicate with the volunteers coming to teach handicrafts.

Thus, under a lot of laughter the learned things were repeated and deepened while working.Of course, the 2.5 weeks did not only serve to study, but also to get to know the country and how differently people live in the country’s north and south. The happier the participants were to find very friendly and welcoming village people, some of whom quickly became friends with the women from TGD. Knowledge about handicrafts was exchanged and cooking skills tested.

Also different living styles and styles of houses were discussed with the two local friends, Sultana and Bushra.The most exciting day for sure was the day of the excursion to the Passu glacier. Never before had the women touched or seen ice in their lives, now they could even walk on it!After an exciting and instructive 2.5 weeks everybody was happy to return to their families, sad to leave the newly made friends and full of wonderful memories. The participants of the summer school would like to thank Lions Club Heilbronn, Mrs Gabi Fröhlich, Explore Pakistan, Mr Shafqat Ali, and Mr Amir Jan, who all together made this stay possible and enjoyable.

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Want of Accountability

Anwar Syed

Prices of oil, gas, electricity, food and many other items of daily consumption have risen enormously. Millions of people are going hungry, and there are reports every day of persons killing themselves and their families because they had nothing to eat.

The economy is languishing and workers are losing jobs. The ‘common man’ is being asked to tighten his belt.

But those calling for the tightening of belts are doing nothing of the kind in their own domains. On July 7 Prime Minister Gilani journeyed to Malaysia to attend a conference of eight developing Muslim countries called the D8. It was all right for him to show up there but it was something else to have taken with him an entourage of 55 persons, including numerous parliamentarians.

The conference passed resolutions in the nature of pious platitudes. It resolved to meet global challenges through “innovative cooperation”. Participants cautioned the world that food shortage could pose a threat to its peace and good order. They favoured collaboration, including joint ventures, between members to increase food production and identify and develop renewable sources of energy including the nuclear variety. They resolved to increase intra-regional trade, allow movement of labour and the protection of migrant workers’ rights. They would “harness the potential of Islamic banking and finance”. Prime Minister Gilani appealed to the D8 members and the world at large to help Pakistan’s fight against extremism and militancy.

These resolutions were statements of good intentions placed on record. How seriously they were meant and whether any of them will actually be carried out only time will tell. Their articulation could not possibly have required any significant amount of intellectual ingenuity or exertion. There was then no call for the 55 Pakistani dignitaries to make a contribution to the work of this conference, because it did no work to speak of.

The cost of their travel, hotel accommodation, food and drink, local transportation and daily allowance would add up to several million rupees that the Pakistani taxpayer had to pay. He got nothing in return, for these gentlemen brought back nothing (except perhaps stories of their exploits in Kuala Lumpur). And he has no way of holding them accountable.

While Mr Gilani was still in Kuala Lumpur, Asif Zardari asked him to stop over at Dubai for consultation about the status of their party’s coalition with the PML-N and other matters. Mr Zardari had also summoned several federal ministers to Dubai to help him get ready for his forthcoming talks with Nawaz Sharif in London.

The prime minister and his cabinet colleagues are functionaries of the state, and if they had gone to Dubai on government business they could have justly charged their expenses to the treasury. But they went to see Mr Zardari who holds no public office. He may be their party boss but in the reckoning of the Auditor General of Pakistan he is a private citizen. It follows that the ministers’ visit to Dubai was their private business, the costs of which should have been met out of their personal funds. But it is lawlessness if they were paid out of the treasury.

Mr Zardari’s present connection with the government is not only extra-legal but also gross. If it cannot be terminated, a way should be found to legitimise it. He might be given some kind of a post in the state apparatus: roving ambassador, minister without portfolio, adviser-in-chief?

He is not the only party chief who summons associates to meetings requiring travel within Pakistan and abroad. Benazir Bhutto used to call her party elders to Dubai, London and at times even New York. Nawaz Sharif did the same with his party notables. One may want to know who paid their travel and related costs: each one of them personally, the party chief, or the party?

