Mountainous Weekend

Back in August we had a trip to Kaghan Valley, plan of which also included a trip to Nathiagali. But due to lack of time, we had to drop it. Consider it luck or consider it a result of sequence of events that I got an opportunity to be there this weekend.

In the previous week, Ahsan Ashja (currently at connect2web), Haroon Atiq & Danish Anjum (fastians batch of 1998) came to Islamabad from Karachi to attend Zulfiqar Naqvi's (fastian batch of 1998) Wedding ceremony. The plan was already made that a tour would follow the events and that they'll leave Islamabad on Thursday and I had to join them in Murree on Friday night.

I booked a seat in a 14-seater Daewoo van which costs Rs. 80/- from Rawalpindi to Murree. It's a nice van providing a comfortable journey. We reached Murree in around one and a half hour and as soon as I got out of the van, a taxi driver approached me to get me to the hotel. After a few words he recognized me as the one who'll be joining the rest of the crew from Karachi, interesting yeah?

It was very cold there that if it had been raining it wouldn't be water coming down. I reached Faran Hotel at which the rest of the three people were already staying and waiting for me. Then I came to find out that there was another friend of theirs with his wife staying in a different hotel and they'll be with us for the whole tour. A thought came to my mind that the tour would be ruined, but it proved wrong in a few hours.

After a couple of hours, we got out for a cup of coffee at Popeye, followed by a dinner and yet another coffee. At around 12, we were back in the hotel room and started playing cards (game being Court piece, also known as Double Siri). Haroon had to goto a school for a speech at 8 in the morning, so we decided to limit our games, but due to our fun-loving and adventurous nature we didn't sleep at all!

The next day, after having some sleep in the morning, we booked a land cruiser for Rs. 2800/- for a whole day at Nathiagali. In our way, we visited Ayubia where we also had a cable car ride. An airgun/balloon game was also played by me, though not knowing the rules, I was off for emptying the whole board, though I requested him to discontinue in the middle, but he resisted. In the end just 3 out of around 40 balloons were left which I couldn't finish (somehow!), thus I had to pay Rs. 100/- to him.

At around 4 pm we reached Nathiagali and started finding a nice hotel. This time of the year you won't find many people staying there, hence hotel rates aren't high as well. This is because of the v. cold weather and no snowfall (hence not a win-win situation). We got hold of an average hotel (Afaq Hotel in the main market) for a reasonable rate and had lunch cum dinner in an open restaurant at around 5. The scenery was great!

At night, when an era of boredom started, a request was made by Zaid's wife to have a small trip to Donga Gali, but to our surprise it was closed down and there wasn't anyone there. We returned back to the hotel, played cards till 12 and slept. At around 6:30 sunday morning, we returned back to Islamabad in our land cruiser.

All in all, it was a very good, though short, trip and everyone enjoyed everything about it, may it be cold weather, the comments passing, the journey, the sight seeing or friendship building.

Work when people are watching!

I met one of our batchmates living in Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Tahir Masood, a few days ago. We have been to a few places since we met. A few days ago, we (plus Zahin & Khurram) went to Hot Spot, an ice cream parlour which is at a place mostly covered with trees, resembling a hide-out style. It's a pretty good place to visit after dinner, especially for couples, located in the area opposite to Jinnah Super. There is also a Hot Spot in Karachi near Evolution.

Getting back to the topic (genre being humour with some message), I shall start by mentioning that there are four types of people usually found at work:

1. One who work when there is work and chill out otherwise
2. One who don't work much even when there is work and it shows
3. One who don't work much even when there is work and they pretend being busy (at times extremely busy)
4. One who work when there is work and even otherwise

I belong to the 1st category and a very few times to the 2nd & 4th one . The main focus of this post will be the 3rd category and I am using this as a chance to embarrass them!

