The memon chronicles – origins

When one goes through the annals of Indian history, there is often mention of a particular ethnic group of sailor merchants, or memons. Rich in entrepreneurs and aggressive,  this community started branching out across the world as far back as the 1800’s when they established firms foot holds in Burma, Srilanka, Far east as well…

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Jaag mere talib – e – ilm protest in karachi

Oct 24th Saturday saw us, me and Dr Awab that is standing in front of a pleasant surprise. A small throng of students in front of the press club with banners, megaphones et all denouncing the Taliban with passion. They had a press release they were organized and they came from 4 different colleges and…

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Is there no hope?

It gets harder and harder to write everyday. So bizarre is the scenario in Pakistan that the news feed  jacked into my mind is full of people exploding at different places, human bombs strike us every day, killing all around them in their suicides.  Every single day brings reports of suicide bombings in different cities…

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Laidback Show Episode 4 – @skdev tribute

Show notes Cricket fiasco,  Pak captain accused of match fixing announces retirement Whats the point of a parliamentary oversight committee on cricket LBS covers Telenor “Easy paisa” launch with 14 different bloggers, reviewed by Faisal Qureshi, Farhan Masood, Arif sahab (telenor rep) Salman mehmood’s sad demise and our feelings for him and his family The…

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Opinion flaws

The talk of the town these days is suicide bombings being undertaken by what the media claims are Islamic Zealots and Fanatics. What is perhaps very interesting to note is that the garb of Islamism over the past few decades of our country’s existence has been worn by all sorts of people ranging from fundos…

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Khuda ki basti

In my travels around this world, I have come across some cities with really funny names for areas, and even themselves and their towns. For example I have had the unfortunate pleasure of witnessing a town called, Shamrock in Texas because of the single structure in it, the diamond shamrock gas station. However Karachi or…

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Telenor “Easypaisa” launch, Sneak Peak!

The telecommunication sector in Pakistan has been heating up with the introduction of new players in the market.  Gone are the days when maybe link ruled and fooled us to the tune of exorbitant rates and low service. Instead carriers like Telenor are launching newer and more convenience based products coupled with reasonable rates guaranteed…

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Keep that trophy

Everyone knows south Asians love cricket, they live it they breathe it and all that other cliche stuff. What is not cliche however is when Pakistan and India play a cricket match. Far from it, its not even a match by my qualifications, its some sort of quasi mental war which both countries populace goes…

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The Laidback Show Episode 3

The third edition of The Laidback Show – UpShorts, by Faisal Kapadia and Awab Alvi. Enjoy the discussion but would love some feedback on how we can improve this casual discussion podcast Show Notes after the jump Cricket debacle, Champions trophy ‘09, Pak vs New zeland semi final, India’s badua Meeting FQ, his down to…

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U.K visa farce

Its not that we have a problem with standing in queue or waiting for a few days to get any sort of visa on our “green passports” since we are used to being humiliated for a short while anyways. That much is to be expected from our old Masters. However even we the great brown…

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