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.