I remember the 80’s, when women wore bright, unicolour, skin tight shalwar kameez with a dupatta, rolled like a rope, resting on the shoulders. The hair, drenched in oil, used to be combed back in a tight ponytail with odd looking hair clips clinging to the side of head. Sandals were heeled and made a clattering sound. Makeup was basically red painted over everywhere. Continue reading →
Dr. Ghazala Butt has finally made through her specialization programme and becomes the first Doctor of Medicine in Dermatology from King Edward Medical University, Lahore. She is probably the fourth MD in Dermatology in entire Pakistan, which sounds strange….
Those who might have read my post ‘a charity for the parents’ are humbly informed that, I have won the case in Lahore High Court. The court has ordered the Post Office guys to return me Rs. 130,879/-. The next part, as I promised, is to set up a charity for my parents. I would be glad to listen your proposal/advice on charity, but usually I go along solo most of the times.. 
And I also beg to inform you that, yours truly has been promoted to the next rank by Government of the Punjab. So, double strike in December.
Haji Mir Shams-ud-Din (1854-1934) was the paternal grandfather of my paternal grandmother. He was one of the founding members of Anjuman Hamayat-e-Islam, a body formed in late 19th century to advance and protect interests of Indian Muslims, chiefly through education. For his part, amongst other, Mir Shams-ud-Din, donated land and helped establishing Islamia College in 1904, located at Railway Road, Lahore. Continue reading →
Writing a book is serious, and translating someone’s book very serious. Mr. Saeed-ul-Zafar, an engineer, was introduced to me by one of my colleague. He wanted to have his book ماورائے آب و گل translated from Urdu in to English. Initially, I was reluctant given my inexperience of translation but later agreed to the challenge (of course I was paid handsome). It took me a month to translate. It was difficult, yet enjoyable. The book has been published and is available at Amazon (this is not an advertisement of the book )
My prolonged absence from writing can be explained best by procrastination. However, there were certain events, which kept me busy and distracted my attention. One such event was a mandatory training course, which I attended from May to July. After 12 years of service, the authorities considered me qualified enough to attended a ante-promotion course. Continue reading →
Tonga or horse taxi was a common sight in Lahore. It is fast receding in history replaced by motorcycle rickshaw. The front-back seated tonga is driven by a single horse who is blinded by coverings to the side of eyes. Probably, this helps in fewer distractions and straight run to the destination. A good horse gets nice decorations to her head and is quite colorful at times. When she runs on the road, a rhythm of clip-clap gives her its signature tune. On sunny days or winter evenings, this approaching clip-clap is a forerunner that someone is coming. It is a fair bit of trick to mount a tonga. If you are new, it is likely that you will miss the foot paddle. In such a case, you will need the hand of the taxi driver or کوچوان to board the slippery seat in the front or back. Continue reading →
Khushwant Singh at 95 has written a new book. I was going through excerpts of the book where he writes:
I’ve lived a reasonably contented life. I’ve often thought about what it is that makes people happy—what one has to do in order to achieve happiness.
First and foremost is good health. If you do not enjoy good health, you can never be happy. Any ailment, however trivial, will deduct something from your happiness. Continue reading →
At this day, I bow my head in gratitude to God as I celebrate birthday no.35. The day reminds me the ups and downs of life and importantly the bounties of God. When I compare myself with others, I find many things which others do not have. I have led a fairly reasonable life so far. No major health or financial worries, educated fairly well, married happily and own a house and other accessories. I have surfed the sea of knowledge and enjoyed the journey. Thanks to Allah, my religious beliefs are well grounded in fundamentals of Qur’an. I still find an urge to move forward. There have been lows in my life. I have lost parents; my major low. However, I think of lows lesser then past years. Why? Because I find many others suffering even more. My father always used to bring a cake on my birthday no matter I had fathered two kids of my own. Since he left this mortal world, I kind of have switched gears in this respect and keep a fast on my birthday as a gratitude to God. So: Happy Birthday to me!!
I drive daily in Lahore. Roads have generally improved and so has traffic management, in recent times. But the old classical holes, ditches, gutters and obstacles retain their presence. Driving on these roads is like car racing where you need to look right, left, back and front all at once besides scanning for holes. Then you need to look out for cars, motorcycles, tractor trolleys, cycles, rickshaws, donkey carts, and pedestrians who keep changing lanes and positions with impunity. In an instant, they can test your panic syndrome and foot work on the brake. Continue reading →
After much fight with the question: ‘what to do in life’, I came to a preliminary conclusion that I should do what I feel is right. I also concluded that in doing what I feel is right, I should not burden myself with time limits and what others think of my apparent eccentrics. So as part of this philosophy, your good self is reading this blog which I setup a few months back. I also setup a home clinic for my wife, who is a skin specialist. Continue reading →
Standing in the door of barber shop, gasping for fresh air and watching my elder son get a hair cut, I chanced a glance at the mirror and froze right there. My side pose resembled a striking similarity to my grandfather. Same face cut, nose, brow, and side burns! It was he standing there in his youth. Continue reading →
