The Fellow Stranger

This is a recollection of a good deed done to me. My sister wanted her inter certificate from the board office. As I was the only one free in the house the job fell upon my shoulders. Now normally I don’t shy away from errands. But errands like these where one has to interact with public sector officials…well they are not my idea of a holiday. But still respecting my sis’s wishes I agreed to go. Now the Inter Board Office of Karachi is located in some far away wild area of Karachi, far from anywhere I have been in all the years in Karachi. Also it is located in an area which is frequently in the news…for all the wrong reasons. So I prepared my mind to go.

I googled up the address, found which buses go there on http://www.apnapoint.com/  and prepared all the docs I had to take with me. I had to change three buses to go there. On the last bus which would drop me at my destination, a guy came to sit beside me. After greetings he asked if I was going to the board office. Stumped…I looked at him, suddenly wary of him. I nodded and asked how he guessed that i was going to the board office? He said that you have that look. I asked him if he was going there too. He replied in the affirmative. Then we asked each other about their academic activities. Turned out that he was a private candidate in his second year. And apparently this was his eighth round of the board office. Through my discussion he rightly deduced that

>This was my first time at board office (read: that part  of Karachi)

>Government offices were not my thing

>I had no clue where to get the inter certificate

So he offered to help me out with my endeavour. I tried to refuse saying that no I’ll be fine, and that you shouldn’t waste your time, but he played me down.

We disembarked from the bus and went to the gate. Upon setting my eyes at the gate, I was like….wait. Where’s the office?

A road was leading from the gates into wilderness. After looking again I made out a building a good 400 metres down the road. It was a three-storey building which was looked down upon by a second building some 200 metres to the left and a third building which was hidden from view from the road. There were endless lines on several counters in the first building, and a great number of people were going in and out of the doors through the second building. A narrow corridor was leading from the side of the building leading into the third.

The guy I was with asked someone and pointed towards that corridor, telling me to go down the corridor to room 20 and ask for a guy named X. I met Mr X and within 15 minutes he handed me a slip telling me to come on the specified date.

I couldn’t believe it was over! I had come mentally planned for a tedious two hours! If past experiences with my college were any reference. But here, thanks to this guy, I had been saved two hours and a lot of toil. I looked for him on my way back but couldn’t spot him in the mammoth crowd. I wanted to thank him. But the fact is that I couldn’t thank him enough. What this guy had done for me, only ALLAH could reward him. I felt I had a moral obligation now to pass this good deed onwards, for that’s the only way I can truly thank this guy. I didn’t even know in which counter to go for information, and judging by the sizes of the lines on every counter even that would have taken me 20 minutes. I only wish now that wherever he is, may he encounter success on every step!

The Princess and her Chicks

This is the real story of Choon Choon, the black chicken. Character include four chickens and Choon Choon, the princess, her cousin and the princess’s father.

Four Chicks and Choon Choon

Choon Choon was a black coloured chicken who lived with his other siblings, which were all different colours, in the Sunday market of Islamabad. This was before her name was Choon Choon. So for the sake of reporting let’s call her Blacky. Days were passing by dull and boring because apparently no one was willing to buy these multi-coloured chicks. But times were changing and a cute little princess saw Blacky and company. She begged her father to buy them and soon after Blacky and Company were safely packed in a cage in the little princess’s house. She played with the little chicks all day long. She would hold them in her little hands, make crooning sounds to them as if they were her babies (yeah believe me little girls love to do this!) and run after them. She was having the time of her life day in and day out. Being an only child her time was passing quite effectively between playing with chicks and going to school.

Yellow is missing!

One day when the princess returned from school, she found the yellow chick missing. She created much uproar but the chick could not be found. Apparently a cat had taken from inside the cage. The little princess cried and cried but soon the healing power of the time engulfed her and she soon forgot her loss.

Stampeding Blue!

Then some days after this incident while she was busy playing with her chicks (read running after them!) when she accidentally stepped onto the blue one. OUCH!! (That was nasty). The poor chick died on the spot. And the princess was devastated by her loss.

Ill Chicky…

Having lost two of her chicks she began to take extra care of them. But one of them (I don’t remember his colour) got ill and couldn’t cope with his illness. He too died sometime later.

