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A Memorable Reunion in Sargodha
Monday, 24 February 2025

Zahir Khan
24 Feb 2019

Our recent visit to Sargodha for the 55th PMA Get Together was a trip down memory lane, filled with excitement and nostalgia. It was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with about 50 of my closest friends and comrades, with whom I shared unforgettable experiences at PMA since 1975.


The overnight stay on February 23-24 2019 was a treat, with a sumptuous dinner followed by a musical night featuring the talented Fadia Shabrose. The evening was filled with laughter, music, and dancing, as we all let our hair down and turned back the clock.

The next day, we gathered at Maj Asghar Hayat Kalyar's beautiful farmhouse, where we were treated to another lavish feast. The Course collectively inaugurated his stunning farmhouse, and the photography enthusiasts among us had a field day capturing memories.

As we bid farewell and headed home in the evening, everyone felt rejuvenated and recharged, carrying with us sweet memories, fresh oranges from Kalyar's farms, and heartfelt gratitude for the warm hospitality of Maj and Begum Kalyar, and the meticulous planning of Asif, our Course Secretary. May Allah bless them all.

55 PMA Blog by Jalal Hameed Bhatti

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ Monday, February 24, 2025, ,

Deosai: Land of the Giant
Friday, 21 February 2025

It is rare to have the opportunity to hear from someone who has literally written “the book” on a place as mysterious as Deosai. Talking of his Deosai romance (that started in summer 1990) Salman Rashid once told me, “Anywhere on Deosai the fantastic vistas of wide open space of miles and miles hemmed in by snow-capped crags. Here the sky is an impossible shade of blue and the thunderheads like huge, huge bales of cotton flung about by some careless cotton packer. Here the clouds do actually look like anything you wish to imagine them to look like. Here, if one has nothing to do (that is, if you are not on assignment), lie on the ground in the sun and just spend hours doing nothing.”
Deosai: Land of the Giant – a book written by Salman Rashid with photography by Nadeem Khawar tells and shows the story of Deosai, its geography and history as well as the heroic effort of bear conservation and the establishment of a national park on the plateau.

The earliest explorers like William Moorcroft and Godfrey Thomas Vigne, long ago, noted that Deosai was inhabited by large numbers of Tibetan brown bear. Though the elusive snow leopard, fox, wolf and ibex prowl across it, it was the easily seen bear that became the signature species on the plateau. Not anymore. Hope is that the in depth research and rich illustrations will be a great source of awareness and an equally good reminder for all stakeholders to do more to conserve the extinguishing wildlife.
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posted by S A J Shirazi @ Friday, February 21, 2025, ,

Judge the Nations by the Way They Look at Their Women
Thursday, 20 February 2025


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.
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posted by S A J Shirazi @ Thursday, February 20, 2025, ,


Act of retreating into solitude — and honestly, it feels like the perfect vibe for me right now.

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ Wednesday, February 19, 2025, ,

 Trust the process. Stay consistent. 

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ Saturday, February 15, 2025, ,

Sitaroon Ki Bastiyan

Abbas Khan is a celebrated writer of our time. His other published work includes three novels and seven short story books (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) and Reza Reza Keenat and Pal Pal (afsancha -- shortest story books) and a philosophical compilation Din Mein Charagh.

Living now in serene and rustic environment of Bhakar, Abbas Khan has completed another shortest story book Sitaroon Ki Bastiyan. I have the pleasure to translate the book into English while the Urdu version goes to the press. Stay tuned, I will soon start posting the short stories at Logic is Variable.

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ Saturday, February 15, 2025, ,

Corporate Blogging
Friday, 14 February 2025

What I have learnt about corporate blogging is this: Online consumers in 2020 are not impressed simply by a professional looking website or a blog bash. A typical online shopper would do hours of research before making a purchase. Informed consumers want to read about what they are interested in, ask questions, get advice and more. None of this is possible on a simple website. A blog can do all of this.

A blog helps enormously in getting into the top search engine results. Why? Because blogs by their very nature are updated frequently, and search engines prefer fresh content. Search engines prefer sites which have a lot of incoming links. Blogs can get many more of these incoming links than regular websites because people are more likely to link to information (blogs) than commerce (website). Blogs as opposed to websites have a large and growing content. A clearly visible link from the blog to the main website is very effective form of advertising.
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posted by S A J Shirazi @ Friday, February 14, 2025, ,

Din Mein Charagh
Wednesday, 12 February 2025

Books 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. Abbas Khan spends lot of time in reading. He reads philosophy to understand how varying points of view about existence are presented and psychology to know how philosophers come up with those points of view, Greek mythology to learn about their strong love of nature and Roman history to explore what they gave to the world.

For this he has explored annals of history, philosophies, biographies, autobiographies, and literature spread over centuries. He has mediated upon what he finds life building and has put them up in his eleventh book entitled Din Main Charagh for readers to benefit. His other published work includes three novels and seven short story books: Zakham Gawah Hain, Tu Aur Tu and Mein Aur Umrao Jan Ada (novels), Dharti Binam Akash, Tensikh-e-Insan, Qalam, Kursi Aur Wardi, U’s Adalat Men, Jism Ka Johar (short story books) and Reza Reza Keenat and Pal Pal (afsancha -- shortest story books).
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posted by S A J Shirazi @ Wednesday, February 12, 2025, ,

Khamoshi (silence) and Akhlaq (most commonly translated in English dictionaries as disposition, nature, temper, ethics, morals, or manners) are two of the most important traits.

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ Saturday, February 08, 2025, ,

Descent into Crime
Saturday, 1 February 2025

This article appeared in the Daily The Nation.


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 visit 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 bonds; hence courtesies for each other.

Things started changing with an exponential increase in urbanization. A large number of outsiders started moving to 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 at a much faster speed than the city.
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posted by S A J Shirazi @ Saturday, February 01, 2025, ,


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