Mr 10% Embezzling Pakistan’s Presidency

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.

-Martin Luther King, Jr

 Viewing the live Presidential Speech transmission on the TV, I kept asking myself “When will this madness end?”  God heard my agonistic longing, and all came to an end with the third ‘scheduled’, in fact self assessed, power outage of the day.

 Bust seriously, is there any end? Or will the people keep getting themselves scoffed by a leader or a government which is not really they preferred or can trust.

 To start with, I must commend the stake holders who ran the selection campaign of the most powerful man in the country almost ‘single handedly’. The victory of the party was in effect someone’s personal victory. That various heavy weights of the party felt like nine pins during this selection thus proving more than what my words can say.

 I hope in saying this I have not offended anybody in any way because I also happen to be an offshoot of this so called democratic ‘freedom of speech’ bandwagon.

 For almost all of this year, we have seen them cry themselves hoarse about improving the quality of life and terms of Judicial contracts to revolutionize the social order. In this way, we have hoped that things will altogether be right for the people of this country. However, before anyone gets down to do something for the people, I am sure they would want to know who, where and how those people are.

We are the people who are in a constant sense of loss and uncertainty; let it be our lives, properties, our future or our country. We are the weathered people who stand in miles long queues, let it be for food or else, not knowing if it will be fruitful at the end of it or not. We dream, we dare, we fight and we loose. This has been our course for the past sixty-some years. But we never stop hoping and we never give up.

We are the countrymen who are exhausted of watching recurring talk shows, fumbling compares and ill-informed experts of the trepid constitution with such an enormous frequency. Not only these discussions are trite but the appeal part has gone down steeply, as the experts tell us nothing that we don’t know or cannot judge on our own selves. Sorry, but its common sense.

 Will the history repeat itself? I dread and hope not. But to all who have our fate (and some faith) in governing the country, I advise them to keep in mind the Italian proverb: One who builds on the mob, builds on sand.

 I say this not with malice or to smear any propaganda that may let lose as major adversary, but with a feeling of sadness and a silent prayer that they will, by their future acts, shake off the inglorious past, while serving the poor people of this country with a new verve.

 Nevertheless, we the infinitely hopeless nation, congratulate and look forward to the government that is far more powerful than of its predecessors.  Yet another chance for serving a full and most powerful term of them all, let’s see how much they ‘bag in’ this time. Pakistan Zindabad! 🙂

Frequencies of the Month: March ’09

Wow! Time is really flying this year. It doesn’t seems long and the third month is already starting. I have had a slow start this year (and I really don’t mind it), but it seems I might need some catching up if this year doesn’t slow down a little.

Anyways, we are now at the second update of my most favourite posting. The Top 20 songs from the last fortnight of the month of February 09, that shadowed all over My Playlist. The ones that made most to my ear drums were:

1.        Umeed-e-Sahar by Laal

2.        Confide in Me by Kylie Minogue

3.        Infinity 2008 by The Guru Josh Project

4.        Champagne Supernova by Oasis

5.        Zara Palat Ke by Mariyam Kizilbash

6.        Careless Whispers (Cover) by Seether

7.        Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles

8.        Where’s Life? by Keziah Jones

9.        Gulon Mein (Serene Version) from Sikandar by Mohit Chauhan

10.     The Wrestler by Bruce Springsteen

11.     It Never Entered my Mind by Miles Davis

12.     These Hard Times by Matchbox20

13.     Gone Gone Gone by Hoobastank

14.     Moment of Surrender by U2

15.     Lightening Strike (Parts 1,2,3) by Snow Patrol

16.     Going Home by Kenny G

17.     Udhero Na by Arooj Aftab

18.     Ordinary World by Duran Duran

19.     Are you there? By Anathema

20.     Magnificent by U2

 

Enjoy & Happy Listening J

Uss Bewafa Key Sheher Mein

As quoted by the Tlism website, “This was to be the first ever Festival of its kind taking place in Karachi” and I so wanted to check out what that hype was about. I thought that since we were facing such disheartening circumstances and apprehension for our future it could be a breath of fresh air to go and check out this so called “truly unique and enthralling week of exciting and magical entertainment”. And frankly speaking, I really wanted to unwind after watching the gruesome parades and speeches about the Judiciary Restoration and the Long March (not that I oppose it at all, I was just overly introspective of the whole act J )

 

This Festival was basically a retrospective of some of our most acclaimed and well-loved theatrical productions, under the commandment of Sheema Kermani.

