Karachi Metblogs » rgarib

Just before and after the Cloudburst

rgarib — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 11:47:04 +0000

It’s been beautiful weather all morning in Karachi. I got a chance to snap a few photographs immediately before and during the sudden cloudburst that took place at about 330pm today. Here are the sequential shots.

Govt of Pakistan High on Cocaine? So Says ‘The News’

rgarib — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:00:53 +0000

High on Cocaine! No wonder we're so happy about everything!

A comment published in today’s edition of The News byFarrukh Saleem says that the “Government is high on Cocaine”. Now THAT explains everything! An article that caught my attention after someone sent me the link, had this ‘fact’ published in it.. Hats off to the author for dwelving into some classic investigative journalism! Of course, what better way to spread the good word than to post it up here? And no, this has nothing to do with Karachi except for the fact that I read it in a newspaper delivered to me in town.

Please do see the screenshot of the article I snapped from the online version of The News daily – It is CLASSIC! (btw – thenews SEO is TERRIBLE!! Can’t even locate articles from today through its own Site Search!? Are they still manually bagging and tagging news items?) -

(Thank you Xs for the ping!)

Oil Spill on Sunset Blvd?

rgarib — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:35:29 +0000

An eyewitness report (via sms courtesy Mr. Zaid Aziz) places an oil spill on Sunset Blvd, whereby causing a few accidents (including Mr. Aziz himself) – Approximately 9 cars smashed along with motorbikes… If anyone has a confirmation, please post a comment? Regardless, please be careful when you venture out in that area. Have already informed emergency services to verify and attend to the area.

Mai Adakara Bann Gayee! – What A Great Show!!!

rgarib — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:06:04 +0000

Katha theater group’s presentation of Mai Adakara Banu Gi, a fundraiser for the Rotary Club, is a FUN performance to attend. Taking place at the Karachi Arts Council until the 9th of June, the play features a cast of just two people: Sania Saeed and Ehtishamuddin. An incredibly challenging proposition to keep an audience engaged with only two people on stage over the span of 2 hours, is tough. The script demonstrated the great chemistry between both the actors and kept the audience in splits with its fantastic comic timing and simple story line.

For those of you who DO go, if you want to see Sania in her true comedic element, be sure and watch her rendition of the punjabi heroin with the modern-day ‘gandaasa’, when she tries to audition for her new teacher. The transition of the student-teacher relationship to be a more equal one is one that where a zany woman, Naila (played by Sania) who stumbled into the life of Zaigham (played by Ehtishamuddin) swaps roles with her mentor to teach him about the smaller, simpler things in life.

For those of you wondering, it was a full house!

Tickets and other details can be found here and yes, there IS a 10-mminute intermission at the one-hour mark. You can also see an offbeat discussion between Sania, Shehzad Qureshi (Rotary) and some bloggers, here. Funds will be used by the Rotary in their relief efforts with the Jaipur Foot Clinic, to help people walk again by providing them with artificial limbs.

Here’s a few minutes of some of the acts for you to see -

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Firing in DHA Ph2 and Korangi

rgarib — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:36:21 +0000

Updated 6:28pm

More photographs of police blocking access to Korangi via Kh-e-ittehad. Riots have broken out as a result of frustration caused by failing civil utilities. No water in the area for the past four days (at least). More later.

police blocking kh-e-ittehad

police redirecting traffic

Time: 430pm

I got these photographs just after the firing took place in the Ph2 and Korangi area, close to the main Defence roundabout. The incident took place between 345pm and 4pm where shots were fired. Rangers immediately appeared on the scene and have blocked Kh-e-Ittehad. Traffic around the DHA area is completely jammed.

WIBCON’09 – The Truly Inspirational Sarmad Tariq

rgarib — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:21:16 +0000

Organized by the Pakistan Soceity for Training and Development (PSTD) and Terrabiz, the WIBCON’09 was a fantastic event which took place on the 4th of June at the Karachi Marriott. Here is one inspirational story of Sarmad Tariq, a speaker who touched the hearts of the audience.

Sarmad Tariq is a trainer, life coach & a motivational speaker with Navitus. On March 26, 2004 he drove a distance of 1,847 km non-stop from Khyber to Karachi in his hand controlled car in 33 hours and made a world record for a quadriplegic. In November 2005, he completed the New York Marathon in 7.5 hours!

What makes Sarmad’s story an amazing one is the fact that he accomplishes all this, but is a quadriplegic (paralyzed shoulder down), and has been on a wheelchair for the past 18 years. I’m not sure how good the quality of the sound or picture is because I was at quite a distance, recording this with the FlipVideo, but do go through it. An amazing human being!

The Prayers of a Little Boy

rgarib — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:21:26 +0000

I’m sure a lot of you have come across these prayers from the heart of a little boy at the traffic signal! For those of you laughing too hard during the young man shouts out his wishes, he is actually saying, “Allah aap ko Prado ka malik banayay!”

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It’s all in the ‘Messeage’

rgarib — Sun, 31 May 2009 18:31:36 +0000

No no – that is NOT a spelling mistake – at least not by me! This is the last slide of an ad that keeps running on the World Call channels – I can’t be sure but I think it’s an appeal to people to pledge funding for the PM’s anti-terrorism fund, but then I’m not quite sure how many people are getting the right “messeage”. Now, it’s important to appreciate that the ’spallings’ that I make also have a lot of errors, but then, I’m not being read or seen by millions every few minutes!!

… and we have no lights

rgarib — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:33:15 +0000

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.

There are mindless ad campaigns from PEPCO about how we should conserve the electricity we already don’t have in our homes, schools and offices. Whoever ‘controls’ the streetlights really needs to wake up!

Beat the Heat

rgarib — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:05:25 +0000

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.

There used to be a time when people would provide some shade and water for passerbys, something that has reduced dramatically seeing the security situation in the main cities – Share any ideas you might have on how we can help those who work under the open skies.. Something a little innovative that we can encourage homeowners and offices to do for their communities