My Chronicles...

30/09: Eid Mubarak!

Ramadan is about to end (has already ended for some) and I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy Eid. May Allah bless us all with his bounties and make us better Muslims. Amen.


Spread as much love, peace, joy and prosperity as you can on this day of celebration.

For reading more Eid posts, click here.

Images taken randomly from Google image search.

20/09: Bomb blast at Marriott Hotel, Islamabad

The people of Pakistan have, yet again, been targeted by another suicide bombing in Islamabad's elite Marriott Hotel. This hotel is located in a red security zone area with the highest level of security possible. The home of the Prime Minister is just a kilometer away from the place of incident and this adds to the security of the area.

The method of the blast is unclear, as of yet. Geo News, through Hamid Mir, is speculating and spreading panic as is usual without regard to public unrest over the incident. What I don't get is how come media teams are inside the hotel lobby and halls while the rescue teams cannot be seen there? The first thing the police and rescue teams should have done was to cordon off the area for protection of civilians and media personnel alike. Not only is this a gross violation of the protocol for responding to such incidents, this is dangerous for the people inside, trapped or otherwise. Furthermore, allowing media personnel free rein inside will be detrimental to preservation of evidence on the crime scene. One is led to wonder if this is a deliberate intention of the current government.

The number of casualties and injured are rising with passing time. Currently, the numbers are pretty inconclusive. Time will tell who was responsible for this and how exactly this incident came to be but the current anti-American atmosphere in the country will not help any.

All that we can do at this time is to stay safely away from the location of the incident, inquire with family and friends about their safety and refrain from panicking ourselves and others. Refraining ourselves from watching Geo News and switching to some other news channel will be helpful to achieve the last aim of not panicking needlessly.

Stay safe and stay aware!

Note: The official excuse being given by the government for a truck being able to approach the hotel despite the ban on trucks entering the federal capital is that the Red Zone did not include the Marriott Hotel. This is inspite the fact that it was stated to be in the red zone the last time blasts occurred near it. On being contacted by the media, Farhatullah Babar told Geo News that "No VIP was killed". It is clear that the democratic government Pakistanis chose for themselves does not even cares for their lives. Dozens of people lose their lives, many more injured and all they can say is that no VIP was killed. What about the loss of life of the common civilian? Is this government there to serve the common man or the VIPs?

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14/08: Happy Independence Day!

14th August is finally here! Let's come and celebrate this day together with the vision to do everything to bring to reality the vision of Muhammad Ali Jinnah with regards to Pakistan to make it a nation standing for equality and prosperity. May Allah (SAW) help us with this vision.

26/07: A Great Loss: Randy Pausch Is Dead

A couple weeks back, there was an email circulating amongst faculty and students of NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences about Randy Pausch's inspirational last lecture/address at Carnegie Mellon University regarding how to achieve one's childhood dreams. He died on July 25, 2008 at the age of 47.


Mr. Pausch knew that he was going to die in a couple months due to pancreatic cancer. He delivered the lecture on 18th of September, 2007 but it spread around the world like wildfire. I saw the video of the lecture through YouTube. While delivering the lecture, he was calm and humorous. The address was heartfelt and inspirational. I encourage students from any and all disciplines to watch the video.



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31/05: Sharon Stone's folly

How foolish can a person be? Or even so heartless as to trying to gain political mileage out of a catastrophe?

It goes to show how dumb (in the stupid sense) people can be. I wrote about the Chinese earthquake previously on my blog here and expected that such a tragedy would bring people across the world together in helping China. In fact, I didn't even knew of Sharon Stone until she opened her moth to say that the earthquake in China might be bad karma due to China's alleged treatment of Tibet. And I quote her:

"I'm not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don't think anyone should be unkind to anyone else,"..."And then this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?" - source

Does she also think that Katrina was a result of bad karma from the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan where millions of lives have been lost due to American policies? Or maybe Basic Instinct 2 with $70 million production cost resulted in less than $6 million in ticket sales is also due to karma?

I applaud the Chinese nation who unanimously condemned Stone and are trying to hurt her where it hurts the most: monetarily. Many Chinese cinemas (under UME Cineplex) have refused to show movies in which she has performed (and will perform in the future) and Christian Dior advertisements featuring Stone's image were also dropped from all ads in China amidst the public uproar. Even on previous controversial issues (e.g. cartoons of Prophet Muhammad), I have urged the people from not partaking in violent protesting. Instead, boycotting the products and making the perpetrators suffer economic loss is the best way to go around showing your protest. After all, in a capitalist world, what hurts most is an economic loss.

I also learned today that she has apologized for her comments but I strongly believe that the apologies are not sincere and are just the result of bad publicity she is getting now. So, for what it counts, her apologies are falling on deaf ears across China. After all, slapping deliberately and then saying 'sorry' is just not enough. I urge the Chinese government and the people to keep implementing the economic boycott where Sharon Stone is concerned.