One can only imagine the poor girl’s sorrow, having lost not one, not two but THREE of her chicks in a matter of 2 weeks. Now there were only two remaining, Blacky and a little brown one. Not to be deterred by the forces of nature, Her Majesty brought the cage inside her house and wouldn’t let any of them out under any condition. She would not let them run, and would satisfy herself by caressing them inside the cage. And so Blacky and the brown continued to live in the royal quarters of her majesty with the honour of being her most adorable toys.  Her Majesty would occasionally place the cage out in the garage on weekends because she was home then.

Cat Feast

On one such afternoon, she heard frantic pleading (I don’t know the hen expression) and rushed out to the cage. What she saw truly horrified her! A large brown cat was calmly munching on the brown one, apparently having herself opened the cage. Overcome with rage, the princess rushed to rescue her wounded chick, but it was too late. Poor Browny was laid to rest in the flowerbed.

Blacky Alone!

Now, with having experienced the deaths of four loved toys on a personal level, the princess shut the blacky into his cage. And regularly fed her and watered her. But she wouldn’t let her out of her cage. No sir, never again. She even brought a lock for her cage. Being the only one looked after, Blacky grew quickly and soon the cage was too small for her. So the princess brought a bigger cage for her. Blacky would sit forlornly all day, waiting for the time when the princess would come home, and the make small choon choon sounds at her. Sometimes in the middle of night when the princess woke up, Blacky would recognize her voice and choon choon frantically, wanting to get all the attention. Days went by thus and still Blacky was confined in her cage. She was now almost a hen, but could only make choon choon sounds much like ultrasonic whining of the dogs. She learnt to sit for hours on end and forgot the use of her legs. The days of running and playing and pecking were like a distant chickhood to her. And so, weak and dull, able to make only choon choon sounds, Blacky, now aptly named Choon Choon, passed three months in her cage.

Arrival of the Cousin

One fine afternoon, the princess’s elder cousin came to visit her palace. He was very excited to see Choon Choon and wanted to play with her. So he requested the princess to let out Choon Choon in the garage. The princess initially refused but when her cousin assured her that no cat would dare harm Choon Choon in their presence she agreed and let Choon Choon out. The cousin expected the chick to start running all over the place like all hens do, but he was astonished when Choon Choon just stayed put. Two months of cage life had taken away the strength of her legs. And much though the princess coaxed Choon Choon, Choon Choon simply would not budge.  The princess got very sad. But her cousin explained to her that Choon Choon will be able to walk again but she needs time. He suggested that the princess take Choon Choon to the park in the evening.

Choon Choon Goes to the park!

Everyone at the park, especially the princess’s friends were very excited to see Choon Choon. As soon as her father put down the cage, two of Her Majesty’s friends came over and asked if they could hold her. Her Majesty happily gave them Choon Choon, and then for the next ten minutes Choon Choon was subjected to all kinds of little girl affectations, crooning sounds, a lot of AWWWWW She’s so cute, OOOOHHHHHH , AAAAAAHS and pats and rubs. This was a world new to Choon Choon. But she was not complaining. She was enjoying all the attention. Soon the kids were tired of playing (caressing) with Choon Choon and left her to her own devices. Now under the vigilante eyes of the cousin and her majesty father, Choon Choon was left standing in the vast grass ground.

Choon Choon Rehab

First, she surveyed the ground bleary eyed. Then she tentatively took a step forward. And having conquered the world calmly stood surveying the ground. Then she remembered that she had a beak too, and started pecking at the concrete ground. Apparently her vision was affected too, because she failed to peck at anything falling in the category of hen food. Items on her peck list included but not limited to: toffee wrappers, stones, dirt stones, scraps of plastic.

Then the cousin took pity on Choon Choon and coaxed her towards some flowerbeds where there were a lot of ants. Standing corrected Choon Choon happily started pecking away on……………stones AGAIN. Only when the cousin picked up a particularly big ant and dropped it in front of Choon Choon did she regard the weird moving black thing as food. Move one step, survey, Peck Peck Peck…….. Move one step, survey, Peck Peck Peck…….. Move one step, survey, Peck Peck Peck…….. Move one step, survey, Peck Peck Peck……..

This went on for most of the evening. Then Choon Choon spied her cage sitting on the grass outside the flowerbed. She mustered up all her courage and some of her strength and took two steps towards the 3 inches high bricks bordering the flowerbed. Upon landing on the other side, her legs gave way and she had to spread her massive wings to balance herself. The scene was comical as much as it was pitiful. But the princess and her father didn’t lose hope. They kept bringing Choon Choon daily to the park with them. Gradually Choon Choon regained her lost strength and even the squawk in her voice, which is the sole province of hens.

