The Least you can do is send in a text message and donate!!

Type ‘Flood’ and send it to 4611. By doing so you will donate Rs.10 to the flood victims. You will get a confirmation reply from Pak Red Cresent Society. 9 Crore mobile users in pakistan, if only 3 crore do this, Rs.30 crore will be contributed which can b used to arranage sehri n iftar for the effectees. Please play your part and help the ones in need!!

TIPS FOR REACHING HOME SAFELY

Many of us find ourselves stranded on the street or at the workplace in emergencies created by stormy weather, a terrorist attack nearby, or death of an important person. Women and children are especially vulnerable. Here are some tips that may be helpful.

1. Don’t leave a safe place in a hurry. Your workplace is still much safer than the street.
2. Travel in groups. Find out the names and addresses, with contact numbers, of all your colleagues, friends, relatives that live in your route to home. Keep the list handy or saved in your cellphone. A printed list will help you in case of cellphone loss. This list should also be at your home, so that people there can find out where you are and arrange for assistance, if required.
3. Keep cash in smaller denominations with you (50 or 100 rupee notes), ideally distributed at different places in your clothing. Keep a torch with you. Keep your cellphone charged and with enough credit.
4. Know your route well. Explore Google Earth and understand all the roads that lead to your home. If possible, keep a printed map of the city with you.
5. Find out the trouble spots on your route with the help of experienced persons. Understand what might become problematic in what type of issues. Some areas will become impassable because of rainwater accumulation; some areas will pose problems in an issue related to a certain group of people, etc.
6. Keep your vehicle’s fuel tank full, everything ideally in perfect condition.
7. Don’t hesitate to leave your vehicle at a suitable place and use public transport for safety. If possible, leave your valuables, jewellery etc. at a safe place at the workplace, or hidden somewhere in your vehicle, if you decide to leave it.

Read it and pass it on!

State of Law and Judiciary in my land Pakistan – Positive

I was going through the newspaper yesterday – YES! (I don’t know why i did that, call it an accident). So a news item caught my eye, the ex President of Bank of Punjab Respectable Hamesh Khan was sentenced for a 14 day remand to NAB (National Accountability Bureau) on May 15th 2010. He had allegations against him that he was involved in a fraud of Rs. 9 billion. His name had already been put on the ECL earlier and he was extradited from Virginia, USA.

He is given for physical remand to NAB till the 29th of May, but the interesting bit is lies in the way he was sentenced. Khan’s case hearing was supposed to take place not before 11 am on Saturday 15th of May. This is how the actual event took place: Hamesh Khan was presented to the court number 5 of accountability in Lahore, his case was presided over by judge Sadiq Wattoo. In a hap hazard manner he was presented infront of the judge without his lawyer at around 10:30 am in the morning, half an hour before the allocated time, and the worst part is that his case hearing lasted only 90 seconds. Unbelievable, the court summoned the sentence in less than 2 minutes for such a high profile case.

This just tells the story of current scenario of just about everything in our country. An alleged high profile suspect summoned within 2 minutes that too before his actual case time and in the absence of the defendant’s lawyer. I agree that this guy was involved in corruption big time and deserves to be reprimanded, but even the most guilty ones deserves their chance of defense. Events like these put doubts in our minds about the mechanisms of law and order.

Eventually its good to know that the authorities are moving ahead in trying to curb corruption and the culprits are being dealt with. NAB and judiciary are playing their role effectively, and a little ray of hope beckons ahead of us.

BTW there is a facebook group by the name of ‘Free Hamesh Khan’ check it out if you want to http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=215984783365
My point is how can people be expected to get away with such frauds and still expect not to be tried and sentenced for it, and above all what is that point of making this stupid fb group??

“When you go to heaven, all of your friends are there and everything is just the way you want it to be. So, together, let’s make a world that’s that good” - Mark Zukerberg thinks facebook is just like heaven.

The Open Graph

I want to belief… Don’t you??

A masterpiece by the great Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz caught my attention today. He is regarded as THE GREATEST poet Pakistan ever produced.  His poetry was considered as a ray of hope for the nation in the dark days of Martial law, one of the worst times in Paksitan’s 60 year old history. Well I wasn’t present there in those days but what I have gathered from the opinions of the ones present in those times, is that things are not quite different even today.

