Shagufta Bano - Mano na Mano
Thursday, 16 May 2024
While doing interpretership (Russian Language) from National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, we were taken to different publishing houses. Having tea after the presentation at one of the publishing houses, we got a chance to talk informally to the wonderful people there.
While talking with Dr. Farahat Naqi – the owner and brain behind the success of the concern – Dr. Shagufta Bano – one of my favorite teachers -- came under discussion. I believed and praised my teacher. Dr. Naqvi listened to my discourse for some time and finally raised his hands and said, “Please stop. Stop! I know her more than you do because she is my wife for last 30 years.”
While talking with Dr. Farahat Naqi – the owner and brain behind the success of the concern – Dr. Shagufta Bano – one of my favorite teachers -- came under discussion. I believed and praised my teacher. Dr. Naqvi listened to my discourse for some time and finally raised his hands and said, “Please stop. Stop! I know her more than you do because she is my wife for last 30 years.”
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Thursday, May 16, 2024,
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Happy families are all alike
Sunday, 12 May 2024
The first sentence of Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina is: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” (Tolstoy, 1875-1877/2001, p. 1).
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Sunday, May 12, 2024,
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Ears to ground
Saturday, 11 May 2024
One evening a few months ago, Ghulam Ali Bloch, a retired bureaucrat turned progressive farmer, who has his roots in remote village Jalla Balla in the suburbs of Sargodha, was finishing up a contract negotiation for buying a piece of land for opening an Ostrich Farm when he realised that a crucial piece of information required to close the deal is missing. He needed to know who had the right to haqq-e shufah (pre-emption). He could only obtain the facts from the central registry of the revenue department.
In order to verify the legal status of a property, including business homes and personal estates, one has to go to the patwari, garedawar, tehsildar and it entails a lengthy and laborious procedure. Historically, getting the required information takes a very long time. But thanks to an old man Mir Thana Khan, a minstrel in the village Jalla Balla, the information was available in his private but very authentic record.
Read more »Labels: Profile
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Saturday, May 11, 2024,
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The Budget
Thursday, 9 May 2024
Budget War and what is in it for common citizens
Annual budget in democracies is such an important event that involves every one. There is much hype and hoopla before and after. As the fiscal year comes to close and governments begin preparing the budget, economists start debating fiscal issues and policies in the media, pointing out the implications on national economy as a whole and effects on common population. Lots of interest is generated and masses wait for the budget statement with enthusiasm, hoping for the relief mainly. Other stallholders like industries and corporate sectors also try to influence the budget makers by highlighting their needs during the preparatory process.
But not much happens here. At least nothing seems to be happening. No body waits for the budget speech any more. For couple of past years, the federal budgets here have reduced to yet another official exercise devoid of any substance. They neither address long term development programs nor give any immediate respite to the commoners. All those who have been following the budget promises in the past will testify that whatever was announced can hardly be seen on ground.
People are not interested in the budget because budget exercise is not for the people of the country. There is nothing for us in the budget," says Abbas Khan, a senior citizen," its usual significance is lost over the last few years because of deregulation and privatization that de-links the utility prices (natural gas, electricity, oil, telecom and commodities) from the federal budget. These prices are fixed separately on quarterly, monthly and even fortnightly basis. We come to know when a vendor selling lady fringes (bhindi) tell that vegetable prices have shot up because prices of petrol have increased or when meat seller charges more on account of increase in the cost of iron ore." What has prices of petrol or iron ore to do with the lady fingerer or meat one wonders?
Read more »Labels: Budget
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Thursday, May 09, 2024,
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On Roads Less Travelled
“The panoply that Salman Rashid paints through his pen and his photography is simply breathtaking- a delight for the connoisseur and general reader alike,” writes Agha Akbar, Editor Sports and Magazine Pakistan Today while reviewing Roads Less Travelled 2011 – a PPL book of days for year 2011.
Not long ago, annual diaries along with calendars of the hanging variety, were all the rage with everyone clamoring for a set. Overtaken by the IT revolution and by the trimness of new gadgets, the once much sought diary has, like so many other things has gone obsolete it seems. Yet diaries are brought out every year, and pretty expensive ones at that, but mostly as giveaways by various corporate entities as part of their marketing and promotion plans. And it really is no big deal whether one receives a copy or not. It’s the latest i-pad that matters..
Labels: Books, Salman Rashid, Travel
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Thursday, May 09, 2024,
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Mai Bismillah
Wednesday, 8 May 2024
I believe in “mothers” as an instruction. They are always there for granted. I had to say fare well to another great mother on Saturday, June 18, 2011. I feel the pain, sadness and void within on two accounts; one she was my mother in law and second she was a great person – an anjuman in herself.
I will always remember her for many things. Best one that I liked is that she would say Bismillah with almost each sentence in her conversation. Starting everything with the name of Allah had visible effect on her persona and I could see blessing of Allah almighty in her worldly affairs. Anyone could see that. Due to this I very fondly used to call her Mai Bismillah.
