This is the first time I got to know that the day named “World Children Day” is not celebrated on a single day around the world. The Universal Children Day is celebrated on November 20 but in many countries the day is celebrated on different days.

We, being elders, must take responsibility.

Without going into the details I want to wish all the children of the world a happy life. I love children until they don’t cry or get rash. :-D    kidding..

I believe that children also form a bigger portion of the human rights victims in this ‘world of elders’. Children are ignored in different ways and in developing and under developed countries, the situation is even worse than just ignoring. Child labor, child abuse, camel jockeys are few examples.

Even in national and international politics, we never think that what particular impact will it make on children. I may not be wrong if I blame the Government of Pakistan for this incident due to its obsolete policies and also some really peace loving countries who are spending trillions of dollars in the name of war against terrorism. I don’t know what role is being played by this The Universal Deceleration of Human Rights and; where is the biggest human rights activist organization Amnesty International.

I wish that everyone, on this day of children, commit that one will work to make this earth a safe place for every child. Wishing all the children a happy and prosperous life.

For Lahorites:

Children Library Complex is holding a 4 days Grand Book Fair from November 20 to November 23. A nice activity for the children on their (children) day.

Event: Grand Book Fair

Timings: 11:00 am - 07:00 pm (daily)

Venue: Children Library Comples, Aiwan-e-Tijarat Road, Lahore

Stalls: Charts, Poster, Greeting Cards, CD/DVD, Food Courts, Jewelery, Face Painting, Garments, etc.

Extras:

1) Painting Exhibition at 11:00 am on November 20.

2) Puppet Show at 11:00 am on November 22 by Iranian Artists currently performing in the World Performing Arts Festival.

3) Walk of Children at 12:00 pm on November 22 from Children Library Complex to Governor House.

At the occasion of the World Usability Day, the Interaction Design Center has organized an event at the UMT Campus on Thursday, November 13th. The event will consist of a series of talks, case studies, and a documentary screening. Every year the event has a theme and this year’s theme is transportation.

Three reasons you should attend:

• Lahore is home to a lot of “interesting” means of transportation not found anywhere else in the world
• “Helvetica” is a great documentary
• Registration for the event is free

So if you have some time to spare this Thursday, and are intersted in “Usability” either as a user or a creator, head over to the registration page and let IXDC know.

Lahore Badshahs beat Chennai Superstars by 6 wickets

Inzamam Ul Haq was declared man of the match

Ahmedabad: The first semifinal ICL 20s Indian Championship featured the clash of the titans, with former champions Chennai Superstars take on last years’ finalist Lahore Badshahs at the Sardar Patel stadium Ahmedabad. In the end it was the Lahore Badshahs who proved their might with a comprehensive 6 wicket victory over the talented Chennai Superstars, to storm into their second straight ICL finals. Inzamam Ul Haq was declared man of the match for his brilliant half century.
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Al-Hamra Lahore 2008

The 25th World Performing Arts Festival will kick off at the Alhamra Cultural Complex on November 13 and would host drama, puppetry and music performances from 300 foreign delegates and 500 local artistes from across the country. The 10-day long festival  has brought together 16,000 artistes from 85 countries that would allow the locals to experience a variety of art forms.

Another evidence that we are living in strange times. Barack Hussain Obama has become the first American President who’s skin is not white. Obama made a clean sweep by taking 338 against McCain’s 159 electoral votes.

McCain conceded defeat and Obama delivered his acceptance speech. Whole world watched as the man spoke to a crowd of one million. It was almost mass hysteria, a very emotionally charged scene, people crying, having trouble finishing their sentences. It was indeed a moment that America should be proud about. It is something they can cherish.

Where else  can an immigrant family can rise to such riches… A true personification of “American Dream”. As I watched the speach, I was trying to find similarities and differences between Pakistan and America.

The way Obama Interacted with the crowed reminded me of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Only one leader in know history of pakistan had such a charisma… Also I do see some sparks of such charisma in Lawyers Moment.

““If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer,”” Obama said.

Los Angles Times Reports

“Barack Obama, the son of a father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, was elected the nation’s 44th president Tuesday, breaking the ultimate racial barrier to become the first African American to claim the country’s highest office.

