Welcome Again

Hi

This is a reminder to myself that this password belongs to me…so here i am again after 8 months.

Life is good.

The 2008 Resolution

Finally the long awaited 21st century is 9 years old. It seems funny, we were celebrating the Y2K, what 9 years ago. When i was not even in my high school. Time passes so quickly.

I just found this set of questionnaire somewhere on the cyberspace, so i decide to give it a try. It works amazingly good, try to reminiscing past events is a fun exercise.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
-Learn the way of honesty and being modest

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
-For me if you failed to plan, you planned to fail. So there are quite a few resolutions.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
-Yes.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
-No.

5. What countries did you visit?
-Turkey and Finland

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
-Self confidence and a new laptop

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
-15th August, date of move to Finland

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
-If getting admission in TUT is an achievement, than here it goes. Completed some project at work in very little time, when I say little I mean it, keeping in mind the extent of project and the delay the project had already suffered.

9. What was your biggest failure?
-As always considering this world and all the materialistic thing here as eternal and forever, hoping to acquire and gain all the material benefits of this life, not giving much to the society, not helping others when they are in need of help.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
-Not as such

11. What was the best thing you bought?
-Wrist watch.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
-AIESEC, Tampere. They are not friends, they are a family.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
-It’s a hard one, no one.

14. Where did most of your money go?
-When I was earning most of it goes to Pizza Hut, Nandos, KFC, Arizona Grill, Singapore Sling and of course NIKE .

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
-Getting accepted for admission in TUT and getting VISA after long and tiresome wait.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
-Namumkin-Junaid Jamshed, Boten Anna-Bass Hunter, Jungle Drum by Emilia Torrini, Minority-Green Day

17. Compared to this time last year,
I. Are you happier or sadder?
-Happier

II. Thinner or fatter?
-Thinner

III. Richer or poorer?
-Richer in terms of exposure and everything.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
-Managing my time.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
-Wasting my time.

20. Did you fall in love in 2008?
-No

21. How many one-night stands?
-What a joke, NIL

22. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
-No.

23. What was the best book you read?
-The Book of Numbers, Witness to Surrender, Alive

24. What was your greatest musical discovery?
-Junaid Jamshed.

25. What did you want and get?
-Visa for Finland

26. What did you want and not get?
-Laptop

27. What was your favorite film of this year?
-I am basically from the old school so I never like SCI-FI, unrealistic and super action+ adventurous movies. For me it is No Country for Old Man.

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
-Dinner with family and some shopping, bought new Arsenal Jersey. I turned 23.

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
-Earned some more credits at TUT.

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
-After arriving in Finland I learned fashion didn’t exist. You are best in what you do; you are a hero for your self. No new jeans, no new Shalwar Kameez, no new sweat shirts, no jackets, no nothing. Still you are the best model.

31. What kept you sane?
-Fear.

32. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
-No one.

33. What political issue stirred you the most?
-The Mumbai attacks and its aftermath, Pakistani Election and Mr.10% comments.

34. Who did you miss?
-Pakistan, Karachi and my family

35. Who was the best new person you met?
-This is a difficult one; I come to know so many new persons in this year courtesy of AIESEC that I am totally lost. Everyone is a gem in his own way; I have met some very crazy AIESECers this year, I have made friends from all over the world. I have learned so many new things from each and every one of them. It’s very hard to pick out one. If AIESEC, infact AIESEC Tampere is a person than he is the best new person I have met this year.

36. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
-Learn to respect the opinion of others, lover your country. Make your self as modest as possible and help others because the level of gratitude you get in return is rewarding enough and make you feel better.

Minority- Green Day

Jungle Drum

Namumkin-Junaid Jamshed

Boten Anna

Ibn-e-Insha Classic

Nothing to write much. Christmas+New Year break. Life is slow.

I have read this poem when i was in my secondary school, it leaves a long lasting impression on me. For me it is one of the classic of Urdu poetry, i still remember the day when i first read it.

