Every year 'December' reminds me of a personality who gave a breath of fresh air to the Urdu poetry. The strong advocate of women's rights and the true depiction of an eastern girl; Perveen Shakir was one of the most 'loved' and 'read' Urdu poets of her time. 

She was born on 24th November, 1952 in Karachi, Pakistan and was highly erudite with three degrees; one in English literature, one in linguistics and one was Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA. 

The ionic figure of 20th century, Parveen Shakir taught for around nine years at Karachi University and Trinity College, Connecticut, USA; before she got her feet into Civil Services. She was a successful bureaucrat who stood second in CSS exam and first in the Academy going on to a successful career in the prestigious Customs Services of Pakistan and worked as Commissioner in the Customs department. Perveen's most prestigious honor that she got in her life was her Central Superior Services Examination (CSS) in 1982; where there was a question on her poetry in the Urdu Examination. 

Perveen Shakir gave five eternal gifts to the Urdu poetry in the form of Khushboo (Fragrance) in 1977, Sad-barg (Marigold) in 1982, Khud-kalaami (Talking to one's self) in 1985, and Inkaar (Refusal) in 1990. Her fifth and final book Kaf-e-Aina (Under the mirror) was published posthumously in 1996. 

Her first book, Khushboo, (Fragrance) consists of both ghazals and nazms, won the Adamjee award. Later she was awarded the highly obliged award 'Pride of Performance' by the Pakistan Government on her remarkable contribution to the Urdu poetry.

Perveen was endowed with a high sense of creativity and novelty. She dedicated her first poetical work 'Khushboo' to Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi; whom she considered as her 'ustad' and used to affectionally call 'Ammujaan'. 

'Khushboo' expresses the emotions of an adolescent girl for whom everything is her beloved one. Here you find confessions of this girl nurturing romantic dreams in a world of grim realities. The most significant difference that one finds in her poetry is the way she look at things i.e the female perspective which strongly lacks in Urdu poetry. 

She herself wrote in the prologue:

On the crumbling threshold of fleet-footed moments, holding on to the arms of the wind, a girl stands and wonders: what should she tell you? Years ago, in the still hours of some night, she had prayed to God that He should reveal to her the girl inside her. I am sure God must have smiled, at least once, at the simplicity of that prayer-girls of tender age don't know that no greater calamity befalls those who dwell on earth than self-knowledge-but He granted her the request. And so, at an age when others wish for the moon, she received the magic word that would let her into the thousand-gated city of the Self.

And elsewhere:

Khushboo, is the story of the same vein. amazed eyes, checks full of dew and a girl having sad smile on her face she knew that this story is not new (not only this, no story in this world is new) - this is the art of our inner writer who dressed it in a way that it win the hearts of the reader!. (Prologue Khushboo)

Writing in first-person pronoun is very difficult to use in poetry/prose. It was her adept skills that she bravely used the first person female pronoun in her poetry and expresses the feeling of a young girl in true way. When one reads the prologue; I am sure one cannot help admiring the confidence with which it was used by the young author. Perveen calls herself a 'larki' (girl) not ''aurat' (Women). She bravely admits that fact that whenever this girl speaks to you; regardless of her wet eyes, you see her head up with confidence and proud. 

Perveen was a kind hearted woman with a beautiful smile. She herself admits that if to love someone is crime then this girl confess this crime with full of pride. She wrote:

Wajood ko jab mohabbat ka wajdaan mila tou Shaiyee nay janam leya

Perveen was equally famous on both the electronic and print media. The critics compare Perveen's poetry to that of Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad. She was a columnist writing weekly articles in the daily Jang and being anchorperson for many literary programs.

She was the strong woman with the true depiction of love, sympathy, ignorance and tolerance. Her poetry shows the various traits of an eastern girl. It was the first time in history of Urdu poetry when someone talked about dolls, ponds, departmental stores, telephones, waterfalls, cloths, perfume and husbands.

Wo tu khushboo hai, hawaaon mei bikhar jaaye gaa

masla tu phool ka hai, phool kidher jaaye gaa 

He is the fragrance that will disperse in the wind.

Now the question is what will become of the flower.

