Project taimoor.me

Couple of days back there was a ticker on the WordPress Dashboard urging me to buy a taimoor.me domain through them and mapping it to my current blog. A passing glance at that and with a slight push from Munir today I have managed to register for both domain and hosting. Apparently, my blog is now being self hosted and as this is typed WordPress 3.2.1 is being uploaded onto the hosting servers for subsequent installation.

While it happens, a little run through for anyone else who might be interested in getting this done:

1. Do not get the hosting or domain registration done through WordPress itself. The price tag there is day light robbery.
2. The folks at Pi Labs Hosting, however, are quite helpful and at least for me made the entire registration process fairly swift & simple. Not to mention not that heavy on the pocket.
3. Next comes the installation of WordPress 3.0 (or any version for that matter) on your hosting servers. Again, fairly simple. A step by step tutorial can be found at: http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress
4. Going with the assumption that my readers are noobs such as your truly, FileZilla is nice little FTP app which lets seamlessly upload your WordPress installation files to the hosting servers.
5. Now I am sure most people would actually have a blog before they would decide to migrate their blog to a self hosting scenario. This subsequently means that the bulk of posts &  comments already on the blog need to be moved to the new enterprise. If you are a WordPress blogger simple follow the link below and your migration problem is solved.  (The page makes it looks fairly simple, haven’t experienced it first hand as yet. #FingersCrossed)

Like I said, its fairly simple and hopefully you folks would find Mind Storm at a new destination for the future posts.

Returning now to the uploading, installation and migration.

P.S. If PTCL is your DSL service provider, forget hosting and better go shoot your brains out instead. Otherwise, their super slow upload speeds would knock your socks off!

From Others to Pakistanis

Since my father was in the Army, I have lived my childhood in different parts of the country. In Army the general trend is that an officer is posted to a new designation every two years and that basically ends up in travelling from one part of the country to the other. In essence, because of my father’s profession I have lived in every province of the country, have seen the diversity of the Pakistani culture first hand and have seen and experienced various places of the country.

I don’t like to divide Pakistan on the basis of Sindhi, Baluchi, Pathan etcetera. However, for the purpose of argument, I have to do so here. Among all the places I have lived at and have had friends at, hands down the most hospitable of the people have been the people from the NWFP. They would go out on a limb for you just because you belong to some other part of the country and therefore by default you have become their guests. And by god, among all of their humbleness and conservativeness they would make their guests feel like royalty. It doesn’t take a huge dinner or a sprawling mansion to do that, their warmth is in their attitude, their claims of tum tu mera bhai hai (you are my brother) and in the humility when they addressed my mother or sister as behen (sister). One needs not to have any doubts about either of the brother or sister claim, because the respect and love was extremely prominent.

We have travelled a lot by the GT Road and there have been various occasions when our car has had a flat tyre. I don’t recall once that me and my dad had to change it because some Pathan truck driver would always stop and change it for us. Not just that he would be practically offended when my dad would offer him to pay for his services. Sahab, ab humain hamare mehmannavaze ka paisa dey rahay ho (Sir, you are paying me for my hospitality…)

I talk about the people of the NWFP today because in the world of war against the terror the same race and the same province of which people I have the best things to say about are being slandered. Right now, I am speaking from my own experience and interaction with these people and as far as I can see, something went very wrong somewhere. As much as these people were proud of their Pathan race, heart and soul they were Pakistanis. From my childhood perspective it takes somewhat of a wild imagination to see the same people as people who would kill innocent civilians all over the country.

What I see today is that even when most of us have never stepped out of our birth city. We have opinions, ideas and judgments on people belonging to other provinces. No one has ever had any long-term interaction with each other but a general division continues to prosper based on baseless notions. I have said this before and I will say it again; in the last 61 years our major achievement has been the birth of a generation which on quite a few levels is beyond schism, which is beyond division, which is a generation of Pakistanis. What is sad is that the baseless notions which cause schism continue to trickle down from the older generations and continue to pollute the one hope for unity.

