I recently came across an interesting service: KarachiDeals, which carries information about a host of deals and promotions in telecom, clothing, fast food, apparel, restaurants, travel etc. Being a Karachiite this site would appeal to anyone who wants to find deals in their areas of interest. For Ramadan, many Iftar, Sehri and Eid shopping deals have also been added.

The website has easy navigation with blog like tags and search options but I think they could do more to make it stand out.  The most attractive feature is that it not only lists down latest deals and promotions but also carries images of the ad promoting the deals, adding to the authenticity of what is being said.

Definitely worth checking out and revisit if you are interested in discounts and deals.

Usually the month of Ramadan for Karachiites is filled with a sense of rush. To wake up in Sehri, to sleep afterwards, to wake up again disgruntled for varied destinations (school/college/university/office), to get back home in time to catch some sleep and so on and so forth. In our busy lives, we should at least take out some time to obtain full blessings of the month of Ramadan.

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:

There has come to you Ramadan, a blessed month which Allah has enjoined you to fast, during which the gates of heaven are opened and the gates of Hell are closed, and the rebellious devils are chained up. In it there is a night which is better than a thousand months, and whoever is deprived of its goodness is indeed deprived.” Narrated by al-Nasa’i, 2106; Ahmad, 8769. classed as saheeh by al-Albani in Saheeh al-Targheeb, 999.

Here is a checklist of some of the things that we can all do to make the remaining days of Ramadan work to our advantage (This is summarized from an email I received yesterday on the same topic):

1) Get in high gear for the next 10 nights and days:
Time is of the essence. Every moment counts. Whatever you need to do for the next ten days to make the most in Ibada, good deeds, reciting Quran, dhikr, making dua, etc., rewards are going to be multiplied. No one knew about the importance of these days more than the prophet (saws). Al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated from ‘Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that when the last ten days of Ramadan began, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) would stay up at night, wake his family and tie his lower garment tight. According to Ahmad and Muslim: he would strive hard in worship during the last ten nights of Ramadan as he did not do at other times.
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The city of lights is short of electricity, and the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) has been cutting off power every two hour or so for an hour. Even at night, before and at the time of Sehree or and Iftaar.

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.

[ Image : Shariq ]

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I compiled it but if you find any mistakes, please let me know.

The first one at their gallery is titled Bereft in the Fatherland, a series of photographs, incredible black an white portraits of children from Macher Colony and a video installation, a loop back of the daily routine of children on streets of Machar colony. The exhibition highlights the conditions in which these underprivileged people are forced to live down below the poverty line and their innocent beautiful children, deprived of basic education, health care and nutrition, dwelling on the streets and we oblivious of their existence.

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

Only two days left, and on the night 13 of August, as soon as the clocks will strike past midnight, shifting the date to 14, the independence day of Pakistan Celebrations around the country will begin and I am sure this year too like the last year in Karachi, we will resort to celebratory firing marking the first half hour of the independence day celebrations, of this land of pure with a gesture of violence which will leave several injured, and may be a few others dead just like we did a few months back to celebrate out victory in the twenty20 World Cup cricket.

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.

Background: (also Read) We heard about different “gardiz” but the most prominent of all is this Mulla Gardi which has spread like a cancer in our nation especially after 80z. While this topic was in my mind for a long time the gojra incident (though factually unrelated but fully related in essensce) forced me to highlight this issue. Its not just specific to that area only. Look everywhere in your city and you can see how religion has been hijacked by retards acting like self certified thaikedarz of faith. Their religious terrorism needs no explanations. From building constructions to land grabbing and politics to sports they consider it their birth right to poke their nones in every domain. And their nose is not enough, they use militancy to further their objectives and put a religious cover to hide their designs. This in short is known as Mulla Gardi.

The evil ZIA was the main culprit to first introduce us with this cancer to strengthen his power. Karachi which then known to be a progressive, highly educated city which produces artists, engineers,doctors of class is now producing militants on religious and ethnic grounds, charas and arms heaven, and a big bunch of ill-literate degree holders. Roam around to see how many of religious constructions are LEGAL (since these thaikedarz act more worried abour morals and legalities).

The Issue: But this is not the point actually. My main point was a suggestion which is why not make a new law titled “Tauheen-e-insaniat” which should auto-activate once “Tauheen-e-Risalat” is not established and this means if one person accuses other of TR, failure in court to justify should automatically result him punished him under Tauheen-e-Insaniat with same punishment as of TR since a person using PROPHET’s (pbuh) name/reference to blackmail/terrorize another person is himself guilty of a TR (logically speaking ? no ?) and the state should now register him under TR law and not any other law. There is no need to go back and do an FIR and all the time-wasting procedures. This should provide good safety check for innocent victims. If there is any such law present it should be further strengthened.

Kolachi Tweet-up ‘09 was by no means anything out of the ordinary, a gathering of over 75 twitter users from the city, Karachi, organized yesterday, 26th of July, 2009 by Google and CIO, for an idea conceived by Haris, sponsored by Intel, Acer and DawnNews, was one amazing event.

Twitter, “a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time” as described by official creators of the service is no less then a revolution. The tool as discussed in the tweet-up my have it’s side effects but if used with a little responsibility can prove a blessing for students, researchers, writers, marketing executives, business representatives, journalists  and professionals.

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