Crow's Nest...

It was a refreshing series.  I did not get to watch it online.  I blame Dish Network for being guilty of greed.  They make us pay arm and leg for their programming but could not get us the coverage.  I am paying for a cricket channel's package but still was asked to shell out money if I wanted to watch this series live.  I think dish Network should be ashamed of these policies.  I do not believe they alone are the ones who adopt this kind of strategy though. I was pleasantly amused by the results.  It has been a long time since Pakistan and India met in a bilateral series.  I would have liked to see a test series as well but Indians do not want to oblige us that much.  I do appreciate even this little series.  It was such a show.  Such a short lived stint but interesting nonetheless.

Tahir-ul-Qadri is trying to rally Pakistanis to come out in his support and march towards Islamabad.  His million march started last night from the posh neighborhood of Model Town, Lahore.  He left in his bomb proof and bullet proof 150 million Rupee vehicle.  It is also reported that accompanying him in this march is his own palace like mobile home.  The home has been custom built to have a sleeping area, bathroom with own water supply, air conditioning, media outlets for entertainment and is bomb proof. I am astounded by the need of a so called mullah to travel under such heavy guard.  I am also astounded by the fact that he touts this as a movement of the commoner.  If he really believes in this then he should not need protection form this common man of Pakistan.  Yet whenever he speaks on stage a huge void and thick bullet proof glass separates him from his 'followers'.  His die hard fans who supposedly will do anything on his command need to...

I think most of the overseas Pakistanis today miss a reliable source if news that connects them to Pakistan. Sure we have multiple media outlets that are trying to make us believe that they do the most reliable reporting but this is not true. In fact it is the farthest thing from the truth. Whenever I watch a TV channel from back home or try to read a newspaper I am disappointed by the level of dismay, disappointment and self blame all the opinion makers suffer from. All I can read is the things wrong with the society. All of them want to profess they possess the ability to identify all the ills of our society. They are so enamored by the onslaught of the media war that they just can not see any positivity in the daze of their own negativity. One almost feels like distancing one from all the bickering, blabbering of these actors. These actors who for small amounts of money are committing a monumental crime by disillusioning this nation. I guess that fault is our own that we a...

I would really like it if google stopped treating blogger as an orphan child. I mean they have updates for all the software with new innovative designs every day and they can not come up with a decent blogger application. This is sad. I would really like it if the current app would allow typing the post in landscape mode as that is easier on my thumbs and faster to type.

This experiment in education of masses, by coursera , seemed very intriguing to me from the very beginning. The upside of the experience was that it was free and endorsed by some big names in the education arena. I jumped onto the ship from its onset. Currently I am enrolled in a course that is eight weeks long and I think I am enjoying it. My goal for enrolling in the course was many fold. I wanted to educate myself about the health care act and I thought that there was no better person to learn from than Obama's health secretary. I also wanted to reap the benefit of free education. Then there was this desire to see how the education system works in America from a student perspective. So far it has been a rewarding experience. I have learned a lot about Medicare and Medicaid and the discrepancies that exist in the health care system in united states. I have also learned to more effectively compare our health care systems with others around the world. I now have a better idea of w...

The second half of last year was exceptionally and unusually dry. There was hardly an inch of rain for good nine months. Then there was brown thanksgiving and Christmas. Even the new years was bone dry. But then came march this year. It has rained more than eleven inches since march this year. I do not mind the rain much. Infact I look forward to some rain as it keeps the grass green and our water bill down. However once my roof started leaking I was really disappointed. Especially so since the apartments we moved into were supposedly brand new and modern in construction. They were not supposed to dribble like an incontinent man so soon in their life cycle. I think there are nineteenth century homes in this town that have more continent roofs than ours. It is also very disconcerting to think that all this leaking roof is going to breed a lot of mold eventually and then there will be no stopping the upper respiratory infections. I am disappointed to say the least. The bummer is that the...

Pakistan faced Bangladesh in the finals of Asia cup 2012.  I had a chance to watch some part of the final live on TV.  Bangladesh lost the game after a good fight.  The game was over in due time and everything went back to normal.  Only that it did not.  No one knew that Bangladeshi crowd and the board are such sore losers.  Having reached the finals of Asia Cup, they thought they were crowned the winners as well. Since that time Bangladesh has left no stone unturned to sour the taste of victory for the Pakistani team. One must realize that Asia Cup was scheduled after long and tiring tours for Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India.  Bangladesh team was the only relatively fresh team in the tournament.  I also think that Sri Lanka had no interest in winning the tournament after a long but pretty successful tours of South Africa and Australia.  Indian team was in Australia for about three months and lost almost all games there.  Pakistan had ret...