Up Close and Personal with NTS-GAT

"So how are you going with the Lambs?", casually I asked her. "I am not very fond of food", she replied. I was surprised. I asked again, "I mean the book that I gave you? Charles and Mary Lamb?" "Oh. No, I haven't started it yet.", she shot back. Anxious, I persisted, "and the movie that I recommended to you? Pygmalion." I was about to add to the list of movies when she interrupted. "Look, I am right now preparing for GAT test. Only one week left and I have just reached the letter Q and still 2000 words left to be memorized". I gave it up. I would not be able to memorize 300 words in 300  years. But there she was, memorizing all those words. 

And Yet I am Jobless

It is said that there is no alternative to experience. I did not agree with that until I learned it the hard way. After years of futile efforts and false hopes, I did not get a job or a scholarship.  As far as I can remember, I have applied and been rejected for about 20 scholarships. Moreover, I have been declined the same number of jobs over the past few years. So I feel confident that in this physical universe that we inhabit, if there is one person qualified enough to comment on the state of employment that should be me. Now that all other options are exhausted, I thought of putting up my case before you people and you should decide why I could not get anything despite all my efforts? Here is my resume. Read it and then decide.

Merchant of Virus

Two kids were playing with their football. The others were on the see-saw. And there in the corner, three kids were fighting with each other on the slide. Some were playing hide and seek. And there were others playing cricket and handball and other games. The park was crowded on a Sunday evening as most of the kids came there to enjoy their one day of leisure. And there in the shades of the tree in the corner, a silhouette of a man, standing, holding a box in his hands. His eyes were scanning the entire park, children and parents busy in different sports. He was not interested in sports. He was more interested in what was going to happen to all those people. Yes something terrible. In 3 days!

Future of the Future

          “My kid is going to be the most famous doctor in the country”, my mother used to say every morning when she would send me to school. “I do not want to be a doctor. I want to sleep and play.” I would invariably reply. This is the common scene in almost every home of our country. Thankfully, wish of every mother is not fulfilled otherwise it would have become impossible for doctors to find any patients to treat. And after completing my education, I am not a doctor but I am happy with my profession and am passionate about my job. 

A Tale of Two Friends

Once upon a time Truth and Falsehood met each other on the road. “Good afternoon”, said Truth “Good afternoon”, returned Falsehood. “And how are you doing these days?” asked Falsehood. “Not very well at all, I ‘m afraid”, sighed Truth, “Times are tough for a fellow like me, you know”. “Yes I can see that”, said Falsehood glancing up and down at Truth ragged clothes, “You look like you haven’t had a bite to eat in quite some time.”

Guest Post

This week I could not update my blog as I have written a guest post for a friend's blog Madhulika Speaks. You can read it here if you want to. Have a nice week.

Research Publication

It is required for a Ph.D candidate to have at least one research publication before he/she is awarded the degree. After spending so many years and still having no publication, I tried to be smart and publish something. Unfortunately, there are people still wiser than me and hence, I couldn't publish anything. Panicked, I tried something else. I sent it to a journal which didn't exist. And viola! it was published. On Facebook. Some of my facebook friends have seen it already but for those who have not, I am publishing it on Blogger. Enjoy.

The Way You Make Me Feel

So this was it. The moment of break up. Between me and her. Those of you who are or have been in some kind of relationship in your lives will know what it feels like. If I say it hurts, it will be an understatement. The heartache, the emptiness, the rage. It is like a complete black out in one’s life. In fact, it is like you no more want her to be alive. And I am sure she will be feeling the same but since she does not have a blog so we will never know. So the moment arrived for us after what I feel like decades of relationship.

Criminal Genes and the Human Genome

In the movie, Minority Report, the PreCrime Police prevent crimes and arrest people before they commit the crime. It sounds incredible and almost impossible that it would ever happen in the real world. But rethink. It is very much possible and may be put into routine use in the very near future albeit the technology to prevent crime will be entirely different from that of the movie, which relied upon the knowledge of psychics. In real world, we will be using our very own DNA as the basis for all this process.

If Time Machine Were Invented

I sat down to gather my thoughts on the question that given an opportunity whether I would like to travel back in time or ahead while watching the news on BBC World. There was a news item, which sent shivers through my spine. Six white policemen in South Africa were shown mercilessly beating a black helpless boy and at the same time unleashing their dogs on him. I could not stand the sight when I saw the dogs attacking and dragging the already bruised boy. I turned off the TV in disgust.