The poem is called “AIK LARKA” by IBN-E-INSHA. I think this poem is more about the emotional calligraphy of Ibn-e-Insha poetry and i think he himself has passed through such period. All in all its a master piece. Here it goes.

I’ll do the translation of this poem in English and will upload it here soon.

Update:

Just found another classic by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, revolutionary poetry. Perfect emblem for present political situation in Pakistan. Some may disagree and that is their right

Hyvää Joulua

Finnish term for Merry Christmas. Christmas is just on the clock and the preparations here are at full swing. I have been to one Pre-Christmas Dinner with my local AIESEC LC, AIESEC Tampere infact. 

There i heard one Finnish Christmas song, I think (not sure) it was written by the national poet of Finland. The song is called “Varpunen Jouluaamuna”. What so special about this song, when i first heard it i didn’t understand a single word of it still i am not able to understand it courtesy of the Finnish language:) but the melody and the flow of this song is so inspiring and refreshing that when i came home on the same night  i searched it on youtube and listen it for what, 20 times to be precise. Probably this song is the first and only Christmas song i have heard it in my entire life but no wonder why i heard it for the next 20 times.

Here you can learn more about this song but perform a Google translation of it. Infact this link is much better to learn more about this song, English translation is available here. (Recommended)

Here it is…Enjoy

My Confession

What Finland has taught me in four months, I think I’ll never able to learn that much amount of things in four years in Pakistan.(No disrespect)

Before coming here i have a fear of every thing, fear of crossing the road, fear of talking to a teacher, fear of going to the Magistrate for my social security number, fear of the smallest possible thing you can imagine. I don’t know how i develop this fear probably  it was something that was inbuilt in me after living in Karachi or possibly i was too pampered and protective when i was in Pakistan.

What i realized here after meting with so many new people and seen so many diversified culture i realized that there’s nothing like being in fear for your life to change your attitude. I us-ed to be very nice but when people around me started acting weird, I certainly became a different person altogether. Literally, I changed myself as a whole. I am still a very nice guy, ask my friends

I was mislead-ed, i have the opinion that if you are in fear change your attitude and everything will come back for you but once I found the way, the way to be fearful and not changing your attitude, stay what you are and make yourself as , I am what I am, I become a different person altogether. This is what i learned from Finnish people they are absolutely fear-free people, they will have the same emotion, same attitude, same thinking no matter how fearful and difficult is the situation. I respect fear, it has made me stronger but i hate it, it is one of the most dangerous thing unless you find a way to counter it.

Sometimes I stay up so late that I have my morning tea before I go to bed, but wake up in the afternoon thinking, like what the hell i was doing last night ?I was all night messing with the assignments on MATLAB, I didn’t even remember where i have left it.

I realize meeting the deadlines is not good enough here, beating the deadlines is the expectation,but there is only one criterion perfection and only the fittest to survive, but how do you hide when you’re running from yourself?

Finland has taught me that when you are low care for yourselves don’t expect anyone to care for you that’s exactly what i realized, broken hearts, broken desires, broken dreams but enlightened brains.

“I’m worse at what I do best and for this gift I feel blessed”

But even after admitting this there is no catharsis, my punishment continues to elude me and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself; no new knowledge can be extracted from my telling. This confession has meant nothing. “Quotes from American Psycho”

But i am a change person now.

With or Without You

I don’t know, why U2 sang this song. I have no idea about the logic or the story behind this song, its a master piece for sure without a doubt. I am not here to talk about this song or the lyrics or the story behind it, i am here just to talk about some thing about my self, about my opinion and personal experience of my life, i am here to discuss about the thing that i really miss from Pakistan. My parents. Although it seems childish to discuss these things on a blog but for me they are of utmost importance. I don’t know how to proceed with this blog, i think ideas will automatically begin to click in my mind and i will be able to write something good.

