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99 Names of Allah

2012-01-06T21:01:00.000+04:00

The 99 names of OUR CREATOR

1 Allah (الله) The Greatest Name

2 Ar-Rahman (الرحمن) The All-Compassionate

3 Ar-Rahim (الرحيم) The All-Merciful

4 Al-Malik (الملك) The Absolute Ruler

5 Al-Quddus (القدوس) The Pure One

6 As-Salam (السلام) The Source of Peace

7 Al-Mu'min (المؤمن) The Inspirer of Faith

8 Al-Muhaymin (المهيمن) The Guardian

9 Al-Aziz (العزيز) The Victorious

10 Al-Jabbar (الجبار) The Compeller

11 Al-Mutakabbir (المتكبر) The Greatest

12 Al-Khaliq (الخالق) The Creator

13 Al-Bari' (البارئ) The Maker of Order

14 Al-Musawwir (المصور) The Shaper of Beauty

15 Al-Ghaffar (الغفار) The Forgiving

16 Al-Qahhar (القهار) The Subduer

17 Al-Wahhab (الوهاب) The Giver of All

18 Ar-Razzaq (الرزاق) The Sustainer

19 Al-Fattah (الفتاح) The Opener

20 Al-`Alim (العليم) The Knower of All

21 Al-Qabid (القابض) The Constrictor

22 Al-Basit (الباسط) The Reliever

23 Al-Khafid (الخافض) The Abaser

24 Ar-Rafi (الرافع) The Exalter

25 Al-Mu'izz (المعز) The Bestower of Honors

26 Al-Mudhill (المذل) The Humiliator

27 As-Sami (السميع) The Hearer of All

28 Al-Basir (البصير) The Seer of All

29 Al-Hakam (الحكم) The Judge One

30 Al-`Adl (العدل) The Just

31 Al-Latif (اللطيف) The Subtle One

32 Al-Khabir (الخبير) The All-Aware

33 Al-Halim (الحليم) The Forbearing

34 Al-Azim (العظيم) The Magnificent

35 Al-Ghafur (الغفور) The Forgiver and Hider of Faults

36 Ash-Shakur (الشكور) The Rewarder of Thankfulness

37 Al-Ali (العلى) The Highest

38 Al-Kabir (الكبير) The Greatest

39 Al-Hafiz (الحفيظ) The Preserver

40 Al-Muqit (المقيت) The Nourisher

41 Al-Hasib (الحسيب) The Accounter

42 Al-Jalil (الجليل) The Mighty

43 Al-Karim (الكريم) The Generous

44 Ar-Raqib (الرقيب) The Watchful One

45 Al-Mujib (المجيب) The Responder to Prayer

46 Al-Wasi (الواسع) The All-Comprehending

47 Al-Hakim (الحكيم) The Perfectly Wise

48 Al-Wadud (الودود) The Loving One

49 Al-Majid (المجيد) The Majestic One

50 Al-Ba'ith (الباعث) The Resurrector

51 Ash-Shahid (الشهيد) The Witness

52 Al-Haqq (الحق) The Truth

53 Al-Wakil (الوكيل) The Trustee

54 Al-Qawiyy (القوى) The Possessor of All Strength

55 Al-Matin (المتين) The Forceful One

56 Al-Waliyy (الولى) The Governor

57 Al-Hamid (الحميد) The Praised One

58 Al-Muhsi (المحصى) The Appraiser

59 Al-Mubdi' (المبدئ) The Originator

60 Al-Mu'id (المعيد) The Restorer

61 Al-Muhyi (المحيى) The Giver of Life

62 Al-Mumit (المميت) The Taker of Life

63 Al-Hayy (الحي) The Ever Living One

64 Al-Qayyum (القيوم) The Self-Existing One 65 Al-Wajid (الواجد) The Finder

66 Al-Majid (الماجد) The Glorious

67 Al-Wahid (الواحد) The One, the All Inclusive, The Indivisible

68 As-Samad (الصمد) The Satisfier of All Needs

69 Al-Qadir (القادر) The All Powerful

70 Al-Muqtadir (المقتدر) The Creator of All Power

71 Al-Muqaddim (المقدم) The Expediter

72 Al-Mu'akhkhir (المؤخر) The Delayer

73 Al-Awwal (الأول) The First

74 Al-Akhir (الأخر) The Last

75 Az-Zahir (الظاهر) The Manifest One

76 Al-Batin (الباطن) The Hidden One

77 Al-Wali (الوالي) The Protecting Friend

78 Al-Muta'ali (المتعالي) The Supreme One

79 Al-Barr (البر) The Doer of Good

80 At-Tawwab (التواب) The Guide to Repentance

81 Al-Muntaqim (المنتقم) The Avenger

82 Al-'Afuww (العفو) The Forgiver

83 Ar-Ra'uf (الرؤوف) The Clement

84 Malik-al-Mulk (مالك الملك) The Owner of All

85 Dhu-al-Jalal wa-al-Ikram (ذو الجلال و الإكرام) The Lord of Majesty and Bounty

86 Al-Muqsit (المقسط) The Equitable One

87 Al-Jami' (الجامع) The Gatherer

88 Al-Ghani (الغنى) The Rich One

89 Al-Mughni (المغنى) The Enricher

90 Al-Mani'(المانع) The Preventer of Harm

91 Ad-Darr (الضار) The Creator of The Harmful

92 An-Nafi' (النافع) The Creator of Good

93 An-Nur (النور) The Light

94 Al-Hadi (الهادي) The Guide

95 Al-Badi (البديع) The Originator

96 Al-Baqi (الباقي) The Everlasting One

97 Al-Warith (الوارث) The Inheritor of All

98 Ar-Rashid (الرشيد) The Righteous Teacher

99 As-Sabur (الصبور) The Patient On

rules and regulations lmam Bukhari has laid out for every individual who wishes to become a Muhaddith or a student of hadeeth

2011-12-31T18:31:00.001+04:00

The post below is not from one of Shaykh's lessons but is an article based on extracts from ‘The Differences of the Imams’ by Shaykh ul Hadeeth Maulana Muhammad Zakariyya. It is an amazing incident attributed to lmam Bukhari (may Allah have mercy upon him). It enlightens one on the diligence required to become a seeker of hadeeth let alone a Muhaddith or Shaykh.

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This is an amazing incident attributed to lmam Bukhari (may Allah have mercy upon him). It will enlighten the reader on the diligence required to become a seeker of hadeeth let alone a Muhaddith or Shaykh.

Muhammad bin Ahmad says: “When Waleed bin lbraheem was deposed as the chief justice of Ray (the name of a particular area) and he came to Bukhara, my teacher, Abu lbraheem al Khatakli took me with him to see Waleed. My teacher requested him to narrate those ahadeeth to me which he had heard from his Mashaa’ikh. He replied: “I have heard nothing from them.” My teacher was quite shocked and remarked: “How can you say that you have heard nothing from them when you are a deeply-read scholar?” He then related his story saying: “When I became a sane, mature adult and I developed fervour towards the science of hadeeth, I went to lmam Bukhari (may Allah have mercy upon him) and explained my intentions to him. He advised me thus:
“Son! before you set out to pursue any field make sure you are well grounded with its prerequisites and demands, and remember that a person cannot become a perfect Muhaddith in the science of hadeeth until and unless he does not write four things alongside four things like four things resembling four things in four times with four conditions in four places upon four things from four types of people for four objectives. These aims (each numbering four) can only be achieved with another four things coupled with another four. Once all these things are achieved, four things will become insignificant before him and he will be inflicted with four things. Once he exercises patience upon these four things, Allah ta‘ala will honour him with four things in this world and award him four things in the hereafter.”

