Not only through Khamoshi Ka Boycott, Telenor has given the youth courage to voice their opinions on social injustices but also through its campaign are making everyone socially and politically conscious and more concern. One of the reasons behind Khamoshi ka Boycott being different from the sensational media brigade is that rather than criticizing each other, Khamoshi ka Boycott focuses on putting to light the social injustices and issues that general public indulge in which should be corrected.

An example can be the quote about teaching being a part of Pakistani culture. Without blaming anyone, this though puts into us a sense of consciousness as to a particular problem that we have started ignoring. Khamoshi ka Boycott through its messages makes sure that each individual receiving the message looks into his own actions and those around him and it can become the much needed catalyst to help raise issues that we are either afraid to voice or are simply ignorant about.

How is it possible that a spot can be fixed by a captain of a team? I am asking how?  and the brightest answer that you my friend have is that he gave the specific over to the specific bowler or asked the bowler to bowl a specific delivery. Right? You are dumber than I thought, you must be related to Altaf Hussain, I guess. My friend if such a thing would be done, it is play fixing and not spot fixing, and thus, I state that Salman Butt should be exempted from any ban.

Spot fixing is fixing a spot. For this I would like to thank the politicians of Pakistan who get fixed spots in the pavilion or the members of the PCB who have fixed spots on all venues where the team is going to play. They are the actual culprits and not the players. The players are on the field, going this way and then that way, and sometimes this way again or going that way again. They repeat these tasks and are not fixed to any spot. Even when a delivery is bowled every one is moving, so how can any player on the field be accused of spot fixing is totally out of my mind.

Jokes apart, Salman Butt should be held in high esteem. After all Mr Ejaz Butt has worked his butt off to make him the captain. Kicking out Younis Khan and not recalling him, and then making Shahid Afridi the captain of the test side. Well, if playing like shit over and over again over the years makes you eligible to be the test captain, then Shahid Afridi deserved his slot but I guess this is not the case in other parts of the world. Players like Afridi came, performed and have gone away but Afridi still persists. And ironically they all did a great job, while Afridi came and went. If you dont have a strong cricketing brain then I am referring to the likes of Andrew Symonds and Lance Klusner. I guess there is no doubt about the credentials of these players, or is it.

Resting that point (which was totally unrelated to the whole subject), lets see why Salman Butt should not be banned. Well, for starters Ejaz Butt won’t recall Younis Khan and we don’t have anyone else who is worth it. Please do not say Kamran Akmal, go and youtube the Sydney match. For a cricketing nation such as ours this is a calamity and a slap on the face.

Pakistani cricket has had to bear allot of slaps in the history, so naturally its sane to say its alright, we can have a captain who starts off a ODI without a single slip fielder. Wow, did you just read that? Am I bluffing? Yes and No. Before the heroic wins over Australia in the 2nd Test Match, the dashing test captain did that. Thats for another day right?

So, why should Salman Butt really be spared? Well for instance he is young and comes for a Butt khandan. Thats a pretty good reason to make him captain and I think this should suffice to help him avoid the chop.

We cannot leave him to face the music as he is the only technical batsman we have. If I were the chief I would spare him so that Shahzaib Hasan will not play another delivery again on the international stage. We have seen Mohammad Hafeez, Yasir Hameed, Shoaib Malik, Imran Farhat, Imran Nazir, and many others try their hand on the opening slots, but everyone has failed miserably and Pakistani team needs him.

What else? I have no idea why this guy should be spared. He was watching Aamer and Asif , and looking at their footsteps as they bowled no-balls, while he should be looking at the batsman while fielding. How crazy is that?

What an irony? I seriously differ with what most of the people out there think. I think this is because of the rebel in my mind, or because I think most of the people are idiots. Well, if it would be the latter then the world is going to bite the dust soon. Oh! I forgot, it is going to bite the dust soon enough. And I am right on allot of things I don’t know about, if not all. I am usually wrong about things I know about and this may be because I don’t pay attention to things I know about. Well, its not about me this time but about a certain Mr. Mohammad Asif.

Mohammad Asif

I plead to you all that Asif should be left alone. For that I will give you some pointers and try to bring you to the other side, that is my side. To start with, I would ask you all to give him a break, he is a malnourished guy from an underpriveliged  part of Pakistan, he really thought a gift is a gift and not a bribe. Even if he is asked to do something in return. And please guys, I am serious.

