Elections and Mazahiya Poetry

I love Punjabi & Urdu poetry, especially when recited the poets in their own unique styles. Elections are now just 4 weeks away. Let's relish some funny poetry about elections then. After all, it has got some meaning and message to it. 

I start with my own favorite pieces of Punjabi-Urdu poetry, from very well-known Khalid Masood. There are two parts related to election here. First one is about the infamous "Lotas"


Pehaly Odhroon, Faer Aidhroon, Ab Faer Khara haiy Odhroon
Public Tang haiy Laikin Lota Lota i hota haiy 

Next is a beautiful depiction of dynamics of our electoral process. What kind of people we have managed to select every time.

Luch lafang elect huwa hai annay-wa
Beeba phir reject huwa hai annay-wa
Sooe pay dhaga daalnay waali nokri pay
Anna aik select huwa hai annay-wa 

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 Next I present to you (In the same video, starting at 06:45). the very poet who got known for "Banayain" & "Aj ki Pul", Anwar Masood, depicting the results of elections. 


Theek haiy Jaisa Election h00  gia haiy, Theek haiy 
Haan magar Tasweesh lahiq zara haiy is baab mein
Muj ko lagta haiy yae Khasa ghair Fitri Fasla
Molvi Sarhad mein hain, Lotay magar Punjab mein


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Anwar Masood has got more to say about Elections based on his outstanding ability to make real-life observations and connect things together beautifully.


Shairana aur Zareefana ho gar Zouq e Nazar
Zindagi mein Ja ba-Ja Dil-chasp Tashbeehain bhi hain 
Rail Gari aur Election mein haiy Ek Shay Mushtarak
Log be-ticktay kaee is mein bhi hain, Us mein bhi hain

Muje gar Muntakhab kar lo gae Bhai 
Panap-nay ki nahi koee Burai 
Muje kehna kay naqis haiy Safai 
Gatar say bhi agar Khushboo na aa-iy

Dilchashp kis qadar haiy Chunao ka Marhala
Har Cheez deedni haiy Election kay Baab ki 
Aisa chuna Nishan har umeed-war nae
Pasli parak uthi nigah e intezaar ki 




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Here goes Dr. Inam ul Haq Javed when he has to something to say about promises and their timings.

Tum kehtay ho sab kuch ho ga
Mein kehta hun kab kuch ho ga
Bas is aas pae Umr Guzari
Ab kuch ho ga, ab kuch ho ga

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Finally, there is Punjabi treat, with poet unknown.It's a sequence of hypothetical sequences that are impossible but amazingly interconnected and weaved into a story. I think all the fun will be lost in transliteration. Just enjoy the video. 





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Do you have more links and videos of funny poetry to share?

PMLN Fake Twitter Accounts - Part II

VentureBeat posted an article with some stats on fake followers on twitter, few hours back. 

Study shows 15% of Mitt Romney’s Twitter followers are fake

The article mentions about growing trend in such paid services and how it goes against the  terms of service of twitter. 

After reading the article, I had another look at the PMLN fake twitter accounts, I mentioned in the last blog. 

It was fun to figure out the survival strategy of the paid services. Maintain a certain amount of unique content with  each profile to save it from the rash of twitter against spammers. 

Identical tweets continue

If one takes a cursory look at the following twitter accounts: 

1. MudassarSultan1
2. IffatRehanKazmi
3. MadihaAliChohan

It is clearly visible that the first four identical tweets are the about PMLN, IK, CJ and PPP. Fifth tweet, at the time, I am looking the accounts, is a quototation. The quotation is different across different accounts. A nice way to keep the overall profile content unique. 

Just as sometimes, as students,  we would copy the whole assignment but modify / delete / add few sentences to try to establish that somehow our work is different from the rest of class/group. 

The quotation is second last tweet in the picture below. 

One of the quotes from an accounts reads, "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." 

Indeed we don't trust a few. However, dear paid services, you seem to do with 'do wrong to none' part what non-practicing followers of a religion do.  

Source accounts for tweets and pictures

The first profile in the eariler list, MudassarSultan1, describes himself/herself/itself as "a creative designer, intellectual, social worker who loves to read , write, paint... and gets high on music :) or love whatever comes first :))"

Well, to acknowledge the creativity of this account, it's enough to state that this account is the first source of this tweet and the picture which was re-sent, I dare not say re-tweet here, by all other accounts which seem to be part of the fake PMLN twitter 'gang'.