I said: “May Allah have mercy upon you! Please explain these aims (each numbering four) to me.” He said: “Surely, the four things he has to write are:
(1) The statements and commands of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم
(2) The sayings of the Sahabah رضى الله عنهم and their relative ranks,
(3) The sayings of the Tabi’een and their ranks, (in other words who is reliable and who is not),
(4) The conditions of all the narrators who narrate ahadeeth.
Alongside the above are the following four:
(1) The actual names of the narrators,
(2) Their appellations or titles,
(3) Their domiciles,
(4) Their dates of birth and death (to determine whether the narrator met those he is narrating from.)
These are indispensable like four things are necessary with four:
(1) Like hamd and thanaa (praise of Allah) are with the Khutbah,
(2) Like salutations are with name of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace)
(3) Like the recitation of Bismillah is with a surah,
(4) Like the performance of salaah with the takbeer.
Resembling four things as follows:
(1) Musnadaat,
(2) Mursalaat,
(3) Mawqoofaat and
(4) Maqtoo’aat.
(These are names of the four categories of hadeeth).
In four times is as follows:
(1) In his childhood,
(2) In his age of understanding, (i.e. close to maturity)
(3) In his youth and
(4) In his old age.
(In other words he continues acquiring hadeeth throughout his life).
In the four conditions is as follows:
(1) Whilst he is occupied,
(2) Whilst he is free,
(3) In his poverty and
(4) In his affluence.
(In other words he is always endeavouring to acquire the knowledge of hadeeth).
At four places as follows:
(1) In mountainous terrain,
(2) On the seas,
(3) In cities and
(4) In rural areas.
(In other words he endeavours to acquire this science from a teacher no matter where he is).
Upon four things (he writes the knowledge of hadeeth):
(1) Upon stones,
(2) Upon shells,
(3) Upon skins and
(4) Upon bones.
(In other words, until he does not find paper he will continue recording this knowledge somewhere so that he does not forget it).
From four types of people are as follows:
(1) From his seniors,
(2) From his juniors,
(3) From his counterparts and
(4) From the books of his father, provided he has firm conviction that these are his books.
(In other words, he endeavours to acquire this science one way or the other, so much so that he does not feel ashamed to acquire it from his juniors).
For four objectives as follows:
(1) He acquires this knowledge solely for the pleasure of Allah.
(2) To practice upon those ahadeeth which conform to the verses of the Holy Qur’an.
(3) To propagate it to those who have desire for it.
(4) To write it out so that it can be a source of guidance to those who will come after him.
The aforementioned four things cannot be acquired except with four things which are of human acquisition:
(1) To know how to read and write,
(2) Lexicography and vocabulary,
(3) Morphology and
(4) Syntax.
Together with these are another four that are not of human acquisition but gifts from Allah:
(1) Sound health,
(2) Ability,
(3) An ardent desire for learning and
(4) A good memory.
Once all the aforementioned aims are attained, four things will become insignificant before him:
(1) His family,
(2) His children,
(3) His wealth and
(4) His motherland.
Thereafter, he is afflicted with four things:
(1) His enemies will rejoice at his distress,
(2) His friends will reproach him,
(3) The ignorant will taunt him and
(4) The scholars will be jealous of him.
Once he exercises patience on these calamities, Allah will honour him four things in this world and four things in the hereafter.
The four in this world are:
(1) The honour of contentment,
(2) Dignity and awe coupled with conviction,
(3) The pleasure of knowledge and
(4) A life of eternity.
The four in the hereafter are:
(1) The honour of intercession on behalf of whomsoever he pleases.
(2) The shade of the throne of Allah on the day when there shall be no shade available except the shade of His throne,
(3) He will provide water to whomsoever he pleases from the well of Kauthar of the Prophet e and
(4) The close proximity with the Prophets (upon whom be peace) in the A ‘ala Illiyeen.

So now my son! I have told you whatever I have heard from my Mashaa’ikh, now you have the choice either to pursue this field or to refrain from it.

These are the rules and regulations lmam Bukhari has laid out for every individual who wishes to become a Muhaddith or a student of hadeeth. We should take heed of lmam Bukhari’s advice and hold firmly onto it. In actual fact, the science of hadeeth is even more difficult than what lmam Bukhari (may Allah have mercy upon him) describes. In our present time of extreme negligence and laziness where the maximum extent of this science is the Saheeh-Sittah (the six most authentic books of hadeeth), for one to call himself a Muhaddith can be likened to a monkey who has a bit of turmeric powder and wishes to be called a grocer. The extent this group of half-baked ‘Maulvies’ have made a mockery of Deen cannot be found in our predecessors even if we have to search for it. The main cause for this current degeneration amongst the Ulama stems from our confidence upon our virtues and our reliance upon our defective and unsound knowledge. In fact the latter Ulama have prohibited us from issuing any Fatwas (religious verdicts) based on our own opinions. Instead, they have advised us to transcribe the verdicts from similar Fatwas of the past. But alas! In these times, let alone ordinary propositions, even the most intricate of scholastic issues have become subjected to the people’s whims and fancies. To Allah alone do we seek refuge and He alone is the Helper

PAKISTAN ARMY REJECTS US REPORT ON NATO ATTACK

2011-12-29T17:15:00.001+04:00

Rejecting the detailed NATO probe on last month’s border attack, Pakistan Army has questioned the validity of the findings supervised by a military man who held command of allied forces in Afghanistan.
The military has expressed serious reservations over the US Air Force Brigadier General Stephen Clark’s leading the Mohmand attack probe while refusing to show any compliance for the launch of a fresh investigation.
The development reportedly followed an exchange of written communication between the Pentagon and Pakistan’s military headquarters (GHQ) amid the reports that the latter has raised serious questions over the authenticity of the NATO report under the supervision of Brigadier General Clark.
According to informed officials, the Pakistan military holds Clark as one of the commanders responsible for the November 26 deadly attack on two Pakistani military pickets - Volcano and Boulder - that killed 24 soldiers. As head of Air Force Special Operations Forces (AFSOF), Clark remained Colonel Commandant of the 27 Special Operations Forces (SOF) Wing that carries out ground and aerial operations in Afghanistan. The 16 Squadron Wing of the United States Air Force (USAF), that saw its gunship choppers bombarding the Pakistani pickets, was also headed by Brigadier General Clark in his official capacity as the chief pilot.
The Squadron 16, it is learnt, directly oversees the operational command of the sophisticated gunship choppers AC-130 H Spectre that were used in the Mohmand Agency attack. Apart from heading the combat mission in Afghanistan, Brigadier General Clark also remained the Commander of 4th SOF at the USAF.
Citing the afore-stated factors, Pakistan’s military, in the Wednesday’s correspondence with the Pentagon, is reported to have pointed out Stephen Clark’s unsuitability for leading a sensitive probe that, according to military circles, compromised his objective position owing to his direct professional linkages with allied combat forces in Afghanistan. “He is not neutral. Given that he himself commands the Special Operations Forces, we have grounds to believe that the November 26 episode did not happen without Clark’s consent. He is as much to be held responsible as General Allen is,” military officials said.
When contacted on Wednesday, the NATO Air Operations spokesperson in Afghanistan Christopher DeWitt told this scribe that Pentagon was in better position to address any queries on Brigadier General Stephen Clark. Pentagon’s spokesperson George Little was not accessible at his official cell phone nor did he return the emails.
The NATO, it is further learnt, has offered Pakistan to launch a fresh probe into Mohmand Agency with Pakistan military being part of the investigation but this suggestion has also been turned down. “They’re not ready to accept anything but wanting the NATO to claim full responsibility of the border bombing incident and apologise unconditionally,” Nato-based sources said about Pakistan’s disinterest shown regarding the probe.
Earlier last Friday, Pakistan Army had rejected the initial findings of the investigation on Mohmand Agency attack released by the Pentagon. A military statement had said, detailed response (to the report) would be given as and when the formal report was received. This newspaper had reported Sunday that NATO was unlikely to share the detailed report with Pakistani military sensing adverse reaction from the latter. This development followed the requests by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) Chief General David Mattis which had been turned down for a meeting with Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. Reportedly, General Mattis wanted to visit Pakistan to brief the country’s military top brass on November 26 attack.
Pakistani officials say that the military refused to cooperate on last month’s probe because the probe’s findings in the presence of General John Allen, the NATO Commander in Afghanistan, and Brigadier General Clark were “pretty obvious”. Military circles believe that an impartial inquiry was not possible without putting into probe General Allen, Clark and Afghan National Army’s Head General Sher Muhammad Karimi.
Special Correspondent from Washington adds: While dropping hints of disciplinary action against those responsible for last month’s NATO attack that killed 26 Pakistani soldiers, the US military said Tuesday that Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has been briefed on its investigation into the deadly incident.
The full report was presented to Gen Kayani by a US military officer stationed at the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain John Kirby told reporters.
He said the report from the joint US-Nato investigative team was not released publicly until Monday to allow time for the Pakistani leadership to read the findings first. “We wanted General Kayani to be able to see the entire thing,” he said. The approach represented ‘an appropriate professional courtesy’ to Kayani, he added.
A summary of the report was released Thursday by the officer who led the investigation, Brigadier General Stephen Clark.
The US report provides more details on the November 25-26 air strikes that Clark says were the result of a series of mistakes and botched communications on both sides — reflecting an underlying mistrust between the two countries.
It took the NATO-led force 90 minutes to halt air strikes after a Pakistani liaison officer first alerted US and coalition counterparts that Pakistani troops were coming under fire from American aircraft, the report said.
The probe also said the US military had failed to notify the Pakistanis in advance of the night raid near the border and that a coalition officer mistakenly gave the wrong location of the US troops to his Pakistani counterpart.
Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said military leaders will use the final report on the investigation to determine if anyone should be punished. Those decisions, he said, would be made by officers in the chain of command, depending on whether they found that mistakes were made by US or NATO personnel

Top Ten Reasons Why Large Companies Fail To Keep Their Best Talent

2011-12-29T17:11:00.000+04:00

Whether it’s a high-profile tech company like Yahoo!, or a more established conglomerate like GE or Home Depot, large companies have a hard time keeping their best and brightest in house. Recently, GigaOM discussed the troubles at Yahoo! with a flat stock price, vested options for some of their best people, and the apparent free flow of VC dollars luring away some of their best people to do the start-up thing again.

Yet, Yahoo!, GE, Home Depot, and other large established companies have a tremendous advantage in retaining their top talent and don’t. I’ve seen the good and the bad things that large companies do in relation to talent management. Here’s my Top Ten list of what large companies do to lose their top talent :

1. Big Company Bureaucracy. This is probably the #1 reason we hear after the fact from disenchanted employees. However, it’s usually a reason that masks the real reason. No one likes rules that make no sense. But, when top talent is complaining along these lines, it’s usually a sign that they didn’t feel as if they had a say in these rules. They were simply told to follow along and get with the program. No voice in the process and really talented people say “check please.”