Choon Choon the black HEN!

You will be delighted to know that Choon Choon has started functioning as a normal hen, running and pecking at all and sundry. And she has made friends with kids at the park, and occasionally lets them pet her. The princess meanwhile is just as possessive about Choon Choon as before, and sometimes runs with Choon Choon, only to fall back tired. Sometimes she manages to catch up with poor Choon Choon, and grabs her tail. Her Majesty’s words fill the writer (the cousin) with an inexplicable happiness, when she says that:

“ChoonChoon itna tez bhaagta ha k kabi kabi mjhse pakra he ni jata. Me thak jati hun per Choon Choon nahi thakta.”

English:

“Choon Choon runs so fast that sometimes I can’t even catch him. I get tired but Choon Choon doesn’t.”

And that, folks, is exactly how a hen should behave.

Hostel Life in EME

You got admitted to EME College NUST? Wow great achievement that. Must be feeling a little taller already, no? But wait, did you say you wanna live in the hostels? Are you sure? I mean dude think again, for hostel life in EME college is what is making me write this article. Well... to the briefing then.

EME College has 5 hostels for civilians namely Iqbal, Liaquat, Jinnah. Hired and Bank hostel. A brief description of each is given below following which I will brood upon the general hostel life.

Iqbal Hostel:

One of the oldest hostels of EME, Iqbal has the pride of giving the look of a low security prison. The walls have the faded grey colour of a building not painted in the last 15 years. Building design is quite simple. Two storeys, 2 corridors to each storey.  One on the left and one on the right. 14 rooms in each corridor. That boasts a grand total of 56 rooms housing 108 intelligent engineers. Washrooms are shared, 7 washrooms and 5 bathrooms to each corridor. That concludes the building structure. Iqbal hostel currently houses the whole final year batch with a smattering of junior degrees. All the other hostels contain both DE-34 and DE-35 students with varying ratios. Iqbal is the only hostel to have a huge lawn at the front, with decorative lights and appropriately placed benches, a perfect place to be at night. The lawn looks simply awesome at night!

Liaquat Hostel:

Made in the recent past, this is the last habitable building before the boundary wall of EME, (don’t worry, it’s still a long way off :p). Separated by some 50 feet of grass same building structure as Iqbal, Liaquat hostel boasts two extra rooms on the upper floor lobby. It has a basketball court on a little paved area at the front which students use to play cricket :D

Jinnah Hostel:

Located in the far (and wild) West of EME, this is the most notorious hostel in the college. A saying goes that:

 “jo Jinnah me gya wo kharab hojata ha”

In English:

“whoever goes to Jinnah goes bad”. 

Jinnah hostel has 6 blocks A,B,C,D,E,F of which the E block is occupied by Nustians. Jinnah enjoys the close proximity of EME’s cheapest dhaba where the whole variety of all other eateries combined is available. MI (Medical) room, Main mosque and library are all located close by.

Hired Hostel:

I know only two things about Hired hostel; it is outside EME’s boundary wall. And it houses ICT scholarship students. Regarding location as it is adjacent to the Main mosque so all the perks of Jinnah hostel (though not the fame) are shared by Hired hostel.

Bank Hostel:

Bank hostel is the newest addition to EME’s hostels. Built three years back adjacent to the boundary wall and overlooking main GT road, Bank hostel boasts glistening walls, tiled floor and brand new furniture. Though the payoff is 3 students per room as the rooms are a bit large. As the name indicates a branch of National Bank of Pakistan is located downstairs. Bank hostel is quite a distance away from anything interesting. The departments and library are nearby though. Also the hot favourite EME café aka Incantare café is also in front of it. And it is the favourite hangout at night because it remains open till 2 am!

Now something about hostel life.

Hostel life is fun, cool and happening, Right?? Actually, no. You make a lot of friends, yes. You have a social gathering, have those late night hangouts, walks on the circular road at three in the morning and music blaring on loudspeakers in the corridor. You have these cold baths on birthdays, parathas (hostelites will understand J ) and that guy in shorts without a top shouting at the top of his lungs:

 “kis b******** ne meri chappal uthai ha??”

