Making Money Online in Pakistan

Making Money in Pakistan

Blogging is no more a new phenomenon in Pakistan. Many Pakistani online users are writing their own and rest are reading others' blogs and interacting in meaningful ways. Their voice is being heard in the blogsphere. Getting paid for blogging is still a new idea in Pakistan though.

There are reasons for this. Ironically, corporate Pakistan is yet not aware of blogs as economical, effective and interactive marketing tool. Like anywhere else, blogs can be a welcome mat for local businesses to reach out across the world but this has not started happening yet. Which is why Pakistan blogsphere can be characterized by only anti-establishment, noncommercial write-ups and rants. Exceptions aside, Pakistan blogs are mainly personal where bloggers post purely because of their own interests.

One wonder why local businesses have failed to notice the growing readership and influence of these Internet postings and the buzz corporate blogging can create particularly as a process of Search Engine Marketing, targeting online segment of consumers. But this is not about how Pakistani businesses can harness the power of blogs to reach out. This is about the options available to Pakistan bloggers to get paid for their work online.

Payments by most online advertising programs and affiliates are made through Paypal - widely used online money transfer service. Sadly, Paypal is not available in Pakistan so far. This alone puts Pakistan bloggers at a great disadvantage because without paypal account they cannot join most of the programs.

That said Pakistan bloggers are exceptionally good (and I am not being ethnocentric here). They have acumen for corporate writing. Their language and blogging skills and networking capabilities can be compared with any bloggers' community in the world. Internet coverage and users base is constantly growing. Even trend to shop online is taking off. Given chance, all this can indirectly help in efforts to make making through blogging.

Despite the odds, some of the savvy Pakistan bloggers are already using different methods to make money from blogs; Google AdSense advertising program being the first choice. Google pays through check and is liberal in taking small blogs in their program. Only recently, Google has started paying in Pakistan through Western Union and now bloggers here don't have to wait for 40 long days to get their checks cleared through normal banking channels or pay them $ 7 for every transaction.

Google's AdSense program, which started in 2003 and pays Web publishers including bloggers based on how many times advertisements on their sites receive clicks. Google places the ads on participating Web sites using contextual word matching, in an attempt to ensure that the advertisements relate to the content on the page. Users' friendly AdSense also offers the opportunity to monetize site searches while providing a powerful, fast search engine for blogs sites. Google places relevant ads along with search results pages. Clicks on these ads also earn the site owner revenue. Earnings are not big mainly because there are not many local ads in Google's AdWord inventory. "Things are changing," says Badar Khushnud, Google country representative, "as Pakistan businesses have started using AdWord program."

AdBrite and Bidvertiser - both click based advertising programs that make payments through checks - closely follow AdSense.

Bloggers can also make money through "affiliate networks," which, in contrast to Google's automated system, allow blog writers to choose which advertisements to put on their pages. They also can be paid based on how often ads on their sites lead to sales rather than how often the ads receive clicks. I have experience with Text Link Ads (they pay through check) and it is fun working with them. They sell space off my blogs and I have control over what appears on my multiple blogs.

Then, businesses and organizations from all over the world offer to pay bloggers for mentioning them, their products and or services in blogs in order to create an online buzz, get more traffic and better page rank. Many online services like Pay Per Post, Sponsored Review, Loud Launch - paypal required - and Reviewme to name just a few, have come up. These services manage growing demands by advertisers and arrange supply through interested bloggers. Few months ago, I had signed up for Reviewme because they also pay through check. Reviewme offers products or services for review. I write about whatever I like and they pay me fifty percent of what they charge the advertisers. This arrangement works fine for me.

I have tried with merchandising through my blogs as well. Attempt to sell my own books (and the one I had translated) was a good experience. While I did not have a lot of success with merchandising - I am sure other bloggers can see this as an opportunity to make some money from blogs by selling products. That is not all. Bloggers can sell branded products whatever way their entrepreneurial heart desires using CafePress by creating and adding online store's link to blogs and CafePress will do the rest. There are so many more ways to earn money by blogging for those who are interested in earning using blogs. Driven by demand, more advertising programs, affiliates and sponsors and others are coming up every day. Bloggers can experiment with different programs that suit them and can create diverse stream of earnings.

A word of caution; earning through blogging does require persistent postings of quality contents and blog promotion. Best is to keep blogging for joy and monetize blogs on the side; keeping money making expectations realistic. It is a long and slow process. Only "17 percent of most popular bloggers in NYC earn more than thousand dollars a month. That leaves a whooping 83 percent earning less," revealed a NYC Blogger Summit Survey earlier this year. But again these figures are relative.

Blogging is a creative activity and fun. Most bloggers enjoy blogging. That is why they are blogging in the first place. Now let's think about getting paid for blogging.

Some of the sources that pay through check and I have experienced:

Google

Link Worth

Earn $$ with WidgetBucks

ReviewMe

Smallest Piece of the Blogging Pie

Corporate bloggers are the smallest piece of the blogging pie, according to Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2008. Only 12 percent of bloggers self-identify as "corporate," meaning they blog in an official capacity for their company.

Start a Blog

Article titled Start (focused on corporate blogging) a Blog by S A J Shirazi appeared in monthly magazine Techno Biz (November 2008). Must read.

Blog Advertising

Advertising has always been there in one form or the other but blog advertising comparatively is a new phenomenon.

Millions of online users are writing their own and rest are reading others' blogs and interacting in meaningful ways. The exponential blog writers and readers growth has given advertisers a new medium to reach out and deliver their message along with divers personal opinions and recommendations of cross section of bloggers.

Blogs advertising can be a welcome medium for advertisers to reach out across the world. Imagine the growing readership and influence of the Internet articles and the buzz blog advertising can create particularly as a process of Search Engine Marketing. Thanks that advertisers have already realized this and are harnessing the power of blogs to reach out in their marketing effort. It is in this milieu that no forward looking advertiser and a marketer can afford to ignore blog advertising.

At the same time, bloggers can earn money by doing what they like to do and enjoy – reviewing, giving opinion and or sharing their personal knowledge, expertise, experiences and turn their “blogging for leisure to blogging for profit.”

The growing marketing demand has given birth to sites that connect advertisers and bloggers. Lately I discovered PayingPost (by the way, I discovered them through their information rich and very substantial blog. I have already bookmarked PayingPost’s Blog for my own learning) and have already joined them. Explore the site and see what they are offering for advertisers to reach out and bloggers to crate fresh content and get paid?

I recommend that advertisers should test the strength of blog advertising and bloggers should make use of their expertise combined with their personal experiences in life and work and open a new stream of revenue for them. It is a win win situation for both advertisers and bloggers.

Heritage Web Solutions

With exponentially growing usage and reliance on the web, powerful web presence has become vital for every savvy business, organizations and even individuals. Heritage Web Solutions- an innovative Web site development company – is one of the best places to start when looking for web design that can empowers online. Focused on serving small and medium size businesses, Heritage Web Solutions specializes in designing and hosting affordable websites.

Heritage Web Solutions has come a long way in this field. If you are looking to start your small business with a professional and reputable technology company, Heritage Web Solutions is a preferred choice. With Heritage Web Solutions, clients will get, not only, top-of-the-line web design, but also the whole technology package including access to custom flash graphics, ecommerce assistance, database creation and management, traffic driving resources and more. Your website is sure to perfectly-fit your business because they do not use any pre made templates. Each web site is custom fit to each business, giving each client a unique, original, and authentic design that is sure to stand out amongst the competitors.

Heritage Web Solutions is well known for their work and has been recognized by numerous highly regarded sources for their unique and innovative company. With a staff of over 225 employees, Heritage Web Solutions has grown to a multi-million-dollar company in just 7 years, achieving a Top 1% of Hosting Companies as reported by WebHosting.Info. Heritage Web Solutions is honored to be recognized, by Inc. Magazine, among the fastest growing privately held businesses 2 years running.

Heritage Web Solutions is neatly laid, users friendly and information rich site. Working with a trusted name and a company can take your business to the next level. With a client base of over 30,000 from all over the world, Heritage Web Solutions has proven that they have the experience and strong background to handle any web development task at hand. I suggest everyone try them. They deliver the best.

What is in the Name

Pervaiz Munir Alvi

The way a society names its cities and places says a lot about its cultural history and social values. Pakistan is no exception to this either.

The cultural history of Pakistan could be traced from its naming practice. The names of its ancient cities like Peshawar, Lahore and Multan have no resemblance to the names of the newer cities like Islamabad and Faisalabad. Similarly the name of the newer Qasim Port has no resemblance to the name of its sister Karachi Port or for that matter Gwadar Port. In the field of naming names Pakistani society has come a long way since the days of ancient Indus Valley Civilization of Harrapa and Moen-jo-Dero. Even the days of the names like Texila and Ghandara are long gone.

Yes, the naming practice of the society has changed. Now the names like AabPara, ShakarPara, Seem-maab and Gulberg are in vogue. One may find a Lala Zar Colony even in a desert town but will not see a new Chak Lala any where. The most one could expect is Chak Lala I, II, or may be III but there are just no new Chaks any more; not even a Chak Wal I. Don’t come around expecting a new Chak Lala Airport for Islamabad either. Since names like Quaid-e-Azam Airport and Allama Iqbal Airport are already taken, the nation may be hard pressed to find a suitable name for the upcoming new airport for the capital city but fear not; the naming authorities of Pakistan are hard at work.

Mughals had no problem in giving names. They just simply kept all the naming rights to themselves. Go around Pakistan and you will find places like Shaikhu Pura, Shah Dara, and Jahangira, even a Sera-e-Alamgir. If the Shah was generous enough he will allow a Vazir Abad or a Begum Pura here and there. But that’s about it. No nasty practice of naming places after the common folks.

British on the other hand were very sensible people. During their rule of one hundred years they did not offend the natives by naming cities like Abbotsburg or Jacobville. They kept it local like Abbot Abad and Jacob Abad. They did make some mistakes though by naming cities like Montgomery, Lyalpur or Campbellpur. Pakistan naming police in order to save the souls of the citizens had no choice but to change the names of these cities to Sahiwal, Faisalabad and Attock respectively.

Now there is nothing wrong with purs; there are plenty of purs around like Hari Pur, Rasal Pur, and Shikar Pur etc. etc. It is that some of these names are not Pakistani enough like Ali Pur, Mir Pur or Bahawal Pur. It is not the pur; it’s the person the pur is named after that may not be desirable.

But even though the new names are in vogue now, there are still plenty of those old names that stubbornly linger on. For instance Pakistan has a good supply of Wals. Other than Chak Wal, there is a Malak Wal and a Sahi Wal too. There are also some variations to the postfix Wal in the form of Wala and Wali. Now a Wali may not necessarily be smaller than a Wala. Mian Wali is not smaller than Arif Wala. But Gujran Wala and Bure Wala are definitely larger than Rah Wali and Mansoor Wali. Nevertheless the nation is done with them all; there shall be no new Walas, Walis or Wals any more.

Also there is no need of new Nagars either. No sir, no Ayub Nagar wanted here; just Ayubia like Persia or Arabia will be fine. No need of new Kots like Sial Kot or Shore Kot; no new Pinds like Pind Dadan Khan; not even a Dera like Dera Ismail Khan or Dera Ghazi Khan. Like Pakistan Zindabad, Hyderabad, Liaqatabad, and Qadarabad will do just fine. Pakistanis will take their Abads any day before they would take those old fashion Nagars, Kots and Pinds; definitely not Pinds.