2. Failing to Find a Project for the Talent that Ignites Their Passion. Big companies have many moving parts — by definition. Therefore, they usually don’t have people going around to their best and brightest asking them if they’re enjoying their current projects or if they want to work on something new that they’re really interested in which would help the company. HR people are usually too busy keeping up with other things to get into this. The bosses are also usually tapped out on time and this becomes a “nice to have” rather than “must have” conversation. However, unless you see it as a “must have,” say adios to some of your best people. Top talent isn’t driven by money and power, but by the opportunity to be a part of something huge, that will change the world, and for which they are really passionate. Big companies usually never spend the time to figure this out with those people.

3. Poor Annual Performance Reviews. You would be amazed at how many companies do not do a very effective job at annual performance reviews. Or, if they have them, they are rushed through, with a form quickly filled out and sent off to HR, and back to real work. The impression this leaves with the employee is that my boss — and, therefore, the company — isn’t really interested in my long-term future here. If you’re talented enough, why stay? This one leads into #4….

4. No Discussion around Career Development. Here’s a secret for most bosses: most employees don’t know what they’ll be doing in 5 years. In our experience, about less than 5% of people could tell you if you asked. However, everyone wants to have a discussion with you about their future. Most bosses never engage with their employees about where they want to go in their careers — even the top talent. This represents a huge opportunity for you and your organization if you do bring it up. Our best clients have separate annual discussions with their employees — apart from their annual or bi-annual performance review meetings — to discuss succession planning or career development. If your best people know that you think there’s a path for them going forward, they’ll be more likely to hang around.

5. Shifting Whims/Strategic Priorities. I applaud companies trying to build an incubator or “brickhouse” around their talent, by giving them new exciting projects to work on. The challenge for most organizations is not setting up a strategic priority, like establishing an incubator, but sticking with it a year or two from now. Top talent hates to be “jerked around.” If you commit to a project that they will be heading up, you’ve got to give them enough opportunity to deliver what they’ve promised.

6. Lack of Accountability and/or telling them how to do their Jobs. Although you can’t “jerk around” top talent, it’s a mistake to treat top talent leading a project as “untouchable.” We’re not saying that you need to get into anyone’s business or telling them what to do. However, top talent demands accountability from others and doesn’t mind being held accountable for their projects. Therefore, have regular touch points with your best people as they work through their projects. They’ll appreciate your insights/observations/suggestions — as long as they don’t spillover into preaching.

7. Top Talent likes other Top Talent. What are the rest of the people around your top talent like? Many organizations keep some people on the payroll that rationally shouldn’t be there. You’ll get a litany of rationales explaining why when you ask. “It’s too hard to find a replacement for him/her….” “Now’s not the time….” However, doing exit interviews with the best people leaving big companies you often hear how they were turned off by some of their former “team mates.” If you want to keep your best people, make sure they’re surrounded by other great people.

8. The Missing Vision Thing. This might sound obvious, but is the future of your organization exciting? What strategy are you executing? What is the vision you want this talented person to fulfill? Did they have a say/input into this vision? If the answer is no, there’s work to do — and fast.

9. Lack of Open-Mindedness. The best people want to share their ideas and have them listened to. However, a lot of companies have a vision/strategy which they are trying to execute against — and, often find opposing voices to this strategy as an annoyance and a sign that someone’s not a “team player.” If all the best people are leaving and disagreeing with the strategy, you’re left with a bunch of “yes” people saying the same things to each other. You’ve got to be able to listen to others’ points of view — always incorporating the best parts of these new suggestions.

10. Who’s the Boss? If a few people have recently quit at your company who report to the same boss, it’s likely not a coincidence. We’ll often get asked to come in and “fix” someone who’s a great sales person, engineer, or is a founder, but who is driving everyone around them “nuts.” We can try, but unfortunately, executive coaching usually only works 33% of the time in these cases. You’re better off trying to find another spot for them in the organization — or, at the very least, not overseeing your high-potential talent that you want to keep.

It’s never a one-way street. Top talent has to assume some responsibility as much as the organization. However, with the scarcity of talent — which will only increase in the next 5 years — Smart Organizations are ones who get out in front of these ten things, rather than wait for their people to come to them, asking to implement this list.

[At the time of writing, Jackson was long YHOO]

Employees From Yahoo, Google, And Facebook Are Flocking To These Start-Ups

2011-12-28T23:10:00.000+04:00

Startups working on a technology called Hadoop have become talent magnets in Silicon Valley, hiring top engineers away from the likes of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook.
And they've become a popular investment for ex-Cisco execs turned VCs, too.
Hadoop is software for managing "big data." It makes it cheap and easy to store massive bits of information and then sift through it to find interesting trends. For instance, Google's Flu Trends uses Hadoop to see where flu outbreaks are by watching where people are doing flu-related searches.
Most of these folks could have their picks of startups. Why Hadoop?
Hadoop lets companies build applications that were never before possible. It works with a mind-boggling amount of stored data -- petabytes -- and runs on cheap hardware. In the past, applications with data this big needed a supercomputer to process and a big network to move the data around. Now, apps that analyze trends, predict the weather, sift through social media can be done using a handful of ordinary, low-cost servers.
That's why high-profile geeks are increasingly turning to these companies. Take MapR for instance. Its team reads like a Valley who's-who.
Co-founder M.C. Srivas hails from Google where he ran one of Google's major search infrastructure teams. Dave Jespersen was previously vice president of engineering at EMC. Brad Mandell was global director for one of Cisco's most important business units, Security. MapR even snagged a guy that built security products for Microsoft, Tomer Shiran.
MapR was funded by ex-Cisco exec Barry Eggers from VC Lightspeed and former VMware exec Peter Sonsini, who is now part of NEA.
Former Cisco M&A man Mike Volpi, now at Index Ventures, was one of the VCs who funded another Hadoop startup, Hortonworks. It's a Yahoo spin-off, so it's of course loaded with Yahoo-ites. But it also landed Mark Himelstein, former top engineer at Sun, as its VP of engineering.
Another Hadoop start-up, Cloudera, was founded by ex-Yahoo Amr Awadallah. It hijacked Jeff Hammerbacher from Facebook and includes talent taken from VMware (Ed Albanese) and SAP (Charles Zedlewski). And it just scored another $40 million in new funding last month.
Hadoop is freely available as an open source project from the keeper of such things, the Apache Foundation. But because it is complicated to set up, enterprises are going to want to hire help, and that's where these start-ups come in.
Watch for the fight over Hadoop to get really hot in 2012.

Interns Are Latest Target In Battle for Tech Talent

2011-12-28T23:01:00.000+04:00

Silicon Valley's talent wars are going younger.
Bay Area tech companies, already in a fierce fight for full-time hires, are now also battling to woo summer interns. Technology giants like Google Inc. have been expanding their summer-intern programs, while smaller tech companies are ramping up theirs in response—sometimes even luring candidates away from college.
Dropbox Inc. plans to hire 30 engineering interns for next summer, up from nine this year, says engineering manager Rian Hunter, who adds the company wants interns to comprise one-third of its engineering team.
The San Francisco-based file-sharing company this year dispatched its entire engineering team to recruit at more than a dozen colleges, up from just five schools last year, schmoozing recruits over dinners and through technical talks on subjects like how Dropbox reduces the amount of memory its desktop client uses.
Interns allow you to "try before you buy," says Bump Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Dave Lieb, who plans to hire as many as 10 for next summer. He says the 30-person company pays intern engineers about $10,000 for a roughly 12-week stint, similar to what other tech start-ups say they pay.
"More interns means more opportunities to bring people to the company," Mr. Hunter says, noting Dropbox is seeking people as young as college freshman.
Through last year's intern program, Bump nabbed Tom Greany, an engineer who dropped out of Imperial College London to work on the company's mobile app, which allows users to share data between phones by bumping them together. "To me, the choice was to help create the future or sit on the sidelines and think about it," says the 23-year-old, who says he doesn't know if he will return to school.
Ninety-three percent of early-stage Silicon Valley start-ups have hired or are hiring interns, according to InternMatch Inc., a website that helps college students find internships. The group surveyed companies that recently raised money from two Bay Area incubators, Y Combinator or 500 Startups.
In a new twist, venture capitalists have begun doing some intern legwork for their companies. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, recruiting at 25 college campuses across the country, helped a cohort of its companies hire around 25 engineering interns for the coming summer through a new program called KPCB Engineering Fellows.
Kleiner's companies, including Klout Inc. and Twitter Inc., started notifying their new interns last week.
"Competition for talent is so fierce," says Kleiner partner Juliet de Baubigny. She says the firm may expand the program, which is currently for juniors in college, to others, including possibly high-school students.
Meanwhile, Facebook Inc. plans to hire 625 interns for next summer, up from 550 this year. Google hired 1,000 engineering interns this past summer, up 20% from the previous year. Yolanda Mangolini, Google's director of talent and outreach programs, says the company is still figuring out its target for 2012, based on its overall staffing plan.
Google generally extends offers to the majority of its intern class, Ms. Mangolini says. "It is one of the primary ways we find full-time hires."

Facebook, Google, And Dropbox Are Hiring Interns By The Boatload

2011-12-27T18:21:00.000+04:00

Silicon Valley mainstays and startups like Google and Dropbox are hiring tons of interns for this coming summer, the Wall Street Journal Reports.