And elsewhere:

Those who don't want to understand consider Perveen's poetry is nothing expect the laugh of the rain, smile of followers, songs by birds and her own whispering …….. (Prologue Khushboo)

Yes, it is true but this what we call an eternal love….. Unlike other great poets of her time; as of Amjad Islam Amjad and Faraz, who talked about the lost love, commitment, and feminine beauty, she talked about betrayal, disillusionment, loneliness, and about the masculine beauty. On one moment her poetry tells us the deep feeling of a young girl for whom everything is her beloved one. Whereas on the other hand she vitally accept the circumstances and understands the anguish of being rejected. She makes use of irony but her tone seldom sounds harsh or offhanded. 

Perveen's story is a modern fairy tale without the happy ending. She married Naseer Ali, a doctor by profession in 1980 but soon the marriage broke and later divorced. The early years gave them a beautiful gift in the form of a baby boy; Murad Ali. 

On 26th December, 1994 the world-wide outpouring of grief was unprecedented when her car collided with a truck and the world of modern Urdu poetry lost one of its brightest stars. 

She is still alive in hearts of her fans and every growing year appends the list with the names of new lovers……  it is righteous to say that whenever one want to articulate his/her love; the first gift that is exchanges between them is 'Khushboo'.

harf e taaza naii khushboo mein likha chahta hai

baab ik aur mohabbat ka khula chahta hai

aik lamhay ki tawajoo nahi hasil uss ki

aur yeh dil keh ussay hud say siwa chahta hai

ik hijaab teh e iqrar hai ma'nay manay warna 

gul ko maloom hai kaya dast e saba chahta hai

rait he rait hai iss dil mein musafir mairay

aur yeah sehra taira naqash e qaf e pa chahta hai

yehe khamooshi kai rung mein zahir ho gi

aur kuch roz keh woh shokh khula chahta hai

raat ko maan liya dil nay muqadar laykin

raat kay haath pay aab koi diya chahta hai

tairay paymanay mein gardish nahi baqi saqi

aur tairi bezam say aab koi utha chahta hai

Noman H Malik

I was driving when I came to know about the launch of Goggle’s innovative web browser — Chrome, through a local radio station. The RJ was telling the innovative features and ample reason to be excited about the release. I speeded-up my car because I wanted to experience those exciting features of open source web browser.

Within a few moments, the first beta of Chrome was in front of me. The attractive and catchy look enthralled me throughout the research. From its looks, Google Chrome appears to be far more advance and interesting as compared to contemporary available web browsers.

Lots of innovative web browsers have been developed. I still remember my school days when we used Netscape Navigator, developed by the famous Mosaic programming team. With the passage of time, it was renamed Communicator and then renamed just Netscape. Netscape quickly became a success and captured the market but with the launch of Windows 95 and a web browser of its own ‘Internet Explorer’ in August 1995, Microsoft began an effort to challenge Netscape with one major advantage i.e. the Internet Explorer was free of charge.

The war started in mid 90s. This was the critical time for both the companies; it seems like every second week one company or the other was releasing a new version of browser with beta or final names. But eventually, Microsoft gained the market share because of the distribution advantage.

A beta version of Google Chrome was released on September 2, 2008 in 43 languages for the Windows Vista and XP users. Initially the release was scheduled for September 3. If we look at the history of web browsers, we notice that web browsers haven’t changed much. The preliminary concern of Chrome’s development team was the improvement in security, speed and reliability as compared to the widely used Internet Explorer.

What makes ‘Chrome’ different

Google Chrome is not just a browser for viewing web pages. It is built on the best programming elements to view web pages and to run interactive applications. Here are a few pros and cons of this newly launched browser. Weigh it yourself and then decide what suits you.

• Thumbnail view

One of the interesting and catchy features of Chrome is the thumbnails view of the recently visited websites. Google Chrome keeps track of most visited websites (regular basis) in the form of image thumbnails and links for those websites automatically through the New Tab feature. This allows users to access web pages easily.

Chrome also keeps track of the recently closed tabs and the recently saved website on the same window.

