Just checked Federer’s website and came to know that Roger Federer and Mirka Vavrinec have been blessed with twin daughters named Charlene Riva and Myla Rose last night i.e 23rd of July, 2009 at klinik Bethanien, Zurich. With so much speculations that a boy is on the way, it’s surprising that they kept it all quiet for so long:)
Congratulations to both the parents 
Sources: Federer Website, Federer’s Facebook page
Last week, my father had a surgery at PECHS Trauma Center and alhamdulilah say he’s in recovering phase these days. The surgeon who has supposed to be performing the surgery also has clinic at Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), so when he said the surgery is necessary we assumed he’ll be conducting that over there. Just two days before the surgery, he told us that the surgery will be performed at PECHS Trauma Center. We all were appalled by it because in that week, a case relating to negligence in performing the medical duties at the hospital was doing the rounds in media. An inquiry committee had been setup to probe and report about the incident.
The doctor wasn’t ready to change the place and we all thought it was because of two reasons
a) Since he was associated with the hospital he wanted to bring them business in those hard time to show there’s nothing wrong with it
b) His share of money is more then his share at better/luxurious hospitals like AKU and South City.
The following is just a narration of what I observed and witnessed over there in the week he stayed over there.
The day of the surgery, after local anesthesia affect was wearing off, daddy started feeling discomfort and it was showing on his face and his body movements that he was in pain. My mother called the nurse on duty and reported that he’s in pain and can he be seen and give any medicine? When the nurse came and asked daddy what was he feeling, the words he used were ‘anxiety’, ‘discomfort’, ‘itching’. As soon as she had heard his sentences, she in literal sense started talking loudly (shouting?) at all of us attendants and my relatives who have come to visit. The gist of her conversation was
“Uncle tu keh rahe hain unhe koi pain nahi ho raha. Aur bhi hospitals mein ghaltian hote hain. Staff members kee wajah say he loog sahih ho kar jate hain. Agar aik nay ghalti kardee tu is mein hamara kia qasroor. Hum tu apne duty kar rahe hai na. Yeh tu keh rahe hain unhe koi pain nhao horaha tu phir aap loog kion keh rahe hain inhe pain hai?”
Translation: According to uncle, he is not in any pain. Just because a mistake by a staff member please don’t act as if we are not doing our duty.
I am not sure if the word trauma in the name is taken literally by the hospital staff. Because the nurse yelling was totally uncalled for and nobody had said even a word about their care and service. We just watched her drama after she left I commented “God, why is everyone in such a defensive mood?” One of my paternal uncles who was there asked what had just happened as he had no idea about the cases.
After her episode, my elder brother decided that since my younger brother was to meet the surgeon at that time we should call him and tell him to ask the doctor for advice and confirm if the pain and these symptoms occur after the surgery. The surgeon must have then called the hospital and the doctor on duty arrived. He complained that he was coming and why had we called the doctor? Then we had to pacify him as well that we didn’t have dr no and my brother was there because he had asked him to come in the evening and will you guys please check the patient instead of being annoyed?
Apart from this, I noticed that the staff on duty had to be called at least twice before they would come to grace us with their presence. Also, some of them were pretty lazy or irresponsible in performing their duties. For example, they would have to be called for taking B.P. or they need to be reminded that since he has taken XYZ pill within the last 12 hours and so he can’t take another one as yet. Or when a nurse would change the drip, she would left it leaking or forget to do inject it correctly.
Apart from the medical staff care, the hospital was being extended and the construction was going right outside our window. There was to much noise and the cherry on top was that the workers kept shouting to be heard over the noise. I am not sure if there are laws regarding hospital construction in the active area but I would suggest that they are made and followed to minimize the commotion levels near hospitals. Because it’s very annoying and not all beneficial for the patients to be in contact with so much noise pollution when they are recuperating.
And one another shocking news is that anybody could just waltz into the Operation theatre and ICU without any identification and proper attire. One day, I saw a lady just walk into the place and during that her phone started ringing with a very loud song. One of the guys from the OT did come out and scolded her for being there and letting her phone ring right next to ICU but without proper control at the door, anybody can do as they please.
This is not to say that all the hospital staff and doctors were difficult or tardy. And I don’t have any other experiences at hospitals so I can’t compare the level of service. The plus point for the hospital was that it was clean and the room was good enough. Apart from the details mentioned above, the others staff and doctors were warm and considerate. However, the conclusion I can draw from the whole experience is that you literally had to be on your toes and keep your wits about while dealing with them. Because their single mistake can wreak havoc.
Aisam ul Haque, Tennis Player from Pakistan
Aisam ul Haque Qurieshi, Pakistan tennis star won the opening round of his doubles match with Parkash Amritraj of India at Wimbledon. They won in a 5-set match after managing to beat 16-seeded Stephen Huss (Australia) and Ross Hutchins (Germany). Both of them has played in Grand Slams events before but have never progressed to a much higher round. They will be playing their second round doubles match today against Rameez Junaid of Australia and Philip Marx of Germany. Rameez has only played once in a Grand Slams double event and he went out of the first round from Australian Open in 2006 whereas this is the first time Philip is playing at a Grand Slams tournament.