Dropbox plans to hire three times as many interns for this summer as for last summer.

This would make interns one whole third of Dropbox's entire engineering team.

Bump Technologies, maker of the popular bump-to-share-your-contact-info app, plans to hire ten interns this coming summer. These interns will make up a pretty large chunk of Bump's 30 employee office.

Facebook plans to hire 625 interns for this coming summer, while Google plans to hire more than a thousand youngsters for summer jobs.

So why all the hiring up? Finding and keeping full-time hires is tough enough at a tech company because of rampant poaching, so these companies have been increasingly turning to college students for first-year employees.

Most of these companies offer interns around $10,000 for a summer-long gig.

13 Google Features You Might Not Know Of

2011-12-23T20:12:00.001+04:00

Google is the most popular search engine on the World Wide Web. So much that the word ‘Google’ has become a synonym for ‘searching the web’.

Almost everyone uses Google on a daily basis, if not more. And even then, we do not make full use of the features Google provides. Most people don’t even know about them.

So I thought, why not provide a list for my readers so they can have an even better search experience. Given below, are some features Google provides by default in it’s search engine and can prove to be pretty useful.

CALCULATOR
Google provides a simple in-built calculator in it’s search engine. If you want to add 7+9, or 7777+9999, or even 723984989288+938748829848, Google’s there for you. Simply type it in the search box and you get the answer. Not just addition, you can perform other mathematical functions too.

Taking it lightly, eh?

Search for this:

?
Code:
1
(sqrt(tan(x))*cos(200 x)*sin(45x)+sqrt(abs(x)*(1/sin(x)))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(9-x^2), -sqrt(9-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5

UNIT CONVERTOR
Okay, this one’s not that ‘unknown’. Simply type the conversion query in the search box like this: ’125 kg in lbs’, and you’ll get your answer. Just try to keep the unit dimensions logical.

SYNONYM SEARCH
If you want to search the web, not just for your ‘query’ but for it’s synonyms too, put a ~ (tilde) sign right before your query.

e.g. Try searching for ‘premier’ but with a ~ sign before it. Your search will return results for ‘Prime Minister’ too.

DEFINITIONS
To search for the definition of a word or a phrase, simple type ‘define ‘ before it. e.g. ‘define engineering’.

BOOKS
If you want to search for a book, type the title or author name in the search box and click on Books in the sidebar. e.g. ‘White Fang’ or ‘Jack London’.

WEATHER
Just type ‘weather’ along with the city name and Google will show you the weather for that place. e.g. ‘weather Karachi’.

SUNRISE OR SUNSET
Similar to Weather search, but replace ‘weather’ with ‘sunrise’ or ‘sunset’. e.g. ‘sunrise Karachi’.

TIME
This is also similar to Weather search, simple replace ‘weather’ with ‘time’. e.g. ‘time Islamabad’.

CURRENCY CONVERTER
Type in your conversion query using currency abbreviations like this: ’100 PKR in USD’ or ’100 USD in GBP’.

MAP
Just type in the name of the area and ‘map’ after it. Google will show you the map of that place.

PACKAGE TRACKING
Enter the number of your UPS, FedEx or USPS package in the search box and Google will provide you with the status of the package or a link to the status of your package.

RELATED CONTENT SEARCH
If you want to search for websites having content similar to a certain website, type it’s address in the search box after typing ‘related: ‘. e.g. ‘related:tech.ratedsawj.com’.

And now my favorite feature!
FILL IN THE BLANK
There are times when we may not know the appropriate word to search for, related to any term, and it gets hard to form a proper search query. Well, Google lets you let Google handle it.

Simply replace the unknown part of your query with an asterisk (*)!

e.g. ‘Albert Einstein proposed *’, ‘Einstein’s * relativity’, etc.

There are a lot of other features as well, but these are the ones I think will come in the most handy for everyone.

I know coders and programmers will enjoy the last one!

An article by SAWJ

10 Top Extraordinary People in the World

2011-12-22T18:29:00.000+04:00

1. Kim Ung-Yong: Attended University at age 4, Ph.D at age 15; world’s highest IQ

This Korean super-genius was born in 1962 and might just be the smartest guy alive today (he’s recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as having the highest IQ of anyone on the planet). By the age of four he was already able to read in Japanese, Korean, German, and English. At his fifth birthday, he solved complicated differential and integral calculus problems. Later, on Japanese television, he demonstrated his proficiency in Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, German, English, Japanese, and Korean. Kim was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records under “Highest IQ”; the book estimated the boy’s score at over 210.

Kim was a guest student of physics at Hanyang University from the age of 3 until he was 6. At the age of 7 he was invited to America by NASA. He finished his university studies, eventually getting a Ph.D. in physics at Colorado State University before he was 15. In 1974, during his university studies, he began his research work at NASA and continued this work until his return to Korea in 1978 where he decided to switch from physics to civil engineering and eventually received a doctorate in that field. Kim was offered the chance to study at the most prestigious universities in Korea , but instead chose to attend a provincial university. As of 2007 he also serves as adjunct faculty at Chungbuk National University .

2. Gregory Smith: Nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize at age 12

Born in 1990, Gregory Smith could read at age two and had enrolled in university at 10. But “genius” is only one half of the Greg Smith story. When not voraciously learning, this young man travels the globe as a peace and children’s rights activist.

He is the founder of International Youth Advocates, an organization that promotes principles of peace and understanding among young people throughout the world. He has met with Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev and spoke in front of the UN. For these and other humanitarian and advocacy efforts, Smith has been nominated four times for a Nobel Peace Prize. His latest achievement? He just got his driver license.

3. Akrit Jaswal: The Seven Year-Old Surgeon

Akrit Jaswal is a young Indian who has been called “the world’s smartest boy” and it’s easy to see why. His IQ is 146 and is considered the smartest person his age in India —a country of more than a billion people.

Akrit came to public attention when in 2000 he performed his first medical procedure at his family home. He was seven. His patient — a local girl who could not afford a doctor — was eight. Her hand had been burnt in a fire, causing her fingers to close into a tight fist that wouldn’t open. Akrit had no formal medical training and no experience of surgery, yet he managed to free her fingers and she was able to use her hand again.

He focused his phenomenal intelligence on medicine and at the age of twelve he claimed to be on the verge of discovering a cure for cancer. He is now studying for a science degree at Chandigarh College and is the youngest student ever accepted by an Indian University .

4. Cleopatra Stratan: a 3 year old singer who earns 1000€ per song

Clepotra was born October 6, 2002 in Chisinau , Moldova and is the daughter of Moldovan-Romanian singer, Pavel Stratan. She is the youngest person ever to score commercial success as a singer, with her 2006 album La vârsta de trei ani (”At the age of 3″). She holds the record for being the youngest artist that performed live for two hours in front of a large audience, the highest paid young artist, the youngest artist to receive an MTV award and the youngest artist to score a #1 hit in a country (”Ghita” in Romanian Singles Chart).

5. Aelita Andre: The 2-year-old artist who showed her paintings in a famous Gallery

The abstract paintings of emerging artist Aelita Andre have people in Australia ’s art world talking.. Aelita is two (the works were painted when she was even younger).

Aelita got an opportunity to show her paintings when Mark Jamieson, the director of Brunswick Street Gallery in Melbourne ’s Fitzroy, was asked by a photographer whose work he represented to consider the work of another artist. Jamieson liked what he saw and agreed to include it in a group show.

Jamieson then started to promote the show, printing glossy invitations and placing ads in the magazines Art Almanac and Art Collector, featuring the abstract work. Only then did he discover a crucial fact about the new artist: Aelita Andre is Kalashnikova’s daughter, and was just 22 months old. Jamieson was shocked and embarrassed but decided to proceed with the exhibition anyways..

6. Saul Aaron Kripke: Invited to apply for a teaching post at Harvard while still in high school

A rabbi’s son, Saul Aaron Kripke was born in New York and grew up in Omaha in 1940. By all accounts he was a true prodigy. In the fourth grade he discovered algebra, and by the end of grammar school he had mastered geometry and calculus and taken up philosophy. While still a teenager he wrote a series of papers that eventually transformed the study of modal logic. One of them earned a letter from the math department at Harvard, which hoped he would apply for a job until he wrote back and declined, explaining, “My mother said that I should finish high school and go to college first”. After finishing high school, the college he eventually chose was Harvard.

Kripke was awarded the Schock Prize, philosophy’s equivalent of the Nobel. Nowadays, he is thought to be the world’s greatest living philosopher.

7. Michael Kevin Kearney: earned his first degree at age 10 and became a reality show Millionaire.

24 year-old Michael Kearney became known as the world’s youngest college graduate at the age of 10. In 2008, Kearney earned $1,000,000 on the television game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Kearny was born in 1984 and is was known for setting several world records and teaching college at the age of 17.

He spoke his first words at four months. At the age of six months, he said to his pediatrician “I have a left ear infection” and learned to read at the age of ten months. When Michael was four, he was given diagnostic tests for the Johns Hopkins precocious math program and achieved a perfect score. He finished high school at age 6, enrolled at Santa Rosa Junior College graduating at 10 with an Associate of Science in Geology. He is listed in the Guinness Book as the world’s youngest university graduate at the age of 10, receiving a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. For a while, he also held the record for the world’s youngest postgraduate.

