Aha the Christmas eve returns to....

Karachi the city of Churches big and beautiful.Most of the churches and cathedrals in karachi are old very old historic from the time of the british raj.At the time of the partition of India muslim came from all over the India and settled here in karachi thus out numbered the local christian community.Today we only notice the mosques both big and small in every neighborhood and hear the criers calling for prayers five times a day using loudspeakers ,megaphones and Japanese sound systems...we never get to hear the church bells from any of the church so we don't believe there is Christianity

also present in this city.It is only on the christmas eve that we get to see the colorful christmas trees in the big hotel lobbies,shops and markets...The churches have the midnight mass and other events this week....but most local people think they are having a parents-teacher meeting at the school because most churches have schools attached to it.
After the partition of India when the British Army left Karachi they handed over the responsibility of protecting the city churches from Muslims and Christians alike to R.C's parsees and buckshees....and the way those beautiful historic structures stand today amidst the concrete jungle of Karachi speaks for its self for a commendable job well done....
I have never been to a Church but I have seen all of them from outside since they are located mostly in the old city area...a visitor to karachi cannot miss the main ones.Its been ages since a church mission visited our door.The church missions used to call upon my parents regularly...trying their hard luck in converting them to christainity...our drawing room where Iam sitting right now used to be a place where eloquence ruled on weekends and holidays.Until the Russians(Soviet) invaded Afghanistan in the seventies....In the eighties and nineties the funded muslim fundamentalism grew....and the churches and christian communities kept a very low profile. and since the new millennium has been ruled by the terrorism and talebans I don't see no hope of a Merry Christmas here in karachi at least not this year.But some of my christian friends from Karachi may be celebrating a white christmas in different parts of the world...do pray your karachi also has a similar Christmas in the coming years....no not a white christmas of course don't be ridiculous a white christmas is not possible in karachi ...a joyous merry christmas for all of karachi.....Ho Ho Ho!

Old Taxman never dies...he just stop charging...

But this is the way a gentleman dies......


Today on 14th Dec 09 is the second death anniversary of my dearly departed Papa who died on Friday the 14th Dec 07 under the trust and care of a big private hospital in Karachi of Multiple Doctors syndrome Twenty years after his superannuation from the Tax department.
Born in the twenties at Ajmer, in the British Indian state of Rajputana now known as Rajasthan,in a sunni syed family. His father a graduate of aligarh muslim university(alig) was employed in the British Indian Railways at Ajmer in a managerial posts nothing serious...His Great grandfather was originally from Agra,UP and so was his Mother a distant cousin of his father.
Thanks to the British Indian Railways free travel and other fringe benefits he traveled a lot and had a summer home and a summer name.He was one of the luckiest persons I have ever seen who benefited from the partition of India.where millions lost their loved ones separated from families...most of his close friends and cousins from both cities reunited here in Karachi and remained his close and dear friend in happiness and sorrows till the end.. I don't know if it was unfortunate or fortunate that his dearest friend and confidant..his elder sister with whom he got the earliest religious education at a neighborhood shia seminary..had a separation from his husband in india also came to live with him for the rest of her life with two very lovely kid...Thanks to the british Indian railways free travel and other benefits this elder sister was born in Agra UP...and was very proud of the fact.Papa on the other hand missed Ajmer and the shrine of Khawaja saab...and proudly showed the visitors and guest to the house the gifts and souvenirs from the shrine of Khawaja saab in Ajmer... as a child who never got to see any of the two cities for me this InterState(inter provincial) rivalry between the drawing room and the living room was very interesting and entertaining but for the visitors who were not aware of this tale of two cities it used to be very bewildering. For years their friends from the two cities tried to maintain their cultural identity like two teams playing the same game...with Papa as umpire.

