Fasi Zaka’s terse verses printed in today’s The News go very fine with this imagery.

Wanted to share with the readers of IMB.

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The leader of the PML-N tries his hand at penning poetry once again by explaining his plans for Pakistan.

Now that I cannot be an MNA,

I know what it is you will say.

You will throw at me the finance bill,

And get some cheap insulting thrills.

I may be disqualified but I am not defeated,

I promise someday I will be thrice repeated.

I promise I will fight for the redundant judges,

Not just because of my recent personal grudges.

Please don’t say that I am a hypocrite,

Even if the PPP made me seem like a dim wit.

Was gone so long have become a bit of a novice,

I thought PCO meant Public Call Office.

MA Qayyum says PCO means Provisional Constitutional Order,/ But I say it means Please Cut Out Nawaz and Brother./ The courts made my candidacy brief,

All I am now is the party chief.

Since then I now seethe and leer,

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It was a little funny - and a little sad - how excited I got the other day upon visiting the Fish section at Metro. Wide-eyed, tugging at the sleeves of family members, going on and on: “They have sharks here! SHARKS!” While other people had their noses pinched and were picking out what they’d like for dinner, I stood there with a gleeful expression on my face and took pictures. I was so excited that I think my blood cells have multiplied tenfold. The only time I’d seen sharks in real life before was at an underwater aquarium in Singapore.

I didn’t photograph all the fish of course, but there were many, many kinds. I kept thinking, if we can have sharks and eels and crabs in a store, we should so have live ones in an aquarium as well. Sharks.. real, whole SHARKS, right here in Islamabad!

Later it also occurred to me that not many people in Islamabad would actually buy these marine creatures, or even dream of eating them. It made me sad to think of them having been rendered lifeless for nothing.

I am seriously considering going back and buying one of the crabs to keep as a pet. I’ll keep him with me for as long as I must, and the next time I visit a seaside town, I’ll set him free.

I wonder how my cat would react to this plan though.

Yesterday was 10th April. 20 Years down the Ojri Camp incident. And I’m so tempted to re-post this post here :)  Previously it was posted in Dec’ 05

Life is full of events … tragic … happy … alarming …. monumental …. all sorts of … in different phases and times …!

OK … wait a minute … I was about to write some flashback moments here … Let’s have a small quiz first … Can you tell me what is this thing … any idea into its history ????

Ciao …!

Update [7th Dec 06 - 11:15 PM]

So some of you were quite correct - some funnier :-)

It’s a small-sized Rocket’s propeller (see the fan like thing on which it is standing) - it had a shell on it with gunpowder - the cylindrical shape also contains gunpowder (to the best of my knowledge) …!

A little history of this Rocket now … but first the INCIDENT … It dates back to 10th April 1988 … another day (apart from 8-10-2005) when Islamabad and Rawalpindi were almost shook by rockets and missiles flying in the air … falling here and there … rumors in the air that Islamabad is invaded by India (and even some said Russia) … it was all due to Ojri Camp incident.

Ojri Camp was basically army depot with ammunition (I’m not sure … anyone??? I guess it was abandoned by 1988 and people didn’t even knew that it do have LIVE AMMUNITION) … and then something (what?? Ummm I don’t remember … don’t BLAME me … I was just 4 then) happened and taraah … the rumors outside Pindi-Islamabad is all finished … it’s no more … since telephone lines also suffered … few rockets hit the exchange too … !

My father incidentally went to work on (my beloved) Vespa and not on car … so while coming from Pindi to Islamabad at around 11 … (this incident happened between 10-11) … he had 2-3 rockets with him :D as “his collection” … hence a Live Masterpiece no Re-Collection from POF or anywhere … we only painted it golden laters… En route he narrates that there were missiles of lamp post size and man they were real huge … the incident was tragic with lots and lots of stories to tell …!

One of our acquaintances had a missile hit their home in satellite town such that it perfectly drilled on wall, ten next room and perfect drilling of wall … such wise it drilled 3 walls perfectly and then hit off 4th wall … that brought all energy game to an end …!

I vaguely (READ it CLEARLY … because Even Now I seem to have it in my memory) remember when rockets were really flying off in air, with everyone worried about their kids and men out on work … everyone praying and talking if it is an invasion or Allah’s wrath ..!

So it was kind of brief flashback from Islamabad’s life … with this rocket memoir … by the way the other two bigger (and my mom told us that the shell was much beautiful :>) rockets we gave back since the chances of it be LIVE were always there … !