I hope they win it and go a long way this time. And also that Aisam gets recognition and media attention too because I believe that Pakistan presence is such prestigious event is an honor for us.
Your heat races as the bowler covers the ground. You have a funny feeling in the pit of your stomach because the results can go either way. You cheer every run made by your team; groan when they miss and scream with joy when they hit a boundary. You feel depressed when your team player wicket falls but you rejoice when the opposition wicket falls on an amazing delivery. You pace around, keep standing and sitting when a match goes into a critical, tension filled phase. You want your team players to have the best records in the tournament. You keep commenting throughout the match how to play and how to set the field:). And you feel heavenly when your team wins.
If you identify with any of these symptoms, you are a die-hard cricket fan. And this is what our whole nation went through last week, even the ones that don’t know much about cricket. It was one good thing that united us apart from all the adversities that test the strength of our nation and make us act unified. A lot of preparation went in to avoid load shedding during the final, having screens installed at parks so that people can watch together and yes the tweeting too. It was truly exhilarating when we won after playing mashAllah say very well and were crowned T20 champions. Credit really go to the boys specially Younis for his cool captaincy, Afridi for his brilliant performance with bat and ball along with an excellent catch and energy filled presence on ground, Gul for his out of the world bowling, Amir for not giving into pressure and Razzaq for keep it consistent. Besides them, everyone pitched in their best too. Going forward, I hope we keep the performance consistent and eliminate the unpredictability factor from our team.
Pakistan team celebrating after being crowned T20 champions
After the final, Afridi dope test was taken which I believe was a targeted move and very belittling act. And in the end, I can’t help myself but rubbing the following in. India, the defending champions, who played IPL should have on top of their T20 match skills but alas they couldn’t win any of their super eight match 
Venue: Entertainment area, Basement
Time: any time during the second half
Duration: 20-30 minutes
Participants: Em, Auby, Lubz and I
Purpose: Foosball match!
We have been following this pattern for at least half a month without even realizing our (I am definitely in our part) addiction. It would start when one of us wouldn’t be in the mood to work (are we, ever? 
) and message each other on Vypress about everyone’s free time to schedule a time for playing. The amazing fun part is that no matter how busy anyone would be, he/she would take the time out or finish it in a matters of minutes (due to adrenaline rush ) to engage in our daily indulgence. We had gotten so involved in it that once I even created a private chat room for the four of us on Vypress so that we can group chat and reach a decision about the time.
With lubz playing as an attacker and I on the defense we would take on Em-Auby duo, and they would change positions depending on the game situation. We tried changing our roles too but it didn’t work out (8 players were too many for me to handle!). I have to admit we lose (by close margin) more matches then we win but all the matches are highly enjoyable. And playing mixed doubles is amusing too because your own tactics gets used against you! It’s the only time in the day when I laugh my heads off on Em’s jokes about pathans, on my own stupid mistakes when I am unable to stop a goal or when Em or Auby scores a goal for us:).
It’s been a total pleasure learning and playing foosballs! And day by day, we are getting better and sooner we’ll be able to beat the guys more then they beat us at it;)
P.S. Em came up with the creative acronym ‘f4f – Free for foosballs’ to save time on our chats for play time scheduling!
It’s been a few days since I’ve been waiting for a sign. Sometimes, not understanding yourself or not knowing what you want is more complicated then when no one understands you. Because at that time, you are sure about your own self! When things get bizarre, you want an indication from other(s) for validation about what you want to do/believe.
I was just thinking about the whole scenario yesterday morning, and I remembered a tale from childhood. In short, the story was about a pious man who was drowning but he had the belief that God will save him and kept praying for that. He saw a wooden log with whose help he float and save himself. But he let go of it thinking that his God will save him rather then a wooden object. After that, his friend came to save him but he refused any help from them. Then came a ship for his rescue but he didn’t let them help him saying that his faith in God is more then his faith in humans. And thereby, he would rather wait for His help then His creations. This went on until he finally drowned and died. When presented before the Almighty he complained that He didn’t save him and let His faithful die. God replied that, “I love you dearly and would never leave anybody alone no matter what trials or hardships they encounter. But you’ve acted very unwisely! Three times you prayed for my help and three times I sent someone to help you. Each time you foolishly refused the help I sent!”
And writing this, I am wondering if an absence of a sign is a sign in itself. Getting more complicated :S:S
Being a book lover, I am used to remembering and quoting specific lines from novels. Here are just a few that have stuck through ages
P.S. The sentences might not be exact in some cases. I wrote them as I remembered the lines.
Will the coming Sunday witness history being made and at least two new records being equaled in the tennis world?
Hoping and praying for the best!
It was summer of 2004 marking the beginning of an end to our university life. At last moments, 9/10 of us in the gang decided about going on Pakistan Tour arranged by our dear alma mater FAST. The itinerary included traveling in train from Karachi to Islamabad and then going up to the northern areas. The highlights consists of
The list is not complete as there were many stopovers on the way. And the beauty witnessed can never be described in words (by yours truly at least). The detail of every place we vacationed at is still imprinted in my mind and the fun we had was priceless.
