Lahore Metblogs » 7 Gifts to the World

Sir, we can’t control this. “Then ban it”

momekh — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:37:46 +0000

Basant was a thing of beauty and was one of those rare events where a truly cultural event gathered people from all over the world. Yes, the world. Lahore owned basant, regardless where it came from. Even Lahore Metblogs has a separate category just for Basant!
But you had to be living in a hole to not know that basant has been banned for some time. A petition moved sometime around 2005, initially by none other than the mayor of Lahore, Mian Amer Mahmood. Slowly but surely, you witnessed an exercise in ‘how to control and change a city’s very culture through the power of political will’. The reasons quoted were not many – two in fact, one being the loss to human life and the other being disruption in WAPDA’s electricity supply causing monetary loss.
But here’s how I see it all:
The ban on basant is silly. Loss of life and loss of the ever-so-present WAPDA supply are not reasons at all. And here’s why: the loss of life is not because the kite-flying itself is dangerous. Kite-flying has been around for quite some time. The murderous streak now automatically tagged with basant itself, has been introduced through the development of stronger string. A lot of people think that it is the razor-like solution that the string is soaked in that causes the string to be a knife-on-the-loose. Although the sharpness is part of the reason, the main reason is that the string itself is very strong. There was a time, I remember, when I was able to snap the string by pulling on it with both hands. It is a typical way of checking a string’s strength – tug at it and see when it breaks. But recently, I would notice that it has become harder and harder to just ‘snap’ the string. You would have to resort to either some serious pulling or just use to teeth to sever the string. It is the combination of ultra-strong string with razor-sharp solution (a.k.a. manja) that makes the string a killer.
The real culprit has always been the string itself, and building upon that, you can see that the makers of the string are also the culprit. And by culprit I mean the ‘reason’ for the chaos, not the guilty party (guilt is for the courts to decide, remember?)

The reason the basant was and is still banned is not because the festival has turned deadly, it is because some people have invented and then sold this killer string to a lot of unsuspecting people. In fact, the real reason is that the administration has found it beyond them to crack down on the few string producers that manufacture the deadly string.

Lahore’s 5th Gift to the World: Virus Threat Realization

Hasan Mubarak — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 18:56:15 +0000

“In the spirit of all the holiday gift giving that will be taking place over the next couple of months, all the Metroblogging cities are giving 7 gifts to the world. Lahore comes up with its 5th Gift to the World.”

Lahore not only just generated the world’s first computer virus, in fact, it gifted world the realization of threats posed by Piracy and Viruses.

First detected in January 1986, (c)Brain, is the oldest PC virus known.

As Wikipedia reports it:

“(c)Brain (the industry standard name being Brain) is a 1986 computer virus that infects the boot sector of storage media formatted with the DOS File Allocation Table (FAT) file system.

It was written by two brothers, Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi, who lived in Chahmiran, Lahore, Pakistan. The brothers told TIME magazine they had written it to protect their medical software from piracy and was supposed to target copyright infringers only.

The virus is also known as Lahore, Pakistani, Pakistani Brain, and UIUC. Businessweek magazine at the time called the virus the Pakistani flu.

(c)Brain affects the computer by replacing the boot sector with a copy of the virus. The real boot sector is moved to another sector and marked as bad and infected disks usually have three kilobytes of bad sectors. The disk label is changed to (c)Brain.

The virus came complete with the brothers’ address and three phone numbers, and a message that told the user that their machine was infected and for inoculation the user should call them.

One of the most interesting details regarding the Brain virus is the following text, which appears inside it:

Welcome to the Dungeon
(c) 1986 Basit & Amjad (pvt) Ltd.
BRAIN COMPUTER SERVICES
730 NIZAB BLOCK ALLAMA IQBAL TOWN
LAHORE-PAKISTAN
PHONE :430791,443248,280530.
Beware of this VIRUS….
Contact us for vaccination………… $#@%$@!!

In another version of the virus, the text looks like this:

Welcome to the Dungeon
(c) 1986 Brain & Amjads (pvt) Ltd.
VIRUS_SHOE RECORD v9.0
Dedicated to the dynamic memories
of millions of virus who are no longer with us today -
Thanks GOODNESS!!
BEWARE OF THE er..VIRUS :This program is catching
program follows after these messeges….. $#@%$@!!

