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Younus Khan: after winning T20

Pakistan cricket team won ICC World Twenty20 under Younus Khan’s captaincy. In this video, he is expressing his original feelings and ideas in an informal, plain way after the victory:

Can we be a little more sensible on the application of DST?

In the letters to the editor to Dawn (10 November,2009), one Mr.Rafi Ahmed  has talked about advancing of clocks by one hour for several months in summer. It makes alot of sense to me:

Daylight saving time

THIS is apropos of letters by Capt Sohail Sultan and Khawaja Fariduddin (Nov 5).

Our normal PST is already about half an hour ahead of its geographical time zone, and advancing it a further one hour puts it one-and-a-half hours ahead.

Pakistan ’s mean longitude is about 70 degrees E, which corresponds to a zone time of four-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT (to the nearest half hour) against our normal PST of +5 GMT.

For the benefit of the layman, the global circumference of 360 degrees in longitude is divided into 24 time zones of 150 degrees each, i.e. 360 degrees/24 = 150.

The one hour advanced DST puts our midday, when the sun is at the highest point, midway between sunrise and sunset (or Zuhar) at about 1.30pm instead of the normal 12 noon.

Under normal PST in offices, on Fridays there is a reasonable extension of the lunch break for prayers, but with DST most of the working afternoon is lost due to the very late prayer timings.

In mid-summer, sunset is about 8.15pm, very late, and towards the end of November sunrise is well after 7am, due to which children rise and board their school bus in complete darkness.

The mean longitude of India and Sri Lanka is about 80 degrees E, and they maintain their standard time as +5.30 on GMT, which corresponds to their geographical zone time.

Similarly Bangladesh, with a mean longitude of about 90 degrees E, maintains +6 on GMT, also corresponding.

Can we be a little more sensible on the application of DST?

RAFI AHMED
Karachi

This is what I lament too: shall some sense prevail from next summer regarding this issue in Pakistan?

Stubbornness

Yes, by now it seems to me some kind of stubbornness on the part of the so-called decision makers who decided that the clocks should be advanced by one hour.

In the first place, keeping in view our location on the globe with reference to the equator,  Daylight Saving Time is not meant for us. Hardly any country in South Asia observes DST, except of course Pakistan. But what is even more ridiculous is that once the self proclaimed decision makers have implemented DST in our country, they are finding it hard to finish it at some point. We are already in winter time but DST is still there. First it was to be ended on 1st October but then we heard the date has been extended to 15th of October. And now, it is 1st November.  It seems like total eclipse of reason or some form of stubbornness. Their minds are stuck, it seems.

The strongest ground given for DST was that we would save electricity. Nothing could be funnier. Every one can see how far the shortage of electricity has been handled through this weird phenomenon.

E tag on Motorway

I got the e-tag for my car last year from M2 toll plaza at Islamabad while returning from Murree. It allows me to pay toll electronically on the Motorway without bringing the car to a complete stop. This saves a lot of time and hassle.

Last month, while going to Wah from Lahore, I decided to exit the Motorway from Brahma Bahtar interchange instead of Islamabad exit. I hoped this would let me hit the GT Road at a point that is closer to the Barrier No.3 of Wah Cantt. Also the mess of the under repair section of GT Road  between Islamabad and Wah would be avoided. Taking this exit also meant saving the extra distance to the Burhan exit.

But I was unsure about the availability of e-toll at Brahma Bahtar exit. Then I thought if this facility is available at Kala Chicago, it is likely to be available at other similar minor exits like Brahma Bahtar as well.

But it was not. When I told the gentleman in the booth that I was coming from Lahore, he demanded  200 rupees…180 for Lahore to Islamabad and 20 for Islambad to Brahma Bahtar. I paid the money but was not given any receipt.  The man said he can generate a receipt and show it to me but he would have to keep that in his records.

Later I kept wondering if my car is still on the motorway because the e-tag has not recorded any exit and shall I be charged a massive accumulated amount the next time I exit the motorway using the e-tag?

Have you visited Hyperstar?

Alright, any one around who has visited the newly opened Hyperstar in Lahore?

Please share your experience with those who have not been there yet.

Carrefour in Lahore

There is a road that turns into the Fortress Stadium from the main and takes you straight to Bundu Khan. These days this road is being used for exiting Fortress Stadium. At the corner of this road, where it meets the main, there has been a signboard for some two years or so. Though not a prominent one, this signboard always caught my attention. It has been telling us that Carrefour is coming to Lahore soon.

