This time again KATHA along with The Rotary Club is bringing yet another fundraiser theatrical show “Kahaniyan”, a set of three one act plays directed by Shahid Shafat with Sania Saeed being the lead role in all three acts. Other performers include Ehteshamuddin, Saleem Meraj, and Akber Khan.

The play is a series of three comedy plays, based on short stories : .

Khan Ka Ishq: Adapted from Auntie by Henry James is a comical and pathetic tale of a middle-aged woman, desperately guarding her faded youth for the sake of love.

Lottery by Anton Chekhov, is a story of a husband and wife who are ecstatic at the fact that the wife has won a lottery that will make them rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Subha : an adaptation of “Sunny Morning” originally written by Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero. a romentic comedy of two old people meeting each other randomly in a park, they thought they were strangers but is that really so…

Being a fund raiser the proceeds of the event will go to charitable projects of Rotary Club of Karachi which has been very active with several social causes one of which is the Jaipur foot project where artificial limbs designed specially to meet the needs of the lifestyle of the people belonging to this region are provided free of cost to the handicapped poor people so they can walk, work,  perform day to day tasks like riding bicycle almost like a normal person. Other projects by The Rotary Club include providing education, clean drinking water, health care services, and free medicines. This play will feed the funds into many of their ongoing projects.

Dates:

• 21 of November 8:00 Pm daily till 25 November 2009

Venue:

• Arts Council Auditorium

Tickets are available at:

• Rotary Club office Ph: 0213-2411458
• Agha’s Super Market
• Rain Tree Spa at the Forum Mall

But this was surely out of the necessity as their new three in one telephone landline connection providing both television channels and internet broadband over the same single pair wire couldn’t possibly have worked seamlessly without better contact joints.

I hope PTCL understand the necessity and importance of quality service and continue to provide their valued customers with the service they deserve.

Anticipating her intentions to run away from the scene of the crime I quickly went back into my car to grab my camera. By the time I was able to extract the camera, she was already in her car going in reverse, I aimed my camera and took a few quick shots before she raced away, When I last saw the car it was turning towards bath island.

Although the damage to may car was only a dent on the rear door, while her car too only had a scrapped bumper, the sad thing about the whole incident was her complete ignorance to traffic rules, lack of patience she showed while driving, and the worst of it was the fact that she didn’t even had the audacity to apologies. But maybe she was right, because the way the city works, I may have been a typical guy who would have harassed her in broad day light, may even have revealed a weapon and would have mugged her taking advantage of her politeness and confession, so I really don’t blame her for the way she reacted, may be I would have done the same if I was in her place, or maybe I wouldn’t even have stepped out of my car.

now i really wonder what would you have done if you were in a situation as her’s ?

Every year The annual Machar art exhibition proves and reminds us over and again that these children, homed in one of the cities largest shanty town are sheer victims of our arrogance and ignorance, they are no less then any other of us actually even better as they are battling through their tough circumstances and yet they have the patience to politely express their emotions, dreams, stories and thoughts through art with colorful drawings, photographs and pottery.

This year again Concern for Children Trust has brought the hopes, dreams stories and thoughts of these underprivileged children of Karachi’s largest shanty town Machar colony to the privileged of the city with hope that their story might move a soul or melt down a few heart to tears and then maybe we might just break out of this shell of arrogance and embrace them as fellow citizens.

The 4th Annual Machar Art Exhibition titled “Yehan Say Shehr Ko Dekho” will be opening on the 2nd of October, 2009, 7 pm  sharp, at the Zahoor -ul- Akhlaq Gallery, Indus Valley School of art and Architecture. The Exhibition will continue till the 5th, October 2009 (Except Sunday).

For further details and information contact.

Concern for Children Trust:
Web: http://www.concernforchildren.org.pk
Email: info@concernforchildren.org.pk
Phone: (021) 220-1522 & 220-1384

Little did I knew that the day had more in store for me. Soon after namaz we learned that the previous day, soon after the official confirmation of the moon being sighted, one of the bullets from the jubilant firing in the city, had  pierced into the thigh of a handicapped child in our neighborhood while he was sitting outside his house in his wheal chair. The kid was rushed to a local hospital where his wound was dressed but the doctor ignored the bullet which was still inside the body, as a result the kid had to be rushed again to another hospital some eight hours later, early in the morning when the wound started to swell and the pain shot up where finally a 12 bore bullet was extracted from the wound before it was cleaned and bandaged again.

Later the same day, in the evening  I went up the roof of my house to discover four pellet shots, and one bullet, as an Eed gift from the city to me.

Ramazan a month that preaches us to be tolerant and practice self control and Eed, the day when we share happiness, love and joy…..  but are we not celebrating them exactly the opposite way. Don’t we realize our slight irresponsibility can cause pain and even death to our fellow human beings and citizens. Don’t we realize that tomorrow a stray bullet my pierce through the body of one of our one loved one ? Don’t we realize, while we drive, that being a few minute late is better then actually endangering our lives and that of others ? No we don’t, not until we face the truth staring right into our eyes,  piercing through our soul,  otherwise we wouldn’t have been that stupid.

This seemingly ideal road condition turned out to be not quite so ideal today when a twelve year old biker, who while zapping on the road probably lost his sense of direction and slammed with full force, a parked car here in Gulshan-e-Iqbal.  The Motorbike which is said to have belonged to his alder brother entered half way into the car tearing through the rear door. Miraculously with the force of the impact the bike tossed it’s young rider clear off and over the car leaving him alive with only miner cuts and bruises.

