aid or loan.. only time will tell !

The world pledged a whopping $3.4 billion in new quake aid for Pakistan at a make-or-break donor conference Saturday, but aid groups warned that much of the promises were loans that will heap more debt on the impoverished country.

Pakistan nonetheless hailed the conference as a success, with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf thanking the nearly 80 attending nations and international agencies for “helping Pakistan in this hour of need.” He said the gesture “will never be forgotten.”

Read the whole post at

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/19/international/i123457S49.DTL

Salman Ahmad performed at the Princeton University Chapel in New Jersey this past thursday. The chapel which could have easily seated 500 people, but the pakistani students of one of the best universities in the world did such a poor job of spreading with word around , that less than 50 people attended. They collected around $ 3000 dollars which I personally think is chips..
The performance was great and everyone enjoyed it . He sang some cool songs like with or without u .. although i dont know if Bono would have been impressed with Salmans voice !

The sound of all the instruments inside the chapel was amazing.. After the performance Salman spent a lot of time with all the fans and took a picture with just about everyone in the crowd. He also gave out free CDs of his new album which was cool.

Before the concert , I went in early to make sure I get a good spot. There was a girl and a lady sitting right in front of me.Both of them were white.. the woman was some faculty member at princeton and the girl was a freshman. So while we were waiting for the concert to start , I overheard them talking..

the lady goes. “Do you know the band who is performing”

girl ..” yes , its a Rock band from pakistan.. i just saw a documentary on them’

lady.. ” tell me about it ”

girl…” well they are like the first rock band in their country.. and their country is mostly against music.. u know the islamic fundamentalists…. and they actually want to BAN music.. and they showed in the documentary how this band goes around all the places telling that there is nothing wrong with music.. ”

lady … ” ohhh.. i know those muslim countries.. so is there a girl in the band… ”

girl.. ” uhhh.. i dont remember.. ”

right after this salman walked in, sat down and performed Sayoneeeeeeee..and I could see both the girl and the lady’s head swing with the tune….

90 % .. white people.. even the most cultured and educated like the ones who TEACH at Princeton.. so called best univ in the world.. know JACK about anything related to the international scene :P

You can look at

the pictures I took at the following link http://www.nextgenlogic.com/salman/

the video clips I shot at the following link .. ( will add link later.. after i upload all the clips.. )

I came across this on Orkut.I am just wondering about.the weird combination of bands :Jal and Overload.It will sell but will it work too? These two productions are the same People who organized the launch of Noori’s album last month.

RedLine- Productions & [X] Productions
Presents

5:30pm Sharp !

A documentary on Sufism titled Sufi Soul: the Mystical Music of Pakistan will be screened on Sun, 27 Nov 2005 and Mon, 28 Nov 2005 at 8.15 pm in Alhamra Qaddafi. The movie is a part of World Performing Arts Festival 2005.Made by Simon Broughton

Since the three day “Tablighi Ijtama” has started from today, its not recommended to go out in the rush hour specially on the ‘neher-o-neher’ route. The whole canal road is full of traffic jams from Jalo to Thokar and I got a taste of it while going towards the University Campus today.

The Raiwind Tableeghi Ijtama is known to change a lot of people overnight. Junaid Jamshaid and Saeed Anwar are some well known examples. I still havent had my share of changes so far but I guess i’ll pay a visit one of these years. Whats quite intersting about the tableeghi ppl is their call for dars after namaz which is almost a standard all over Pakistan. I wonder if they use the same lines outside Pakistan.

Meri… apki.. bulkay poori duniya ki kamyabi Allah ta`alla nay apnay deen main rakhi hay. Yeh deen hamari zindgai main kis terha aye ga, is kay liyay shadeed mehnat ki zaroorat hay. Baqiya namaz kay baad issi mehnat kay baray main kuch behas ho gi. Tamaam hazrat tashreef rakhain, Inshallah bohat faida ho ga

(heres an almost word to word translation.. couldnt find an english equivalent for “deen”)

Mine… Your…infact the whole world’s success has been placed in His religion by Allah. How this religion will enter in our lives, it requires a lot of effort. After the remaining prayers, we’ll have a discussion about this same effort. Everyone please stay back, (God willing) it will be very beneficial.

assalam-o-alaykum w..w!

have a look at a very interesting text written by the famous Patras Bukhari as lahore ka geographia!

And give your comments!

Wassalam

…yes, the dessert at hob nob. I suddenly figured out why it’s called that. It’s because it looks absolutely delicious but hurts like hell. Seems like it has chocolate ROCKS inside.

What is the first thing that comes into your mind when you see this? A thought, a memory or what?

Photograph by Fakher E Alam Bhatti

It’s mid-november. I have yet to actually wear my winter jacket. Very odd.

I dont want to be chewing on my own words but there is no cold in Lahore. I hope same is the case in the Quake affected Northern Areas… too bad we can’t share the weather; gets too cold there, send some cold Lahore’s way! God does work in His Own mysterious ways…

I am told that there was a time, hardly three decades ago, when the winters would come in October and won’t quit till early March. But then only two years back, people were saying, “teen maheenay kee tau ab sardee hotee hai.” (Winter only lasts three months now). Those three months were, mind you, supposed to be Nov, Dec and Jan. And this year, Nov is almost over…no cold. No ‘official’ winters, if my clothing selection is anything to go by!

Global warming? Have any of you seen “The day after tommorrow” ? Chilling, no?

—

also on: LIFE ETC

Never thought that these demons would look beautiful when lined up? Well, think again!

(for you and your love of Rickshaws, Darwaish!)