First of all my sincerest apologies for such a long delay.
I have always been a supporter of Imran Khan. I remember raising money for his Cancer Hospital when I was a kid (still have his signed certificate somewhere) and then even worked with a wonderful team to establish his political party’s (PTI) chapter in Scotland.
I have believed in him, I have agreed with many of his political view, I know he is the best we have - but only recently I have started to get scared of him. To my understanding he is presently enjoying genuine popular Urban middle class support. In this country “burger eating kids” have never gone to Political rallies before, Dads have never taken Moms to go see a political address but this guy has made all of that happen. Only problem is that presently our Army Generals hate Nawaz Sharif (for their personal reasons) but they also do not trust Zardari (for obvious reasons). MQM could have been a national party but they destroyed any hope of it with their senile Nationalist behaviour when they started killing innocent non-Urdu speakers. Establishment also doesn’t like Zardari (I don’t think even Zardari likes Zardari!) but they are not too sure about Nawaz Sharif unless he agrees to things their way.
That said (in a very compressed manner) Imran Khan comes as a great pawn in this game. I personally believe IK has been used as a scare crow by Army and Establishment to get Zardari and Nawaz Sharif do certain things. Just before the elections they will come up with something to kill Imran Khan’s vote and get back to a more easy position with the two bigger parties who have dominated Pakistani politics for ages.
And then on top of this, even if Imran Khan does win - I am sorry to say but he might prove “Obama” for Pakistan. He comes in promising changes, and leaves with nothing but “hey I am trying as hard as I can with my just too frequent town hall meetings all around the world”.
p.s. If nothing extraordinary happens, I am still voting for Imran Khan in next elections and urging everyone else to do that - but still I have my fears.
Anonymous asked:
Hi! Your most recent post showed up on the #Scotland and I wanted to let you know about couchsurfing. Just look it up online and it'll be there for you! Its a place to either stay on someone's couch or just get in contact with people on where you're traveling to. Maybe by going on there, someone could point you in the direction to stay or even possibly stay with them. Just a thought!
Hosted a few people in Glasgow from Couchsurfing, but haven’t tried it yet for staying somewhere. Thanks anyway.
Masturbation Notice from University of St Andrews
Just logged in Facebook after few days and found this from a friend.
- November 16
- , 2011
I have been thinking about it a lot lately and have finally come to a conclusion, after being discouraged by nearly 80% of the people who I talked to about this idea of mine - I have decided to move to Pakistan.
It is a pretty big decision for me and I am quite aware of what I am getting myself into (including the possibility of no father ever agreeing to let his daughter move with me to Pakistan) but this is really something I have lately literally grown to believe in.
For years I have been moaning and grunting about what is wrong with Pakistan and how no one cares to fix things with countless dinners and coffee meetups have been spent in discussing how things are messed up for Pakistan, but now I do have an opportunity to do something myself. I do realise that to think I can bring a massive change in few weeks time will be nothing but really naive thought - but at least I can do things right around me.
I have taken up a very good offer from a private University in Lahore to join them. I will be initially working in a mid/senior management position in their Analytics and Quality department being charged with establishing new quality enhancement procedures, KPIs and tools. While there is a possibility I might also volunteer for another interesting opportunity there. Given how much I find myself fascinated with the analytics, I believe this is the perfect opportunity for me - given the large resources the University offer coupled with the freehand they are willing to give me, I feel I will be able to actually achieve something good here.
For this I am moving to Lahore over the weekend, with my first working day on coming Monday. This also means that I need to find myself a place to stay in Lahore (why is there no good property letting website?) and also that I need to either move my return ticket for a few months or maybe just cancel it.
There are a lot of things which I will be sacrificing (especially the joy of driving carefree in your lane without being threatened by suicidal motorcyclists) but I do think this is really important step for me. After quite a long time I actually feel that there is something I can positively contribute back to the country I have always called “home”. Will try to be regular with updates here but there might be some absence while I try to settle down in Lahore.
p.s. Anyone accepting paying guests in Lahore? I am a pretty decent guy!
Times when I miss Scotland (mobile)
*testing tumblr android app since email posting isn’t working for me.
Daily Mail: Captured on our streets by a foreign lens, shaming images that turned Britain into a laughing stock (more pictures)
If this guy was in Glasgow he could have captured all those lassies in the most outrageously “modest” Shocking Pink dresses or those loads of drunken arguments between the couples on the Sauchiehall Street.
- September 22
- , 2011
Unfortunately got lazy and didn’t post these before, here is a small photoshoot I did for Mio earlier this month.
Edit: I am absolutely angry at the level of compression Tumblr is doing to the pictures I upload here. For better view check my Flickr set.
