R O N I Nammar yasir’s personal blog

Monday, June 10, 2013. Microsoft Pakistan organized an Office 365 Blogger’s Meet-up exclusively for the blogger community of Pakistan. The event highlighted the distinguishing concept of ‘the complete office in the cloud’ available anywhere and everywhere.

The Meet-up was conducted by Nadine Hadad who is presently the Product Marketing Manager for North Africa, East Mediterranean and Pakistan region. Focusing on the emerging trends in technology, Nadine highlighted how Office 365’s state of the art features provide the users with competitive edge through strength and capability of various applications. Available in 162 markets in 21 languages, Office 365 enables bloggers to expand and rejuvenate their online community with the assistance of latest and complete set of Office Applications, additional 20 GB of SkyDrive.

“We at Microsoft are always looking forward to encourage the online community especially bloggers. With the help of sessions like these, we not only expose the world’s cutting edge technology but also provide them with hands-on experience on how they can enhance their productivity and efficiency with the help of products like Office 365” said Nadine Hadad; Product Marketing Manager for Microsoft North Africa, Eastern Mediterranean and Pakistan.

After the Office 365 overview, Amin Muhammad Khan who is the CIE Lead Pakistan gave the product demonstration to the bloggers present. The arrangement made on the platform of Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) enabled the bloggers to gain live hands on experience at the event. This enabled to them to not only appreciate the various new dimensions of the product but also gain practical understanding.

“The Blogger Meet-up was a thoroughly informative session with brilliant presentation and demonstration by Nadine Haddad and Amim Muhammad Khan. The Office 365 has opened up portals for data communication, integration, sync and retention is way unimaginable to prior users. It has brought about a fresh, easier and innovative direction for carrying out business and personal activities through a single click,” said Nida Khan an active Pakistani blogger.

About Microsoft Office 365: Whether you are a small organisation with limited IT resources or a large organisation with advanced IT needs, the new Office has solutions optimised for business size and IT needs. The new Office delivers the best value to companies through Office 365 cloud subscription services, which gives you access to the familiar Office desktop applications as well as business-grade email, shared calendar, and video conferencing. Office is available through traditional Office on premises as well. Choose the version of Office that best fits your organisation’s size and needs.

About Microsoft: Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device. Microsoft Pakistan opened its offices in 1999 with over 200 partners all over the country.MS Pakistan is Part of the NEPA subsidiary which comprises Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Pakistan, Tunisia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and the Palestinian authority. As the use of software and technology increases with the number of Pakistani companies and individuals depending on IT as part of their everyday life, the company is poised to thrive even more over the coming years.

Microsoft Corporation’s address on the World Wide Web is: www.microsoft.com Microsoft Pakistan’s Web site is: www.microsoft.com/pakistan

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

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If you work yourself for a living, why do you kill yourself working?

- Tuco (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly 1968)

The above mentioned quote is from my all time favorite film and a classic spaghetti western, for those who haven’t seen it yet add it in your bucket list or continue with your uninteresting lives.  This summer unlike every other summer turned out to be a life changing experience for me in many ways. The details of which I may or may not be disclosing in the coming posts, so stay tuned anyways. However, I will tell you the secret recipe of worldly success, it’s *drum roll* “Lack of morality”. I know, it’s no big secret and just common sense but as a writer it’s my job to create undue suspense in my writings to keep things interesting. So coming back to the secret of success notion, a friend of mine often says:

“Everything is possible, banday ko beghairat hona chayeh! (if a man has no morals )”

If we look around and see some of the success stories you will end up agreeing in your heart if not publicly (typical). Latest example could be of nation’s favorite religious scholar and disco champion Amir Liaquat rejoining media giant’s and CJP’s media partner Geo. Everyone remembers how last year in Ramzan after the famous video leak incident both Geo and Amir Liaquat were publicly humiliating and charging each other for gross moral corruption but now things are quite opposite. Now, we can flood our facebook and twitter timelines with how wrong this development is but we all know that it’s a big win for both Geo and Amir Liaquat aka Jahil Online. As the saying goes, “everything is possible bas banday ko begherat hona chayeh”.

I wish I had developed this golden attribute of beghairiti (immorality), it would have been a great help to me both personally and professionally but when it comes to personal development there is always room for improvement, isn’t it? The reason I am writing a blog post after ages has a lot to do with the fact that I missed blogging and the fact that everywhere I go I am introduced as a blogger. At meet up’s, weddings, funerals, neighbors kid aqeeqa. I had to do something to retain the title. So, I had two choices, either to write a random blog post which so far has made little sense or to go to a corporate event and write how a sugared water bottle company will change Pakistan if everyone buys their product. Considering how I lack beghairiti, for now I will continue writing lame ass blog posts regularly on my website.