Another of her distinct trait was her generous hospitality. She was very hospitable. Anyone going to her house (and many people used to go to her house) would have food or whatever was suitable and possible at the time. She would go a long way to make sure that any guest has food before leaving. And this act too brought in more blessing in her life.
Looking back, I can say that what she did for her off springs and what she accomplished would not have been possible without uncounted blessings of Allah almighty.
You were a great mother and great person Mai Bismillah. I will miss you for ever. May your soul rest in eternal peace.
Labels: Mothers' Day, Obituary, Personal
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Wednesday, May 08, 2024,
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What Are Criminals Made Of?
Tuesday, 7 May 2024
Violent crimes have been at historic up nationwide; they are rising sharply in all cities. The rise seems to have been set off by something more bewildering.
Imagine Lahore only ten years ago: It was a different city; socially cohesive, closely knit. Young children could go visiting neighbors or to nearby shopping centers to get groceries and other things but not now. People then knew each other personally and had strong social bounds; hence courtesies for each other.
Things started changing with an exponential increase in urbanization. Large number of outsiders started moving in Lahore to live and or work. Now even the immediate neighbors do not know each other and people act like total strangers. Garish housing societies have come up on all the open spaces inside the city and Lahore has expanded much beyond what used to be municipal boundaries. The crime rate has grown with mush faster speed than the city.
Read more »Labels: Crimes, Criminals, Society
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Tuesday, May 07, 2024,
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Making Money Online in Pakistan
Monday, 6 May 2024
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, mostly. Exceptions aside, Pakistan blogs are mainly personal where bloggers post purely because of their own interests.
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, mostly. 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 or 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 $ 12 for every transaction.
Google's AdSense program, which started in 2003, 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 and 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.
Some of the sources that pay through check and I have experienced are Google, Link Worth, Earn $$ with WidgetBucks and ReviewMe.
Labels: Blogging, Corporate Blogging, Making Money Online
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Monday, May 06, 2024,
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Social Media Marketing - Proposal
Sunday, 5 May 2024
Promotion, Branding (including Personal Branding), SEO and Creating Buzz Online through Blogs, Twitter, Facebook
Introduction
A strong online presence is important for businesses and even individuals in today's high-speed and competitive world. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook have already become a new buzz in marketing and a welcome mate for corporate sector. Businesses are taking advantages to reach out to uses in fast growing users’ base.
Read more »Labels: Blogging, Fine Art of Blogging, Marketing, Social Media
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Sunday, May 05, 2024,
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The village boy
Saturday, 4 May 2024
There are lessons in the first landscapes of every one's life. Mine was a vista of green paddy fields, smoking with Salt Range mist, against a setting of ribbon of River Jhelum which from distance looked like a shore of another land altogether. The rough, rugged hill range appeared uninviting against a sky withering with the morning, interrupted by the dawn's red and blue brush strokes. My first learning in life was also in the village.People in villages still live without roads or other civic amenities of this modern age. No telephone or the Internet (now smartphone works in my villages), even electricity is a recent phenomenon; some are still without it. You see one village and you have seen all. This was the setting where I spent the first twenty years of my life savoring the freedom of adulthood. It is where I decided what (and how) I wanted to do with life. It is where my brothers and friends live. It is where I return whenever my active (and now urban) life allows me to. It is where I want to settle and spend my future.
Read more »Labels: Personal, Profile, Rural Culture
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Saturday, May 04, 2024,
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Chaudhry Norbert Pintsch
Thursday, 2 May 2024
Village Thatta Ghulamka Dheroka - a cluster of mud and brick houses - looks like any typical Pakistani village. The fact is that awareness, community work and use of appropriate technology has changed the village all together. Influence from Indus civilization from nearby Harappa and modern techniques brought by use of appropriate technology can be seen in the village together.
The toys and handicrafts made in the village are on display in international museums, prestigious galleries and showrooms in Pakistan and abroad. Thatta Ghulamka Dheroka (TGD) got an international fame when village project Thatta Kedona (meaning toy from Thatta) was selected as one of the 767 worldwide projects presented in the "Themepark" at global expo in Hannover (Germany) as an example of thinking of twenty first century. The toys and handicrafts from TGD 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.
Thatta Kedona is a project, first of its kind, in rural area where handmade quality toys are crafted using all indigenous materials and traditional designs based on cultural and folklore themes. The workmanship of the dolls and toys has acclaimed international recognition through their participation in numerous international events, exhibitions, fairs and displays. These toys are the embodiment of dreams, hopes and most of all self-reliance of the hands, which breathe a part of their own soul into them.
Read more »Labels: Prof Dr Norbert Pintsch, Thatta Kedona
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Thursday, May 02, 2024,
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