Arfa Karim Shows Signs of Life

Arfa Karim has Mashallah achieved so much at a very young age and brought fame and pride to Pakistan. This little girl now is on death bed and  I pray to Almighty Allah for her complete recovery and may she fight back and bring more glory and happiness in our lives.

ISLAMABAD — Arifa Karim, Pakistan’s pride who became world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) at 9 in 2004 continues to be in critical condition in death’s icy hands at CMH hospital in Lahore since she suffered cardiac arrest on December 22.

On Friday night, however, Arifa showed signs of life a day after doctors gave up all hope for her survival and suggested switching off her life support saying there was ‘no hope’.

“Arifa started showing some brain activity and twitched her fingers, her father Lt-Col. (Retd) Amjad Karim Randhawa,” told journalists.

The youngest-ever Microsoft certified professional, however, is still in critical condition, he said.

Doctors at the hospital said she was completely normal when she suddenly had an epileptic attack and was shifted to the Combined Military Hospital in Lahore. On December 28 she became unconscious and was put on ventilator. The family has been receiving calls from across the world for Arifa’s health and prayers for her recovery, her father said.

Born in 1995, Arifa became the youngest MCP in the world at the age of 9. The MCP involves building programmes into broader systems for business. Arifa was invited by Bill Gates to visit the Microsoft Headquarters in the USA when she was only 10-year-old. In August 2005, Arifa was also awarded the Fatima Jinnah Gold Medal in the field of Science and Technology by then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. She also received the Salaam Pakistan Youth Award again in 2005 set up by Pakistan’s only Nobel laureate Dr Abdul Salam. She is also the recipient of the Presidential Award for Pride of Performance.

Arifa represented Pakistan on various international fora. She was invited by the IT Professionals of Dubai for a stay of two weeks in Dubai. During that trip, Arifa was presented with various medals and awards.

She also flew a plane at a flying club in Dubai at the age of 10, and received the first flight certificate. In November 2006, Arifa was invited by Microsoft to be a part of the keynote session in the Tech-Ed Developers conference held in Barcelona. The theme of the conference was “Get ahead of the game” and Arifa was presented as a true specimen of being ahead of the game. She was the only Pakistani among over 5,000 developers in that conference. – Counrtesy Khaleej Times

Bill Gates Hires Doctors for Arfa Kareem

According to her father Col Karim Microsoft contacted him and offered help. Directed by Bill Gates, the firm has hired doctors who would co-ordinate with the Pakistani doctors through vidoe conference and they may come to Pakistan if needed. Read more.

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9/11 Memorial on Ground Zero

Where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre once stood now lies two granite pools in its footprints with waterfalls cascading 30 feet below. They one-acre size pools sprawl out across the World Trade Center plaza – one to signify each fallen tower. They are bordered by bronze panels inscribed by the names of all those who perished at the hands of terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, at the Pentagon, in New York and in Pennsylvania.

9/11 Ground Zero Memorial to open on 10th anniversery

The memorial’s designer, Michael Arad, was a young, little-known architect whose plan was selected out of 5,200 proposals. He told CBS: ‘These two acre-sized voids are like a moment of silence and what we do with that moment of silence depends on us. We just want to make sure everything is done very carefully. We’re building for the ages.’

30 feet fall at 9/11 Memorial on Ground Zero

 

 

 

 

 

 

Courtesy: Daily Mail

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Dr Umar Saif among "World’s Top Young Innovators for the year 2011"

Congratulations to Dr. Umar Saif, a professor at LUMS,  who has been recognized by MIT Technology Review amongst`World`s Top 35 Young Innovators for the year 2011 for his peer to peer file sharing software BitMate. By featuring in the list, Saif now joins an elite group of researchers and technologists including the likes of Google’s Sergey Brin and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

MIT Technology Review selects the top innovators after a rigorous evaluation process. The judges, who are leading experts in their fields from universities such as MIT, Stanford and Harvard, consider hundreds of high-impact researchers and entrepreneurs from all over the world, out of which top 35 are chosen for the award. “This year’s group of TR35 recipients is driving the next wave of transformative technology and making an impact on the way we live, work and interact”, said Jason Pontin, editor-in-chief and publisher of the MIT Technology Review.

In the last decade, this is the first time a Pakistani has been selected for the prestigious TR35 award, says a press release issued on Tuesday. “The TR35 recognizes the world’s top 35 young innovators that are radically transforming technology as we know it. Their work – spanning medicine, computing, communications, energy, electronics and nanotechnology — is changing our world,” according to MIT Technology Review.