For those who have invested five minutes of their lives reading this post, I will leave with a musical tribute of Brooklyn’s Qawwali party to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s “Man Kunto Maula”. For those who are aware of the historical background of Prophet’s Hajj sermon will be pleasantly amused on how far the message has traveled.

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Dard itna tha k us raat

Dil-e-wehshi nay

Her rag-e-jaa.n say ulajhna chaha

Her bun’e mu say tapakna chaha

Aur kahi.n duur teray sehn’e chaman mein goya

Patta patta meray afsurda lahu mein dhul ker

Husn-e-mahtaab sai aazarda nazar aanay laga

Meray virana-e-tan mein goya

Saray dhuktay huay raisho.n ki tanabain khul ker

Silsala waar pata dainay lagi.n

Ruksat-e-kaafla-e-shauk ke tyaari ka

Aur jab yaad ke bujhti hui shammo.n mein nazar aaya kahi.n

Aik pal aakhri lamha teri dildari ka

Dard itna tha kay us say bhi guzarna chahaa

Hum nay chahaa bhi magar dil na thehrna chahaa

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There is an Urdu metaphor ‘Navishta e deewaar’, that roughly states that wise men should make out the present and expected future by reading the graffiti on the walls. The graffiti that’s usually found on the streets and roads of Karachi is either a public service message that forbids you to use these streets like a public toilet or mass marketing campaigns from “wizards” (last name usually ends with Bengali) who guarantee to solve our problems, especially if they have anything to do with our love life, in 6 days. Why six? My wild guess says, they don’t work on Sundays.

Few months ago the two major parties of Sindh were going through a rough breakup, again (no, they don’t remind me of Ross and Rachel from Friends). It was the same time that target killing was at its peak and the walls of Karachi revealed that the Urdu speaking community aka ‘Mohajirs’ wants their own province all of a sudden. That was funny because, I belong to the same community but I wasn’t informed of any such arrangement. Not a single memo, urgent email or a petition for formality sake was forwarded my way to have my consensus on a demand of such significant nature. After all I am the member of the same community and I pay more tax than Nawaz Sharif. Anyways, I decided to let go when Ross and Rachel, oops MQM and PPP decided to put their differences and death of hundreds of Karachiites aside.

In the whole process I learned an important lesson; you can tell a great deal about a society by just looking at the billboards hanging at their streets. So whether it be Dr. Shaista Wahidi (sister of SRK-P) selling lawns or Dr. Ghulam Mujtaba advertising his Facebook fan page we can declare that Pakistan, a nation where retired railway workers take their lives because they don’t get the pension money of Rs. 4000 on time. Rich aunties won’t think twice about it while buying lawn suits worth twice the mentioned (pension) amount. Also the same billboard phenomenon tells us that people like Dr. Mujtaba find it easier to buy their way into popularity instead of constructing a medical college or a hospital in Thatta or Pishin.

This brings me to the talk of the week: Nabeel Khokar. The man, inspired from cheap Hollywood chick flicks came up with a new trend (at least the first in Pakistan). We have come a long way from romantic graffiti’s or wall chalking on school walls with initials like “A + R”. Will it win the heart of the mentioned lady? Or bring a revolution to roadside advertisement? These mysteries of life will take their time to solve. Maybe this bold and costly stunt won’t bring Ms. Princess back, but it tells us another important lesson:

“Money might fill the empty space on a billboard but not the emptiness in your skull.”

I wonder how the mullahs are reacting to Nabeel Khokar’s message on the wall. Maybe the use of ‘soon to be husband’ bit makes the message Shariah compliant. After all nothing wrong in apologizing for being dirty, sneaky, immoral, poorly-endowed slimeball? Not like he killed someone in cold blood or is responsible for spreading religious hatred and extremism, right? But then who ever apologizes for that kind of a thing in Pakistan. We hardly consider it a problem, so what if more people died in Pakistan because of religious extremism than dengue or drone attacks? Problems that are only considered real today are those that will help politicians multiply their votes in the coming elections.

So what if we allowed the man responsible for the attacks on the Sri Lankan team back on the streets? So what if Sunni Tehrik can place billboards all over Karachi in favor of a cold blood murderer? Not like anyone on these roads have any problem with it or the liberal\secular coalition Govt. of PPP, MQM and ANP is doing anything to remove the billboard. So why should I or 2 out of 10 people out there should give a crap. There are important issues out there we should be worrying about. After all haven’t we heard that both extremism and terrorism from Pakistan will automatically evaporate once USA and its allies leave this region? I am sure you don’t believe me, despite the fact that I pay more tax than Nawaz Sharif but you will believe Imran Khan don’t you and he will tell you the same.

No USA (in the region) = No suicide attacks + no hate crimes against minorities + No hate speeches in the Friday prayers + No targeted sectarian killings

Yes, it’s that simple.

Any idea what the billboards of Nabeel Khokar, Mumtaz Qadri, Dr. Gholam Mujataba and summer lawns have in common?  If you look into it carefully, it has the same relation that we find with the Jewish conspiracy in our daily life routines. Think about it.