There is not much for us to say in the first two cases. Interesting questions do arise if the money comes from the party coffers. I happen to have on hand approximate figures (in rupees) of income and expenditure that several parties reported to the Election Commission for the fiscal year 2003-04. The MQM collected and spent nearly Rs4m; the PML-Q collected Rs256,000 and spent nearly Rs6m; the JI received Rs3m and spent a little less; the PML-N collected and spent a little less than Rs2m; the JUI-F collected and spent exactly the same amount which was Rs1,138,408 (this exactitude being surely a thing of wonder). The PPP parliamentarians opened and closed the year with a cash balance of Rs1,000, collected nothing and spent nothing (also an enigma).

If four PML-N notables made three trips to London to confer with Nawaz Sharif, travelled first (or even business) class and stayed in a decent hotel, they would pretty much exhaust the party’s kitty (Rs2m in 2003-04). Note that Mr Sharif asked his associates to travel to London several times during his stay there. The same would hold for other parties such as the MQM and PPP.

Consider also that parties have other expenses such as those relating to workers’ compensation, organisation of election campaigns, public meetings, rallies and demonstrations. We must conclude then that the reports filed with the Election Commission were incomplete or false, and that the parties have additional funds tucked away in hidden places.

It is possible that the better-known persons in the major parties are independently wealthy and capable of bearing their travel costs, in which case we have the paradox of the wealthy managing a party, such as the PPP, that claims to be the party of the poor and the deprived.

It may be assumed that parties have bank accounts in which their declared funds are kept. It remains to be asked if there is a unit in each party that approves its budget and authorises disbursements, and to which the designated disbursing officer renders an accounting. If that is not the case, are we to assume that the party president or chairman is the keeper of its funds and disburses them as he deems fit? Needless to say, the latter situation does not provide for accountability. It may then be said that the party chooses to operate on the basis of a personality cult, and that it has little interest in converting itself into an institution.

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Encounter

Kalpana Sahni

We certainly are living on a shrunken planet, inundated with images, news and data from across the world through the media and Internet. Despite that, travelling to another country can still produce confusion and mystification not only for the traveller, but also for the local residents.

A Bashkir family friend with a delectable name Aisloo (beautiful moon) arrived from Moscow with a shopping list which included a saree request — a silk saree with cucumbers all over it.

“Yes, my friend saw an Indian lady in Moscow wearing a saree with cucumbers and simply fell in love with it.” Aisloo smiled smugly.

It was an impossible request! Not even in our wildest imagination could we regard cucumbers as something aesthetically pleasing to the eye. We tried to dissuade Aisloo but to no avail. At the shop I lowered my voice and hesitantly asked the saleswoman to show us sarees with cucumbers. Her reaction, thank goodness, was the same as ours — disbelief. Moments later there was an excited squeal from the other end of the shop followed by a triumphant Aisloo marching towards us with three sarees in her arms — all with the so-called cucumber motifs...

“Aisloo!” I said, “These are ambees, mangoes, not cucumbers! Surely you’ve seen this popular motif on Bashkir, Iranian and Central Asian carpets? Haven’t you heard of badaami from the word badaam (almonds)? That’s what this design is called in all these regions.”

But Aisloo, having lived away from home for so long, remained blissfully unaware. It was the cucumber that came closest to her identifiable cultural image and she returned home happily with her cucumber silk saree.

Aisloo may have got the decorative motifs wrong but what about others who are shocked by our public behaviour? How many Europeans and Americans on their first visit to the Indian subcontinent are appalled by the callousness and “public indifference” to the multitudes of tuberculosis patients throwing up blood on the streets till someone explains to them the pleasures of chewing paan.

These two incidents are instructive and reveal that every time a cross-cultural encounter takes place, one culture poses unpredictable questions to the other. And every time these questions are asked, each culture begins to question itself about characteristics that it had simply taken for granted.