Just like every pot has a lid, every circle has a center. Except in case of Pakistan there are more centers than circles. Center in Pakistani Urdu language translates as Markaz or Garh. There are plenty of centers every where like computer center, tuition center even shopping center. Also there may be an Urdu Makaz or Alaj Markaz but not too many Garh except may be an old MazaffarGarh. If you are looking for Towns, there is a brand new Johar Town for you.


If you want a Colony, Pakistan has a Defence Colony in every part of the country. But do not ask for new Nagars, Purs or Kots. That is so so passé.

Bloggers Meet

I keep saying that bloggers are greater mortals. Anyone who was at Bloggers Meet at LUMS on Nov 24, 2008 evening already know this. Bloggers are wiser, sharing and always learning. The evening was a wonderful experience; for learning particularly. Around 97 had registered for the Meet and more than 100 were there. It was nice to see so many passionate bloggers at one place connecting with each other. Badar Khushnod – spirit behind the meet up – had ensure that blogger sit with people who don’t already know each other. Though the Meet-up was aimed to connect bloggers with each other to but a lot more happened in addition to exchanging email and “oh! that is you.”



Two success stories were presented; Saad Hameed –Sizlopedia fame young blogger from Islamabad – talked about his blogging strategy, how and whys supported by proofs. Very impressive and well done Saad. Maryam Nasim - a housewife from Lahore discussed her Pinkwool.com and how she is freelancing online from home. Her simple narrative had a lot of inspiration for any house wife.

The best part was question answers where everyone contributed and shared what they are good at. So many diver subjects came up. In addition to Bader Khushnod, Hassan Mubarak – My Captain from Lahore Metro, Aamir Attaa (Pro Pakistani), Saad of WCCFtech.com (Thanks for the images) and many more contributed their valuable experiences.

Thanks to Badar Khusnood, Pakistan Country Consultant, Google, Inc., CIO Pakistan, LUMS IEEE Students and the Red Bull for creating and offering this wonderful opportunity.

Related: Bloggers Meet in Techi Lounge, Lahore Bloggers MeetUp

Expectations from Obama

Anwar Syed


Much in America and elsewhere is going to change as Barack Obama’s term as president of the US rolls along.

Political observers across the world have been asking how his presidency would affect their countries. Our own commentators have wondered what changes his administration might make in American policy towards Pakistan. They all hope the change would work to Pakistan’s greater advantage.

In order to think intelligently about America’s future transactions with Pakistan, it would be useful to identify the point of departure, to see what the general pattern of their relations during the last 50 years or so has been. We may begin with the well-known maxim that nations have interests but they do not have permanent friends or enemies. Barring brief interludes when President Woodrow Wilson’s high idealism, or isolationism, influenced American thinking, this maxim has guided its foreign policy through much of its history.

Note also that not all interests are equally vital, and some of them may be transitional. American policymakers have combined political realism with a measure of idealism because that is good for the country’s image, for instance, when they send food and blankets to the victims of an earthquake somewhere or when they aid a developing country’s schools and colleges. Realism is still the dominant element in American thinking on foreign relations.

One should like to assume that the makers of foreign policy in Pakistan are likewise moved by considerations of the national interest. Two interfering agents that work against this rule of prudence may be mentioned. First, the ruling elite’s propensity to equate its personal gain with the national interest is more pronounced in Pakistan than it may be in many other countries. Second, this elite has never been at ease with independence. Short of self-assurance, it has wanted to be under the protective shadow of a powerful patron.

It found such a patron in the US which in the mid-1950s was looking for allies in its campaign to stop the spread of Soviet-inspired communism. Eager to enlist, Pakistan joined American-sponsored anti-communist alliances and began to receive military and economic assistance. This alliance and the accompanying aid has had its high points (1954-65, 1980-88 and 2001 to date) when America needed Pakistan’s active assistance with its anti-Soviet and, more recently, anti-Taliban ventures. In the intervening periods, when Pakistan’s services were not needed, relations between them remained low-key. It should, however, be noted that even during its high points this was essentially a patron-client relationship. In America’s reckoning it was an ‘alliance’ only as a figure of speech for ease of reference.

Governments in Pakistan preferred to think of America as a friend and expected from it more than the money and weapons they received. They wanted to be treated at par with India, preferably even better. They expected America to pressure India to settle the Kashmir dispute to their satisfaction. They also wanted it to share with Pakistan nuclear technology for civilian uses that it had agreed to share with India. This, to their disappointment, American officials declined to do.

This broad pattern of Pakistani-American relations holds to this day. American economic and military aid is still coming in. American forces are fighting Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Afghanistan, and Pakistan is helping them in this enterprise. Within this context of mutual assistance tensions have developed. Taliban militants are attacking targets (military and civilian personnel, installations and unarmed non-combatants) in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. They have hiding places in Pakistan’s tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

Pakistani military and paramilitary forces are trying to eradicate them. Believing that Pakistani forces are not capable and determined enough to do an adequate job, American forces have been attacking suspected Taliban hideouts in Pakistani territory and killing not only some of them but also innocent civilians.

These American attacks perceived as violations of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity have incensed a great many of its people, who are asking their government to stop these American acts of war. There is nothing the government of Pakistan can do except to lodge protests which have been of no avail. It cannot use military force to stop American transgressions, for that would mean going to war against the US, which is not a viable option.

On the other hand, one hears also that the two governments have a secret understanding to the effect that each may continue its present course of action: America hitting targets in Pakistan and the latter protesting.

It is not clear what changes in America’s posture Pakistan expects or wants once Barack Obama has been installed in the Oval Office in the White House. He is an exceedingly bright individual, a competent organiser and strategist, a master of detail, and well informed about the business at hand. It may be assumed that he will be fully aware of the instrumental role that Pakistan has traditionally played in its interaction with the US: receiving compensation for services rendered. He will also be aware of the Pakistani political culture, the fact among others that the ruling elite here is not only vulnerable to material inducement but also accustomed to being subservient to superior power centres.

The likelihood is that President Obama will be supportive of democracy in Pakistan, but until it becomes firmly grounded in its soil, the existing pattern of relations between the two countries will continue. He will pay no more attention to Pakistan’s declarations of national sovereignty than the Bush administration did. He has already made it clear that American attacks on Al Qaeda and Taliban hideouts on Pakistani territory will continue and may even intensify.

He will not share nuclear technology with Pakistan or otherwise treat Pakistan on par with India for the simple reason that they are not equals. He did say recently that if the war against terrorism is to be effective the Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India should be resolved. But it does not follow that he will or can pressure India to make concessions that may be satisfactory to Pakistan and the Kashmiris.

I am not sure what it is that Pakistan will want from President Obama in addition to the money it is already receiving and the aforementioned satisfactions which America has declined to provide.

Tactical Jackets

Military men have to perform tough duties mostly in difficult terrain and extreme weather. They need outfit that is comfortable as well as rugged. Have a look at L A Police that offers functional innovation that allows the user to reach peak performance on duty with a perfect blend of tactical / practical functionality and traditional style. Whether you need light coverage for mild weather or for more severe winters, they have every thing including new high-visibility items, a waterproof parka, and a waterproof, insulated, reversible 5.11 Tactical Jacket.

L.A. Police Gear, Inc prides in extremely fast shipping, low prices, and outstanding service, Explore the site and see what they are offering and how. Shopping online with L.A. Police Gear, Inc is safe and easy. Try them.

Family Law

Family is a basic and very fundamental unit in any society. People live together and it is natural to develop differences. Thanks to National Family Solutions – a firm provides high-value, low-cost solutions to problems including child custody, divorce, visitation and father's rights and more.

National Family Solutions consultants have over 10 years of combined experience in family law. National Family Solutions have helped thousands of families across the United States resolve their legal matter. Approach National Family Solutions and their friendly and knowledgeable experts will provide you with the most appropriate and timely resolution to your family law problem. National Family Solutions services includes matters relating establish and modification of custody, contested and uncontested divorces, visitation enforcement and modification, resolve TRO and TPO cases (restraining orders and protection orders), personal cases consultants to walk you through your case and also professional legal document preparation.


The objective of National Family Solutions is to provide you, the client, with the most affordable legal program possible. With their unique experience in internet marketing and program development, National Family Solutions is able to deliver high-quality solutions to your family legal matter. Simply fill out the form and a trained expert will get back to you within one business day. National Family Solutions always offer result oriented services that can save lot of time and money.

Lahore Bloggers' Meetup

IEEE LUMS Students Chapter in collaboration with Google Pakistan is arranging a greand meetup for Lahore Bloggers where bloggers will socialize offline and share the secrets to earning online! The idea is to encourage Internet users and bloggers to meet offline as well. Old bloggers get a chance to share knowledge and experiences. New wanna-be bloggers can learn from the local success stories and network with leaders and professionals in this field.

Date and Time: Sunday, Nov 23, 2008 (1500 Hrs - 1800 Hrs)

Venue: Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), DHA, Lahore

Contact: Badar Khushnood ; +92.300.8486070 ; badar@google.com

Who Can Benefit From Blogging?

Students: Discover how you can earn your own pocket money.
Housewives: Learn how you can earn and support your family while staying at home
Professionals: See how you can enjoy a second income while still doing a full-time job

Host: LUMS IEEE Students Chapter (in collaboration with CIO Pakistan and Google Pakistan)

Agenda (tentative):

- Success story: Saad Hamid
- Success story: Maryam Nasim
- Success story: Haris Nadeem; tentative
- For Beginners: Blogging and how to start earning from it? (Badar Khushnood)
- For Advanced Users: Tools for professional blogging! (Badar Khushnood)
- Moderated discussion and tea

Register here.

Men At Their Best - Reliving the Past

Last evening (Nov 18, 2008), once again, Men At Their Best got together in DeSOM. Malik Itbar Kahn, member Provincial Assembly Punjab, was here in the city and that created an occasion; yes, we always look for occasions to get together to relive those days once we were together. Thanks to MZK, who as usual managed the evening in a way that everyone could feel the past. Images for this are coming. Stay tuned…

Online Florist

Flowers surely bring people together. Blossoms can fuel a flaming passion, calm a raging jealousy, comfort a living being or earn a living. Presenting flowers is an old romantic social folkway that is still practiced in all societies.

Thanks to ProFlowers - online florist of your choice - that they understand flowers and offer people to speak the language of flowers. ProFlowers started with a single farm in California, shipping just 500 rose bouquets for Valentine's Day. 10 years later, they serve more than 7 million customers with 185 fresh cut varieties from eight different countries around the world.

ProFlowers have been connecting consumers with fresh-from-the-field flowers since 1998. It's no wonder that ProFlowers has led the industry in providing a 7 day freshness guarantee on each and every order. ProFlower’s claim to fame is prompt flower delivery service to accommodate important dates, events and celebrations.

Explore the esthetically laid out site and see what they are offering and how. They have a great collection featured on the front page. The imagery of flowers is good and looking at those fresh flowers give you idea of how the recipient of those flowers will feel like.

Site is neatly laid and it is easy to find what one is looking for. Shopping too is easy and safe. Flowers are listed occasion as well as price wise. Note their discounted prices.

I suggest that you see the site, send flowers and make someone’s day.

Pennies Matter

One hundred million pennies for your thoughts on the latest display in Rockefeller Center. New York first lady Silda Wall Spitzer joined hundreds of public school children on Monday to unveil a mass of $1 million in pennies collected for charity. The display, called the Penny Harvest Field, includes an estimated 100 million pennies — plus a few nickels, dimes and quarters that slipped in by mistake.