Dr Saif holds a BSc. from the Lahore University of Management Sciences and Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Cambridge, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar at Trinity College. Saif is a tenured associate professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan and established one of the first startup incubators in Pakistan, called the Saif Center of Innovation (SCI)^. Saif’s work on grassroots technologies received the MIT Technovator Award in 2008.

Dr Saif has won numerous awards for his innovative technology solutions for the developing-world. He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010. He is a recipient of the MIT Technovator Award, Mark Weiser Award, Digital Inclusion Award from Microsoft Research and the IDG Technology Pioneer Award. Before moving to Pakistan, Saif worked at MIT and received a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust. More.

Saif is working on some incredibly innovative start ups right now.One of his projects, SMSall.pk is like Twitter and it was fanning out at an exponential rate in Pakistan. Othe project uses mobile phone cameras to allow illiterate people to understand English. People can take pictures of English text – newspaper clippings, labels, anything – from any cell phone, MMS it to a number and they will get a call back that that reads out the text to them in Urdu.

Best of all, Pakistan need not fear losing Saif to any other country. Because he has no plans to move his home base out of Pakistan. Even though he spends some time visiting other universities to get some work done, Saif says that he is in Pakistan to stay permanently.

Technorati Tags: bonzai trees, Dr umar saif, LUMS, MIT technology review, MIT Technovator award, SMSall.pk, young global leader by the wrld economic forum 2010

PTI Leader Imran Khan

Imran Khan, my teenage crush, idol and our all time favourite captain, has a massive responsibility of handling the expectations of a nation who is let down by all the leaders in the past. Can he do it? Its a near impossible task which cannot be done alone. He should have a strong and honest team to deliver the results. I am a huge fan of Imran Khan but a reluctant supporter of the politician Imran Khan.

I wish to agree with Dr Arif Alvi when he writes about the public support enjoyed by Imran Khan “Let me sound the bugle that the tides have turned and for those who have seen or read about the Bhutto ‘sailab’, this is an emerging ‘tsunami’, as the people have found a leader they can trust and who will deliver.”

From zulfikar Ali Bhutto to my Kaptaan

By Arif Alvi was published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2011.

The crowd was pulsating as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) continued to talk about Afro-Asian solidarity. Some of us raised anti-Ayub slogans. ZAB stopped us and said ‘abhi naheen’. He was into the third hour of his first public speech after ditching his mentor and the venue was Government College Lahore. The 60s were an era of healthy debate between the left and the right. My mother insisted that I stop reading comics and novels and she thrust upon a young mind The dialogues of Plato. I graduated to Maududi, Marx and Engels to understand socialism, religion and the exploitation of man by laissez faire capitalism. Iqbal fired up a passion and pride, and Bhutto’s book The Myth of Independence gave me a nationalist perspective, though I disagreed with his political philosophy. People dislodged Ayub Khan and yours truly still carries a couple of bullets in his right arm as a memento of a people’s struggle gone awry, somewhat like Egypt of today with no real change. Our lot since then has gotten from worse to worst and beyond.

Forty years later I am travelling with Imran Khan from Lahore to Faisalabad for a PTI jalsa. His recent upsurge started from the Peshawar dharna. Karachi was the watershed where people of all ethnicities joined in to make a statement that there is a breath of fresh air in this miserable political arena. Multan was a notch higher and we reached there in time from Lahore despite many receptions on the way.

We started at 2:30 pm, planning to reach the Dhobi Ghat ground in Faisalabad at 6 pm. But it was not to be despite Imran Khans urgings, as the crowd in every village on the way had come on the roads to welcome him. There was a sea of passionate people every mile of the road we travelled.

An old man almost got trampled making it to his side of the car and with tears in his eyes exhorted Imran Khan to “save Pakistan”. Women pushed through the crowd of men, shouted greetings, and those who could not reach the car would give the traditional blessing from a distance. Huge crowds would not allow us to move despite our portable speaker announcements that tens of thousands were waiting for us in Faisalabad.

Khan blamed me for the lack of organisation and discipline in the welcoming crowds. But it was evident that the paradigm shift and tsunami which he had been predicting had arrived. It was incredible to see the rising passion of the people which gives a leader strength, but also puts on his shoulders a great burden of responsibility.