It was in November of 2005 that I had my first exposure to a Carrefour. That was  in Deira City Center. Subsequently I happened to frequent Carrefour in Ajman City Center as well. It was confusing and amusing to see some people referring to it as “care for”.

In yesterday’s Dawn (Lahore edition, 12 May), I finally saw an advertisement that made it look like Carrefour has been finally launched in the town. The blue and red logo, though a bit changed, looked familiar. Also the things like 39 cash counters, 91, 500 square feet shopping area and parking for over 1000 cars sounded like typical Carrefour.  The only thing contrary to it was the name: Hyperstar. I am unsure why have they chosen to use a different name for their store in Lahore. Anyone got any clue about this?

The official opening at Fortress Stadium is on 13th May,2009. Some say there is going to be another of this hypermarket in phase 5 of DHA too. And Carrefour was to open in Karachi as well. What happened to that one?

Woman Hitler

If you rearrange the letters of the word “mother in law”, you get the word “woman hitler”. In the sub continent, one theory is that a woman who has only sons and has not been blessed with a daughter proves to be more heartless when it comes to causing air pockets in the newly formed relationship. They say this is because being without a daughter, that woman always remains unaware of the hardships that a young girl can face while trying to get in sync with her in-laws in the early years of the marriage. Thus this prevents such a woman from having a compassionate heart for the new couple.

But one thing that comes to mind is: even if a woman does not have a daughter of her own, was not she herself a newly married young girl once? So how can the problems and issues faced by newlywed girls be unknown to her?

And the other thing is: don’t we see many homes where sisters-in-law are actually adding fuel to the fire instead of being a reason to mitigate the chaos?

So can this be regarded a rule that women who have daughters are always more understanding mothers-in-law?

ATKINS plan for expansion of Masjid al Haram

Masjid al-Haram (the Sacred Mosque) seems to be always in need of expansion with ever increasing number of Muslims visiting the mosque. There has been vigorous construction activity going on lately around this mosque aiming to facilitate the pilgrims as far as possible.

This video shows a proposed plan for the future expansion of the Holy Mosque. It seems a grand plan and impressive too. But the question always remains that how far the present shape and structure of the mosque shall be retained and preserved while such plans are put into action:

How to overcome procrastination?

Yes. That is the question: how to get rid of this habit of keeping on postponing doing of things for as long as possible? The people who procrastinate have been trying to find the answer to this question for centuries. But due to their habit of procrastination, they have been unable to succeed in this search. Whereas the only answer to it that has been found is unacceptable to them. That answer is: take action.

One favourite pastime of procrastinators is spending several hours in reading books and articles about how to overcome procrastination. This exclusive group of people appears to be quite worried about their habit of delaying to do things and it seems that they are keen to know the ways to get rid of it. But you know what? Deep down inside, procrastinators really enjoy their tendency to go on deferring things till the last moment or forever.

The people who have not been blessed this fine art of procrastination cannot understand its intricacies and the joys and pains that are associated with it. But it is never too late to procrastinate. So you may consider giving it a try anytime. The basic rule to remember is never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow 🙂

ATM robbery prevention

In today’s Dawn (11 April, 2009), one of the letters to the editor tells us about a way to handle ATM robbery incidents. It says if you are forced by someone to draw money from ATM, you should enter your PIN in reverse order. For example if your PIN is 7890, you should enter 0987. The machine will give you your money but it will also recognise this as a call for help and will alert the police automatically.

The writer says that all ATM machines are equipped with this mechanism but not all people know about it.

Now the question is: after receiving the help signal, will the police be able to reach the ATM machine soon enough to catch the robber who will disappear from the scene with our money in less than a minute?

Daylight Saving Time again

It seems we are going to have that advancing of clock by one hour from 1st May inshallah. This attempt to save day light and to have more of it will be received with both kinds of emotions: joy and resentment. In either case, its impact would be more of psychological nature whereas the real gain or loss in our personal lives would remain nearly insignificant. On national level, however, we would be able to reduce the consumption of electricity so that we can ultimately reach a time in future when we can increase the consumption of electricity.

Office going people would welcome this advancing of clocks due to the illusion that they would be able to get some extra day light after returning from office. But vigilant bosses would not let this dream come true in most cases. They would ensure that with the advent of day light saving, late sitting hours are adjusted accordingly so that the employees do not get to see the blue sky as usual.

With the advancing of the clocks, salat timings would be stretched farther than our minds are tuned to see. This would cause some unease to the salat offering people. But again, the net effect of the new time settings would be primarily psychological. Otherwise, in real terms, salat would continue to occur in the same parts of the day as before.