But in 2006, he became worldwide famous after reaching the finals on the Mark Burnett/AOL quiz/puzzle game Gold Rush, and became the first $1 million winner in the online reality game.

8. Fabiano Luigi Caruana: a chess prodigy who became the youngest Grandmaster at age 14

Fabulous Fabiano is a 16-year-old chess Grandmaster and chess prodigy with dual citizenship of Italy and the United States .

On 2007 Caruana became a Grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 20 days – the youngest Grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United States . In the April 2009 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2649, making him the world’s highest ranked player under the age of 18.

9. Willie Mosconi: played professional Billiards at age 6

William Joseph Mosconi, nicknamed “Mr. Pocket Billiards” was a American professional pocket billiards (pool) player from Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . Willie’s father owned a pool hall where he wasn’t allowed to play, but Willie improvised by practicing with small potatoes from his mother’s kitchen and an old broomstick. His father soon realized that his son was a child prodigy began advertising challenge matches, and though Willie had to stand on a box in order to reach the table, he beat experienced players many years his senior.

In 1919, an exhibition match was arranged between six-year old Willie and the reigning World Champion, Ralph Greenleaf. The hall was packed, and though Greenleaf won that match, Willie played very well launching his career in professional billiards. In 1924, at the tender age of eleven, Willie was the juvenile straight pool champion and was regularly holding trick shot exhibitions.

Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the BCA World Championship of pool an unmatched fifteen times. Mosconi pioneered and employed numerous trick shots, set many records, and helped to popularize the game of billiards. He still holds the officially recognized straight pool high run record of 526 consecutive balls.

10. Elaina Smith: youngest agony aunt aged 7

Her local radio station gave her the job after she rang and offered advice to a woman caller who had been dumped. Elaina’s tip — go bowling with pals and drink a mug of milk — was so good she got a weekly slot and now advises thousands of adult listeners. The littler adviser tackles problems ranging from how to dump boyfriends and how to cope with relationship breakdown to dealing with smelly brothers.

When one listener wrote to Elaina asking how to get a man, she replied: “Shake your booty on the dance floor and listen to High School Musical”. Another caller asked how to get her man back, Elaina told her: “He’s not worth the heartache. Life’s too short to be upset with a boy.”

Moral of the Mail:-

Age doesn’t matter for the talent…

There are no barriers for success…

Love to Live and Live to Love…

The Five Regrets

2011-12-07T16:32:00.001+04:00

For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives.

When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.
From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realize, until they no longer have it.

2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.

This came from every male patient that I nursed. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Often they would not truly realize the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realize until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.

Killing Pakistani Soldiers

2011-12-03T10:16:00.001+04:00

The killing of 24 Pakistan army soldiers in Mohmand Tribal Agency on November 26 by US air strikes is unforgivable. I was in Mohmand three weeks ago, visiting 77 Brigade, whose officers and soldiers were slaughtered by US aircraft, and I know exactly where Pakistan’s border posts are located. And so do American forces, because they have been informed of the precise coordinates of all them.

There can be no refutation of the statement to me that “No plans of any patrols or operations being conducted [at the time of the Mohmand airstrikes] were shared [with Pakistan, by US forces].” And nobody can deny that the posts are well inside Pakistan.

Those killed in the US attack on Pakistan included Captain Usman, whose six-month-old daughter will never see him again, and Major Mujahid who was to be married shortly. Well done, you gallant warriors of the skies. May you never sleep contented.

Here is a description of what went on, from a retired army officer who visited the casualties in the Military Hospital in Peshawar:

There were 14 wounded in the surgical ward suffering a variety of wounds . . . The crux of the account of the soldiers and officers was that at about 11pm . . . a light aircraft came from across the border, flew over the post and fired flares and returned. About half an hour later armed helicopters and [other] aircraft came. They again fired flares and began firing at the men. They remained in the area for about 5-6 hours. During this time, the helicopters [were] firing at individual personnel at will . . . [and fire was returned by their single 12.7 machine gun]. Every one of the men on the post was killed or wounded. They seemed to be in no hurry and going after each individual separately. Having finished the entire post, they peaceably went back without any casualty on their part.

The US assault is unpardonable. It was one of the only too frequent Cowboy Yippee Shoots, as we used to call them in Vietnam when I served there in the Australian army. Some things don’t change.

And on the subject of flying — it is ironical that my flight from Islamabad to Paris in early November was delayed because there was so much conflicting air traffic through Afghan airspace. The West’s war in Afghanistan, which is hideously costly in lives of foreign soldiers and Afghans (not that Afghan lives matter much to the so-called ‘coalition’ forces), and fantastically lucrative for corrupt Afghan politicians and officials – and lots of western commercial enterprises – involves staggering amounts of air movement. Much of it is by combat jet and helo jockeys, as well as countless drones, maneuvered by amoral, intellectually depraved video-game players in dinky little hi-tech parlors, blasting away with rockets, bombs and bullets at little figures on their screens.

The news keeps coming of errant air strikes, like the one in Kandahar on November 24 that killed six Afghan children, who were yet more victims of the West’s precision technology. And “NATO helicopters on Monday [November 28] fired four rockets into houses in Zhari district of Kandahar, killing three women and injuring two men, said Zalmai Ayoubi, the provincial governor’s spokesman.” Concurrently the websiteicasualties.org showed the names of three more young foreign soldiers killed in this cruel shambles. The British army’s Rifleman Sheldon Steel was 20, as was US Private Jackie Diener, whose countryman Corporal Zacharie Reiff was 22 when the three of them they gave their lives for — what? There were 25 foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan in November, but there is little in the war-supporting mainstream western media about this death toll. And there is nothing about the concurrent maiming, physically and mentally, of countless young men who will never again know normality in their entire lifetimes — unlike the slavering ghouls in politics who piously intone their mantra that “we must support our troops,” in order to justify their war. What rancid humbugs. Have any of them had a son or husband die in hideous agony or suffer appalling mutilation in any of the wars they so noisily support?

The website about casualties does not of course record the names of any of the Pakistan army soldiers who were killed in Mohmand by the US air strikes in the small hours of last Saturday. The US commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, General John R Allen, said he had offered his condolences to the family of “any” Pakistani soldiers who “may have been killed or injured,” which expression of halfhearted disquiet will undoubtedly go a long way to infuriate even more citizens of Pakistan. (Where do they get people like Allen? Are they programmed to say moronic things like this?)

It is not too much to say that the author of Cables from Kabul, Sherard Cowper-Coles, the brilliant British diplomat who was ambassador in that besieged capital for three action-packed years, feels that the Afghan War is fruitless. He writes that “it is unarguable that the West got into Afghanistan in October 2001 without a clear idea either of what it was getting into or of how it was going to get out.” Cowper-Coles (we’ll call him C-C) brought extensive experience and skill to Afghanistan, and it isn’t too much to suggest that if his notions and prescriptions had been accepted the place wouldn’t be in the terminal shambles that now exists. He obviously empathized with the Afghan people, and one can imagine him, translated to a century ago, being a benign interlocutor with Emir Nasrullah Khan and arguing persuasively about the Treaty of Gandamak.

But C-C’s modern arguments were of a different sort. His intercession concerning the slaughter of ninety Afghan villagers by a US Specter gunship – a truly hellish death-machine – was instrumental in extracting the final admission by the then US commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, General McKiernan, that his troops – his army – his country – had lied. McKiernan acknowledged, after “the Americans were at first in denial”, that a US strike had killed the civilians — a “big gesture by a big man” writes C-C. And perhaps it was. But of course big gestures don’t bring back dead children to their mothers, be that in Afghanistan or the US or Pakistan or Britain or anywhere else. And the lies continue, with the Washington Post and the New York Times doing their best to spread the word, from un-named “Afghan security officials” that the slaughter of the Pakistan army soldiers on November 26 was their own fault. Here’s the Post:

After the coalition unit came under fire from the Pakistani side of the border, the troops responded by calling in an airstrike, which resulted in the Pakistani casualties, the officials said. “They did come under fire from across the border first, before reacting,” said a senior Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue . . .
One senior Afghan police official said that after an initial gunbattle, the insurgents retreated into a Pakistani post and began firing from there. “They started firing at the commandos, and they continued firing so the air support had to come to their defense,” the official said.

One wonders how C-C would have reacted to this, in his official position (probably with civilized disdain), but in 2009 he had to pay attention to the bigger picture, and when he was offered the opportunity to become his foreign minister’s Special Representative to Afghanistan, standing down from being ambassador, he accepted the poison chalice because he thought “it was a real chance to help the Obama Administration deliver the political strategy capable of bringing sustainable success.” In this he was vastly over-optimistic, even being warned by the late Richard Holbrooke that “not everyone” in the US administration saw things as did the British. C-C “pointed to the need for a process of national reconciliation to complement the military campaign” but although there may have been lip-service to that estimable objective, there was no evidence of serious application. Nor is there now, two years later.

In early November Major General Peter Fuller, the US deputy commander of Nato’s training mission in Afghanistan, was sacked for saying publicly that President Karzai was “isolated from reality” and that Afghans “don’t understand the sacrifices that America is making to provide for their security.” He had to be fired, of course, for making a fool of himself (where do they get them from?), but it is apparent that his sentiments are widely supported by the Pentagon’s decision-makers who blame everyone but themselves for the fact that their war is going catastrophically in what they insultingly call “AfPak.”

