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.
Labels: Books, Deosai, Deosai: Land of the Giant, Nadeem Khawar, Photo Stream, Salman Rashid, Travel Photography
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Friday, February 21, 2025,
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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.
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 @ Thursday, February 20, 2025,
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Changing Chitral
Wednesday, 19 February 2025
{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 @ Wednesday, February 19, 2025,
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Act of retreating into solitude — and honestly, it feels like the perfect vibe for me right now.
Labels: Chasing Life
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Wednesday, February 19, 2025,
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Gogera Sadar
Tuesday, 18 February 2025
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, February 18, 2025,
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Calling Abdalians
Monday, 17 February 2025
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 @ Monday, February 17, 2025,
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Trust the process. Stay consistent.
Labels: Chasing Life
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Saturday, February 15, 2025,
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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.
Labels: Sitaroon Ki Bastiyan
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Saturday, February 15, 2025,
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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.
Read more »Labels: Corporate Blogging, Fine Art of Blogging
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Friday, February 14, 2025,
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Salt Range
Thursday, 13 February 2025
The Salt Range derives its name from extensive deposits of rock salt. It stands as remnant of forts with bastions and temples. Exceptionally, this region maintains an almost continuous record of history that can define the evolution of society. Forts and temples surviving along the range are a reminder of how untouched many of the ancient remnants are. Alexander from Macedon came to this range twice: one from Taxila and later once his forces refused to go any further from the banks of the River Beas. From here he marched towards the Arabian Sea on his way to Babylon. And, now an NGO is constructing the monument of Alexander near Jalalpur town in the foot of the salt range in district Jhelum.For those who take their first chance to the area, the landscape all along the Salt Range is rock-strewn, lacking in softness and loveliness. In many parts, it becomes barren and uninviting. But, in truth the range is dotted with historical wonders, romantic legends, archaeological remains, and varying geological formations. Surroundings are very quiet. Urial is also found in the range though facing extinction. A journey along the range is exiting as well as informative.
Labels: Jalal Pur, Salt Range, Travel
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Thursday, February 13, 2025,
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"If you don't know AI, you're going to fail. Period, end of story," Mark Cuban (Entrepreneur, Investor, billionaire)
Labels: AI, Chasing Life, Information Technology
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Wednesday, February 12, 2025,
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Din Mein Charagh
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).
Labels: Abbas Khan, Writers
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Wednesday, February 12, 2025,
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Local blog context
Tuesday, 11 February 2025
Blogs initially started as archives for web links on the Internet. Users could place important links on blogs to be referred and read later. Overtime blogging has matured as a phenomenon and one can see meaningful and useful blogs on any subject online. Blogsphere has become a very strong voice; vibrant, living and ever growing.
Pakistan blogsphere (blogs about Pakistan by local bloggers and those bloggers who are living abroad) has created its own identity that is mostly political and or personal. Where personal blog create social harmony, well knit community and peace, political blogs add to the positive image we need so much, more so in online world. Given the strength of powerful international media and in the face negative content, there has always been a lack of local content. Thanks to able Pakistani bloggers that they are adding meaningful local content in their blogs and that contextual content not only answers some of what mostly ill informed foreign media says but also add to the positive image.
Read more »Labels: Fine Art of Blogging
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Tuesday, February 11, 2025,
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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.
Labels: Chasing Life
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Saturday, February 08, 2025,
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If wishes were horses
Friday, 7 February 2025
Bola Rehre Wala
Setting eyes on Maqbool and his mule cart for the first time, one could be forgiven for thinking that he belongs to a working class endeavoring for survival. His shabby dress and toes peeping out of slippers too large for him, do not project an image of a contented and happy man who is fond of good animals and racing.
I first met Maqbool, commonly known as Bola Rehre Wala, at the Multan Railway Station where he works from 6 am to 9 pm every day, no holidays. He takes all the newspapers and magazines arriving at Multan Railway Station from all over Pakistan to various newspaper agencies in the city. He also takes with him any other load he may find on the Railway Station if he is free and his mule is 'willing'. He earns six to eight hundred rupees daily out of which two hundred rupees go to the diet and care of his mule.
Read more »
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Friday, February 07, 2025,
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Chakwal: Capital of Salt Range and Potohar Plateau
Thursday, 6 February 2025
Discovery of fossils, tools, coins, and remains of ancient archaeological sites give enough historic evidence about Soan civilization and its continuity in Salt Range and Potohar Plateau
. The people, colourful landscape, lakes, hill ranges, flora and fauna are sufficient reasons to explore the land that is largely off the beaten track and one does not see many backpackers in the area.
. The people, colourful landscape, lakes, hill ranges, flora and fauna are sufficient reasons to explore the land that is largely off the beaten track and one does not see many backpackers in the area.
Some of the world history has started from this region. The first residents of the land we now call home were Stone Age people in the Potwar Plateau. They were followed by the more urbane Indus Valley (or Harappan) civilisation which flourished between the twenty-third to eighteenth centuries BC. Some of the earliest relics of Stone Age in the world have been found in the Potohar region, with a probable antiquity of about 500,000 years. The crude stone implements recovered from the terraces of the Soan carry the account of human grind and endeavours in this part of the world to the inter-glacial period. The Stone Age men produced their equipment in a sufficiently homogenous way to justify their grouping in terms of a culture called the Soan Culture. Around 3000 BC, small village communities developed in the Potohar area and began to take the first hesitant steps towards the formation of society.
Labels: Chakwal, Salt Range and Potohar Plateau
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Thursday, February 06, 2025,
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Deals in dinning
Tuesday, 4 February 2025
Gowalmandi Food and Heritage Street has become an enriching experience in Lahore. It is a wonder what a few million rupees spent on the renovation of built heritage with balconies and angular projections lining the street some years ago have done to the ambience of the street. Lahorites have already (and justifiably) stated comparing it with lanes in Rome, Paris and Athens. More so during Jashn-e-Baharan.
Sizzling spicy foods on display in Gowalmandi reminds of what Vasco de Gama shouted after setting his foot on South Asian soils on the dawn of May 21, 1498, "For Christ and spices!" No data for consumption of spices in Gowalmandi Food Street are available but a proprietor of one of the biggest shops in the street told, "On the average I sell about 120 Kilograms mutton and over 40 kilograms of chicken every day. People prefer to eat mutton karahi and chicken barbecued. A milk shop proprietor said, "My daily milk consumption - in the form of chilled milk, yogurt, Kheer, khoya, lassi -- is over 2000 kilograms."
Read more »Labels: Food Street, Heritage, Lahore
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Tuesday, February 04, 2025,
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Mandi Bahauddin
Monday, 3 February 2025
The name Mandi Bahauddin originates from two sources: Mandi (market) was prefixed because it was a flourishing grain market and Bahauddin was borrowed from nearby old village Pindi Bahauddin, which has now become part of the town. After the partition, thousands of refugees from India rehabilitated on the evacuee property of Sikh and Hindu landlords. Lately, after the construction of Rasul Barrage, people from the belt along southern edge of Salt Range up to Pind Dadan Khan and other areas across the River Jhelum came settling in the town. Due to migrations and increase in business activities, the town has expanded in all directions. The result is that more than half of the population is living outside municipal limits without any civic amenities. More unplanned localities and kachi abadies are coming up everyday. The tendency to move from rural areas to urban centres is on the increase.
Labels: Travel
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Monday, February 03, 2025,
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"This sin is enough for you (that) you are always arguing."
Labels: Chasing Life
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Sunday, February 02, 2025,
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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.
Labels: Crimes, In Print, Nation
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Saturday, February 01, 2025,
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