There also would be some missed flights, some delayed meetings and other happenings of the sort. And then, because most people refuse to advance their clocks at least during the early days of days of DST, such conversations are common,”bhai, kal tum das bajay kiun nahin aye? mein intizaar kerta rha”, to which, the answer comes in the form of a question,“ Tum ney nae das bajay kaha tha ya puraney das bajey?”:)

You may get to know about this year’s as well as last year’s DST in Pakistan here.

P.S. 14-04-2009:  Instead of 1st May, the clocks are advancing tonight at 12am as the date changes to 15 April 🙂

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

I was sort of dismayed to read in today’s paper that after winning a court case in their favour, the Punjab government has again started to collect tax outside the gate of Pearl Continental Hotel, Bhurban.

Levy and collection of taxes by governments is nothing new or surprising. This is their favourite pastime the world over. What is weird in this case is the location that they have chosen to collect the tax. The Director Public Relations of PC Bhurban has rightly lamented that there is no precedent of such a tax levied just at the gate of a private hotel particularly mentioning its name.

The standpoint of the government is pretty irrelevant to this question of the location of this tax collection. They say that PC hotel is not affected by this tax since its employees are exempted from this payment. The government further maintains that the tax is only for the tourists and the local people are not required to pay this tax.

Every car entering PC Bhurban is now bound to pay RS.200 as Provincial tax. Shall this tax affect the business of the hotel by reducing the number of people visiting the hotel? One of the answers to this question can be that the people who decide to come to a five star hotel are affluent enough not to bother paying a sum of two hundred rupees. Fine. But the location of the collection of this tax is certainly inappropriate and undesirable.

Paying two hundred rupees may not be a big deal but to be  made to pay a tax (no matter how small its amount) just when you are about to enter a hotel while vacationing surely leaves a bad taste in the mouth. If someone were collecting the same amount at the same location as a contribution towards the cause of saving rain forests or as a donation for a sanatorium, people would have loved to pay the money with pleasure. But being demanded a tax right at the gate of a hotel is downright obnoxious, to say the least.

Some one must consider changing the location of this tax collection to any suitable point on the road that leads from Jheeka Gali to Bhurban. But that won’t happen unless the the management of the hotel decides to take a serious notice of the current situation.

A two-in-one wedding

Yesterday I went to attend a wedding ceremony that was different in a way. Instead of arranging two separate occasions for the weddings of their two sons, the parents had chosen to do it all in one function. When I first caught sight of two garlanded grooms sitting side by side on one sofa, the first thing that somehow flashed in my mind was i-DSI (Intelligent Dual & Sequential Ignition) used in Honda City that incorporates two spark plugs per cylinder instead of usual one. This flash was followed by an image of Core2Duo processors as well. Human mind works in a strange way indeed.

I really admired the arrangement scheme adopted by these prudent parents. It saved a lot of money and a great deal of hassle. It is very rare that people tend to keep things simpler on weddings. They love to squander exorbitant amounts of money on such occasions. The basic motive behind this is to exhibit their financial abundance to their relatives and other people. But when you try to convince them that such waste of money needs to be avoided, they give reasons like: this is their first offspring to be married or is the last one who is marrying or is the only one whose wedding they are to witness and therefore they want to celebrate this “khushi” without any restraint or limit.

After all the pomp and show, real marriage life begins. In some cases, due to ego related issues and because of lack of love, the marriage begins to turn sour. To handle such a situation, it is sometimes considered bold and trendy to opt for a divorce right away without any sincere efforts to save the relationship.

From the way we tend to splurge money on weddings, someday we might see glamorous functions being held for divorces as well. Omer Sharif once gave a hint about this novel idea.

Lovely weather

Today just before maghrib, a glance through the living room window gave me a feeling that it was darker than normal outside. I went out in the lawn and was rejoiced to see that the sky was overcast with water-laden black clouds.

Later when I was driving to the mosque, I had to turn on the headlights of the car. I was surprised to notice that several other cars also had the lights on. Normally our people turn on car lights only when the night has actually fallen. Before that, even if the visibility is poor for some reason, they don’t like to turn on the lights. This is because they believe that their car lights are for one purpose only: to see others. What they don’t realise is that our car lights have another purpose too: to make ourselves seen by others. That’s why some cars like Volvo have headlights that stay always on…even during the daytime.

