An art exhibition of some of country’s senior most artists opened a few days back at the newly formed KSA Art gallery here in Karachi.

 

The KSA Gallery, another addition to the remarkable contributions of Rabia Zubairy in promoting art has recently opened at the Karachi School of Art with a vision to promote new immerging talent and to expose the art students to the work of senior artists of the country. The gallery is the only Art gallery situated in Gulshan -e- Iqbal a considerably convent spot for people and art enthusiasts living in areas like Nazimabad, North  Nazimabad, Buffer Zone and New Karachi F.B Area to reach for.   

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If there is one thing that makes your blood boil is something like this – driving down Khayaban-e-Ittehad in the middle of a sweltering afternoon, and seeing the street lights switched on!

The red circles are there just to show you the streetlights on that entire length of the main road, were on. The time I snapped this photograph was about 5pm, which means a good 2 hours before sundown. I had passed by the area about 3 hours earlier and found the same situation. (more…)

Yesterday while on a routine visit to the McDonalds for a regular family meal on Tariq Road I noticed their new teacher appreciation program “Sab Say Best Teacher Kaun” an attempt to select the best teacher by public voting from the 20th April at all McDonalds outlets, in return the kids may even win themselves a free Kiddy Meal.

Surely this is a commendable social effort, appreciating the hard working teachers. On the form provided by McDonalds the student has to write a short comment as to why the teacher should be selected and in order to complete the entry [possibly to also win the prize] they also share their personal contact information and school particulars, submitting these entries to the respective McDonalds outlets
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Part II : The Problem

Whenever we go to a doctor we believe him he is competent to understand the illness, honest in opinion and has no PERSONAL interest clashing to that of the patient. Its exactly why we allow him to operate on us and we trust our lives at his views. We know he has a solution to the problem. A leader is an intellectual doctor who can see what we can not and therefore can suggest the best medicine for our society. Like a doctor we go to him willingly, since we believe he has a SOLUTION to our problems. We vote i.e we hand over our trust and believe our futures are in secure hands since we, collectively, as society want to proceed towards betterment, a natural instinct in a society. By book, a leader has to have some 10 qualities that we don’t go into and we never expect a REAL leader to have all of them, practically. But there has to be a thin line , before and after which a person should be told if he deserves to lead or not. If a person deserves to lead he should be allowed as such else removed. A leader, in politics is an ADJECTIVE not a noun . .

A LEADER is not the first person in first line in a HERD . . . . and A Leader is not the person who follows Popular DEMAND . . .

and here is where we MAKE mistake when we choose our leadership and therefore the CRISIS of leadership we are facing now. Whether our 170 million people are a MOB or a NATION will only be decided upon the type of  LEADER(ship) in first row and first position.

continue . . .

How did he park there?

Got this photograph at about 1pm today,where this young boy found himself under a makeshift cover, as his ‘caravan’ heads onwards to its destination.

With temperatures continuously on the rise, the tarpaulin sheet is a rare sight to be seen on the Mazda trucks, but this one had it for some reason. It’s just unbearably hot – something we tend to forget as soon as we enter into an air conditioned office space. (more…)

Thalassaemia major is a fatal disease of the blood. Many people go on through their lives while having thalassaemia minor and never knowing about it. When two such individuals produce a child , the child has a very large chance of having Thalassaemia major.

For a Thalassaemia patient to have any chance of survival they need a blood transfusion every 15 days of their life. Currently the demand for blood for these patients is 15000 bottles of blood a month. The blood banks of this city cannnot and do not provide enough blood for these patients and this is why many of them die premature deaths, many times before reaching adulthood.

Kashif Iqbal Thalassaemia Care Centre (KITCC) is all set to launch a blood bank which will cater exclusively to the needs of these patients. A year ago MB from Karachi metroblogs did a post about this organization here.

All of us can give blood once every 3 months, I urge all of you reading this to please if possible provide blood to this organization. Your precious blood will save a persons life through them. I also urge all the bloggers of this forum to take up on Mb’s initiative and spread the message of awareness for this center and disease. It is very important for 2 thalasaemia minor patients not to marry and have children to add to the toll of this disease, for this people are advised to get blood tests done before marriage.

Please note (KITCC) provides blood “FREE OF COST”. i personally will not only be donating blood for this cause but will try to round up as many people as I can to do this. Please help, your help is needed now!!!!

Their contact info is

Kashif Iqbal Thalassaemia Care Center (KITCC) , Becham Road, Laiqabad, Landhi, Karachi – 75120
(+92-21)-8232414 , (+92-21)-4515600 , (+92-21)-5021188 (Fax)
kitcc@gem.net.pk

Arundhati Roy, the booker prize winner and activist is in Karachi to show solidarity with Pakistani women in these difficult times and to be a part of “Women to Reclaim Public Spaces”. This programme is a protest against Talibanisation in general and especially to women, artists, and minorities and is being organized by Women’s Action Forum, Karachi Chapter. They are having a protest/meeting in Karachi Press Club right now. Tehrik-e-Niswan will be presenting a presentation there along with other expressions from various personalities.