Another account, which is evidently, part of this gang,  synchronously re-tweeting quotes, is  RidaShahJaffery. However, we find some sanity here and little engagement in twitter conversations hints at the profile to be real. The accounts's total tweets, 120+,  are on higher end of the account average of the 'gang'. The comic by Tamoor about SKMH funds r'e-tweeted' PMLN 'gang' originated from this account. 

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All in all, the respected Khadim e Ala who matched Lahore to Paris continues to be  promoted through use of paid software services that regularly generate fake accounts and data. 

Is this the way PMLN is committed to it's 3 E's: Energy, Education and Economy ?? 

P.S: Moeez Pirzada had a good discussion in his program Sochta Paksitan on National Health Policy in Pakistan and why all political parties are silent about this issue of real importance.  The sane reader might wanna have a look at it. 

Is PMLN attempting too hard to make into Social Media??

Probably we all happen to find, at times,  strange patterns on twitter, the simplest being "This is trending in Paksitan or this is trending worldwide." Some patterns are annoying, like when your timeline is filled with Faisal Qureshi's replies to teens and trolls. You find journalists literally screaming about trolls At times there's a group of ordinary tweeps or even journalists like Dr. Shaid Masood, Ahmed Noorani and Razarumi engaged in conversations.  In one of my earlier I mentioned about MQM kinda exploiting the the #socmm12 social media mela to flood tweets about what MQM does and what it does not.

 But today, as I was following  comments and responses about the Shaukat Khanum, I noticed a sudden barrage of re-tweets rather same message tweeted from a dozen or more accounts. Re-tweets, continuous, within a blink of an eye and with no mention whatsoever of the original source. No sings of a re-tweet. And surprisingly no other tweet from ordinary tweeps in between. I was totally baffled what is going on. You better look the snapshot below.  For sake of space I have presented the tweets in two columns.

Wao, a great number of people talking in favor of PMLN. I had believed eiter MQM or PTI dominated the presence on twitter. But what's going on here. PMLN. I have much more interests than mere politics but this was quite  intriguing.

At the outset, there is something wrong with the profile picutes. Ok,. why not look at few of the profiles in the list. There are some similarities: 

1. A good number of accounts have no description at all.  For others, its so obscure and non-consistent  with the general appeal and types of tweets from the profile. 
2.  All of them have on average 80-100 tweets and 90% of the tweets are the same... and somehow synchronized precisely to a second... not Minutes... if you happen to notice!!!
3. All the accounts unfortunately are combined to re-tweet tweets by PMLN against other parties and tweets about Let's Join PMLN and let's meet PMLN leaders and respected CM Shehbaz.

In the picture below, three accounts are show with same set of tweets at the same time... what an amazing synchronization. 

Here's more, certain accounts go shopping together and tweet same tweets about Ramadan, like reading Quran and welcoming Ramazan. What a spirit of unity. 

 I won't rush make any claims and assumptions about whose running all these accounts.  But apparently there's a strong connection to PMLN and its attempts to gain some hold in social media sector. May be someone is testing a Beta version of software on PMLN tweets to malign them. 


P.S.:  Before delcaring me a PTIAN, PPPIAN, or JI-AN, have the courage to pass by one of my blog about Khadim e Ala at least. Though his highness' silence on recent blames by N-league is intriguing.

Different angles of a Car running on Water ... !!!

The car fiasco continues. Today, we have more to hear from Dr. Atta again followed by some encouraging comments from Dr. Qadeer Khan who took it more empirically and asked to put all claims to test ignoring for a while whether it seems scientifically plausible or not. His tone was rather encouraging in a general sense. He pointed towards inventions that were once thought impossible.  We also have comments from a solemn and serious PCSIR official who tells us how they are supporting Engr. Agha in his efforts. 

I do not want to comment on the  technical aspects of kit. Lets wait for the kit to be put to real test. I would like to highlight some other dimensions attached to the issue and the way it is being portrayed in the national media. 

If someone from PCSIR appears to talk about a project, they have been working, we would expect them to tell us briefly about the current status of the project. What did they expect initially as the output, where they stand now and any results that have that can be shared with the public. None of this appears in the interview. Why in the first place PCSIR chose to support the project? Does it have a history of financially supporting such independent claimants? If so, do they have a a criteria?? Or did they just supported it out of blue as they had some directions from someone in higher ranks of government ?? 

In most cases, a project of this magnitude can be divided into a number of phases and/or components. We have reports and results for each of the components at each phase. This way we have a clear understanding of what we are upto and what we need to work more upon and more importantly what we must abandon at a particular stage. 