At the time of Partition of India Papa was in a law school...had to leave the studies abruptly and came down to Pakistan.Traveling by the Train to Karachi they were stopped at a small station and given a small farm land.Not Interested in farming at all he went to Hyderabad to complete his studies and also got a govt job as food inspector later on he got the job as tax inspector and came to Karachi.Being a taxman in the hub of business and commercial activity he made a lot of new friends .He liked to invite people to dinners a lot and in return his friends also invited us to dinners and weddings.He was very fond of good food...He loved Pakistani and chinese food.I never saw him drink at home or at the parties.He used to make sure that drinks will not be served before accepting an invitations.I am not sure what he used to do at the Official and National day parties thrown by the foreign missions...especially the US and British consulates...he used to attend in the early days...later on when his younger brother died he cut down on his social activities.Few years later when I was born the mourning ended and life begin to return to the taxman's household.He often call me the lucky one and loved me dearly.The parties I got the opportunity to attend with him were merely Eat&run weddings parties of family and friends.His family and friends got richer and richer so the simple wedding parties begin to turn into lavish extravagant things...with multiple course lavish dinners...
I never saw him smoke either he hated smoking and was allergic to second hand smoke.Always discouraged me and everybody else from smoking...
I also never saw him with any woman other than my mother or heard any complains from my mother. He never had woman troubles which is a rare thing for a taxman...and yet on the day he died the house was full of women ..sisters, aunts,cousins,neighbors,friends..everyone in grief,sad and crying...

Tiger woods definitey sold his soul to the devil....

Jamie Jungers, a lingerie model from Las Vegas, said: "It was way more than sex ... I loved him"

I have never participated in any of the physical sports in my youth and childhood very keenly although I am a very enthusiastic fan of many sports such as cricket,soccer,tennis,swimming,marathon,boxing...etc but golf is a sport that I always look upon to be the one that I can pursue later on in my life.When I go on my weekend long morning walks on the beach...somewhere in a dark corner of my mind I have this image of my self dressed in the usual attire holding a golf club stick and chasing the golf balls on the greens...hitting the perfect shots and making the holes all alone with nobody else on the course for yards and yards of greens.

2nd Karachi Fashion Week

Today I woke up very late because I was up most of the night here on the net doing stuff,tweeting ...but when I wake up and after having a cup of tea I picked up the newspapers I saw this ad which completely confused me.Are we going to a have a fashion week in karachi every three months just to cover up for the time and opportunities missed.It is an indeed a very good idea that way we can make up for time lost and be able to stand in line with leading fashion weeks of the world such as paris,milan,london and new york in a very short time.

Old lawyers never die...they just lose their appeal..

President Karachi Bar Muhammad Ali passes away

The President of Karachi Bar Association died of heart attack just days before the elections of Karachi Bar Association.All proceedings in the city courts remained suspended on Monday 7 dec 09.

The Twilight Saga ....its midnight don't burn the oil...

Last week the Govenment of sindh issued another of those notifications like the Facebook notifications telling all marriage halls/gardens to shut down at midnight or else the marriage party will be raided by the police party and take away the Groom.

NRO.....strike while the iron is hot....

2006 was an amazing year in the history of Pakistan.Musharraf was the president and headed both the country and the Armed forces as the commander in chief and army chief. Under him was a very convenient political setup headed by the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz a career banker with an experience of working for international financial institution...an expert of the macro economics most of his policies were widely appreciated globally and attracted massive foreign and american interest.He created new opportunities for the foreign investors in almost every field in pakistan which included land development,building and construction,Banking,leasing,Insurance,telecommunication,auto industry,farming,agriculture,education,food and allied,...you name it and they did something for every sector ...but the phenominal growth of the defense industry was incredible during this period...the defense exhibition in Karachi known as IDEAS became an annual feature and a pride and joy for the Army as well as the nation...Money($) was coming in like honey...and it was visible on the streets...new roads ,fly overs were being constructed for the new cars and more and more banks were opening up and the old ones were also not complaining...it was probably the first time in the history of Pakistann that they showed a middle finger to the IMF(the international monetary fund) as there was no reason left to borrow more money to run the state.And if I have understood their way of thinking correctly than there are only two ways of seeing a third world boom....1.I'll be there for you....! 2. I'll be there for you. there is no third way,but for the first time I saw a little chance based expectation in their eyes and decided not to share the good times....people in Pakistan prospered got greedy moved out especially the ones that supported Musharraf...because they like him believed in micro economics and were very weary of the shaukat aziz's macro economics...wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible....Aziz on the other hand was turning from a simple banker to a popular politician....alarms begin to sound....unfortunately he did not have enough support in the kings party the famous Q-league to overcome the tough competition or to resist pressure from musharrf and his American friends.Aziz'z policies were working and that was his only strength,strong enough to scare the Musharraf and his friends...

