(Fake perfume Man)

It’s natural human nature to want to feel good. Feel fresh. Hygiene is the word they give it. In the quest to be hygienic a human being uses the help of many a things. Water, soap, face-wash, and last but never the least important thing, perfumes. They apparently come in all shapes and sizes. Some are cheap, some are not.

Here is the tale of a person selling these very perfumes claiming they are “100 % original”. You may come across this table in the picture above if you stroll around the “Gol Market” in Jinnah super and go towards the parking area. Attractive table I tell you. Loads of different colorful bottles, posters, the whole nine-yards. Everything you’d want in a good perfume/fragrance store, right at your disposal. The reason I am writing this is to let all who read know that these perfumes/fragrances, that the seller dude claims as being original, are sadly NOT original. You may find a “daniel hill desire” instead of a “dunhill desire” and be told by the seller that it infact is ” a misprint”. Many people in the quest for cheap fragrances that seemingly look “good” get ripped off here. He will tell you that this is ‘custom ka maal” which some “Pia dude” bought. The story as it stands, is not authentic because he tells one person something else, and one person something else. Cunning salesman. But then again, people would argue “this man needs to make a living too”. But then again, he could tell people they are fake, and earn a living too. He charges 1200 rs for a cologne to one person and for the same cologne, he charges someone 1500. The tricks of being a salesman, look for people who WANT something badly and rip them off as bad as you possibly can. I have passed by this table many times, even stopped to listen to what he tells his customers. But then again, if someone from the PIA brings them in, however he does, i’m sure he tips people off too so that they don’t get caught. I am not aware of the custom repurcussions for bringing in stuff from outside and selling it telling people it’s from the customs but this person right here, this person in the picture, is just a poor salesman who tells people what his cunning senior salesman tells him to say.

So people, the next time you want to buy a “branded” perfume for a loved one or for yourself, in order to save yourself a few hundred rupees, don’t get ripped off and buy stuff from here. It’s fake, it starts to smell weird after a while, and the bottle does break.

Hooray for daniel hill.. ermm dunhill!!! *waves hands*

I had worked Saturday and was very happy towards the end of the day that my holidays would start as soon as I step outside the office. I didn’t know fate had something else in store for me. Due to an unfortunate turn of events, it was decided that I need to come to office on Sunday. My heart sank there and then. Couldn’t do much except to ask for a holiday on another day in lieu of this one. I was granted that (and I am going to use it soon) but I still did not feel really good.

On Sunday I set out for office later than I had scheduled for myself. I was literally dragging myself to my work place. Thank God the weather was real nice and romantic. ;-) Otherwise I would have only become sadder and madder. I was almost there, still thinking that who works on a Sunday (that too right before Eid), that I saw a couple of things.

I saw a Capital Development Authority (CDA) tanker watering the plants. Who would have done it, if they were not out there doing it? That was the first thing that made me realise that yes people sometimes have to work on Sunday’s too.

Then I saw two officials of Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) who had set up their speed cameras on Jinnah Avenue. I thought the roads are clear and the traffic is light. The situation is far more conducive for accidents than any regular day as people might speed their vehicles up and bump into something or someone. If the ITP personnel had not been sitting there monitoring vehicles and fining them for speeding, who else would have done the job of keeping the roads safe?

Then some time later that day I sent out the office boy to get some samoosas from Farooqiya Market. He went and returned successful, holding a bag of scrumptious treats for us to feast upon. I suddenly wondered that if that samoosa shop was closed, we would have been deprived of enjoying the cool cloudy weather with yummy ‘chatpata samosay’.

I soon realised that there are many people who have to work on Sundays, be it near Eid or any regular day. The doctors, for one, have to work. The electricity suppliers (WAPDA/IESCO) have to work to keep the electricity running. And there would be many more that have to work on a Sunday just to keep things running and smooth for the rest of us.

Thinking and realising all this, gradually transformed my mood from gloomy to happy & content. Thinking of all those great people working on a holiday made my own pain seem so little. Next time around when I have to work on a Sunday, I might not complain so much. Initially these words were banging on my brain that ‘who works on a Sunday’. Now I know. :-)

PS: I dedicate this post to all of those who at some point in their lives have had to work on a Sunday or any other holiday.

Many a times when I am driving I do not realise that I have gone a notch (ok several notches) up the speed limit. As soon as I realise this (or see the Islamabad Traffic Police sitting at a distance with their speed detection gadgetry) I step on the brakes a little to slow myself down. At times like these I wish for a programmable speedometer that would yell whenever I would break the speed limits. I will have to keep wishing till such a thing is invented and I get my hands on it.

Till that time I am amusing myself with the speed detection meters installed on the 7th Avenue. People who travel on that road must have seen the elevated detectors that tell your speed when you pass by them (you have to be in the right most row to get full benefits of the detector).

When I am driving, I usually take that lane and jump with joy as soon as ‘my’ speed is glorified (displayed on the board that is). My father likes to drive in the centre lane. Everyday when we are heading home at night from work and passing through 7th Avenue, I literally force him to switch to the fast lane well in time for the detector to detect our speed. It is so much fun to see the glowing numbers change on the board! Yuppie! I hope others also enjoy this small ‘treat’ as much as I do.