Now i am free, i was independent before as well, now  i can roam around the streets of Tampere all night long and no one is there to say me anything. I can do whatever i want and no one is there to prevent me, i can sleep for all day long and no one will say “SON, its morning wake up” . I can buy anything from anyplace and no one will say “SON, did you see the price? You wont even wear it twice”. I can eat all the McDonalds, Hesburger,  Subway and all the junk food in the world but i will never hear “Eat Vegetables, they will make you healthy”.

Believe me i can do anything in here and I’ll never hear “Just wait, until your father gets home” or “When we get home, you are going to get it” . (Probably this feel quite strange for my Finnish and non-Pakistani friend, but its the fact). My room is messed up and no one will ask me to clean the room. I’ll never hear something “when you will clean the room, without me telling you to do it? rather the next day i come from the university and my room looks like a crystal ball, clean as anything. Everything is in place and  in order.

I can watch movies all night and no one will say “Son,Study for your exam”. I can go to a party and enjoy all night long(Though i never been to parties here that continue for whole nights, they are bad)  and will never have an argument like

I’ll be back by 1am or 2am…my X friend will drop me to home, yeah he have a car and i don’t need to rush for anything… or… I’ll go to Y uncle’s house… or… I’ll spend the night at grandma house, since she lives near by. Its just for 3-4 hours, I’ll be back on time etc. (It sounds weird for my non-Pakistani friend, but its a fact and its a beauty of our society).

Now i don’t need to worry to wake up at 3am in the morning to watch my beloved Arsenal and going downstairs to turn on the TV with headphones in my hand so that i can hear the commentary without disturbing anyone. From my room to downstairs and than to turn on the TV, i have to complete this operation without making a single noise. Still i have the fear that my mom will appear anytime and say “SON, its the time for sleep, go to bed, you have to wake up at 6am for the university”

All my life i have craved independence, i always wanted more and more of it each day. For an independence fanatic like me living alone is a dream coming true, but i realized now how hard it can get when there is no one to understand you and hear you out when you are down.

I still remember when i come home after a long journey from the university and my word my university is 2hrs drive from my place, there is no one to fuss over my meals and and put me to sleep forcefully. My father always pick out my flaws and and mistakes and makes them right. No matter what i messed up in, he made it right ultimately. He would lecture me for hours on my inconsistency, irresponsibility and immature behavior and all those difficult words i never understood, but always made everything right again.

For some i am lucky enough to live by my own, its good you learn so many new things about life and your personality but its difficult, i agree my parent will not be here for me forever. My mother wont cook for me all my life but let me tell you one thing solo life is damn difficult, mark my words. After the galmour of the solo life fades away and you find a huge pile of dirty socks under your bed or a huge pile of utensils under your kitchen washer that you have to wash yourself, you realize how much you need them and that you just can live without them.

I know that above 832 words are a pile of rubbish and non-sense for some of you and of all people who write about their parents? I did.

It looks childish, it seems childish, it sounds weird for some of you reading this blog, but for me this blog holds a great sentimental value. I have no idea how i wrote it, but i just did.

Probably now you understand, with or without you or if not i don’t care because i understand “with or without you”.

P.S: I was reading an article in some magazine few weeks ago and i end up in this.

I wonder why and EID Mubarak

Its strange every time i write a blog, its all about AIESEC, why is it so? Probably AIESEC is providing me with plethora of opportunities and with every passing day making me a more staunch supporter of this organization.

Last week on Friday, i went to Helsinki for participating in “Train the Trainer” seminar and yet again it turns out to be an awesome experience. I must say this experience was better than the ACCESS 08. There were few peoples and everyone comes to know each other on personal level and a very unique understanding was developed among every participant. How i finally end up in Helsinki is a very interesting story.