In English :

“which b****** has picked my slippers??”. Yes believe it or not, you can have the room to yourself, wake up at your own time but there is no guarantee you will see your belongings as it is in your room. Someone is bound to pick up your slippers, USB, Mouse, comb, register, book, your teacup etc. etc. only to return it some days after. Or worse you chance upon your belongings in someone else’s room. That kind of thing is normal in hostels. Shouting at the top of your lungs on your way to the bathroom is also normal. You get all types in hostel, computer geeks, football fans, drama lovers, political analysts, experts on fighter jets blah blah blah. There a lot of advantages in living in a hostel. Broke your pc, consult a dabba wala (Computer dept. guys ), need help with programming, consult a tat..Mechatronics guy, need help with studies consult the electrical nerds, need a date, consult a mechie…. 

You get happy you get sad you get excited you encounter bouts of adrenaline and long hours of depression you miss your home you miss your mom you miss your school friends you feel no one is sincere to you, you feel life is giving you a very tough time you will encounter this and much more!! Trust me. All will pass. Time passes. I have had good times with friends. I have had times when I felt so down that a random stranger’s greeting cheered me up. These feelings come and go. You will also pass these four years in hostel. And they will pass like a lightening flash and you will look back and remember those stupid times when you wished for escape. These are temporary feelings. What is important is the realization that we have been given a chance very few can hope of, we owe too much to our family, our country to languish in despair. We should keep sight of our goals. Because ultimately everyone will leave this hostel just as everyone will leave this Life.

Building a Quadcopter: A Beginner’s Guide

We decided to take part in a competition in which we were required to build a remotely piloted lighter than air craft. As it said lighter than air so we began to look at helium balloon option with propellers for guidance etc. but the tournament rules were a bit confusing and after three weeks of intense research we had decided that a helium balloon of required dimensions (2 ft. diameter/flying indoors) would at best float) i.e. it could not have the guidance system attached and still be expected to be lighter than air. Apparently the tournament supervisors realized this and they altered the rules cutting the lighter than air. Then our best option was of course to go for a quadcopter. Now we didn’t know anything about quadcopters. So we embarked on a mission to build a quadcoter. So this article is about how to make a quadcopter for amateurs.

What is a quadcopter?

It is a flying craft with 4 propellers. The rpm of the propellers needs only be changed to achieve the funtions of forward, backward, sideways, rotational flying.

Parts Needed:

As we went for the hobby part of quadcopters so we used all ready made parts from the hobby shops and hobbyist. It was basically a kit with mismatch parts.

List of Parts Required:

4 motors

Quadcopter frame (you can buy readymade or you can make yourself)

Flight controller board (FCB) (it is basically a circuit board with all the functions required by a quacopter pre feeded into it.)

Propellers (should be compatible with the motors, more on this later)

Battery (should be of optimum capacity, not too large not too small)

Electronic Speed Controllers (can be obtained readymade or if you are an electronics student you can design your own)

Radio Controller/ Transmitter/ TX-RX

Wires (different voltage capacities for attaching all the circuitry)

Power Distribution board (needed if you build the frame yourself)

Screws, /nuts and bolts (you’ll have to purchase from hobby shops because they are hexagonal shape not readily available in market)

Our build:

First of all I would suggest search the hobby forums and get in touch with a hobbyist, it’ll save you a lot of time and trouble.

We went for a hobbyking FS450 frame which is a 450 size (450 mm) quadcopter frame and comes ith a PCB for power distribution. For motors we went for the Turnigy 950 KV brushless outrunners. These can spin at a maximum rpm of 11000 rpm. By using online calculators we calculated that we would require large props of 8-10 inch size. We went for 1045 props. 10 indicates prop size and 45 indicated its pitch. These are relatively slow spinning motors drawing large current so we had to go for ESCs over 25 amps. We went for Turnigy plush 30 A ESCs. We got a 2200 mAh 3S LiPo battery of Turnigy. For the radio controller I would suggest that go for a good and popular radio controller as it would save you a lot of pain later. We went for a second hand Hobbyking controller 6ch which comes on the very low quality chart. And it was a lot of pain in the…well.