I would also like to make a note here that speed limits are made for our safety as well as the safety of others. So no matter how compelled we are to break it and speed away, we should try to restrain ourselves. We should at least care for the life and safety of others if not our own.

Happy driving and detecting your speed on 7th Avenue you all! :-)

Just thought to jump on the Islamabad the Beautiful bandwagon and post something (so much for originality). I think I have always been a winter sort of a guy, though short in span but I’m loving the Islamabad winters for the past 20 years here ( no dear I’m not 20 ). Islamabad, with the Margalla backdrop always has been a marvel. But what I really love are the simplest things looking amazing in the cold winter nights. In other cities I don’t think you can really have a nice view just for yourself, but Islamabad nights just give you that.

So packed up my tool kit and got some HDR’s from my place :) Hit the jump for a couple of more pictures.

Last night a friend and me hiked to Margalla ( don’t ask why ) only to know, ‘Public is not allowed after 11pm’ at Damne Koh. For the first time I was hearing it in months that its not for security reasons. But due to sighting of a pair of Cheetah , as excited as we were on the fact its not a security issue. At the same time scared as much cause it was a pair of cheetah , the lone killer/hunter of the night. 

“The cheetah’s have been sighted thrice in the last two nights, they havn’t done any damage yet. But precautions have been taken”, said the police officer. “Last year a pair was caught which used to eat animals from the zoo”, the other added.

Cutting to the chase, if your feeling all pumped up and adventures . Be all that in day light, in groups or ofcourse there is always the option of taking your 250 pound friend as bate.

A mild earthquake (4.0 on richter scale) was reported on sunday evening at 5:49 PM. I dont recall feeling anything (thankgod) but anyone out there did?

I went to the startup insiders Islamabad session held at LMKR on the 31st of Jan, and posted the experience on my blog here.

The event expected 15 to 20 people. After the phenomenal success of the Karachi event, the expectations were raised to around 70 or so, At 6:20, we had a full room, with people standing in the aisle, and the number of participants being 100+. Not a bad turnout for the sleepy city of Islamabad.

The event was scheduled as a series of questions and answers from a panel of six successful entrepreneurs, and we got right down to them. From how to set a vision, how to know if your vision is even correct, how select a team, who to have in a team, and ups and downs of a writing a business plan, the event covered a large majority of concerns budding entrepreneurs have.

 Visit the blog to read about some of the lessons learned from that night.

_{Those magical city lights: If you’ve been up in the hills at night, you know just how lovely Islamabad can look from above. (Disclaimer: This photo is not mine. Click here to go to the page from where I ripped it off.)}

We human beings are terrible at conserving things. Water, forests, food, electricity – we are wasteful of all the things we most need to save. But that’s not something about ourselves we can’t change. And change it we ought, because the people of Pakistan are among those nations of the world that are all too familiar with the finite nature of all things on earth.

Just one of the most current examples of this is the electricity shortage in our country, and the resulting routine of loadshedding in our daily lives. Our government says that citizens must do all they can to conserve electricity. It neglects, as it always does, to apologize for not doing its own job – for it is the responsibility of the state to ensure its citizens have all the basic resources they need. Loadshedding aside, how frightening it is that in this day and age there are villages in Pakistan that do not have any electricity at all.

So yes, we are victims of really lousy administration. But even if we were not, we would still have our own civic duties to fulfill. We owe it to ourselves, to each other, and to the Earth, to do our part for electricity conservation. And there’s really no better time to start than now.

Now, I’ve developed some pretty bad habits, with regards to electricity consumption. But lately I’ve really been trying to mend my ways at home, and I’d like to share a few simple things on here for you to consider as well. Most are obvious, others are novel, but nearly all of them are things that need to be nurtured as habits – for a more energy-efficient lifestyle. Here they are:
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That seem’s to be the dominant answer to the question “why wont you vote”. However, it brings up an interesting question. Who is the candidate?

From the previous discussion we’ve had on why wont you vote, it appears the ‘candidate’ is the leader on top of each political party. However, i ask you this. Who *is* the actual candidate? The leader on top might go ahead to be Prime Minister and make decisions for the functioning of this country, but s/he is not determined by you. They do not represent you, they do not even know you exist for the large part, and they are not the ones asking for your vote.

You vote for your local candidate. The one who’ll be representing your constituency, the one who’ll be fighting for or against laws which directly affect the people in their area, so that they can get another term. They will have an agenda, which i agree largely follows the party agenda which is nothing currently but ‘continue the policies set forth by the previous government’ in most cases, but still, there’s is a more localized one. Your local candidate is the one who ‘should’ care about you, should care about getting your vote and should care about getting your voice heard in the assembly. They will not do it, unless you make them realize that your vote is not free, and they’ll have to work towards it.

To all the readers, i put forth this one question, which constituency do you belong to? And who are your candidates?

This post in part of a series of posts to understand the current apathy our visitors feel towards elections and democracy.

From the poll that we ran recently, 37 people voted, out of which 48% said you will NOT cast a vote, while 30% said they will. The rest of the visitors were not from Islamabad, hence not eligible.

All the reasons you guys have NOT to vote in the upcoming
elections. The most logical reasons, i’ll make a poll of and we’ll see
how many people share your view.

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