When the brothers began to receive a large number of phone calls from people in USA, Britain, and elsewhere, demanding them to disinfect their machines, the brothers were stunned and tried to explain to the outraged callers that their motivation had not been malicious. They ended up having to get their phone lines cut off and regretted that they had revealed their contact info in the first place. The brothers are still in business in Pakistan as internet service providers in their company called Brain Limited.”

Nowadays Brain is extinct.

Source links: (c)Brain at Wikipedia; (c)Brain at F-Secure

Special Thanks: Talha Masood from IMB for the idea and suggestion.

Also check out:

Lahore’s 4th Gift to the World
Lahore’s 3rd Gift to the World
Lahore’s 2nd Gift to the World
Lahore’s 1st Gift to the World

As other Metroblogging make eforts in gift giving, David Markland from Los Angeles has been maintaining a regularly updated, day-to-day Guide to Metroblogging Cities’ Gifts to the World

Lahore’s 4th Gift to the World: ‘Nobel’ Scholars

Hasan Mubarak — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 06:30:56 +0000

“In the spirit of all the holiday gift giving that will be taking place over the next couple of months, all the Metroblogging cities are giving 7 gifts to the world throughout the week of NOV 26th – DEC 2. Lahore comes up with its 4th Gift to the World.”

Many are not aware of the contributions that some of the most prominent Lahorites have made towards various fields of learning including science, mathematics, philosophy, arts, and literature.

Lahore proudly gifts to the world, four Nobel laureates:

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling (Nobel Prize in Literature 1907) - Born in Bombay and later lived in Lahore for a few years, Mr. Kipling was a literary genius, with such classics as Jungle Book, Kim and many more under his belt.

Har Gobind Khorana

Har Gobind Khorana (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1968) – Mr Khorana did his Msc from University of the Punjab, Lahore and then proceded for PhD at University of Liverpool. He later became a Professor of Biology and Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Abdus Salam

Dr. Abdus Salam (Nobel Prize in Physics 1979) – Dr. Salam studied at Govt. College Lahore, later, taught and headed the Mathematics Department there. He received PhD from Cambridge. He was a prolific researcher in theoretical elementary particle physics and pioneered many important developments in this field.

Subramanyan Chandrasekhar

Subramanyan Chandrasekhar (Nobel Prize in Physics 1983) – Born in Lahore in 1910, Mr. Chandrasekhar did his PhD from University of Cambridge and produced a number of papers on stellar dynamics, general theory of relativity and relativistic astrophysics, the mathematical theory of black holes and much more.

As other Metroblogging make eforts in gift giving, David Markland from Los Angeles has been maintaining a regularly updated, day-to-day Guide to Metroblogging Cities’ Gifts to the World

Also check out:

Lahore’s 3rd Gift to the World Lahore’s 2nd Gift to the World
Lahore’s 1st Gift to the World

Lahore’s 3rd Gift to the World: Anarkali Bazaar

Hasan Mubarak — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 19:48:41 +0000

Anarkali Bazar, named after the famous courtesan of Emperor Akbar’s court, Anarkali, is one of the most enchanting places in Lahore.

Anarkali Bazaar, Lahore

Founded by Emperor Jahangir some 400 years back, Anarkali Bazar is one of the oldest surviving markets in South Asia. Originating from the Mall near Lahore Museum, it’s just like a maze of narrow alleys and lanes stretching northwards towards Old Lahore.

It has a captivating history related to the character after which it is named. According to the legend Mughal Emperor Akbar’s son Prince Salim fell in love with Anarkali, Emperor Akbar’s coutesan who was given the title of Anarkali; ‘Pomegranate Blossom’ due to her charm and beauty by the Emperor himself.

Anarkali’s Tomb, Lahore

When exposed, their relationship was disapproved by Emperor Akbar as Anarkali was a dancing girl and was of no noble birth. When the lovers rebelled against the Emperor, Anarkali was buried alive in a wall which is said to be located within the bazaar. Her tomb is still there housed in the Punjab Secretariat near Anarkali Bazaar. Engraved on Anarkali’s grave is a couplet in Persion by Prince Salim a.k.a Emperor Jahangir:

“Ah! could I behold the face of my beloved once more, I would give thanks to my God until the day of resurrection.”

While strolling through its narrow paths, one can imagine the legend to be true and go back in time to the era of Anarkali. Hundreds of years old buildings, dazzling shops and buzzing streets make this bazaar so unique in its charm and character.