The exhibit, 30 feet by 165 feet, as long as a city block, is the culmination of the nonprofit organization Common Cents’ 17th annual Penny Harvest, a national educational program designed to teach children about their value as contributors to society. Hundreds of thousands of city students from more than 800 schools spent the weeks between Oct 22 and Thanksgiving going door to door and collecting the pennies, which will be donated to organizations of their choice for causes such as protecting the environment and helping the elderly. The exhibit was designed by architect James Polshek and will be on display in Rockefeller Center, near the famous Christmas tree, through the end of the year. (Daily Times)

EDTA Chelation Therapy

EDTA chelation therapy is one of the best ways to maintain healthy lifestyle. Thanks to the Artery Health Institute special research report that throws light on the subjects and explains the atherosclerosis process, how plaque builds up throughout the body and what can be done about it, what is EDTA CHELATION and how it work, intravenous vs. Oral EDTA and much more. Coprehensive report takes any reader through the entire process and make it possible for anyone to mke informed health decision.

“EDTA chelation therapy makes good sense to me as a chemist and medical researcher. It has a rational scientific basis, and the evidence for clinical benefit seems to be quite strong. Metallic ions play an important role in the formation of atherosclerotic plaque. EDTA removes those ions with relative safety and without surgery. Published research and extensive clinical experience show that EDTA helps to reduce and prevent atherosclerotic plaques, thus improving blood flow to the heart and other organs. The scientific evidence indicates that a course of EDTA chelation therapy might eliminate the need for bypass surgery. Chelation has an equally valid rationale for use as a preventive treatment,” writes Linus Pauling, PhD.

Explore the information rich and comprehensive report and learn about EDTA oral chelation. Go through their product information, EDTA effectiveness and profiles of Dr Garry Gordon MD, DO and see what does he says. There is a lot to learn about health on the site. Better still, try it when you or anyone dear to you need it. This will enrich your life.

Say It With Flowers

Flowers surely bring people together. Blossoms can fuel a flaming passion, calm a raging jealousy, comfort a living being or earn a living. Presenting flowers is a romantic social folkway. Aside from romantic and literary delights, there is commerce in flowers too.

The town of Patoki is one of the most famous places in Pakistan for growing flowers. The town has one of the biggest clusters of flower, fruit and decorative plant nurseries in the country. Growing flowers and tree plants and selling is a major business concern in this sleepy town situated in the suburbs of Lahore.

Leave Patoki - a typical Punjabi rural market town - by road and it is like sailing through the ocean of green. All those who drive on the National Highway between Lahore and Sahiwal are familiar with over one kilometre of lush greenery and the fragrant stretch of nurseries on either side of the road on the edge of the town. Aside from the fragrance of the wares, the traders offer a large variety of flowers, creepers, decorative bushes, ornamental and fruit tree plants, flowerpots and seeds. 'How to grow' flower books (even if you have no space in your home) are also available. I saw a few breeding greenhouses on the roadside and hundreds of rows of crossbred blossoms on a fresh spring morning.

It all started when a migrated family settled here after partition in 1947. Two brothers set up a small nursery along the roadside. The concern started growing with the passage of time. Later, the family grew and divided the business assets, which resulted in more nurseries as a family business. Afterwards, more and more people started growing and selling flowers and now the small town of Patoki has earned its claim to national fame for growing flowers and decorative plants. Despite having potential for becoming a recognised industry, flower trade in Patoki is still a family business.

"Rose plants grown in Patoki are sent to places as far as Quetta," according to Mubarik Ali, a proprietor of a well-laid nursery, "but what keeps us going are commuters on the National Highway who stop by and purchase flower or fruit plants for their home gardens. Or when we get a large order from some five star hotels or multinationals based in Lahore to provide them grown flowers plants (in pots) for special events. We deliver them the flowers, indoor plants, shrubs and even creepers in pots and the landscape experts and interior decorators arrange them for display on the site." Besides growers and traders, a large number of people are associated with this trade: pot makers, gardeners, and labourers.

Another flower grower, Mian Khan, told Us about a beautiful tradition that has matured with the cooperation of his nursery in a nearby village Thatta Ghulamka, where German volunteers are working on different poverty alleviation projects. In the Village every newly married couple is presented a fruit tree whereas parents of every newborn get a flower tree by the community based NGO Anjuman-e-Falah-e-Aama.

Nature being on the side of agricultural Pakistan, flowers can be one of the best sources of earning for Pakistan. We have potential markets in Middle East and some European countries to start with. There is a dire need to explore these markets and grow more flowers.

Clickbooth Webinars Marketing Solutions

Internet marketing has matured over last decade or so. Advertisers and marketers have realized the growing power of the waves they can create online around their brands, products and or services. This has given birth to services and platforms where internet marketers and advertisers can get together and benefit. Clickbooth is a leading name in the area of internet marketing. One of the best places to start is Clickbooth Webinars.

Clickbooth Webinars offer videos of top internet marketers discussing covering everything related to affiliated marketing and how one can make a visible difference in any marketing effort. The videos will give fresh insights and new ideas supported by experiences and the challenges faced to get to the success.

Webinar is one of the unique way of selling through fine art of meaningful communication making use of high end collaborative web technologies. Create one and Clickbooth will take care of the factors like hosting, organizing and for conducting a highly effective webinar are taken into consideration for Clickbooth Webinars.

Explore Clickbooth Webinars and see what they can do for you and how they can add to your marketing efforts. And see how Clickbooth Webinars with top affiliates give out their ultimate secrets.

Asset Management

Making decisions about where and how to invest funds, especially in slow economies, while considering the overall aims and strategy of the investors is a specialized job better handled by specialists. Thanks to Sands Brothers Asset Management, LLC - a group of experts - that provides investment management and advisory services. Read about Martin Sands - Co-Chairman and Senior Portfolio Manager – and you will know.

Martin Sands has 25 years of investment experience in areas that include investment banking, venture capital, private equity, real estate, money management, sales/brokerage, and merchant banking. Martin is the co-founder of Sands Brothers.

Martin began his career in 1983 at Shearson American Express Inc. and worked at different places till 1990, when he along with his brother Steven, founded and launched Sands Brothers and Co, Ltd., which focused on providing high net worth investors an alternative to the large brokerage firms. The firm grew dramatically and by the year 2000, SB and Co. and its related entities had approximately 400 employees.

Martin has spent the past eight years pursuing various business ventures that spanned different industries and allowed him to act as both a principal and an investor in numerous ventures. Specifically, Martin directed his strategic focus toward both the asset management business and the real estate business.

How do you like such an expert handling your assets?

South Korea Comes to Halt as Students Take Exam

Rush hour was rescheduled, aircraft landings were delayed and even the stock market opened late as more than half a million South Korean children sat a crucial examination on Thursday.

Parents could be seen praying outside schools where their kids were taking the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), a decisive factor in determining future careers. At Incheon city near Seoul younger students and graduates lined up outside a high school, cheering on test applicants and handing them cups of coffee and tea before their ordeal.

Military training exercises nationwide were suspended and military aircraft grounded to avoid noise during audio foreign language tests, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Seven inbound flights to the country’s main airport Incheon were told to stay at an altitude of 10,000 feet as students took the first audio test that lasted 13 minutes.

"We have been forewarning all airlines about the restriction over the past month so that they may adjust flight schedules to avoid landing during the hearing test sessions,” an air traffic controller said. The stock market, government agencies and many private business organizations opened one hour later to ease morning traffic jams that could cause students to be late.

At the presidential Blue House, First Lady Kim Yoon-Ok reportedly sent rice cakes to the children of Blue House employees who were due to take the exam. Rice cakes, whose stickiness symbolises sticking to success, are a favourite lucky gift for CSAT day together with candies. {AFP}

Gilani’s Arithmetic

Anwar Syed

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani seems to have lost track of the simple arithmetic he learned in primary school. Talking to newsmen on Nov 6 he justified the recent recruitment of 22 new ministers and 18 ministers of state on grounds that appear to be flimsy.

The prime minister said the move would not place a burden on the exchequer. This is hard to believe. In addition to the usual salaries and allowances, the new ministers will have furnished homes, automobiles, servants, guards and other perquisites. All of this will cost many millions of rupees which the government will pay out of the exchequer.

The prime minister based the above assertion on the premise that the expenditure on having a minister did not exceed that required to maintain a parliamentarian. This premise is not valid for as we all know a member of parliament does not receive in addition to his salary the perquisites (mentioned above) that a minister does.

Consider also that the parliamentarians (342 in the National Assembly and 100 in the Senate) represent the sovereign people and the legislature they compose is admittedly the highest organ of the state. The cabinet is a committee of parliament to which the function of executing the laws has been entrusted. Parliament, being the principal, may give the cabinet, its agent, policy guidelines to follow, oversee its performance and dismiss it if the same is not satisfactory. It is wrong to imply that the two institutions are co-equal.

The prime minister contends that a large cabinet is needed to match the large number of divisions that compose the government, and to respond to the questions of 442 parliamentarians. This argument is not viable. Questions are asked during a specified period of time (usually one hour) on appointed days. Thus, only a limited number of questions can be asked on any given day. Note also that many a member has never asked a question during his entire parliamentary career. Many of the ministers are absent from the house when questions relating to their departments are being asked. It follows that the number of questions asked in parliament has no bearing on the cabinet’s size.

That each division must have a minister to run it is equally fallacious. Two relevant facts should be kept in mind. First, the existing ministries have been split into segments to create ministerial positions. Quite a few of them do not have much to do. A minister can easily look after two or three of them concurrently.

Second, rare indeed is the minister who goes to work every day and stays at his desk from morning until closing time. Some of them do not put in an appearance even for an hour or two each day. Work is not the love of their lives, and they may not even be interested in the mission of the department whose head they have become. They are interested primarily in the title and the good things that come with it. There is, in any case, not much for a minister to do. Implementation of the applicable law and policy is carried out by career civil servants headed by a secretary. They are also the ones who will formulate decisions on important issues, including any changes of direction that may have been deemed desirable, and present them to the minister for his formal approval. Normally, he will go along with whatever they have proposed.

The rules of business say that if the minister cannot accept the secretary’s recommendation the matter is to be referred to the prime minister for a final decision. This does not happen very often. In other words, the minister does not normally overrule the secretary. One may then conclude that the charge of two or three ministries is by no means a back-breaking burden for a minister.

Finally, there is the issue of living within one’s means. This is a rule of prudence that applies to public authorities as much as it does to private persons. Being a trustee of the people and custodian of the monies they have provided, a government is morally bound to be frugal as much as possible. This rule has never commended itself to governments in Pakistan.

Even in the best of times, they have chosen to rely on domestic borrowings and foreign loans and grants. Far from being the best of times, the present is an exceptionally hard one. Much of the world is caught up in an economic recession that may become a repeat of the Great Depression of the early 1930s and in a severe financial crisis which is driving corporations and governments to the verge of bankruptcy.

These crises have hit Pakistan as well and it is placed between the proverbial rock and a hard place. It faces the very real danger of defaulting on its scheduled debt payments. Its president and other officials are going around, hat in hand, begging the international community to bail it out by pumping tens of billions of dollars into its economy and treasury.

But alongside these professions of extreme adversity, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani chooses to act as if the global economic crisis cannot touch his government. Dismissing calls for austerity as irrelevant, he has added 40 new ministers to his cabinet and intends to take five or so more within the next few days. It has evidently not occurred to him that foreign donors and lenders might take a dim view of his reckless extravagance.

Mr Gilani is expanding his cabinet not because his government cannot function effectively without 45 more ministers. He is doing it because he cannot, or does not want to, tell parliamentarians of his own party, and those of his coalition partners, that he cannot give them ministerial posts as a price for their support, and that they should be content with being legislators and serve the country in that vital role.