Take the case of a visiting Estonian professor at our Centre in the university. She came out of her first lecture very agitated. It had taken her an hour and a half to explain some very simple concept to the students. According to her, whenever she asked the students whether they had understood, they simply shook their heads. This upset her so much that she was ready to pack her bags. Somewhat puzzled a colleague finally asked her whether the students had shaken their heads in a sort of sideways manner.

“Yes! Yes!” she exclaimed.

“Well, that is how many of us indicate ‘yes’.”

It takes time for foreigners coming to our country to mentally adjust to this alien gesture, which is neither one of negation nor affirmation.

Fritz Staal, a 70-year-old Dutch scholar of Sanskrit, recounted his first day as a student in Madras University. After the lecture by a renowned Sanskrit scholar, a student asked Fritz whether he had enjoyed it.

“I’m afraid, I do not speak Tamil,” Fritz replied.

“What Tamil? The lecture was in English.”

Today Professor Staal speaks Tamilian English fluently.

Then there was a lady from Siberia married to an Indian. She recounted to her mother how in India guests were greeted with a glass of water.

“Water! Is that hospitality?” was her mother’s horrified response.

This was an understandable response from somebody residing in the subzero temperatures of Siberia where water is never really drunk on its own. But, by the same logic, the hot Indian climate influences our sense of hospitality. A person entering a house from the sweltering heat outside is always greeted with that mandatory glass of water with other refreshments to follow. How easy it is to misinterpret unfamiliar cultural traits and turn them into derogatory characteristics!

But there seems to be no limit to the foreigners’ sense of bewilderment, be it our gestures, habits or even clothes! Another of our family gems is about the Chinese laundry man who stood outside the door of an Indian student’s flat in New York. The student’s father, on a visit to his daughter, liked to wear a smart achkan and white, starched chooridaars, which were regularly dispatched to the laundry. The Chinese stood there with an apologetic expression on his face, shuffled his feet and finally threw his arms wide apart and blurted out, “I’m sorry to disturb you but can I please see the gentleman who has this enormous girth and extremely long and thin legs?”

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SocialSpark is very transparent and flexible for advertisers can ask bloggers for writing sponsored posts, blog sponsorship and or sparks and make their products and services more visible in the huge World Wide Web. SocialSpark providers exposure to the advertisers in more than one ways. In addition to bloggers taking certain opportunity, all interested bloggers (bloggers are consumers too) open the opportunity and read the requirement, may be comment, before taking it. This is an exposure to the product and service in itself.

Given my interest in paid blogging, I have already joined and have taken some opportunity that I found useful for my readers. Besides some money that I make, the opportunities have given surge to my blog traffic. Though I discuss different subjects on my blog but basically mine is basically a travel blog and my readers are interested to information about different destination and related services. That is why I always look for travel related opportunities first. Also that is why I suggest travel advertisers to use Social Spark for promoting their services.

Collision Politics

Anwar Syed

IT has been strangely quiet on the political front with no report of any significant development, except that the government may be toying with the idea of launching an ‘operation’ against militants.

More worrisome is the fact that not much is even being said. Asif Zardari and Asfandyar Wali Khan may be believers in silence being golden. Nawaz Sharif, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Mushahid Hussain were all known for their loquaciousness, but they too seem to have taken to taciturnity. It may be that they have chosen to be non-committal on the overriding issue facing the country (dealing with militants).

A few sparks have, however, flown out of an otherwise cool pile of ash. Amin Fahim, still a vice-chairman of the PPP, said recently that the ruling PPP was not the old and real PPP but a new one (new presumably because it is now directed by Mr Zardari), and that he had nothing to do with its governance. On July 3 Mr Zardari removed Abdul Qadir Shaheen, a veteran party worker and devotee of Benazir Bhutto, from his post as head of the PPP’s labour bureau.