The “sacrifices that America is making” in Afghanistan, in what is ludicrously called ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’, are entirely self-inflicted. But Pakistan’s sacrifices are inflicted by America, which is losing yet another war and again blames another country for its failure. Just like it did in the disasters in Vietnam and Somalia and Iraq.

In the past fifty years, what nation has trusted America and come out of the deal with dignity, honor and prosperity? Pakistan is far from a perfect country. Its government is corrupt and appallingly inefficient. But it could do without Washington’s imperial insolence. At the moment Islamabad is desperate to find some means of registering the country’s contempt and loathing for the United States, and there are very few options available to it. But it could reflect on what Washington’s retaliation would have been if Pakistani aircraft had gone on a yippee shoot and killed 24 American soldiers inside Afghanistan.

Brian Cloughley’s website is www.beecluff.com

Dono ko aa saki na nibhaani muhabbatien !!!

2011-11-12T04:00:00.002+04:00

Lyrics

Dono ko aa Saki na nibhani mohabtain....

ab parh rahi hayn hamko bhulani mohabtain....

kin kin rifaaqaton k diye wastay mager...

usko na yaad ain purani mohabtain...

guzri ruton k zakhm bhi ab tak bharay nahi...

phir or kia kisi say barhani mohabtain...

hamnay to karvaton m javani guzaar di....

hasrat say bazm-e-ghair ka dar dekhtay rahay...

vo junbash-e-nikaab ka manzar na poochiye..

kia dekhna tha apna jigar dekhtay rahay...

sab sir basr faraib hy.. kia in ka hay aitbaar...

yeh piyar, husn-o-ishq, javani mohabtain...

janay vo aaj konsay rsstay say ai gher...

her aik fankaar.. mukader apna apnay saath laya hay...

mohabat ka janun tanha meray hisay m aya hay..

mohabat ibtidaa meri...

mohabat intehaa meri...

mohabat say ibarat hay...

bakaa meri...fana meri..

mohabat arzoo meri...

mohabat jstaju meri...

mohabat khamoshi meri...

mohabat guftagu meri...

mohabat meri taqat...

mohabat meri javani hay...

mohabat na ho ager....

veeraan meri zindgaani hay...

janay vo aaj konsay rastay say ai gher...

her mor her gali pe bichani mohabatain...

ab parh rhi hayn hamko bhulani mohbatain...

yaa dil ki halatoo ka biyan sab k samnay..

na pooch kesay guzrti hay zindgi ay dost..

bari taveel kahani hay phir kabi ay dsot..

siyah naseeb b na mujsa ho zamany may..

teray baghair guzarti hay chandni ay dost...

yaa dil ki halatoo ka biyan sab k samnay..

ya apnay aap say bhi chupani mohabatain..

ab parh rhi hyn ham ko bhulani mohabatain...

10 Questions to Ask Your Wedding Photographer and 2 More to Ask Yourself

2011-10-29T11:32:00.001+04:00

What Your Wedding Photographer Should Tell You Before You Sign a Contract

By Nina Callaway

Before you can hire a wedding photographer, you need to know if their style of taking pictures works with what you envision for your wedding.

Here are some important questions to ask any wedding photographer:

What’s your primary style? Posed and formal, relaxed, photojournalistic, creative, artistic, candid, traditional?

Do you shoot in color or black and white? Or both? Do you shoot in a digital format that can create both color and b/w versions of the same picture?

What kind of input can we have on the direction of the shots? Can we give you a shot list to work from?

Are you the wedding photographer who will actually take our pictures? If not, can we meet the person who will be?

Can we meet any assistants who will also be our taking pictures?

How many times have you worked specifically as a wedding photographer? How many were similar to the size and formality of our wedding?

How many other events will you also photograph that weekend?

What kind of equipment will you bring with you? How intrusive will lighting, tripods, other equipment or assistants be?

Do you develop your own film?

Can we buy the negatives from you?

After you’ve asked these questions of your potential wedding photographer, there are several questions you’ll want to ask yourself:

Do I like this person? Do I get along with them or get a good feeling from them?

Do I like their work as a wedding photographer? Is it well lit, focused, well framed? Looking at their books, do I feel like I have a good feeling for the wedding?

Don’t forget to call their references. While it may feel a bit awkward to call a stranger, it can be invaluable to have an outside opinion on a potential wedding photographer.

Remember, your photographs will be one of the most lasting aspects of your wedding – you’ll want to make sure you find the right wedding photographer for you.

What MEN think about ....

2011-10-15T21:18:00.000+04:00

Do men think about sex every seven seconds? New research says not, so we asked a bloke to tell us what really goes on in male minds…

If I thought about sex as much as people think I thought about sex, it would take me a month to write this article.

That's not because people see me as sex mad, it's just because I'm a man. According to common perception, men think about sex pretty much all the time.

In fact, the figure usually bandied about is one sex thought every seven seconds. Let's spend a moment taking that in. That's 8,000 sex thoughts a day, or 240,000 in the average month. Where on earth does all the football fit in?

Thankfully, psychologist Terri Fisher has done some research on this very subject, and it turns out that men don't think about sex anywhere near as often as that. So what are we thinking about on all those occasions when we're staring blankly into the middle distance and failing to even acknowledge your presence?

Here are a few clues...

Sex
OK, I'll fess up. The research found that we don't think about sex every seven seconds - because that would be almost as often as we breathe - but that we do think about sex quite a lot. Among the 18-25-year-old men in Fisher's survey, sex popped into their minds about once an hour, or around 19 times a day in total (sex dreams obviously didn't count).

I can live with that. I probably do think about sex once an hour. But before you call me an outrageous nymphomaniac, consider this. You're not that far behind. According to the study, women tend to think about sex every other hour, or around nine or ten times a day.

Sleep
The Fisher study also found that - although men think about sex quite a lot - we think about sleep just as often.

Again, that works for me. In fact, as the father of very young children, I think about sleep pretty much all the time, and often during sex. There's no doubt that men's thoughts are often in the bedroom, but as often as not, we're fantasising about a long, hot session of satisfying shut-eye.

Food
Also tied for top spot in the 'what men think about' stakes was food, according to Fisher's study. Yes, we think about food at least as much as we think about sex and sleep.

There's a simple reason for that, experts say. There are more triggers for food-based thoughts than there are for pretty much anything else. So the cute girl in accounts might trigger sex thoughts when she wriggles through the office, but everything from the guy in the next cubicle munching on crisps to the smell coming from the works canteen to an advert in the paper for Pot Noodle (we're easily pleased) can trigger thoughts about food.

So you might think we're sex starved, but in reality we're often just starved.

Work
We spend at least eight hours a day at work. Quite often, because men are career driven, we'll add on a couple of hours overtime to impress the boss. Sometimes we'll take work home with us at weekends and occasionally we'll barely have a weekend at all. When we're not actually doing all this work, we're thinking that surely all this work deserves a promotion or a pay rise or at least the keys to the executive toilets.

So yes, when you ask us how our day was and we respond with silence and the thousand-yard stare of a brain-addled Vietnam vet, we're probably thinking about work.

Sport
A study published a couple of years ago told you what you probably already knew: men are obsessed with sport.

And I mean, really obsessed. According to the research, 17% of British men admitted to regularly thinking about sport when they're having sex, while 23% said they'd stood up a date to watch a match. We also think about sport every hour, which puts it up there with sex in our minds.

If we play sport too we think about it even more. And you can see why. In many ways sport is like sex, in that it usually happens a couple of times a week and is sometimes ecstatically good but often a great big letdown.

(Unlike sex, of course, we tend to stick with one team for life.)

Man stuff
Sorry to admit it, but if we're not thinking about sport, we may well be thinking about other clichéd man stuff. Depending on the man, that can mean cars, power tools, music, trains, trainers, bikes or beer.

It's true. Again, well, sorry.

Money
You come home, flash us your cheekiest smile and disappear into the bedroom. Two minutes later, you come out wearing the cutest, shortest, most take-offable new dress we've ever seen. At that moment you're convinced our minds are focused on sex, and you're half right.

And half wrong. Because we're also wondering how much this drop-dead dress may have cost, whether you're about to blow your credit card limit again, and if you'll have enough left over to cover your half of the rent. Yep, we think about money a lot, even at the most inopportune times.

Love and family
Yep, you read that right. It may surprise you to learn that when we're looking moodily at the stars on the way home from the pub we're not (always) wondering what time the kebab shop closes. We might be thinking about love and children and all that cheesy stuff.

We won't admit it to you - that would be unmanly. But a survey for match.com earlier this year of 5,000 singles found that men were quicker to fall in love than women and quicker to start thinking about children. Men were also more likely to fall in love at first sight.

So when we're being mean and moody we're not necessarily brooding over the hammering our football team has just taken. We might be wondering why you're not more romantic. So go on, give us a cuddle.

Our iPhones or BlackBerries
Studies have shown that checking emails on smart phones, tablets and laptops can be addictive, and that men are often more tethered to their electronic devices than women (though many women are too).

Which means that when we're pensively pacing the room apparently lost in deep and meaningful thought, we're really waiting for the little beep or ping that signals the arrival of a text, instant message or email, so we can feed our habit and get our fix of (probably trivial) electronic information.