If that course of action does not work and they threaten to withdraw support, he can go back to parliament, openly state his predicament and offer to resign. The lust of certain covetous legislators having been made public, it is possible that parliament will ask him to remain in office and pass a vote of confidence in him. Either way Mr Gilani will go down in history as a man of honour and courage, and a statesman.

Tribute to Miriam Makeba

Read a tribute to Miriam Makeba here...

Join the world's biggest party for writers on November 15, 2008. Right something; anything.

Listen to him!

In some way sweeper Ashiq Mang knows so much more about life that anybody else does, about grief, about happiness, about pretense and falseness of life. There is nothing in his own life, which he would like to hide or not talk about.

Ashiq has been working at our home for two years. My friendship with him developed when brought me laddoos on the birth of his son. It was a very pleasant surprise though later my wife and children hesitated to share the sweets with me. I offered him a cup of tea over which he started talking and gave me the chronological narrative of the life, experience and reminiscences. Then we used to talk whenever got chance to meet on holidays mostly, when he was late doing his job at our place or I came home early. He may not be a good communicator, but has definitely enriched my vision. He is so candid and honest about every thing.

Happily married to a working woman for last 18 years, Ashiq has six daughters and a son. He has his own home consists of one room, verandah, bathroom and kitchenette where he lives with his family. His wife also works as a cleaning lady besides giving birth to and rearing children. He told me about the tube legation of his wife, her miscarriages and death of their first daughter and how they have had so many children for want of a son, whom he wants to educate.


At one point early in our friendship he started narrating his observation of the job.

“Every body is fixated only on keeping their house clean, oblivious of any thing beyond their four walls. It take four hours to clean that big bungalow whereas they pay me only for two hours. I work in six houses and they all want to get their house to be cleaned first. They have so many guests every day. They do not buy brooms and wipers in time. They litter the house thoughtlessly. Most of the educated women of wealthy families have neither time nor desire to keep their houses clean. Most surprising is that no body pay in time.”

“There is no love in that house,” he once told me about one of his employers, “no body talks to each other. Even the kids do not talk or laugh. Every one in the house is locked into a shell. It seems as people from different families are staying in a hostel. It is suffocating to work what to talk of living in their house.”

Then he told me about another superstitious character who would wash his furniture items like tables and sofas, pens, shoes frequently and his hands every time he would shake them with another human being. Ashiq said simply:

“Sahib thinks that not only the air is polluted but every thing is contaminated with lethal germs.”

Incisive analyses by a person who cannot read or write contain spontaneous and honest reflections of our society it seems.

After having completed 15 years of colored service in armed forces he is reemployed by a national company where he works from early morning till noon in addition to working at different houses. His wife also works at different houses. Remembering the period spent in the service he says:

“It was the best time of my life. I was young. I used to clean single men’s barracks meticulously and all service men used to look after me affectionately. There used to be Christmas greetings and gifts for me. Life was so orderly, organized and happy.”

He narrated an incident happily:

“During my days in service our company was given a quiz with a question: What is the name of the person who cleans your barracks? They had seen me cleaning the barracks several times, but most of the young soldiers did not know my name and in their paper left the last question blank. Before the day ended, every soldier knew my name. The problem with the present employer is that no body seems to bother about my name and the company deducts pay if I do not go to work even for a single day for any reasons.”

Ashiq Mang is leading a comfortable life in his pensions, pay and some additional amount he and his wife get by working at the houses.

“Wealth has nothing to do with happiness,” he once explained to me philosophically, “in my life I have seen people with lot of money living miserably miserly and unhappy.”

Proud of his job to contribute in making the world a little cleaner place to live in, Ashiq loves his life, wife and children. At the age of 47 years he says that he has never fallen sick despite of hard worked and always busy hours. He dreams a lot and is looking forward to his retirement, for the second time, when he will have all the time to play with his son.

Ashiq as I know is kind trusting and warm, willing to share his joys and sorrows, openly and freely. The only regret he says a little wistfully is that:

“People treat us discriminately due to our job. We are denied our basic cultural and social rights. We have to have our own utensils in order eat or drink at any house, in case they offer something. We are also human beings with emotions, passions and all”.

No Home-Grown Education System

Anwar Syed

Some commentators contend that the present education system in this country is a legacy of the British colonial rule, and that therefore it does not go well with our nativity.

They would replace it with one that is rooted in our own historical experience and values. They assume that there was once a system that worked to good effect, and that it should be revived. This assumption is not entirely valid.

Government-funded primary and middle schools, open to all those who might wish to enter, did not exist during the medieval ages. Education was provided mostly by seminaries, focusing on the scriptures and preparing young people for careers connected with religion. Colleges surfaced in Baghdad, Cairo, Rome, Paris, Oxford and Cambridge but these also started out as seminaries and only later took in mathematics, humanities, and the hard sciences.

During the same period certain individuals in the Muslim world and Europe emerged as great scholars. Most of them began their education at the feet of a tutor, a local learned man, and then moved on to study with better-known scholars in larger towns. Having built a solid foundation, they continued to pursue knowledge on their own.

There is no model here capable of providing education to the generality, say, millions, of our young people. Public education began in our subcontinent with the advent of British rule. The schools and colleges the British established taught subjects that their counterparts in Great Britain did. Children in primary school learned elementary reading and writing, simple arithmetic, a bit of geography (their own district and province), stories of historical events and personages, and some readings to enhance their language skills. They learned the same things at progressively higher levels of complexity, plus English, some physical science and a classical language as they went on to finish high school. A measure of specialisation came as they moved on to college. Still newer subjects of study became available (biological and earth sciences, social sciences, logic, ethics and history of countries and peoples beyond India and Great Britain).

This colonial education system produced not only hundreds of thousands of reasonably competent individuals in various fields of endeavour but also a number of world-renowned scientists, philosophers, historians, economists, poets and creative artists.

I cannot figure out what there is in this system that might be taken out to make it worthy of a post-colonial independent country. It is customary in certain quarters to say that Pakistan is an ideological state, and that its ideology (Islam) should inform all aspects of its people’s individual and collective lives, including their education. That Pakistan is an ideological state is factually incorrect, and so far as its ruling elites are concerned the proposition is farcical even as an aspiration.

Even if these aspirations were genuine, education could not be Islamised except marginally. Conclusions of mathematical equations and the findings of physics remain the same regardless of the teacher’s or the student’s religion. They are value-free abstractions or facts of the physical universe. Ideology may have a role in normative studies (such as ethics) and areas where opinions and personal preferences matter.

One must in any case guard against the danger of distortion. Take the case of opinion-makers who teach that the history of Pakistan begins with the advent of Islam and the appearance of Muslim rulers in the areas that now constitute this country. They want to ignore the fact that the ancestors of many of us were once Hindu and were ruled by Hindu princes. These historians may say that theirs is the version they like but they must also face the fact that they are misinforming their students.It is likely that syllabi, required qualifications of teachers, teaching methods, textbooks, and examination systems in Pakistan are outmoded to some extent. Needless to say, these deficiencies should be rectified. Kids in school should learn the ‘new math’ and should become computer literate. Students at all levels should be encouraged to be inquisitive.

But much more worrisome is the fact that education in the public sector, like everything else in the public domain, has fallen prey to corruption. Teachers in public schools want to get paid but they do not want to work for their pay. I have talked with students from the primary to the college and university levels and heard that their teachers do the minimal amount of teaching in the classroom during the appointed hours. The teachers urge their students to meet them at their homes for private tutoring for which they charge hefty compensation. Those who cannot meet this additional expense come out of school unimproved, and many of them simply fail the exams.

This gross shirking of duty did not happen during colonial rule. Teachers then were very hard-working and dedicated. Corruption of public education is a gift we have received from a reawakening of our nativity under the aegis of national independence.Education in private institutes is not as blemished. While none of them is making waves in the generation of new knowledge, quite a few of them are doing a decent job of opening up minds and preparing young people for competently managing the affairs of the world. The more notable among them are certain schools of management such as the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Karachi, the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), and the Lahore School of Economics (LSE). The Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology in NWFP is internationally known for its high levels of attainment.

All of them are very expensive and therefore beyond the reach of the vast majority of Pakistanis who may want a good education. Regretfully it must be noted also that the majority of these private universities and colleges are primarily money-making business enterprises. As places of learning they may be slightly better than many of the public institutes, but their performance on the whole will have to be rated as only fair. Their students are not getting their money’s worth.

Education cannot be treated as something standing apart from all the other departments of life. Like the rest of them it has been monetised and made vulnerable to greed and corruption. It seems to me that efforts to improve education will have to come as part of a more general and inclusive reform movement aimed at cleansing the public domain.

World Performing Arts Festival

The 25th World Performing Arts Festival will kick off at the Alhamra Cultural Complex today (November 13) and would host drama, puppetry and music performances from 300 foreign delegates and 500 local artistes from across the country.

Pakistan's Anti-Women Cabinet

There's no disputing that Pakistan is in a state of upheaval, but in light of the fact that it once elected the Muslim world's first female prime minister (okay, before assassinating her), this news still surprises: The Guardian reports that Pakistan's new minister of education, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, presided over a "jirga," which gave away five girls aged two through five to the family of a murdered man as compensation. Bijarani is positively forward-looking on women's right when compared to the minister of the postal service, Israullah Zehri, who defended the "tribal tradition" of burying alive women who tried to choose their own husbands. "Is this the politics of appeasement?" said Tahira Abdullah of the Women's Action Forum. "It almost looks like rewarding these men for their deeds against women." Said another critic: "Had Benazir Bhutto been alive she would never have allowed this." (Via The Daily Beast - Read it at The Guardian}

Re-Thinking Education

Review Khadim Hussain

The mushrooming growth of tuition centres across the length and breadth of the country is a manifestation of the collapse of the public school system in Pakistan

IT’s fairly well-known that the system of education that has evolved in Pakistan over all these years is unmatched in several respects. Firstly, it is composed of contradictory elements. The conceptual elements in the education of Pakistan that contradict one another are instrumental in perpetuating the socio-political and economic structures of the state. The public education system caters to almost 60 per cent of all enrolled students in Pakistan. Private English medium schools entertain the middle and lower middle classes in cities and villages while so-called elite schools provide education to a tiny minority in this country. Moreover, except the works by a few individuals, the existing literature on the education system intentionally or unintentionally perpetuates the theory and practice of education thus helps maintain the existing configuration of power in state and society.

The book under review by Dr Shahid Siddiqui is an example of reflections on the fundamental issues of public education in Pakistan. The writer has been successful in debunking myths surrounding the theory and practice of public education in this country, and in providing alternatives to establish a vibrant system based on the progressive theory of education.

The author has dealt with the themes of policy issue, teacher and teacher education, curriculum and materials, language issues, research and assessment while constructing a frank and informal discourse.

The book is probably the first effort of its kind to bring deeper academic issues to the domain of general discourse. The writer has tried to form an argument in support of making education an agent of social and economic change in society. For example, in the chapter on financing education the author has argued that it is the lack of political will to devise policies and the lack of competence in bureaucracy to implement those policies so as to prevent education from becoming a vehicle for any meaningful change in the society.

Faculty development is undoubtedly a springboard for providing opportunity to individuals to develop pedagogical grip on the vital issues both inside and outside the classroom. The author advocates self-reflection as matter of approach in teacher training institutes to set the stage for an attitudinal change. The role of a teacher, the author argues, has to be redefined. Knowledge is not to be transmitted but constructed, negotiated and reconstructed. The teacher has to perform the role of a guide, facilitator, researcher, organiser and an agent of social change. The complex issue of socio-cultural and politico-economic influence on an individual and its relationship with human agency needs a little more deliberation nonetheless. Can an individual teacher bring about change in the collective social behavioural system?