Item	Quantity
Turnigy Plush 30A ESC	4
Turnigy 950 KV motors	4
Hobbyking 6ch TX-RX	1
Hobbyking slowfly 1045 Props	8
Kk 2.0 FCB	1
FS450 frame	1
Screws, Nuts, Bolts	Unlimited

How to build:

  1.First have the following tools nearby. Solder iron, solder wire, cutter, hammer, plier, tape, double tape

  2.Solder the bullet connectors on the ESCs (if not already done so)

  3.Take the ESCs one by one and solder them onto the connections on the PCB (frame)

  4.Solder the battery’s wires on the PCB on the allotted slots.

  5.Fix the motors on the motor mounts provided on the respective arm of the frame.  

  6.Fix the arms of the frame on the frame board (PCB).

  7.Attach the battery and the receiver on the underside of PCB (or any feasible place)

  8.Make sure that the CG (center of gravity) of the whole assembly is on the exact center of the   PCB (frame board), if it is not then make corrections to do so.

  9.You can check the CG by tying a knot from the center of the assembly (PCB) and suspending it in mid-air.

 10.Take the 5V connecting wires or jumpers and attach at respective slots of receiver and FCB.

 11.Fix the props on the motors, make sure they are fixed tightly. You don’t want the props flying off in mid-flight (trust me it has happened)

 12.Fix two bright LEDs or LED tape (it is a piece of fabric with a lot of LEDs) on the front part of your quad copter so that while flying you know which side is front and which is back. Take a connection out to the battery wires for this tape.

 13.Congratulations, your quad copter is assembled.

How to fly:

Coming on to the flying bit, let me tell you clearly that it will be a miracle if you get it right up in the air in the first try. If you don’t want to take any risks (actually it is advisable) you should first practice with a toy quadcopter to get a hang of this thing. For our part we extensively tested for a day on mattresses spread out on the floor.  First you will have to calibrate the ESCs with the remote controller (TX) so that they (ESCs) know what the start and end points of her TX are. Process of calibration varies with ESCs and FCB. You can find it online.

After calibration you have to check whether each function on your TX prompts exactly the same response on your quadcopters. For example if you are giving throttle all the motors should speed up in unison, if you give forward pitch the two forward designated motors should speed up and the two backward designated motors should slow down.

Another thing to keep in mind is that some FCB come with a safety mechanism. You have to arm them after switching on the power. Arming process involves pulling both the knobs on the TX in the bottom right corner of the screen. An indicator led will turn on the FCB to indicate that the board has been armed. This prevents accidental starting of the motors.

Our Flight:

Unfortunately we were extremely short of time for the competition so we couldn’t fly it to our fill. But the few test flights we did after correcting all the glitches gave satisfactory results. We had to change the ESCs from the OPTO to Hobbyking Plush because the former were apparently not compatible with the kk2.0 FCB. Also we had earlier installed a MultiWii FCB which is a much superior board compared to the kk2.0 but for reasons unknown its accelerometer was behaving most weirdly.

Conclusion

I hope this article serves as a guide for any future aspirants to this hobby

I present thee..... INQALAAAB!!!