For me, this was déjà vu’ plus, from the Bhutto era. I welcomed Asghar Khan in Karachi in ’67. Then I followed Bhutto, though I disagreed with his pseudo leftist philosophy. I never forgave him his role in the breakaway of East Pakistan, but I imbibed the hope of his ‘we-will-make-a-new-Pakistan’ speech after the debacle. I admired him for his brilliant link to the people and the dignity which he gave to the common man. What has been done to his legacy is nothing short of political rape.

Mubashir Hasan and others like Rafi Raza have dissected Bhutto’s contradictions in their books and have concluded that he had two personalities which struggled within him, that of a wadera and that of an awami leader. He loved the latter but frequently succumbed to the compromises of the former. Khan has no schism. What you see is what you get. Let me sound the bugle that the tides have turned and for those who have seen or read about the Bhutto ‘sailab’, this is an emerging ‘tsunami’, as the people have found a leader they can trust and who will deliver.

Is Imran Khan the only hope left for the people of Pakistan?

Imran Khan at the Faisalabad rally

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Hamad, the Rainbow Sheikh

Billionaire sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi carves his name in desert so big that if he goes to space then he can see it from there !

His name is etched on to an island he owns called Al Futaisi. The name is two miles across — with letters a kilometre high. It is so huge that the “H”, the first “A” and part of the “M” have been made into waterways. Now he better go to space and see his name otherwise whats the use!

And rather than allow the writing to be washed away by the ocean, the letters actually form waterways that absorb the encroaching tide.The ruler’s name is even visible on Google’s map service.

Hamad, also known as the ‘Rainbow Sheikh’, is a member of the Abu Dhabi Ruling Family.

Dodge Power Wagon

The Arab sheikh has a taste for doing things on a large scale. He built the world’s largest truck – eight times the size of the Dodge Power Wagon, with  four bedrooms inside the cabin.

Hamad constructed a motor home in the shape of a giant globe which is exactly 1 millionth the size of the actual earth.

Alongside his lavish displays of wealth he has become a well-known philanthropist in medicine and supplied a complete kidney stone operating theatre to a public hospital in Morocco where he continues to fund its staff.

His fleet of more than 200 cars — including seven Mercedes 500 SELs painted in different colours of the rainbow — is housed in a custom-built pyramid. Have a look at his car collection.

Have fun “Ya Sheikh!” but you can make millions smile with a little of your wealth by helping them….do not give them food instead invest in such a way that they become productive and generate their own income!

Emirates National Auto Museum

The Emirates National Auto Museum
The museum is free and, while often appearing closed, is actually open seven days a week (9am-6pm; closed 1pm-2pm). If the pyramid building is shut, just find an attendant to open it. The complex is home to three shops and cafés (including one inside a two-storey, Land Rover-shaped building). Ask in any of these to find an attendant. The drive to the museum is about 45 minutes from the centre of Abu Dhabi. Take the road toward the airport, and turn off on to the Tarif road (a massive strait that runs right through to Saudi Arabia). Turn off at Junction 306 and head towards Hameem. Pass the giant rainbow gate on the left and the museum will be sign-posted.

Technorati Tags: dodge power wagon, emirates national auto museum, hamad from space, hamad visible on google map, largest car of the world, rainbow sheikh, sheikh of abu dhabi

Total lunar eclipse on 15th june 2011

The first total  lunar eclipse of the year 2011 will happen on 15th June 2011. On the night of June 15, the sun, earth and moon will come in a straight line and the earth’s shadow will eclipse the full moon passing through it. As the moon slips into the earth’s dark shadow, it will slowly assume a coppery red colour, making it a not to be missed spectacle. The lunar eclipse will be visible for 50 minutes and it will be visible to many countries, including Pakistan.

Karachi University Institute of Space and Planetary Astrophysics Director Professor Dr Muhammad Shahid Qureshi said the eclipse will be a rare one because this time the moon will pass directly through the center of the earth’s shadow cone – an event that hasn’t happened in 11 years and won’t happen again until 2018.

This eclipse will be the darkest in 22 years. If you have never seen the summer Milky Way at its prime, you now have two very strong excuses for travelling to a dark sky site to observe this total lunar eclipse and the galactic center high in the sky. For the city people like us it will be a rare event because we hardly witness the brilliant network of starts because of the bright lights around.

Karachi Astronomers Society writes ” The eclipse occurs on 1^5th/16^th June when the Moon is at the ascending node in southern Ophiuchus, about 7° west of the Lagoon Nebula (M8). Perhaps you know that the Lagoon Nebula is an obvious naked-eye target from dark skies. The Moon plunges deep into Earth’s umbral shadow during this rather long event, with totality itself lasting 100 minutes. The last eclipse to exceed this duration was that of July 2000.