The author has taken up another intricate issue, that of language and language teaching in Pakistan after convincingly summarising the debate going on around the globe on this matter of vital importance. (Though one would have liked to read about the threats to the diversity of the world, especially to the bio-linguistic diversity in the context of globalisation of a few European languages.) Thousands of languages are said to have been faced with threat to their survival that may lead to homogenisation of cultures around the globe. Significant questions in this regard are: how can English language skills be developed in a bilingual and multilingual context? How can language education be linked to critical thinking through critical listening, reading and writing? The writer’s discussion on linking literature with language in the ELT classrooms in Pakistan speaks of his in-depth insight into the ELT scenario in Pakistan.

On of the most interesting sections of the book is a thought-provoking discussion on research paradigms. The discussion falls just short in addressing the issue of link between research paradigms and configuration of power in the society. The politico-economic relations within a social structure have close links with the generation of new knowledge and the construction of a reality. If a reality is perceived to be absolute and unchangeable, it is likely to be measured with quantitative research tools with varying degrees of certainty. This is in tandem with the structural, formal and constructionist view of society. The flux and reconstitution of reality stays out of the discourse. If it is assumed that a reality has multiple dimensions and is always in a flux, it is then likely to be understood through qualitative tools. A reality in this paradigm can be changed and reconstructed. As events, phenomena and procedures are usually based on a certain concept of reality; they are liable to continuously change and fluctuate. This paradigm seems to be in tandem with the post-structuralist and post-modern concept of social structure.

Some interesting phenomena of the education system in Pakistan have been candidly discussed in the book. One such interesting phenomenon is the workshop syndrome in faculty development programmes in Pakistan that defeats the very purpose of its existence in the first place. The discussion on ‘touch-and-go’ teaching, currently popular among university faculty in Pakistan, is witness to the author’s incisive observation. The mushrooming growth of tuition centres across the length and breadth of the country is a manifestation of the collapse of public school system in Pakistan, the author argues, but these tuition centres are emerging as a parallel institution in themselves. The author has tried to put the issue in context.

Another significant area in the education system is curriculum development. The issue has been hotly debated by educational theorists in recent times. The issue of curriculum development is also one of the most controversial areas of educational theory in Pakistan. Dr Siddiqui has raised some very important questions while discussing the role of teacher in curriculum development and implementation emphasising the role of interaction between teacher, students, materials and school milieu. Do we have proper teacher’s education programmes which focus on developing reflective practitioners? Do we have an appropriate system of monitoring? Are we satisfied with the process of evaluation of curriculum? And finally, are we considering teacher’s role central to curriculum construction?


By Shahid Siddiqui
Paramount Publishing Enterprise Available with Paramount Books, Karachi
ISBN 0-494-494-490-6
196pp. Rs345

Cultural Fusion

While travelling off the beaten track, not only you travel in soot free and serene environment but you explore new vistas too. Interesting things come in the way, which normally remain hidden from common commuters in the area. The journey on the byways embraces you with lovely colours, atmosphere, people and bits and pieces of history. And, there is no hassle anywhere in the way.

Set up in the foreground of legendary Salt Range on the bank of River Jhelum, Mishri Mor Buss Adda (stop) is a wonderful place with its unique character. The passenger busses and wagons stop here and commuters get down to stretch their legs, have some food, and do some shopping or to take another bus to a different destination.

The Adda has developed into a shopping centre for the passengers and folks from nearby villages. Roads from Mandi Bauhud Din, Kharin, Jhelum and Cheri meet at this junction. Two disused railway track also passes through Mishri Mor: one on which mad driven rail trolley used to play between Mandi Bahaud Din and other that was built to ferry material for the construction of Rasul Barrage. A washed up trail leaves from here for Till Jungian also. Near the bus stop are Rasul Barrage Wildlife Sanctuary, a 'Siphon' where Lower Jhelum Canal passes under the Rasul Qadarabad Link Canal and shrine of Baba Noor Shah. People bring milk offerings to this shrine from far off places and the tradition is to leave the milk pot there on the shrine. The area around Wildlife Sanctuary remains alive with myriad migratory birds - chiefly coots, common teal and ducks.

Standing at Mishri Mor, let your gaze slip and you will find Salt Range hillocks smoking with mist defining the skyline. Across River Jhelum, landscape appears like a shore of another land altogether: green belt dotted with trees and interrupted by the dawn's red and blue brushstrokes.

I have known this place all my adult life and have cluster of memories attached to it. Legand gas it that Mishri Khan of nearby village Kotehra opened up a small tea shop here in early 60, hence the name. The place developed when Kharian Road improved and long route buses started plying. This is my destination stop for going home and this is where I refashion my 'urban' attitudes before walking remaining one and a half kilometre to my home village.

Every time, day and night, the shops play music. At times you even cannot hear your own voice. Each of the shops on the Adda owns a music system. Every one competes with the rest in loudness. Business sense dictates that the music be noisy enough to invite the attention of potential buyers. I do not know what it is about this place but everyone here seems to enjoy the noise. Without it, there would be no Mishri Mor," says Nawaz, a barber and proud owner of 'the Loudest Tape Recorder'. Despite being locally assembled and crude looking, his apparatus can outlast the rest. He has also placed Public Address System with its speakers facing different directions outside the shop. His shop is adorned with the pictures of almost all-famous faces of the Bollywood, lollywood and some from Hollywood.

Though the buses stop here, the music does not. The digital revolution is affecting the way people listen, buy and enjoy music everywhere, but not here. It may look a strange choice but Mishri Mor is one of the best places to study the latest music trends in our rural culture in the Central Punjab. It is no warehouse or studio of some recording company. Rather, it is an open market complex spread over 700 square yards with 60 odd shops from hotel to barbershop to music centre, and vehicle repairing facilities. A vender Khushi sells Bhujiya Channa to passengers and earns anything "between rupees 100/- to rupees 150/- daily," he told happily.

You can hear a mile away: Surayya Multanikar or Hadiqa Kiyani, Atta Ullah Essa Kkelvi or Shezad Roy, folk, classical and even English music and songs. You name it; you will hear it in a boom that you could call the Mishri Mor fusion.

A third of the makeshift shops stock audiocassettes for sale. If the Public Call Office (PCO: equipped with mobile telephone because PTC has yet not made up to that remote location) cannot give you the track from 'Oh Kehndi Ae Sayan Main Teri Aan, hay' the fruit vendor certainly will. "We are generally ahead of anyone in these parts as far as getting the latest albums are concerned," says young Mian Khan, a PCO proprietor. He has the stock of over 500 cassettes and says, "The sale of cassettes is far more than the income from telephone. Acquiring latest music albums is easy. I get them through drivers who ply on these routes and stop here every time."

Hundreds of busses plying on these routes halt at Mishri Mor and the passengers pile out for relaxation, food and drinks. Malik Niaz, owner of an eating joint famous for fresh fish kabab informed, "The drivers and conductors of the buses are served with food, tea and cigarettes free of cost. They not only stop but also prolong their halts that help us sell more." Even shops that do not sell cassettes play music according to the perceived preference of the commuters who stop there. "It is one way to make customers feel comfortable, and it is good for business," added Malik.

With so many shops selling new cassettes, demand still outstrips the supply. That is the reason why ever keen on further innovation, Mian Khan has started retailing cassettes and has switched over to selling them in his cubby-hole PCO. As the profit on a cassette is anything between rupees 10 to rupees 30, Mian Khan feels it is worth investing. However, most of the shopkeepers keep 'Number 2 quality'. "We sell to every body: passengers, village folks, tractor and auto-rickshaw drivers who have installed the music systems in their vehicles. That is what keeps us going," says Mian Khan.

That and the sense of plain good fun. Something that rubs off on anyone who stops here. "People get off here bleary-eyed and exhausted," told a passenger, "but the noise seems to wake everybody up." After stretching their legs and eating at one of the many joints that line Mishri Mor Adda, passengers return to their buses. And they resume their travel; feet tapping to a chaotic but catching beat. May be one of the passenger offers his newly purchased cassette to the buss driver to play instead of one from driver's collection?

Cosmetic Surgery

People go a long way to be at their best; attractive appearance, beautiful. Good thing is that medical sciences have developed and a lot of help is available. One just has to look around and reach out.

Have a look at Cosmetic Surgery Montreal - Canadian institute of Cosmetic Plastic Surgery – that offers world’s finest cosmetic surgery procedures for face, nose, eyelids, forehead, tummy, ears, and laser for wrinkles, laser hair removal and lips. In addition to the patient, the skill of a surgeon is one of the two most important factors responsible for the success of any surgical procedure. Chirurgie Esthetique Montreal surgeons are well versed in these cosmetic surgical procedures.

I have been exploring some of the cosmetic procedures offered at a Chirurgie Esthetique Montreal. I think not only should a person who is thinking about cosmetic surgery be informed about what is involved in any procedure, but also to make sure that the people performing the procedures are reputable and experienced in the field of cosmetic surgery.

How many of us have not heard of botched cosmetic surgeries? Nobody wants to find herself/himself in that circumstance due to negligence that is why it is always good to go to a reputable cosmetic surgical institution.

Explore the neatly laid out site and see what they are offering and how. Better still approach them and use their skill to your advantage.

Access to Warm Waters

Some places are so idyllic and unspoiled that it is almost unbelievable. One such place is picturesque, tranquil and pollution free town Garam Chashma (meaning hot spring) in at the edge district Chitral. The very sound of it is (sort of) strategic - the role Garam Chashma played during Russian occupation in Afghanistan not very long ago. The town is located on the bank of a turbulent torrent known as Luthko Gol that is full of trout; about two hours drive from Chitral City.

As the small Fokker Friendship hovers over Chitral before committing to landing, one can see the beautiful sights through window of small aircraft: red roof houses dotted on the hill contours, alpine trees, and fruit orchards. Chitral airport is built in one of the serene gorges of the River Kunar. I stayed at the deepest place in district Chitral known as Mir Khanni - over seventy kilometers from Chitral City. As per the plans that I had made to see different sights in Chitral valley during free brakes in the schedule of my assignment, I boarded a passenger Mazda that was ready to go to Garam Chashma right from the airport early one April morning.

Garam Chashma-Chitral Road forks from Kunar River towards north though lush green countryside that is at its best after the months of harsh winters. The pebbled road runs along Lutkho Gol and the scenery is ever becoming different. Sitting on the front seat, on my right I could see the distant snow covered Trich Mir Top changing its shades as per the slant of the sun. Nearly all the road passes though the mountain glen. Terraced fields and fragrant orchards of walnuts, apricots, grapes, apple, mulberries and brilliant alpine species of flowers are strung up the valley on the mountain walls.

I was sharing my seat with another passenger - a local teacher from Garam Chashma by the name of Shah Pir who voluntarily took over as my guide and kept telling me the tales and pointing at things. During our journey from Chitral to Garam Chashma he narrated his risqué story of hunting expeditions. Moreover, he discussed every thing from the foreigners he had met to Soviet Occupation in Afghanistan and from ecology in the area to why Chitrali keep the legs of newly born babies tied so that they remain straight once they grow. He also lectured me on Tamur pedigree, which he said he belonged to. Silently, I bore the onslaught of knowledge.

The driver had a long and leisurely break on a makeshift roadside teahouse in village Morgh. This is a busy midway stop. I had one of the tastiest (and much needed) cups of tea there and met couple of travelers from Karachi who were coming back from Garam Chashma. They advised me about where I should stay and eat while in Garam Chashma. The small village's claim to fame is "Patti" - clothe made by hand from raw wool. Patti is in great demand through out the country.