When I returned home, I briefly parked my car under a tree that stands just outside our house. Within seconds, the car was so beautifully adorned with tiny flowers that were dropping from that tree as the wind was blowing. Due to wet surface of the car, the flowers were glued to its body and it seemed that the car was prepared for a newlywed couple.

Soon afterwards, the clouds began to thunder loudly amid intense lightning followed by hailing. The whole scenery changed entirely. Later I heard being reported that several other cities have received similar heavy downpour. They also said that despite such heavy fall of rain, water shortage in dams continues to persist.

Outage restored

Last night I was sitting at my computer when the power supply suddenly stopped at 9 pm. It removed the last doubts from my mind that I had about a news item that I recently read about returning of the load shedding in our lives again. Power supply was resumed in an hour. The next termination came at 12 mid night.

Today during the day this shedding of the load continued at specified hours with immaculate accuracy. They say that the urban souls are destined to have a total of six hours of this dazzling experience. Those in the countryside, however, have been allowed two more hours.

All I wish is that they observe a schedule for this generous activity. That will enable us to plan our day-today life with some ease. Randomly changing power supply cut-off timings needs to be avoided. May Allah bless Lesco with compassion to understand this.

Also, since it is the advent of summer now, perhaps it is time to survey the generator market to evaluate one that should be able to unabatedly run at least one air conditioner for an hour.

So what is Recession?

This story is about a man who once upon a time was selling Hotdogs by the roadside. He was illiterate, so he never read newspapers. He was hard of hearing, so he never listened to the radio. His eyes were weak, so he never watched television. But enthusiastically, he sold lots of hotdogs.

He was smart enough to offer some attractive schemes to increase his sales. His sales and profit went up. He ordered more and more raw material and buns and sold more. He recruited more supporting staff to serve more customers. He started offering home deliveries. Eventually he got himself a bigger and better stove. As his business was growing, the son, who had recently graduated from college, joined his father.

Then something strange happened.

The son asked, “Dad, aren’t you aware of the great recession that is coming our way?” The father replied, “No, but tell me about it.” The son said, “The international situation is terrible. The domestic situation is even worse. We should be prepared for the coming bad times.”

The man thought that since his son had been to college, read the papers, listened to the radio and watched TV, he ought to know and his advice should not be taken lightly. So the next day onwards, the father cut down his raw material order and buns, took down the colourful signboard, removed all the special schemes he was offering to the customers and was no longer as enthusiastic. He reduced his staff strength by giving layoffs. Very soon, fewer and fewer people bothered to stop at his Hotdog stand. And his sales started coming down rapidly and so did the profit. The father said to his son, “Son, you were right”. “We are in the middle of a recession and crisis. I am glad you warned me ahead of time.”

Moral of the Story: It’s all in your MIND! And we actually FUEL this recession much more than we think.

What a clock !

Much has been said about time over the centuries. Like,

Dost thou love life? Then waste not time; for time is the stuff that life is made of.

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.

Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived.

Time spent with cats is never wasted.

Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

and so on…

Now take a look at this clock. It seems to be encompassing time on an expansive scale…beyond mere seconds, minutes and hours.

Can you tell what's so odd in it?

I just read this article in today’s Saudi Gazette. I was abruptly struck with astonishment while reading it. I stopped reading and sat back, wondering how things differ from person to person, culture to culture, country to country. Please go through this article and let me know do you also find something outlandish in it.

First all-female Tabuk restaurant hits snag

By Huda Al-Yusuf

TABUK – A female businesswoman who opened the first restaurant in Tabuk exclusively for women has been told to close it down.

The woman, known only by her initials O.K. says she has invested hundreds of thousands of riyals in the venture and trained more than 15 Saudi women in management and catering skills.

O.K. says that she submitted all the necessary documents to officials at the municipality in Tabuk and was then given a permit to proceed. But she was later surprised at being told to close down and remove the restaurant sign because it contained the word “women’s”.

“Ironically,” she says, “in all the documents I submitted to officials it was clearly stated that the restaurant was exclusively for women. Amazingly, the officials at the municipality told me to wait until other women’s restaurants in major towns had been shown to be a success and then they would give me the go-ahead.”

According to Ms. O.K., investment law in the Kingdom does not differentiate between genders and she claims the officials’ stand has no legal grounding.

Dr. Riyadh Ghban, Director of Environmental Health at the Municipality in Tabuk, said all the documents had been sent to the Ministry of Municipality and Rural Affairs in Riyadh to decide on the matter. – Okaz/SG

After receiving your opinion regarding what’s so bizarre in this story, I would inshallah let you know what exactly took me by surprise while reading it.