- September 19
- , 2011
Almost 16 hours to go before I embark on one of the most important trips of my life.
By the way getting English bank notes is quite a hassle. I was told by Barclays that I should have placed an order 2-3 days before so maybe should check with their Barclays Wealth on Bothwell Street to see if I can get some from there. There though was able to get some English notes but couldn’t get them exchanged into Euros or American Dollars since they do not keep larger amount of Foreign currency in Bank and I will have to place an order 2-3 days in advance for them.
Anyway I just walked into a Cheque Centre and got most of the Scottish Bank notes exchanged for US dollars.
Many times while travelling abroad they just decline to accept the Pounds issued by Scottish banks - on that note even some retailer down in England act like that (nationalism?)!
From my trip to area around Inverness-shire and Loch Ness in particular. If you spot the infamous Nessie in any of these pictures do let know.
Some of these will find their way on to my Flickr account.
Some girls camping outside HMV store.
- September 11
- , 2011
So the update for now is that my car needs to be written off because apparently to get the sun roof and rest of the stuff from Japan plus the damage to the car and the slashing of tyres will incur a crazy amount of money to the insurer. A salvage company will pick it up from me tomorrow and will give me an estimate market price of the car which the insurer will then pay me. Only issue is that I have a flight on 15th of September to Pakistan and I really hope everything can be sorted out in 7 days time!
Meanwhile I was supposed to help Edu move but did not have my car so we ended up having lunch at Rice & Noodle Bar on Dumbarton Road. Why didn’t Lan take us there before? The food was amazing and the best part was that I had a fish soup for the first time in my life and I loved it! I love fish but I have this theory that a dead fish should not be in the soup - I hate all the Pakistani or otherwise dishes with that, but this one really won me over. Then took a walk to University and then to this wonderful tea house - Tchai-Ovna at the Otago Lane. I had Japanese Sencha Hon tea which was good but I really loved the aroma of Chinese Lotus tea.
And it was there when discussing the Motorcycle Diaries about Che Guevara we discussed a possible trip through Asia Pacific on a very normal and perhaps second-hand motorbike. I have warned Edu that he needs to start this trip in start of November otherwise I am susceptible to a change in mind (those who know me long enough already hate my spontaneous plan making skills).
By the way I also figured out that Google Map does not give you much information for route planning between countries in Asia Pacific and it is not that the countries are not joined by roads at all but Google Maps got a mind of it’s own for this region. Try running a search for directions for: Dhaka - Yangon - Bangkok - Kunming - Ho chi Min - Phnom Penh - Kuala Lumpur - Singapore!
REPLIES:
Sorry for not replying quick enough:
ajewelbandaid, goodbyeblighty : Hey thanks guys no it wasn’t like a race attack at all and I won’t use that overly “misused” term. This was an insane guy who wants trouble all the time and did this when he was extremely drunk and maybe even under influence of something.
wajihah , beautifulsiesta : thank you guys :) all is well now - just has put things off schedule for me.
And really sorry for all the messages I missed before - really got myself in a tight routine recently.
Whenever people used to tell me their horrible experiences I would always say that nothing ever even remotely bad has happened to me in Scotland for last 3 years of continuous living here, that was until today.
Earlier today someone smashed all of my car’s windows and slashed the four tyres. I know who has done it and won’t comment on it because constable has advised me against sharing that information but it is just plain annoying.
Moments like these are when you miss being in Pakistan where you can fix a lot of things yourself. Worse thing is that I have been living in this house for one year and never had even a single issue, this is a pretty decent part of the town and such people you don’t expect to be living around. But anyway he has enough of troubles with police already so just waiting for the witness count to complete.
But times like these let you appreciate people you call friends even more. Lan showed me how angry Chinese look like when she got angry on the police for being late at the incident, Moses for standing with me outside and then helping me cover my car with cardboards and “bin liners” in rain (he got a headache later which I believe must be because of the rain and wind) along with Ibrahim and Aina who offered us all Barfi (which was more like Scottish tablets) to make us feel better. Thank you all :)
I take small problems in life as things which deter bigger problems but they still do annoy you. Called my insurance company for window fixing but just got a call back informing me that they cannot do it before tomorrow morning otherwise I can take my car to their depot for safekeeping which would be an issue since I got all my tyres flat. Seems like will be working from home tomorrow.
Startrails near Loch Ness.
This 2 second clip is made of 24 photos taken with 3 minute long exposure in nearly 2 hours time. Is not perfect at all, but was my first attempt - should have selected a better reference object but then I did not take my tripod along.
from: 3/9/2011
- September 7
- , 2011