A nation founded by slave owners and seared by civil war and generations of racial strife delivered a smashing electoral college victory to the 47-year-old first-term senator from Illinois, who forged a broad, multiracial, multiethnic coalition. His victory was a leap in the march toward equality: When Obama was born, people with his skin color could not even vote in parts of America, and many were killed for trying.”

What This will mean for Pakistan

Obama winning election is not seen as good omen for Pakistan.  India being a bigger and better democracy, Democrats Govt. tend to have more inclination toward india.

It also means and end of what is called an American love affair with Pakistan. American Dollars that poured over the countries elite will stop. Pakistan might face sanctions of economic nature.

Theater of “War or Terror” will most likely to be shifted from Iraq and Afghanistan to Our North Western Province and some parts of Baluchistan.

Zardari might get a call from Obama in middle of night informing that US will pursue terrorists in setteled areas of Pakistan.

The Gujranwala Connection

Obama’s mother is reported to have lived in Pakistan for 5 years in Gujranwala.  Little is know about how Obama Spent his 3 weeks in pakistan when he visited her mother here.. May be he came to lahore too..

More here

Imran Nazir declared man of the match

Imran Nazir & Imran Farhat set fastest fifty-partnership world record

The 16th match of the ICL 20s Indian Championship featured the two ICL sides Mumbai Champs and Lahore Badshahs representing the cricketing nerve centers of India & Pakistan respectively, battle it out at the Sardar Patel stadium Ahmedabad. In the end it was a Lahore Badshahs night scoring a comprehensive win by 8 wickets, to register their second consecutive victory of the tournament sending a strong reminder to all other competing sides at ICL season-2. Imran Nazir was declared man of the match for his explosive knock of 83, off only 38 balls; including 5 fours and 9 mighty sixes; sealed an eight wicket victory for the Lahore Badshahs in only the 14th over of their innings.

Brief Scores: Mumbai Champs 140/5 in 20 overs (Jadhav57, Taufeeq 41, Mughal 3/28) lost by 8 wickets Lahore Badshahs 141/2 in 13.2 overs( Nazir 83* Inzamam 27* Van Der Wath 1/40)

Although I have taken longer breaks than this one from blogging about Lahore, I feel that so much has been happening that I have not been ahem-ahem opinion-ating on.
Of course, it does not matter who wants to listen to what I have to say. The point is that Lahore and other events around us, seen from the eyes of one person is in all probabilities, bound to be different from yours. This gives you more perspective. This in turn, gives you more to think about which in turn, helps you adjust and improve. Add Blah blah blah ad infintum.

From where I sit, a lot has been happening. And has happened. For a highly personal take on how I have been seeing it, in bullet form for effect :), read on.

Politics:

• Almost as if he never was here, Musharaf is not heard of. Amid pretty much nothing, he has managed to just pull a Mr. India* and simply disappear.
• Zardari started flirting openly. A lot of us started taking notes.
• Lawyers movement get boring enough to silently exit the lime light. But people who are focused and more purposeful, stay the course. My prayers at least, are with them.

Society, People & Culture:

• Marriot goes. With a loud enough bang. Fingers keep pointing, loudmouths keep barking and people keep dying! Almost as if a fashion statement, our media tries to make Sept 20th as our Sept 11th. London has 7/7, American has 9/11, at least we din’t rhyme with our 9/20. Or whatever. A sad situation got even sadder.
• Hamid Mir finally got depressed enough to say what I believe only Hamid Mir can say.
• I find inspiration in the fact that a single person can change himself and his society. I disagree with practically all of their suggestion, but that always remains a debatable issue. Lahore in specific, and Pakistan in general needs people like these to take the action that no one else seem to think about. Faisal Qureshi tries to go for a solution and Sohaib Athar writes powerfully.
• Eid came suddenly. For the first time, enjoyed the ensuing chaos, including my first trip to a ‘choree waala’ in Main Market. A mosque in Lahore celebrated Eid one day later anyways, claiming a stake in the overall confusion that plagues the nation, and the media played the devil by letting everyone know about it (like this?!?!).