I have seen many people who belong to this category and I assume you have also experienced such observations. There are a few characteristics of these people, some of which I have noted are:

• They usually come pretty formally dressed and are showy (I guess 50% of their salaries go in presentation).
• They don't get out of their seats much.
• Whenever you approach them, they open up something of which they don't have any idea about but, they assume it would create an impression.
• At lunch or tea or any other casual meeting, when asked about work, they try to impress everyone around by using diplomatic words about their work and they'll only be specific on things which everyone else doesn't know about (and they thought we won't realize this?).
• At times they'll murmur or position their hands in such a way that the person watching them gets an impression that some rocket science is going on (I laugh at most of them).
• They'll try to talk in English many a times not realizing the talent they possess in talking rubbish (talking in English -> in Pakistan)
• They'll try to impress the higher management and they'll do anything for it. Then they'll impress their peers exaggerating about their relationship with the management (They don't know that the management discusses about them with other people).

Enuph! Let's move ahead with the reasons as to why they do this? I think it's due to their lack of vision & sincerity, purely materialistic approach and the misalignment of their focal point, and they think they are too smart! They don't seem to understand that sooner or later everyone (or at least a person) will find out what they are made of.

Due to human nature, which is very complex to me, people tend to attract towards a high profile job not realizing the pre-requisite capabilities. But no! They think they are some sort of a Superman and take up the job even when they not know an atom about it. Hence, when it comes to fulfilling the tasks, most of the time they use their nominal creativity and skills to transfer the ball to other's court (in Urdu we say "topi transfer").

It might take a day or a decade to realize the incapabilities of the person and it depends upon the talent of the subject, but as far as I have seen, the curtain is raised sooner or later and everything becomes clear to the concerned. This leads to the discontinuation of responsibilities at the current location. But the story never seem to end, there comes an era of job hunt, during which they are successful in impressing some other employer through the usage of their Mastery in Bullshit Arts.

And the same story goes on and on, everywhere (a theory). It's a strange world full of strange people finding strange ways to produce strange results (this is not related to everything else...or is it?).

I would appreciate comments on this post, so that we all have a clear understanding of such people, who knows I might end up writing a research paper :P

Vacation in a Flash

"Ahhh!" was the feeling when I reached the Karachi airport. Finally, the long awaited, though for a short period, vacation was about to start. The weather was hot, the sky clear and the friends & relatives near. As soon as I reached home, I started communicating with all the friends and made plans for the whole stay. My agenda also included shopping for the cold weather.

From friday till Wednesday, it was a total of 5 and a half seconds in a true sense. The attraction of parties with friends and relatives didn't allow me to think twice before attending them. It's really weird how such lively & joyous moments pass by this fast. All of this left a rule for me to follow for the moments to come, Enjoy every bit of the happy moments because they may not be available for the majority of time and you might regret even a lost second. And once you get to avail these spans, pay thanks to the Almighty for them.

On the last day, I went out for shopping, with a very limited time. I got hold of a woollen sweater from Bonanza, they have a pretty decent variety with an affordable price.

Then came the time to say goodbye, which was the only thing I hated during this tour, for I had its fear from the very beginning.

"Ahhh!" was the feeling when I reached the Islamabad airport. I sighed and moved forward establishing yet another concept about life.

Vacation to the hometown, finally!

"Seat belts, please!", the van driver said when we, the participants of the orientation at our office were seated, to be taken to the company's warehouse. Shahg was right in his views about Islamabad's people, I must say that this guy has killer analytical skills.

I have tasted the nature of people here at Islamabad and I can easily say that they are friendlier and more helpful, relaxed & satisfied as compared to the people living in Karachi. Of course there are exceptions everywhere. Though, Karachi has its own advantages which I'll formulate soon.

As I write with only 6 hours to depart for Karachi, my hometown, to spend Eid Holidays, I am filled with anxiety and the excitement to meet the people whom I have been with a long time. It's only 15 days since I am here and it already seems a long time. Now I can imagine the mental strength of the people living far away from their countries.

I am planning to be back here in a week and would try to post something in the meantime, if the time & situation allow me. Eid Mubarak!

Nothing but Creations!

This would be a very strange post to most people and I guess would be pretty relevant to the rest.

In our daily life we observe many creations of God e.g. the sun, moon, stars, trees, animals, mountains, clouds, sea,....the list never seem to end. But because of the everyday norm, we don't think over it much and are careless, except for a few people. A few questions might elaborate the point:

-While going to work would you stop by and think over the energy of the greenery around you?
-Would it sound sane to you if someone stops in the middle of the road pondering over the sky?

