Category: Life
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Visit to Baba KhorwaRi Shrine Ziarat
I had experience of meeting someone who predicted the rain fall time precisely. It was 1983 in ziarat, our NED batch mates of 1980-85 were on the study trip of Pakistan. We were around 200 students in three compartments that was attached to different trains and detached at various stations in the city for a…
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Growing up with Magazines
In 1969-70 I was 7 when I started reading Taleem o Tarbiat and other magazines. We had almirahs shelves full of magazine issues going back to early 1960s and to even mid 1950s. Old issues of subscriptions of Taleem o Tarbiat, Bachon ki Duniya, Naunehal, Khilona which were children magazines. And magazines for my elder…
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History of PKR Pakistani Rupee
چمڑی جاۓ پر دمڑی نہ جاۓ دمڑی نہ جائے چاہے چمڑی جائے۔ دمڑی کی بڑھیا ٹکہ سرمنڈائی۔ دمڑی کی بلبل ٹکا ہشکا ئی۔[1] دمڑی کے تین تین۔ دمڑی کی آمدنی نہیں گھڑی بھر کی فرصت نہیں۔ دمڑی کی ہانڈی گئی کتوں کی ذات پہچانی گئی۔ اونٹ دمڑی کا اور دمڑی بھی پاس نہیں۔ دمڑی کی…
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ICB/IMSB Teachers Autographs 1975-80
Tribute to my school teachers who laid the foundation for my learning at ICB (Islamabad Model School for Boys) G-6/3 near Covered Bazar/Melody. Autographs from 1975 and 1980: Sir Ghalib Raza (Urdu) Sir Hanif Tahir (Maths) Sir Subhan Ullah (Geography) Sir Rafique Malik (English) Sir Jan e Alam (Urdu) Sir Sabir Raza (Urdu) I regret…
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Depressive Thoughts and Poetry- How Poetry Mellows and Enriches Social Interactions
What is the relationship between depressive thoughts and poetic expression? How poetry enables us to face hardships in our lives. What a mournful separation of the family members after the partition is depicted through poetry. Note the following message of eid Mubarak and its poetic response by members of the family across the divide. Also,…
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Library Search for Articles at UT Austin in 1989: How searching of articles has changed
Think about researchers who reviewed hundreds of papers that they had to access manually! UT Austin, Texas in 1987 had around 6 millions items distributed in several departmental libraries. Some of these were several storyed library buildings. There was also a huge 6 floor central library. For example, In Engineering building library each engineering discipline…
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Of Excellence in Ironing and Remembering the Learnings from Mukhtar A Siddiqui, My Khaloo
Of Excellence in Ironing and Remembering Mukhtar Siddiqui Mukhtar Khaloo once came to Islamabad and was traveling to Mardan. This was the mid-1970s. He spent a few days at our place. There are two memorable incidents from his stay. One was my learning about excellence in ironing. The way he ironed his shirt and pants…
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Learning and Life is My Autobiography
Writing poetry, blogs, essay, or reflections is greatly cathartic. Things that greatly troubled me, once I got them out of my system through my writing, they stopped bothering me. Once expressed, they stop festering. This is how I forgot many of my longings. My long blog posts are my learning and my efforts in my…
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Sentiments of Families Split Apart by Partition Expressed in a Beautiful Poem by Fatimah Khatoon
اباجان [سید عبدالغنی حیدر] کے ہندوستان واپس جانے پر آپا فاطمہ خاتون نے یہ نظم کہی تھی۔ ۱۹۵۱ [میرے والد احسان حیدر کا نوٹ] بھارت کو جانے والے ، بھارت کو چاہنے والے حافظ خدا تمہارا، مالک کے تم حوالے ہندوستان تمہارا، گھر تھا کبھی ہمارا ہم اُس کو چھوڑ آئے ،لے کے نیا سہارا تم …
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My Most Memorable Readings- Tilism e Hoshrub and Dastan e Amir Hamza
My most memorable experience of reading Urdu books was the time spent in reading of Ferozsons’ Tilism e Hoshruba and Dastan e Ameer Hamza. ذندگی کے بہترین لمحات ان کتب کے ساتھ گزرے- اللہ تعالٰی مقبول جہانگیر اور اختر رضوی کے درجات بلند کرے- میں نے یہ کتب تیسری جماعت میں پڑھنی شروع کی- پہلی…
