Desi drums

This may sound funny to many (read Pakistanis) but err...I've now got a tabla. It's my friend's. I'll return it when the obsession gets off. The tabla itself looks funny. Two drums, lying there peacefully, quiet. It's just a matter of playing them, when they start speaking and laughing and crying. They create the environment, they set the mood and they are unlimited; you can't say you've learnt it all. Little did Amir Khusro know what a universe he has created, when he invented tabla in the thirteenth century. Music doesn't end.

Like any other instrument it's difficult, requires a hell of practice. I tried playing dadra and teen taal. Different areas on the same drum produce different sounds when struck with different intensity and different pressure. I know five sounds of the smaller one and about six of the larger, there must be so many others and the combination even greater. Mastering the sounds is different than mastering the rhythm. One may be a good player but may not have a good sense of rhythm.

Mozart effect might be controversial but I'm sure I'll discover a rhythm therapy.

Reasons to be proud of

*Lahore Grammar School (LGS) has won the Asian Regional Space Settlement Design Competition 2009 organized by NASA in India. The team comprised of two Indian schools too. They brought home a trophy which has an actual meteorite fixed in it. Wow! Congratulations LGS. Thank you for making us proud. (Source: Dawn)

*A Pakistani student, one Saad Waqar, has set a world record by securing highest marks in maths and physics in A-level exams. (Source: Nawa-e-waqt)

*Ali Moeen Nawazish of Rawalpindi has brought worldwide recognition to Pakistan by blazing his way into the Guinness Book of World Records, clearing 23 A-Level subjects and securing A Grade in 21 of them. The previous record was 13. (Read more and on Wikipedia)



Congratulations and thank you all! :-)

One day prep

People keep on studying it the whole year; we took the B.Sc. English exam with a preparation of just one day, like we had done that with Pak-studies and Islamiat. Two days at the most. Twenty utterly boring stories (with a few exceptions) were not easy to swallow. I did not even read all. Luckily all four questions were from stories I had read. The examination center was this Ch. Rehmat Ali School, which reminded me of my own school. A little boy actually asked one of my friends, 'Bhai aap konsi class main hain?.' The grounds were much bigger than ours at KE. The school was much cleaner too. There weren't any open gutters or pigeons' shits or dogs, cats or donkeys.

Before the exam commenced we were out there in the ground chatting and laughing loudly while other candidates were busy, their heads buried in the books, trying to grasp some more at the eleventh hour. When we were at our seats, before the distribution of question papers, I saw a guy from AIMC reciting some verses, eyes tightly closed, eyebrows frowned. I thought, 'Man...he's serious'. After a little while, a man, must be in his late thirties, entered the room. We thought he must be an invigilator. But he came forward and occupied an empty seat. He was a candidate. My friend whispered, 'Inko ab yaad aya hai.' Our real invigilator was a fat old man, thick stubble on his face and looked fed up of his life. After distributing the papers, he sat on a chair, supported his head against the wall and closed his eyes. I can't tell if he actually went to sleep.

Bravo T's

Plain White T's have impressed me. Lol. For one reason, their two songs I heard, were easy to play on the guitar, for another, they were just awesome. I can't decide if Hey there Delilah is better or this 1234. Latter's video is better for sure.

On valentines day

Lutf wo ishq main paye hain keh jee janta hai
Ranj bhi aisay uthaye hain keh jee janta hai

Daagh Dehlvi

Ocean of books

Mom was more excited than me about the book fair. She bought a couple of books, I bought a couple of books and we were the happiest maan-baita on earth. Now that's why I say moms are better than girl friends. There's no 'breaking of heart', no cheating, no dumping, no suffering, no wastage of money and then there is strong, eternal love. :-D

Above: Caligraphy competition for children. (Debris indicates that the book fair is in Pakistan)

Above: People at this stall claimed that these lamps they have are made from material containing salt and 'a chemical' which emits 'waves' when light passes through it. These waves heal the diseases listed, which are almost all. When I asked them what is that special 'chemical', they said we don't know.  :-D

Above: Painting competition for children

Above: I left a messege on the board too :-)

After these tiring two hours at the book fair, lunch at the nearest restaurant was inevitable :-)

I would love to go to the book fair again.

My first prescription

I was happy. I did not write it from my mind; this Associate Professor (AP) had me written it. It was my first prescription in real life. My patient in out patient department was Shazia, young female, a mother of four and a pure, naive, Punjabi speaking house wife. And she was afraid of doctors and diseases, naturally. She had come for burning pain in the epigastrium and as I took her history, she told me all symptoms of reflux esophagitis. I thought this is an easy case and I wont be having any problem presenting it in front of the Associate Professor. But then I did her general physical examination (GPE). Her blood pressure (B.P.) was 180/110 (normal average: 120/80) and her pulse was 106/min (normal average: 72/min) and there was swelling on her face. When I was done, she asked, 'theek hai?' and I saw the fear in her eyes, I said, 'G'. I couldn't tell her that this much blood pressure wasn't theek, I just couldn't. I couldn't figure out why her B.P. was so high, perhaps it was just anxiety. Anyways when I told her that I'm going to present her case to AP in front of whole batch, she got scared like hell. She thought there was some grave problem and started crying. I melted, from head to toe. I felt like patting her and holding her hand. Thank God her husband was there. He condoled her, I condoled her and together we were able to stop her tears. I told her that there is nothing wrong and every patient in OPD is presented in front of AP.