Asif should be excused on the grounds that he was under the affect of drugs and can not be charged for his actions. I am not kidding, this guy has some real affection for drugs. Can you tell me one person you know who was caught with drugs in Dubai, and that too on a flight coming back to Pakistan. Dude, we live right next to Afghanistan, the land of poppy and hashish. Why would you bring that stuff here, when you can have access to it from anywhere, even the policewallas will give you some of their stock if you ask nicely. I think so he is also mentally retarded so, you can forgive him on those grounds.

Continuing on the mentally retarded, or mentally handicapped issue, people he dated Veena Malik. How out of his mind was he? Dating Veena Malik is not wrong, but not paying her back, coming out with remarks like she should get married (tu mama lagaan eyy?) and not paying her money. Oh sorry, not returning her, her money. Whats wrong with you? And by the way Veena Malik is screwed up in the head too, what kind of a person makes out a living imitating a mentally handicapped actress ( pointing to Meera here if you don’t know).

To sum it up, we all should ask the ICC to not to ban Mohammad Asif as:

1) he is stupid

2) he is a druggie

3)dates idiotic actresses

4) was underprivileged when he was a kid

5) got beaten up by Shoiab Aktar with a cricket bat, meaning he is really really stupid. You do not fight with the pindi express, no questions about it

Shoaib Akhtar Leaving after beating up Mohammad Asif

Book for all times

We waste 30% of our time everyday. Although, I think this is the best part of the day after sleeping but still wastage of anything is bad, and so is excess of anything. As I think of excess, it reminds me that when we have so much of something it always leads to less of something else. Just the other day Usaf Khan said to me how are you? I replied,”It was love at first sight.” Totally, not related right, well this brings me to the reason why I am writing this. Its Catch 22.

One of the most corniest stories ever, with the best characters of all time. One falls immediately in love with Yosarian and the other hoodlums in the novel. The crazy ass mess keepers and the fighter pilots. Its a crazy action packed adventure, which takes one turn and then another.

I liked it and I would like others to read it. Saying its full crazy and humorous is not doing it justice as many would claim this about others, and Catch 22 deserves more. Joseph Heller has done a magnificient job and I cant say in definite words how great it is. So to cover that up, I shall give a brief intro that will increase your thirst for reading the book. SO here it goes….. The novel is about Yosarian and his need to leave the army. He does not want to die in the WWII and he will do anything to get back alive. He has friends of similar taste, one thinks that using his time in things he does not like will increase his life span. His reasoning behind this is that time passes by slowly when you are doing uninteresting things and if you live your life doing uninteresting then u will eventually live a longer life.

There is also another interesting character Major Major. One of the best and most interesting characters. He is such a great guy that I took a break laughing my ass off. I will just you why this guy is Major Major, and coupled with his rank of Major he was Major Major Major. Only this should be sufficient, telling more about why he couldn’t be promoted as he was the only man in the army who was Major Major Major would only entice you to read more.

I think my writing abilities are not supporting my cause and I will stop here, but whenever you get the time DO READ IT.

Waking up Askari was always difficult, and as Omair Aslam and Taha Khan state that whenever he would wake up, he would scare the shit out of you. The dilemma would be that is he going to start beating you up or was he scared himself for his fifth absence and that too in the 3rd week. Another high point of everyday would be screaming at the top of your strengths from one wing to the other. It would be great to downgrade the opposite number.

Wing D was the cursed wing. Sunlight all year and no air for ventilation, it was difficult to life there if not impossible. And to top it off, they never won anything except DOTA competitions, which they also manage to lose on one occasion. They were so cursed that they would even lose in MOHA finals. Volleyball was always between Wing A and C, and in my earlier years Wing B. Wing B though managed to scrape into the final this time and even win the Cricket competition. Wing Tourneys’ and Events were the highlights of any calendar, and were more fun than ruining any other IBA events.

Hostel is not all about Wing competitions, it was also about playing cards, jugat baazi and threatening to kill each other (never seriously though). Cigret maangna tau har aaik ka kaam hai, from freshies to the graduating batch. I want to start a thread about our chronicles of hostel life, and would ask for stories from oldies to be put in print. Any story like waking up on a Sunday and seeing dumbbells being thrown from one wing to another is appreciated.

