Disclaimer

I get damn angry on following points regardless of the scenarios I am dealing in.

(1) When someone makes fun of my emotions
(2) When someone starts judging me without looking at the complete details
(3) When someone doesn’t agree just to show he/she is right
(4) When someone shows that he/she got me but he/she doesn’t in reality
(5) When someone passes bad remarks about my family
(6) When someone is not being given food because its being saved for high profiles
(7) When I don’t have money in my pocket because of false commitment by some friend
(8 ) When I am supposed to answer because of other’s mistake
(9) When someone doesn’t take me seriously when I am serious for his/her goodness

P.S: I might have missed few points. So extrapolate from these points and be careful of these points while dealing with me

Trade Off

“Its life my friend, sometimes you ought to choose one, we call it trade off”, this is what one of my friend told me when I expressed that I couldn’t attend the offsite planned by my company due to my brother’s marriage. My brother’s marriage was planned on April 18, 2008 at Ghotki city and I was out of office for 11 days (6 working days) on behalf of this. On my last working day before leave, it was announced that we are going to have offsite in Karachi for our department 

It was hell lot of fun being at my brother’s wedding. I was feeling so good to be with the family. I enjoyed seeing all the relatives together after such a long time. I enjoyed, I danced (forced to), I worked and I didn’t sleep for almost 2 days as told in Managing Shadi post below.

Whereas I missed to be with another family, P&G family where they all had very nice time together, having a 3 hours boat ride from Kemari -> Sanspit Beach, stay at beach with lot of fun and jokes along with Bar B Q dinner, dancing, firework, singing, water scooter riding along with unending games (cricket, football, volley ball, fuze ball etc) not forgetting the group discussion on first day. Second day, they had tons of fun activities to do at beach, lunch at pizza hut, adventure at Go Aish (paint ball shooting, hanging on rope and passing above the water etc), gaming at Playdium (gaming zone), dinner at burns road and ending the second day by staying at Marriot Hotel. Third day, they had a training in Marriot and return to home along with two gifts. One was Ipod Nano (4GB) and other one was a packet containing wallet + key chain + card holder.

I made the choice to attend my brother’s wedding, because my brother is marrying for the first and last time whereas offsite is going to happen next year again; I chose to be with family at my native town, I am glad with that, but I do sometimes miss the fun my colleagues had at offsite.

US Visa and me

Visa always has been an issue for me. I got the Chinese visa 50 minutes before my flight time. I applied for the Indian visa at very last moment expecting no reply from embassy but fortunately I got both visas. I applied for U.S visa right on time or before time but I didn’t get it

Being the Regional Student Representative (RSR) of IEEE, one of my prime responsibilities is to attend the student activities committee meeting held at U.S, I was supposed to be one of the participants but I couldn’t get through the visa.

I was interviewed on 15th February 2008 for the first time at U.S Embassy Islamabad. I spent PKR 30,000/= on this trip and took one and half day off from office. Before Interview could take place, I had to be in five queues before (Ticket Queue, Bus Queue, Security Check Queue, Embassy Entrance Queue and Finally Waiting Queue for Interview). It took around 3 hours for me to reach to the counselor officer. Mind it, I was not confused at any point and was confident enough to get the visa. While I was in waiting queue, I saw one person being rejected, I said “Damn, how bad this person would be feeling, he is rejected on the spot” unknowingly this will happen to me as well. And here comes my number, I went to the window, she asked several questions starting from my birth to till date and I replied to them to the best of my knowledge and everything was nothing but truth. After Interview she gave me a paper and passport back saying “Sorry, you are rejected, but it’s not permanent refusal, you can re-apply”. My question was “what’s the reason?” she said “Everything is written on this document”.  After a long debate she said “It’s your organization”. I was seriously startled. I went outside I saw the document very carefully, nothing in specific was written on that page but that document seemed to be general purpose. I was pissed and called IEEE authorities and told them the whole story. They recommended me to re-apply. I re-applied for the visa on 25th Feb 2008, in the mean while IEEE authorities faxed some documents to embassy about the authenticity of the organization.

Second time I am again in Islamabad taking one and half day off from office. Again 5 long queues, this time I went a early because I wanted to interviewed in good mood. Here comes my number and following conversation took place in between me and counseling officer (C.O).

