The Associate Press reports yet another act of senseless violence–disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people–this time tragedy has struck Moscow.  Visit here for the details.

What I typed instantly into the Twitter box when I read the news is perhaps the most genuine comment that can be made on the behalf of the citizens of Lahore and indeed, Pakistan.

Marsonearth on Twitter:

Prayers for #Moscow from #Lahore – there are no words that will lessen your grief. http://bit.ly/9Y7Doe

You’ve no doubt by now noticed that the sites got a bit of a re-design and some things got changed around last week. We wanted to highlight two changes to make sure everyone knows what changed.

The first and biggest is COMMENTS! Registration is no longer required to post a comment on any post. Of course if you already have an account you can still login to ensure your comments are attributed to you, but those who don’t can now post a comment without any long term commitment. Also, on the right you can see some of the recent comments so you’ll always know what the active discussions are. This was the most requested thing we’ve heard from people since our last redesign and we’re excited to see where it leads.

The next change is also something that was heavily requested, and that is a change to the ADS on the sites. You’ll immediately notice fewer of them, but what might not be as obvious is those smaller square ones to the right are specific to this city only and are being sold for a flat rate for a period of time rather than a confusing CPM/traffic/network model. Depending on the city, these range from $7-$175 for a full week. If you purchase one, during that time your ad will be the only one in that spot and will show on every page. We set these up both to make it easier for smaller local businesses to get their ads on our site, and also to help us bring in ads that relate better to our local audiences. Also, keeping these sites online is expensive and every little bit helps.

There are a bunch of other things we changed but we’ll leave those to you to investigate and take advantage of. Hope you like it, and we look forward to seeing you in the comments!!

Love,
The folks at MBHQ

So, finally the barriers have been removed. We can comment as much as we can and that too without registering which means there is going to be a lot more activity at LMB from now on again.

We are again looking for authors at LMB who:

– are based in Lahore

– are willing to contribute actively (2-3 times a week)

– and have something to say about Lahore

If you wish to become an author at LMB; drop an email with a short profile to:

hasanmubarak@metblogs.com

Happy Metblogging! :)

Hey Metbloggers!

In addition to a brand new outlook, the admin has finally decided to pay head to the opposition’s call of allowing comments without registration. So, it’s just like the old times again. Only a few things to keep in mind though:

– Offensive language and personal attacks should be seriously avoided

– Criticism is a good thing but it should be done gracefully and accepted positively

– Differences of opinion make discussions unique and healthy; hence, they should be encouraged

The rest, we all are sane human intellectual beings… :)

Happy commenting at LMB,

Kaptaan

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.
(more…)

“Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in a desert.” Khalil Gibran

Photo Credit: AP Pakistan

Hello friends!

From the face of it you have been observing that we used to be a lot busier in terms of number of posts and visitors as well. The reason being that LMB is in shortage of budding authors and their active contributions.

Hence, here we invite anybody who’s ever been connected to Lahore; born here, lived here, loved it or here ;) and who wants to write for Lahore’s place on the Metblogs Network.

Blogging for LMB is easy as it requires sharing of thoughts, viewes, pictures, videos, rants, practically everything related to our beloved city of Lahore, it’s culture, history, people, places, food, music, politics, again anything and everything related to Lahore.

The only conditions required by us are the prospective author’s commitment of contributing actively at least three times a week or more and being a valuable asset to help expand viewership and audience visits to the site.

If you are well interested in joining our fold, please send me your brief profile, location, any writing or blogging experience, and/or your website/blog that too if it exists to the following email address as early as you can:

hasanmubarak@metblogs.com

Please note that writing for any Metblogs site is totally voluntary work and we are not being paid for it.

See ya soon at what we call the LMB Den! ;)

Regards,

Hasan Mubarak

Captain, Lahore Metblogs

If Metblogs is a city, hub.metblogs is the playground. We kept hearing from people that one of their favorite parts of Metblogs was meeting and interacting with readers and writers from other parts of the world, as well as getting requests for more ways that readers could be involved besides just posting comments. We thought about this for a while and decided that with a network like this, a giant community area where folks from all over the world could hang out, post photos and videos, talk with each other, form groups, play games, send messages, and do about a million other things was probably a pretty fun idea. The Hub is that.

If you have any tech ideas or suggestions join this group and speak up. See you on hub.metblogs!

Hello all, I just started with LMB so i thought i’ll start off by saying hi to everybody in here .. introduce myself and then get to work :) Here is something that i wrote on my profile:

“A 27 year old entrepreneur from Lahore, Pakistan, I see Lahore differently than everybody else… working nights has taught me Lahore is a totally different city during the late hours of night .. peaceful, quiet and beautiful. it is a total contrast to how the rest of the world see’s this bustling metropolis and i hope to bring forth some of that beauty and tranquility….. i am also involved with one of the foremost event management companies and that allows me to network and meet new people and experience new stuff going on in Lahore .. will do my best to talk about all of this and more through what i put up …”

This is all very exciting and new to me.. so if i screw up “maafi”

-Bilal Rashid

Now you can find us at the hottest place in the cyber-world:

Metroblogging Lahore on Facebook