Recently in Life Category

Happy Independence Day - Good things and bad things are always part of everything, but I love my country Pakistan

Part of what I do to seek pleasure is teaching some undergraduate students about the concepts of computer programming. While I try and explain the ideas which are in my mind, and pass them to the young developers out there in front of me, I often feel proud, so proud, that I am able to develop an interest level in them. I feel fascinated by the fact that the student is learning to program not because the student has to, but because the student wants to. That's something very important when you are starting to learn something, and it's always much more fun.

I've seen that the students like to ask questions that may have no logic in your world of things as a teacher - but extracting what they want from their questions and successfully delivering them back is a really rewarding exercise.

And every time I am the teaching assistant of a particular course, I end up finding some students who are really very promising - with great potential within them to lead the rest. I just love the way they approach things - the focus that they have when solving a problem. They're coding as if no one else is watching them, and I love it!

I don't know if it happens just with me, but I've noticed that I can tell by just looking at a person first time how good that person is, in any particular area they may be in. It's the charm of the personality such people have perhaps, that gives me such an impression straight away. Or I'm just lucky at making wild guesses.

It has happened a lot of times with me - that I have a look at a person - or just talk to that person once, and then in my mind I just get a certificate telling me that the person will make it big - will be a distinction or is already a distinction (even if i don't know). And after some time, I get to see that the person who I met has really excelled at all the things I thought s/he would excel at. And it's just so refreshing, and fun.

It's probably one great thing about great people: they won't tell you how great they are, but still you can't help but notice the charisma that they hold.

Thanks to God - it is one of the greatest of gifts to have from God - to be able to meet and know great people.

When I say "I don't trust you", I don't mean you're a liar, I just mean you're a human

Me and my elder brother (Ashfaq bhai) were discussing something regarding what is happening and what should be happening around us. In between that, the bro talked about whether the Hajj is an obligation in current times or not. Generally speaking, God tells us that it is much more important to try and prevent human suffering - more so than the prayers that we offer.

My bro gave a really good and simple example, that, if we are going to a Masjid to offer our prayers, and we see a person dying of some major injury or disease, the obligation of prayers is automatically lessened and the obligation of helping that person takes precedence.

Today, there are a lot who are suffering, and still we see many thousands of people go for Hajj, and it takes atleast Rs. 150,000 a person from Pakistan to perform a Hajj. Of course it was Hajj that my brother was talking about, which is a really big thing to talk about. Perhaps we have to consider this thing in each and everything (big or small) that we do in our daily lives, consider if we have a much more important thing to do than whatever we are doing right now? i know, that's not as easy as just writing it here, but maybe I'll just provoke a thought.

So my question to you is, do you think offering the Hajj is more important or helping those who need our help in the current times?

Talking about how technology affects human lives, well, here is a great example. I was talking to Munir some time back and suddenly he started giggling as if somebody finally gave him a "chocolate" after 2 years' gap. Once he felt he can settle down and type something else than just 'hahaha' or 'lol' or 'hehehe', he told me that his boss at his previous workplace is getting engaged this Sunday - but the twist? he is in Bahrain - and the rest of the necessary people to be involved are in Pakistan. So, it's going to be a "Remote Mangni" - nice buzz word after "web 2.0". We've been hearing about such stories of "online nikah" and all that - but we find it inconvenient for some reason. But is it really inconvenient? or just unconventional?

I'm sharing (with Munir's permission, of course) this chat transcript between him and his boss:

Boss says:
arranged hae

Munir says:
nice

Munir says:
buhat buhat mubarak ho

Boss says:
yes ..but I am in bahrain

Munir says:
phir?

Boss says:
remote ho gi..mairi taraf say ammi pehnayen geen ring

Munir says:
really

Munir says:
lush

Howz that!? =)

I was able to watch this Indian movie titled "Iqbal" - which is a story of a farmer's boy who wants to become a member of the Indian Cricket Team. The movie is good in itself with some really touching scenes - and as expected from an Indian movie: a lot of emotions.

Iqbal stars Naseeruddin Shah as the mentor of Iqbal, and a host of other characters. I loved how Iqbal's family members have acted in the movie. Especially Khatija, Iqbal's younger sister who helps him in every way possible - and is Iqbal's official interpreter - since Iqbal cannot hear or talk by birth.

I think movies like this should be more frequent from the Indian cinema. I have lately grown sick of the usual indian masala films that I cannot digest even if I have to see them for about 20 minutes.

I remember Satya, which I really liked - and it is one of my most favorite movies for some reason - and I always feel that Indian film makers should come up with similar stories more and more frequently. I agree that such movies may not generate the amount of revenue any masala film usually generates - but the situation is changing - and there are always people who are interested in intelligent cinema - that consumes you for a long term message - and not just a couple of hours of non-sense.

Additionall, I think it is the responsibility of the film makers to change the taste of those addicted to useless nonsense by introducing movies like this. Nagesh Kukunoor, the director of Iqbal is one of those people I guess, who want to change the taste of the audience by incorporating entertainment and real life values, to create a better experience. He has already directed similar kind of movies such as Rockford and Hyderabad Blues.