 

The play that I ‘accidently’ chose to watch was “Uss Bewafa Key Sheher Mein” (first performed under the flagship of Tlism in 1999).  Accidental I say because I had never planned to catch this particular one, I wanted to go for “Birgees Kadar ka Kummba” but somehow never got the time to snap it. My friend and I were going out for a bite that night and decided in the midway to drop by just to make sure that we had ‘really missed it’. So we drove to the Arts Council de Karachi to kill the eleventh hour and found loads of parked cars, bringing obvious speculation that the play must have raised its curtains by then. Nonetheless, we thought we were late by a jiffy so we went for it, bought the tickets and surprisingly got the best-view, unclaimed “reserved” seats right in the 3^rd row from the front and got free goodies as well J Our lucky stars were really shining that night J

 

The play “Uss Bewafa Ke Sheher Mein” was an adaptation in Minglish, of Somerset Maugham’s ‘The Constant Wife’, this witty and hilarious comedy brings to life the story of a seemingly docile housewife who decides to pay back her philandering husband, that too, in kind! The star cast comprised of Dr Mervyn Hosain, Shehnaz Ismail, Aamir Masood, Sheema Kermani and my favourite Arjumand Rahim.

 

The play was not more than a Roundabout Theatre. You know, the genre with straight plays, all with satisfyingly full casts of actors dressed to the nines, detailed sets (not so rich in this particular one) and dialogue crackling with witticisms. Three, four acts and an intermission, each with a situation designed to effectively bring down the curtain, was the norm.

“Uss Bewafa Ke Sheher Mein”, the story unfolds in the elegant drawing room of Wafaa (Sheema Kermani) and her surgeon husband, (Dr Mervyn Hosain) who appear to have been blissfully married for fifteen plus years and enjoy their upper crust life style. But there would be no play if the Wafaa’s charmed life were quite as rosy as it seems, so no sooner does the curtain rise than the truth about their marriage comes to light as Wafaa sister (Lubna) and her mother (Wafaa) discuss the pros and cons of telling Wafaa that her husband has been having an affair. To make this betrayal doubly shocking as well as socially embarrassing, the other woman is Wafaa’s best friend (Arjumand Rahim). As the perfect marriage is something of a masquerade, so Wafaa’s unawareness about what’s been happening. Despite broad hints from her outraged sister she is insistently and cheerfully blind-eyed about the affair. What’s more, when confronted by Arjumand Rahim ‘s jealous husband (Aamir Masood) she saves the day with an alibi for the lovers.

Sheema Kermani tapped into her fine sense for comedy as Wafaa, the Constant Wife. Dr Mervyn Hosain brought enough likability to the inconstant husband to avoid the risk of his coming across as either a buffoon or a villain. Shehnaz Ismail was a delightfully cynical, status quo endorsing dowager mother. Arjumand Rahim was ideally cast as miss ditzy and Aamir Masood made the most of his short but droll part as her cuckolded husband.

Actually, the entire play was constructed on the word constant for the original English version- which was Wafaa in our Minglish case- and from the name of its heroine comes the underlying theme of marriage as a constant in our lives, but one in which the partners must constantly adapt to changing expectations and situations (including inconstancy).

Karachi’s non-seasonal theatergoers, with a rickety taste for live-acts and lavish staging obviously forgave the slow spots when the sparkling interchanges lost their fizz and were in danger of being drowned in overly drawn-out discussions. To my utter surprise, every generation was widely represented in the audience throughout the theatre. It was a House-Full performance and if I’m not wrong, fairly around 500 representatives of literally all ages were really keeping up with the play. There was a family sitting right behind us and they had an eleven-ish year old with his supposedly grand-mum, both keeping up with the play, as they munched to their Family packs of the “Party Biscuits” we got as goodies.

And looking at the full house I thought, that this play was probably most untempting act to the masses, as compared to the fairly large contribution to the stage that was possible in Karachi Arts Council, and still it appealed a full house. It’s sad to see that not as much “a constant presence” as similar works within this genre occur all over our Karachi City, as often as they should. Given the enthusiasm of the audience at the Tlism and other festivals that I have attended, that may well change – in fact it should change and I can see it changing. I’m sure some of the Arts-starved idlers out in Karachi are probably rummaging through the Events directory on Facebook as I post this review.