If an idea has potential worth and is worth putting more effort into, what are we waiting for since 1st July. Why don't we bring some funding agency like ICT R&D into action and issue funds for further discovery. Why we still don't have any views from a scientist/engineer who is working specifically in the related field. Asking just for opinions of likes of Dr. Atta and Dr. Qadeer does not decide the fate of a technical problem in the first place. We need to see the real results no matter who says what. 

For the media and anchors who seem determined to make a case of supporting a landmark invention, why can't they resist the temptation to predict the probable causes of death before the actual post-mortem. If they are so keen on offer their services to the scientific community, why it never occurred to them to highlight with the same zeal some real research efforts going in some of our universities. 

As regards Agha Waqar himself, he is so religious about the issue. He has 'guts' to challenge all the achievements of one of top notch scientists of the country with his trick question 'Do you even where we get Hydrogen from?'. Then he has to explain to worthy Dr. what is H2O.  Again, why he don't dig a little into biography of Dr. Atta before challenging him on what he has done for the nation. To quote  Veena Malik, "Ye Kiaa Baat Hui", Dr. Sahib. Aaap humain yunhi reject kia ja rahy hain. 

Let's talk of general public like me. We have something to rant about now. For us this is a political conspiracy. It is the whole Pakistan against a Sindhi inventor. For us, here is the  Dr. Atta who is jealous of achievement of Mr. Agha. Now we have another reason to call all others 'Duffers'. For us this is the downfall of Rental power plants. For us this is a topi drama of media and allows to fabricate more dramas around it. But as Dr. Atta and Dr. Qadeer both mentioned, the 'proof is in the pudding'. 

It feels exactly like a mini-Kalabagh being generated out of this issue. We better stick to the proof of pudding than make it a political deal. 

A Car running only on Water ??

A farmer has a tube-well which runs on electric motor. The electric supply to the motor is from the distribution system of WAPDA. The farmer has to pay a hefty amount of charges to WAPDA every month. A friend of a farmer comes with a brilliant idea to  save the farmer his bills. The motor runs on electricity and produces 'fast' flowing water. Why does not he use the water to run a generator? The generator will produce electricity from the flowing water that we can give to the motor.  Now we can run the tube-well in a self-sustaining manner without any need for WAPDA supply whatsoever, except for first time to kick-start our freely running tube-well and the extra-generator off course. Brilliant. Damn all the scientists and engineers out there. Why the hell they can't come up with such simple ideas and perfect solutions to problems.

National media is abuzz with news about the invention of a water-kit by a Pakistani Engr. Agha Waqar. The kit is claimed to run any type of car or a generator using just distilled water and do this in a damn cheap manner. WaO... !!! All the problems of world about the fuel, resources, transportation, electricity shortage solved. All we need is distillation water plants and the magic water-kit. The national media is gone crazy as regards reporting this ground-breaking achievement. The news has even reached Iranian Press TV and Khaleej Times. 

The claims of Agha Waqar have been taken seriously by our government. According to Federal Minister Khurshid Shah, as reported in  Capital Talk by Hamid Mir, the government is seeking expert opinion on the matter. A demonstration was arranged to the big players in vehicle market to experts from NUST, LUMS, Suzuki Motors, Toyota etc. They were very interested in knowing more about the invention and asked a lot of questions, initially. The experts have been requested to submit their views on the feasibility and business potential of the kit but still have not responded.

The minister expressed concern about the security of the engineer and our own Hamid Mir was quick to highlight similar achievements in recent history and dire 'consequences', say sudden death or imprisonment on some other charges,  of such endeavors for the inventors. The new technology poses serious threat to the existing manufactures of vehicles and as per the conspiracy. 

Pakistani are not unfamiliar with such hoaxes claiming big discoveries or certifications at very early age. In the race to break the news first, the reporters, actually anchors to be precise, do not wait to verify the authenticity of claims from the related experts. 

Talat Hussain, in his program dared invite famous Dr. Atta ur Rehman for the comments.  Now we are talking to someone who qualifies at least for basic comments about the scientific standing of the water-kit. Referring to very basic principle of conservation of energy, Dr. Atta declared all the fiasco as non-sense and making fools of the masses. It is impossible to generate more energy out of a system than what is provided as input. 

It is worth to mention here that Agha Waqar holds only an Associate Engineer Diploma and a B.Tech degree. A reader even little acquainted with basic science can have a feeling of how 'confidently' he is defending their invention in a 'scientific' manner and how questions are posed to Dr. Atta.

