FarQuest

Reflections

May 18, 2013 – 8:15 pm

I have always been a dreamer - as a child I wanted to open up a shop where I could sell candies and colorful stationary supplies of all sorts, I would often gather my candies, color pencils, pens etc, set them up on a small table, role-play as a shop keeper and force my family members specially my poor brother to buy stuff from my shop. My family members would often call me a ‘memon’ for that referring to a Pakistani community where people carry business in their genes and most end up building successful businesses.

When I grew up, I wanted to become a pilot - to motivate me further my brother would often make me pilot ID cards and I would then role-play a pilot. I later took a shift and wanted to become an aeronautical engineer - I would debate with my family for hours trying to mentally prepare them to see me flying off to Risalpur to become an aeronautical engineer at PAF Academy. They were barely convinced to let me go but I was determined till the news came in that there would be no intake of females in year that I could have applied in. The news dampened my enthusiasm for working with planes but certainly not of going for professional studies. I chose to get into software engineering because I had been a computer science student since my school days but yes planes fascinated me more.

It was after I started pursuing software engineering as a professional field that i realized that I can continue to dream. Back in my university days I dreamed of building a software app that could change the world and somehow eradicate all vice from this planet (yes, dreams don’t have to be practical always) I could not understand how and why people intentionally do bad to others - out of the sheltered and protected life of school/college and in exposed life of university, I felt this even with more intensity. I would have discussions on this with my teachers and my dear friend (who’s dear to me till date) SJ for hours - teachers would advice me to stop being altruistic and try to adopt professionalism (which was a fancy word for being selfish then and may be it is still is?) Friend SJ used to be as clueless as I were and we still somehow are - probably that’s the reason why we are great friends!

Later when I entered professional life, I met great people - some of them actually had crazy dreams like the ones I had. While life continued to happen with all its ups and downs some sane friends like LG, RG, MU, JA, RA who had a more pragmatic approach towards life would often suggest me to ‘get used to’, ‘go for what makes me happy’ and ‘draw a line beyond which I should just think about myself’ or ‘have faith in karma’.

I did try following their advices and things did improve in life for good but alongside I also came across people who shook the very foundation of my belief in goodness - they left me wondering if someone could really act the way they did and continue to do while pretending to be the best out there. Yet I thank them today for I have been able to learn the art of judging people behind faces (at least some of it) and importance of following one’s instincts only from my experiences with these people.

Yet when I take time out to reflect on times gone by and continue to dream of finding utopia one day, I feel there’s a still a long way to go - the very concept of goodness and trust baffles me now specially in current times when genuine goodness would be seen with suspicion and fabricated one would be well-taken. I struggle to differentiate between selfishness and selflessness - my quest to find out when to separate sentiments from actions is right and when does it become wrong, continues.

I wonder if finding these answers would make me a bitter person? I’m definitely a changed person already yet a voice from inside continues to say otherwise when faced with the dilemma of being taken advantage of and (mis)judging. Till I re-reflect and re-write, i would end up on Rumi’s quote:

“Beyond the rightness or wrongness of things there is a field, I’ll meet you there”

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to be a self-pity post and also not to imply that I’m all good - I certainly have my own set of flaws which you might already be aware of This post is purely an outcome of weekend reflections. It’s good to look back on your life every once in a while

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Travel Bits: Memoir of rich woman in Bangladesh :-)

April 27, 2013 – 8:19 pm

Human mind is mysterious - you never know what reminds you of what. For instance, I always find it amazing how music and fragrances take me on trip down the memory lane. I specially have a thing about fragrances - be it perfumes, colognes, air fresheners or flowers, I love having these all.

It’s for this reason that at least perfumes/colognes get to travel with me too.This morning I used one of the colognes that traveled with me to Dhaka last year and its fragrance instantly took me back to my hotel room there and memories from those good not so old days started floating through me mind. So, here I am writing this blog post to capture some of those memories into words.

I made my second trip to Bangladesh in November-December last year. I went back with an impression of Dhaka as pretty dull city as compared to my city Karachi. It’s where everything closes down by 9pm so, if you are working till late daily, you end up seeing only your hotel and work place. Yet I was excited to go there as I had been assigned a high-responsibility role in a project of migrating the entire transaction processing system of one of the biggest banks of Bangladesh. Another reason for my excitement were my Bangladeshi colleagues cum friends whom I was sure to enjoy working with. Also, since this was a month long trip, together we had planned to check out places that we missed seeing on our previous trip.

Like my previous trip, this one also started with crazy work schedules, we would stay up working till wee hours and go back to hotel just to take a few hours sleep before we could start the next day. However, our Fridays (day-off we used to get) would turn out to be different because we would keep all our plans for sight-seeing, dining-out, shopping or having mere fun reserved for this day.