This AP, Dr. Sajid was unusually good. He was supposed to be suffering from initial stages of Professoritis. He wasn't. Therefore he didn't insult me or got mad if i did any mistake in presenting my case. I told him Shazia's B.P. and pulse. He got alarmed. He checked for pitting edema, which I hadn't. It was positive. He knew what it was. He asked her if she had taken any Hakim's medication recently and she said yes. Then Dr. Sajid told us that Hakims usually give steroids or heavy metal salts in their medicines and Shazia was showing symptoms of steroid toxicity. Then he asked me to write omperazole for her reflux oesophagitis (which was her only presenting complain) and prescribe kidney tests to see if the steroids had damaged her kidney.

How a simple GPE changed the course of investigations and treatment. If I had skipped that, we could have sent her home with just omeprazole. (Dr. Sajid would have picked up the mistake of course) I wouldn't forget Shazia's face. I am happy.

Small people, great things

There's nothing in my blog or in me that makes me suitable for an interview, but this lady, Ghazala Khan, was kind enough to ask me for an one and publish it on her web site. It's solely on her request that I am mentioning it here. I wouldn't have otherwise.

http://www.pakspectator.com/interview-with-blogger-abdullah-shahid/

Bye bye holidays

University is re-opening from tomorrow and God knows how badly I want the holidays to continue. I want to see movies, I want to read books (non-academic), I want to see Desperate House Wives, Grey's Anatomy, House, I want to play counter strike, I want to sing, I want to hang out with friends, I want to eat out, I want to do that dance practice with friends for my friend's brother's wedding, I want to go shopping with Mom.

This can all occur even now but with much less frequency. Now there would be bone breaking routine, tiring tests, hectic assignments, hospital rounds, robust books (academic), campus politics, diplomacy, hypocrisy, professors' arrogance, professors' rudeness and professors' tyranny.

But there would be this fun part also...friends: non stop laughing, giggling during lectures, cracking filthy jokes, making fun of teachers, giving them nicknames and Al-Karim Bakery.

Another chance

They gave him
another chance
another hope
to begin
once again,
to forget the past
the gloomy past.
After all
he was just
a little kid.

He knows its difficult
but he also knows
its not impossible.
Nothing is impossible
After all
hes grown up now.

On losing slippers

When I lost another pair of slipper today (actually sandals this time), I couldn't exactly remember how many of my slippers had been stolen from outside the mosque while I was inside, praying. I thought what the hell, aik to masjid main jana kabhi kabhi naseeb hota hai ooper se joota chori. But then I looked on the brighter side: chalo...kisi ka bhala ho gaya ho ga.

The addiction that is Counter Strike

I thought only sitcoms and soap operas are addicting. I started playing counter strike online less than a week ago and I am addicted. And I'm not even skilled in it yet. The best part are my cousins and brother who play on the same server.

Looking back in the past

When I actually looked back sixteen hundred years, it didn't seem much different; it was just the feeling. The Orion Nebula is 1600 light years away and is 24 light years across. And I saw all that through my eye of just 35 millimeters! That 18 inches diameter telescope also presented those craters on moon with such detail that for a moment I thought I was on moon. I forgot the craters that I had seen earlier through my Dad's binoculars. Don't know why but I find moon very beautiful, even through a telescope. It sometimes seems mysterious. The elevations, the depressions, the shadows, the dark and the bright areas, the plain surface. I want to visit moon some day. When I came back and told Mom what I saw, she said, 'And did you see that old lady spinning thread on her wheel? :-)' I've decided that I'l definitely meet her when I go on the moon.

I thought that this Astronomy Festival would be a big one, with representatives from different institutions, having different stalls etc. But in that big ground of Punjab University there were three telescopes, a projector-screen and about twenty people. And man it was cold there. I certainly miscalculated the temperature. Earlier that day when I went to the Sunday market and I couldn't bear the sun's heat, I thought winters are over. So I wore light clothes and sandals to go to the Festival at night. Perhaps it was due the vastness of space and the grass that almost froze my feet. Nevertheless what they had to present was more interesting. It must have been the first one of its kind and I was happy that we are finally waking up from our slumber.

Looking at the nebula I thought that if man could travel very much faster than the speed of light (which is actually impossible as they say) and go to a distance like 1600 light years away from earth in an instant, and if our earth could transmit so much light to reach that distance, it would be possible to look back 1600 years on earth. I know there are so many 'ifs' in this assumption, but it could solve so many mysteries :-)