Triple Minded!

This is not a specific post, rather a post to keep the blog alive, as I have been pretty busy these days. I am pretty confused about a few important things and it'll require time to straighten things up. The confusion is based upon a triangle: Current Work - Own Business - Game Programming.

The project I am working on in the office has now picked up some more pace and hence I couldn't write from the office much. Moreover, once a day's work at the office finishes, I get involved into game programming. For those who don't know my relationship with gaming, I am an addict when it comes to game playing and am pretty passionate about game programming.

As far as game playing is concerned, I have done much of it, so internal satisfaction is there, whereas in game programming I haven't still done much of considerable or recognitive amount. Thus, I have got hold of a person from our office to develop a game as a part-time activity. I hope the situations ahead don't limit me and the game completes. The aim is to achieve the rookie level in game programming so that opportunities of getting into the gaming industry start to open. Still, there are a lot of considerations e.g. money, opportunities, time, etc. but the motivation is there, which for me is the essence in achieving anything.

I also went on a trip to Karachi this weekend, as I started to miss family and friends, it's really hard to live away from one's family.

Luck vs. Details

Over a year back, I along with 4 others were travelling in a Suzuki Mehran on Clifton Bridge, Karachi. The road had 2 lanes for each way without any separator for the opposing traffic. It was over midnight, we were driving in the fast (right) lane and all was going well. A Civic coming from the opposing side's fast lane suddenly switched to our lane for a couple of seconds travelling at a speed of over 100 kph. Omar's reflexes were sharp and he turned the car on the left side trying to avoid a collision, but the car went out of control. It went on the left side towards the bridge boundary, then on the right side all the way into the opposing lane and again on the left side back in our lane, finally stopping by in such a manner that we were 180 degrees from the original position, thus facing the traffic behind us.

For a few seconds all of us were shocked watching the traffic behind us stopped 15 yards back amazed at the scene. We got out of the car and made sure that everything was alright. Everything was fine, the car didn't even get a scratch and neither did any of us.

Consider the fact that there was traffic from the other way (without any separator), there was traffic following us, the traffic we were following and there was the left boundary of the bridge (bridge being over 50 ft above the ground beneath), and our car being out of control. How much was the probability of: the car not touching anything, not even getting a small scratch? Was it luck? Generally, everyone would say that it was our good luck that we survived, let aside the fact that there was not a single scratch on the car or on any one of us. Let's examine a few details:

• What's the biological reason behind the fact that Omar's reflexes worked perfectly? Maybe he ate something that helped him or maybe he ate nothing. Or maybe he had pretty good sleep, maybe he didn't had a fight with someone, maybe his concentration on the driving was wonderful. Details!
  
• What if the architect of the bridge planned it the way that it had only 1 lane for each side? Details!
  
• The traffic behind us stopped, they looked like pretty educated people. The same people would probably have collided with us from behind if they weren't educated people. They may have gotten education from an institution built years back by some person. That person would probably had worked hard to earn that money. He might have spent that same money on something else. Details!
  
• I am pretty sure something else would have happened if it were raining. Luck! Good luck!

We are a part of the system and the events that occur produce some output and trigger something which might be the input for any other event, and there are thousands of factors involving in the triggering and the execution of an event. We, as humans don't have enough processing power and memory that we can take into account even 5% of the factors and thus ignore the rest. Generally, we term these ignored factors, these details as luck. If the factors sum up to be positive for someone, they term it as good luck and when they turn out to be negative it's called bad luck.

In other words, the more detail we know the less usage of the word luck and the lesser the detail the more the usage of this word.

I don't agree with the general perception or the usage of the word luck, or for that matter the concept taken about it. The point is that luck is there, but not everything unknown is luck to us; only those factors which cannot be controlled by a human being at that point in time, such as the speed of wind, the tide of sea, the clouds, the amount of oil in an oil well, the running of time, etc. can be taken as luck. On the other hand, the amount of pollution, the number of trees, the profit in business (mostly), the questions in exam, prediction of the amount of oil in a well, etc. are all details and can be controlled to some extent by us.