• Separate processes for each tab

Google Chrome is powered by the feature of separate processes. If a website causes a tab to crash, only that tab is affected. The browser itself remains stable and other tabs remain unaffected. This feature makes Chrome more stable and efficient.

• V8

V8 — the JavaScript virtual machine seems to be the finest feature of Google Chrome. This will help users to access heavily packed JavaScript applications like Gmail, Netvibes etc, in an efficient manner.

• Phishing and Malware protection

Internet fraud is on its peak these days. Stealing someone’s personal information has become very easy. In computing, ‘phishing’ is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire someone’s personal information like credit card numbers, passwords and bank account details. Scam artists send emails that contain links to malicious web sites to obtain your personal information. When you follow the particular link, it directs you to a website that is specially designed to capture your personal information. Whereas Malware (Malicious software) is a general term used for any harmful software that affects computer user, it includes viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and spywares.

Google Chrome constantly downloads information on website that are known to be insecure for a web user to visit. It also keeps warning you of potential Malware and Phishing threats.

• Incognito

Google Chrome offers the incognito browsing mode. Incognito browsing mode allows you to browse in stealth manner. Web pages that you open while you are in incognito mode won’t be logged in your browser’s history. Similarly, files downloaded through incognito mode won’t be logged in the download history. Closing the window will automatically wipe out all the cookies of the session.

On one hand it is quite an interesting feature whereas on the other hand from the security point of view this feature is not feasible.

• Tabbed browsing Chrome’s catchy interface allows you to manage the websites you’re using. You can easily shift, switch, rearrange, duplicate and move tabs to a different window. This leads to time saving and efficiency.

Rest of the features like ‘Domain Highlighting’, ‘Groups for tab’, ‘find on page’ and ‘resizing input textboxes’ are no doubt great features but Google is not the first to introduce them. They all are the exact copies employed by other browsers such as Inter net Explorer 8, Safari, Firefox and Opera.

The ‘truth’

It is irrefutable that Google Chrome is not that much innovative as the hype created for its launch. In fact, it is all stitched up from pieces of IE 8, Safari, Firefox and Opera. The development team took the best features and ideas of all the contemporary available browsers and packed them in viable manner. All the features sound cool, but more or less they all are already available in other browsers under some other name except the powerful JavaScript engine (V8). Still, Chrome is nice, fast and easy to install. The interface is so simple that it appeals to novice users as well as it fulfils the requirements of those who demand more from their browsers.

I am convinced and using it since it has been launched. Time will tell how long will I use it but for now I am really impressed and suggest you all to use it. You can download Google Chrome from www.google.com/chrome 

SLUM DOG MILLIONAIRE

Noman H Malik

An Indian origin, Hollywood based movie 'Slum dog Millionaire' moves around two orphaned brothers who grew up in the slum areas of Mumbai.

The story begins with 18 year-old Jamal Malik who luckily becomes a contestant on the Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”. Before Jamal can play for the top prize and wins the staggering 20 million rupees, the show ends and he is asked to return the following day to finish the game. The game show host suspects Jamal is a cheater as how can a slum boy answer all the questions. When the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating.

 

The police brutally interrogate Jamal as they wonder how a boy who grew up in the slums of Mumbai did so well on the show when others who are more educated, intelligent and wealthier than him have failed. Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal narrates the story of his life that how he and his brother grew up in a small, shabby house. He shares all the incidents and accidents that took place, their vicious encounters with local gangs, their terrifying adventures on roads, his journey from the Mumbai slums to the hot seat of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ and about his first love – Latika – the girl he loved and then lost along the way. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the questions of the game show.

 

Having an Indian cast and a perfect blend of Hollywood & Bollywood, the movie is simply exceptional. Once again A.R Rehman proves his mettle with beautiful melodies and a title song which matches perfectly with the story line of the movie. Every actor has performed well throughout the movie, the characterization is perfect, splendid Cinematography from the beginning till the end and the plot is excellent, with an ending that ties up everything beautifully.

The movie shows the positive side of life and a way to look at things. It raises hope that when there is no way, there must be a path to find. Secondly, to give an answer to a question, you do not need to be brilliant or smart. You just need to keep a keen eye on your surroundings.