I invite the reader to think about the typical invention cycle. In case, one comes up with such a grand idea and happens to demonstrate it physically, does one to media and ask for funding for mass production. It is alarming how rapidly the news is spreading across the social media without a hint of doubt about the feasibility of the idea. Very few people talk about how the idea violates basic laws of science just like the brilliant tube-well idea. We are rather coining new conspiracy theories as to how the price of water will rise now and how the guy will be put to death by some agents. 

Save a Life, Have a Juice …!!!

He was from our class. That was all I knew about him. He was searching for a blood donor. I knew my blood group matched but I had doubts. I had never donated before. I was weaker than a lot others around. Why did they not donate? What will my parents think about this? What if something wrong happens? I could create excuses. I could say look for someone else and keep me as the last options. That’s we what many of us go through when faced with donating blood. We may think donating blood as noble act. But when it comes to ourselves, we tend to pull ourselves away. I will say, this is our natural reaction.

I had a parallel thought at the same. He was a classmate going through the same tough routine and schedule as the rest of us. And now that he was in problem, he would naturally be looking to his family, friends and class for help. If I did not help him and make him look for other options, to what avail was my existence? And, I should have some solid reason to deny. I had none. Whatever I had read or heard said nothing bad about donating blood. And internally I wanted to provide some relief to my classmate right from the moment. There is a right time for everything. There is time to take decisions on your own. I have no words to define what courage is but that is what we need at times. The next thing I asked him was when will I be leaving with him to the hospital? Do you think I will ever be able forget the sigh of relief and the smile on the face?

The donation itself, depending upon the staff there, is normally an excellent experience. The medical staff tries best to make you feel normal. They may crack a joke with you at times. The worst possible part, if you want to explore for the heck of it, may be when they inject the needle into your arm. Do you really think it is something deadly? How many injections you have on your count? Perhaps, you never counted. You just lie there for few minutes while they arrange juice for you. That’s a tradition around us even in blood banks; they have drinks to offer you. No matter how much you resist, they won’t let skip that part of the exercise.

I have been through this exercise around half a dozen times now. By the way, I have never felt any weakness ever after a donation. . The only precaution to take is not to rush up when you are done. You should wait for a 5-10 minutes so that blood circulation is normal. Otherwise you may feel a little dizzy, nothing to be afraid of by the way. At the end, you are amongst the happy ones. You definitely relish those moments of real satisfaction. Just to put it for you, I have basically been a lazy freak with no regular exercise or play in my routine. My friends, once, timid like me have gone similar experiences. Often it started when someone real close to us was in dire need of blood. But gradually we learn it is a little sacrifice worth it. What can be better service than saving a life at the cost of almost nothing? No fears now.

It is normally a half-hour exercise overall once you enter the hospital and are ready to leave. Sometimes, according to specific scenario, you may have to wait. At times, they may decide not to bleed you. Once I was in Mew hospital and it the process took around 3 hours. Government hospitals are overcrowded here, you know. What a surprise at the end, they handed me the bag of my own warm blood so that I could deliver it to the patient. OMG..!!! I held my (one pint) warm and fresh blood in my own hands and made sure it was injected to the patient within 30 minutes of donations. Once a school headmaster took me all the way from hostel to hospital on his bike and shared with me how he had been struggling to save life of his son for whole last year.

Well friends, on a lighter note, when you know there will be refreshments at end of match, you are definitely tempted to play. Now that I assure you of drinks at the end, can I hope you will be urged, just a little may be, for this noble cause?

Go Green Pakistan - The PowerPoint Way

Go Green Pakistan is a  Pakistani campaign on social media networks over the Internet whose purpose was to change the display pictures of every Pakistani and the people who are friends of Pakistan to a green image. People across the planet send them their images and the team at Go Green Pakistan edits those images manually and puts a green background with Pakistan's flag behind the faces.

I can not photoshop images and at the moment I do not have a photoshop setup with me. So, I tried to turn pictures green in my own way using only Microsoft PowerPoint. I googled to grab few green images and after few attempts I was able to produce photos some of you may think are impossible to do with a simple tool like  PowerPoint. But Microsoft Office is amazing powers.  Last time it amazed me when I was able to produce a departmental newsletter using Microsoft Word  2007 only. 

The first image is of Dr. Saquib Sarfraz, my mentor. I had to dig through 900 images of DICE 2009 to find an image in which he could exclusively be located with minimal clutter in background. I mixed his photo with three green images.  Adjusted brightness, contrast, added some effects and got something to share with you. 

Here's the same snap with a little variation.

Below is the results of experiment on one of my own photos.