People who surround you, your relatives, your friends, people who serve you and people who almost go unnoticed but they still have an impact on your life are the people who reflect your own image for you to recognize.

An Exhibition titled “mien” by Dr. Altamash Kamal, of portraits evoking a vast spectrum of emotions, sentiments and thoughts, celebrating delicate bonds and shedding light on the grim realities of life opened on the 18 of September, 2008 at the Canvas Art Gallery in Karachi.  

The magnificent portraits featured at the exhibition comprise of noted personalities of the country who have made a vibrant impact on our society, some near and dear ones of to the artist who have touched his soul so to become a vital part of his personality, people who almost remain unnoticed but play a vital role to define us for who we are and people who are suffering just because we have failed to look upon them and recognize them as fellow beings.

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Two people have reportedly lost their lives and dozens severely injured in fierce clashes at the University of Karachi today. The confrontation started around half past noon earlier today at the Arts Faculty between rival political groups, The All Pakistan Muttaihada Students Association and The Jamiatut Talabai Pakistan. Eye witness accounts said the Arts lobby was transformed into a “blood bath” later in the evening as tensions rose. Read more

3rd Annual ” Machar Art ” Exhibition opened it doors to public yesterday evening at The Elephant Ware House, Clifton. But this is not just another exhibition, the kind which is the usual feature of the city. This one is far more different because there is a cause attached to it. Organized by Concern For Children, the exhibition is comprised of 175 artworks mostly photographs created by the under privileged children of the Mohammadi (Machar) Colony and some of the work of country’s most prominent photographers and artists including Yousuf Bashir, Amean J, Tapu Javeri, Adnan Lotia, Kohi Marri, Arif Mahmood and Izdeyar Sethna. With a promises that the proceeds from this exhibition will go towards CFC,s Machar Colony Community Driven Project which addresses issues related to health, sanitation and education for the people of Karachi’s largest unofficial Kachi Abadi.

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KESC, burn it! Break it! Kill them! OH MY GOD! 86 Rs/lit Petrol! Bus Fares to 15 Rupees till 1 stop! How the hell did they snatch a person’s cell phone, burn him alive! Kill them, shoot them, throw stones at them, blow it all up. Government sucks! New Government sucks, Oh the past Govt messed this this and this up! He’s bad, he’s worse, he’s stupid, what’s that, why is that………….

YEA YEA YEA!!!! SHUT UP!

It is valid to say that people of Karachi have lost and are continuously loosing their sanity over the depressing problems in their home town - and for this, it is not them to blame.

Keeping all the problems in mind and giving each, another viewpoint, I would say that apart from the prices of food, fuel and utilities etc, we have yet another problem. The problem we are having are the PEOPLE themselves. Everyone and everything has problems, but finding a solution to a problem requires something of a mind, heart and wisdom. Let this post not be taken against the people of Karachi, but I’m just not satisfied by the way people (we) are handling their (our) problems!

What is a problem? A problem is an outcome of acts in the past creating an unfavorable vision of the future or partially blocking it.

So, the question is NOT “who did wrong in the past”, the question is… WHO sees the FUTURE! Its people who see the future, if the people are not in a normal state of mind, heart and wisdom, they are unable to identify the future. If you are unable to identify the future, how would you be able to walk on a path that actually leads to a better future.

I always give this example, lets say “Mr. X” had an accident and X is lying on the road. X is thinking damn! What just happened, Oh It hurts so bad, it wasn’t my fault… The next second X get squished by a truck that says “Baloach Taiyyara”, and tomorrow headlines reads “noa-jawan halak, truck driver farar”.

If you don’t get up, don’t drag yourself to the corner, or don’t get yourself to the hospital you are actually ignoring the worst that is yet to come. You will have a life time to think about what ‘just’ happened, so its better to stand up and get yourself fixed so that you can have a life to live and deal with the memories later.

This is a typical scenario of our situation, we have just been hit by a car and we are lying on the road, thinking about what “just” happened. We are just crying about and thinking over and over about the things that are going wrong. My friends worry about the drunk truck driver with his Baloch Taiyara coming right at you.

To maintain mental stability is of the utmost importance in the time of crisis!

I’m not sure how many of you would actually consider the people as a problem to the problems of people. Lets hear it from you in comments and based on our comments I will be proposing actual solution of each and every problem.