On the first Friday, we were taken to markets called “New Market” and an another one in Mirpur which is famous for Saris by a nice Pakistani engineer K residing at our hotel. He was fluent in Bangla and a very kind man who would take us all around Dhaka in his car.

New market is the place where you get original branded garments of all these famous international brands like Nike, Polo, Armani and many more. The only downside is that they are mostly rejected for being sub-standard according to international standards but the flaws they have are so small that they could easily be neglected specially when you are getting these clothes at throw away prices K also knew of all the good shops where we could get original stuff from at good rates and more importantly he had the skills to bargain for us

As a result, I ended up buying stuff worth Tk, 14,000 in that single day and got famous as “rich woman”. Our primary contact person at bank we were doing project for, would always say “You are a rich woman” whenever I would complain about something being expensive. For the surprised eyes reading this post, must tell that as always I hardly bought anything for myself and all these were gifts for friends, family members and colleagues

Anyway, after this shopping spree, I simply fell in love with New Market, however, too bad I couldn’t go there again but does this mean I didn’t shop anymore? Certainly not. After a few days, I was introduced to this shop called Aarong - one of the outlets by a fair trade organization operated by BRAC and man, it had some incredibly beautiful hand-made stuff. So, yes, I ended up buying some really beautiful handicrafts from there as well.

Amidst all this, I also witnessed a dark side of other wise progressive looking Bangladesh and that was “poverty”. I wonder why I didn’t notice it before but poverty in Bangladesh has reached a disturbing level, so much so that you would see it everywhere traveling through roads and what worse it has resulted into is child labor. We do have the menace of child labor in Pakistan as well but not as much as you’d see in Bangladesh. Children could be seeing pulling carts, picking garbage, as waiters, carrying loads much much heavier that they should and what not. These are sad sights but I’m glad there are organizations such as BRAC NGO that are doing at least something to bring about a change in lives of poor people. For instance, a very pleasant change I saw in Bangladesh is how they have started including women in their work force. One could see women everywhere from being security officials in their airport security to being drivers. Often, in the morning, the car that would come to pick us up would have a female driver placed into this job by BRAC NGO.

I believe, I was lucky enough to see the different forms of life in Bangladesh: life in extreme poverty, life of a middle class family and also the life style of elite. The elite you could clearly spot in malls like Bashundra or while dining out at up-scale restaurants like Bamboo Shoot, Baton Rouge or Village and as in Pakistan they look in-different, lost in their own luxurious lives. The thing that impressed me about middle class in Bangladesh is their appetite for education which is far far better than that I see in my homeland. People in Bangladesh would live in very small rented places but would make sure they get professional education and this trend alone in my opinion is going to change the future of Bangladesh.

After completing the project successfully and smoothly Alhamdulilah, some of my team-mates and I were lucky enough to take 2 days off and escape to the south of Bangladesh which includes their famous Cox’s Bazaar - the longest natural beach in the world. It’s a beautiful tourist spot which at night would remind me of San Francisco’s Pier 39 specially when we were able to catch a live concert on beach and oh it was free for all and had some pretty famous singers from Bangladesh singing there

Photo Courtesy: Adil Javaid

Also, it’s beautiful for the fact that you can see sea on one side and hills covered with greenery on the other. See for yourself:

Photo Courtesy: Adil Javaid/Umair Khan

Cox’s bazaar offers some water sports as well so, we tried out jet sking and it was much much fun!

Next spot after Cox’s bazaar was Saint Martin’s which is a coral island at the Southern most end of Bangladesh, bordering with Myanmar. The journey to Saint Martin’s is the best part of it. It’s about 2.5 hour cruise journey and on your way, you enter Bay of Bengal:

Meet friendly seagulls that chase you till the end of your journey

See the border of Myanmar

Photo Courtesy: Adil Javaid

and a beautiful sunset:

So, this is just a small account of my second trip to Bangladesh after which I’m glad I know that Bangladesh is not just Dhaka which is notorious of for its traffic jams but there are many more beautiful places as well. Also, I learnt that Bangladesh is not just about riches you see in Bashundra and in the form of best Movenpick ice cream that I loved :$ but life also exists in conditions that you doubt life could exist in.

To end this post on a positive note, Bangladeshi music is pretty cool and I ended up getting hooked on music from one of the Bangladeshi bands called “Mohakaal”. Pretty soothing music. I still often listen to one of their songs that you can download from or listen here.