These verses by Faiz sahab have a very intricate meaning to them and the real essence of these verses can be felt very deep inside. I believe the real need for us is to have that belief – Belief within ourselves – Belief in the promised day and Belief in Almighty.  Everyone should read these verses and experience that feeling. Its called “Hum Dekhain Gay”

Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see
Lazim Hai ke hum Bhi Dekhain Gay
It is necessary that we shall also see
Woh Din ke Jis ka Wadah Hai
That day which has been promised
Jo Loh-e-Azl pe Likha hai
Which is written with God’s ink
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see

Jab Zulm-o-Sitam ke Koh-e-garaan
When the mountains of cruelty and torture
Ruii ki Tarah Urd Jain Gay
Will fly like pieces of cotton
Hum Mehkumoon ke Paun Talay
Under the feet of the governed
Yeh Dharti Dhard Dhard Dhardkay gi
This earth will quake
Aur Ehl-e-Hukum ke Sar Uper
And over the head of the ruler
Jab Bijli kard Kard Kardke gi
When lightening will thunder
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see

Jab Arz-e-Khuda ke kabay se
When from God’s Mecca
Sab but Uthwaaiy Jain gay
All the idols will be shattered
Hum Ehl-e-Safa Mardood-e-Haram
Us people standing in the mosque
Masnad pe Bithaaiy jain gay
Will be elevated to a higher platform
Sab Taaj Uchalay jain gay
All the crowns will be tossed
Sab Takht Giraaiy Jain gay
All the thrones will be toppled

Bas Naam rahay Ga Allah ka
Then only God’s name will remain
Jo Ghayab Bhi hai Hazir Bhi
Who is both absent and present
Jo nazir bhi hai manzar bhi
Who is both the observer and the view itself
Uthay ga Analhaq ka Naara
When the anthem of truth will be raised
Jo Main bhi Hun aur Tumbhi ho
Who I am and you are as well
Aur Raaj karay gi khalq-e-Khuda
And the people of God will reign
Jo main bhi hun aur tum bhi ho
Who I am and you are as well

Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see
Lazim Hai ke hum Bhi Dekhain Gay
It is necessary that we shall also see
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see

Wacky co-workers!

“Reputation is character minus what you have been caught doing.”

Now this one is really amusing. I can really relate to this quote, as just yesterday I experienced such an incident myself. Lets talk about facebook and social media for while, fb is someone’s personal space and somewhat a portrait of their personality to the rest of the world. Now before I begin I want everyone to take this advice – If you have a bunch of rowdy and crazy co-workers, don’t ever and i mean EVERRRR leave your facebook open and your system unattended for even a moment! because if you don’t do that things like this will happen:

My Engagement on Facebook

One of my colleagues updated my status as “I JUST GOT ENGAGED”; while I am not! and all my friends and family members started congratulating me and asking all sorts of surprising questions. Therefore in order to clear the air I posted another update which you can see in the picture, and to my utmost surprise apparently everyone started commenting on the status, and my co-workers were hell bent to prove that I got engaged, while I was trying to save my position as I STILL WANT TO KEEP MY OPTIONS OPEN

So basically the outcome of the whole comments battle on my status update was that my personal life was discussed very openly on public forums! My office crowd got to know about my personal life and vice versa, so finally I left it to them to interact with each other and reveal my stories at work and outside to each other. But it was quite an amusing activity filled with laughter

Treasure of Pakistan – Coal Reserves

If all the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia and Iran are put together these are approximately 375 billion barrels. But a single Thar coal reserves of Sindh is about 850 trillion cubic feet which is more than oil reserves of both Saudi Arabia & Iran, and about 30 times more than the known gas reserves of Pakistan of 28 Trillion cubic feet.

The initial requirement of this project is an investment of 420 billion rupees, where as Pakistan receives annually 1220 billion from taxes only. Just 2% usage of thar coal can produce 20,000 mega watts of electricity for next 40 years without a single second of loadshedding. Uptill our leaders wake up, think about this useful project, spread the awareness.

SocialNomics

The Social Media Revolution took the world .
A lot of you must’ve already seen this, but i just felt like sharing it… so sit back and enjoy.. and the beats by FatboySlim are just amazing!!

and its ROI.. Socialnomics is awesome!

Well Twenty Ten is turning out to be quite an year. Starting with the launch of iPad by HRH Steve Jobs as the first blast this year, which got everyone talking, but personally i wasn’t extremely impressed by the new addition to the iFamily.

Anyways, so with all those apps being created every minute, can the reality be actually replaced by virtual reality? I mean take the example of 4square, your whereabouts can be shared with the whole world in no time, including all those imagery and vids. Oh and how can one forget the ever so engrossing facebook games by zynga. Literally it has become a part of people’s life; games such as farmville, yoville, mafia wars etc. Hm mm so i wont be wrong in saying that people are living in a virtual world today and trying to overcome their autism by fulfilling the fantasies they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to accomplish in the real life.

As far as i am concerned, i used to make fun of twitter not very long ago, but now it has become my preferred source of information, i would rather spend time sending tweets and searching things over twitter than doing anything else when connected. There is not a single instance in the day when you’re not connected: many thanks to all the smart phones and all those apps developers. So to sum up the real essence of globalization (A term i heard not more than 8 or 10 years ago) is being practiced today and through the virtual world, we are seeing the reality as it unfolds, in real time.

Kudos technology, love being a part of it!