Me: “Good Morning Sir”
C.O: “Good Morning”
C.O: “After looking at my documents, Sir this is second time in the month you are re-applying, so what is the change in you”
Me: “There is no change in me, however this time I have more documents with me to prove the authenticity of my organization and they have also sent you dozen of faxes”
C.O: “Sorry Sir, Your visa is rejected again; he gave me the passport and same paper back”
Me: “Could you please tell me the reason”
C.O: “Everything is written on this paper”
Me: “Friend, I have read this paper 10 times and I don’t find anything specific, everything is general. What’s the main reason? What should I tell to my organization?”
C.O: “Sir, Please refer to the paper”
Me: “See, I have seen this paper earlier and I know nothing is written specifically on it. Why don’t you tell me the reason? You don’t like my face? You have some other reservations with me?”
C.O: “No Sir, It’s not like that, It’s the over all situation of you”
Me: “Overall situation. Financial / physical or ….?”
C.O: “Sir, Interview is over, Thank You and he switched off the microphone”.
Me: “Taking my stuff and giving him terrible look”

Causes / Observation in two visits / Comments by Friends

-    U.S Visa rejection ratio in Pakistan is 8:2, meaning 8 are being rejected out of 10.
-    A pure U.S national was taking the interview in Urdu, that last for 20 seconds and old lady who wanted to see her son was rejected
-    500 to 1000 people are interviewed every day at Islamabad, Pakistan
-    I was rejected for the visa because I didn’t take the bath that day
-    U.S guys has limit of issuing visa, probably they approached crossed it that day.
-    Mood of your interviewer must be off.
-    Second time you were rejected because you hadn’t enough time to get the security clearance.
-    Your doesn’t look like a person who should go to U.S
-    Simply bad luck 
-    In case of U.S visa, more important is luck NOT Interview.

Disclaimer:

Whatever is written below is my personal opinion, others may have different. All are the facts to the best of my knowledge and observations.

BB’s Death and After Effects

First of all, it’s really sad to know that BB got killed in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007 at 6:16pm. It’s the shameful act and security has shown negligence. It’s after effects are more dangerous than anything else. Many believes that she was getting more popular and had much chances to be win the elections, that is why she was killed. Dammit, play fair, if you think you deserve to be in ruling party.

I got this news around 6:20pm and got out of the office immediately and Thank God my home is on the distance of 10 minutes so I got home safely. First thing I did was started TV and was surprised to see the reaction by party activists within an hour. After around 4 hours, I came to know following has happened in Karachi.

(1) Around 950 vehicles and 12 Petrol pumps were put on fire.
(2) My beloved university (FAST) was burnt :( along with some more educational institutes.
(3) Eidi Center and a few hospitals were burnt.
(4) Hotels / Restaurants were burnt
(5) Numerous Banks and jeweler shops were looted and were put on fire.
(6) People were stuck and couldn’t get to home due to the law & order situation in Karachi.
(7) Super Markets, Trains & Railway Stations were also burnt.

After this, I was thinking what would be the conditions of Interior Sindh where Benazir has more influence, “Am I living in country which has government and security to protect citizens and their property” or I am living in a forest where anything can happen? Where the hell was that Army, Rangers and POLICE? What the hell this care taker government was doing except beating about the bush? Who will pay the damages now?

These are the actions done on that time and due to these actions, many other things will pop-up, Many affording educate people will leave the country immediately, Tourist will get back to home and It will take months to normalize.

Its third day, I am sitting home like prison, can’t go outside, don’t have much to eat and thinking what will happen to those who might face some medical emergency? But again
 

WHY THE HELL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTES AND HOSPITALS WERE TARGETTED?????????

A Memorable Day

It was Saturday; I woke up early in the morning as usual and had a typical Saturday breakfast (Andha+Paratha), hmm…. Yet I was not done with my thoughts “What to do, where to go, How to pass the time except studying” Light went off, I thought It will be off for one or two hours as max, so I started watching TV Serial on Laptop, After few hours I saw Battery Alert warning, I was getting angry over KESC since more than two hours was already passed and It was hot day, Finally laptop went off. I had nothing to do, I started cleaning my PC, Laptop, arranging my stuff, books in order but still no chance of having electricity back and then I had a nap…..!