If we could all do one, just one simple thing for our country this year – Not categorize our nation on the basis of stereotypes, not divide each other based on the geographic location and not think of cultural diversity and division. If we could form our opinions based on facts rather than what we perceive others to be, they would not be others anymore. Let us change ourselves from others to Pakistanis.

…then it rained

It was an evening like any other Karachi evening. Only it had drizzled the night before and I expected better weather. It was a drive like any other and then moods started to change. It drizzled again, drops washed against my windscreen. The sky told the same old story, a cool breeze, a few drops of rain; Mother Nature being a tease again.

Then it all changed, the evening turned dark. I see the clouds turn shade and descend to us mortals. I drive straight to them, “I fucking love the weather,” I tell her and I drive into what seems like the Heart of Darkness.

The wind turns into a gale and then it happened. The skies pour, the wind slaps water against my car, the thick drops sound like pellets against the roof, the wipers throw off gallons from the windscreen, the trees sway, the roads flood, everyone flees for shelter. I step out for a mere moment and am drenched to the bone. The sun is there, somewhere above the overcast, but all that pollutes the pitch dark down here is the lights from the cars.

The dark overcast, the thundering clouds, the flashing lightening, the sound of water; Mother Nature is at her absolute brilliance today and I bow to her majesty. God has to be a woman, because something so beautiful, so aesthetically pleasing, yet so fearsome, so threatening and so menacing can never be the creation of a man.

…and the sadness prevails

We live in a sad country. It’s sadder still that I am actually stating that fact on the record. Things have been all over the place for quite a while now but actually contemplating listing down everything which has/is falling apart just takes the sadness to a whole new degree. One only has to see the first two pages of the day’s paper and catch a glimpse of the news to realize the depths of depravity to which we have fallen.

The democratic government of Pakistan completed its 100 days today. That is a little over three months. The last three months has been the most upset time of the country as far as my memory holds true, or at least in our recent history. Fuel prices have sky rocketed, electricity is scarce, every commodity is almost unaffordable and if all that was not enough, rampant confusion engulfs the nation. The original PPP and PML-N coalition government split to a PPP only government just a few days into its formation. The now PPP-only government has little to show for the last 100 days. It has not been able to address even a portion of the agendas through which they won the seats to the assemblies.

The irony here is that, today, at the 100 days when they should be looking back and strategizing for the coming months, the Pakistan’s Peoples Party held a black day in the memory of Mr. Bhuttos government which was toppled in 1977. Fair is fair, they want to mourn the time when their charismatic leader was at the top, go ahead, but not at the cost of the nation. Far more important is today, when the country’s economy is failing. However, these symbolic activities is all Pakistan has seen in the last three months.

No Pakistani could have forgotten Lal Masjid; the mosque in the capital city which had maulvis acting as vigilante. A year ago after numerous warnings, an army operation was carried at the mosque (which was more of a fortress for the fundos). The imam (read, ring leader) was caught escaping the place in a burqa. Yes, a grown man, claiming to be a pious Muslim was secretly a cross dresser. At least that is what he became in the moment of panic. Before the extremely humorous cross dressing episode we had all seen very tough days. The Pakistan Army lost soldiers as they cleared the place of these fanatic beard bearers. Martyrs left behind little children and young widows. One would say they served the nation good and we are proud of their sacrifice, but alas our government tends to think differently.

Today was the first year anniversary of the entire Lal Masjid episode last year; the Lal Masjid which was cleared off fundos, extremists and militants a year back. Today was the day when we were supposed to honor our martyr sons of the soil, today was the day when we should have remembered their sacrifices. However, things work very differently in the land of the pure. Today was the day of remembrance for the Lal Masjid martyrs, but those martyrs were the criminals and militants who had wrecked havoc at Islamabad for nearly a year. The enemies of the state, who had shot bullets in the chests of our soldiers, were the martyrs who were remembered today by thousands of others like them. The government had an ice-cold attitude towards the families of the soldiers who lost their lives at the same site a year back and supported the mullah circus by sending in trucks of water and crates of mangoes for their entertainment purpose. The fun and fanfare came to an end when a bomb blast in the Lal Masjid vicinity killed 15 policemen and injured near 50.