Mr Shaheen had committed the indiscretion of attending a function in honour of Ms Bhutto, organised by Naheed Khan, a confidant of Ms Bhutto and her secretary for many years, whom the party’s new leadership has left out in the cold. Amin Fahim was the guest of honour at this function and other participants included Aitzaz Ahsan, Senator Safdar Abbasi, Senator Enver Baig and many other party loyalists disaffected with Zardari and company.

A PML-N spokesman stated on July 2 that his party had not been consulted about the operation launched in Fata. The party is also said to have distanced itself from the PPP government’s decision to raise oil and gas prices. Its differences with the PPP over the reinstatement of deposed judges and the president’s impeachment persist. These facts have led some observers to wonder if these two parties are really in a coalition arrangement and, if they are, why don’t they reach agreement on major policy issues.

The nature of their coalition merits scrutiny. It was initially made to form governments at the centre and in Punjab. Further, it was predicated on the assumption that the partners would get the National Assembly to pass a resolution calling for the reinstatement of deposed judges by April 30 (Bhurban Declaration) or, at the latest, by May 12, 2008. The PPP, being the leading partner, was to initiate this move. It went back on its promise, whereupon the PML-N withdrew its ministers from the central government. But it said it would not join the ranks of the opposition, and would support the PPP government in all situations where it was doing the right thing. The coalition in Punjab continued to function.

It may then be said that there is no coalition between the PPP and PML-N in the central government. The relationship between them consists only of a one-sided declaration of intent that the PML-N made voluntarily. The party, however, is not bound to support the government on measures which it considers to be wrong or which are otherwise liable to lower its standing in public esteem.

It follows also that the PPP government at the centre is under no obligation to consult the PML-N, an outsider, on issues with which it may be dealing. What do we then make of the PML-N statement that it was not consulted about the Fata operation? I interpret it not as a grievance but as a statement of fact intended to dissociate the party from a potentially troublesome move.

The Sharifs may have figured that the PPP, being the recipient of the rewards of power, should be the one to bear the responsibility (and blame) for an operation which, howsoever necessary it might have been, was bound to invite strong disapproval from several quarters, especially the Islamic parties and like-minded others.

The reinstatement of judges was a matter of honour for the PML-N leadership. The PPP’s unwillingness to do anything about it could have been reason enough for the PML-N to move to the opposition benches in the National Assembly. That it has not done. If it did so, the PPP would not be able to form a viable government, and the president would have to dissolve the assembly and order new elections.

This turn of events would not be welcome to the PML-N or the PPP. Apart from the fact that a new election will cost a lot of money and effort, it may not produce significantly better results for either of them. There is still another consideration to be noted. If the PML-N deserts the PPP at the centre, the latter may desert the PML-N government in Punjab and bring it down. The Sharifs would then do all they can to keep the PPP on board in Punjab.

Unlike the PML-N, the JUI-F, Awami National Party and the MQM are partners in the coalition government at the centre, and it may be said that they are therefore entitled to be consulted on issues under consideration. Maulana Fazlur Rehman recently said (on July 5) that his party had not been consulted regarding the Fata operation and that the PPP is making decisions unilaterally which, he thought, would cause trouble. It is known that the ANP has reservations about the government’s Fata move, meaning that the PPP has not taken this party on board either.

The argument for consulting partners is valid but its mode may be moot. Mr Gilani should not have to be running to heads of parties in the coalition every time an issue is to be settled or a move made. If consultation means securing of concurrence, the party heads will each have a veto they can use to paralyse the government. Another way has to be found.

The normal procedure in democracies is to take the business at hand to the cabinet, which includes nominees of the coalition partners, and get it settled there. These nominees can present their respective parties’ views which will be considered as the discussion proceeds. If the majority in the cabinet does not accept their positions, they should let its decision prevail or, if they can’t live with it, resign. That is the way a cabinet government works.

