The day started with the session titled ‘Tales from the Trenches’ where the leading entrepreneurs presented their tales to the audience. If I had to review each in a one-liner then it would be this way. Puzzle by Adil Moosajee, Owner of Ego, was all about, to quote him, ‘Either find a way or make a path of your own. Work with happy people and others should be OUT.’ Reboot by Jawwad Farid, CEO of Alchemy discussed about learning from failures because ‘Before you can win, you have to lose’ and to be an entrepreneur, it is important being comfortable about what you are therefore looking behind is okay unless you don’t get obsessed about it. Adversity by Sameera Raja, Owner of Canvas Gallery, talked about her Breast Cancer Adversity and conquering it while managing her life. She emphasized on scheduling not only your work but how you present it to your audience. Appetite by Shahzad Ali, CEO of Student Biryani talked about how his father through his resilience from his humble beginnings made Cafe Student to a brand Student Biryani. The only favorite story for me was of Jawwad Farid because it talked about starting up a new venture and its hurdles. Others had stories which was about evolution or say an effort to sustain the previous family businesses.

Next up was ‘Investing in Change: Empowering Social Entrepreneurs’ by Batool Hassan, Business Development Manager at Acumen Fund. This was the most fruitful of all. She discussed about the idea of Philanthropy 2.0 where the products don’t need to be free but affordability and dignity should be brought into the market. Examples of Khuda ki Basti, Saibaan and other creatively planned projects were shared to illustrate that businesses can be run for social development and you don’t only get your capital back but reasonable profits can also be generated, if you are not running after the greed of money. She was kind enough to answer our questions even during the lunch break.

TieCon Debate was honestly more about pulling legs of each other. The topic being ‘Conventional Wisdom is becoming increasingly irrelevant’ itself had its flaws. In my honest opinion, any kind of wisdom can be relevant if you know how to mold and use it for your good. Personally Shahjehan Chaudhry stood out because he played the game pretty intelligently and fairly. Unilever representative at the against panel, was all rhetoric and made less sense, still won the debate and as Hassan Rizwan of Prymus Technologies rightly commented that surely ‘our education system is flawed.’ Sadly, people usually like how things are presented than the actual content. Next time it should be a discourse instead of debate. Thankfully lunch came in as a relief.

After lunch it was very apt to have a musical performance when people would usually go into the snore zone. Alan Simon from Taal Karisma introduced his Percussive Fusion Band and gave the people an insight on how band indulges in different beat cycles which haven’t been explored much before. Their each track was a delight and body percussion that they presented was pretty decent as a lot of people claim about the art but their performances eventually come flat. Ustadji their debut single is up on the radio and a must listen.

Skype helped with video-conferencing where Jahanzeb Sherwani, Founder of Jugaari shared his i-phone app experience with techies.

Birds of a feather featured Breakout sessions on various aspects of entrepreneurship skills like Bootstrapping, Branding, PR, Team Building and Social Media, where participants divided into their respective interest groups. Small focused groups surely brought a lot of ideas and learning on board.

Dr. Umar Saif who is Associate Professor at LUMS talked about pitching ideas to VCs. He gave an impression that VCs don’t pay much heed to your product, vision or technology but they invest more on the quality of team. Therefore it is the time when project becomes fund-able, as in at the point of take off, that it needs to be pitched else it would be too early or late. This was followed by Adil Saleem of Seen Report who shared his experience of making dream of this portal a reality which was also incubated by Dr. Umar Saif.

Last up was Asad Umar, CEO Engro Chemcial who talked about Making Your Move! The talk highlighted that once you start running your project, your business model should keep on updating and your passion should be supported by intellect whereby you know how to probe questions on achievements and move forward.

Every speaker highlighted about asking yourself that is it really your dream to become an entrepreneur?, if yes then one should not wait for being experienced as it would never be enough. Moreover an entrepreneur should be reading to take the tough part and learn from the mistakes. Social Media was also discuss at length which become a low or no-cost tool for marketing the businesses. Next time it would be great if Social Entrepreneurship takes the lead or maybe a whole conference can be dedicated on the subject.

Kudos to Sabeen Mahmud, the president of TiE to come up with an interesting line of speakers in such trying times and Shireen Naqvi with her Torque team for managing the conference on such high standards.

PS: The food was really good =D
PSS: I love the conference logo and badge.

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 ?

All bikes and bikers are free to join and play an essential part in promoting our nation and saving our environment!

Second Critical Mass Cycle Ride
On Sunday, 18th October 2009
At 07:30 a.m.
Approximately 7 km.

Starting at Mc Donald Sea view, Karachi down towards village and back.. families and children welcome. Bring your own bike and some water

Facebook > Critical Mass Karachi

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.

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.

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.

Present at the event eminent writer Bina Shah revealed she has been using twitter and facebook to interact with her readers and fans and has found both the tools very useful. Referring to her old static website as a conventional webpage, she said she has got links to her twitter and facebook Fan page embedded in the bottom of her newly designed website to better promote her work.  She did confessed that twitter may have slightly effected her reading habits for which she practices to maintain a safe distance from the utility.

Also Present at the tweet-up, some marketing buffs including @mystakool revealed that many businesses are using twitter to interact with their customers and also promote there services. He said it helps companies know exactly what their customers likes and dislikes about their product or services, an information which is really helpful in improving on the production or services provided to their clients.

Like with any other new emerging social phenomenon some present at the tweet-up also showed concerns for the utility to be misused, it was concluded that with any of the  social networks caution should be practiced, Bina Shah explained how she avoids pinpointing her exact locations, or the place she would be at a certain time unless the event is a public appearance. Adding to the discussion Jehan Ara, the president of P@SHA told how once on her way to conference from the airport on an official visit in Islamabad, she needed some medicines and bandages on an urgent bases and her cab driver declared to her that all pharmacies due to Friday would be closed for the prayers. But then a friend from the city (Awais) reading her tweet on twitter was quick to reply that he could arrange for the urgently needed medicines and came to her help.

The event of Demi Moore saving a women from suicide also mentioned  at the tweet-up as another great example of how social networks could be used for our benefit.

Salman and Ayesha

Present at the event the two siblings Salman Mehmood and  Ayesha Mehmood,  who run a thalassemia awareness blog and manage a small blood bank as well contributed by saying that twitter helps them a lot when they need blood donations on urgent bases but at times when they host blood donation camps many people agree and confirm their attendance but never show up, they said they make preparations for a certain number of donors but it hurts when not even half of them show up. They stressed that if people could just be honest and let them know they might not show up in the first place it wouldn’t be so hard for them.

At the event Jehan Ara also raised the very valid and serious issue of personal privacy. using these social networks we often overlook the privacy policy. The subject needed much more debate and the scope expended from social networks including twitter, facebook, orkut to email service providers, ISPs even including financial service providers and sadly due to the limited time could not be discussed in further details.

All in all, the whole event was incredibly awesome, we all agreed twitter can be addictive but if used with responsibility can prove to be an incredibly useful utility. For tweets about the Kolachi Tweetup ‘09 look for the hashtag “#KTU09” on twitter or visit Here also check out the recorded video stream of the event here.

My celebrations had already gone sour when I heard the heavy firing, I knew people must have got injured but the morning newspaper announced the worst. Two people had actually lost their lives while over two dozen others were reported to have been injured.

I wish we would have gone through all these celebration without any violence, or only if us loosing that match could have saved those two precious lives we lost list light, I wish we would have lost the match instead.