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Ferozesons Children Urdu Novels Translated from English Novels
I would like to know if you can identify which of these books are translations of which authors of English books. What a wonderful time that I spent with these books. I read them in Urdu before I read them in English later on. Once upon a time I used to have a collection of…
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A Jog Down the Memory Lane
A Jog down the memory lane Yesterday I took a stroll down the fields on the farm in Tumair. Moving from the small cozy cottage on the east side of the farm land towards the north-west corner where the work was in progress to build a water reservoir. This is barani land, where people have…
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How I learned the Craft of Book Binding
I learned book binding جلد بندی from my relative Ehtisham Haider Chacha (منّو چچا) . I went with him to Raja Bazar, Rawalpindi in 1975-76 when I was in 8th class and living in Islamabad. He helped me buy the needle, thick thread, and glossy paper sheet, scissors, etc. He then taught me how to…
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Where to Download Books for Free and Legally
45 places you can download tens of thousands books, plays and other literary texts completely legally for free BY PROFESSORWUJanuary 10, 2017 In an increasingly digital world, literature is evolving. Sales of e-readers continue to rise, yet the cost of digital books and texts has not necessarily decreased to the extent to which many initially predicted.…
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How to Build Confidence in Children: Climbing the Trees and Getting out of a Hole
This must be around 1965-66. I am around 4-5 playing in my next door neighbor’s house with my friend Umair, and somehow I had managed to climb up a large shahtoot (mulbery) tree in their courtyard. I could still feel my exhilaration that I felt as I went up and up from one branch to…
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Rauf Mamoo, My war hero of 1965 War: Major (R) Shah M Ismail at Chawinda Tank Battle.
My hero of 1965 War: Major (R) Shah M Ismail at Chawinda Tank Battle. Rauf Mamoo (as known in the family) related to us of his experience at Chawinda battlefield in the 1965 India-Pakistan war. Major Shah M Ismail He was assigned the duty of an OP (Observation Post) and was deputed in the no-man’s…
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Chairman Salim Mehmud and my Brush with SUPARCO during the 1980s
I spent 6 months in SUPARCO in 1987 before resigning and leaving for US for PhD. They were trying to design for several years a signal-filter chip that was available for a few hundred rupees in Saddar. We had nothing to do in the Computer Department where I was working. The commute time from City…
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Far From the Madding Crowd, Hardy and Me
Today I got off from the board meeting early and my flight was in the evening. I had a few hours to kill with nothing to do. I chanced upon a YouTube video snippet of Bathsheba Everdene and Sergeant Troy’s sword scene of 2011 remake of Far From the Madding Crowd. I didn’t like it…
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Forthright and Courageous Gentleman-Col Raza Kamal at KIET
Col (r) Raza Kamal from 17 Baluch (2 Sind). A thorough gentleman and a great colleague. His commitment and dedication as Director College of Management Sciences at PAF KIET was exemplary. I had a long 10+ years association as Dean n Vice president of PAF KIET with Col Raza Kamal. It started during KIET’s initial…
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Aligarh University, Sadaat e Nihtaur and Hyder Family
Here is the list of alumni of Aligarh Muslim University belonging to Sadaat e Nihtaur. My father Ehsaan Hyder (standing in the middle) with his degree from Aligarh University in 1935 (or was it after his matric?). (b. 1917- d. 2003).Sitting on right: My grandfather Abdul Ghani Hyder (d. 1966)Sitting on left: My grandfather’s father…