You
We might not be thinking about sex, but we might still be thinking about you. It might not always be obvious, but you really are in the forefront of our thoughts much of the time. You might not believe it but we really do like doing things that please you and that keep our relationship strong and happy.

So we might not be blankly staring into space, we might be thinking about what we can do together this weekend, or planning your birthday surprise, or worrying about that bother you had with your boss (and secretly fantasising about punching him).

Quite often we just want to impress you, and we spend quite a lot of time thinking of ways to do it.

Soppy I know, but that's men for you.

Golf in Pakistan: A Well-Kept Secret

2011-05-15T16:19:00.001+04:00

Posted on February 15, 2010

Pakistan is the most well kept secret golfing destination as it has some of the most spectacular courses that are open year round. The alluvial soil of the Punjab plains coupled with the Himalayan backdrop provides a natural ecosystem for an interesting golf course layout. Pakistanis are also naturally talented as golfers as they on the average tend to have very good fine motor control and an Asian mindset that marries competitiveness with a balanced inner calm. The fine motor control and good hand eye coordination has been shown by Pakistani athletes in the fields of squash, field hockey, cricket(yikes) and badminton.

Golf came to Pakistan generally as a result of foreign presence. My first experience on a golf course was at the Peshawar golf course that was built on a dried lake bed. The first nine holes are one of the greenest in Pakistan. Pakistan Air Force Commanders got the golf bug and provided the support to make golf one of the sports they adopted along with squash. My parents got into the game at Risalpur Air Force Base in the early 60s. An old World War II base was converted into a the golf course. The runway became the fairway for a couple of holes. The old air traffic control tower was converted into the club house.

Pakistani golf courses tend to have indigenous grass that is is quite hardy and can withstand hot temperatures. The blades tend to grow horizontally and donâ€™t need much of watering. Most of the courses are only sparsely watered, and as a result have a harder surface when compared to those in the US. As a result of grass type and limited watering,Â the golf swing that works is a shallower one that does not require a divot. Picking the ball clean and letting it run after it drops is the typical way most Pakistanis learn to play.

Trapping the ball is a challenge due to the harder surface and therefore difficult to spin the ball. The greens tend to be well maintained but are generally slower than those in the US. Most Pakistani golf courses are private and tend to fall into three categories.

First category are the old golf courses like Rawal Pindi, Lahore Gymkhana, Peshawar Golf Course, Islamabad Golf Course etc. They are generally well maintained and have old trees and a lot of character. The Rawal Pindi Golf course is the oldest golf course. It was completed in 1926. The facility was initially developed as a nine-hole course. After several phases of development, it is now a 27-hole course. The clubhouse is perched on a hill, from where there is a panoramic view of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The foothills of Himalayas provide the backdrop.
The second category are courses maintained by Pakistani Armed Forces and government entities like Railways etc. They tend to be relatively new and not open to general membership. Their quality varies from place to place. If you can get in , the cost of playing is minimal. The third category are the premier golf courses like Royal Palm in Lahore and Arabian Sea Country Club in Karachi. They are world class courses that have manicured fairways and greens; and are from a Pakistani perspective quite costly to join and play. Pakistan Open joined the Asian PGA tour at Arabian Sea Course in 2006.
Then there are some golf courses in exotic places like Bhurban in the Himalayas. It is a nine hole course adjacent to a luxury hotel situated in and around a saddle hill between to mountains. One par three hole that requires extreme focus as the there is a deep ravine between the tee and the green with swirling winds.

On the average Pakistanis tend to play regularly. The caddies are common, as they are inexpensive to get. Not many courses have golf carts. This actually results in less wear and tear of the fairways given the heavy use they get,Â even though most are private courses. Many of the caddies are scratch players and can guide visitors like me about the local conditions. In many courses there are even â€œagay walaasâ€.Â They are the ball boys walking ahead to keep an eye on an errant ball.

There are many reasons inhibiting Pakistani players from reaching the top in world golf:

There are no structured and quality golf schools.
Because most courses are private, the cost of joining is prohibitive from the Pakistani perspective.
Those who can overcome these hurdles are mostly constrained to playing in conditions that are relatively tame from the world standard.
The length of the courses tend to be on the shorter side.
The Himalayas create such barrier to winds that the South Asian sub continent does not have windy playing conditions that are common elsewhere.
The golf courses tend not to have elevation changes of contoured fairways with sloping lies,Â as that would be difficult to irrigate and maintain in the hot season.
These relatively tame conditions donâ€™t challenge Pakistani players to prepare for much tougher conditions when they go abroad.

To get a feel for whatÂ comparable golf outings would cost in Pakistan and US, let us compare Rawal Pindi Golf Club and Royal Palm of Lahore with Stow Acres North Course in Massachusetts USA:

At the semi-private Rawalpindi Golf Club the Green Fees are the equivalent of US$4 and the Caddy Fee is US$3.
At the private Royal Palm in Lahore, the Green Fees are US$25 (as guest) and Caddy Fee is US$3.
At the public Stow Acres in USA the Green Fees are US$60 and the Cart Fee is US$18.

As it turns out Pakistani industry produces many golf supplies leveraging their textile and leather base.Â Pakistani T-shirts, caps, towels, trousers, gloves, bags and head covers are sold world wide under different brand names.

The number of golf courses are on the increase with the increasing middle class. Most of the new golf courses are being built with the higher end housing developments. There needs to be a concerted effort to create public courses, as this would allow the public to play golf. This would provide a healthy outlet where not many currently exist. Golf has now also been included in Olympics and offers amateurs a chance for fame and fortune.

Imran H. Khan is an avid golfer and blogs at Planet Earth.

The Pakistan Osama bin Laden Never Knew

2011-05-15T16:18:00.001+04:00

The place where Osama bin Laden last walked, the hill station of Abbottabad, is also the Gateway to the Silk Route, the ancient trade path to China through the Karakoram Mountains, the deadliest chain of peaks in the world. Due north of Abbottabad runs the deadliest river in the world, running through a cave-pocked canyon: the Indus River.

The Indus rises from a holy peak called Kailas, a symmetrical mountain of quartz and ice in the high plateau of western Tibet. It is cited as the source of wisdom, and as it spills from the jaws of its glacier, it is called the Lion River.

As it leaves Tibet and the rarefied realm where belief overpowers fact, the Indus slices like the blade of a sickle between the Himalayas and the Karakorams, passing into India in the region known as Little Tibet, Ladakh. There it is joined by tributaries from the top of the world, gathering force as it drops 12,000 feet in 350 miles, crossing the northern provinces of India into Pakistan and joining with the Gilgit from the north. The redoubled flow twists through deep canyons to the base of Nanga Parbat, the world's eighth-highest peak; then the Lion finally breaks free of its mountain domain and winds and wanders across the plains of Pakistan, across the Sindh desert, finally depositing its load of silt and glacial dust into the Arabian Sea from its broad delta near Karachi.

Cutting through Tibet, India and Pakistan, slaking the thirst of three major religions -- Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam -- the Lion River has also tempted the explorer's hunger with its promised feast of firsts. Several score have died on the slopes of Nanga Parbat, the 26,660-foot peak that marks the Indus's midpoint. The peak is draped like a coffin with the sobriquet, The Killer Mountain. And the currents of the Indus itself have carried many to the farthest shore.

Early in July 1956 a strange crew converged on the banks of the Indus some 30 miles north of Skardu in the contested Baltistan region, claimed by both India and Pakistan since partition in 1947. One was Lowell Thomas, the journalist and broadcaster; he was with several of his skiing buddies -- two actors and television director Otto Lang. Their reason for being there was a new film technology called Cinerama, which they hoped to boost with a full-length drama, showcasing its best qualities. A short Cinerama production, a roller-coaster ride, had already created quite a stir among audiences who viewed its huge, wrap-around screen and lifelike resolution made possible by its three-lens camera system. Thomas's planned film, Search for Paradise, was to be about two newly retired air force pilots who search the top of the world for a personal Shangri-La, only to return to the States when they discover at last "there's no place like home." The thin plot was an excuse to film some of the most extraordinary scenery on the planet, including a rousing finish with the first-ever raft trip down the Indus.

To run the two inflatable boats for the film, Thomas enlisted the father-son team of Bus and Don Hatch, experts in the whitewater rivers of the western United States. Bus, at 56, was something of a pioneer in river running, having taken commercial passengers floating as far back as 1929, and having made a number of historic first descents in Utah, Colorado and Idaho. His 27-year- old son was brought up in the family tradition, and it was said he could row before he could walk. They were probably the best river rats around at the time; even so, nothing had prepared them for the power and the treachery of the Indus.

They brought with them two rafts: a 27-foot pontoon bridge of the type used on the Colorado, controlled by two Johnson outboard motors mounted on a rear transom, complemented by three sets of oars; and a small assault raft, 16-feet long, manned by a single oarsman. Their first run was a trial, without cameras. Otto Lang, the Hatches, and a crew of four put on the Indus some 30 miles above Skardu and immediately were swept away by the overwhelming current. The Indus was running close to its peak, nearly 100,000 cubic feet per second (by comparison, the Colorado through the Grand Canyon runs about 10,000 cfs). Haystack waves towered as high as the pontoon raft was long. After covering 30 miles in four hours, including an enormous rapid squeezed deep between the walls of the gorge where a portage was impossible, the crew drifted into Skardu, the first to raft any portion of the Lion River.