Keep Enjoying, Be Happy J

Nokia 5320 Xpressmusic: Do the BULLSHIT!

 One of the most awful experiences I had to deal with the cell phone business. The first thought that came to my mind was “What the $&*# went into the heads of people at the Nokia’s design department!” This phone wasn’t purchased by choice, it was all accidental. I had to change my beloved E65 because of the broken cradle and I decided to go for an exchange. This was the painful choice I had to deal with as the dealer wasn’t offering much and I had to make “a deal”. So that’s the item-by-item anecdote attached with this phone. 

In keeping with its tag, 5320 Xpressmusic sports a 3mm audio jack and dedicated media controls on the side, and I don’t find the need of them at all! A customisable key on the top launches the music player by default, while pressing and holding the said key enables the ‘Say and Play’ feature. This can play a desired track by saying the name of the track or artist aloud – generally a hit and miss, if you ask us, and mostly miss than a hit. 

5320 XpressMusic is powered by Symbian OS v9.3 with Feature Pack 2 (FP2 meaning lots of cool new animations added to the User Interface). It is not meant to be a high end mobile but I was never expecting such an abysmal flavour too. If not anything, then it’s surely a case of Nokia trying to get mid-range users hooked on mobile music. So you shouldn’t expect anything groundbreaking, I just don’t remember what I was thinking before buying it. 

Music quality is quite good, even with a mono speaker, but then it has to stand for its tagline Xpress”MUSIC” so I don’t count that. Has the FM Radio and quite a responsive interface when it comes to “just” Music. Otherwise, you can sleep on this gadget. The button pad is flat apart from the raised D-Pad. Its buttons are irregularly shaped with the Nokia Menu key, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 0 buttons having rounded edges and the remainder simply fitting into the space they leave behind. I understand that the R&D people tried to experiment with the keypad’s design and looks but I’m sure somebody forgot to call them back while they went tooooo far in killing it! I could hardly text on such a quirky ensemble of plastic beads! Oh God! Painful experience! 

It also comes with a sub standard 2MP camera with a dual LED Flash. The camera interface is good but it doesn’t feature many customizable options. It doesn’t even have autofocus! But it was a very easy-to-use in application. Even my 4 year old nephew came out with some decent shots with its cam all by himself.

Final Words:

Sturdy phone with small screen, no Wi-Fi, poorest battery life and a crappy kepypad. BAD BUY!

Financials: This piece of $hi* cost me Rs. 12, 300 (March, 09) and was resold on the same price after three days of its purchase. 

Nokia E65: Slide Me!

In my opinion, Nokia’s best “affordable” slide phone so far! I purchased this phone like half a year back and had to change it involuntarily because I broke the sim cradle. I dropped this phone down a whole floor in my office lift. (I know some of you might be wondering if that is even possible, but yes, ironically it did!) I had the driest throat during all the time if took the lift technicians to bring it up from the elevator motor’s pit. I could see them struggling through the tiny cleft between the lift’s and ground’s floor. But the phone survived, you know the rough ‘n tough Nokia, I love them because of that too. So that’s how I audaciously justify my membership in Facebook’s group “I drop my cell phone more than the Iraqi bombs!” 

Nokia.com states: "Style meets substance in the Nokia E65. Its slim, slide design is complimented by a rich range of features made for business and fun"

 

Anyways, coming back to the phone, prominent features included Built-in WiFi transceiver, GPS enabled, although it hardly works as I tried to couple it using Bluetooth with the Garmin GPS while in Germany, but somehow the interface always refused to connect. A bit slow on the interfacing level but over all very good in handling and looks. This phone was my first experience with a 2.2-inch TFT screen that displays 16.7 million colours at a 320×240 pixel resolution, and I loved it! It runs on the third edition of the S60 platform and thus provides a wide variety of S60 applications. It incorporates an application called QuickOffice that lets you view Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents on this handset itself. The only short coming that I always felt while using this phone was the absence of FM Radio receiver. I always missed it and wondered why Nokia never thought about it. The new revived version E66 has this short coming covered. On the whole, this phone proved to be a good communication companion, as I travelled four countries with it and I’ll always be fond of it J

Financials: this phone was purchased on bill of Rs. 16,300 (July, 08) and I sold it for Rs. 9,500 (March, 09). I got a good deal even after breaking the cradle, thus proving that this phone earned its market.