In light of the recent stock market debacle the government is attempting to prevent incidents like these from happening again. Today a news report appeared in Daily Times where the usage of SMS in spreading disinformation about the stock market are deemed as a Cyber Crime and ironically the FIA has been entrusted to ensure that it does not happen in the future.

Overtly it may seem to be an interesting way to solve the panic of any future stock market debacle, but I personally see it as an odd way to solve the underlying problem. One could argue that if a simple SMS message communication to my broker to “SELL SELL SELL” can be attributed to a punishable cyber crime. Then we should hold liable all phone calls made during the stock-market-rumor-mongering period as an equally important punishable crime.

• Fundamentally I believe you cannot condemn the usage of a specific medium (in this case SMS) for its probable repercussions, instead its imperative to develop safe guards to instead hold the traders on the trading floor directly responsible for their actions which may contribute to panic. Deny all you might we all some how knew that this over inflated stock market bubble was going to burst which was all the more evident considering the miserable economic indicators within Pakistan, suffice to say it was on the cards
• Secondly I shudder to see an even more powerful FIA entrusted with dispensing the Cyber Crime law at its own free will, considering the drafted of the Cyber Crime law was shady at best as it failed to provide safe guards for the innocent.

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“Of Spaces and Substance”, An exciting exhibition of beautiful photographs, the art work of a talented IVSAA graduate (2004), Sara Hashim opened yesterday for public at the Unicorn Art Gallery, Clifton.

To experience exhibition and enjoy the artwork do give this Gallery a visit, as the entrance is absolutely free without any discrimination of class or social status.

Note: Timings From Noon till 8 Pm (Except Sunday) - Exhibition continues till 25th July 2008. 

Unicorn Gallery,

Unicorn House, MCF 1-5, Shahrah-e-Iran, Clifton ( Near British Consulate), Karachi.
Phone: +92-21-5831200, 5877625,5877632.
Web : www.unicorngallery.net 

a while ago, fire broke out on the first floor of Business and Finance Center on chundrigar road, opposite State Bank.

the building has been evacuated and and edhi ambulance is on standby. no fire trucks have reached the scene yet.

i work in the building behind the affected one, and many of our departments reside in the said. the fire seems to have erupted due to a generator failure.

more as it comes……

update:

(just got our network back)
the fire seems to be under control now. on the last count, there were 7 ambulances and 3 fire engines, one of which was used in controlling the fire.

chundrigar road is closed for traffic and the building has not yet opened for staff / parking.

some pics from my phone camera:

This story that i received in numerous emails came in THE NEWS two weeks back & its a must read for you. I share it here with our readers. [Credits: Mustafa Jamal]

“ At 5.15 p.m. June 4, I stopped at Plaza, in front of the Polani Motors on Karachi’s busiest thoroughfare, the M.A. Jinnah Road, to have my car’s electric window repaired. Soon, I was mobbed by some seven to eight people, who insisted that I get some door rubbers installed. I refused but they started the work nevertheless.

Quickly, I found myself trapped, with these people doing all sorts of work on the car, not listening to my command, directions and pleadings. These people had me so placed that I could not run, scream or phone anybody, even though I was on the busiest road of Karachi. By all means, I was held hostage by them.

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I and many of my friends were almost-attracted to the print and electronic advertisements PTCL was coming up with last year. In fact I made few calls and the deal was almost done when a junior fellow at my previous office Mr. Junaid Khan gave me his long and torturous tale of PTCL’s broad band service. The strange part was(is?), even its hard to get rid of the connection. Since then it has become my routine to hear complains about it. Kashif Aziz narrates his experience at chowrangi of what he went through.

Though I have seen some improvement in customer service for phone, PTCL DSL does act like broad-burden instead of broadband frequently. Also, I heard that they are planning to launch eVideo service in future. How many of you are happy with the broadband connection and how many have similar stories to tell?

This is not a picture warped by a bad cell phone camera or a flash, i just took this picture at 9 pm at the Regent Plaza signal on Shahrae Faisal with my 8 mega pixel camera. The glare you are witnessing is from the insanely giant LCD screen installed right across from a major 4 way traffic signal at Regent plaza in Karachi.

Suffice to say the screen has the effect of a major distraction in the day time on this busy junctio,n and at night it acts as a mini sun. Imagine what the drivers vision is exposed to it this is what a camera gets as input? then we complain about traffic accidents in Karachi, here is a hint stop blinding drivers!!!