Posted in Personal | 2 Comments »

Wounds need not be visible always…

April 7, 2013 – 12:27 am

I was just flipping through news channels hoping to watch 1 pm bulletin and since it was time for Zuhr prayers, I could hear azaan from nearby mosque but soon all sounds were suppressed by loud shouts - she was crying and shouting as if asking for help, help that could end her misery. Worried, I ran to my bedroom where I could hear these shouts even more clearly and it was then that I recognized the voice - I hear this familiar yet unknown voice and shouts often, at different times of day, sometimes even in the middle of night. They can be heard no longer than 7-10 minutes but this short period is long enough to sense pain and suffering that this lady must have gone through before reaching this state of helplessness. I do not know who she is and what is the reason behind her condition but hearing these shouts over the years have only made me suspect that she’s suffering from some sort of psychiatric disorder. This only makes me empathize with this unknown woman even more. Empathize, because this is not the first time that I have come across someone with psychiatric disorder.

I have had experience engaging with people suffering from mental illnesses ever since I was quite young so, I see this illness as any other illness that anyone of us can suffer from at any point in life. I do not see psychiatric disorders as some ’supernatural occurrences’ caused by evil spirits and I do not approve of considering this to be taboo either. Yet, what saddens me is that despite the progress we have made, many of us still lack knowledge and patience required to even understand what people suffering from mental disorders are going through let alone help them. It is easy to casually tag someone as “psychotic” and I have been guilty of doing same but it is very difficult to understand what someone with such a disorder goes through and also what has made him/her be in that state in the first place.

In today’s age, our ignorance is making situation grave because we as a society have built status symbols possession of which makes an individual ’socially acceptable’. These status symbols are often out of reach of majority and as a result, fear of being socially out-casted gives rise to complexes. To make things difficult, this same society considers seeing a psychiatrist taboo, so majority continues to suffer in silence until they collapse. At that point too not many are lucky enough to get proper treatment for they are either taken to fake “spiritual healers” or general physicians and poorly trained psychiatrists who consider “tranquilizers” to be a silver bullet for treatment of these disorders.

As these thoughts rush through my head, I recall the time when a few friends and I used to take some timeout on Fridays to visit psychiatry ward at Jinnah Hospital. We would spend time with patients there, listen to their stories or simply talk to them about life in general. It was a therapeutic experience not just for those patients but for us as well - it helped us realize that there’s life beyond our luxurious homes and offices as well. There are problems bigger than the ones we have in life, there are people who have suffered in ways that you only read about but they never registered in your mind as ‘facts of life’. This experience made us count our blessings and we grew up being happier, more thankful beings that we probably would have been had we not had this experience.

A few years later when I saw my near and dear one(s) suffering due to psychiatric disorders, I experienced, how difficult it is to find the right doctor who is willing to give time, who’s willing to listen and who’s capable enough to prescribe the right medications at the right time. I also witnessed havoc that mis-diagonisis and incorrectly prescribed medications can play with the patient’s life and way it impacts the entire family. I also learnt how challenging it is to be a care-taker and the patience as well as life-style change it requires to comfort the other person.

However, the most important lesson that I have learnt through my experiences is that the ones suffering have had a difficult past and wounds are not always visible. Do not judge people on face value. The least you could do is to be nice towards them. Listen to them, spend time with them, try to understand their perspective and give them hope not through mere words but solid actions - by standing next to them through thick and thin.

I live to see the day when all of us develop a more open attitude towards psychiatric disorders and there are more competent psychiatrists and psychologists out there to help people.If I weren’t a software engineer, I would have been a psychiatrist or a psycho-therapist - nothing in life gives deeper satisfaction and sense of accomplishment than being able to improve someone’s life by putting an end to his/her misery.

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Travel Bits: Experience Bangladesh Part 1

January 18, 2013 – 11:43 pm

2012 ended with lots of bitter and sweet memories and here I’m updating my blog after almost a year - not cool I know but ahh life! Amidst all the positive and negative chaos that life offers, the traveling I get to do always comes as a breeze of fresh air. It makes you realize that getting out of your comfort zone is not easy but the way ‘change’ affects your mental and physical being, it’s worth enduring all the dis-comfort. Thanks to all the traveling that I have done in past 4 years, I now secretly wish to be a nomad or more decently a backpacker who could travel to far and wide lands, seas, skies……but I sense this wish may not be granted anytime soon so, I’m quietly adding it to my list of post-retirement plans - let’s hope I’m fit to back-pack at 60 or more importantly be rich enough!

Anyway till I retire, I hope and pray that I travel to at least one new place every year and keep turning this blog into a travelogue. Today, I shall write about the ‘new place’ I got to explore in 2012 - Bangladesh.