I met with one of the trainer in a local AIESEC party and there i discussed about AIESEC and any event that is happening soon, she told me about this “Train the Trainer” seminar, at first i wasn’t interested i thought of it as a boring seminar and useless but when she sent me the info material and the past event detail i got excited and planning to attend it. Till the last moment i wasn’t sure whether i can make it to Helsinki or not because the seminar was from 5 Dec-7 Dec and at that time i wasn’t sure when is EID going to happen in Finland, i took a little gamble that i can offer the EID prayers in Helsinki(sine i have some friends there) if i cant reach Tampere on time but thankfully EID happened to be on Monday(8th December) and i was back in Tampere on Sunday(7th December’s) night.

All and all event turns out to be very exciting and an amazing experience, i learned so many new things about how to train people and how to facilitate different events. There were so many questions in my mind before attending it and this training answers if not all but 90% of my questions. I have made some good friends during the seminar and i am especially thankful to the two young and very energetic trainers and their special guest, they helped me a lot during the training and provide me with some aspiring feedback.

I must say we the trainees are presented with some great models and tools that are very useful while chairing a presentation/conference. NAOMMIE and PEMS model were very helpful in realizing what a trainers can give and what the trainees need. Probably getting to know about these two models and the feedback i have received during the event was the highlight of my whole experience.

Train the Trainers, Dec 08. Helsinki

This photo was capture with the timer, that is why i am in such an awkward position

There is a lot i can write about the experience but time is a killing factor. I was back in Tampere on Sunday night and on Monday we had EID-UL-ADHA here. Spending EID outside your country is a unique experience, you miss your home, your family your friends all the cultural things you do back in home all the fun you had during the old days will begin to look like a lost dream but thanks to friends here they make you feel good and make life enjoyable. I had a delicious dinner at a friends place than we talked a lot about Pakistan, our background, different issue, chatted for hours.

Pakistani Students in Tampere University of Technology-EID day

Interestingly, i was the only one who is wearing the Shalwar Kameez that day, walking on the streets of Tampere wearing a Shalwar Kameez was a unique experience.

Rest is all good and life is great.

Saare Zamane Mae Dhoom Hamari Zaban ki hae

Lets come to the point.

Since the day i landed in Finland, i am wondering about the national heritage, proud of any country. Its language, Finns are exteremly proud of their language and so are the other nations. Dont judge me wrong, I/we all are proud of URDU but we never demonstrated it.

Its been 3 months in Tampere and i have yet to find a Bill-Board with some English on it, i am purchasing grocery from K-Market and S-Market for last 3 months on day in day out basis and i have yet to find some products with some English on it even the basic commodities like eggs, milk and oil have all their brand labels in Finnish. This is very annoying in the beginning, but now i realize the logic behind it. Simple, they are proud of their language, why should they add something in English just for the sake of some handful of foreigners.

On the other hand if you just roam around big stores in Karachi all the Macros, Naheeds, Imitaz’s and Tes-Marts you will find the dominance of English, everywhere you look around its English. I dont know why, we liberated from the Briton rule some 60+1 years ago but still we have the same mentality, i wonder its good for us or bad but we are still living in the world of artificial reality.

Look at our schools, keep aside the government school. Every single school in the private sector is proud to be an English medium, in here (Europe) all the education till your graduation is in your native language, its awesome. Some of my European friends wonder how you people manage to study courses in your school and high schools when they are taught in English. There is no answer, just by default.

We are a nation of 150 Million+, Urdu is one of the most spoken language in the world keeping in mind the spoken dialect of Hindi and Urdu is same so it makes the count to even greater proportion but still English is ruling us. English is English its an International language and it provides a common platform to all the humans in the world to interact in common language.

Its just a useless blog, they are my sharing and observation from my stay in Finland so far. Finns are proud of their language and rightly so.

Stay Blessed.

P.S: Exams are over, only two courses in 3rd period. Arsenal back on track after beating Chelsea at the bridge. Life is good

Its Raining Snow

Its been almost a month since i wrote my last blog, in between that blog and to these line so much has happened. With ususal hammering of studies to the special events of AIESEC, it was a busy time. To top it all Arsenal is not performing well at all.