So for the last seven or eight days our favourite soap opera has been the Azadi and Inqalabi marches, led by Imran Khan (IK) and Tahir-ul-Qadri (TUQ) respectively. I don’t usually watch TV, but for the last week I have been watching TV almost daily. Not to mention following the latest on internet. I am a staunch fan of IK. We all love Imran Khan and respect him. And we all have this secret desire to see a change in Pakistan as we know it, or Inqalaab. But are we ready for it? Do we even understand what the term Inqalaab or revolution implies. Have we got the foggiest idea what nations had to go through while undergoing revolutions. The honest answer is no. we don’t have an inkling what revolution means. Did Ayotollah Khomeini just rise up from his sofa one day and decided he was not pleased with the Shah’s policies and set out to overthrow him? It was the making of decades of chaos and injustice that the Khomeini led to Shah’s overthrow. Did the masses rebel against the Shah for his faulty economic and governmental policies. Could the Iran Revolution have occurred if it were the wishes of a mere 1-2 lac of populace and a religious leader at their behest? I don’t mean to fault IK on his steps, protesting is his democratic right. Neither do I have anything against TUQ wanting an Inqalaab. But does either of them seriously think it’s enough to just lead 1-2 hundred thousand people toward the capital and demand the PM’s resignation? Had they entertained their mind with a little more foresight and had a larger perspective of national and international politics, they wouldn’t have done the things they have been doing since 13 august. With half the Middle East at war, a hostile neighbour with a new nationalist PM and an army operation against terrorists in our FATA region, does it seem tactful to call for the PM’s resignation? Can you blame the haters for calling the Inqalaab and Azadi marches diversionary tactics when our Wazeeristan brother need our (whole nation’s) support? I am a fan of IK but this move has made me suspicious. And what of the Azaadi and Inqalaab marches. Leave the layman aside. Are the persons in the Azadi and Inqalaab marches ready for what they are demanding . Strict accountability of everyone? Ask yourself this. When was the last time we paid the traffic challaan when the police officer rightly demanded us to. When was the last time we were willing to talk out a solution to our problems, instead of taking out guns and firing at all fronts? Do we even pay our bills on time? The Inqalaabis with the gas masks and riot equipment in their hands, are they honestly expecting that the turnout indicates a changing in Pakistan. No! I am sorry to say, IK and TUQ, we do not deserve leaders like you. Pakistani nation, as it happens, is not ready to get independence from their corrupt leaders. You can keep trying of course. Maybe even NS will tender his resignation tomorrow. But while the vast majority of business community is satisfied with whatever NS has thrown at them, we will not witness an Inqalaab. While Facebook users like me and whole of the middle class is satisfied to sit in their homes and watch the drama unfold in front of the parliament house, we will not witness an Inqalaab. Until the masses come out at their own will, until the enemy is clawing at our gates and threatening every common man, landlord, army officer, salaried person’s child, we will not witness an Inqalaab. “THEY GUILLOTUINED EVERY PERSON WHOSE HOME HAD A LIGHT ON AFTER EVENING”. Every last one of them. Until internet users like me and your Facebook supporters are satisfied to sit in front of our screens and click “like” and “share” on every troll post we find about a respected politician like you, Imran Khan, we will not witness an Inqalaab. So stop wasting your time and energies demanding the PM’s resignation and focus instead on making the most of your KPK government. You may have a popular party, favourite segment of society and a revolutionary slogan, but it is not enough. This nation doesn’t deserve people like you. It still needs a dozen NS and AZ for squeezing out the last drop of their blood. Maybe fifty years on, we WILL witness an Inqalaab. Then we won’t need people like you bringing an Inqalaab for us, WE WILL bring the Inqalaab ourselves. But for now, go home, take a break you have earned and keep working on the Pakistani youth and society. They’ll remember you fifty years later, not now. Now is not the moment.

We went there, slept, and came back…

The semester had just started. The result was not yet out. The weather was good too. So I and my two friends thought it was a good time to visit Ghulam Ishaque Khan Institute (GIKI). We registered for the (so called) largest technical event of Pakistan, “GIKI Techfest’14.”  There were five different kind of modules of which only one caught our attention. The industrial technovation challenge, in which we, the participants had to solve a real time problem faced in industry, come up with a good solution, present it to a panel of judges and blast our way through the competition!

Day 1:

Well it started with us rushing off to the Daewoo station to catch the bus for GIKI, where they were scheduled to arrive. They arrived at 11. They were punctual. Yes they arrived on time so they were punctual, right? Actually, no. They spent no less than two hours sorting out their lists, confirming payment statuses, ticking off confirmed ones blah blah blah. We stupidly waited for an hour in the hope that the wait would end. But then our hunger got the better of us and we headed off to college (it is next to the station, no worries there) had a nice big lunch and chilled in the hostels, until we got a call from the GIKI representative that buses would depart in 5 minutes. We rushed to the area to find that the last of the four buses was ready to depart waiting for………….us! We got in, the journey to GIKI was uneventful, we were assigned the common room along with ten other students at the liaison desk and we put off our bags in hostel. Now we set out for a tour of the campus. GIKI has a beautiful campus set in the foot of surrounding mountains.

Theme Dinner and Naqsh Mimes:

After strolling for an hour we went to the auditorium for the opening ceremony, which was an hour late and lasted for about twenty minutes. Then there was the theme dinner to attend, where arrangements were made for a disco dance party (floor, lighting, sound system and all) to make the wait for food enjoyable. The dinner ended around 9 pm. We made our way back to the audi and I couldn’t help but notice that the air was filled with the cries of wild animals. It was almost as if we were in a jungle. Once or twice I heard a sound like some person imitating a cat far away, but then realized the sound was made by the jackals wandering in the jungle. We got to the audi to get rocked by Naqsh mimes. The guys presented some really brilliant acts, and the acting was near professional level, the coordination was perfect too plus the perfect synchronization of the sound and lighting system got me all dewy eyed. In short, hats off to Naqsh Arts Society for such a brilliant show.