Last night I was chatting with a friend when he pasted the News Of the World article. I dismissed it at the moment but my heart sank. At the slightest possibility of this being true sent shivers down my spine. And the only question I had was, why is this happening? Aamer was going so well. With Asif and Gul, he demolished the Australian team. So, what went wrong here?I posted my side of the story here and then was fortunate enough to read this blog. It filled me with hope and raised my morale, which was at an all time low. Floods, killing innocent kids, a corrupt president and government, and now this. After reading that article, I took a walk down the memory lane and thought of all the bowlers of Pakistan and their careers. They have all had controversies and it’s always one of the two: match-fixing or ball tampering. Do we really think they are that stupid or are we all jump to conclusions hastily?

The answer to the last part is that we do jump to conclusions, faster than the bullet trains or Concord ever was. A quick scroll of the news channels in Pakistan portrays everyone as guilty. All I ask is why? Did they come up to them and tell them? I really doubt that. And this whole mess is wrong. If that blogger can find the fishy part in less than a day, I hope Scotland Yard does the same and the Government should intervene as soon as possible. We are made out as a democratic country and our citizens are under no one’s jurisdiction.

Lets, take a backseat on this scandal as I hope things will be sorted out and “News of the World” will be sued. Lets take a look at the problems faced by Pakistani bowlers and try to understand this is nothing but a scheme to destroy Pakistani cricketers.

Starting from the two W’s, controversy never left them. Waqar and Wasim were constantly accused of ball tampering. In the later stages of his illustrious career Wasim Akram was accused of Match Fixing. All charges were lifted and he was sent free. His teammates though were left facing lifetime bans. Infighting and group making in the Pakistan camp were also accusations labelled on these greats. All this time people attacked them and their morals but these people came out fighting in the end and with their heads held high.

After the W’s came Shoaib Aktar, the Rawalpindi Express. He was so good that no one could handle him. He single-handedly demolished the Australian team in Australia. He had a tremendous 99 World Cup and he was in the limelight ever since. The fastest in the world and most ruthless. Brett Lee might have been more economical but batsman were scared of this guy. I have the distinction of watching him in the nets as a kid. Lieing to my parents about going to my friend’s house and going to Pindi club to watch him play. It is better than pure ecstasy when you watch your sports hero in action. His career took a downturn ever since the chucking scandal. Robbed him of his best years. Ball tampering and attitude issues came forward then but when you are that good, attitude comes with it.

There was this guy called Mohammad Shabbir too. Tall and skinny with a mean bouncer. His career was doomed after he was called a chucker. It all went downhill for him too as he could never come back in the team. The same case was with Mohammed Sami. He broke the 100 mile barrier against New Zealand and shortly after called a chucker as well. Changed his bowling action and we rarely see him now.

Asif has had his drug problems too and came out after a years ban. Made him miss important tours for Pakistan. Called the next Mc Grath, the desi guy is still finding his way around jackals.

Lets take a look at Aamer now. Sublime in the T20 World Cup win, everyone has been singing his praises for the past two years. Being linked to the greatest swing bowler of all time, Wasim Akram he would have been destined for a great future. Look at his interviews and you will see that he is so intelligent in what he is saying. Every word is calculated and he is full of confidence. And now this incident. Lets see how it end for him but the jackals are out there for his head.

It is imperative to understand that when some is accused of such a heinous act, guilty or not you are bound to be affected psychologically. The jury is already out on Aamer and Co as guilty . Sambit Bal is an editor at Cricinfo and this guy has this to say,” Mohammad Amir must either stand tall or never bowl a ball again. Nothing in between is acceptable.” I am not going to take anyones side but are we forgetting the Mark Waugh and Ricky Ponting’s involvement in match fixing. Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje continued to play after being found guilty of match-fixing and Mr Bal has the guts to say never bowl a ball again.

This makes us look into another aspect of the picture. Are they guilty or are they being played. I can call the victim game here and announce that our boys are being targeted but this is not the right time. Lets wait for the ruling on these charges. I just have this suspicion that match fixing is not the only agenda over here, something bigger is on the cards that I cannot call right now.