So, around Six ~ Seven hours passed in waiting for electricity as I may watch TV and get rid of this killing hot day…. In between I heard some voices in my neighborhood at Teen Talwar, I could see around 100 people protesting against KESC from my room window and making the life miserable of the people who were in the cars passing through that road. People blocked the road and Travelers who was arguing with them were threaten, Tires were being fired and I saw many kids around 10~12 years having sticks in their hands, and beating the signboard of Kurta Corner madly. Surprisingly there were around 20 Policemen who were doing nothing to resolve this traffic Jam issue or bringing law and order back in the area.

Kher, After that I with my roomies visited a friend to watch a movie, after movie show we had plan to have dinner outside and I asked my cook not to prepare dinner for us, that time I had around 30 rupees in my pocket and rest in my bank account since I was replying on ATMs. It was late in the night so we made a plan that 2 of us will go to our apartment back and two will go to buy some food. I with my friend went o get some food. I tried almost all ATM’s in the area, tried my 3 cards to get cash out of it but couldn’t, some were out of cash, some were having electricity problem and some had problem with the card issuer, I and my friend had only 120 rupees to buy food for 4 people so unwillingly bought few burgers and came back home, I had another surprise for me at home.. Guess What “Electricity was off again” … Huh…!

Rules & Compensation

Few days back, I ordered some sensors ICs and receptacles which are supposed to be used in our project from a USA based electronic component distributor called “Digi Key”. I was very much annoyed while ordering because it took 4 hours for me to place an order and get that processed. Sales reprehensive was having lots of queries in her mind, like “Why you need these sensors? Why you are getting those sensors shipped in USA and then brought to Pakistan via a person, Last time you got your sensors and kit shipped to another address? What is the date of birth and complete name of the person who is going to receive this package?” I was like Why are you asking such questions? I got a reply “Sir, We are following the rules, these details are must for us to export the package.’

Actually my friend’s father was supposed to bring the package from USA to Pakistan, who is going to leave USA in morning on May 21. At that moment, my cell phone credit was over, my Go-CDMA credit approached to zero; I couldn’t get my credit card activated for online use and electricity was off. It took three hours to go on the right path and after that my Internet was not working, damn…! I was so much annoyed and after struggling for 4 hours and getting my task done, I went to sleep.

Next day, when I reached university, I was startled to see that by mistake Digi Key guys have selected shipping by 2 business days ( I selected this package earlier) where as I have requested for overnight shipment (Via chat and email), in this case my friend’s dad was not able to take the stuff with himself. I talked to Digi Key customer care representative regarding this and told them I needed this stuff in Pakistan on May 23, 2007 then she replied “Sir, You are absolutely right, Its our mistake, I am going to talk with my supervisor and we will resolve this matter soon”, After few hours, I got an email in which Digi Keys has resent the same stuff as compensation to me in Pakistan taking zero charges from me and they have apologized in written. The total payment they received from me was “$88” and resending the stuff to Pakistan took their “$150” including shipping.

I was feeling sorry for Digi Key guys but was happy to see that the response of customer care department.

mY kArAcHi

By now, every one must be familiar with the happenings in Karachi on May 12-13, 2007. I was watching TV and was surprised to see the level of illiteracy, what people were doing on the name of rally or on the name of justice. They were openly firing, destroying public property and killing people on the road and no one was there to stop them or to ask “why are you doing this? Why are you playing with human lives? What will you get out of it? I wonder where the security forces were? They always come on or before time when they have to arrest the innocents / when they have to give the protocol to VIPs… Can anybody answer to it why they don’t care about the common men? Do they think they are only meant to provide protocols to VIPs only?

The scenario reminded me of holi, in which we play with colors; they were playing with the blood, streets were full of it. Karachi seemed to be a war ground. Looking at this situation I was thinking “Do any other need to do anything to destroy us? No, simply others have to pin us, we will destroy ourselves”. I think Government need to apologize the Karachiites for not saving them, for wasting their 3 days and making commitment this won’t happen again and promise to end of “Jhangal Raaj” in Karachi. I wonder if this all is happening in so called Metropolitan City, what will be the possible situation in Interior, if someone plans rally in interior.

One good thing I observed in these 2 days was Electricity was there for you, since KESC/WAPDA is unable to generate the power for Karachiites.

Living on the Edge…!

I remember clearly while I was traveling back from hometown (Ghotki) to Karachi for my 8th semester with a friend. Actually my friend was saying to catch the bus @ 10pm but I insisted him for 8:30pm coz I was supposed to go to my university next day and bus takes approx. 10 hours for Karachi and my university bus timing is 7:30am.

