Category: Life
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Growing up with Mohammad Ali’s Legend
This is 1971 and I am in class IV in Islamabad. I find myself in the midst of young people animatedly discussing the impending fight of the century in a charged environment. We in Pakistan are excited about a Cassius Clay who converted to Islam and became Mohammad Ali but was stripped of his Heavy…
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Discerning the Forest from the Trees – The Insights from my PhD Supervisor JC Browne
In the acknowledgement section of my PhD dissertation in 1994, I wrote: I appreciate the support and help of my advisor, Dr. James. C. Browne. His vision and ability to abstract away the details has taught me how to discern the forest from the trees. Working with him, I learned the full import of what…
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4 Attributes of Marital Relationships that can Build or Destroy
By Arif Masoud [A renowned architect, motivator, and a greatly admired faculty member of CIIT, Islamabad. His love in creating beautiful designs from deep appreciation of nature is visible from the architecture of Islamabad Monument at Shakarparian.] …. Four attributes of a “Marital relationship” (among others) which either build or destroy it: … 1) Ego…
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How Mina Stampede Happened and How to Avoid it: Hajjis Traffic Management System:
During my hajj of 1996, we were in a segment of road in approximately the same area where Mina 2015 stampede occurred. We experienced how a stampede-like situation begins to build as hajjis begin thronging towards jumaraat. I can still feel the tension developing in the air, the silence of lull before the storm, the panic on the faces of the…
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Progress vs Pollution and Development vs Destruction of Nature? Costs of Progress and Development
Is progress same as pollution? Is destruction of nature same as “development”? I believe progress means progress of humanity and progress in our quality of life as a whole. If progress means pollution of pristine waters of lakes, aquifers, streams, rivers and oceans with industrial waste, chemicals, insecticides, refuse, plastics, and other garbage that renders…
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From Disposable Cups to Throwaway Relationships: Costs of Disposable Culture
Transforming a Disposable Culture By Dr. Irfan Hyder Disposable Relationships The emerging lifestyle of today requires that we restrict ourselves to a small cocoon. We are sold that we should gain expertise in only one particular subject. Our occupations are specialised, limiting our view to a narrowly focused area, and our daily chores revolve around…
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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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Time Management of Social/Marriage Events in Karachi: A Case Study of How to Create Social and Youth Impact
It was first week of May of 2014 and representatives of Youth Impact came to see me at CBM. I was impressed to meet the team. They talked about the impact that they wanted to create on the youth and through them. They told me about their experiential learning program in which they take the…
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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 Hanafi School of Marketing, Orientation of New Students and Dr Matin A Khan of IBA
As my experience of dealing with students continues to accumulate, and as I closely observe how priorities of students change from what they are during their university studies to what they are in their later careers, I appreciate more and more the criticality and the importance of the two advices given by Dr Matin A…
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How West Teaches History (through Movies) and How We have Forgotten: A Nation that has No History, has no Future !
A nation that has no history, has no future! Our ignorance about our history, our culture, our sensibilities are astounding. Recent protests about Geo’s morning show speaks volume about the “insensitivity” arising from this ignorance, especially the ignorance of the media people. A few minutes of listening to the FM channels would convince you that…
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Capitalist Transactions Replacing Traditions and Values from Istanbul to Makkah
Free Water Fountain on National Mall Last month during transit for a few hours at the Istanbul airport on my way to Tblisi, Georgia, I was struck by the “transactional” nature of every interaction at the airport. I was surprised that there were no drinking water fountains available at one of the busiest airports of the world.…
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Georgia – Lesson in Preserving Language, Religion and Culture
Skyline with Churches The first thing that strikes one in Tbilisi, Georgia is the love Georgians have for their language and their history and their resilience in maintaining their religious and cultural identity despite centuries of rule by foreign powers: Sign boards and billboards are all in Georgian, schooling is predominantly in Georgian, daily interaction…
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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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At What Cost! Fazle Hasan of IBA and our Computation of Economic Costs
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] At What Cost! Fazle Hasan of IBA and our Computation of Economic Costs Fazle Hasan in his office 1981 Mr Fazle Hasan (1939-2006) was teaching us Financial Management in 1986 at IBA. During each class session,…
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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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Lesser known dimensions of US Universities – Archives of history and literature
Harry Ransom Center, UT Austin Lesser known dimensions of US Universities – Archives of history and literature During my seven years at the University of Texas at Austin, I went a few times to Harry Ransom Center (HRC) which is an archive and a museum of art, literature and other historical documents. I now think,…