Blogging Books

The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil

The Everything Blogging Book by Aliza Sherman Risdahl

Career Building Through Blogging by Deirdre Day

Clear Blogging by Bob Walsh

The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil

Blogging by David L. Hudson

Realty Blogging by Richard Nacht

Grassroots Blogging Practice in America and China- Studies on 60 ... by Feng Junli

Insider Blogging Secrets

Blogging books at Amazon

Who Let the Blogs Out?: A Hyperconnected Peek at the World of Weblogs (Paperback) by Biz Stone

Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content (VOICES) by Biz Stone (Paperback) by Biz Stone

No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog by Margaret Mason

The list is growing. Please leave names of your favourite books along with their authors in comment.

Foliage

A home covered by foliage.

Blog Syllabus – Literature Review

Blogging Syllabus

Blogs: A Disruptive Technology Coming of Age?

Nick's July 2006 Blogging Class

Lifelong Learning Institute

Multimedia course syllabus


Is blogging being taught in business schools anywhere?

First Locomotive Comes to Lahore

Owais Mughal

The citizens of Lahore saw a Railway Locomotive for the first time in their city in March 1862. Lahore at that time was connected via Railways to Amritsar and rest of the India but not to the port city of Karachi. The Lahore-Amritsar line though complete, was not inaugurated yet. It was to be inaugurated later on April 10, 1862. Therefore, Karachi being the closest port to Lahore, was used to import the first locomotive that was to drive down in Lahore.

The photo above is not the locomotive which first made its appearence in Lahore; This is however, now the oldest surviving locomotive in Pakistan. It is named as ‘Eagle’ and it was built in 1876 in England. It is now placed outside Moghalpura Workshops, Lahore (Photo is courtesy of Mr. Thomas Kautzor).

From Karachi port, this locomotive was shipped to Lahore via river transportation system. It was a long and slow journey. The locomotive was shipped from Karachi port at Kimari to Kotri (located at western bank of Indus) by train. At Kotri it was tranferred to a steam boat of Indus Steam Flotilla company.

To get an idea of how slow the transportation sytem was as compared to present day; it usually took 34 days for the steam boats to bring freight from Kotri to Multan (~700km) via River Indus and Chenab. Since this locomotive had to be transported further north, it must’ve taken even longer time. I am not able to find the exact time it took this locomotive to reach from Kimari to Lahore. The steam boat finally brought the locomotive up through Indus and Ravi. At Lahore it was received at the banks of River Ravi.

From the banks of Ravi the locomotive was brought into the city where a gathering of city notables and awam was arranged near present day chauburji. As there were no railway tracks laid out from the banks of Ravi to chauburji, the locomotive was pulled on Lahore streets by 102 bullocks and pushed from the back 2 elephants. This event of the first locomotive appearence in Lahore was captured by the Lahore chronicle of March 1862 in following words, “Wednesday last was a great day in Lahore, and one that will be long remembered as the commencement of a new era in the Punjab. On the afternoon of that day, the bulk of the European residents and a large portionof the native inhabitants of the city assembled near the beautiful, but partially ruined gateway, known as the ‘Char Burj’ of the Multan Road, where tents had been erected for the accomodation of the ladies and a band of music in attendance for their amusement.

The photo to the left is ‘char burj’ monument’s photo, circa 1910. After the lapse of about half an hour, a roar of many voices proclaimed the approach of some strange creature that was to astonish the natives, and immediately afterwards, a monster made its appearence in the shape of a steam locomotive. But humiliating to say, instead of bounding along with the speed of lightning by its own power, it was being ignominiously dragged at a foot pace by one hundred and two bullocks, and stowed by two elephants.

The tender (of the locomotive) followed, dragged and propelled by about the same number of animals. The excitement exhibited by the crowds of Seikhs, Hindoos, Mussalmans, Afghans and other races, was great while their expressions of wonder on beholding the machine, the curiosity they displayed regarding its use, and the observations they made to each other on the subject, were as interesting as they were singular.