Fred Espenak, “Mr. Eclipse” of NASA, reflecting about a total lunar eclipse he witnessed in the same part of the sky nearly three decades ago writes, “I was amazed at how brilliantly the summer Milky Way glowed since it was all but invisible during the partial phases.”

15^TH June 2011 (Wednesday)

Penumbral Eclipse Begins:  22:24:34 PKT

Partial Eclipse Begins:    23:22:56 PKT

16^TH June 2011 (Thursday)

Total Eclipse Begins:      00:22:30 PKT

Greatest Eclipse:          01:12:37 PKT

Total Eclipse Ends:        02:02:42 PKT

Partial Eclipse Ends:      03:02:15 PKT

Penumbral Eclipse Ends:    04:00:45 PKT

Related Posts:

Salat ul kusoof

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Veena malik accident

ISLAMABAD /LAHORE: Actress Veena Malik has suffered injuries in a car crash while travelling from Islamabad to Lahore.

Her car was collided head on with a vehicle from opposite side near Thokar Niaz Baig area in Lahore and upturned. Malik was injured in the accident. Malik was driving car on wrong side of a one-way road while entering in Lahore, which was resulting in crash with another car, sources say.

Veena Malik

Veena Malik was coming to Lahore after meeting her family in Islamabad on Monday night, when she had an accident some eight kilometres away from Thokar Niaz Beg. Malik has suffered injuries on her shoulder, arms and legs and is in a hospital in Lahore. “She is out of danger and her condition is stable now,” a source close to actor quoted her mother as saying.

According to Malik’s manager, Sohail Rashid, she was driving the car while there were four other people in the car when the accident happened. “There were two guards, and two other people with her, while she was driving herself. A speeding vehicle overtook Veena Malik’s car, hit its side door and raced off. The car went off balance and collided,” Rashid said.

A boy who was sitting on the front seat with Veena Malik said: “It seemed as if they deliberately hit our car. We couldn’t see their faces. They hit us, and saw our car colliding. They would have stopped had they hit us by mistake.”

Malik lost consciousness, and was taken to the hospital. “The family doesn’t want to disclose her location right now for security concerns. Doctors say she is stable and will be discharged soon, but they have advised rest as she has suffered a mental shock,” Rashid told The Express Tribune.

Veena Malik was the star performer of the show “Hum sab umeed se hain” on geo tv but later became famous for all the wrong reasons when she appeared in the reality show in india. In India she tried to gain popularity but letting go of her morality and values (if she had any).

Technorati Tags: veena malik car crash, veena malik injured, veens malik accident

Osama's Compound

The World’s most wanted terrorist was killed by US forces on sunday in a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan. When he died he had no weapons  in his house and was unarmed himself too! What a terrorist! Who was a threat to the world peace!

Osama’s life was a big mystery but his death happened with a bigger drama. His life always raised numerous questions but his death has left uncountable questions unanswered. By throwing his dead body in the sea, Americans have made his death questionable for ever! (Seeing is believing)

They found him alive and unarmed and did not capture him alive? WHY? He had no weapons in his compound!

“White House press secretary Jay Carney acknowledged that Bin Laden did not have a weaponeven though administration officials have said that the terror leader resisted during the raid. Carney said resistance does not require a firearm. Mr Carney also confirmed Bin Laden was shot in the head and in the chest.” Read more

Sorry, but I do not buy this story. After looking for him for past ten years and in this process they destroyed two countries (Afghanistan and Pakistan). They killed thousands of people (human beings who were once alive and did not kill anyone one on earth) and when they found him(Osama)….they killed him!!! Why was he not taken into custody to stand trial?

Lets believe Osama Bin Laden is dead and this chapter of our lives is closed forever. Mr Obama says that World has become a safe place after Osama’s death but is it true for the people of Pakistan too? Will we have a safe future for our kids too? After sacrificing thousands of innocent lives in this war on terror. We are still facing terror, unumployment, inflation, a sinking economy,a social and cultural anarchy plus a blame of protecting and hosting terrorists.

This blaming tone is very unjust  indeed after telling the world  how much we have lost… and suffered. Which is exactly the truth. Even then the media tries to convince people that OBL is some kind of hero in Pakistan, which is why he managed to live in a “mansion” in Abbottabad.

Take a closer look at the picture above. Is this how a mansion looks like? You all must have seen homes of rich people before.