Mochli and Chaawal or Bhaat and maach (Rice and Fish) is what most of the people say instantly upon hearing the name “Bangladesh”. I am glad that after traveling to this country twice in past 1 year, now I have a lot more than bhaat and maach to think and talk about when referring to Bangladesh. My first trip to Dhaka was in May 2012 - a 5 day trip packed with meetings and work and more work, yet thanks to great colleagues and friends, we still managed to take a little bit of time to see some of Dhaka. The next trip came in November 2012 and this time it was a 3 week trip which ended up being month long, however, if we talk about work things were not too different - it was hectic! BUT there’s one thing that I always feel lucky about - the people I meet while traveling are mostly as fun-loving and enthusiastic as I am and this time it was no different. From amongst our Bangladeshi colleagues and my Pakistani teammates, I’d always find someone or the other ready to help me experience Bangladesh be it through sight-seeing, shopping or food! While mere words may not be enough to capture the beautiful experience it was traveling through different parts of Bangladesh, I would still try and jot down here the ‘Ah-ha’ moments of my tours along with some pictures. Here you go readers on a short virtual journey of the land of cycle-rickshaws:

- Our great Bangladeshi friends and gracious hosts Raihan and Zakir made sure to make us taste most of the great food that Dhaka offers during our first trip and also see places of historic significance. Foods I loved: Boneless Hilsa from Oh Calcutta - this fish is Bangladeshi equivalent of Pakistani palow machi also referred to as palla fish. Next in line is Arabic Nan by Dhanshri and tasty drink Aampura which is made with ripe mangoes and Zeera Pani - made with cumin seeds. This drink is considered to be a good digestive so, it’s always good to have a glass of it after throwing your taste-buds a party. Another absolutely mouth-watering delicacy that I have fallen in love with is Bangladeshi Rosh-Gullay (Rusgullay) - a sweet that everyone must have while visiting Bangladesh. When it comes to fast-food, A&W ended up being my favorite fast-food place primarily because of its specialty - Root Beer! Before too many thoughts start racing through your mind, must clarify that this was a non-alcoholic drink made with barley water and mint and served with a topping of ice cream

- Another interesting thing I noticed in Dhaka was how pans are served. We located an air-conditioned pan shop where we received pan menu that we could order from and bought a pan worth Tk. 200 . There were even more expensive ones as well

- Places we visited were Ahsan Manzil - the residence of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula and place where Muslim League started from. For history lovers, Ahsan Manzil has a nice museum which will take you back to pre-Indo-Pak partition days and you will get to see how the Nawabs used to lead life back then - well, as anyone could guess and as the museum would say, it was lavish!

- Then we went to Sadarghat - one of the largest river ports in world.

- Next stop was Lalbagh fort - the place that UNESCO World Heritage Center website describes as “A palace fortress constructed by Prince Muhammed Azam, third son of Moghul Emperor Aurangzeb, 1678-9.”

- Visiting a new place and not shopping? Not possible so, we decided to check out South Asia’s largest and world’s 12th largest shopping mall Bashundra City Mall in Dhaka and burnt a hole in our pockets as the place is pretty expensive but worth checking out.

- Apart from the places, things that interested me and that I feel we should follow here in Pakistan as well are: use of solar energy is much more common there than it’s here. You could see solar panels on top of every other building. Next, despite horrible traffic jams, use of seat belts is a norm in Dhaka and the most impressive of all things - use of single language ‘Bangla’ all across the country and that too with pride!

This is mostly what I had to cover from my first trip. There’s lot more that I have to share from my second one so, that’s what Part 2 of this post will be all about. Hope to cover that soon!

Posted in Personal, Travel | 4 Comments »

Travel Bits: Trip to Gilgit-Baltistan

February 18, 2012 – 4:26 pm

It has been long since I last blogged. Life has become so crazy that I seldom get a chance to do things that I once loved doing. May be I still crave for them but being a corporate slave that I have become over the years, whatever little time I get after work, I spent it mostly with family, taking care of household chores or occasionally visiting friends.

Last year i.e. 2011 turned out to be a good year for me Alhamdulilah. I traveled to some great places, met some amazing people and managed to brave through some pretty tough times, learning some important lessons of life all along the way.

I thought about blogging each one of these lessons several times but sometimes fell short of money they call “time” and sometimes I fell in the trap of thoughts that considered it all meaningless. However, today, I have decided to blog a little so as to re-live some of these experiences.

Like many Pakistanis, I used to wonder what good is in this country that is making super powers crazy about it. The many problems of my country acted like blinders and did not let me be aware of the incredible things that Pakistan is blessed with.I came to know of these blessings only after my trip to the North of Pakistan.

In May last year, a couple of friends and I decided to go to Gilgit to conduct a workshop on Digital Privacy - looking at its various forms from technical and legislation perspective. It was being conduced as part of the ongoing TakeBackTheTech campaign and since we had mostly been doing events and activities in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad earlier, this time we decided to go beyond these urban centers and to the Karakoram International University in Gilgit city.