Scare in the open:

The show ended at 11 pm. As we had to finalize our project we went to the library which is situated at some distance from the other buildings with a vast expanse of jungle in the back. At night it could get pretty scary….as we were to find out. We stayed till 1:30 am until the librarian announced that the library was closing. We dragged out from chairs and out on the main steps of library we got engrossed in photo session. We were busy posing under the light of street lamps when we heard vicious barking. And I nearly wet my pants. Now I would like to establish some facts here.

 It was around 2 am.

There was no building within running distance where we could secure ourselves. The library was locked!

There were no trees I could climb onto.

Not a soul was in sight except us.

In short we were within 100 metres of the jungle where mountain dogs were angry about something, maybe we and I knew for a fact that I could never outrun dogs.

So I got terribly frightened. We all did. With quick steps and daring not even to look back in case the dogs had decided to follow we made our way back to the hostels. It was a real relief when we finally reached the hostels. And I thanked Allah for saving our neck. That is an entirely different thing that we never really saw any dog or any other animal on our way back. *sheepish smile*

GIKI Pizza:

As our work was still remaining we secured positions on the sofa directly in front of the hostel gate and then the fun began. At the liaison desk we were given a map of GIKI, with important phone numbers. The last of the numbers was for GIKI pizza. I had dismissed it as just another number. But now it came back to have a laugh. After about every five minutes, we would hear rushing footsteps, a person would open the door, go outside, come back with a pizza box, leave the door opened and go to his room. Nothing wrong with that right? Only that as were sitting directly in front of the door, one of us had to get up after every five freaking minutes to close the door to keep the freezing wind out. Yeah we were too shy to ask every other guy to close the door. Till when? We stayed up till 5, which was interesting, because the presentations would start at 8:30.

Day 2:

Presentation;

We got up at 730, had breakfast at 8:30 and were preparing our presentation in the Department of Engineering Sciences when we get a message “Those participants who have not reported on time have been disqualified.” Certain it was a tactic to lure us into the hall, we entered the hall at the beautiful time of 1000 am, only to be told that we had been disqualified. We got dumbstruck for a moment, and then counter argued that since when had they been punctual enough. Well, weak as their case was, they let us in and we sat in the hall. Heard team after team give their presentation and leave the hall. Went to inquire when was our turn, only to be told that our name was not on the list. Another session of arguing followed and at last, at long last, with twenty of the hundred-seat hall occupied and judges yawning in their seats, we stepped on the stage to present our case. And lo and behold, the door opens and the media team of GEO TV walks in to cover the event. Was I complaining about anything?

Mushaira:

Once again we find ourselves in the audi, this time to attend a mushaira. The audi is packed, spirits are high and we enjoy some cool shairi by some students and the invited guests. But before all of that there are the hot favourite “Naqsh mimes” once again. The night ended partying and enjoying and we tried out the GIKI pizza at the shop. Looking forward to the hiking trip early in the morning next day.

Day 3:

Morning…..?!!

Now here’s where the fun starts. We come back from audi late at night after mushaira, find our 10 or so common room occupants with whom we are sharing fast asleep, and suddenly we don’t feel like sleeping at all. We open our laptops and relive the presentation, where we went wrong, and our mistakes blah blah blah, had a nice enlightening discussion till 2 am. And then we go to sleep. The hiking trip starts at 7 am next day, mind.

“I am floating in the air, marvelling at the surrounding mountains, the weather is so pleasant and I am a bird, I look down, see people shouting and pointing at me…and then suddenly I am falling. I land with a huge crash and that’s when my open my eyes to see the common room bustling with activity”.

I panic and grab my mobile from which I see the time. 8 30!!!! What the ….! I exclaim loudly as the realization dawns on me that we have missed the hiking trip. Sad, angry, crestfallen, not even bothering to wake up my friends, I turn around and go to sleep again. The rest of the occupants have already dressed and left. My eyes next open at 1030, I get up groggily, wash my face and am getting dressed when, with one arm in the sweater, a team SMEP member comes up to me frowning and asks,  

“Where is your team?”