There used to be a refugees camp during Russian occupation in Afghanistan in Garam Chashma - a tehsil headquarters of Chitral District. The open ground where Afghan children used to play and elder used to contemplate their future during forced exile is lying vacant as a strong reminder of the past. Herd of goats was resting in the vast ground. The track to Dorah Pass leading into Afghanistan is also deserted.

Small bazaar in the town is lined with humble tea shops, eateries, modest provision stores that are mostly stocked once Lowari opens to road traffic during summers and a few shops selling Lajvard (Armenian stone) and Zamurrad (Emerald) that find their way in the town, for the tourists mostly. There is a high school in the town. People seem to be living in peace with themselves. No hurry, no worry. Cut of from the mainland, may be this is the best way of life for them.

East of the main road near the town is a famous hot spring. The hot water comes from the hills. Near the residential area, a small steaming stream branch off to enter bathrooms and swimming pool (constructed by Chitral Scouts) before it joins the main course again. There are quite a few legends (or facts) famous about the hot spring. As per Shah Pir, the water of hot sparing is a cure to Gouts and numbers of other skin diseases. And, once upon a time, famous Daughter of the East used to come here to take bath. I only reveled into the hot water to freshen up. It was very comforting.

Some of the rare wild life species are found in Chitral valley. But sadly, Musk Deer, Ibex and Murgh-e-Zareen are at the verge of extinction. Shah Pir told, "flying of Murgh-e-Zareen over someone's head is very lucky. It brings wealth and power." I do not believe in such things, but kept wishing through out my stay in Mir Khanni that if there is any Murgh-e-Zareen left, it should fly over my head. Later, however, I saw a domesticated huge Markhore in Chitral Scouts Officers Mess at Drosh and stuffed Murgh-e-Zareen in house of a local.

The Chitralis are descendents of invaders - from Aryans to Macedonians. The presence of Kalash tribe and their ancient culture, the Khowar language spoken in the area and Mediterranean features of the people testify to this fact. History tells us that Chinese and Timur also subdued the area, which was later ruled by Kator clan till the middle of twentieth century. Chitral State acceded to Pakistan on independence and became an administrative district in 1969. The valley is landlocked in writers as the two passes, Shandur from Gilgit and Lowari from Dir are closed, and therefore, the life has not changed much in the valley during last few hundred years.

Some time back, the National Highway Authority has proposed the construction of a low-cost all weather road from Nawan Killi unto Domail Nisar avoiding the Lowari Top which remains snow-bound during winter forcing suspension of all traffic between Chitarl district and the rest of the country. Over 10 feet of snow has been recorded in winters on the road passing through Lowari Pass.

The 30 kilometers proposed Nawan Killi-Domail Nisar Road would save about 15 billion rupees: estimated cost on the Lowari Tunnel project. The work on the tunnel was undertaken some 16 years back but it was never completed due to low priority accorded to the project by successive governments.

As per the preliminary study, the proposed road should take off from Nawan Killi in Dir district. The route to Zakani Kandao via Gat Kandao, also in Dir district, leads to Domail Nissar in Chitral district. A 13-km track already exists between Gat Kandao and Domail Nisar, which will require widening and adjusting of its longitude grade. Another 10 kilometers road from Domail Nisar to Mir Khanni also is there waiting for widening to accommodate two-way traffic.

According to the topographic study along the proposed alignment the chances of accumulation of snow are negligible. There are 47 sharp curves falling in the same sliding zone on Lowari Pass while there is almost none on the intended route. Besides, the glacier and avalanches will not develop due to low area and favorable topography as compared to Lowari Pass. In addition, no snowstorms have been reported on the designed alignment whereas it is on record that severe storms cause huge human losses every year on the Lowari route.

District Chitral will be connected with the main land if the road is approved and developed. The transportation of goods and passengers during winter when Lowari Pass becomes snow-bound will become possible. The new road is also claimed to reduce commuter's travel expenses as they have to spend more on air travel whereas goods, particularly essential food items, will be available at lower rates during winter due to less transportation cost.

Journey from Chitral to Garam Chashma in photogenic valley is one of the most tranquil and absorbing experiences. But till the time the valley is not connected with mainland, round the year, "people consider Pakistan as another country," says Shah Pir.

Web Hosting Geeks

Term Geek reminds me of so many things. It was during dot com boom that the usage of the term Geek changed to positive sense. Geek after steady transition now refers to keen and expert users of personal computers and the Internet, in an upbeat sense. Besides others (businesses and individuals) geeks now proudly like to present themselves online for which they need best, trusted and uninterrupted web host.

In this age when website hostingis essential for every concerns and even individuals, it is vital to host online assets with trusted web hosts. How to find them.

Have a look at Web Hosting Geeks – that they offer best of the web hosts anywhere. Top 10 Web Hosting - Best Web Hosts (2008) and you will fine independent review of top 10 web hosting providers. Cheap professional web hosting services. What is more, you can rate and review your own web hosting services you find there. That will also help other users like you.

Explore the site and see what all they are offering and how. Web hosts are featured on front page and are also listed category wise on the side bar. There are sufficient accompanying details to give an idea of what one may be buying. I liked Bluehost Review I found there.

Web Hosting Geeks is neatly laid out site and users’ friendly. See what they have for you.

Powerful Web Presence Online

Powerful web presence has become vital for every business and even individuals. Headland - a digital marketing agency – has been building web based businesses for their clients on bespoke and third party content managed platforms for more than ten years. Headland design web sites and create engaging interactive content that is well targeted, well designed and delivers high levels of ROI.

From their offices in Leeds and Nottingham, Headland award-winning creative teams’ design work has added value to many brands and our outstanding development team have extensive experience of creating robust, easy to use Leeds web design to the latest accessibility and web site optimisation standards.

Headland development platform for Content Mangement Is Ektron CMS400.net. This CMS is excellent value for money for SMEs to full enterprise level. Similarly their bespoke technical developments vary as widely as clients’ wishes. Headland are driven by clients’ specific needs and their technical team work across an extensive range of bespoke developments from payment gateways to calculators designed to drive traffic and repeat visits. Headland designs are good in the detail that take any visitors through.

Explore their neatly laid out and users’ friendly site and see what they are offering and how. Better still try them and see the results.

Buy Gaming Console

Computer games are one of the best past times and indoor activities these days. Most of us have started computing with games and consoles (myself included). Analysts say that computer games are an aid to learning computers and even help foreign students to fit in different cultures. It is in this milieu that I recommend Nintendo DS - one and the best consoles available in the market.

For those who are interested in computer games and like to buy the best console at best prices, Savebucket is a leading places to purchase not only Nintendo DS but much much more at one place; online. The best part is that at Savebucket, you can do price comparison and reach at an informed buying decision. Exploring the site, I liked Nintendo DS Lite Console (Silver) for myself. I suggest you explore Savebucket and see what they are offering art one place and how. It is a wonderful place to buy the best.

Fruit Basket From Pashin

Visit Pishin at this time of the year and one finds thousands of acres of fruit orchards. The rich harvest of apples, grapes, plums, peaches and apricots is seen every where. I discovered the area, and the taste of the fruit, during my stay at the School of Infantry and Tactics, Quetta when we used to walk miles and miles for training maneuvers. It is still the same.

Legend attributes the origin of the name Pishin to a son of the Emperor Afrasiab. Until the middle of the 18 th century, when Quetta finally passed into the hands of Brahvi rulers, the history of Pishin is identical with the province of Kandahar. The earliest mention of Pishin is found in the ancient writing in which "Pishinorha" is described as a valley in an elevated part of the country and containing a barren level plain.

Little is known of the history of Pishin up to the 13th century. It was in 1221 that Kandahar and its dependencies passed into the hands of the Mughals. During the first half of the 15 th century, Kandahar was under the rule of the Timurs' successors and it was probably at the beginning of this century that the Tarins emigrated from their original homes in the Takht-i-Sulaiman and made their way into Pishin.

Between 1530 and 1545 the province of Kandahar was in the possession of Mirza Kamran - the brother of the Emperor Humayun. After his death in 1556, Kandahar and its dependent territories were restored to the Safavid kings of Persia and they remained under Persia until 1595, when they were again acquired by the Mughals. It is mentioned in Ain-i-Akbari that Shal and Pushang (Pishin) were included in the eastern division of the Kandhar Sarkar. In 1622, Kandahar was again brought under the Safavid dynasty and, with the exception of a short period, remained under Persia. The Safavid Monarch Shah Abbas gained possession of Kandhar in 1622. He conferred the government of Pishin and tribal adjacent areas upon Sher Khan.

The end of the 17th century witnessed the rise to prominence of the Brahvis power. Quetta and Pishin both suffered from the encroachment of Brahvis, and it fell into the hands of Mir Ahmed whose reign lasted 30 years, from 1666 to 1696. Mir Wais obtained possession of Kandhar in 1709. It is curious that this feat was accomplished in connection with Pishin Brahvi. History relates that around 1725 Pishin has been annexed by Mir Abdullah. However, in 1733 Shah Hussain Ghilzai made a move against the Brahavis and he garrisoned in Pishin. Moving forward, he crossed the Ghaza Bund and took Quetta. He advanced to Pishin where the Brahvai submitted. Quetta remained under Kandahar and was transferred to Nadir Shah. It is said that Ahmed Shah Durrani finally conferred it on the Brahvis after the campaign in eastern Persia in 1751, when he received gallant aid from Nasir Khan I. Pishin meanwhile remained under the Durrani's control. Ahmed Shah is said to have given Pishin as a jagir with the condition of the supply of military services to Pakar Khan. From the Durrani's Pishin passed into the hands of Barakzai.

During the period of the first Afghan war, Quetta was annexed by the British in 1839. After the British retired in 1842, Pishin and Shorarud were occupied by the Afghans. The first phase of the Afghan war closed with the signing of an agreement in May 1879 stating that the district of Pishin, along with some other districts, was to be ceded to the British government. It was in 1882 that final orders were given for the permanent retention of Pishin and British authority was extended over the valley.

When Quetta district was handed over to the British government on April 1883, it was combined with Pishin into a single administrative charge. Before its occupation in 1878 and its subsequent assignment in 1879, Pishin always formed part of the province of Kandahar. The Batezai Tarins played important part as governors. Before the British occupation and, up to 1882, it was under an assistant to the Governor General. From 1883 onwards, when Pishin was combined with Quetta, together they fell under one political agent, the Deputy Commissioner. Until 1975 Quetta Pishin remained a single administrative unit. When Pishin was separated from Quetta it was given the status of a district. In 1993 Pishin was split into Pishin district and Killa Abdullah district. Now there are three districts: Quetta, Pishin and Killa Abdullah, which before partition came under one administrative division, known as Quetta Pishin. The district consists of one tehsil, Pishin, and three tehsils: Huramzai, Barshore and Karazat.

An old Balochi war ballad describes the land of Balochistan. It reads, "Mountains are the Balochi's forts; the peaks are better than any army; the lofty heights are our comrades; the pathless gorges our friends; our drink is from the flowing springs; our bed the thorny bush; and, the ground we make our pillow." But one sees a splash of color in Pishin Valley in spring, when most of the plants are in bloom. Nomadic tribesmen pass through the valley during spring and autumn with their herds of sheep and camels and have their assorted wares for sale. This seasonal movement also adds color to the life of the town.

Apart from fruit, the quaint little market town is famous for eating. Sitting on ground, we used to have their famous mutton dish known as rosh, specially made in lamb fat. Curry used to be charged whereas rotis (bread) was free. Among the delicacies "Sajji" (leg of lamb) is the most famous, which is roasted to a delightful degree of tenderness and is not very spicy. The people also enjoy "Landhi" (whole lamb), which is dried in shade and kept for the winters. Kabab shops in town are very popular.