The weather was not perfect for flights those days so, we had no option but to embark on a road journey from Islamabad to Gilgit. I had never traveled from one city to another by road earlier and there I was going on an average 20 hour one-way journey. However, it was one of the most fabulous experiences that I have had in my life up until now. It did not just make me witness the beauty of nature but also be thankful about the luxuries that we urbanites are blessed with and that we take for granted.

Rather than writing it all down, I will share some pictures and videos from my trip so, you get to digitally experience the awesomeness of it too. Here you go folks!

Look at the mountains and this is just the beginning…

The lovely Karakoram River.

View from my hotel room

In Gilgit you will find roses all around. It’s piece of heaven for a person like me who adores flowers

The beautiful Rakaposhi - It’s 27th highest mountain in the world and 12th highest in Pakistan. More on it here.

The Convergence Point - where Karakoram Range, Himalayas and Hindukush all converge. SubhanAllah!

Nanga Parbat - the Killer Mountain which’s 9th highest in the world. More on it here.

It was an amazing experience to have Nanga Parbati Nashta (breakfast at the hotel right opposite Nanga Parbat). It was yummilicious and the most delicious daal that I’ve had in my life was at a roadside hotel in Dasu - KPK.

Blast induced land-sliding that kept us waiting for almost 2 hours and gave me an opportunity to practice my Mandarin with Chinese Engineers working on-site to widen Karakoram Highway which is in real bad shape after 2005 earth-quake and 2010 floods.

Real land-sliding that happened moments before we had to cross that point. It took the hard-working labor a while to clear highway. Many of these young labor die every year as many a times land-sliding recurs while they are clearing the highway and falling rocks push even huge buldozers 1000s of feet down, into the valley. You thought corporate jobs are tough? Think again!

An earthquake hit home which got damaged in 2005 earthquake. Where billions of dollars aid that came for relief of earthquake victims went, is still a question. You would see many people still living in temporary shelters and tents.

Pine trees and the pine wood that is heavily being used in making houses and furniture in the urban centers - major cause of deforestation of Pine trees.

A computer center in Dasu - Just to click this picture, I took a 5 minute walk all alone in an area which is demanding implementation of Shria law and no woman can be seen on roads. Felt brave of course but don’t ask what my family’s reaction was

Here are pictures of another Computer research center in another area. It was closed at the time we crossed this area otherwise would have gathered more information about what exactly they do and teach.

Cold water springs that could be seen at every short distance while driving through Karakoram Highway.

Tatta Paani - the hot water springs which are known to have cure for many skin diseases because of high sulpher concentration.

This is all for today, shall try blog again and give your a virtual tour of some other great places that I visited last year. Pakistan Zindabad!

Posted in Personal, Travel | 3 Comments »

TakeBacktheTech: Shero Saba Gul makes us proud!

November 14, 2011 – 2:09 am

A lot of my TakeBackTheTech posts focus on issues revolving around female harassment and online privacy. However, what I often miss to highlight is the amazing work that some brilliant women are doing on various fronts despite all the problems they face. Their achievements bring not just pride but also a ray of optimism for the rest of us. It makes us women realize the enormous power that we all possess and the wonders that each one of us is capable of making.

In our TakeBackTheTech lingo, we call such women “Sheros” - yes we just formed a feminine version of Heros

Today, I am going to talk about one such shero and her name is Saba Gul. Saba is Co-Founder and Executive Director,BLISS - Business and Life Skills School. Saba being passionate about empowering women through education came up with the idea of setting a school that equips girls and young women from rural Pakistan with essential skills needed to be entrepreneurs and enterprise women. Girls at BLISS do not just study but also work against stipends that make up for the wages they lose to attend school. You can read more about BLISS on their website.

Recently, Saba Gul achieved something to make us all feel proud specially as Pakistani women. She got selected as one of the finalists by Unreasonable Institute - which’s an incubator for social entrepreneurs. Every year this institute gathers 25 extremely talented social entrepreneurs from all around the world who have ideas and projects that can change the world for good. These entrepreneurs are then trained for six weeks by world-class mentors and are connected with several potential investors and partners. This year Saba has been one of these brilliant entrepreneurs.

Have a look at Saba’s presentation for Unreasonable Institute below:

Saba Gul, BLISS - Unreasonable Climax 2011 Presentation from Unreasonable Institute on Vimeo.

Posted in Food for Thought, Social Good | No Comments »

The ‘Great Nepal-India-Pakistan Spinal Beetle Drive’ arrives in Pakistan

November 13, 2011 – 11:19 pm

Source: Excerpt from PRESS NOTE, 11 November 2011, Lahore

Route: Kathmandu-Lucknow-Delhi-Amritsar-Lahore-Rawalpindi-Peshawar

The ‘Spinal Beetle’ making a fund-raising and awareness-raising subcontinental journey for spinal injury rehabilitation arrived in Lahore this afternoon. The 1973 Model VW Beetle, driven by journalist and civil rights activist Kanak Mani Dixit from Kathmandu, is also making the trip “to strike a blow for overland connectivity between the countries of Southasia,” he says.