Simultaneously speaking, if one human being can control something doesn't mean that other human being can do it as well e.g. a mechanic cannot control an aeroplane if he doesn't know about flying. Moreover, if he flies one with hundreds of passengers and crashes, it is not bad luck for the hurt. On the other hand, it can happen that the best pilot in the world might crash a plane if the weather becomes unlimitedly harsh. We can term it bad luck.

I had been thinking about this for a long time and there is no input taken from anything else except for a discussion or two with a friend. Hence, one may or may not agree to this perception, any ideas are most welcome.

Weekend in Lahore

Jal, a Pakistani music band, who has recently released an album "Aadat", is going pretty good. Their music is entertaining and the lyrics are fine as well, but the vocalist(s) need to improve. Take a look at these lyrics (from song Panchi):

Panchi hoon, urnay do, urney do; hawaon se larney do,
Rastay galian, chor aaya mein; Bhoolay waaday tor chala main
Yeh raat abhi, dhal jaye gee; yeh baat abhi, badal jaye gee
Tanha hoon, rehnay do; rehnay do; ansoo hoon behnay do, behnay do

Got back from Lahore this morning at around 4:30 am driving a Suzuki FX through the Lahore-Faisalabad-Islamabad Motorway covering around 360 Kms in 4.5 hours. I had gone through the same journey on Friday night, but in the opposite direction, to meet Ali & Ahsan from Karachi. They reached Lahore on Friday night to work on a project for Warid Telecom who have recently setup their office in EFU House, Jail Road, Lahore. It's a simple office with average ambience and spacious desktops.

A city well known for its unique traditions and environment, Lahore is a must see for a Pakistani. A few of the areas to visit are Liberty & Fortress markets & Race course garden, not to forget Minar-e-Pakistan & gardens such as Shalimar Bagh & Bagh-e-Jinnah. Then there is M M Alam road where there are a few good restaurants such as Village, Cafe Zouk, etc. Other dining out areas are the main Food Street and Lakshmi Chowk (famous for Karahi). There is a famous pan shop called "Barray".
Lahore has a few good universities like UET, University of the Punjab, LUMS & FAST-NU, with good spacious campuses. The major roads are Mall Road, Jail Road, Abbott Road and the road beside the famous canal (don't know its name).

Though, I have heard a lot from the people living there and have read a few things about Lahore as well, but my experience so far is not that good. For one, taxis are hard to find as opposed to the superabundance of congested rickshaws (which are sometimes a headache). The city is not that well structured as compared to Islamabad, but again same is the case with other cities in Pakistan, such as Karachi.

Summary: If you are new to Lahore, you have to have a friend and a car in order to enjoy Lahore's atmosphere.

About my trip, we didn't do much besides staying in the hotel room, watching tv, talking and travelling in rickshaws! I hope to see Lahore's positives on the next visit.

Syed Humair Mudasser Qadri (Kadri with a Q :-p) and Danish Moid have started blogging as well, though they haven't written much, but I am sure we'll get some unique writings pretty soon. You can check out their blogs here:
Syed Humair's Blog
Danish Moid's Blog

inshaAllah, the true meaning?

Around 8 months back, I along with a few other people took a Time Management Workshop organized by TimeLenders. It was lectured by Suleman Ahmer and was a very informative week. He is an impressive personality with his concepts and communication skills outstanding many others I have experienced. The selection of his words and the relation with Islam & the happenings is awesome. He is an NED graduate and a Masters from US, at that time working in the HR department at a multinational in Karachi. He is also the writer of book "The Embattled Innocence: Recollections of a Muslim Relief Worker". Suleman has also conducted Time Management Workshops in USA and currently in Pakistan and has also written a book on Time Management which I guess would be in the market now.

During one of his lectures, he told us about the happenings in Chechnya a few years back and his involvement as a relief worker there followed by a short story (please spare me as I don't remember the exact wordings, just grasped the concept):

"During this period, the Chechnyans were to build an hospital in such a vicinity which wasn't pretty far away from the place where the Russian army was at that moment. The Russian army was pretty large in number and thus the hospital and the locality had very little chance to survive. All the plan was made to build the hospital and to start the construction, when I approached an engineer and a few other concerned people and raised my concerns. To my surprise it didn't matter for them and one of them said "inshaAllah, the hospital will be built and will remain". I pondered on their attitude and at the end after concentrating on their response it just struck me through the mind. The true meaning of inshaAllah!"