Anarkali Bazar is a shopper’s heaven selling virtually everything from handicrafts to soveniers; antiques to artifacts; electronics to every sorts of cloth, ready made garments and woven clothing. Prices are quite affordable and much lesser than other commercial areas of the city. Plus, while in Anarkali, you must bargain hard, for chances are you may succeed in getting things on as much as 50% of their listed price.

One of our fellows metrobloggers, who came to Lahore from Karachi describes her experience of Anarkali Bazaar:

“Anarkali was one of the first places that I wanted to see the moment I landed in Lahore. It’s not just a gigantic sprawling shopping mall-type place. It’s more like an entire village of twisting alleys and shops and stalls. For those who are familiar with Karachi – this place is a rabi center, a zainab market, a hyderi and several tariq roads (i guess sans than rabi center :p) all bunched together in a happy dirty festival.

It’s still a collection of sometimes wide, sometimes squeezed-in dirty, overcrowded, winding streets though. And if you start walking, it takes you about three hours to go through a decent slice of the place before getting sick of the weird stares and crazy bargaining and heading back to a faraway parked car.

You can get everything from fake designer bags to shoes to wigs to clothes to lights to real and fake antique jewelry to books here. I’ve seen starry eyed people emerge from this place with shiny accessorized souls.
Most people don’t just take a stroll down this street though. They come here on missions. I’ve been part of inexpensive-sports-gear search teams and inexpensive-red-shawl search teams – all of which have found their heaven and retirement home and seas in different corners and niches of this place.”

Most recently, one part of this bazaar has been renovated and turned into a food street developed and maintained on lines of its better counterpart, the Gowalmandi Food Street.

So, here we present to the world, Anarkali Bazaar; a bustling monument of love to the living legend of Anarkali.

The legend of Anarkali at Wikipedia.

As other Metroblogging make eforts in gift giving, David Markland from Los Angeles has been maintaining a regularly updated, day-to-day Guide to Metroblogging Cities’ Gifts to the World

Lahore’s 2nd Gift to the World: Basant

Hasan Mubarak — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:53:46 +0000

The second most important aspect of Lahore’s cultural character is the colorful event of Basant; the Kite-flying festival in spring.

View of Lahore on Basant Night

Basant is a true Lahori celebration of colors, flowers, kites, fragrances, of love & of a sweet youthful time called Spring. Each March brings the colorful blooming of Lahore, the city of Gardens.

Whole of the city is decorated with colorful sponsor banners and lights all along the canal, the Mall Road and Main Boulevard, Gulberg. All major landmarks are lit up to show grandeur of Lahore’s rich architecture and its Mughal & British Colonial heritage.

Queen Noor Jehan’s brother, Asif Jah’s Haveli; all lit up for Basant

Friends and family gather at common places to celebrate reunions and party for most of the Basant Night. Starting from the sunset, flood lights are lit up all over the city’s skyline as people start off with white-kite flying. BarBQs are served with traditional Lahori dishes as the cries of “Bo Katas” & Dhol (traditional drums) echo throughout the next day.

Friends & Family celebrate Basant Source: Rehan Fazal’s Flickr

People from different cultures and countries are welcomed by their hosts. Many foreign dignitaries, diplomats from the federal capital, Islamabad are invited over to different Basant events in Lahore.

A Kite Shop in Lahore Source: Reuters

Basant has become the biggest drawer of tourists for this historic city and Pakistan’s cultural capital. Most of the suburbans book roofs in the old city especially for this event. From 5-star hotels to Golf Clubs, from Banks to Telecom companies; all become a part of Jashn-e-Baharan (Celebration of the Spring) by arranging functions of their own in different vicinites of the city.

A local McDonald’s celebrates Basant

For a Lahori, Basant is a blend of joy, happiness, love and celebration; a moment of rejoicing with loved ones and that of just chilling out.

As other Metroblogging make eforts in gift giving, David Markland from Los Angeles has been maintaining a regularly updated, day-to-day Guide to Metroblogging Cities’ Gifts to the World

Lahore’s 1st Gift to the World: Lahori Khabay

Hasan Mubarak — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 14:45:54 +0000

The word ‘Lahore’ is almost synonymous with food. Lahori Khabay or Lahori Food is something that has become a culture blended in delights from Desi cuisine to Western culinary.

