Category: family
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Role Model of Forthrightness, Calm and Resourcefulness: Daud Khaloo
I can still hear the distinctive sound of Daud Khaloo’s Java motor cycle coming from afar in 1970s calm and quiet Khawaja Nazimuddin Road portion of F-6/4 of Islamabad near China Chowk. It was the time when Shahrah-e-Quaid e Azam and the adjoining buildings now known as the Blue Area had not yet been constructed,…
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Sardar Mamoo – Reliance and Tawakal on Allah- Life is to give and not to take
“Shah M Mubeen ur Rehman known in the family as Sardar was my ماموں and veteran of wars of 1965 and 1971 (Baluch Regiment) and passed away with metastatic cancer in 1992. He along with his brother Shah M Ismail, served as رضا کار during Hyderabad Indian army action in 1948 and narrowly escaped death…
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Smoking and Childhood
The closest I had ever come to smoking was when I was 6years old when my neighborhood friend introduced me to the dried branch of “turai” (torai, gourd). It has perforations that allow to be lighted and smoked. Did smoke that for a few days. Got caught, and somehow my mother logically convinced me to…
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Recollection of an Unforgettable Recitation of Majaz’s Nazr-e-Aligarh
Today on Facebook I saw a video of some old students of Aligarh University reciting the official anthem in New York with a great deal of energy and lilt. This brought a recollection of a day in 1990s when I was dusting the bookshelf of my father Syed Ahsan Hyder and picked “Aahang”, a collection of…
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Ethical Standards of 1940s. Due Diligence for writing Recommendation Letters: A Deputy Commissioner’s refusal in 1943
I came across this 1943 letter from a Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Kumaon Division which shows the high ethical standards of that time. The DC refuses the request from a friend to provide recommendation for his son on the grounds that the DC has never met his son and does not know the son personally…
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Family Tree Shajra of Sadat e Nehtaur: A Case Study of Compilation of Social History
Sadat e Nehtaur Shajra Compilation Effort Syed Mohammad Khurshid Alam Zaidi Khursheed Alam Zaidi in his keynote address at a get together of Sadat-e-Nehtaur on 7th May 2017 related the impressive history of compilation of “shajra” of Sadat-e-Nehtaur. The shajra documents their history in India from around 1175 AD when the ancestors moved from Tirmiz…
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Rememberance of My Father and Loved Ones: Every day is Father’s Day and Mother’s Day
Our love for the father gives us support for every day of our lives for a long time even after they have gone for years. Matriculation of my father Ahsan Hyder: From L-R: Sitting: Syed Ikram Hyder(great-grandfather), Syed Ab Ghani Hyder (grandfather) Standing: Sultan Hyder (Rummi)-Rasheed Hyder- Ahsan Hyder-Zaheer Hyder-Jarrar Hyder Prof Dr Zaeem Jaffery…
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Remembering East Pakistan: We look before and after, And pine for what is not
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] It is early 1970s. I am in 4th grade and in Islamabad. One day I saw my father with tears in his eyes holding a letter in his hands that he had received from Bangladesh from…
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Computer Revolution and Moore’s Law: A Personal Journey
Moore’s Law: Exponential increase in transistor density and speed In this post I trace a personal journey of my interactions with the evolutionary stages of computational machines. I feel my decisions in life have been shaped by forces which were not as clearly understood or even visible in the 1970s and 1980s as they are…
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Pursuit of Excellence vs Guzara: How to teach excellence through everyday examples
This is late 1979, I had completed my intermediate, and my father had retired from his government job in Islamabad. We were moving back to Karachi from Islamabad via train in a reserved coupe of the economy class. The train system was already in a fast decline then. Gone were the days when the reserved…
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Of Achars, Chutneys and Halwas: A Lifestyle Getting Lost Through Branding and Mass Production
Mangoe Flowers: Bur Yesterday I heard the Koel’s cu-ckoo and I could hear my nani jan (grandmother) calling from the past saying that this is spring time. There is now “bur” (small flowers) on the mango trees. “Remember Irfan, you need to go to the market to get the kai-rees (unripe mangoes)”. Planning for the annual…
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Secret of Happiness: One Simple Rule
I was taught a very important rule about the secret of happiness and its relationship with expectations, the hard way, by my mother when I had returned back in 1995 from USA after having been there for over seven years. The lesson threw me on the ground, flat, and got the steam out of me.…
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How Language Acquisition is Made Difficult for Children: Eight Lessons from an Urdu Acquisition Case Study
How Language Acquisition is Made Difficult for Children: Eight Lessons from an Urdu Acquisition Case Study [The later part of this post would derive the lessons that I learned from my experience of how I learned Urdu which is described first. These lessons address the problems that our faulty methodologies are creating today in language…
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Of Jungles, Streams, Berries and Wild Pink Flowers: Costs of Commercialization of Islamabad
Of Jungles, Streams, Berries and Wild Pink Flowers: Fragrant Memories of Islamabad that Was This December I was in Islamabad. Going through the town brought a pang in my heart as memories of 40-45 years ago came flooding down. Those were the times when kids like us had immense open spaces with wild growth to…
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How to find “Buzurg” and “Wali” of Allah
How to find “Buzurg” and “Wali” of Allah During the late 1970s I started reading extensively and would read whatever came my way. This decade was probably the peak of monthly magazines or “digests” publications. Taking cue from the Reader’s Digest and success of Urdu magazines such as Urdu Digest and Sayyara Digest, several “digests”…
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How to Sprinkle Happiness Around You: Javed Bhai (Dr Zaeem Jafri) – A Jolly Good Fellow
How to Sprinkle Happiness Around You: Javed Bhai (Dr Zaeem Jafri) – A Jolly Good Fellow 14-Nov-2009: Last night I got an sms that Javed Bhai has been admitted to the hospital and is in serious condition. My heart sank. There was this feeling of heaviness that told me that this hospitalization may be the…
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Ansari Sb: Khawjgan e Chisht Ahle Bahisht
Ansari Sb: Khawjgan e Chisht Ahle Bahisht About a fortnight short of Eid ul Azha, I was at Saleem Shah’s place when I received a message that Babbu Bhai (Wajeeh ul Hasan Ansari) has requested that the hides of qarbani be donated to Islamic Center, Block B North Nazimabad. Instinctively I replied that I would…
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Rauf Mamoo – How to Make People Feel Special and Close
Rauf Mamoo – How to Make People Feel Special and Close What a man he was! What a dashing personality! Close and dear to everyone around. In any gathering he would soon become the center of attention, with his pleasing and affectionate personality, anecdotes, humor and personal attention to every one. In 1999, at his…
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Which Field with Great Scope Should My Child Choose: There is always a room at the top
Which Field with Great Scope Should My Child Choose: There is always room at the top I often see parents coming to me for guidance about the field that their son/daughter should choose that would have scope in the future. They want to know the field which would be in great demand so that when…