"Dial 1-800-WASIM"

Nice title to this news snippet on cricket.org :-) ....

The answer to Pakistan's bowling problems could be only a phone call away. On being asked why he doesn't assist Pakistan's bowlers, Wasim Akram thundered to the Nation, "I'm really sick of this question. Now I cannot go to the PCB and beg them to give me a job. I'm available, they have to call me. And nobody has called me yet." Wasim was adamant that the first move come from the board. "If they want me to work for them, they only have to ask me. I'll never call Shoaib Akhtar and Sami." And with that, he hung up.

On a similar note I am not sure why they made such a big deal out of Waqar's bowling coach contract. I guess it had more to it than just the duration of the contract. The board's thinking is right in the sense that the bowlers do need some shepharding and i think they could very well afford Waqar's services. Now Waqar shouldn't expect the board to pay him the same amount of money he will get to earn on the commentary gig. But I guess its his personal decision and he is not bound to accept whateva the board throws at him.

Trivia, chat with Googlebot

Nice user interface on this trivia quiz site in a normal chat fashion. Googlebot asks you questions in a fun and amusing manner. It also gives you hints ands answers simple questions like "Googlebot! what is the time?".

City in an Image

This is a pixel-based image of a city that has everything, from a pharmacy to a bowling park to a full size arena. You mite need to zoom in since it is very large. This was created by a collaboration of many people who contributed bits and pieces.



Source

Geeks 'R' Us

Created a new blog for my techie side. Its called "Geeks R Us" and can be accessed from the profile. Here is the description.

"Well, we dont sell geeks here like the way Toys 'R' Us sells toys, but in fact we R geeks. (btw we = me, myself and, well... Affan). Dont worry, non-geeks are welcome too..."

Click here to go there.

Just wanted to keep the geeky stuff separate from the rest. Let me know if I still err.

"Yeh jo des hai tera..."

Honest. One word to describe the movie "Swades". A really well-{researched|treated} subject. Touches the heart, specially the ones who are going through the same mental/emotional conflict in their lives (which means expats basically :) ). Not much in the story tho but simplicity with attention to details was the highlight of the rather-too-long movie.

Maybe the real reason why I liked the movie was that the ideas presented in it were exactly my own. I used to think like this always but wasnt sure if it was the right way to think or not. E.g the common excuse for all wrong thats going on around us: "so wat can we do?". Although I dont know the answer to this question but that doesn't mean its a valid response. The hero in the movie had an answer to this question, although a little fairy-tale like but still it shows the way. Similary other ideas, e.g saying "mera mulk sab se achha hai" and forgetting all the weaknesses we have! I am a great fan of the Pakistan cricket team but it should not stop me from criticizing their weaknesses. Same should be done with things in general. We just should not accept status-quo on things which are not the way they are supposed to be. I loved it when Shahrukh Khan said "The truth is that mera mulk sab se achha nahin hai", coz I always said that about Karachi and .... well... didn't get very good feedbacks :P. It doesn't mean that I dont love something, it just means that the good things in some thing can/should not over-shadow the bad ones.

Technically the movie was fantastic too. I realized how much the director had to do with his previous movie "Lagaan" getting the Oscar nomination, which I previously thought to be Amir Khan's baby. I was impressed by his insight into the expats lives/thoughts etc. and the issues they face. The village environment was much more realistic and so were the villagers. Every character looked like it actually belonged to the village - just like Lagaan, where it seemed as if they everyone had been speaking the weird language since their birth! (Unlike Veer Zaara where they made the bengaali looking Shahrukh Khan, with a pakka Delhi-waala accent, speak Punjabi! No offense here to SRK here coz he tried very hard (and it showed) but its just too hard to fool us into thinking that he is a Punjabi).

The most touchy scene I felt was the "Pachees paisa ka glass" boy selling water at the train station.

The songs were the hallmark of the movie for me. They were simple but very sweet-sounding and melodious. My favourite was the "yeh jo des hai tera.." which kinda summarizes the whole idea of the movie, but the others were very good/innovative too. The picturization of the title song was awsome - the way it brings back the images of the village and the ppl, and the sounds in that song are so "true".

Another reason I liked the movie was probably coz of my geeky self - it showed me the NASA research lab inside out! (well almost).

P.S.
I wanted to write Veer Zaara's hopelessness's rant too, but decided upon better usage of my time elsewhere.

Its Funny... Laugh!

I wonder why they have background laughter in the comedy shows (... even the ones that dont have a live audience).

On Mobile Phone thefts and others.... :(

These are some of the thoughts that were in my mind since a long time but came out in the reply to the email in which a friend was mugged and lost his money and cell phone. Its not about the loss, or this particular incident, but the general state of affairs in the society that i am concerned about.

My reply:

This is B-A-D...

And the poor awaam is the victim. But then it reflects the general atmosphere of our society. I will explain it below:

1 - Crime/sin is no longer a sin

Altho we are muslims and all but first of all we are human beings. Either way we pay no heed these days as to what is Bad and what is Good. We pay attention to what we can get with the least possible effort, by hook or crook. An example is the Board exams. Tell me, is there anyone among you who has passed the board exams without cheating? I am sure not. Is there anyone among you who would NOT cheat even if given the oppurtunity? I know I would :P. The thing i am trying to say here is that we dont consider cheating a BAD thing anymore. Asking the neighbour for help on a question u r stuck on is the norm. Pharrey and Booti might be considered *cheating* by the most conscientious among us.