New Anarkali – the Love Story Continues

Love stories are as old as the human race. Every part and every culture on the planet has some epic tales about these. Here in the sub-continent, we have many tales of love and betrayal but no other tale attracts as much attention and heartache as the story of Anarkali and the Prince Salim. Almost 4 centuries ago, King Akbar the Great was on the throne of the Kingdom of India. Prince Salim was his son and hence, the Crown Prince. He fell in love with one of the chamber-maids, Anarkali.  But the King did not approve of their love. The Prince was adamant and he even rebelled and a war was fought between the father and son. Anarkali was house arrested and the Prince surrendered on the condition that the life of Anarkali would be saved. The King, according to some accounts, set free and exiled her, while some says she was killed. Nobody knows for sure the real story. And some even challenge the whole story as untrue. But never the less, it is been told for centuries now and we in Lahore even have a bazaar, probably the busiest bazaar of the city, named after her, the Anarkali Bazaar. And then it has extended to form a new bazaar, New Anarkali. But imagine if this love story takes place in the modern setting, in this age of modern technology? Here, I tried to portray a scene from this epic tale.

An Open Letter From a Thief

Last week I received a letter from, well, a thief. I am no journalist and don’t know what to make of it. He/she has asked me to convey their message to the common citizens. As I have no idea what to do, so here I am posting the letter verbatim. Hope you people can help.

Unsung Hero: Baba G

Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. – John. F. Kennedy

“Junoon se aur ishq se milti hai azadi”, the kid was humming the OST of the movie Jinnah which was shown on PTV. His father entered home and asked him lightly whether he knew the meaning of what he was humming? Then he began telling him the details. I was sitting in the corner of the room and was lost in my own thoughts. Today is the 65^th Independence Day of Pakistan. And if one ponders over the ups and downs of these years, one can realize the price of independence. For a nation to excel, and for that matter to destruct, contribution from a large number of people is required. One person alone is not enough to bring a meaningful change, either negative or positive. But one has to do his/her own bit of work. So there are a lot of people who have contributed to the building and prosperity of our nation. Some of them are well known, through books, newspapers and television. But there are countless people who form the backbone of this country but no one knows about them. I knew one such person. Rather I had known him since my childhood. To me, and all other people in my village, he was known as Baba Jee.

Examination – A Necessary Evil

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.” – Charles Caleb Colton, English sportsman and writer.

 “Just 5 minutes, Ammi”, I replied. The dial of the wall clock was showing the time to be 3.35AM, but I still wanted to double check and mobile phone was showing it to be 3.34AM. What a relief! Every minute was so important. I had not even drink the glass of milk that Ammi gave me at 12 AM with strict orders of going to bed early. This was the 3^rd time Ammi came into my room and urged me to sleep. But how could I? I had a last paper in the morning of what was my final exam. Like most students, I too have a habit of falling asleep the moment I start reading my books. But I had to study. Just one last chapter. O clock, please tick slowly. In my heart I knew that just 8 more hours and I would be free of all the tensions in the world. No more study. No more papers. No more cramming. The next thing I knew was that Ammi was holding a tray of breakfast and gently waking me up. I did not realize when I slept. And with this, it occurred to me that my mind went totally blank. I could not remember a single word. I rushed to the exam hall. With lot of praying and cramming, I was finally able to write something in the answer sheets. O God! Please help me!

Livin' La Vida Mobi

Be yourself, everyone else is taken ~ Oscar Wilde

 

As I mentioned in one of the previous posts that during the last few years, the distinction between mobile and internet, and for that matter, computer, is almost diminished. But since majority of the population of the world is just living on the edge of poverty and where there are still Pentium 1 computers being used, smartphones or tablets are far from a household name. Those of us who still do not own an iPad or a blackberry, can still reap the benefits of modern technology. For example, I own a very basic level phone with an entry level camera and support for Java MIDP and MP3. And I am sure most of you out there will have a similar phone. So how can you best utilize it with some free goodies? The following is my list of applications which are freely available from the websites given at the end, and can make your phone very useful in addition to the basic tasks of making calls and sending SMS. Moreover, these apps work offline, means that once you install these on your device, you do not need a working internet connection to be present. 

And the Award Goes to...

It gives me a great pleasure and a sense of pride that finally I received the following "AWARDS" from my friend Mishi. 

Balochistan - the Land of Cordiality

Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by area, with a total population of about 8 millions. It has mainly 2 large population groups i.e. Balochis and Pakhtoons. Last year I got the opportunity to visit the province with my friend Ibrahim who hails from Pishin district. I had just a fortnight and since my hosts were in the Pakhtoon area of Balochistan, I can only share about that part.