The story has bagged 10 Oscar nominations in various areas and I would recommend that you watch this movie with your friends and family. 

Another abrupt change of academic session...

Noman H Malik

The decision to change academic session once again will have serious repercussions as it leads to an incomplete and shortly ended academic session with a heavy loss. We, as a nation, are already suffering from a real dearth of good educated people and this decision would further ruin the situation in terms of knowledge-base of the students

In today's competitive world of rapid change, every other country is finding new ways to be in the line. China is planning to put a man on moon whereas engineers at NASA have successfully tested their own deep space Internet by creating a new communications protocol that uses space probes and orbiters as deep space routers.

Every country is striving hard to produce more and more scholars, researchers and scientists, but we are constantly faced with the danger of being left way behind in this race of advancement because of our poor education system. While other nations are striving had to explore the depth of knowledge, we are still undecided about when to start the academic session. Should it start from April or from August? It's been four years now since we have been discussing as to when to start the session and every year we remain undeceive in the wake of new questions with no answers. Students, teachers and those who are associated with education, in one or the other way, remain disturbed till the government finally announces when to start the academic session after altering it several times.

The pace of change is accelerating with every passing moment whereas our educational system is diminishing day by day. Once again, the steering committee of the Sindh Education Department decided that the next academic session of schools and colleges in the province would commence, simultaneously, on April 01, 2009 and this schedule will remain in force in the future too.

According to this decision, the annual examinations up to class VIII would be held in February, 2009 and the new session would commence from April 1, 2009. Whereas the final examination for class-IX and class-X would be held in the month of March and the result would be announced by July 2009.

This chaotic decision will create great mess in the up-coming days. The current academic session started in the month of August, if the examinations are going to be held in the month of February, then this year's session (2008-2009) would be of six month only.

According to the Sindh Education Minister, Pir Mzharul Haq, the academic session was abruptly changed from April to August by the previous government owing to their unrealistic approach and policy. Since the creation of the country the academic session had been commencing from April.

This decision will have serious repercussions as it leads to an incomplete and shortly ended academic session with a heavy loss. We, as a nation, are already suffering from a real dearth of good educated souls and this decision would put oil to the burning flame.

Put another way, this year we would be having 180 days only, for the session. If we look at the annual calendar for gazetted holidays and calculate the other vacations, granted on account of various festivals, we are sparing hardly 100 days for the education of our future generation.

The current session 2008-2009 started with the holiday of Independence (14 August) later we had vacations for Eid-ul-Fitr (October 2-4) moving on, we will be having holidays for Eid-ul-Azha (10 to 11 December - expected) Quaid-i-Azam day/Christmas day (25th December) and finally the session would end-up with the two-day holiday on account of Ashura (9 & 10 Moharrum).

Every year, schools remain closed for 10 day as winter vacations. If we exclude these winter vacations and Saturdays/Sundays, this short ended session would become the micro short ended session. Furthermore, the school has to take at least two preliminary exams before final exams. This also consumes study time.

Whether it's a natural disaster in our beloved country or seasonal downpour, its transporters' strike against rising prices of petrol or a suicidal attack, the very first step taken in order to avoid any-mishap is to close down all the educational institutes until it is safe enough to open them again. This also leads to excessive holidays. Similarly, vacations on account of Urs of various religious scholars, Shab-e-Mairaj, shab-e-Barat, Shab-e-Qadar and other such festive also disturbs the academic session.

It is irrefutable fact that our educational structure needs drastic revamping with more stress to be laid on authorities being well-versed in their respective subjects. Pakistan is a third world country and to raise our status to the level of other developed country, we need research-based and technology oriented educational systems.

The distribution of free books or scholarships won't signal a great change in the society. The government should seriously focus on the development of educational sector. Changing the title cover of a book can be a kind of self-deception until the Sindh Text Book Board commits itself seriously to the task of revision of text books with respect to the current scenario and changing demands. Unfortunately, our text books are outdated and often include archaic material. Though many radical changes have been brought in the worlds of science, technology, and literature (infact, in every single field) but for the last several decades not even a single change has been brought about in the textbooks. Moreover these books include the material which was studied by our teachers' teachers.