In short, it was field trip for new fundamentalists to explore the property, reminisce the corrupt lives of similar fundamentalists and even have a sample bomb blast for their entertainment purposes. While the PPP observed a black day, not to reflect on their failure as a government but to reflect on a event which took place 30 years ago. It was a black day indeed but for totally different reasons.

Daylight Saving Time Woes

From June 1^st 2008, we at Pakistan will have daylight saving timing. Which means that we would be switching our clocks to 11 PM on the mid-night of May 31^st. Which – and I just realized this – means that we will have two mid-nights on May 31^st. However, that is beside the point. Now I am a Karachiete so I am going to use the sun timings we have here. So we have the sunset at around 7.45 PM, there is enough daylight to begin with in this horrible summer.

Why do we need to save daylight when we have it till almost 8 in the evening? Yes, because of the power crisis. Due to a variety of reasons, we do not have enough electricity to run the country. Having longer days would mean fewer hours in which we would be required to use lights, bulbs etc. Thing is, given this heat, the hours during which we would not be using the electricity for our lightening needs, we would be sucking it dry through the air-conditioning. When five in the evening would actually be four in the afternoon, your AC would most definitely be turn on. Otherwise, you would be cursing KESC for the power cut.

As far as I see it, this is a useless measure. Imagine, sunset at nine in the fricking evening (read night) and the glaring Karachi sun till then. This also completely murders the life of the city, Karachi is called the “city of lights” for a reason; even though there are not enough lights anymore, the fact is that it is the city’s night which turns this concrete jungle into a living soul. With all the e-mail forwards there are not a lot among us who have not seen the aerial night shots of the city. In fact, one just needs to climb to a floor as high as tenth on any random apartment building and witness the splendor of Karachi’s night. It would not be the same with darkness coming in at nine.

The same goes for Lahore even, it’s the nights when the city gets going. At Islamabad this is going to be quite a bummer, no offence meant to any Islamabadis here but that city is out cold max 10 in the night. Speaking of nights and evenings, Karachi’s evening breeze is a bliss. Even that is out the window now. With the daylight checking out at nine I would be more concerned about the headache I will have because of all the brightness than enjoy anything post sunset has to offer. I still clearly remember the constant irritation when we had the idiotic daylight saving time a few years back.

However, we a desperate for electricity and are therefore trying to latch on to anything which seems to provide us with an option of battling the crisis. Ironically, building dams and power plants is not part of the anything. They are the long term solution and would not make a difference in context of the current year but these dams are an issue which has been under discussion for years now. Musharaff tried to hold consensus on the entire dam building issue a year or two back but nothing came out of it and eventually it had to bite the dust. Unless we are not willing to do anything about increasing the power generation capacity, idiosyncrasies like the daylight saving time is not going to do jack.

The Joys of Democracy

It took them a month and a half to form the government. It’s been almost the same amount of time since then and they still have not workout the kinks. If these facts weren’t sad enough all the meetings, negotiations and press conferences are not being conducted in Pakistan. Hey! Its only the country whose political, legislative and future course is being supposedly debated on here, we do not actually need to be in the country to do that. Well who can blame them, the luxury and comfort which a foreign hotel can offer them can not really be found at the local places. Plus the quality of women there for the free hearted can not be met by the local sex traders. However, I digress, everyone wants good food and then a good lay, we are men, you can’t really blame us for gluttony and lust.