For Lahoris, eating out is the favourite past time and food in itself is considered a celebration. You can experience this when you venture out on the city streets in the evening. There’s not a single locality without its own specialities. Road sides are lined up with small desi cafés; Khokay or Dhabas serve local delicacies from Chicken Tikka to Mutton Nihari and all of them never are devoid of hungry customers You can have a seat on those wooden benches or char-pais while enjoying fresh from the kitchen with hot n’ crispy bread; Tandoori-Roti. Add to it a chilled drink of Sprite or Desi Soda and you won’t have to worry about any digestion problems.

Gowalmandi Food Street, Lahore

In addition to these small scale outlets, Lahore boasts of specialities that are nowhere to be found except in this city of delights. Some of the most popular food points are named after their owners and founders. These include Ustad Phajjay kay Payay; Asif’s Nihari; fried fish at Sardar Machhli and Bashir Dar-ul-Mahi; Bhayay-kay-Kebab at Model Town; Butt kay Chanay; Yousuf Falooda; Benzair Kulfa and the list goes on and on.

The latest trend in Lahore has resulted in mushroom growth of European style Coffee Shops and Delis. Some of the most popular ones include Masoom’s Café, Coffee Tea & Company, Café HideOut and Moods Café. Another very popular place is the Cuckoo’s Den. Housed in centuries old haveli in Lahore’s old red light district, Cuckoo’s offers an experience from its views of the grand Badshahi Mosque, all lit up in lights and glory at night.

Cukoo’s Den

Although, these local cafés and eateries are not to be missed out, the best part of Lahori Khabay are its Food Streets. Lahore’s two main attractions are its two food streets; the one at M.M.Alam Road and the original desi Gowalmandi Food Street in Old Lahore.

M.M.Alam Road has evolved from just a small commercial street in a posh district to an avenue lined up with designer restaurants, trendy boutiques and chic Coffee shops. Here, you can have the best of Desi food at Salt n’ Pepper Village; Continental and Afghani food at Freddy’s Café; Portuguese at Nando’s; Mexican at Gun Smoke and exclusive Italian cuisine at Café Aylanto. Chinese is now considered the second most favorite cuisine of Lahorites. Many Chinese restaurants serve exclusive food in all price ranges. These include Taipan, Pearl Continental Hotel; Dynasty, Avari Hotel; Hsuin Kuang; Thai food is a relative new comer served best at Lemon Grass and Pearl Continental Hotel’s Royal Elephant. Avari Hotel’s Fujiyama still is the one Japanese reataurant serving everything Japanese from Sushi to Chicken Terriyaki prepared on your own table counter!

One of our authors, Shirazi tells about Gowalmandi Food Street;

“The best place to stat is at the Food Street in Gowalmandi, a good mixture of past architectural glories and present culinary delights. I could not recognize the old Gowalmandi I was familiar with during my stay in 1970s. It has changed so much after commissioning in 2000. Gowalmandi Food Street gained popularity as a food centre after independence when Kashmiri immigrants settled here. With them came a new types and traditions of food. A trader of the street says, “apart from variety of cuisine, Gowalmandi Food and Heritage Street has come up as a singularity in Lahore.”

Source: The Hindu

“We want to show real Lahore in Food and Heritage Street,” says a shopkeeper in the Food Street. It is a wonder what collective efforts on renovation of built heritage with balconies and angular projections lining the street have resulted in. Lahorites already (and justifiably) compare the ambiance in the Food Street with lanes in Rome, Paris and Athens.”

As other Metroblogging make eforts in gift giving, David Markland from Los Angeles has been maintaining a regularly updated, day-to-day Guide to Metroblogging Cities’ Gifts to the World

Lahore’s Seven Gifts to the World

Hasan Mubarak — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 03:43:49 +0000

In the spirit of all the holiday gift giving that will be taking place over the next couple of months, all the Metroblogging cities are giving 7 gifts to the world throughout this week. Ranging from Seattle’s jet planes to Karachi’s Nihari, these gifts are as diverse as interesting. We are a bit late in the club, however, will definitely try to catch up!

Lahore, as one of the most dynamic cities in Asia, has a lot to offer. Some of these ‘gifts’ are unique and have a particular Lahori touch to them. We’ll be wrapping them up and then present to the world. So, hang on to see what Lahore gifts the world.

Your suggestions regarding Lahore’s Gifts to the World are most welcome. Just drop a ‘Story Suggestion’ or email me your point.

TAGS: Metblogs7Gifts 7Gifts Metroblogging7Gifts 7 gifts to the world