Ironically musharruf was so lucky that he got rid of Nawaz shareef who was taken away by the crown prince of saudi Arabia and put in a dungeon for the rest of his life.....and when shareef was in power he forced the leader of the opposition and the co-chairperson of PPP the largest political party and former Prime Mnister of Pakistan late Benazir Bhutto into exile by making cases of corruption against her and the family members and leaders of her party...making it nearly impossible for her to return let alone gain power or offer any stiff resistance and opposition.So it seemed that musharruf was there enjoying absolute power and helping the US to conquer Afghanistan and maybe Pakistan as well. For some very hard to speculate even today reasons the US did not win support of the Americans and the allies to take over Pakistan.And Musharraf's circus begin to look really bad(embarrassing) on their portfolio's but their hand was in a candy jar they did not want to let go of him without somebody as easy as him....so they left it for the Musharraf to decide...obviously he could not have chosen Nawaz shareef because he was too bitter towards him...so he offered to share power with Benazir only if she was able to win the support of the US.

In October 2006 a picture of benazir was released on the internet wearing very short skirt black sleeveless top white strap Italian stilettos matching jewelry for neck,arms and feets the bare legs thigh and loin were shinny and waxed you could see your face in it and she was very technically showing a finger....and grinning meaningfully..as if saying fuck the enlightened moderation what you need is the old school try .The Pakistani internet community was in a state of shock.I put it on my desktop but lost it after my computer had a deadly virus attack and breakdown within a few days.Obviously this must have opened books in lea market,kharadar,new charlie and baghdadi the old city areas of Karachi famous world over for their very honest and self righteous bookies.people of Karachi who remembered her return in 1988 had no doubt that she can return to Pakistan and to power as well but all those who saw her picture must have been badly disappointed to see her come out of the plane when it landed at Karachi airport in October 2007.It was not about the money or the winning or losing...people of Karachi felt really bad at the Blast at karsaz near American school that her convey had in which she narrowly escaped thanks to the Trojan horse like blast proof vehicle provided by the government of pakistan.It sent a really bad signal to the world and the International investors in Pakistan as well as the Business, finance and political support of Prime Minister Aziz.Everybody in the world believed there has been a secret deal between Musharraf and Benazir and they are to split the power leaving no room for Mr Aziz and his Macro economic policies.The Husband of Benazir and now President of Pakistan and Co-chairman of PPP did not accompany her in october 2007 which created even more confusion and the cable-guys started showing the hindi movies in which the lady prime minister of India is plotted to be murdered by her husband for his own political ambitions.
The news of Benazir's return to Pakistan and freedom of movement with full protocol somehow reached the saudi Kingdom...the Saudi Prince who took Nawaz shareef to put him in the dungeon was no longer a prince or the regent,now he was a king in court with a royal Queen and had very little time for extra-curricular activities...besides it was not good to have a political prisoner for so long in the dungeon it was against their customs and traditions...So the King called Musharraf to his palace and showed him and Nawaz the door....Nawaz returned triumphantly on 27 nov 2007 but was not allowed to take part in the election which was not very surprising but later on he made a deal with Musharraf's successor and now he is waiting for the bye-election which he will definitely win and will also throw out Mr Zardari as president put him back behind bars or send him to exile to his family in dubai,london,etc etc... just like Mr Zardari did to Musharraf .

Musharraf's critics blame him of doing thing Unconstitutionally ...he came to power after overthrowing nawaz's elected government in 1999 suspended the constitution of Pakistan and issued a PCO(provisional constitutional order) declaring him as the chief executive God knows what that means.Released and exiled nawaz shareef on a phone call from the Saudi prince. became an ally of US in the war against terror saying he had no choice. Fired Chief Justice Of the supreme Court.Declared Emergency on 3rd nov.But when it came to give permission to Benazir to return he did something increadible and promulgated an ordinance

http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/legislation/2007/NationalReconciliationOrdinance.html

taking the due course of law and giving the chance to constitutional experts to bend it like beckham....Why did musharraf did this...had he gone soft or was it the law ministry following the foot steps of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's Macro economics policy ....National release order for ... instead of a presidential pardon for only benazir...well I cannot comment any further because Unfortunately both of them are alive and giving lectures at london school of economics,UCLA and other prestigious educational institutions world wide and can challenge my speculation through media leaving me and the world no choice to accept their version whether it is truth the whole truth or the figment of their advisors/counsel wilder imagination.

let the best team win....