SHANAAKHT - A Nomad Forum for the Arts brings you SHALI a telefilm from the powerful series Aseer Shahzadi produced by HUM Television.
Written by Attiya Dawood, well knownwriter, activist and poet, SHALI will move your hearts and make you think and hopefully do something for these distressed and troubled souls.

A touching story pertaining to abuse against women in our male dominated society with regard to child marriages. The issues presented in these plays are of universal concern, with women being the victims of these evil practices. Sensitive issues are brought forward to make people realize the severity of the prevailing injustices to females. Shali, the 14 year old protagonist, a mere child living in the city’s slums, has no clue what it entails to be married.

Cast includes Suhaee Abro, Shazia Qamar, Rashida Yaqub, and Aslam Shaikh. Directed by Danish Nawaz.

Schedule:

Date: Tuesday, March 25 - 2008
Time: 6.30pm (doors will close at 6.15 sharp)
Duration: 50 minutes
Donation: Rs. 100 (Shanaakht members) Rs. 200 (non-members)
Venue: Nomad Gallery - 383, 8th Avenue, F-8/3, Islamabad

Note: There are a limited number of seats available…kindly call/ mail or visit to book your seat.

Nomad timing: 10am - 6pm (Monday closed)

Shanaakht membership is open, contact the Nomad reception for details.

Nageen Hyat
Director, Nomad Gallery
# 383, Eighth Avenue, F-8/3, Islamabad. Tel: 051 – 2262502

Shali in Islamabad on 25/3/08 @ NOMAD, originally uploaded by *abro*.

Refer to the original picture for more by the print media.

There is a major search operation going on in Rawalpindi and Islamabad areas right now. About 80 to 100 houses have been searched in Rawal town, near Rawal Lake, Islamabad and adjacent areas. Cable has taken off air in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. No further details, up till now, about what kind of search it is. Please stay in your houses and don’t do something which may arise authority’s suspicion on you.

I was browsing the newspaper this morning when I found out an exciting offer by a new broadband ISP, Nayatel. Nayatel offers internet, television (cable) and telephony. Tripleplay, as they call it, seems to be the new thing with the up-coming telecommunications companies.

The most attractive part of the offer was their unlimited download timings. Their package offers 512 Kbps speed for 6GB, and unlimited downloads from 8:00 p.m to 8:00 a.m & on Sundays, all at Rs. 1,199/-. Which is Rs. 200 I pay for this wretched connection, at a slower speed, lesser download/upload limit and that can’t even get Blogger for me to open. I hope someone at Dancom listens, and listens in on their competitors in the market too…

Anyone who’s started using Nayatel? I wonder what their services are like.

If you remember your Pak Studies textbook from school, you probably don’t remember much besides the colour of its jacket, and that Raja Dahir was a very bad man indeed.

But one of the other things you probably do remember is that you learned that wheat is Pakistan’s staple crop. Pakistan’s super crop. Wheat is to Pakistan what chocolate is to Willy Wonka. Well, kind of. At any rate, Pakistan’s average production of wheat over many years has been 21.5 million metric tons, making it the 9th largest producer of wheat in the world. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reported that in 2005 Pakistan produced over 21.6 million metric tons of wheat, more than all of Africa (20.3 million metric tons) and nearly as much as all of South America (24.5 million metric tons).

And then in January 2007, the government of Pakistan predicted a bumper crop of 23.5 million tons - the highest ever production of wheat in Pakistan’s history.

Of course, this estimate was being made two months earlier than such estimates are usually made, but at the time we didn’t really think about that. 23.5 million tons of wheat were coming!
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When you thought of Islamabad a couple of years back, you thought of a sleepy little town, with an elitist population, tucked away in a corner of the country with little or no care in the world.

Then things changed, and the sleepy little town started booming. Now you travel here and you find all the trappings of an upcoming modern city! Flyovers, underpasses, construction everywhere, filled shopping centers, and finally long lines at the pumps!

Today, i had to run my car on petrol, because the four pumps i visited, had lines of upto 20 cars deep waiting for CNG!!

Islamabad is truly waking up!

Pakistan to Buy Suicide Bomber Detection Equipment From China

Your thoughts?

Theater-goers need not to get enthralled. Not another stage performance from Sharabeel’s house or Butt’s team.

IESCO takes the lead this time. Islamabad’s stay-lit-up attitude is brought down by her highness (IESCO is SHE). For past few days, unscheduled (run-time approach is taken) Power Outage is the talk of town.

The note says something else on IESCO’s website (well who really updates such info on websites in Pakistan?); reality tells a different tale. We should look forward to 4-8 hours of power outage in a 24-hr day.

By the way: It rained a lot in Summers, NO?

Image Courtesy: Lahore Metroblog