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Akhtar to Lara.. Are your scared?

The time I was introduced and instantly fell in love with Cricket was such an excellent time for the game, most probably because that time Cricket was a professional sport and players concentrated majorly on Cricket. Now when I look around I see fairness cream models capitalizing on their genes, politicians taking soul credit of a glorious victory, of what was a team effort, priests who engineered the concept that it’s okay if we underperform in Cricket as far as we appear religious. And to join the bandwagon is a new category, introducing.. wait for it..drum roll… ‘Book Authors’ (tada!).

A year back when I switched writing mediums from web to print by writing for a local technology magazine, it made me realize one thing the most: the writing business is not as easy as its generally perceived. Especially if your words are on a piece of paper and you have made an factual error, then it gets really difficult to rectify it. All in all being a writer is not as easy Musharraf and our favorite bowling icon Shoaib Akhtar has made it look.

Following Shoaib’s zigzag career one could picture him in many roles (model, actor, biker, cricket coach, commentator etc) but not as an author. Before the release of the book the only piece of known writing that came from him must be on some autograph or  on Kolkatta Knightrider’s contract form ( ). But he pierced into the writing business like he started Cricket; with a bouncer. Commentators and critics especially on the other side of the border are calling context of the book a gimmick, a ploy to make a lot of dough ($) by telling stories that are far from reality. It would be unfair to comment on the book without reading it. So I will stick to comment on what Shoaib has commented on the book launch and how other reacted.

1. Shoaib Akhtar accused Waseem Akram for ruining his career and delaying his debut in international Cricket.

Now in all honesty Shoaib Akhtar is not the first Pakistani cricketer who came up with such an accusation. Atta ur Rehman, Waqar Younus, Basit Ali, Rashid Latif are the known names who came up with similar claims over the period of time. Wasim Akram might be the most talented bowler in the history of cricket but he didn’t always adapt fair means to enjoy his Cricket reign. Only, if Justice Qayyum’s report was taken seriously at that time or the management in the 80’s and 90’s had the stomach to end dressing room politics, Pakistan Cricket would have been quite opposite today.

2. Sachin and Dravid are not match winners:

“….Vivian Richards, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara and the likes of them are great batsmen who dominated with the bat and were truly match-winners. Initially, when I bowled against Sachin, I found these qualities missing. He might have had more runs and records, he lacked the ability to finish the game,” – Shoaib Akhtar

Now you don’t need Shoaib Akhtar’s words to prove the mentioned fact, 20 minutes of browsing on CricInfo will statically prove the number of times high performance of Sachin (here, here, here) and Dravid (here, here and here) failed to secure a win for their team especially if they are not playing in India. Shoaib in his interview also quoted the recent England series. There was a joke floating on twitter when the Pakistani team dropped Sachin in the recent world cup semi final, the idea was to allow Sachin to score a century because we know how that turns out for India.

3. Tendulkar was scared of me

“…We bounced the ball at him and were able to unnerve him. I returned to the dressing room that first day with the knowledge that Sachin was not comfortable facing fast and rising ball. He was distinctly uncomfortable against me. That was enough to build on..”

“I bowled (Sachin) a particularly fast ball which he, to my amazement didn’t even touch. He walked away! That was the first time, I saw him walk away from me– that, too, on the slow track at Faisalabad. It got my hunting instincts up and in the next match I hit him on the head and he couldn’t score after that”, Akhtar wrote.

Considering Tendulkar’s God like status in India and in majority of the cricket fans, the above statement is plain blasphemy. But unlike the real life, Cricket matches are televised and easily found on youtube. One of the video that I found gives us some understanding of what Shoaib is talking about.

Some of the other compilations that I found on the internet tells a story that matches Akhtar’s stance.

I know, what you all are thinking. Sachin’s reign over Cricket that longs around 2 decades cannot be judged by a 5 minute video compilation or a book which has controversy writen on its cover. But just because Shoaib Akhtar failed to build a respectable status on media or the cricket world as an individual does not mean that the bowling skills that made world’s greatest batsmen (Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting or even Sachin Tendulkar) ‘thoroughly uncomfortable’ is a work of fiction. The fact that it actually happened some time ago and considering the number of cricket that is being played every year now leaves us with no memory of the last series we watched and enjoyed should not rule out how awesome Shoaib Akhtar once was.

Having said that, he should not have chosen the controversial route to re-claim popularity. It might get him reasonable book sales but not respect in the long term. Wish the book was more about his intense training, his resilient comebacks, his natural speed defying his physical disparities and his not much discussed honesty in a team known for match fixing and related corruption. Commentators on twitter are calling him Zulfiqar Mirza of Cricket but we all know that exposing people is so August, 2011. It didn’t work then and might not work now. Are you listening @iamshoaibakhtar?

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