Cricket is a very different game from the more popular sports in the modern days...it is not part of the Olympics and most of the world today does not know how it is played...On a national scale the big and powerful nations such as the United States,Russia,France,China,Japan and Indonesia does not have a national team or is the member of ICC the international Cricket council... Yet there is no continent in the world these day where the cricket is not frantically followed. Some call it the remanence of the British and the Union Jack.Australia,NewZealand,India,Pakistan,WestIndies,southAfrica and Sri lanka are the top teams besides the England.
Cricket has seen a lot of fundamental changes over the years not seen in any other sport.Until the seventies the game was played for five days and called a test match...it used to be a real test of skill and stamina,patience and endurance...then came the ODI's one day matches...each team got fifty overs to bowl and bat...this change brought tremendous popularity and sponsorship for the game of cricket.the game become fast paced and result oriented which attracted a lot of fans who stated to came to the stadiums or watched the matches live on televisions especially on the weekends.
Recently the T20 or the twenty twenty over games were introduced and accepted by the cricket council...you may call it the Hit&run cricket it has gained even more popularity in the fan world and the sponsors..but the most interesting thing to note is the fact that Pakistan team is doing so well in this kind of cricket they won the T20 World cup this year and on friday beat NewZealand to win their seventh win in a row unbeaten...after losing a series of ODI's and the semi-final of Icc Championship....Obviously this style of Cricket does not require stamina or skill and not even the infamous British Intrigue...Only Strength and perhaps Character...

Light and Dark ..is not always the Rembrandt

Since1990 the US marines and Air Force has been in the gulf on active war duties...in the two direct encounters with Iraq and the Afghanistan's take over...they did hundreds of thousands of sorties of fighter jets all across the two countries..destroying the whole infrastructure especially the power distribution network many times...I am sure everybody remembers watching on CNN Mr peter arnet from the top of Al-rashid hotel...running on emergency generators..The thing is that thanks to the heavy presence of War journalists and television reporting..we know that how soon the power was restored to these war zones...with the help of local and the occupation forces...

Sugar crisis

Ironically I rarely need sugar my mother has diabeties she takes medicines daily to control,my uncles have it too and they take insulin shots. I take tea and coffee without sugar.So when I see and hear the plight of people around me who are sugar fanatics, I feel very lucky to have chosen not to have sugar.

the week after....

After the surprisingly peaceful conclusion of the Karachi's First Fashion Week...Another most anxiously awaited event began here...The Shanakht (identity of pakistan) festival.Organised by the Citizen Archive of Pakistan (CAP)

Last week....

I am sure you have heard that anecdote about the poor farmer who was made to believe the world is about to end...so he gave up every thing he had even the clothes he was wearing...and started waiting for end...
Here in karachi the last week was a truly amazing week because Karachi the biggest and most populated city of Pakistan hosted its First Fashion Week...
After being postponed earlier and having no guarantees of security....the organizers went ahead with the show...I bookmarked the event so I got to read some of the most interesting things about this historic event..the initial reaction of the world press was of amazement...as to how this is happening in a city so near the war zone in the north of the country and the neighboring Afghanistan...
The next big question mark was about Bare and Bold dresses that the local models wear during this fashion extravaganza...the interesting fact is that all the designers that presented their works in this fashion week were local designers only few of them are internationally acclaimed and established...some have outlets and display centers in major cities like london,paris and newyork...others rely on foreign buyers...because these kinds of designer clothing and dresses have very limited demand in the local market....and they were looking forward to this event for quite some time....
The Trend has set and the peaceful conclusion of the first fashion week will be a very encouraging thing for the fashion industry ,the established and up coming designers and the city of Karachi.

The kerry-lugar Bill

People both local and foreign visitors to Pakistan must have seen the general population of pakistan waking up every morning and doing the breakfast with a kind of oily bread fried on a large open pan...commonly know as Paratha all across the country....commercially it is made out of sifted flour ...but some household even prefer the ordinary flour(ata)...which is grinned wheat...the dough is flattened and put on the frying pan in hot oil....it smells wonderful and taste good. Pakistani's eat it with egg omelets, butter, cream, honey or just as it is....and love to have tea to drown it or lassi (yogurt shake) or milk....before Musharraf taking over power a normal sized Paratha cost Rs 4/- at any road side resturant anywhere in the far and wide of the county...today its about Rs 16/- four time more....
People in Pakistan today wake up every morning to have that same paratha and for the first time in the history of Pakistan-US relations are unified in hating the United States Of America..