Similarly lying and stealing small things is a way of life for most of us.

2 - The Who-Cares attitude
I dunno why but i get a feeling that the general public, specially the influential one, doesn't give a damn as to whats happening around them! Traffic jams, Road blocks, illegal encraochments/construction etc are taken as if they are part of life and not something that should bother us. The same way the mobile/car/bike/money thefts these days have become a part of life and no one gives a damn.

I learned about a horrendous scandal regarding the "ON" on cars when i visited this time. WTF?? Why the heck do they charge us something more than the car's value set by the manufacturer?? And on top of that PPL are sooooo HAPPY to pay it!! They either have so much money that they damn care, or they are just dumb and stupid!

The point I want to make here is that ppl are just not disturbed/annoyed by whats going on around them! How can they be so stubborn? So indifferent?

I can go on forever but this is nothing new i m talking about. I am sure all of u have better knowledge/insight into these things but this is not the way soceity is supposed to be. I am not saying that had i been there i would have done things differently but still that doesnt mean that wateva is happening is OK. Its not OK.

Now a good question would be "Tou hum kia kar saktey hain?" I would be very interested in the answers...

If it were a more civilized country (even Bangladesh, Indonesia etc) I am sure ppl would not have been sitting so peacefully and watching TV as if all is fine....

(Ok back to the fun stuff... now that i have got this out of my head :-).... )

===================
Shabbir says:

i heard that on the day of expo i.e. Feb 02' 2005, during traffic jam near gurumander, around 15 cars were robbed in the slow traffic, and the theifs ran away with mobiles and cash, look this is not possible with the hands of our police, they know every one who do this

=====================

Yasir's (excellent) description of the incident:

Kal Mr. Yasir Ghauri 8:15 pm per nikley anpey ghar janey keh liyeah office Fortune Center Shah-e-Faisal sey.

Abhi woh apney stop sey chand qadam pechey hi they keh Nursury Signal sey pehley 4 bandey un key samney sey ayeh. Aik ney goor goor sey hameen dekha, phir woh ageyh bara or bari hi tameez sey pocha "App Zafer Haan?". Hum ney kaha "Nahi mera naam yasir hay."

Woh mujhey dekhta raha kuch second. Itney may baqi 3 may sey do merey agey kharey ho gayeh
orr aik pechey. Pehley wala bola "Tum zafer ho, or tumharey pass is waqt 50 hazaar rupey haan.(Topi No 1)" Hamari Phaat gayi, hum sochney lagey "Beta Abb Tu Hum Gayeh."

Hum ney Kaha "Na tu Mera Naam Zafer Hay or Na mHamarey pass 50 hazaar rupey haan, chahoo tu Talashi ley loo." Pehla Bola "Hum MQM key admi haan or hemeen kaha gaya hay keh zafer sey 50 hazar ley ker us ko qatel ker do (Topi No 2)"

Hum sochney lagey "yasir Tu Tu gaya Ajj." Hum Ney Us Sey Kaha "Bhai Sahib taalshi ley loo, mera
card dekh loo, may zafer nahi hoon" Us ney pocha "Kitney paisey haan tumharey pass is waqt?"
Hum ney kaha "1800 or kuch khuley haan is waqt." Us ney kaha "Batwa do." Hum ney batwa diya us ney paisey nikaal liyeah. Itney may hamarey Cousin ney hameen miss call maar di, jiss sey un ko mobile bhi yaad agiya.

Pocha "Mobile Koon sa hay?" Hum ney kaha "Nokia 3510i" Us ney kaha "Foran Do" Hum ney foran dey diya. Bolo "Tumhari qismat achi hay jo hum ney pehleu poch liya tum sey warna qatel ker detey tumheen (Topi No 3)"

Hum Khamosh. Phir how janey laga, usey kuch yaad aya or palat ker bolo "SIM mil gai?" Hum ney kaha "Nahi"
Us ney dosrey sey kaha "SIM do is ko" us ney sim nikaal ker dey di. (Bohoot Ahsaan Kiya,
shareef choor they na) bolo "Ghar ja ker niyaaz Dena keh tumhari jaan bach gayi, or sedhe palat ker jao, kissi sey kuch na kehna, warna mera aik banda tumharey pechey ayeh ga, ager kissi sey kuch kaha tu khair nahi tumhari. Karey keh paisey haan tumharey pass?" Hum ney kaha "Nahi janab hum kissi sey kuch nahi kaheen gey or na pechey mur ker dekheen gey, ager app ko shak hay tu app hamarey sath chal ker tasalli ker leen. Haan karaeh key paisey haan." Hum ney mujhey ghoor ker dekha or Charoon chaley gayeh.

Hum bhi afsoss kertey hoyey apney stop ki taraf berhey or Super Hasan Zai may beth ker ghar agayeh.

[chowk.com] State of Pakistani TV

This chowk.com article reflects on the present state of Pakistani dramas.

Some excerpts:

"If subcontinent’s biggest country had good film making industry then we had the best Urdu serials too that had the biggest viewer ship around the world. But these are fond memories now, since we lost our Urdu serial impression that was built by the serials like Tanhiyaa,Nijaat,Dhoop Kinaray,An Kahi etc as good quality. Instead of improving quality of serials our directors/producers are running behind illusions."

Also:

"In this time of commercialization when we are paying to watch these serial , it`s our right to have quality program atleast in prime time. It`s time that senior artists,directors, producers should play their part and give good quality stuff, that not only pictures society but also have some positive message to convey to the viewer."

Complete Article