Anyway, basic question is:

Who was the man killed in Abbottabad? He was an ‘arab’ we all know by now but all arabs are not ‘Osama Bin Laden’!!

Why was he killed and not tested in a court of law?

If killed then why was the body thrown in the sea in a hurry?

We all have this feeling that he was not Osama otherwise Americans would have proudly shown his dead body to the world like the bodies of Saddam and his sons were shown. Osama may have died years ago in an unknown place in Afghanistan. He gave the chance to Americans to enter Afghanistan after 9/11 and Afghans paid the price along with Pakistani soldiers and citizens.

Now after his ‘death drama’ Pakistanis are looked upon with doubt again. No one is asking how he entered Pakistan in the presence of huge NATO forces equipped with the best available warfare technology?????

I wish this post 9/11 world is a nightmare and we will get back to old times ….I do not want my children to grow up in this world.

Related Posts:

http://www.osamabinladenlives.com/

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Zaradi cuts the cake

Mr Zardari’s smile while cutting the cake shows that he was not even discouraged by Bilawal not getting an invitation to the Royal Wedding. President of Pakistan cuts the cake to celebrate the Queen’s 85th Birthday and of the Royal Wedding between Prince William of Wales and Miss Catherine Middleton, during ceremony at UK Embassy in Islamabad on Friday, April 29, 2011.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, federal ministers, parliamentarians, diplomats, senior officers and people from various walks of life were among the guests.

Speaking at the reception arranged by British High Commission, the President expressed his best wishes for the newly married couple and prayed for happiness in their future.

British High Commissioner Adam Thomson said, “The two happy events mark the start of a tremendously exciting period for the UK and the Commonwealth. The Queen’s birthday is also an occasion to reflect on the close ties that bind UK and Pakistan. ”

This was all done (maybe) in good spirits but for a common Pakistani like me there are two options either we get  frustrated thinking that the President of a country faced  by so many challenges has nothing better to do then cutting a cake to celebrate Queen’s birthday!!or laugh at it….

“Begaani shaadi main Abdullah Deewana” We all know this famous proverb of  Urdu language which means that an  irrelevant person (Abdullah) celebrates wedding of a stranger with more excitement than the relevant people.

You can see an example of this ‘muhawara’ in the picture above.

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MoinAkhtar dies

Moin Akhtar is one man we all knew, loved and respected. He has spread happiness and laughter for so many years. The news of his death is shocking for me. We have lost a great actor, comedian and a great human being.  Please pray for his soul. May Allah bless him with the best place in heaven.

He was 61 years old and was under treatment at Combined Military Hospital (CMH) for a heart disease.

The Nation writes, In last one month Pakistan has lost its several Big Actors and Comedians like Babu Baral, Liaquat Soldier and Mastana and latest shocking news is that another famous Actor Moin Akhtar has also died due to heart attack today. Moin Akhtar was facing heart disease from a long time. He was shifted to Hospital earlier today due to heart pain but he died in few hours of pain.

The News writes, A highly dynamic and versatile performer from Karachi, Moin Akhtar made his debut appearance on PTV on 6 September 1966, in a variety show telecast on the occasion of the first defense day of Pakistan. Since then, he had performed numerous roles in TV plays/shows and later teamed up with Anwar Maqsood and Bushra Ansari to get an overwhelming public applause.

Whether on the stage or on the screen, Moin Akhtar was one of the most sought after actors in Pakistani entertainment industry. His apparent attempts to avoid vulgar in his humor has rendered him a favorite amongst family audiences.

He is an inspiration for the generations to come and is one of the few that stands out so distinguishably. Akhtar was fluent in several languages, including English, Bengali, Sindhi, Punjabi, Memon, Pushto, Gujarati and others, while in the Urdu-speaking world, he is beloved for providing humor for people of all ages, and with an etiquette that remains unmatched.

In an old interview in Arab News Moin Akhtar’s conversation was punctuated with thankfulness to Allah and references to the Qur’an. There were rumors that he has become very religious and is planning to quit. Was that true?

“What do you mean I’ve become religious? I am a born Muslim.” He said a bit angrily, then simmering down, he added, “You can say I have made a conscious decision not to do shows that are female dominated or vulgar and cheap.

Who makes Moin Akhtar laugh? “Writer Mushtaq Yusufi. He has very clean and simple humor for instance,” he says. If you see a man open the car door for his wife, you should know, either the car is new or he has a new wife.”

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