Water is the major problem in the valley. The ground water present is most likely safe for irrigation, domestic and livestock consumption. The quality of ground water also varies from place to place. In Karazat tehsil from Kily Qasim Bostan to Choormian, the water is of very good quality, whereas in Pishin bazaar and its surroundings the quality of water is poor. The water from saline basins - Karbala, Khudaidad zai - is not suitable for drinking and irrigation. In Pishin Valley water is supplied through different sources: tube-wells, hand pumps, wells, karezes and springs. Tube-wells by far have become the major source of water supply. Children and women are still seen fetching potable water from far off areas. If the water problem is solved, Pishin can be a rich fruit basket of the country.

Deer Valley Ski Rentals

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Explore the neatly laid out site and see what they are offering and how. Better still, you can book during off season on lesser rates and save on what everyone will be over charging during peak season.

Which Cell Are You Living In?

All human beings live four cells as per empirical observations of one scholar: First are natural restrains. Humans are bounded by natural environment, seasons, atmospheric conditions, other living beings, calamities and every thing else present in the eco system. Second confine to humans is history -- the chronology of the past. It is so very difficult to get rid of the past. Third is society. Humans simply cannot live oblivious of the societal traditions and customs. It is not possible to live alone nor is it workable to violate folks, mores and norms of society while living as its part.

And last is own's self: Envy, love, anger, joy, desire, sex, prejudice, self-indulgence and fears that compel humans to restrict behind the walls.

How can one throw away all these yokes and truly set free. Science can take control of nature. Understanding of philosophy can free the humans from burdens of what went before. Knowledge of social sciences can steer them safely through the society. But getting away from self is the most daunting of the tasks. For that one needs altruism. And that can only be attained through passion for others. Can you suggest any other way?

Making Life Easy

The Interaction Design Center is organizing World Usability Day 2008 on Thursday, November 13, 2008 in Lahore at the University of Management and Technology (UMT). For more information and to register online, please visit http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=57687680808 or http://tinyurl.com/wud-lhr-pk (limited seats available).

This event is part of a globally coordinated effort that is being simultaneously held in over 175 cities around the world, for the first time the event is being held in Pakistan.

Usability is about making people's lives better by ensuring services and products important in life are well-designed and easy-to-use. This year, the focus of this global event is on transportation. There will be a day-long featuring talks, case studies, and a documentary screening.

Featured sessions include live video link with the creator of Google MapMaker, role of design thinking in delivering business services, transportation infrastructure and mass transit systems, case study on NHA e-Tag system, car design and usability, human factors and air travel experiences, documentary Screening: "Helvetica" (2007, Gary Hustwit) and live event streaming. {Thanks Badar Khushnood (بدر خوشنود), Pakistan Country Consultant, Google Inc.}

The Sundays are longer than the Mondays; when lonely and quiet.

How I Got Published

Published books and printed words have been bringing changes in human relationships and making difference in the lives of people. The power of worlds has caused people to loose their existence or to better them.

I always wanted to get published for free. But this could not happen. I had to self publish instead. When my first self published book Izhar came off the press, I personally distributed the book and placed it on all the show rooms in town and sent some copies to other cities as well. I also did a lot for promotion of my first book. After six months, when I went around to see the result of my book promotion efforts, one of my books sellers told me that four books have been sold. Surprised, I wondered who are those four patrons and asked him. He came up with a small list on which one name was written: Erum, Erum, Erum, Erum.

Which is one of the reasons that Pakistan’s printing and publishing industry has not developed. Services like editing (manuscript reviews, proofreading and editing) Graphics (book covers, illustrations), publishing consultations and marketing are generally not available. The author and or the publishers do every thing by experience. There is no formal book promotion here.

And not only me, this is what happened to Abbas Khan – a celebrated short story writer and author who self publishes but does not promote his books.

Abbas Khan's published work includes three novels, seven short story books and a compilation of his observation: [Zakham Gawah Hain, Tu Aur Tu and Mein Aur Umrao Jan Ada (novels), Dharti Binam Akash, Tensikh-e-Insan, Qalam, Kursi Aur Wardi, Us Adalat Men, Jism Ka Johar (short story books), Reza Reza Keenat and Pal Pal (afsancha -- shortest storybook) and Din Mein Charagh].

One of the biggest publishing houses with sound distribution network printed his novel (now third edition) and gave him 25 books in royalty. He had to buy 26th when he needed. Another publisher published his one book in the form of a journal (monthly Sputnik – Pakistani version). Few others printed his work and expected him to be thankful for being published and getting promoted (what promotion?). This is what is meant by getting published free around here.

Now he has given rupees 15,000/- to one of the publishers to get his latest book out in print. This is the only thing the autor can do to promote and selll his new book!

Writing, self publishing (printing, binding, distributing) promoting and selling is the process. I wonder if anyone has gone through this whole process.

Email to buy book titled Reet Pe Tehreer by S A J Shirazi

Black Man in White House

An Orange America mapped voters with the terms they were discussing most. Cool visual aggregation ensues! (Read more about how it works here from Simon Owens who worked on it.) Tropicana did this in a way that connected red and blue states with their product by bringing it back to the color orange. (To check out other forms of visualizationosity online, go here.)

Krakoram Express

Spanking new Krakoram Express (42 Down) running between Lahore and Karachi is still a rarity in Pakistan: all the original fittings like coat hooks, locks, handles and seat covers are in place, all original gauges are working, and there are no ashtrays (smokers use the dustbin provided in each compartment as an ashtray) in passengers’ bogies. Late last September, it was brutally air-conditioned throughout and it is punctual, too. Six passengers have a compartment to themselves. No streams of persistent vendors. No one can have the pleasure of hanging from an open train door as they are locked stop to stop. Like Lahore-Islamabad motorway the train is for many a symbol of modernity and progress.

Most of my journeys begin from the hinterland and on foot with very little provisions on back. But this one began on the train. This time suitcases were packed instead of backpack days in advance and phone calls were put through to friends and relatives en route to alert them to our arrival. My starting point, the Lahore Railway Station, fourteenth gateway of Lahore, is sturdy and imposing. It is an interesting place to hang around in any time of day or night. At the Station there are bookstores stocked with spiritual tracts, Internet guides, archetypal books of love poetry and Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. Other shops sell everything from souvenir (crude) clay ware to artificial jewellery, not to mention a fast food chain outlet and countless tea shops. The platform is always clogged with goods going and coming to and from up and down the country. There is a grumble of departing passengers’ trains and the maddeningly frequent station announcements and attacks of red shirt porters (called cullies) and cab drivers on every passenger. Every porter has per trip rate written on the shirt but none charges that. Every one asks for more. In all this, behind one barricade of luggage on the floor of the station slept a family with their belonging tucked under their heads. This is because the utility of waiting rooms has been excessively marginalized over the years. In the holy month of Ramadan, the station becomes a huge eating joins. Every tea stall is shrouded in curtains. And, if you have seen one railway station, you have seen all.

The complete train (except engine) has been made by Changchun Car Company in China as part of Pakistan Railways consignment worth rupees 7.77 billions to import 175 passenger coaches. The 14 completely built coaches have already been commissioned and rest are to be assembles in the Pakistan Railway Carriage Factory Islamabad. Two Chinese engineers (one electrical and one mechanical) travel with the train to observe its performance that plies on the track laid by the British over a century ago. I tried to but could not converse with them. They only knew Chinese. But I am sure they must be surprised on how Pakistan Railways is using some of the old infrastructure. At places one can see the equipment of old vintage (1906) in use. The main strategic and commercial artery of the country, the railway line passing through the length of the country, needs to be doubled on priority.

My train left Lahore right on time. Some one interrupted the recitation from Holly Qura’an that was going on and started making announcements and issuing instructions in Urdu as well as English on public address system installed in the train. No pun intended but the announcement was a first shocker. Not only the subject of instructions and the contents of announcement need to be changed but it should be made by some one who is qualified to do that. Or at least a pre-recorded audio tape can do the job. It seemed that some one is talking to himself and not to the passengers. Later, the system started broadcasting songs of Noor Jehan and Jawad Ahmad.

Hurtling through a countryside that had remained unchanged for most part, the train blasted imperiously through the smaller stations without stopping. It has only four stops in the way: Khanewal (20 minutes), Rohri (20 minutes), and Hyderabad (5 minutes). The old engine that has been repainted to go with the train colour and some of the administrative staff go straight from Lahore to Karachi and comes back next day. No changing in the way.

The train clattered on culverts, bridges, and mud-hut villages chiselled from the landscape. Over two hours of the day light that I had before dusk, I saw through the window the buffalos lounging in village ponds, tiny houses decorated with drying cowpats, the immense sky bruised black with the smoke rising from factories, Pattoki nurseries, deserted station Tabrooq and other very familiar cinematic scenery in the expanses of Punjab. In the irrigated tracts, I rode through endless stretch of waving crops of different shades of colour. Too frequently one sees long queues of road transport standing on either side of railway crossings waiting passionately for train to pass. The train track in most places is lined with extinguishing species of trees like Okkan and Salvadora (called Van). After the harvest all will change.

Dark outside, I moved up and down the train. The passengers, kaleidoscopic mix, seemed oblivious. Some were sleeping, some eating food they had brought from home. Only a few people ordered food from the accompanied Dinning Car though the staff presented mutilated menu cards to every one and purser came to ask if every one has had a complimentary evening tea. Some passengers pored over documents or books and some glanced hopefully at their mobile phones to see if there was a signal, which of course there was not. Mobile phone only covers a part of the journey mainly around main cities. So the high-tech train glided onward through a no-tech but beautiful and living landscape, silent except for a muffled symphony of snores and burps emanating from its curtained-off berths, and the soft beeps of passengers playing "Snake" on their otherwise useless phone sets. A group was busy playing “teen-patti.” I was invited to join in and at the end we exchanged contact cards. And some others were travelling with feet tapping to a catching beat of the songs.

Moving while sleeping, I have had some restless moments, spent some time gazing at stars. It was not always easy to find the least uncomfortable arrangement of my bones on upper berth of the train that was too high to climb and too near the roof of the compartment. The pillow and bed sheets provided by the train staff were not enough for me. Moreover, the train gave rough jolts whenever the brakes were applied. But wait a second. Could sleeping while moving -- if I may exploit the metaphor -- be the problem? My problem? Is not the whole point of the exercise to wake up? Wake up at Rohri where Shahid was waiting to tell me what is new there. Wake up to Hussain Abdul Rahman who had come at Hyderabad Railway Station to deliver hot breakfast and tell me what he had explored in Thar.

Lahore to Karachi is always an amazing trip: mind expanding, horizons broadening, wallet emptying -- and you are home again. Nothing much has changed and somehow your friends are not as excited about your cool travel tales as they should be. Homecoming blues are a price I always pay. What can be done about them?

One of my cures when I am stuck at home is to keep up with letters and emails to people I met while travelling. As time goes on, you never know what those sorts of contacts will lead to -- future travel. It is all too easy to let travel friendships slide, but then that just gives you one more thing to be depressed about. Developing these relationships allows you to think of your trip as the start of something rather than an ending.

Tags: Travel, Travel Destinations

Date a Cougar

Advent of the Internet and collaborative technologies has changed many things in life as well as work. Only a few years ago, there used to be different ways for spouses to meet and marry. Now everything that used to happen face to face is happening online. The term perfect is taking on a whole new meaning.