The Spinal Beetle was flagged off from Kathmandu by President Ram Baran Yadav, and in Delhi it was seen off by actor Om Puri and the founder of the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, Maj. HPS Ahluwalia. It arrived in Lahore across the Wagah-Atari border in the early afternoon of 11 November.

The Journey: The 1973 model VW Beetle of the Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre (Nepal) started its journey from Kathmandu Valley on 4 November 2011. Coming down to the plains, it entered Uttar Pradesh and reached Lucknow on 5th evening. Westward, it took the National Highway-2 to Agra, getting on to the Grand Trunk Road originally regularised by Sher Shah Suri in the 16th century.

The ‘Spinal Beetle’ arrived at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC) on 7 November evening. Travelling further along the Grand Trunk Road, it stopped off at Chandigarh and Amritsar before arriving at the Wagah-Atari border. The Spinal Beetle will enter Pakistan via the Wagah-Atari border and, in Lahore, visit the Mayo Hospital. From Lahore, the car will ride the Grand Trunk Road as well as the M-1 motorway to Rawalpindi / Islamabad, and end the journey at the Paraplegic Centre in Hayatabad, Peshawar on 16 November.

Why the Adventure: The sudden rise of the number of patients over the last year has forced the Spinal Centre-Nepal to raise its service from 39 beds to 51. We seek to raise USD 110,000 from the 1100 mile journey, at the ‘rate’ of USD 100 per mile from friends and supporters worldwide. At midway, the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in Delhi is 540 miles from Kathmandu. The final destination, the Paraplegic Centre in Peshawar, is 1100 miles away. About USD 35,000 of the USD 110,000 goal had been raised by the time the vehicle arrived in Lahore.

Awareness: The Spinal Beetle Rally is also an effort to raise awareness of spinal injury prevention, rescue, care and rehabilitation in the Subcontinent. In this effort, the Spinal Centre-Nepal is assisted by Indian Spinal Injuries Center-Delhi and the Paraplegic Centre-Peshawar.

‘Overland connectivity’: Kanak Mani Dixit hopes that the drive of the Spinal Beetle from Nepal through India and Pakistan will also help promote the goal of ‘overland connectivity’ across Southasian land borders so that there is high-volume people-to-people contact. “The visa regimes must be softened, and the people at large must feel free to move about,” he says.

The Trip So Far: After a gracious send-off from Ram Baran Yadav, President of Nepal, the Spinal Beetle left Kathmandu Valley and arrived at the Bharatpur Hospital. Interactions were held for the start-up of a spinal injury rehabilitation unit there, with the help of Spinal Center-Nepal. The Hospital committee contributed Rs 50,000 for the Spinal Beetle’s fund-raising drive. Having come down past Gorkha District of Nepal, crossing the border we came to Gorakhpur, where we learnt in Hindustan newspaper that Pakistan had allowed the opening of the Gorakhnath Temple in Peshawar after 60 year closure.

In Lucknow, the SIPS ‘super speciality hospital’ organised an interaction with patients and staff, and we met activists who were working on peace related issues, including India-Pakistan people-to-people solidarity. From Lucknow, we took a spanking new superhighway to Agra, which is on National Highway -2, and part of the Grand Trunk Road, whose original incarnation was built by Sher Shah Suri in the 16th century. We will be following this road all the way to Peshawar. In Agra, we were greeted and hosted by the Physicians for Peace and Development, which is also affiliated with the Physicians for Social Responsibility. At the interaction with the doctors there, it emerged that there is no spinal injury rehabilitation centre in the city even though there were seven or eight neurosurgeons there. Some time was spent visiting the Taj Mahal, on the very day of Eid, and Agra Fort, the ‘power center’ of the Mughals.

In Delhi, a grand reception was organised by the Indian Spinal Injuries Center, with which the Spinal Centre-Nepal has been collaborating since the latter’s inception a decade ago. Speaking at the function, Major HPS Ahluwalia, founder of ISIC, lauded the three-country drive for helping spread awareness about spinal injury rehabilitation, and promised the support of ISIC both for the drive’s fund-raising objective as well as for the Spinal Centre-Nepal. The Director of ISIC Dr. HS Chabra repeated these sentiments, while journalist and peace activist Kuldip Nayar (born in Sialkot) lauded the Spinal Beetle participants for helping to raise awareness about people-to-people contact across Southasian frontiers. At the flag-off, actor Om Puri bowed in a ‘namaskar’ to the Spinal Beetle and talked about the importance of “dignity to the disabled”. Sending the Beetle off on its journey to Lahore, Maj Ahluwalia recalled his childhood in Lahore. He suggested that Dixit work to bring together a Southasian association for spinal injury rehabilitation. From Delhi, with an over-night stopover in Chandigarh, the Spinal Beetle arrived in Amritsar, to be hosted by Tejinder Singh Gogi, the hotelier and significant India-Pakistan ‘link person’. The team found time to visit the brilliantly lit Harminder Sahib (the Golden Temple) on the very night of Guru Nanak’s birthday.