Then, he explained to us what came to his mind and he told us the definition that the Chechnyans used, which is close to "If God doesn't stop me/us" as compared to the definition which is pretty common "If God allows me/us" or atleast is taken this way. Both the definitions mean the same, as far as my knowledge is, but the new definition shows much stronger commitment and healthier will than the old one. I hope I am not inducting any confusion in one's mind, but if you think closely and deeply it is what a Muslim's character should be, commitment & will being considered as one of the most important thing in his/her life. Summary: You should only use inshaAllah when you know you will do it and nothing can stop you except for Allah.

Let's take a few examples:

• You have lent some money from a business relative and you have to give it back in a month. At that point in time you either know that you can't return on time or you don't. If you know then there must be something wrong, right? Will you use the word InshaAllah? I wouldn't have!
• On a busily scheduled day, you are to meet your close friend for something he needs and you have to squeeze some of your activities in order to meet him. He asks for your commitment one day before and at that point in time you know that (because of your priorities) you have little chance of getting out some time. Will you use the word? I wouldn't have! Why? Out of your control! Priorities!
• A new software project comes up and you have to work on such technologies on which you haven't worked upon, but trend says that you are pretty adaptive. You are being asked whether you take the challenge or not. You know that if you work a few extra hours weekly, you can do it! Will you use the word InshaAllah? I would have! Why? Simply because given the scenario, I know I can learn quickly and my dedication would outstand the challenge! In control!

To everyone's surprise, the Russian army backtracked and the hospital was built and is operational since then. The result of the commitment and will is there, no matter how severe the conditions would've been and no matter whether there was hope or not, the planning was done, effort was made & it was finally built! What an awesome exhibition of faith, will & dedication and leaving the rest on God! God didn't stop them, so how can the Russians?!

Since then, one question has been disturbing me, "Do I have the same spark?". Do you?

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Here are a few links of writings by Suleman Ahmer:
http://www.geocities.com/mutmainaa/story/city_girl_doll.html
http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0795/9507012.htm
http://islamicbookstore.com/a4237.html
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0111/S00023.htm

Body Builder Redivivus

red·i·vi·vus (adj.): Come back to life; revived: “defenders of the Imperial Presidency redivivus” (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.).

Till around 12 years back, I used to play cricket pretty regularly. We used to play near our home; I was the captain of our team and the key player may it be batting, bowling or fielding. During that period, we had a match with a team of some older guys. I still remember when I was batting and the opponent wicket-keeper wasn't really happy with my batting, he passed a comment on me to other person "Look at how skinny he is". I looked at him for a moment, looked down and my concentration returned back to the game.

But that was not it! From that day onwards realizing that it's true, my nature disturbed me not to give a chance to anyone else. I increased my diet and after some time started a few pushups daily, not proper exercise just a bit here and there.

After around 6 years, it was time for me to carry out a full work-out plan. I joined a gym and since then, I have been in & out of it. As far as my fitness and shape is concerned I have came a long way through. The people who are with me from that time back say that there has been a major change.

During this period of around 6 years, there had been many gaps with a couple of gaps even going upto 10 months, hence effectively it has been a 2 and a half years exercise. The last good work-out period I had was a year back, with Humair & Shahg, lasting around 6 months effectively in a span of around a year. It was a pretty consistent era, both technically and weight respective, at least relatively. But after that, I have not been able to settle in with some good consistent exercise.

Recently, after thinking about it too much and examining my daily activities, I decided to join Bodyonics Gym, F-10 Markaz. The registration fee is Rs. 1000/- (negotiable) followed by a monthly fee of Rs. 1000/-. It's pretty expensive as compared to Karachi, but it's very good & nicely maintained, though there's nothing else apart from the exercise apparatus.

As I write, I have already skipped 4 days exercise, but I am confident and hopeful that I'll carry it out for some time and break the barriers in inducting some consistency. The force inside me will revive and I shall become the Body Builder Redivivus!