Friend: “So, Are you happy now”,
Me: Yes… but why
Friend: Wait and Watch…!

I was thinking why he is saying, suddenly I heard people crying at back for the seat. Actually Bus conductor allocated a seat to two people and they were fighting, after 10 minutes problem got resolved and I heard “Dude… It is your city that is why you are talking a lot, come to my city, I am gonna show you, what I am “… and Un-consciously I said loudly “Very Good, Keep the spirit up….” and Oopc… Why the hell I am involving in them…

Now, there was a silence for 1 hour, It was hot inside, so I requested Driver to switch on the AC, he said “OK”, he switched it on and I took rest for half an hour, again Its hot my friend said, I was like Why? AC is on, he said NO, its off. Again, I said to driver but this time he ignored. Again after sometime I said he ignored. A person sitting near me went to driver and conversation took place.

Person: Why don’t you switch on the AC?
Driver: Who is gonna pay for it? Your dad…?
Person: $@#$#$##~! … You don’t know me, you son of —-, neither you nor your bus will go to the destination safely. Apologize else I am taking my pistol out…
Driver: I am Sorry.

Thank God, driver said sorry but again he didn’t switch on the Ac …. My friend was getting angrier at me … that night I was sweated and was helpless to do anything….

Online Shopping

oh!!! Recently I received a Credit Card of my own which normally takes 15 to 20 days, but it took 7 to 8 months in my case, the reason behind it was simply negligence of the bank staff, nothing else…. I applied for credit card in May as I may take it with myself to china, but I got it in December. Anyways, I was supposed to do online shopping for my Final Year Project… Ooh great, bank wants me to fax them the information and request them to activate my card for online use.. But this can’t be done by me because I am a supplementary card holder; I need to ask my dad!!! Uff…. I asked them to change my address; no it can’t be done…. They and Their POLICY!!!!! Ahan… I remember, I was talking about Online Shopping… anyways I managed to fax them and fulfill all requirements of bank.. Now What! Digikey (the supplier) didn’t charge my card in the activation time, they attempted after it was in activate… Now again I asked my bank to activate my card for some time duration, they did but NOW Digikey want some proof in order to re-attempt the card and I don’t have one (scanned) !! Third day, I requested bank to activate my card for online use, Ooh Yes, They did… Now, KESC (Power Supplier) doesn’t want me to do so, I am in dark…. Now what, Let me call Bank to post-pone the time… Very Good, Now my Phone Connection (GO CDMA) is not working…. Great!…. Now I have to do nothing except getting frustrated…. In the whole I did one good thing, that was While I was scanning the proof, I sent them email stating that please re-attempt my card at this time, and they are good… they did so and finally after all these, I managed to Online Shopping … Hip Hip Hurray!!! But Still I am afraid of that Custom issue; let’s hope for the best and please pray for me

What a Start of New Year!!!

So, it was 31st December when I was thinking of going outside and celebrate New Year…. Well first we planned to have the gathering of The Webmasters but we couldn’t make it then we planned to go to Sea View with college friends, so we went to sea view…. After arriving there we realized that we have probably wasted our time, since lighting over there went off around 12:30am and there was a huge amount of POLICE force there and panic situation everywhere… POLICE was there to protect us, I saw some constables shouting at crowd then I thought going back home is not a bad idea!!

I was supposed to go to my hometown (Ghotki) on January 1, 2007. Train was scheduled at 6:30am… I always wake up on the alarm, but I don’t know why I couldn’t make it on New Year…. I woke up at 6:15am… OMG! What Its 6:15am… I can’t believe this… I rushed to catch the train but again it was Eid-ul-Azha and I couldn’t find bus / Rikshaw or Taxi… so I missed the train…
Next train for my hometown was after 1 hour… so I got ready and went to catch that train, before leaving for my hometown I thought to refund my ticket but you know Its Pakistan Railway, there is not a single person available at the desk, I tried a lot to contact some higher authorities but all seems to be blank, there was no helping hand.. All were saying like “It’s not our task, its out of our domain”… Finally the Idea of ticket refunding was dropped… I got into another train and went to hometown safely!!! From then I am afraid of waking up on time !!!….

What a Start! Hoping good from New Year….!