The Mayuri Restaurant of Jalandhar: During the drive into Amritsar, the team stopped off at the road-side Mayuri restaurant at ‘bypass Jalandhar’. Only when the Spinal Beetle was already in Amritsar did Dixit realise that he had left all the passports and travel documents at the restaurant. Thankfully, he received a call from the proprietors, the Prajapati family. Upon return, there was joyous handover of the satchel. The grandfather, 96-year-old Barkat Singh, was originally from the village of Fatehgad near Sialkot. He asked that a fistful of earth be brought back for him from Fatehgad.

The Rallyists: Kanak Mani Dixit, Founder-Chair of the Spinal Centre-Nepal, is driving the Spinal Beetle. He is accompanied by Shanta Dixit, board member of the Spinal Centre-Nepal and educationist. It was Kanak’s trekking accident a decade ago, resulting in a broken back, which led to the establishment of the Spinal Centre-Nepal. Dixit has been a journalist since 1971, and has worked to maintain Nepal as an ‘open society’, fighting King Gyanendra’s autocracy and challenging the Maoist party to stand by the peace process.

Done it Before: The Spinal Beetle has done the Kathmandu-Dhaka stretch twice, in 2002 and 2005, to generous response.

About the Spinal Centre Nepal: Inaugurated by Sir Edmund Hillary on April 2002, the Spinal Centre-Nepal will be ten years old in 2012. Originally catering to patients from ‘traditional accidents’ such as fall from trees and cliff-sides, spinal injury victims of ‘modern-day accidents’ related to construction, rock mining and traffic events are increasingly filling our wards. We offer physiotherapy, occupational therapy, nursing, medical care, counselling and home rehabilitation. We are also involved in prevention. The Spinal Centre is run by the non-profit Spinal Injury Sangha – Nepal.

Website: Details of the ‘Great Nepal-India-Pakistan Spinal Beetle Drive’ are to be found at www.sirc.org.np. The site also gives information on online support and pledges.

Lahore Contacts:
Farjad Nabi, Phone: 322-4491969
Dr Waseem Iqbal
Head of Department
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine
Combined Military Hospital
CMH Lahore Medical College
Lahore Cantt, Pakistan
Office: +92-42-6699-36174
Cell phone: +92-333-5600-504

Peshawar Contact
Ilyas M Syed,
CEO, Paraplegic Center
Hayatabad, Peshawar, Pakistan
Phone: 92-919217900-2

Kathmandu Contact:
Esha Thapa, Director, Spinal Centre-Nepal
Tel: +977 11 660847/48
spinalinju@wlink.com.np
eshthapa@hotmail.com
www.sirc.org.np

Posted in Social Good | No Comments »

TakeBackTheTech: Independence day?

September 23, 2011 – 5:31 pm

GUEST POST

Today, I am narrating a story of my beloved friend, who had just entered into teenage, unaware of everything that can happen to her. She was enjoying her youth, was lively and free from all worries. It was 14th August i.e. the Independence Day and she got dressed up in white shalwar kamiz with a green dupatta on it, wore a badge of Pakistani flag. Filled with patriotic spirits, took her way to school as the school was celebrating Independence Day.

We were three friends who used to go to school together and it was her routine to take two of us from our place as our building was close to school. Like always she came to pick us up, it seemed a normal day but no one knew that is was not as normal as it seemed to be. A stranger entered in the same building where she was waiting for us to come down. She could not guess the intensions of that person until just after few seconds that man came closer to her and held her so tightly that the poor girl could not help herself come out of the man’s grip; the man kissed her lips and within seconds he was gone away, leaving emotional scars that took years to go away. She did not really know the meaning of sexual harassment and assault one could carry out to satisfy the lust.

She was so embarrassed as if it was her mistake, kept crying and rubbing her lips as if she has got dirt on them. Meanwhile, I came down and saw her crying badly, I kept asking what had happened to her but she was not in her normal state as that incident left a deep impact on her mind. When she got back in her senses, she told us the entire story. We felt furious but also got scared as what we could do if something likes that happen to us. A feeling of helplessness overshadowed us but I believe the least we could do is to educate all the girls as a mother, sister or a friend so that they should also remain alert specially while being alone and speak out if God forbid anything like this happens to any of them; so that together we can share these unpleasant experiences and use our combined wisdom to do something to let such incidents not happen.