In this age of fast communication, if you want to meet a cougar, do it on the Internet. Online is one of the best ways to find suitable cougars. This has given birth to dating sites and Internet matchmaking services. There are different Internet dating services, each with their own niche, style, features, costs and requirements.

For those who are interested in meeting and dating older women, dateacougar.com - a resource for single men and women to find what they want online – is one of the best places to start looking.

Like many others, I have been paying attention to social side of technologies like services of dating and match making sites and internet dating services featured online. Have a look at a website called “Date a Cougar” for men who like to settle with women giving experience of life. I couldn’t resist taking a look and it is a bit of an eye-opener, if not for the reasons you might first imagine.

Parliament’s Resolve

Anwar Syed

There is much to applaud in the resolution that the two houses of parliament unanimously passed in their joint sitting on Oct 22.

The resolution includes, among other things, guidelines for combating militancy and terrorism. Like many other notable political declarations, it contains elements of ambiguity and internal inconsistency. Three items in the parliament’s prescription — stress on national sovereignty, designation of dialogue as the principal instrument of conflict management and a call for a review of the country’s foreign policy — merit consideration.

Parliament’s concern with national sovereignty arises from the unilateral American military incursions into Pakistan’s tribal territory to hit suspected Taliban hideouts. Like some 200 other states in the world, Pakistan has always been sovereign in terms of international law. But it has only rarely acted like one in the context of its relations with the US or in its transactions with international financial institutions.

Americans have been participating in Pakistan’s domestic affairs through US military and economic assistance programmes much of the time since the mid-1950s. It has all along been a common saying in Pakistan that nothing happens here without America’s concurrence.

Pakistan’s vulnerability in this regard is not unique. In this age of globalisation no state, not even a great power, is fully sovereign in the sense of being free to treat its people as it deems fit, if its idea of fitness violates universally accepted human rights and norms of civility. Note also that working through their intelligence agencies foes, more than friends, routinely intervene in each other’s domestic affairs for the purpose of disrupting them.

Parliament has asked the government to stop the aforementioned American incursions into Pakistani territory, but it does not say how this is to be done. Condemnations of these American moves and diplomatic protest have been of no avail. The only other course is to use military force to repel them, which would mean going to war against the US. Prime Minister Gilani should go back to parliament and ask if that is what it wants his government to do.

The militants who make trouble for Pakistan are of more than one kind. There are those among the Taliban who want to expel American forces from Afghanistan. They make trouble for Pakistan because it enables the Americans to fight the Taliban. They do not want a dialogue with Pakistan if it wants them to quit harassing the Americans or to give up their safe havens in Pakistani territory.

Chiefs and other notables in the tribal areas are unhappy because the government’s anti-Taliban operations are disrupting their traditional governance and lifestyles. They would like the task of controlling the militants to be left to them. They would also like to be given the necessary funds and other means. In addition they want social and economic development projects to be launched in their areas, preferably under their own management. Dialogue with them on their concerns and the mechanics of addressing those concerns can be productive and should be initiated.

Lastly, there are the ideologically motivated Taliban who want to enforce their version of Sharia, the ones who burn down schools for girls, demolish cinemas, close down video stores and music shops, attack government personnel and installations, and send suicide bombers to kill innocent people. They are at war with the state and society of Pakistan. They do not think of themselves as our people, nor us as theirs. They do not want to talk with us; they want our unconditional surrender.

It is not clear whether the parliament’s strong urgings of dialogue apply to this group of militants. Parliament’s resolution recommends a dialogue with those who are willing to abide by the constitution and law of Pakistan. The group under reference here rejects this country’s law and constitution. It would then seem to follow that parliament did not have this brand of militants in mind.

But we know that quite a few members of parliament and others do nevertheless favour a dialogue with all militants, including this particular group. Since this feeling is shared by many Pakistanis, it may be prudent to invite the spokesmen for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to a dialogue, assuming that they can be found.

Government spokesmen have often said that they will talk with the militants if they lay down their weapons. This precondition is not necessary, for as we know adversaries in war have at times held peace talks even while the fighting was still going on. If the dialogue is to be perceived as a serious undertaking its terms of reference should be identified.

Dialogue involves negotiation which necessarily implies willingness of the parties to make mutual concessions. The government has to figure out what it will offer the Taliban in the unlikely event that they agree to stop their killings and burnings. Will it, for instance, agree to enforce the Tablian’s version of Sharia in Pakistan, or will it let them retain control of the areas they have already taken?

Lastly, there is the parliament’s call for a reappraisal of the country’s foreign policy. This refers primarily to policy towards the US. In effect it asks the government to tell the Americans that the lawmakers and the people of Pakistan are no longer willing to support their anti-Taliban operations.

That this is ‘vox populi’ (voice of the people) is not likely to carry any weight with the Americans. If Pakistan withdraws its support, it should be prepared for the withdrawal of the various types of assistance it receives from America and others whom it can influence (namely allies in Europe and Asia and the international financial institutions). It should also be prepared to be branded as a state that gives aid and comfort to terrorists. America’s retaliatory actions could cause Pakistan a lot of distress and that at a time when it is so stressed by political turmoil, economic recession and an acute financial crisis.

Pakistani officials — President Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani and others — were asking the international community to bail out this country with an injection of tens of billions of dollars at the time that parliament passed the resolution being discussed here. I wonder if those who propose to put a distance between Pakistan and America have considered, and if they are willing to live with, the likely consequences of this course of action. Alienating America may be easier said than done.

The writer, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, is currently a visiting professor at the Lahore School of Economics.

Protection and Detection

As per US Go0ernment study, �even the best filters could only filter / block 91% of adult websites, leaving 9% or more unfiltered.� The fact is that even those 9% websites (that make up to millions on the world wide web) are enough danger to society in general and to young generation in particular. Wiser is to use pornography-detection tool like SurfRecon � software that allows you to scan a computer system and see what the filter have missed. This software will work where internet filters fail and you will have a peace of mind. It is recommended that every one protects and detects pornography with SurfRecon pornography detection tools.

The Change Has Come

Barack Obama has been elected president of the United States, the first African American elected to the country's highest office. The historic election brings with it the likelihood of more government involvement in business and the reeling economy. How the promised change appears is to be seen now...

World Diabetes Day

From World Diabetes Day Org. World Diabetes Day (WDD) is the primary global awareness campaign of the diabetes world. It was introduced in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in response to the alarming rise in diabetes around the world. In 2007, the United Nations marked the Day for the first time with the passage of the United Nations World Diabetes Day Resolution in December 2006, which made the existing World Diabetes Day an official United Nations World Health Day.

World Diabetes Day is a campaign that features a new theme chosen by the International Diabetes Federation each year to address issues facing the global diabetes community. While the themed campaigns last the whole year, the day itself is celebrated on November 14, to mark the birthday of Frederick Banting who, along with Charles Best, first conceived the idea which led to the discovery of insulin in 1922.

In 2007 and 2008, the theme of World Diabetes Day is Diabetes in Children and Adolescents. Diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood. Type 1 diabetes is growing by 3% per year in children and adolescents, and at an alarming 5% per year among pre-school children. It is estimated that 70,000 children under 15 develop type 1 diabetes each year (almost 200 children a day). Currently, an estimated 440,000 children live with type 1 diabetes globally. Type 2 diabetes was once seen as a disease of adults but today, it is growing at alarming rates in children and adolescents.

The International Diabetes Federation's two year focus on children through the World Diabetes Day campaign, aims to increase awareness among parents and caregivers, teachers, healthcare professionals, politicians and the public.

Where is it celebrated? World Diabetes Day is celebrated worldwide by the over 200 member associations of the International Diabetes Federation in more than 160 countries, all Member States of the United Nations, as well as by other associations and organizations, companies, healthcare professionals and people living with diabetes and their families.

How is it marked? The global diabetes community including International Diabetes Federation member associations, diabetes organizations, NGOs, health departments and companies develop an extensive range of activities, tailored to a variety of groups. Activities organized each year include:

Radio and television programmes
Sports events
Free screenings for diabetes and its complications
Public information meetings
Poster and leaflet campaigns
Diabetes workshops and exhibitions
Press conferences
Newspaper and magazine articles
Events for children and adolescents
Monument lightings
Human blue circles
Walks
Runs
Cycle Races
Is there a theme? Each year World Diabetes Day is centred on a theme related to diabetes. Topics covered in the past have included diabetes and human rights, diabetes and lifestyle, and the costs of diabetes. Recent themes include:

2004: Diabetes and Obesity
2005: Diabetes and Foot Care
2006: Diabetes in the Disadvantaged and the Vulnerable
2007-2008: Diabetes in Children and Adolescents

The World Diabetes Day logo: The World Diabetes Day logo is the blue circle - the global symbol for diabetes which was developed as part of the Unite for Diabetes awareness campaign. The logo was adopted in 2007 to mark the passage of the United Nations World Diabetes Day Resolution. The significance of the blue circle symbol is overwhelmingly positive. Across cultures, the circle symbolizes life and health. The colour blue reflects the sky that unites all nations and is the colour of the United Nations flag. The blue circle signifies the unity of the global diabetes community in response to the diabetes pandemic.

Chill Karoo

Two days Chill Kia. And it did a lot of good to me.

Children Rendered Homeless by Earthquake

Over 70,000 people, including 30,000 children, have been left homeless in quake-hit Balochistan, Unicef said on Friday, as health workers warned that deadly diseases were spreading.

The UN children’s agency said it and Pakistani government officials assessed the situation in the worst-hit districts of the province and were “concerned about the urgent needs of children and women”.

Over 270 people are thought to have been killed in the 6.4-magnitude quake which struck before dawn on Wednesday.

“With winter closing in, the most urgent needs of the survivors are shelter, safe drinking water, food, warm clothing and emergency medical assistance,” the world body said in a statement.

Clean water was a “priority” and Unicef teams had started providing water and sanitation services, and food supplements for pregnant women and young children, it said.

“Children are especially vulnerable to diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera. Most of the water sources in the affected districts have been damaged by the earthquake. Approximately 12,000 people in Ziarat lack safe water and are dependent on supplies from water trucks,” it added.

Ziarat district health officer Ayub Kakar told AFP that children were already suffering after two nights in the open in sub-zero temperatures.

“Due to the cold hundreds of children are being treated for pneumonia, abdominal diseases, diarrhoea and chest problems,” he said.

“We fear the death toll will rise. Such diseases, if not treated in time, are life-threatening,” Mr Kakar said.

Tents, blankets, clothes, medicine and antibiotics were still in short supply, he said. Many people in outlying villages have expressed concern that they have gone without help more than two days after the disaster.

“Our children are dying, help us,” cried Mohammad Khan, in the village of Khanozai high in the mountains.

Mr Kakar said children formed the majority of the population in the quake-affected area and many of them were psychologically affected by the tremors and violent aftershocks that continued to pound the region.

Women were also not getting medical treatment because of deeply conservative traditions and the fact that hospitals were also hit.

Doctors said they were running out of drugs and artificial limbs for victims of the earthquake.

At a small clinic in the devastated village of Kawas, Dr Nek Mohammed said he had treated 300 minors since Thursday and that he hoped medicine would arrive soon.

“Most of them are developing the symptoms of pneumonia and that is inevitable given the serious cold they are exposed to,” he said, as scores of people squatted outside waiting for a consultation.

The seriously injured have been taken to Quetta. Even there, doctors said they were stretched.

Zainullah Kakar of the Bolan Medical College said it had 90 trauma patients.

“We are running short of antibiotics and other drugs. We need artificial limbs. We need metal plates and rods to treat broken arms and legs,” Mr Kakar said. {Agencies}