Crow's Nest...

I am still waiting for the rain to come my way. I wouldn't mind if this rain is in terms of showers of luck if it is not to be in terms of showers of water. At the moment both ends seem pretty dry and barren. But I have hope inshaAllah and firm belief that it will come some day soon. PLoS has a good piece of correspondence in this issue that talks about the obsession of the South Asians with fair skin. The authors tell us that ...In South Asia there is a widespread preference for fair skin and this has been exploited by the manufacturers of fairness creams. White skin has a colonial connotation of power and superiority. The emergence of a paler global entertainment industry has served as a fillip to the marketing of an international beauty ideal. Beauty pageant winners in India are all extraordinarily tall and breathtakingly slim, have light honey-colored skin, and peddle Western ideals of beauty. South Asian culture has carried within itself a capacity for female objectificat...

I am waiting for the rain to come my way. Thus far it has not! Every day I look at the weather forecast and I am told that there are probabilities of rain but not a single drop still. The sun is shining outside, bright and hot. It was an 80% chance of rain forecast for today but there is not even a single cloud in the sky. Contrary to this Lahore and Islamabad enjoyed a lot of rain in the past week or so. The thunderstorms left the two cities drenched and at places overflowing. I hope we get some rain in this week so that the weather improves and crops get some water. My step 2 prep is going on and I hope to take the exam by the end of August InshaAllah.

I have to indulge into small talk this time. There is a lot of it that I gather during my usual daily dose of newspaper reading and some of it springs right from my genius brain. Anwer Syed indulges into the liberty of exploring and dissecting the blasphemy laws in Pakistan . He begins well telling us why these laws were required in the first place. But falls shy of stressing on the point that there is one important reason that he has so skilfully omitted from his reasoning. Defiling a religious personality is frowned upon not only because it keeps the social society together but also because it serves to set standards of morality for the society. And we can also argue that Muslim faith is different from others in the sense that here religion is no different from politics and society. He begins There was a time when religion kept a society together, and denial of its truth or efficacy could work as a disintegrative agent. It had, therefore, to be protected from the invasions of n...

The Indians are once again showing their true blood. The bombings in Bombay which left hundreds dead are being lamed onto Pakistan. Thats like a true friend indeed. They think our religious parties are connected to the bombings and they have proofs for getting their point across. As I see it this is just another stunt by the Indian Govt. to derail the peace process and place the blame on Pakistan. We will see what chicken hatches in the press meeting of the Indian prime minister next. He will come with some absurd proof and pictures of extremist camps in Pakistan and assert that those very places are the headquarters of all terrorism in the world. They have been doing that before but never once has anyone found any such camp in Pakistan. They have been telling all the world that we have a million camps in Kashmir where our forces train militants. I think they live in a fools' paradise _ all of them. If there were any the US, NATO forces and hundreds of independent NGOs shou...

You thought I was typing away all these words just for nothing. Well you were utterly, miserably, sadly wrong! Here is one story that shows what you can do with the help of blogging. You can trade a paper clip for a home .

Following is an extract from a speech by Carly Fiorina, CEO of HP. There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world. It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts. Within its dominion lived hundreds of millions of people, of different creeds and ethnic origins. One of its languages became the universal language of much of the world, the bridge between the peoples of a hundred lands. Its armies were made up of people of many nationalities, and its military protection allowed a degree of peace and prosperity that had never been known. The reach of this civilization's commerce extended from Latin America to China, and everywhere in between. And this civilization was driven more than anything, by invention. Its architects designed buildings that defied gravity. Its mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable the building of computers, and the creation of encrypt...

1. Benign - What you be after you be eight. 2. Terminal Illness - Getting sick at the airport. 3. Dilate - To live long. 4. Cauterize - Made eye contact with her. 5. Seizure - Roman emperor. 6. Recovery Room - Place to do upholstery. 7. Morbid - A higher offer than I bid. 8. Tumor - More than one. 9. Cesarean Section - A neighborhood in Rome. 10. Medical Staff - A Doctor's cane. 11. Hangnail - What you hang your coat on. 12. Nitrates - Cheaper than day rates. 13. Varicose - Near by/close by 14. Fibula - A small lie. 15. Outpatient - A person who has fainted. 16. Pelvis - Second cousin to Elvis. 17. Secretion - Hiding something 18. D&C - Where Washington is. 19. Genital - Non-Jewish person. 20. Coma - A punctuation mark.

Past one month has been least productive of many in recent past. I have been trying to resume my studies for step 2 but things have been on and off for one reason or the other. It has been a long time since I made a real post on my blog. Most of the times I pick up my keyboard to type something but the whole post is left just in the middle because of lack of motivation to write. there are quite a few political posts which I will be trying to complete and put up. Some interesting facts about Pakistan Steel Mills and other privatization stunts of these generals passed through my reading and I will update on these fronts soon. I am trying to set up a discussion group here in Jhang. There is a dearth of people in this city who are dedicated enough to work for the welfare of the youth and the population. Well there is dearth of people of this sort everywhere but in my city there is essentially no one. There is complete lack of constructive discussion forums and youth of today are ad...

We need more gas pumps in Jhang. There is only one working pump in the whole city and there are like a million cars with CNG kits. There is a long queue on the pump every hour of the day. One has to wait for more than an hour to get a fill. To top all this is the fact that the pump meters are tampered with. My car never took in so much gas ever before. I think they are earning about Rs. 25 over every gas refill through this meter tempering. By this formula if they refill 1000 vehicles every day (which is not a surprise) they must be earning an extra Rs. 25,000 through their malicious act. This country is fast disintegrating into a condition where civil war will erupt. The dictator's government has announced yet another price hike in gasoline effective from 1st July this year. If this increase in prices takes place as announced there will be an economic disaster in this country. Consumer goods will become very expensive and public transport will come to a halt. In order to...