Posted in Female Harrassment | No Comments »

June 20: Let’s unite to fight Sexual Harassment

June 21, 2011 – 2:11 am

Just late last night I noticed a hash tag #EndSH taking rounds on Twitter. Reading a few tweets made using this hash tag made me soon realize that June 20 is being observed as a day to speak out against sexual harassment, abuse and violence. As reported in this blogpost the #EndSH initiative is brain child of Egyptian startup HarassMap. However, realizing the importance of curbing this menace, people from various parts of the world specially Middle East have now jumped on the bandwagon.

Sexual harassment and similar issues have always been close to my heart mainly because of the number of lives it effects and also because being a woman I have also faced harassment myself not once or twice but several times; most recently on a flight while coming back from New York. While I regularly tweet, blog, write, speak on this topic, today, I would rather borrow someone else’s words to address all the men out there and show support to #EndSH from Pakistan. I believe creating awareness among men about this issue is as or perhaps even more important as it is for women.

During my recent trip to US as part of the IVLP (more on this later) I met Dr. Robert Jensen at the University of Texax, Austin. Wonderful Dr. Jensen, who proudly calls himself a staunch feminist gave me his book “Getting Off - Pornography and the End of Masculinity” after I told him about my interest in ending the various forms of VAW(Violence Against Women). I have started reading this book already and each chapter of it is turning out to be a paradigm shift for me.

Below are the words of Andrea Dworkin who became the force of change for Dr. Robert. How? Read below and you’ll get to know.Andrea told men in 1983:

“I don’t believe rape is inevitable or natural…..Have you ever wondered, why we [women] are not just in armed combat against you? It’s not because there’s a shortage of kitchen knives in this country. It is because we believe in your humanity, against all the evidence……We do not want to do the work of helping you to believe in your humanity. We cannot do it anymore. We have always tried. We have been repaid with systematic exploitations and systematic abuse. You are going to have to do this yourselves from now on and you know it.” -1

If you also wish to eliminate sexual and other forms of harassment from within your society, then start nurturing your human side and encourage others around you to do the same. Let’s live to see the change that we all have been wanting to see for ages.

Footnotes:
-1 Robert Jensen, Getting Off - Pornography and the End of Masculinity,South End Press,2007, p7

Posted in Social Good | 1 Comment »

Koolwall: The cool wall nearest you!

June 19, 2011 – 5:47 pm

“I am old and at this age I really want to do something for the community than myself” - said Raul and his words resonated with me immediately. I met Raul in the Silicon valley during Eighth Innovation Journalism conference at Stanford. Silicon Valley as most of you may know is symbolically speaking the Mecca for technology companies and start-ups. At places like these, I would often expect people to talk just business and profits. Talks that merely revolve around making more and more money tend to be least interesting for me. I believe in “The People-Centered Model of Business” shortly referred to as the PC-MOB that my friend and mentor Ramla Akhtar introduced to me long time back during my senior years at university. So, it was really pleasant to meet Raul who has similar beliefs as I could sense from his upcoming project Koowall.

Koowall is what can be seen as yet another social collaboration website, however, what makes it different from several social networking websites already out there is the philosophy behind it. Raul looked pretty disturbed with idea of how often a bunch of people gain popularity online, become social media stars and often overshadow the conversation by several others. He believes in living the true sense of community where every member of the community has a voice that can be heard. It is upon this belief that he has created a really cool wall that would encourage people to share information in a communal manner.

Raul gave me a tour of the Koowall community that he aspires to build and walking through the streets and alleys of Koowall made me all excited; because this was something that I have been looking forward to have for so long. Yes, I have already seen the interface of Koowall which is yet to be launched - envy me!

I use twitter religiously and love it but what irritates me the most about it is how I am almost always unable to dig out what I tweeted say two months back or for that matter even a week ago. However, Koowall is likely to make my life easier. How? Naah, I am not going to let the cat out of the bag yet. I would rather want you to wait for the official launch of Koowall or rush to be part of the private beta which is coming out on 27th of June.

I would encourage you to grab a private beta invite by subscribing at Koowall website and see what Koowall can do for you. I already have at least a few things in mind for which it can be used in Pakistan (6) . Yes, envy me again . You might want to follow Koowall on Twitter and Facebook too.

Koowall has got an aesthetically pleasing UI. I also had a discussion with Raul on how they can make Koowalling safe and secure and was glad to see his commitment about doing the same.So, I am positive that all those of you who decide to use it will have fun. Happy koowalling!

Posted in Tech Talk, Social Good | 3 Comments »