If you think above account was interesting, wait till we bring how Karachiites treated their first sighting of a locomotive. There it was declared as a ‘monster’ and people threw ’shoes’ at it. We’ll bring that interesting story on these very pages very soon.

Refernce: Hundred Years of Pakistan Railway by M.B.K Mallick, 1962

Blog Your Life

The Blog has redefined the Web in many ways. The Web has always been interactive and blogs help interactivity. And then there are new software and blog tools, making it easier and attractive for everyone to start a blog.

Let us assume that you have a blog on a platform (software) of your choice. You define your goals; your target, audience and the content you will be writing. Your next aim is to pick the right blogging tools that work for you.

In addition to the integration of blogging tools, and free and premium blogging software, new blogging tools and services are being released every day to help blog masters add new features to their blog. This becomes quite overwhelming to choose from and to choose the best from among a number of blog promotion tools and add-ons. It all depends on your goals, your expertise, and the time you are consuming for it. Here are a few common solutions for different situations:

Any serious blogger needs to read a lot of other blogs to know what is going on in the ever expanding blogsphere. Technorati alone in its October 2006 report claims to track 57 million blogs. One of the marvels of technology is that you can have new post from every blog. It is delivered directly to you via “Really Simple Syndication”(RSS). Bloglines is a good online choice to start feed reading. And there are so many others.

Similarly, you can make it easier for your readers to subscribe to your blog's RSS feed. “RSS is a protocol, an application of XML (Extensible Mark-up Language) that provides an open method of syndicating and aggregating Web content. By using RSS files, you can create a data feed that supplies headlines, links, and article summaries from your Website. Users can have a constant updated content from websites delivered to them via a news aggregator, a piece of software specifically tailored to receive these types of feeds”, reads a Web definition. One of the ways to do this is to go to Feed Burner and burn your own RSS feed there and use the tools they provide to set up to automatic subscriber links so that even people who want to use Bloglines, Google Reader, My Yahoo or Pluck can subscribe to it. And it also can be figured out without the buttons but why not have a prominently visible button? It creates an option for people to subscribe by giving an email address so that they can receive your blog posts like an email message. Feed Burner offers this service for free.

Feed Burner also offers automatic pinging but in case you want to use a separate service for pinging, try Ping Goat and Ping O Matic. Most blog software these days ping each post automatically.

As readers search from blog to blog, they may find interesting sites that they want to point out to their readers. Online bookmark managers allow readers to collect bookmark and categorise blog pages and all other interesting stuff found on the Web. I use del.icio.us but Blink List does a fine job as well.

Then there are statistics produced by analysing the access logs for a blog which are very useful for the success of blogs, while boosting the webmaster. The number of hits also determines a click-through rate for those who have subscribed to Google AdSense or other similar affiliate programs. There are countless technologies, making it possible to track statistics in real-time to show what other web users may be visiting or still linking to you or posting about your blog.

In almost all blog software, you must go online and can post using a set of tools provided. Many bloggers like to use a desktop application like “w.blogger”, “Performancing and Qumana” to create and publish their posts as it gives them some extra help and allows them to integrate content and files more easily on their computer. Maybe it looks like they are far more tech-savvy folks but there is no harm in trying and learning in the process.

There is also a blogger’s display, automatically changing daily quotes or cartoons on the sidebar of their blog for their own interest or for their readers. I am not counting different revenue-generating blog affiliates (Google AdSense, Amazon) that turn in content-related ads on any blog.

The choice is endless and users can have anything on their blogs from blogchat to blogmap; time, temperature and weather display of any area or a nifty new blogbar (blogbar.com) that allows them to search from 12 search engines from single search box. On one blog, I clicked on an array of symmetrically stacked colourful buttons and found “email icon generator”, “official seal generator”. The good thing about the blogger community is that they share anything new that is announced. Thus, it gets moving fast in the blogsphere.