Point is that it’s been three months since free and fair elections were held in the country and a month and a half since we have had a democratic government. Democracy, the sacred word our country could only fantasize about for seven years of a dictator’s rule. Well ladies and gentlemen, congratulations, we have democracy. Now our country can finally grow economically and socially. Oh but wait, did the dollar not creep up to a figure near Rs. 70 a couple of days back? Indeed it did. Petrol prices, now they too saw quite a rise during the last couple of months, did the not? Hold your speech about the global oil prices, I know oil is $125 a barrel, but wasn’t the non-democratic, dictator’s puppet government taking the heat earlier.

Anyway, it started with the current government. Its May the 12^th today, budget is supposed to come out about two weeks. One would imagine the ministry of finance would be deep in paperwork right now. Totally not the case, we are faced with the political turmoil of the restoration of judiciary. Therefore, and I know this would sound a bit off, our Finance Minister is currently in either Dubai or London to make sure that the coalition sticks. Of course there is a cherry on top of this cake; who do you think is financing the trip? Yes! You got it right; it is us innocent tax payers whose money is being burned so that we can have democracy. Na! No one really cares about how good or bad it is, but to not have democracy in the 21^st century. Oh god the shame!

So I ask you my fellow country men and women. Why this obsession with a democracy which is actually worse off than a General? Of course the General is supposed to defend to borders but was there not (ironic is it might be) more of a political stability when it was one guy who was calling the shots? Right now we are a ship without a captain; at the mercy of the ocean winds – of course the cruise will end at Dubai.

We Are Pakistanis

On October 8^th, 2005 the northern areas of our country was hit by major earthquake. There was irreplaceable loss of property and life but the earthquake was not the only major thing which happened that October. The people of our country poured out of their homes to help our brothers and sisters in need. Everyone contributed to their maximum potential. During the first week of the quake the PAF Museum, on Shara-e-Faisal, Karachi was swamped with all sort of vehicles bearing supplies and scores of people helping around with those supplies. Among those helping hands there were no class divides, there were no ethnic divides and there were no religious divides. Everyone was a Pakistani, working together to help the Pakistanis in need. The majority of those people were the youth of the nation, they were my generation of Pakistanis.

Today as I turn on any of the local news channel everyone is talking about Sindh, Punjab, Baluchistan and NWFP. Analysts are going on and on about how some provinces feel bereaved while others just don’t seem to care about why there is a growing schism between them. The politicians with their short-term goal of winning the February elections are alienating other province in their campaigning. Call me naïve or call me ignorant but when these are the general elections for “Pakistan” why is there a provincial split there to begin with? Why are we still localized and can’t have a collective thinking for the greater good of the nation? It’s been 60 years, how many more do we need?

This is what I know. The youth is beyond schism. We don’t socialize or refer to each other depending upon the ethnicity we belong to. My grandfather moved to Pakistan in 1947, I don’t even know where to pin U.P. on the map of India, hell I don’t care either. I am home, why should I be bothered about finding some other place for identity? Same goes for the majority (if not all) the people I interact with. Of course there is a sense of belonging and endearment to the place you live at but at the end of the day we are a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural group of Pakistanis. In sixty years, Pakistan has been able to produce a generation which belongs to Pakistan and which might be able to carve a new path for it in the future. Irony is that the major threat we have is the unity fracture among the previous generations corrupting us.

Take this as a request, take this as an appeal but let us remember the unity the entire nation displayed in the events following October 8. Let us turn that tragedy into a day of unity. Let us all take inspiration from the young and the inexperienced. Let us all be Pakistanis.

Happy fucking New Year

Another year gone by. 2007 was good to me, seems my resolution was good after all. Don’t have one for this year yet, at the moment last year’s looks like the best option. However, its not about me. 2007 was bad for the country. It ended with Benazir Bhutto being assassinated; a violent conclusion to a violent story. 2007 was a year marked with think-headed leadership (though calling it leadership is me being thick headed to begin with), political turmoil and terrorism galore. We pushed our society and our classes into a greater divide. I for one find more and more Pakistanis saying, “That’s it for me, I get a ticket and I am out of here.” Little do any of them realize that only country they are moving to is Bangladesh but then again it’s their choice. Point being that with each passing month our youth feels more and more alienated.