Have you ever thought what lies underneath the earth's surface? What lies under the sea, above the clouds or inside an atom? On the highest level we might easily derive that it's a whole world with a system of its own and with smaller components who work together in the system. Think over it for a couple of minutes, imagine the world inside, imagine its hugeness!

Being human beings, the best of all creations, we have the brains to understand almost everything. What really is our end? What can we do? What is our worth? Can we overcome our basic constraints e.g. eating, drinking, sleep, etc. and let's not talk about controlling our minds. We basically mould ourselves according to the constraints we are living in and that's all we can do. In other words, we can't get out of our constraints.

Some of you might oppose by saying that humans have even gone into space, oil exploration under the sea is in progress, etc. My question would then be, what is the limit? Have you still reached the limit? What then, when the limits will be reached?

This all arrives to the realization that we might be the best creation, better than any other creature, we can invent rockets and control animals, but we can't overcome our own limitations and constraints and that we are nothing but just creations.

Though, the conclusion isn't really what it looks like and I hope you are not demoralized by these words. The ideal conclusion would be the realization that a) we are just creations and b) hence should imply more closeness to the Creator.

1st Day @ LMKR, Impressed, but..

Islamabad reminds me of the memorable tour we had in which we covered Kaghan Valley, NWFP (areas like Naran, Shogran, Thandiani, etc.) as well. This we included four males:

Syed Humair Mudasser Qadri- FASTian, Batch of 1999 (Working at EzValidation (formerly Dreamznet), Karachi)
Sarfaraz Ahmed - FASTian, Batch 0f 2000 (Working at ITIM, Karachi)
Muhammad Ali Shah - FASTian, Batch of 2000 (Studying at Chalmers, Sweden)
& Myself

Memories!

I had already skipped the bus which comes to pick up at around 6:45 am. It was around 7:15 am while I was waiting for Khurram Majeed (batchmate from FAST and a very old friend) to pick me up from the hostel for office, when I thought about my recent past life and compared it with the present. Man changes a lot with the environment! A few of the people reading this will understand my exact point.

The office is located in F-5 sector, just beside Marriot Islamabad, 3rd floor of Software Technology Park I, and is around 15 minutes drive from the hostel. We reached the office at around 7:45 am, my first day at LMKR. After spending sometime at the reception, which is pretty spacious and quite nicely decorated (especially the wall clocks showing different country times) I was taken in the interview room to sign on the employment contract. After that I was taken to the cafe on seeing which, I was impressed. It contains a seating area like every cafe has, a kitchen, a smoking area, a pool table area, an internet access area and a TV lounge area (having approx 60" TV), all covering somewhere around 175 sq. yards area. Not kidding, but this much space can contain around 2-3 normal software houses of Karachi.

The office is structured in a way that different departments are partitioned accordingly. The decoration & ambience (love this word) is good, music played adding value as well, in the work areas as well as the washrooms. The dress code is formal & most of the people wear a tie and a few of them wear suits. Almost everyone has a flat screen thin LCD monitor, a good seat to sit on and a spacious desk. The scenery from the office windows is a good one with Margalla Hills view.
Etc.
Too much for a software organization in Pakistan, yeah?

As far as culture is concerned, the management is pretty strict about employees following the right timings in everything, dress code, body odour, office looks, employee behaviour, etc.
The operations management, also I guess in the board of directors, as far as I have perceived, think differently. They don't start thinking from the finance perspective. Take e.g. LCD monitors, I heard from some guy that when asked a board of director the reason for replacing normal ones, he was told in order to improve the looks of the office. Of course they aren't placed there for that only, but it gives the idea of the management's style, believe me I have seen the other extreme. There are many other examples of stylish stuff without which work can be done by the employees, but with which things beyond can be achieved, things which most of the software organizations in Pakistan fail to achieve, things which tend to motivate average people to reach the levels of excellence.

Just finished with our orientation sessions. Everything seems structured in one day's experience here, hope it stays the same but common sense should previal sometimes. When is the key!