Since 2003 when I started blogging, I have been using many blog tools. The fact is that whenever any new blog tool was announced, I would try it. But over time, I have settled for site metre (statcounter.com), analytical tools (Google Analytics), news aggregators, news sourcing tools (Technorati and Blogpulse), polls (blogpolls.com), email subscription and newsletter service (feedblitz.com). And there are some others like Pingoat, Audiobloger, Blogrolling and Flickr.

When my daily blogging time starts, I first go to my invisible site metre to find out who has been reading my blogs. Then I read my feeds and know what has been happening on blogs of my interest since I last went offline, bookmarking items. In the meantime, I plan to write and post entries and start pinging. In the end, I read the feedback and find some burning replies but it doesn’t make any difference to me. In fact, it keeps me going.

Dealing With the Militants

Anwar Syed

Prime Minister Gilani presided over a meeting of ministers and other officials on June 25 to devise ways of subduing the militants, mostly the Taliban, in the NWFP.

The Taliban used to be located mainly in our northwestern tribal region, but of late they have spread to other places in the province and the country. They are Islamic fundamentalists, extremists and terrorists. They have two main objectives. First they want to expel American presence and influence from Afghanistan. To this end they attack the American and Afghan government forces in that country.

They want the government of Pakistan to dissociate itself from the American campaign against them. Since it will not do so, they regard it as a friend of their enemy and, therefore, an enemy. But their hostility to the state of Pakistan will not cease even if it abandons its American connection. For their second objective is to have Islamic law and morality, as they know them, to be enforced in this country.

Islamic law and morality have already been made part of our constitution and law. But they have not been fully enforced. Nor is it likely that any future government, emerging from the electoral process or military intervention, will enforce them. Knowing this to be the case, the Taliban aim to do the job themselves; by taking charge of governance in Pakistan.

They are enforcing Islamic law and morality in parts of the NWFP that they control. They go into other areas where they harass and intimidate residents. They close, demolish or burn down music shops and video stores, barber shops, cinema houses and other places of entertainment, and schools for girls. They force men and women to wear clothing consistent with their notions of modesty. They require Muslims to observe all the Islamic practices named in the Shariah and visit horrible physical violence upon those who defy them.

Since they want to overthrow the current political system and take power, they are in effect at war with the state of Pakistan. They attack civil, paramilitary, and military personnel, establishments and installations. They resort to kidnapping, arson, and murder and also kill persons who they suspect are pro-government. They have already taken a fair amount of Pakistani territory and they are poised to take more.

Bewildering reports appeared in this newspaper on June 25 and 26, saying that the Taliban were assembling their forces in the vicinity of Peshawar — the capital of NWFP and home to the army’s Eleventh Corps, Frontier Corps, Frontier Constabulary and the provincial police headquarters — to attack the city and that it was in serious danger of falling to them. The Taliban have grown into a formidable force, equipped with modern weapons and trained in their deployment.

Successive governments in Pakistan have been ambivalent, indecisive, and timid in dealing with the militants. This continues to be the case. The prime minister’s meeting, referred to above, came up with a strategy, apparently relating to the tribal areas, that contains the following elements:

(1) ‘Political engagement’ of the people through their elected representatives (probably meaning that they should be persuaded to reject the Taliban and their advocacies). This may be wishful thinking.

(2) Large scale economic and social development such as education, health, infrastructure, small industry, calls for private investment.

(3) Military operation following the principle that minimum force is to be employed and collateral damage is to be avoided.

(4) Tribal customs and traditions are to be respected by all concerned (meaning that the law of Pakistan will not apply in this area).

The army chief will be the principal agent for dealing with the militants, and he will decide which of the elements in the government’s strategy are to be employed. The governor of the NWFP will handle the political component of the strategy in consultation with the chief minister, federal officials, tribal leaders, and ‘important’ politicians.