I have seen countless children riding bikes and driving cars at break neck speeds on the roads of this city. I fail to understand what kind of parents would be so Irresponsible to let their kids be on the roads, behind the wheals endangering other’s lives and theirs as well. I hope the law enforcement agencies take strict actions not only against such but also their parents who allow their children to break the law.

What so ever the reasons of this shortage of electricity may be stated by the authorities, one thing is for sure, the countless Kundas, Illegal electrical connections results in a huge power loss and those of us who pay the bills fair and square suffer and pay the cost of the theft.

These pictures of main Tariq Road, clearly show wiring bypassing the meters, these connections hooked in the main power lines are not only a clear evidence of power theft but also pose a danger of electrocution and short circuit which can further result in a fire.

I wonder why there illegal connections are not taken care of by the authorities.

The other exhibition held at the home of renowned architect Habib Fida Ali is a marvelous collection of Chitarkari or Schist(Slate) stone engraving a collaborative work of Renowned Chitarkar, Muhammed Ilyas and Noorjehan Bilgrami.

The two masters have engraved intriguing designs celebrating our cultural identity.The repetitive geometrical patterns symbolic to Islamic art and carved peepal and Chambaily patterns in in their traditional radiations carved out on the stones placed in an aesthetically complementing environment, shaded under a thick cover of peepal trees in a garden of a beautiful, over a hundred year old building, is obvious to create a magically mesmerizing environment.

Both the Exhibitions will remain open till the 22nd of August, 2009.

Habib Fida Ali's Residence Map

For more details:
Call: (+92-21) 5831292
Email: gallerykoel@gmail.com

I stationed my self at the Dell Pakistan booth in hall number one, and unfolded my laptop but much to my surprise there was not a single free Wifi network available and I had to borrow a WiMax device from a friend (Muneeb) to connect to the internet. I surveyed this hall, visited a few other stalls, came across the CIO WebStudio’s booth where they were preparing themselves for video recording public opinions, interviews and product reviews. The idea sounded promising and I was sure I wont be getting bored today.

I then took a walk to hall number 2, but there was nothing too exciting going on at the moment so I decided to visit here latter when things would get a bit juiced up and crowded, but little did I knew.

At around 11, crowd began to pour in. I didn’t expected so much excitement but as soon as the few young university students showed up the people at the Dell booth asked them to change into a Dell shirt and pose for the brand. I was surprised how professionally the young boys posed, as if they were actual super models so I too quickly moved in to capture a few of them striking the best poses they could.

The Exhibition was quickly picking up momentum, the Zong stall had a large wall where students were scribbling they heart out, writing messages to those they loved, expressing their thoughts, a boy desperate to get married even left a matrimonial advertisements, with a small photo of him and his cell phone number.

A lot of student were visiting the exhibition looking for a good laptop. Almost all of them wanted a low cost solution. Those studying programming, designing or new media arts were looking for performance while those who searched the internet for research, or studies were more interested in Net books. I realized net books are gaining popularity with more senior users who use computer to exchange mails and keep in touch with the rest of the world and their business online are taking interest in them as net books are lighter, more convenient and easy to keep concealed.

Back at the CIOwebStudios stall, some bloggers and Tech Savoy geeks recorder product reviews for different Dell laptops. Jehan Ara, President of P@SHA, recorded an ITCN Special of “In The Line Of Wire”, also  many Students and visitors expresses their experience of the exhibition and shared their views and spoke their minds on the video.

The crowd had built up heavy, I didn’t felt comfortable carrying my heavy laptop and camera, to another halls, besides there was much happening here which was turning out to be an over stretched effort to cover all live as it happens. The Interviews at CIO Webstudio,  students and young bloggers posing for Dell and cheering for Pakistan and their favorite brand on videos, people scribbling funny thoughts at Zong continued and while another activity of  filling out forms for a 17 inch LCD, give away lucky draw at Dell also started.

An hour and a half later the Dell stall was extremely over crowded, the result for the draw was about to be announced, and then a name was called, Abdul Rauf Shaikh, and a young man with a wide smile on his face pushed the crowd aside. It took me quite an effort to reach inside the Dell stall to take a picture of this lucky winner. He was too excited to speak, he just thanked everyone, got a few pictures taken of him by the brand’s staff, a few media people  and happily went home.

At this point I was beyond tired, it was already 6, I packed up my bags, but as soon as I was about to leave the Dell people told me they had a little surprise stored for me. A beautiful Dell Laptop Carry Bag that brightened me up, they thanked me and said they enjoyed my company and live tweets and certainly I thanked them back.

The exhibition was a wonderful experience, I wish I could have covered the rest of the halls too, but for this I would surely need a handy net book and a WiMax so I can move through the thick crowd without having to carry my huge and heavy laptop around, actually that was the only reason I didn’t had the heart to visit the stalls further away from my base camp, but I hope may be next year I will cover it all and better.

Has violence become such an integral part of our lives that it has dominated our protests, arguments, jokes, and even celebrations ? Do we not realize how our irresponsible actions are disrupting the peace of our city destroying it’s warmth and sense of security and what a negative image of our country are we painting for the rest of the worlds ?

And please I know many of you will think this post somehow responsible to tell the world what faults we have, But really do you thing shoving the dirt under the carpet will solve any thing? Has it ever, till this date solved anything ? NO, It is about time we take ownership of our faults, accept them, address and confront them and eliminate them from our lives and tell the world what a wonderful nation we are.

I hope, this year midnight, 14 of August, 2009 the sounds which will fill the air would not be of gunshots but of national anthems and songs of peace and love. I hope this year we will celebrate the independence day of Pakistan in it’s true sprite of joy, peace and love.