So what i was doing in the whole last month, I’ll try to summarize all those events. Its difficult to remember all those past events but thanks to my Tekkari Kalenteri (Technical Student Calendar) i’ll try to put all those eggs(events) in this blog.

29th Oct 08: There was a club at TAMK and being in the ER of AIESEC, LATE asked some of us to be present there in order to promote AIESEC, Tampere. It was kind of marketing stuff meeting with new people and promoting AIESEC. I didnt know that TAMK is so near to Hervanta, it takes just 12 mins from my place to TAMK. Being a polytechnic TAMK is a small school as compared to TUT, but with some strict rules.

31st Oct-2nd Nov: AIESEC is celebrating its 60th anniversary world-wide and as a part of this celebration there was a national seminar ACCESS 2008 in Helsinki where all the delegates from Finland were present. It was a great event, lots of learning and great fun. It was a pleasure to meet so many AIESEC-ers all over from Finland and even from Sweden, there was some nice discussion session about promoting the talent, promoting the brand etc. All and all it was a priceless expeirence of 2 days. Here are some snaps from ACCESS 2008, this is me as wizard part of the Halloween theme on the first night during that event.

On our way to Helsinki

Our Room.

Sustainaibitly Discussion for Valio

There are tons of other snaps, which are worth uploading. I’ll probbaly make a seperate blog for ACCESSS 2008.

4th Nov 08: We have to submit a report on how to design a common emitter amplifier along with passive low pass and high pass filters, it was an easy task but report writing was a bit tricky because of some special requirments neverthless it was alwyas fun to play around electronics and doing the soldering stuff. Here is my design. Picture is blurry, my bad.

10th Nov 08: Along with Jacub, i have to give a short lecture/presentation on EM specturm. It is always a nice practice to increase your presentation skills in front of your mates, we didnt prepare well for the lecture, but surprisingly it comes out to be very good. We are finding it hard to complet our 30mins but in the end, 30 mins was too short for us. A good job done. Working with Jakub is always fun, he is from Czech but only from his look the rest attributes he posses are typicaly like south asian, always worried, always tensed, roaming here and there in the campus looking for something. Late sitiings in the libaray. He is really putting some effort and we really appreciate it his work.

15th Nov 08: I have invited Juhanni a fellow AIESECer to my place on an informal dinner. A guitarist, gymanist and apperantely a great debater, he lives in Hervanta too, just next to my building. I have made some Chapli Kebabs that day, Salman also joined us druing the dinner and yeah VESA my flatmate made some delicious Dallas Cookies much better than my Kebabs. It was a nice gathering, we discussed about so many thing about cultural differences between Pakistan and Finland. A lot of religious discussion in between them and whats not, it was a great gathering. We talked about the existence of GOD and Juhanni opposed it with his views, at the end he summed up the day by saying “DO WHAT-EVER YOU WANNA DO IN WHICH YOY FEEL GOOD” this phrase sums up the day. We have almost eaten all of VESA’s delcious Dallas cookies . There were really good.

17th Nov 08: There was an Impro+Kapula evening arranged by a fellow Aiesec-er in University of Tampere. The main purpose of this event is how to improvise your personality, how to carry on with your ideas and how to adjust yourself in differenct condtions. Since it was the introductory evening so there were small themes just to see how it works and it works brilliantly. I like the Question against Question session, plus the continuation of one scene to another different scene was definitely very exciting. Its worth an experince and i am looking forward for more impros.

19th Nov 08:There was a diversity measurement exercise in one of the course here, the purpose of this exercise is to measure transmitted and received signal power in different locations in the Tietotalo building in TUT with the help of indoor and outdoor antennas. It was one of the highlights of my studies here, putting Radio Frequency theory into practice is something very new for me. Learn a lot about different issues in diversity measurement and small thing that we normally ignore while considering these sceanrios in theory.