The HR department

After 2 years of selfless service, a man realized that he has not been promoted, had got no salary increase, no appreciation from his bosses and that the Company is not doing any thing about it. So he decided to walk up to his HR Manager one morning. After exchanging greetings, he told his HR Manager his observation. The boss looked at him, laughed and asked him to sit down saying, “My friend, you have not worked here for even one day.”

The man was naturally surprised to hear this but the manager went on to explain:

Manager:- How many days are there in a year?

Man:- 365 days and some times 366.

Manager:- How many hours make up a day?

Man:- 24 hours.

Manager:- How long do you work in a day?

Man:- 8am to 4pm…that is 8 hours a day.

Manager:- So, what fraction of the day do you work in hours?

Man:- (He did some arithmetic like 8/24 hours and said) 1/3rd.

Manager:- That is nice of you! What is one-third of 366 days?

Man:- 122 days.

Manager:- Do you come to work on weekends?

Man:- No sir.

Manager:- How many days are there in a year that are weekends?

Man:- 52 Saturdays and 52 Sundays; 104 days.

Manager:- Thanks for that. If you remove 104 days from 122 days, how many days do you now have?

Man:- 18 days.

Manager:- OK! I do give you two-week sick leave every year. Now remove those 14 days from the 18 days left. How many days do you have remaining?

Man:- 4 days

Manager:- Do you work on New Year day?

Man:- No sir!

Manager:- Do you come to work on Labour day?

Man:- No sir!

Manager:- So how many days are left?

Man:- 2 days sir!

Manager:- Do you come to work on the Independece Day?

Man:- No sir!

Manager:- So how many days are left?

Man:- 1 day sir!

Manager:- Do you work on Eid day?

Man:- No sir!

Manager:- So how many days are left?

Man:- None sir!

Manager:- So, what are you claiming?

Man:- I have understood, Sir. I did not realise that I was stealing Company money all these days.

Moral – NEVER GO TO HR FOR HELP!!!

HR=HIGH RISK

Farewell to winter

It is still cold but the signs that winter shall be going away soon are showing up now:

1) Now it is no more soothing to wear a shirt right after ironing it.

2) Sitting in a car parked under the sun around midday, with all the windows rolled up, does not make one comfortably cosy anymore.

3) At times, it feels alright while driving if the car air conditioner is left running for a while.

4) It is no more viable to take a shower with just hot tap on, without needing to mix cold water.

5) The desire to keep standing near burning ovens, stoves,  tandoors is  fading now.

Have you noticed some such indicators as well?

Load shedding blues

Load shedding is cursed by all and sundry. From personal to industrial, it is blamed to have disrupted life at all levels. But don’t be grieved to think that load shedding is meant for less developed countries only. Does it provide some kind of relief and sentimental elation to know that the phenomenon is existent in places like, for example, California too? There it is referred to as “Rolling Blackout” which definitely sounds cooler than the depressive term like “load shedding”, perhaps on account of being closer to something like “Rolling Stones”.

You know what? Load shedding has introduced me to a newer dimension of my life through elevation to a higher level of sensibility. It has let me get to know that my day-to-day existence is clearly partitioned into two segments: one that needs the availability of electricity and the other that does not need it. Before the introduction of load shedding at such expansive scale, I was unaware of this reality.

This has led me to consciously manage my life in line with this newfound awareness. Now when electricity is there, I focus on getting those things done that cannot be managed without it. This may include projects like pressing a shirt, managing content of camcorder tapes and doing all the stuff that needs computer/Internet. I don’t consume these precious moments doing things like reading the newspaper, going to the bank or grocery store, telephoning others, de-cluttering my cupboards and all the other tasks that are not electricity dependent. I have learned that all these things can be done very well during the no-electricity phases thereby using those hours quite effectively, without much nagging. Before load shedding, my life went on without such neat and clear divisions and I used to mix up all sort of tasks without any regard for time of the day.

But getting used to this new set up was not an easy task. It required quite a bit of cerebral gymnastics. And now for the past few days, I am noticing there are no power outages. This has sort of thrown my life out of gear again. Shall I have to bid farewell to my new life style? That would again need a lot of mental reprogramming. Yet another worry is  how shall I handle non-stop abundance of electricity in my life now?

In a lighter vein…

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” George W. Bush, Jr.,

“If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.” …George W. Bush, Jr.

“It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment. It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.” Governor George W. Bush, Jr.

“A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls.” Governor George W. Bush, Jr.