It has been long time coming now that the Pakistan team was accused of something. The British media has come out this time with accusations against Pakistan team players. I am a Pakistani and understand the mentality of my people, and it is not astonishing that they will believe that our players did it. We think so low of ourselves and those who represent us that we will ultimately accept any nonsense that comes our way.

I am not going to defend anyone but I want to present an alternate reality here. Why is it that our every tour to England is marred by suspicion? Is it because of the fact that the English media and their intelligence services are good at finding scams and irregularities? Lets not go very far back and think about the last test series we played there. We were owning the Brits there and then comes the ball tampering scandal. I do not salute Inzimam ul Haq on many fronts but the walkout he lead was the bravest thing any cricketer has ever done.

I gave this whole incident a thought and came up with my very own conspiracy theory. Coming up with a conspiracy theory is not difficult and you just have to think out of the box and realize the different things that could be happening. In 2009 we won the World T20 Cup and there we unearthed a gem like Mohammad Aamer. We already had Gul and, Asif was coming of age after his own scandals. Coincidently that was on English soil.

Down one year, the triple attack of Aamer, Asif and Gul has to be one of the best pace attacks in the world if not the best. They have the rare combination of pace, seam and swing and this makes them very dangerous. We saw their potency in the test series in Australia and England. Had our batsmen performed at a level half of our bowlers, Australia and England would be revising their strategies for the upcoming Ashes. Oh! I forgot to mention better captaincy too is an important variable.

Lets look at the way our players have been marred by controversy over the years. Every new bowler coming out of Pakistan is accused of chucking once he is out of the sub-continent. Is it because international umpires in sub-continent overlook chucking and are half blind. They unsettled Shoaib Akhtar and we have seen its consequences. Aamer is being likened to Wasim Akram, the best master of the ball ever. Asif is being likened to the new Glen MacGrath, and we all know how deadly he was. So I just want to pose this one question, is it possible they are, and I quote “Messing” with us. Before you make any judgements, think about it. And remember they have done that in the past and they can do it again. I have seen Shoaib Akhtar missing out on a legendary status, and I would implore you all to give Aamer and Asif the chance.

A couple of months back there was a buzz going on for Telenor and its “Karo Mumkin” show. They were asking for votes and ideas, at that time I just dismissed it as another stupid promotion. Mobile services are increasingly doing that and it is natural not be intrigued by an aged Atiqa Odho. Well, the show is up and running and I managed to get a glimpse of it, actually the whole show.

The show is hosted by none other than one of the literary geniuses of Pakistan, Mr Anwar Maqsood. The panel of judges have a diverse background and what they have accomplished is before everyone’s eyes. And not even a bigot like me can challenge that. The guys at Telenor managed to that right. The ad campaign went great and it should have as it was pasted everywhere you can put your eyes.

Taking a look at the contestants and their backgrounds showed a good combination of ages and diversity. While one of them was talking about the sustainable development practices to be implemented, the next one was talking about paper recycling practices to be adopted at a large scale. Vision ideas (this one I simply did not understand) and improving literacy in Pakistan. These are a range of ideas that CAN have a major impact if implemented but are we serious.

Now lets come to the critical aspects of the whole thing as this is the part that interests me the most. My first question to those behind the whole program, why on earth did you not use your heads properly. A better way than plastering yourselves on all the billboards of each and every major city of Pakistan would have been to send memoranda to everyone in Pakistan. This was the most annoying thing that I have had to endure in a while, and no one knew what Karo Mumkin was until the show was about to start. There was a billboard after the NIPA bridge and Karo Mumkin was there since it all started. It was so ambiguous that no one knew what it was. I know a few people now in Telenor, and they did not even have an idea about it too. And who applied and when?

The five or six entries that have been accepted are good but what makes them out of the question is that the amount of people they will be liberating if they are implemented. The vision thing is simple a hobby or what, it can’t surely affect the whole lot. Sustainable developement? Please follow this link and tell me which one is favorable and implementable, and what results have we seen. The other ideas are the same, but my question was the logic behind the judges selecting these candidates.

