Today can be marked as a very important day for the Dental profession in Pakistan as we have launched a 3-day conference titled 28th Asia Pacific Dental Congress at the EXPO Center. This is not any wanna-be-famous conference but is recognized as an essential conference in the Asian region and Pakistan is honored to have been allowed to host this event here in Karachi The 27 Participating nations voted for a conference in Pakistan a good 3 years back and they have then sent inspectors every six months to ensure that proper standards are maintained for this prestigious event.

Assembling upwards of 5000 dentist from around the world with a size-able participation from more then 50 separate nations, it can surely be considered a feather in the cap for Pakistan, to have finally opened Karachi and Pakistan as a potential conference destination for future conferences. The dedicated team of volunteer dentist involved in the planning of the event truely believed in Pakistan and proved the world wrong despite all the security concerns that continue to haunt every foreigner wanting to visit Pakistan. Today we stand proud to say that Pakistan can indeed host any mega-event thrown at us peacefully and with grace.
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Many of us like listening to music on the morning drive,a nd now thinkfully we have a choice. I remember when i first came here, there was no radio except Radio Pakistan and there was only a 2/3 hour morning FM transmission sponsored by a tea company. I guess thats when i first heard Sania Saeed and Ayesha Alam.

That was your only dose of English Music aling with a younger perspective to local pop. A lot of Junaid Jamshed and Ali Haider was played back then.

After so many years, there is now a station catering to every taste and style. The morning show on 89 is more of a retro show with classic rock and ballads hosted by Suhail Hashmi. Adeel hosts the Morning Chaska on 91, which is a decent blend of modern contemporary english and urdu music. 96 is targeted to even younger audiences generally, but the moring show by Barry seems slightly definat to that perspective. The pre-moring show on 96, is a no-talk, just plain music show that has great songs. if you are interested in talking RJs, do listen to the 107 show. Its hosted by three ppl in different slots. Theres Adeel, Sukaina and this gentleman whose name i regrettably dont remember. The best part is when the show shifts from one host to another. During the shift, the show is co-hosted by 2 RJs for a brief period of time and boy do they know how to talk non sense that cracks you up.

Ive sorta grown out of the Suhal Hashmi morning style. Im more of a Wes Malik and Morning Chaska listner now along with several channel changes in between. On average, i surf through the whole channel spectrum about 7-8 times during my 25-35 minute drive to work.

What do you guys listen to?

Metroblogging Karachi is one year old now. Time has wings, doesn’t it? Seems like yesterday when we made the first post, hoping that someday the blog will become a portal to life in Karachi. Since then there is no looking back. We were joined by some great authors belonging to all walks of life. We enjoy a large readership and get amazing feedback from our readers. Matter of fact, if it wasn’t for the readers we would never have made it this far. I don’t know how successful we have been in delivering all that Karachi has to offer, but we try our best.

Thank you all for making this blog a part of your lives, our lives.

Did anyone else get stuck in the massive traffic jam last night? It took my car more than an hour to get to I.I. Chundrigar from Tariq Road, and another hour to get back. The worst part is, the traffic situation is getting worse by the day. Getting to I.I. Chundrigar Road is somewhat of a ‘find me my painkillers please before I leave the house’ experience, where every road leading to the Wall Street of Karachi is clogged. I swear, if it wasn’t for the fear of dying from pollution, I’d walk to work everyday. I think its high time that a solution is found to this traffic mess, none of us can afford to spend half our lives stuck in a traffic jam, while motorcades whizz by.

I was part of this mess, right at the PIDC intersection. And then at every intersection of SF. I don’t know how many days it will take before people will get adjusted to the new routes and things will be back to normal. Until then, I won’t be surprised if I end up camping in my car someday.

If you missed registerting for this women’s conference, there’s still plenty of time to participate in Women’s Expo, 2006.

The official mission of the expo is to educate women, create interaction with brands [ed: women, after all, buy more than80% or more of all products, or influence end buyer decision], research and develop the social and economic contribution of women in society.
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After a successful Twenty20 tournament held in Lahore last year, PCB and ABN Amro are again organizing the tournament and this time it will be held in Karachi. The tournament will kick off from tomorrow, Friday, February 24, 2006 and the first match will be played at National Stadium and the final will be held on March 04th at the same ground.

Kudos to PCB for recognizing the need for organizing matches for the cricket starved public of Karachi. With no entry fee and the participation of the stars from the national cricket team, I am sure the cricket loving people of Karachi will throng to the stadium and have a rollicking time. If you still aren’t convinced, here is a list of players that will be playing:
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Usually there is only one pic in the Metropolitan section of Dawn depicting either the problem facing the citizens of Karachi, or the development work being carried out for the betterment of their lives. Today, there was not one, not two but three pics all about work being carried out in different parts of the city. The first one was the cleaning and renovation of Safari Park. The second one was about the work being carried out to make I.I. Chundrigar Road a “model road”. While the third one was of the Super Highway which is being changed from a three lane highway to a five lane motorway.

Regent Plaza intersection is the single most desparate candidate for a fly-over/underpass. That area is getting worse day by day, specially during the morning rush hour, when traffic congestion goes all the way to Nursery signal, and it takes 30 minutes to cover the distance from Sindhi Muslim to Regent Plaza, which is hardly over a kilometer. I get late for work every day solely for this reason. If I get fired from my job I will blame the city government for not making arrangements for smooth flow of traffic on SF.

There was a friend of mine who used to say ‘aap ki kya baat hai’ a lot. Once you land in Karachi, you almost blurt ‘kya baat hai’! And that is about the breeze that blows here all the time. Coming from the northern part of the country where we either have strong winds or still air, this is a refreshing experience. And this breeze seems to keep environment very clean and pleasant which otherwise would have been quite humid.
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