In between all this, i have witnessed the first snow in my life. Yeah the first snow fall in Tampere for this year happened on the night of 18th and 19th November. The city is white, roads are white, cars are frozen and the walkways are extremely slippery, but this is all part of this beautiful weather. Finally the long awaited winter has arrived and i am looking forward for more snow.

Next week is the exam week, i have 3 exam during this week and than the 2nd period will be over. Its been 3months and a week since i am in Tampere, Finland. So far so good.

The Cultural Diversity

Global.Me Project

AIESEC experience never seize, and yet again AIESEC provide me with something new.  This time i presented a High School Class, Kaleva High School about different cultures, tradition and about my brief International experience. This all happens yesterday.

It was a nice sunny day when i say Sunny i mean it, it was really sunny. I left for school at 11:00am, there was no lecture that day thankfully reach there at about 11:15am, i have a nice lunch by noon and than the fun begins.

The school band sings two songs, one is in English and the other is in Finnish. Everyone likes it and than it is all Julien.

Julien started the show and simply stunned the young kids with his glorious speech, it was no power point presentation, no lecture, no drawings it was just a fun speech in the middle of the sports hall and 200+ student around him. He was calm and composed, being a French he shared his international experience of America, Finland and the rest of the world, he speaks English in his native French which was quite hilarious keeping in mind that he can speak fluent English in American ascent.

Than, Julien directed me to a 1st grade class along with one teacher and by first grade it means a 1st year class in our local HSC-FSC(Pakistan) terminology. Initially when i was asked to participate in this show, i was told that you have to talk with some school students for 10-15 mins and i thought ok its not a big deal to talk with just 5-10 students but when i was handed over the whole class i was confused that how to handle 30+ students, but rather it comes out to be scary, it was a pleasant surprise for me.

First i introduced my self and ask the class whether they have ever heard about Pakistan and thankfully most not all of them have heard this name before, than i inquired whether they know where Pakistan is located, at first it was a complete silence. A pin drop silence. Than one young lad told me it is somewhere south of Iraq, i asked for any other opinion, a girl replied its somewhere near Israel, and when i was about to tell them about exact location of Pakistan, i heard something from back benches that Pakistan is in the west of India. Finally a breath of Fresh air.

I carry on my self telling them about Pakistani culture, traditions, people etc. I shared my stories and my experience of Finland so far. I tell them about the love of rain we Karachitte have and at the same time told them about the hot and humid weather of Karachi. I told them that in Pakistan, young people used to watch Sami Hypia, Kimi Raikkonen and Jussi Jaskelanein week in week out and the lads have a huge respect for all the three professionals and at this point the class was really amazed. They never realizes that these three stars are that much popular in Pakistan.

Afterwards i explain them about the purpose of this project, why we are here, why it is important to be culturally diversified, why global education and knowledge of other cultures and tradition is important etc

I carry on my self and at the same time answering some very funny question about Pakistan. For Example, a student asked.

“In Pakistan, do people talk in a buses? “. At first, i thought he is asking something else i asked him to repeat it and he did, and for 5 sec i was confused what does he mean actually?

I said yes we talk and we talk madly in our buses, we can do whatever in our buses . I tell them about the population of Karachi, that it is three times the population of Finland, and the whole class was Mitä ?

I wrap up the session telling them about the religion and the value of family system in our culture and the bonding in between our relatives and friends. By the look of their expression it seems that they really enjoyed the session and i certainly did.

I was very scared before the lecture and i was equally happy and motivated after it. It turns out to be a great experience for me and a nice learning curve.

At the end, Julien sing a small song, he further explain the students about the project and the purpose of  this exercise. The way he started the show, he wrapped it up even more nicely. He thanks the students for their participation, the students give him a huge round of applause.

We than went to the teachers room, we sit there, share our experiences and feelings. Put up the conclusions and head-back to our beloved “H-TOWN” .