Unavailability of textbooks, sometimes throughout the year, is also an important issue which should be addressed promptly. This year we are already running out of time as the session is only of 6 months; and this dilemma enhances students' worries. Moreover, the students of class IX & X study only the half of the syllabus and get matriculation degree. The officials should take prompt action against this paradox.

Lack of research culture is another inherent flaw of our educational sector. Instead of considering research a subject of the university level only, we should start it from school level. Our students are encouraged to do the rote learning right from pre-school. This trend channelizes their talents towards unproductive horizons. They don't bother understanding concepts and the result is lack of knowledge. Nevertheless, the concept of five-year papers should be eradicated by a long term strategic planning.

Unfortunately, in Pakistan discrimination is being done as a policy even at the level of government. Our educational system is divided into various boards namely Sindh Board (Karachi Board), Punjab Board, Federal Board, Agha Khan Board, Lahore Board, Multan Board, Hyderabad Board, Rawalpindi Board, Mardan Board, Peshawar Board, Abbottabad Board, Balochistan Board and the list is endless.

Every board has its own policies, examination procedures and grading system. The irony is that these provincial educational systems are also divided into four broad classes. i.e the elite English medium schools, English medium school (The bungalow schools), Urdu medium schools (government) and the madressahs.

Students belonging to the elite class study books written and published by the foreigners that results in heavy brain drain phenomenon. Those who belong to the so-called English medium schools are the ones who even can't write a single paragraph in English. Similarly, the condition and the level of intelligence of a government student is open to all of us therefore it's useless to discuss. As far as Madressahs are concerned, when I think of a madressah, instantly a term comes in my ie Bartar Deal - the non monetary exchange of goods and/or services.

Madrassas are the true example of Barter deal where every thing is free of cost and in response students spend their entire day at madressah, and do the regular household work ranging from cleanliness to the cooking and bringing stuff from market to the washing cloths.

Would it be justified to expect anything from such students (for their country or for themselves)? It might sound too pessimistic but the proof lies in the fact that we have only one Nobel Prize laureate. Without wasting a single moment we should design a realistic, appropriate and beneficiary educational structure. We have entered the danger zone; Parha Likha Punjab be immediately transformed into Parha likha Pakistan.

Another neglected yet promising sector is the sector of Technical Education. It's a common practice that boys pursue engineering whereas girls consider medicine as the best option for higher studies. Although there are many other good options available. To cope up with this chaotic situation the concept of career counseling should be introduced and students must be made aware of all the available options so that they can choose their desired careers at the right time.

Last but not the least; we should pay special attention towards the start of academic session, reduce the number of vacations, and make sure the availability of research-oriented textbooks before the start of the academic session.

Holidays of the current session (2008-2009)

1. Independence Day 14 August 1 day

2. Eid-ul-Fitr October 2-4 3 days

3. Eid-ul-Azha 10 to 11 December - expected 2 days

4. Quaid-i-Azam day/ 25th December 1 day

Christmas day

5. Ashura 9-10 Moharrum 2 days

6. Winter Holidays Dec 2008-Jan 2009 10 days

Total 19 

If the off days on Saturday/Sunday are also counted then the session would become shorter.

By all means!

Noman H Malik

You are a FAILURE! You embarrassed me in front of everyone. You can’t imagine what I went through when your teacher showed your report card!” Faizan’s mother exclaimed at him because the 14-year-old had failed in the final examination.

His parents, in fact the whole family, were depressed because of Faizan’s so-called ‘sin’. They, like the society at large, think that failing, particularly in an examination, is a ‘sin’. The reaction of his parents, siblings, teachers and even friends made Faizan confused and depressed.

Looking around us we see many cases where people feel so dejected after failing at something that they end up taking an extreme and stupid step that they may regret later. But scolding, thrashing and punishing are not the right ways to treat such a person. A failure should be treated, not in a harsh way, but in a consoling and tender way. 

 Those who think their entire life is ruined because they failed to do something properly need proper guidance and support. Having failed once does not mean one will always fail, or even failing repeatedly at something doesn’t not mean that one is not good at anything else.