Technology: Purveyor of Life or Victualler of Death?

All of the biggest technological inventions created by man - the airplane, the automobile, the computer - says little about his intelligence, but speaks volumes about his laziness. – Mark Kennedy

Humans have the natural tendency to be in control of their surroundings including other humans, animals and the environment. Moreover, as obvious from the quotation above, humans are always in search of simpler ways of doing things. From the early humans who controlled fire to the latest DNA technologies, everything has its origin in one of these fundamental axioms.

Hollywood and Biotechnology

Summer is on and with the scorching heat gaining momentum, students are restricted to their homes. Cable TV, video games and movies are some of the options which most students consider for their time of leisure. Like most students, I too watch movies and my favourite are the ones related to science and technology or science fiction. In a way these movies are the harbingers of what the future might holds for us. As the film producers try to amalgamate science with fiction and myth, the complexities of science are presented in a way easily grasped by a lay-man. The genre is in existence since the days of the silent movies when in 1902, A Trip to the Moon was released. Since then, studios throughout the world have released countless sci-fi movies which received critical acclaim and box-office success. As in real world, these movies also show the positive and negative aspects of science. For example, Spider Man, the Hulk, Hollow man, Resident Evil, and other such block-busters show the real power of our DNA and genetic codes and what a mutation can do. However imaginary these movies are, they allow us to peek into the minds of humans and expand our horizon of thoughts. Being the student of science myself, I enjoy the movies which are about the science especially, genetics or biotechnology. Here I recommend some of the sci-fi movies about biotechnology.

The Tortoise and the Hare: Director's Cut

Be content with your lot; one cannot be first in everything – Aesop, Greek fable author

Once upon a time, hare and a tortoise were friends. The hare was very proud of his speed. He always made fun of the tortoise. One day the tortoise became angry and challenged him to run a race. The hare readily accepted the challenge and the race began. The hare ran fast and vary soon he was far ahead of the tortoise. He wanted to take some rest and lay down under a shady tree. He slept and did not wake up soon. But the tortoise kept on moving slowly and steadily. It reached the winning post. When hare woke up he ran as fast as he could. But when he reached the winning post, he was ashamed to see the tortoise already sitting there. Moral: Slow and steady wins the race.
But the story does not end here.

Elixir of Life – Quest for (nu)clear Energy

Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not. – Isaac Asimov 

The modern human lifestyle and greed for comfort have led us to an environmental crisis, a disorder in the environment, called entropy. The energy production processes adopted by the modern human are gifting heat to the environment thus resulting thermal pollution. This is one of the major factors of global warming and a small change in the environmental temperature can have irreversible consequences on the metabolic processes of plants and animals. This can, in turn, lead to serious disruption of the overall ecological unit.

The Kingdom of Spiders

Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations. - Earl Nightingale

In the modern age of science and technology, our thrust is more on development and the importance of environment is generally ignored. It is an established fact that the environment problem in the development countries is due to the advancement of scientific and technological development, whereas the environmental problems of developing countries have the lack of development. Environment and development are complimentary and supplementary to each other and should go hand in hand. In fact, there is a need to maintain a proper balance between the two.

My Best Teacher - Genesis and Anatomy of an Essay

Mr. So and so is my best teacher. He teaches us English. He is very punctual…

Perhaps most of the people in my generation especially those from Urdu medium public schools are well familiar with these sentences when we were told to write an essay on our best teacher. Teachers changed but it was invariably the English teacher who would be always the best no matter who he was or how he taught us. We had the intuition that this is the only way of getting higher grades. Or perhaps we used to memorize it from our English Grammar book. The brighter among us would have a few more essays in their repertoire like My School, My Best Friend, and My Village. We were made to remember Greedy Dog and Thirsty Crow by heart. Sometimes by mistake or design, the topic would be Honesty is the Best Policy and we would start panicking. Once there was a question in the exam to write names of 3 pet animals to which my little brother replied: Lion, Snake and Wolf. And we were thinking that English medium private schools would be better?

Mobile phone or Internet – which one is indispensible?

Imagine on a cold winter day you wake up and take hold of your mobile to check your emails. But unlike other days, today your device would not let you access your account. You try to respond to comments on your facebook pictures but again no access. You try and fail to send any MMS. Defeated you get up and switch on your laptop, but your EVO refuses to work. Down and dejected, you start your car and head towards your office. But lo and behold, your map navigator is down too. Perplexed, you move on and then somebody at the office tells you that from now on mobile and the internet will be separated.