So the year ends and we celebrate. Honestly, I didn’t hear that many guns being fired in the days I used to play “Counter Strike”, seemed as if every other house as an AK-47. It was war out there; and one would think that in the wake of BBs death riots somebody would keep a check on the arms in the streets.

So what exactly were we celebrating this year round? I say the entire notion of celebrating the coming of the new year is flawed. We should be celebrating or mourning the previous year depending upon how good or bad it went. But for the sake of argument let us continue with “what were we celebrating?” with the pretext that we are celebrating the coming year. Do we have a brilliant plan to get ourselves out of the dump in 2008? Will 2008 see the coming of some divine messiah? Do all of us who are rattling guns on the streets have a charismatic leader hidden among their ranks who will make himself public in 2008? I mean seriously, what the fuck are we so bloody jubilant about?

Yes I know, none of us really care about what we are celebrating. It’s a bloody party and we are all out having fun. The coming of the new year is basically an excuse to get drunk and maybe get laid. The reason for all the fun and frolic becomes all the more obvious for the citizens of Karachi who had been boxed in for five days thanks to all of our brothers out there setting things on fire. Somehow, this explanation seems a lot better than the fact that we were celebrating new year’s eve.  

Either ways, we continue contributing to the class divide. Oh yes! Marching proudly towards a future where no one understand the other. A happy fucking new year everybody, I sincerely hope 2008 fares well for all of us.

 

P.S. Indeed a thoroughly pessimistic point of view on the coming of the new year but it’s not the new year I am pessimistic about, just the way things are right now.

P.P.S Thank you Mobzilla for the title.

State of Emergency Imposed in Pakistan

At about quarter past 5 this evening the local news channels went offline. There had been on going discussions about the likelyhood of a state of emergency being enforced in the country and that is what everyones first intution was. Internet (as always) turned out to be the most speedy news source. Emergency has been declared in the country and through different news sources it has been known that the Chief Justice has been deposed.

Local online forums were swarmmed with questions as to what is happening and till now that is my primary source of information. The websites of various local news channels are also being updated with the latest information.

I was out on the road while all of this was happening and the overall situation of Karachi seemed calm, but I am sure most of the people on the road either didnt know what is happening and all of this (till then) was just too premature for any reaction.

How does it effect us? What does the state of emergency actually mean? How would it change our day to day routine lives? What will be the consequences? These are some of the questions in my mind right now.

Will update as the story unfolds.

Live stream can be found here:

http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/video_streaming.php

Updates:
-Benazir lands at Jinnah International Airport, Karachi
-New Chief Justice (Abdul Hameed Dogar) took oath.
-Musharaff addresses the nation at 2300hrs PST.

Lal Masjid – Season 2

I come home, I log on to the internet and check out the new posts at one of the forums I am a regular at only to see a thread dedicated to Lal Masjid again. Those religious fucks are at it again, demanding that the cross dresser who was caught trying to escape last week be let free and then lead the Friday prayers. Where the fuck do these fuckers keep coming from. I would fucking chop off my balls if I know this is what my seed would turn into.

So no, my anger is not just cause of the Lal Masjid take over. The primary reason I feel so pissed off is the suicide blast which occurred during all the mish mash. So another 12 died today, seven of them policemen.

Apparently there is no stopping these bloody fucking religious fucks. The blow themselves up with the key to heaven in the trigger to the bomb. God bless our sweet sweet mullahs. Fuck they are more dangerous then LSD cause I dont know of a single LSD abuser who thought killing himself along with a dozen innocent people would take him to the pearly gates. However, our saintly mullahs have the divine capability to make people so delusional.

I say nuke the bloody fucking faggots. All the idiots who have been arrested today should be used to for chemical weapon testing. Put them in a room and set the room on fire. Fuck turn the madressas into bloody concentration camps like we had back in the days of WWII. Kill a few, dont worry about the collateral damage and set a fucking example for rest of the puuny little retards.

Hail and Kill!