Doing business

• Lahore office rent is like Lahore’s weather; totally unpredictable. You have to search to get the right deal. I tried, found the best deal I could have imagined, only to move out of the office 6 months later.
• Doing business from here becomes harder. One of my business colleague finds it hard to convince his ‘American connection’ that his call center can handle the business, purely because it becomes riskier for his ‘goraa’ client to book into a Hotel; the damn places keep blowing up!
• My web design blog gets the lowest monthly average of visitors for the last two years! I again find comfort in blogging about life and make new friends; people who are monetizing the Internet in the most ‘cutting edge’ of ways, on purpose :) . I find creative money makers. DjFlush and his Sizlopedia is and should be an inspiration for us all.
• After researching for a local Pakistani car on the Internet, I get frustrated at the lack of proper car reviews, specific to the Pakistani market. I finally get around to launching a small blog about cars in Pakistan.

I have seen a lot of hope amidst so much of chaos. Bridges are getting built in Lahore as hotels are being burnt and blown in Islamabad. The political looters are honing their skills as media personal begin to have a heart. People are celebrating a ‘rocking’ Eid (with fashion shows, dance competitions and what not — Pathetic!), as friends and family with a heart as seeing every day as an opportunity to do good for the people around them. Improve and help not the world, but one person at a time. That is how the world improves anyways.
God bless and good luck to us all.

THOUGH Rudyard Kipling lived only five of his 70 years in Lahore, they were the most crucial years of his development as a writer. This rich confection of a city, whose great Mogul buildings and street life evoke the deep hues and sensuality of a miniature painting, was where the teen-aged Kipling cut his teeth as a newspaperman. Lahore provided the setting for some of Kipling’s greatest stories, as well as the raw material for his somewhat misunderstood view of East and West.

Though now obscured as a tourist destination due to its location 15 miles inside Pakistan, Lahore was the heart of Kipling’s India. Between 1882 and 1887, he worked there as the assistant editor of The Civil and Military Gazette, combing the back alleys of the old, walled city for stories and material for his later fiction. Like the Irish street urchin, Kim, the hero of his greatest novel, Kipling used Lahore as a base to explore the rest of the subcontinent.

Armed with the Penguin edition of ”Kim,” I set out for the Lahore Museum, where Kipling’s father, John Lockwood Kipling, had been the curator and where the first scene in ”Kim” takes place. The novel opens with Kim sitting ”astride the gun Zam-Zammah on her brick platform opposite the old Ajaib-Gher - the Wonder House, as the natives call the Lahore Museum.” It was while astride the gun that Kim meets a Tibetan lama, whom the boy then escorts into the Wonder House.

The Zam-Zammah (Urdu for lion’s roar) is known in Lahore as Kim’s gun, and, except for the brick platform that has been replaced by marble, the copper and brass cannon looks exactly as Kipling described it; a massive icon of imperialism over 14 feet long, mounted on wooden wheels that are well over six feet in diameter. And the Wonder House opposite is just that; in my opinion one of the world’s great underrated museums.
Read more

The Mensa IQ test is being held in Lahore on 13th and 14th of September.

The timings are:

LGS Johar Town

Saturday, 13th Sept at
1:30 - 2:30
2:30 - 3:30
3:30 - 4:30

LGS Defence

Sunday, 14th Sept at
10:30 - 11:30
11:30 - 12:30
12:30 - 1:30
2:30 - 3:30

The ticket price is Rs. 350. Ticket can be bought on spot.

There will also be a talk by Mr. Faisal Qureshi (founder chairperson of Mensa Pakistan, host of looseends, Breakfast at Dawn and Ankahi) at LGS Defence on Sunday 14th Sept at 1:30pm. The topic for the talk is Youth Responsibility.

Mensa Pakistan is an affiliate of Mensa International, The World Wide Higher IQ Society,

The aim of the organization as described under its constitution is, “Mensa provides a forum for intellectual exchange among members. Its activities include the exchange of ideas by lectures, discussions, journals, special-interest groups, and local, regional, national, and international gatherings; the investigations of members’ opinions and attitudes; and assistance to researchers, inside and outside Mensa, in projects dealing with intelligence or Mensa.”

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