I point at the two bundles lying on the mattress.

He looks incredulously at me and says, in as civilized a way as possible:

“bhai 10 minute me tayar ho k foran audi pohancho YLSO session start ha or wahan guest speakers pohanche hue hain, 9 30 ka ap logo ko time dia tha or ap log yahan pare so rahe han”.

(“Hurry up and get to the audi quickly, YLSO session has started, we gave you the time of 9 30 and here you are sleeping it out here. They are waiting for you there.”)

Feeling somewhat ashamed, we quickly dressed and left for the audi, but not before two more people had come to badger us to hurry up and then a person even came and stood over our heads until we had left the common room. We were now positively ashamed at what impression we were portraying, sure that we were one of the few who had failed to get up on time. But imagine our surprise on reaching the audi that we find only three rows occupied, out of the 70 or so rows and we are like, seriously? Koi bi ni utha?

Young Leaders Speak Out:

Fast forward to Col Anjum who spoke at length about not losing hope and protecting our dreams and all that good shit blah blah, then came the eccentric Saad Salim, took the mike out of the holder and strutted Haroon- style on the  stage giving his talk. His point was that anyone can do what he dreams about he only has to let go of the centuries old belief drilled into us that we can’t do it.

The tale of two brothers:

He talked about the tale of two brother one small and the other big. The big one falls into a well and the little one pulls him up and the village people refuse to believe them because it is physically impossible. Then a wise man (there always is a wise man) says that the small boy was able to do it because there was no one around to tell him he couldn’t do it. Then we had some fun on the stage in one of Saad Salim’s dream realization tactics. It involved closing our eyes, imagining we had realized our dream, and our reaction on that. That can be really fun if you have a well-defined dream and you are an expressive person, but it gets awkward if you don’t have a clearly defined dream and don’t usually express yourself, I compensated by shouting and hoop-lalla-ling on the stage. That was fun. And it was also stupid. Then Ali Moeen Nawazish came and tried his best to realize us our responsibility to our country. How we are the 0.78 % of population who are studying in university and it is up to us to build this country.

The closing ceremony followed whose chief guest was Dr Samar Mubarakmand and the shields were distributed to the winners. And at long last around 5 pm the GIKI Techfest’14 officially ended. We had our paperwork sorted out, got seated in bus and returned to Rawalpindi. And that’s how the memorable trip to GIKI, Topi, District Swabi, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa ended.

Elephants in Thailand

Thailand is a beautiful country which is especially famous for tourism. It is an island country. An island is a tract of land surrounded by water on all sides. The earth consists of 70% water. Together all the inhabitable land mass of earth is divided in 7 continents. The United States of America is a big country in the continent of North America. The USA is a global superpower because it has the biggest war machine in the world. The USA navy operates 11 gigantic ships (among other ships) which can carry up to a hundred military aircrafts each. They are called aircraft carriers. They are powered by nuclear reactors so they are called nuclear powered carriers. Nuclear energy is a clean source of energy which has been around for 80 years. It works on the principle of fission between an electron and a proton. Electrons and protons are subatomic particles. They were first discovered by a scientist named Rutherford. Rutherford was born in a New Zealand which is also an island state near the continent state of Australia. Australia is home to the amazing species of kangaroos. Kangaroos are mammals who keep their young in a pouch in their bellies until they are old enough to survive in the wild. Mammals are animals who feed their young by milk produced in their mammary glands. Milk is an important nutrient for the growth of mammals. It contains calcium which is especially essential for the development of bones. There are many other important minerals. Minerals are useful components of soil found in the earth. There are huge reserves of minerals in Afghanistan. These reserves are especially useful in manufacturing of weapons. Weapons are intelligent devices humans invented to harm each other. The Russians wanted to gain access to the warm waters of Indian Ocean so they attacked Afghanistan with air and ground forces. Air forces consist of aircrafts equipped with weapons to attack from the air. They use powerful engines called jet engines which enable them to gain speeds of upwards of Mach 2. Mach number is the ratio of speed of object to speed of sound in air. Air consists of 71% nitrogen. Nitrogen is an important part of plants growth. They use it in the process of photosynthesis. Process industries are industries which use different processes to manufacture an end product. Product is also defined as the result of multiplication between two numbers. The number of elephants in Thailand ranges between 4000-5000.