They are highly intelligent individuals and I do not doubt them, but when corporates are involved I tend to become a bit critical. Is this all about the voting and sending of sms are is there something behind this? I ask this question as I do not understand the whole reason for this. I mean to say allot of money was spent in the advertising and the airing of the shows and the coming together of  everyone. Why didn’t the intelligent people of Telenor part away with the money? They just did that as the ideas that are springing up are not unique or one of a kind. Everyone of us know about them and know about their virtues. So whats the point guys????

Really???

Before I tell you about VLC and why you should have it, I will first tell you why you should not use Windows Media Player. For starters its Microsoft’s, stop using it. Just kidding. The problem with Windows Media Player is that it is very heavy on the processor or what, that it is very slow to respond and tires you to your core. It is very slow to respond and takes ages to open things. Another problem with it is that it is impossible to upgrade it. I have an in-genuine version of Windows XP so I guess thats the root cause. Still, it should upgrade it self and not make me switch, if I am happy with it. I also have a problem that it will not support some file extensions. I stopped using after the 8 version and till then it will refuse to play .rmv’s and that makes flv files a long shot. And the biggest problem is that it is really annoying to upgrade the codec.

The problems with Windows Media Player are more but the above touch all the basic keynotes. Because of the above mentioned reasons I have been made to switch to VLC Media Player. VLC is good at everything. It is faster, uses lesser system resources and gives a great result. I think the best thing about it apart from being free is the sound amplification. I don’t know how they do it but all I can say is that its great. Every now and then my headphones would stop working and whenever that would happen it would become an irritating job to listen to audio on the laptop. VLC was a major relief then and that made me its biggest supporter.

I like VLC over Real Player because of the same reasons I don’t like Windows Media Player. Its too slow. It plays more extensions than the Windows Media Player but its Media Center annoys me. Why does it always have to open up and show me whats going on at Real Player’s website?

VLC is better than both as it plays more extensions and is faster too. This is a major woo factor for it. Upgrades are easily available and no one stops you from upgrading it. Codecs problems are no longer an issue with it, it comes as a complete package. I like the ability to use the keyboard for utilizing its full functionalities as compared to the use of function keys to do the job.

VLC player can be downloaded on clicking VLC. Not this one but the former one

After writing my posts on Ubuntu and Open Office, a post on Mozilla Firefox is justified and totally needed. One of the most famous open source software around, Mozilla has covered great steps since it began and is a major player in the desktop internet browser market.

When we look at the way our new Internet Explorer is designed, looks great and has increasing functionalities, I believe that they didn’t come up with them. If they were so great they would be giving at least one different thing from the free web browsers. Opera is different from Firefox and over the years both have brought different things to the people. Opera were the first to bring a homepage full of pages to our favorite pages. Firefox improved on that and Chrome gives us the most visited page as homepage if its set to blank, I mean the homepage is set to be blank. Internet Explorer has over the years remained the same, introducing the tried and tested features of these web browsers.

IS this is not enough for anyone to discard using Internet Explorer. Well, you should not stop using it if you are comfortable with it and its fast. But it’s totally the opposite. It is slower than Firefox by a considerable margin. Chrome is ranked higher speedwise when compared to Internet Explorer. I do not recommend Chrome to anyone of my friends as it is prone to crashing allot. It has come under increased attacks from different threats and so I discourage using it.

FAAAERE FOUX

I tend to favor Mozilla more now as it is more secure and crashes less than other browsers. I still have to use it on Ubuntu where it is said to be flawless. We all know how much Microsoft products crash, Google’s Chrome is bad enough. This only leaves me with one other option than Firefox, and its Opera. Opera is as steady as an ox and can compete with Firefox on major fields than one, and that is the customization. Mozilla’s resource center has so many plugins for Firefox, there are so many addons that it is really difficult to go there and come back with only the addon you want. Extra baggage is always a factor when you go shopping for addons. Depending on you it can beocme a plus point or a negative point. For me, I just move a bit towards Firefox.

I am not going to discuss the functionalities as they are practically the same. The plugins and the addons allow Firefox to assume as many activites as its own that it is war machine if not. It comes free with latest releases of Ubuntu while an option is availabe to customers now to haave it on request on new Windows operating systems.

Firfox with Ubuntu

Great things coming from the Firefox people. More about them in the future.