The prime minister’s announcement included several platitudes:

(1) the writ of the state must be honoured in all places

(2) the tribes are not to attack personnel and positions belonging to the military and law enforcement agencies

(3) the tribal leaders must fulfil the engagements they have made with the government;

(4) Pakistani territory will not be used to make trouble for a neighbouring country, especially Afghanistan;

(5) the government will abide by the accord and commitments it has made with the Taliban in Swat. (These stipulations are platitudes because none of them will actually work.)

Except in the case of Swat, much of which seems to have been surrendered to Maulvi Fazlullah, I am not aware of any accords the government has made with the Taliban. Those made in the future will probably be violated. The political component of the strategy described above is too nebulous to yield any wholesome result. Economic and social development in the tribal areas is a great idea but it is one that will take years to carry out. Plans have to be made, projects identified, details settled; determinations made as to the kind, number and location of schools, clinics, roads and bridges, recruitment and training of the personnel needed to operate them. The likelihood is that in the absence of this preparatory work, funds professedly allocated for development will actually be used to buy the cooperation or acquiescence of the government’s opponents in the area.

The view is shared by many that America’s war with the Taliban is not our war, and that by joining it our government has been killing our own people. The proponents of this view evidently regarded the Taliban as ‘our own people’. The problem is that the Taliban do not and will not, even if our American connection is broken, treat the generality of Pakistanis as their people. They think of us as nominal Muslims, hypocrites, worse than infidels. They have no interest in our survival and well-being as individuals or as a state.

As noted above, they are at war with the state of Pakistan. There can be no negotiations and accords with them, for they do not believe in bargaining and compromise. They want total victory. If they agree to a pause in fighting, that will only be to replenish their forces. The state of Pakistan cannot respond to this war, which they have imposed on it, except by fighting back. And fight back it must with adequate force, enough to get them out of our lives, and do so without equivocation.

Life of a Soldier

Social Spark for Mommy Bloggers

One of the foreign NGO founded in rural hinterland in this part of the world created income generation for the local women in which they were supposed to work on self help bases and earn some additional income. Knowing the culture of the area, NGO had applied a condition that they women working on the project will not do the work on the cost of their own primary responsibility. This worked great and became a win win situation for both NGO as well as women folk.

Imagine the blogging and getting paid for mommy bloggers in this milieu. Imagine how can they take care of home, rare their children and at the same time blog and get paid. I think this is the best situation. Mommy bloggers have a lot to say. They can create valuable content in any chosen field or just narrate their experiences for other mothers and or world be mothers.

One of the great news is that SocialSpark is right around the corner to cater for all mommy bloggers. I suggest mommy bloggers who are looking for one of the best and easy ways to make some money sign up for the mailing list so that they can join vibrant community as soon as it comes up.

Social Spark is a wonderful platform where bloggers and advertisers can meet. Bloggers can register one or more blogs. Once approved, bloggers can start exploring Social Spark marketplace; that is the hub where bloggers can find opportunities (sponsored posts, blog sponsorships and sparks). I suggest all mommy bloggers join Social Spark!

Playing for the Carrom Title in Hyderabad

Owais Mughal

Following photo is courtesy of Farhan Khan of APP. You can make your own story of what is going on but here is my ‘tasweeri kahani’ (photo story). Letters in bold are facts. Rest is fiction. On the hot sunny afternoon of June 27, 2008, some nieghborhood boys gathered under a tree on Airport Road, Hyderabad. Somebody brought a Carrom Board from their home and then they played for the title championship.

A donkey cart boy also stopped by to get a peek at the Final. There were no strict rules in the games as was obvious from any markings (baselines, center circle) being absent from the Carrom Board. The striker was of doughnut shape and boric acid was missing from the surface too. The game was so intense that only three boys (including the donkey cart boy) were looking towards the camera, and one looked away. All otheres were transfixed at the board.

What gives You Immense Happiness

I found this in the pursuit of happiness!