log / Usman Malik

The Satan and the Coca Cola, 1953 Mecca (Saudi Arabia), originally published in National Geographic.

Stradivarius trees: Searching for perfect musical wood (By John Laurenson)

Switzerland is home to some of the best violin makers in the world. But how do they know which tree will make a top quality violin? A wander through the forest with a master tree picker gives an idea of the enormous experience and instinct required.

Just any tree will not do when combing a forest in Switzerland for the perfect musical wood - its age, the weather and even the position of the moon help to craft the warmest, fullest notes.

Lorenzo Pellegrini shook his head and walked away, knee-deep in snow. (Complete article)

There is even something very musical about the article! And this article is not even about instrument making, it is about Lorenzo.

The lone protester. The old man’s Urdu poster reads: “we need Jinnah’s Pakistan”. #log #photos #Pakistan #Lahore #social #culture #history #politics #activism (at Liberty Chowk)

Sir Ganga Ram. Father of Modern Lahore.

Sir Ganga Ram (1851-1927) was a civil engineer and leading philanthropist of his times, who established the Renala Hydral Power Station in Renala Khurd in 1925.

In 1873, after a brief Service in Punjab P.W.D devoted himself to practical farming. He obtained on lease from Government 50,000 acres (200 km²) of barren, unirrigated land in Montgomery district, and within three years converted that vast desert into smiling fields, irrigated by water lifted by a hydroelectric plant and running through a thousand miles of irrigation channels, all constructed at his own cost. This was the biggest private enterprise of the kind, unknown and unthought-of in the country before. Sir Ganga Ram earned millions most of which he gave to charity.

In the words of Sir Malcolm Hailey, the Governor of Punjab, “he won like a hero and gave like a Saint”. He was a great engineer and a great philanthropist.

He designed and built General Post Office, Lahore Museum, Aitchison College, Mayo School of Arts (now the NCA), Ganga Ram Hospital, Lady Mclagan Girls High School, the chemistry department of the Government College University, the Albert Victor wing of Mayo Hospital, the Hailey College of Commerce, Ravi Road House for the Disabled, the Ganga Ram Trust Building on The Mall and Lady Maynard Industrial School. He also constructed Model Town, once the best locality of Lahore, the powerhouse at Renala Khurd as well as the railway track between Pathankot and Amritsar

He built Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lady Mclagan School and Renala Khurd Power House with his own money.

He was a promising agriculturist, too. He purchased thousands acres of barren land in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) on lease and by using engineering skills and modern irrigation methods, turned the arid lands into fertile fields. He retired in 1903. He died in London on July 10, 1927. His body was cremated and his ashes were brought back to India. A portion of the ashes were consigned to Ganga River and the rest buried in Lahore on the bank of the Ravi.

A statue of Sir Ganga Ram once stood on Mall Road in Lahore. Saadat Hasan Manto, the famous Urdu writer, in one of his stories on the frenzy of religious riots of 1947 writes that an inflamed mob in Lahore, after attacking a Hindu residential area, ‘turned to attacking the statue of Sir Ganga Ram, the Hindu philanthropist. They first pelted the statue with stones; then smothered its face with coal tar. Then a man made a garland of old shoes climbed up to put it round the neck of the statue. The police arrived and opened fire. Among the injured were the fellow with the garland of old shoes. As he fell, the mob shouted: “Let us rush him to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital”.

(source)

American Sniper author Chris Kyle shot dead in Texas (news)

This pretty much requires no commentary, since this helps one a lot:

Married with two children, he has now retired from the military and has published a book in which he claims to have no regrets, referring to the people he killed as “savages”.  (complete: What goes on in the mind of a sniper?)

Live by the sword, die by the sword!

This tower was erected in the memory of the Emperor’s deer (hiran). #log #photos #Pakistan #history #travels (at Hiran Minar)

The hypothetical seat of power. #log #photos #travels #Pakistan #history (at Hiran Minar)

Finally here. #log #Pakistan #history #photos (at Hiran Minar)

Collateral damage: Sports, arts pay price of India-Pakistan tensions

The guns may have fallen silent, but the collateral damage from a deadly flare-up between India and Pakistan is still mounting with major sporting and arts events among those hit by the fallout.

Less than a month ago, Pakistan’s cricket team embarked on its first tour to India in nearly five years.

But hopes the trip would herald a wider cultural thaw were soon dashed by tit-for-tat military exchanges in disputed Kashmir that killed five soldiers in nine days.

Although the two armies agreed a ceasefire on January 16, the impact of the violence is being felt far away from the front line. (Complete article)

It is quite unfortunate that this upcoming election in India seems to be hell bent on Pakistan. Political Parties in India are literally racing to score points, push in more war-hysteria and do further warmongering to distract the common masses from real issues. Worst is that it does seem to be working quite effectively on ordinary citizens. Lately I have read more and more commentary by common masses, giving up their sanity once again for all this lunacy.

Pakistan has been relatively less inflicted by such rhetoric. Perhaps we have got bigger problems to worry about. Rising inflation and decaying economy slightly overshadowed by the terrorist activities on the Western frontiers, and of course the International bad-rep. A country which once held a significant political and PR clout is being reduced to ashes…

As the character in one of the recent stage plays I saw in Lahore said, “Kings fight, masses cry. But who cares?”.