The fear of failure is the greatest obstacle on the road of success. If you are scared that you will fail at something, you will end up either not trying at all or putting in a half-hearted attempt.

The first thing that should be kept in mind before attempting anything is that failure isn’t a crime. Failure is merely a stepping-stone to success. Everyone fails at something or the other, at some point in life. We should not take failure to heart but learn from our mistakes and try not to repeat them.

Treat failures as learning experiences that should turn you into a better person as you can now identify your mistakes and shortcomings. Once you know why you failed, you should find ways that can make you succeed the next time. Stay positive and keep trying until you succeed. Remember when a baby takes his first steps, he falls — but he gets up again and keeps trying until success is achieved.

We can also learn from the life of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States who led the nation through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War. After failing as a businessman, he moved on to politics but failed in his initial attempt to become a member of the Illinois General Assembly. He then studied law and became a lawyer.

He returned to the political arena and, in 1855, he ran for the Senate but was defeated again. The next year Lincoln went after the vice-presidency position but was defeated. This didn’t deter him and, finally in 1960, he became the president. He had a taste of failure initially which made him more determined to become successful.

Many people feel depressed when they fail to achieve something that is important to them. But failure is a learning tool. Always accept failures positively because they help you gain confidence.

We all know about Thomas Edison, the renowned inventor. Edison also failed many times before he finally became successful in inventing the light bulb. Did he stop trying? No he didn’t. If Edison had stopped trying, the world would be pretty dark right now.

And there is the shinning example of everyone’s favourite author J. K. Rowling. About 12 publishers rejected Rowling’s first manuscript of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stones. But today, according to Forbes Magazine, she is the first billionaire author in the world.

Failing 12 times in a row would get anyone down but she didn’t stop and finally got a green signal from Bloomsbury, a small British publishing house in London for the publication of her first book. And now Rowling is ranked 14th in Telegraph’s list for 2008’s “100 most powerful people in British culture”. Isn’t it exciting?

If you always cry over the mistakes that you made, you will never get anywhere in life. So there’s no use crying over spilt milk. If you want to live life to the fullest, your plan of action should be target-oriented.

A confident individual always looks forward and keeps his/her eyes on the target/destination. They consider failures as part of their journey towards success. And positive thinking is the best way to get out of the gloominess of failure. 

They Speak....

Failure Success

Failing a venture does not make you a loser. Here a few youngsters talk about failure and how they deal with it 

“Failure can trigger success. If you fail, you question yourself and then you struggle to excel in that area. This helps in progress. Failure is good, only if it doesn’t become a habit.” — Asma Siddiqui

 

“Failure may sound like an easy thing to deal with, but it can leave permanent scars on a person psychologically. Not everybody can face it. At times when those who fail do not get the support they need from their family and friends, and get scolded, thrashed and even disgraced for this ‘so-called’ sin. 

But as Robert F. Kennedy said, ‘Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly’. We should keep this in mind.” — Zeeshan Ahmed

“When I was 17, I failed my math exam during my first year at college. I simply hate trigonometry and this mishap posed a major setback to me. But due to the caring and loving behaviour of my family, specially my elder sister, I somehow learnt to deal with the situation and finally cleared the examination in the next attempt.” — Furrukh Azeem 

“I was very depressed when my application was rejected for a scholarship programme. For a moment I thought I will never re-apply for it but my teacher was of great help. He supported me and made me realise the importance of failure in life. I still remember his words, ‘Don’t you know that in a race everyone runs but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize, but if you fail, do your best next time. Everyone who competes can’t win.’ 

I studied hard and in the next semester I not only got my university scholarship but I also secured first position in my class.” — Ali Ahmed

“I was jobless for about two months after my bachelors. I did my BBA from a reputable institute with a good GPA. I applied for every single opportunity that was available at the time and was more than sure about getting my desired job. But with the passage of time my confidence decreased and and I became very depressed. This was a tough period for me — both financially and mentally. But I took this phase as a learning experience and changed my job hunting strategy. Soon, I got an excellent job with good remuneration. Now I am pursuing my masters along with my job.” — Saima Shah