Crow's Nest...

I will be moving out to Lahore for a day or two before i set foot on the pale soil of the city of lights. The convocation weekend is starting tomorrow!

Irfan Hussain has written a piece that I think we must all read. For the last few lines sum up one very important thing.

Wasted yet another day at the passport office. These official people are really dumb and technology has utterly and miserably failed to bring any change whatsoever into their attitudes. If anything computer screens and printers around them have served to inflate their egos a little more. Now every click on the screen in front of them sounds as if they are making considerable headway in one of NASA's elitest projects. Unthankful evil villians. I had to sit and wait for three long hours in that miserable passport office just to be told that my passport had not arrived today and will be available for pickup on Monday. They have so many ingenious ways of making our life miserable that it is beyond comprehension. May Allah grant them wisdom and this nation some contentment. Ameen!

A decent approach towards keeping a blog like this one would be that whenever I go on a hiatus I should update my worthy readers. Since I lack the decency of doing this I would keep on going like that. DrPak wants to know as to how my USMLE is coming along. I regret to inform that the anticipation of the upcoming convocation and much more than that the prospect of seeing all my dear friends is keeping me from any substantial progress on this front. I am stuck on Behavioral Sciences. Its an interesting subject nonetheless. I used to think that Physiology is interesting but Behavioral Sciences is taking up that position now. Didn't pay much attention towards it in my medical school and passed its exam like any other run of the mill exam in professional school. I was going through some of my notes from the school earlier on the subject and they have provided some interesting reading material. I hope to finish it before I move out to Karachi for a week or so. I will try and p...

The boundaries between a test match and a one day match seemed to blur when Shahid Khan Afridi was batting on the pitch yesterday afternoon and in the morning today. Magnificent piece of batting and stroke playing demonstrated by this untamed batsman. If cricket is all about entertainment then this man sure does his work brilliantly.    But I have heard that he has been found guilty of pitch tempering during the last session of the match. That is not a wise thing to do for a professional player. No doubt England team has displayed the worst kind of sportsmanship in the two days of the match but we should act civil. I just hope that he has not done any such thing and survives a ban.

Adolescent sexual behaviour Nearly 70% of all unmarried females are nonvirgins by age 19 (80% of males). 25% of females have had sex by age 15 ; almost all these encounters were forced or coerced . Average age of first sexual experience is 16 years. Adolescents in the aggregate still drift into sexual activity rather than decide to have sex. Most adolescent sexual activity will take place in the context of one primary relationship. Most adolescents are not promiscuous, but "serially monogamous." Recent survey tells us that 57% of adolescents claim to have used a male barrier method during their last act. Research suggests that this might be an over statement . Most do not do what they say. More than 50% of sexually active adolescents do not use birth control regularly. This is what KAPLAN tells me! The point is that we should not let these problems creep into our society. We happen to be following every vice of the western world without hesitation thinking, or pretendi...

If some of you have missed the documentry on Fallujah aired by RAI television here is the link so you can download. [size=64mb] Original post here .

28 seconds is a short period, 28 minutes a bit longer, 28 days a reasonable length, 28 months a steady number but 28 years is one hell of a time. Today my parents completed twenty eight years of their journey together. Happy anniversary!

I think I need to expand on my Mai stance. I feel the need to do so since One has graciously left a very informative comment on my last post. I will narrate his version of the story and then pass on my comments over it. I must say that I have heard the same account of news from my quarters but didn't think it was of any significant use mentioning that side of the story.    So it goes that there are two powerful clans in the area from where this one Mukhtaran Mai comes. As is the case in most of the rural areas of this country both these clans are at loggerheads with each other. Their enemosity is well known and wheel of power keeps on shifting between the two. Mai's brother, her younger brother, who is a minor, had illicit relations with one of the women of one of the clans. When this came to the notice of the relatives of the woman they apprehended the brother. They called their own pinchayat ( pinchayat is a village court of elders normally. Also known as Jir...

   I think watching cricket is related to staying at home. I remember I never use to watch any cricket matches while I was at my university. I had lost all the interest in this painfully slow game. Since I have returned back home I have been watching cricket again and with some interest.    The match that ended today was just marvellous. I was glued to the screen since yesterday. All the members of the team did amazing job and played some professional cricket. Inzamam was amazing with his captaincy. He was quick at making changes in his attack. He used his bowlers very wisely. He got the reward. Salman Butt played an excellent knock. Shoaib Akhter finally got some wickets. He was fast as ever. Muhammad Yousaf still hasn't found his class. He needs some time to gather himself but I think it is too much time for a professional player. Hasan Raza was an utter failure. Not only in batting but in his sloppy fielding in the crunch hours of the gam...

