Calling Abdalians
Friday, 29 March 2024
Comfortably tucked in green hills north of Islamabad, Hasan Abdal is situated right on the Grand Trunk Road. The town's claims to fame are Cadet College and temple of Panja Sahib. This small and clean historic town neat is sacred for Sikhs.Hassan Abdal is famous for its cadet college and also serves as the gateway to some most stunning sites in Pakistan. It is from here that Karakoram Highways turns towards Northern Areas. It is a convenient halting point of Grand Trunk Road (G T Road) from where one can go to places like Abbotabad and Northern Areas, Peshawar, Taxila, Wah, Rawalpindi. Coins of the Greco-Bectrians kings discovered from the adjoining tract suggest that the area was inhabited in first century B.C. Accounts of Xuan Zang, a seventh century Chinese Buddhist traveler tells us that the place was also sacred to Buddhists. However, presently the town is associated with Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikh religion and Baba Wali Qandhari, a revered Muslim saint.
Labels: Hasan Abdal, Panja Sahib, Travel
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Friday, March 29, 2024,
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Thatta Kedona
Wednesday, 27 March 2024
The cluster of mud and brick houses in the plains of Punjab, Thatta Ghulamka Dheroka (TGD) looks like a typical Pakistani village about 80 kilometres away from Lahore and 40 kilometres from Indus civilization ruins in Harappa. There is no gas or telephone in the village. No asphalt roads lead to it. Yet it is different, the beautiful dolls and other handicrafts made by the village folks are collectors' delight all over the world. Influencers from Indus civilization from nearby Harappa and modern techniques brought by the German volunteers can be seen in the village together.The dolls made in the village are on display in international doll museum in Iceland, prestigious galleries and showrooms in Pakistan and abroad. TGD village doll project was one of the 767 worldwide projects presented in the "Themepark" at expo 2000 in Hannover (Germany) as an example of thinking of twenty first century. Earlier, the dolls from Pakistan participated in international toy fair in Nuremberg. These dolls show how culture goes beyond simple work of art and becomes collaboration among applied and natural sciences as well as other forces that affect our lives.
Labels: Dr. Senta Siller, Prof Dr Norbert Pintsch, Thatta Kedona
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Wednesday, March 27, 2024,
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“Leave after the first lie.”
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Tuesday, March 26, 2024,
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New domains
Wednesday, 20 March 2024
Penetrating new IT domains appeared in Profit, Pakistan Today.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is about to expand general Top Level Domaown names (gTLDs). The applications have already been invited from January 11, 2012 through April 11, 2012. During the first round, ICANN will accept only 500 applications, while the subsequent rounds will be limited to 400 applications. The gTLDs expansion program has the potential to add countless new names to the existing twenty one available top-level domains (.com, .net, .edu, .biz, .org) and over 100 suffices (.pk - Pakistan, .ly - Libya) by permitting brands, businesses, geographical regions and even individuals to apply for a virtually unlimited list of new gTLDs in different scripts including Arabic. It is expected that the first gTLDs will come online by 2013.
This news has initiated a debate amongst the various stakeholders since May 2008, when ICANN first came up with the idea of expanding gTLDs “to unleash the global human imagination. The decision to expand respects the rights of groups to create new Top Level Domains in any language or script. We hope this allows the domain name system to better serve all of mankind,” says Rod Beckstrom, the CEO ICANN.
Read more »Labels: Business, Technology
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Wednesday, March 20, 2024,
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Annual Get Together Mangla 2012
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
The Course Get Together for year 2012 was held on September 29-30, 2012 at Mangla Cantt.
Read more »
Labels: 55 PMA, Get Together, Men At Their Best
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Tuesday, March 19, 2024,
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Youth on the Internet - Urdu blog
Labels: In Print, Urdu Blogs
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Tuesday, March 19, 2024,
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E-commerce
Sunday, 17 March 2024
E-commerce is global in nature. Connected users from all over the world will resort to online shopping if businesses can offer safe, user-friendly online shopping experience. A recent international ecommerce survey conducted by Pitney Bowes has crossed my desktop that points out major preferences that can be mirrored anywhere in the world. As per the findings, “71 per cent international internet users look for competitive prices, 42 per cent want a broad selection of products and services online and some 35 per cent opt online-shopping for an easy checkout and other savings; deals, free shipping and taxing costs”.