The thrills notwithstanding, Lang and his crew decided that this stretch was too violent to risk the project's expensive cameras for extended shooting. The operation was moved to the Gilgit River, a major tributary from the north, about 100 miles downstream of Skardu. A comparatively gentle run, with just a fraction of the volume of the Indus, the Gilgit also afforded views of Nanga Parbat wheeling in the background of river shots.

For several days the crew negotiated the Gilgit without mishap, encountering heavy but runnable (and filmable) rapids. The only problems were from the monsoon's clouds, squalls, sandstorms and flash floods. The Gilgit met with the Indus, and the filming drew to a close on July 20. On the final run, before wrapping the production, Jimmy Parker -- one of Lowell Thomas's friends, playing a pilot in the picture -- decided to try the raft for the first time. There were only seven life jackets on the expedition; Jimmy was the eighth person on the water that day.

They pushed off and almost at once came to the first rapid. Don Hatch led the way in the small assault boat, sliding down the tongue and riding into the standing waves of the turbulence below. As the pontoon followed, one of its outboard motors died. Bus couldn't get it started again and lost control as the huge raft slid sideways into a hole. The craft was tossed up and over, capsizing 90 seconds after leaving shore.

Six swimmers struggled to shore through the mad glacial waters. Don Hatch rowed to an outcrop in the smaller raft, having barely taken in any water. The eighth man was missing. The soaked crew ran along the edge of the surging river yelling, searching, looking. A reward of 1,000 rupees was posted for any trace of the lost rafter. It was never collected. Jimmy Parker's body was lost forever in a region some have called paradise.

At the foot of Nanga Parbat, the Rakhiot Bridge crosses the Indus. Carved into one of its stone columns are names of climbers who lost lives trying to conquer The Killer Mountain. Now the traveler crossing the bridge finds not only the names of climbers, but that of Jimmy Parker, first rafting victim of the Indus.

I began working for Hatch River Expeditions as a river guide on the Colorado. I was nineteen. Bus Hatch had died a couple years earlier, and now Don and Ted, his two sons, ran the business. Sometimes late at night, with campfire shadows dancing on the canyon wall, talk would turn to Don's Indus expedition. None of the guides knew the full story, just tidbits dropped by Don at the office, the bar or the put-in. He didn't talk much about it, but enough for the stuff of a legend. "I'd give my right oar to row the Indus," a guide once told me. And whenever I'd screw up a rapid, break a frame, wash a passenger overboard or simply scare myself with a close call, I'd think of the Indus. This is nothing, I'd say to myself. Don ran the Indus -- ten times the size of the Colorado, three times the speed and cold as winter.

Such it is I find myself in Pakistan with nine companions, ready to retrace Lowell Thomas's expedition and do what he had not done: connect the line between Skardu and the Gilgit confluence by rafting the Indus.

It is the first week of October, and besides my friends we are joined by Captain Sohail Iqbal of the Pakistan army, on assignment as chaperon in this politically delicate region. The Indians hold that their border extends north to the Hindu Kush range; the Pakistanis feel the northwest frontier is theirs. We take off from Rawalpindi, flying over Abbottabad towards Skardu. Looking up I see the underbelly of great grey frigate clouds, and higher still, a sky nearly black, pulling into nothingness. Moving out over the plateau, the land spreads in shelves, in ripples, in straggling eaves. The road looks like an infected scratch across the weathered skin of the plateau, curvilinear in some places, sharply angled in others.

Upon landing we are met by a landscape wild beyond the ken. A great oval basin, 7500 feet above sea level, some 20 miles long and eight miles wide, the Indus Valley here is enclosed by mountain ridges and peaks that soar up to 17,000 feet. The air is thin and crisp, and the details of shapes and colors, even at long distances, show dazzlingly clear. The valley is carpeted in fine, pale sand, gray as tarnished silver, patched occasionally with ochre, lemon and purple. In the middle distance, across the broad valley, the Indus snakes lazily between wind-ribbed dunes. Over millions of years the river has progressively cut its way into the rock, and the cliffs that now wall the valley are ledged and terraced at different heights by the old beds of the river. Farther back, the dry and bony mountains rise to their saw-toothed crests, intricately folded and overlapping. At the two ends of the basin, where they converge, it seems impossible that even a great and ancient river could force a passage through.

It is a landscape that could have been created only by earth forces at their most influential, and the entire welt of mountains that defines the north of Pakistan -- the Karakorams -- is indeed the product of a phenomenal series of events. It dates back to Gondwanaland, the semi-mythical "first continent," whose outlines were long discernible only to the imaginative who perceived in Africa's west coast and South America's east a near fit. Imagination gave rise to investigation, and investigation showed odd parallels between the rock, the history of the land, even the life forms on these opposite shores.

With the recent science of plate tectonics, this impossible supposition has been confirmed: most of the land masses on earth were once joined in a solid hunk of matter, floating on a primordial soup. Over the eons Gondwanaland has been split and bits and pieces borne away along the convection currents of the molten mantle, separating into today's continents. The Karakorams were created -- are still being created -- by the collision of the Central Asian plate with the Indian plate, which was once tucked against the east coast of Africa. Along the front of collision, the crust has uplifted and folded and thrust and folded again into a mountain range over 1500 miles long and, at its roof, 5 miles high.

An ancient camel trail runs from Skardu to Gol, where the Hatch party began its first descent. A police jeep escorts us up the winding road to the put-in. Precipitous cliffs of somber rock, ancient metamorphic seabeds and long-frozen lava towers over the milky flow of the river and over us come to challenge it.

In the shadows we unload the two Avon rafts that will be home, hospital, diner and means of conveyance for the next three weeks. I slip down to the river's edge and dip my hand in the dark water, as Don Hatch had done on his arrival. It stings with the cold, though the air temperature is in the eighties. Captain Sohail Iqbal recounts that local lore tells of a bare-headed man who once stretched his legs into the water after a long overland trek and fell asleep in the sun. When he awoke, he found he was suffering from both heatstroke and frostbite simultaneously.

Since it is after the summer monsoons, the water is at a medium low level and dropping, whereas Hatch and crew arrived at the river's peak flow in July. We estimate the flow to be about 20,000 cubic feet per second. Beneath a wall of pictographs, depicting ibex and Buddhist temples, we make camp. I drift into sleep with the Indus softly calling at my feet.

The day dawns diamond clear. The boats are rigged, loaded, and launched with little fanfare beneath the curious, silent gaze of a score of Islamic villagers -- all men and boys. Almost at once the judgment of Don Hatch that the Indus was a river of deception rings true. Veteran oarsman Jim Slade steers the lead raft into what appears to be a moderate rapid, but the raft and crew are grabbed by a hidden hole and shaken like ice in a martini mixer. The Lion River growls its warning.

Slowly rolling through the big waves and hydraulics, our party makes its way down the gorge toward the huge cataract above Skardu, the point at which the Hatch party had been persuaded to move filming to a less dangerous tributary. With the lower water it doesn't look like the monster Hatch had described, and so I slide in with some semblance of confidence, sneaking down the left side, bumping between exposed boulders that would have been dangerous heads of holes in high water. Slade's run is also clean, and so, reassured by success, we set up camp just downstream.

Evening brings a villager floating down the river, on a craft more easily portaged around the big drops of the canyon. His is fashioned from six inflated goatskins, tied together with legs upright and supported by a framework of sticks. Using a pole rather than oars, he carries a cargo of fruits and vegetables downstream to the market at Skardu. The goatskins leaked, but to re- inflate a sagging portion of the vessel, he merely blew down the upright legs. After we trade rides on the two far-distant generations of inflatables, he floats off in the sunset towards Skardu.

In the sweet liquid light of the Pakistani morning, we push off and enter the natural amphitheater of Skardu, passing the first major tributary along the route, the Shigar River, which drains the Chogo Lungma and Biafo Gyang glaciers to the north. The Shigar increases the flow of the Indus by a third, and the current speeds past Skardu to the second night's camp at the Askandria Fort. Its origins are lost in history, but at least it is at least four centuries old; some say even older, dating from the time of Alexander the Great, whose easternmost thrust brought him to this region in the fourth century B.C. Standing on a narrow mesa 1000 feet above the Indus, the fort overlooks the entire Skardu basin, and has afforded an enviable security for its occupants -- whether rajas, Sikhs or Muslims, during the conflicts between India and Pakistan in just the past few decades.

Jagged peaks block the sun, filtering the slanting morning light as though in a cathedral. We depart the sanctuary of Skardu's valley and ride the current downstream into the gorge. At first, the rapids are runnable, though enormous in power and complex in design. By the start of the second day in the gorge, life gets hard.

The rapids become littered with huge boulders, which the water twists off, over and around to create enormous hydraulics and holes, some deadly. Portaging is the only course for some passages, an exercise anathema to river runners, a depressing tug on the leash by reality's grim hand. The portages increase in frequency and difficulty as we lurch downstream. Two crew members break toes in the carry-rounds.

Sheikh Imran Hosein - Beyond 9/11

2011-03-27T00:01:00.001+04:00

Lecture, given by Sheikh Imran Hosein.

Its topic is about "Beyond September 11th and What the future holds for Muslims".

It's very important for Muslim Ummah to understand current crises in Arab world. Very good lecture by Maulana Imran about current crises in the light of Quran and Sunnah.

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0pWn8CkASU