I have always wanted to write about this character that has plagued our national image for almost 2 years now. There was always something so very irritating about her. At first I gave it to my thoughts of chauvinism but gradually I came to see the light. I knew that Mukhtaran Mai was playing in the hands of evil. Ever since she was invited to US of A and her 10 minute post headline news special on CNN I had strong feelings for her insincerity towards her cause of feminism.    Having been brought up in a rural setting myself I had strong suspicions in believing in the authenticity of the Mai story from the very beginning. I still don't have faith in all what media has painted. But since I have no credible news source I can't deny her version of the story. Having said that I think even if her cause was true she has, now, fallen into the hands of evil doers.    I don't understand the logic behind her going to a country which can't boast of very high rec...

Haven't been able to sit down and write anything lately. I was busy yesterday with my passport. Just submitted an application for the Machine Readable one. It should be ready in another 11 days inshaAllah. Then i will have to go pick it up. Mind you for me going to the passport office and picking up the passport isn't that easy a task like someone who lives in a metropolitan city. I have to travel to another darn city to do all this and this wastes one whole day.

I was listening to the recent SAARC summit on our television. I got a chance to listen to the speech by the Indian Prime Minister. I was listening to this great Indian economist Prime Minister for the first time ever. His speech was mostly objective based and to the point. He meant business and was ready to put forward many relative incentives for the development of cooperation amongst the member countries of the state.    More important thing is that I got this feeling of realization in speech. He knew he was the head of state of one of the most powerful countries in the state and thus he realized that he has to talk business. He realized fully that he needs to tap at various human and natural resources in order to develop into a giant. He, most of all, realized that providing opportunities for proper higher education were an absolute must if we wanted to move forward.    During his speech he put forward many new, or not so new, ideas. Most import...

I know I have to keep on moving myself. I have to oblige to my impulses to open up something and then explore. I have to give in to the urges of using a screw driver and nuts and bolts. All this is happening more so at home than it was in the hostel. Back in the university time my services were sought for very limited number of mechanical and technical anomalies. Mostly I would fix a computer or two a broken CD Rom or a malfunctioning computer accessory. And all those air conditioning units from LG owe me a thanks for keeping them running in the humid environs of the city. But in University that was mostly it nothing more nothing exciting so to say. Over here I have all kinds of appliances that have run so old that they need my care and nurture on a regular basis. Only the other day I asked my mom to start paying me a salary for all the appliances that I fixed in the house. After all I am saving her money.    They say there are three kind of people in this world...

A usual Pakistani can often be found lamenting at the double standards of the West towards Islam in general and towards Pakistan in particular. You go sit in any gathering of respectable or not, people, and all you come across is a lot of political babble about how west is trying to manipulate the interests of the underdeveloped lot. Everyone wants the Govt. to be more vigilant towards these impending threats and work towards minimizing them. We inadvertently look towards our dictator to deliver on this front. Although everyone from a commener to a pseudo-religious-scholar has his/her point of difference about the way it should be accomplished yet they want the dictator to do this for them. Well for obvious reasons; he is the ruler afterall.    Apart from this type of criticism that one comes across in the shanty towns of this country there is another completely different form of critique that our dictator is made to suffer. And that is the home front. We lament th...

None of my posta are complete yet so i will post them in detail tomorrow. Have got nothing right now that i can really share with you guys.

So marvellous has been the sincerity of our nation that I cannot at times help but appreciate (the cynic that I am). In the aftermath of this devastating earthquake the whole nation of 160 million civilians got its act together and did what even the best nations of this world would look upon with an eye of envy. The generated response was a matter of minutes to hours and not days. Everyone was willing to help and lend a hand, irrespective of the qualifications.    During these relief efforts I have been close to many who have been at the helm of affairs. One phrase that I have heard so very frequently has probably become the golden phrase of the time. You ask anyone rushing to the scene of catastrophe and he would answer, "I wish to help them, even if that means picking up a few pieces of rubble and thus easing the pain." From mere school children to adults from every walk of life joined hands in this spirit and this is what is so marvellous about this nation...amaz...

One recent discoveries on the is DrPak . This blogger whom I need to know more than I do know right now is a Pakistani doctor who like me is getting ready to take his USMLEs. It seems that he has been reading me and Usman for sometime now and I am sure Usman will be much pleased to know that he loves The Beetles. He comments Its so refreshing to come across young paki doctors who think about things other than medicine. Who talk about literature, music, sex, love, friendships, life, etc etc... After being stuck in Peshawar for 6 years, it comes as a breath of fresh air. Theres a lot to share. Some interesting facts about our new found blogger can be read in some of his earlier posts and thus I quote I've had a bad five years in medical school. In the college (they dont call it medical school over here and my institute of learning is a college, not a university) I go to, it lasts about 5 years, not four. Were old, broken men and women by the time we are spit out of the tail-end of ...

Essa at Islami blog is giving first hand information about the earthqake. Has a large number of digital pictures and a very good narrative of his experience in the area after the earthquake. This blog is a must read for everyone keeping a track of activities in the region.

I tried posting from Microsoft Word directly to my blog through the new blogger tool. It didnt work! So i will say farewell to the tool because it is useless to me.

Eid greetings to all those who wander here.

Twenty eight down one more to go!