In any market based economy, prices convey all of the information that consumers require to make learned decisions. On both the production and consumption sides, market prices act as coordinating signals. In order to make informed decisions about what to offer and how, businesses need to know the prices of inputs. Similarly, consumers need to know the prices of the goods and services they might buy so that they can make appropriate decisions. The internet offers a very advanced means to communicate prices that were never possible before.
Read more »Labels: Ecommerce
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Sunday, March 17, 2024,
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Gogera Sadar
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Situated on the bank of river Ravi on Okara Faisalabad Road, Gogera (Sadar) was once an important and dignified town in the plans of Central Punjab. It is reduced to a shabby and sleepy suburb of Okara today. Town still boasts its importance when it was British power centre and district headquarters from 1852 to 1865 and the part played by the resilient people of the area during War of Independence in 1857. The stories of the war that was fought around Gogera echo in the pages of history books.
The only historic building — a British court — that reminds of the colonial period has been converted into a school. The verandas of the old building with round arches have been clogged to create additional rooms and red thin bricks are covered with coats of whitewash. It was much better if the building could have been conserved in its original shape. That does not seem possible now.
Labels: Gogera, History, Travel
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Tuesday, March 12, 2024,
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Powerful Paradigm
Sunday, 10 March 2024
This Artwork was put on display in Rotterdam in 1951. Reflection of thoughts of sculptor Ossip Zadkine, thinkers of the city as well as the municipality, this statue was erected here after the World War II to commemorate bombing and burning down of the city.
Read more »Labels: Avatar
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Sunday, March 10, 2024,
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Migratory Birds
Tuesday, 5 March 2024
Pakistan receives a large number of migratory birds from Europe and Central Asian States every year. These birds spend the winters in Pakistan and go back to their native habitats in the summers. The route these birds take from Siberia to Pakistan is known as International Migratory Birds' Route Number 4. It is also called the Green Route or Indus Flyway. Out of seven flyways, Indus Flyway is one of the busiest routes. Birds begin their journey in November. February is the peak time and by March they start flying back. These periods may vary depending upon weather conditions in Siberia and in Pakistan.
Birds' migration is of different forms: diurnal (during day), nocturnal (night flights), altitudinal (from heights to lower parts) and latitudinal (from north to south). One of the reasons for migration is that food is not available in indigenous habitats during winter seasons. Other factors include changes in temperature, reduced daylight hours, and instinctive behaviour.
Labels: Birds, Environment
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Tuesday, March 05, 2024,
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Judge the Nations by the Way They Look at Their Women
Saturday, 2 March 2024
Societies pride in different strengths: Some give importance to bravery, some to democracy, and some nations think that freedom of expression, development, and or education are the hallmarks of their long-term sustenance. “The nations should be judged on how they look at their women,” writes Abbas Khan, the author of the Urdu novel Mein Aur Umrao Jan Ada, his eleventh.
There is a famous saying that everything in fiction is true except dates. But in the novel written by Abbas Khan, even the dates are true because he has based his novel on the background of five very famous women in history: Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, Qura tul Ain Tahira (Iran), Mughal Princess Noor Jehan and Umrao Jan Ada.
Helen of Troy was the daughter of Zeus and Leda and the wife of Menelaus, considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Her abduction by Paris caused the Trojan War and made thousands of ships drown.
Helen of Troy was the daughter of Zeus and Leda and the wife of Menelaus, considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Her abduction by Paris caused the Trojan War and made thousands of ships drown.
Labels: Abbas Khan, Books
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Saturday, March 02, 2024,
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Changing Chitral
Friday, 1 March 2024
{This is an old article when I was stationed in Mirkhanni, Chitral} Picturesque Chitral town sits up in Pakistan's northwest district, walled in by the Hindu Kush range. During winters, the only way in is by air (weather permitting) as the two passes, the 3118-meter Lowari from Dir and the 3810-meter Shandur from the upper Gilgit Valley are closed to road traffic. The Fokker Friendships drone for 50 minutes and burst through clouds on descent to reveal on mountains covered with whitecaps and red tin roof houses.
This is Chitral. On the small airfield, the cold wind thrusts you to shiver. The remoteness of the district has left it undeveloped in spite of its grand natural beauty, hospitable people, and ancient history. The town is a base camp for tourists, adventurers, and researchers from across the world. And, people seem to be living there in peace.
Read more »
This is Chitral. On the small airfield, the cold wind thrusts you to shiver. The remoteness of the district has left it undeveloped in spite of its grand natural beauty, hospitable people, and ancient history. The town is a base camp for tourists, adventurers, and researchers from across the world. And, people seem to be living there in peace.
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Friday, March 01, 2024,
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