This post isn’t about our trip but more about what I recall from the Swat Valley. It’s heart wrenching to see people forced to migrating within their own country and the area ravaged by war. I remember Naran and Swat were the most developed places among others, the tourists were welcomed, and there was no forcing of wills on others about dressing and covering up. Except for one girl who observed the full hijab (wearing abaya) and 2-3 of us who used to cover our head, remaining ones weren’t observing any sorts of hijab (but not observing hijab doesn’t mean they were improperly dressed). Also, there was no ban on wearing westernized clothes in any part. None of the local people ever tried to comment on how people were dressed up, who was traveling with whom and the likes. These days, all we get to hear apart from the displaced people and the war in Swat is how females are subjugated and children aren’t allowed to go to school. Back then, there was no trouble in paradise and this is how I want to keep my memories about Swat too!
Just sharing a few awesome pictures of Swat found at flickr
Mankhial Mountains - Crown of Swat Valley
Malam Jabba Resort covered in snow. The PTDC hotel which was arson can also be seen in the background
Glacier in Kalam
Anyways, coming to an important point, this week Em and I were discussing how to help the refugees because I didn’t want to give the money to any political, religious party because I am not sure if the funds do reach the intended. He directed me to Jehanara’s post about P@SHA efforts on raising money for the victims. Donations can be made online so it’ll easier for anyone living abroad who wants to contribute. Also, the software houses in Pakistan can also take it one step further as TPS is doing (thanks to Em and his buddies effortsJ ) by asking their employees to donate (if willing) and giving the money to P@SHA.
I hope our smallest gesture of lending help makes a positive difference in their lives. And the war against the insurgents(?) finish soon and accomplishes a constructive end.
Last week we started receiving harassing calls on our PTCL number from a warid number. They started from the usual
Mr. X/Ms. Y say baat karadain (I want to talk to Mr. X/Ms. Y)
Progressing towards
Aap sat baat karne hai (I want to talk to you)
To a threatening nature whose details I won’t write here.
Since different people at my place would pick up the phone, and the caller would change the nature of conversation depending upon the gender of the receiver, everyone was putting it down as another bunch of crank calls. Until I noticed all calls were coming from the same number and also they have started to take on threatening tone. And it wasn’t just me; my parents did the maths too. So whenever, we would receive a call from an unknown number, we wouldn’t pick up the phone OR we would disconnect our phone line as soon as the warid caller start calling up. Because the person had so much free time, he would keep calling for hours even when nobody would pick up and the constant ringing would drive us nuts. At the same time, the situation in Karachi had taken a turn for worse and when you add the nature of the harassment calls to it, you get a perfect recipe for my dad’s blood pressure shooting up to new levels.
On Thursday when the caller wouldn’t stop, I enlightened my brother on the whole situation and told him to take the call thinking that a young male voice would maybe put an end to the whole ordeal. But the aggressors have gotten bold and it didn’t stop them. My brother then called up the Warid help line number from our own Warid number and they ask to call them through the PTCL number on which we were receiving the calls. So we did (042-111-111-321) and registered the complaint. However, the Warid call center personnel couldn’t get the details of the number which we provided (some excuse about system upgrade or so!).
Registering the complaint didn’t help as hoped as the calls continued and the next day they started after midnight. Most of the time the phone was disconnected so we have no idea if the person tried again or not. I called the warid help line number again and told the call centre guy about our previous complaint. This time too he couldn’t get the detail of the phone even though I told him exact timings of the calls received. The reason he gave was that the system is being upgraded and the latest call data is available after at least 2-3 hours. I asked him about the name/contact details of the person to whom the SIM was registered (trying my luck!) but he refused to give it to me saying it’s against the company policy. He asked me to call back again after 10-15 minutes.
Which I did and got through to a new guy! It was already late at night and I was irritated to the core so I told him about all the calls, their timings (when the phone was connected), the nature and our attempts at complaint registration which hasn’t put an end to the calls. This guy was a bit helpful and kept saying that the person will be dealt according to the company policy (which he refused to divulge!). Anyways, what they do is call and issue a warning and if that doesn’t work, they block the SIM. I told him I don’t want to receive any more calls because their warning system isn’t working and I want the SIM blocked ASAP. After the call to Warid, I disconnected the phone line so we can have a peaceful sleep at night. (Which we didn’t because daddy was all tense about the whole affair and wouldn’t go back to sleep!) Also, we called our upstairs neighbors who already knew about the calls for warning.
Since then, we haven’t thankfully received any calls. My dad wants to change our phone number saying they now can call from another number and he keeps the phone line disconnected whenever he can. My stance is that why should we change our number and give in to the bullies. However, I am amazed at the boldness of the people who were doing all this. Maybe for them, it was just a way to have fun while Karachi was shut down and a long weekend was coming up. But there’s no relief for psychological trauma it causes that whenever a phone rings, you have to check first who’s calling!
However, now I know two things you can do to stop such harassing calls
