Pen Woes

.

Mein pen hoon kisi aur ka mujhse likhta koi aur hai

Sar-e-kaaghaz meri nib hai, pass-e-kaaghaz kuch aur hai

Mein kisi ke dast-e-talab mein hoon tu kisi ke harf-e-dua mein hoon

Mein naseeb hoon kisi aur ka, mujhe maangta koi aur hai

Kabhi laut aayain tu na poochna sirf dekhna bare gaur se

Jinhain diyaar-e-ghair se lota diya gaya k ye pen ha kisi or ka

Ajab aitbaar-ba-aitbaari ke darmeyaan hai zindagi

Mein qareeb hoon kisi aur ke mujhe jaanta koi aur hai

Wohi munsifoon ki riwayattain wohi faisaloon ki ibarattain

Mera maqsad-e-takhleeq tu koi aur thaa mera istemaal koi aur hai

Teri copy meri ink se zara na-manoos tu nahee magar

Tu copy qareeb la tujhe dikhla doon me pen hoon kamaal ka

Jo meri nangi nib ko neem-shab 'Saleem' cover na mil saka

Tu phir is ke maeni tu yeh huwe ke main pen hun kisi la parwa ka

The Penta-Faced Monster

You have seen it coming. You have experienced its nastiness. Once it comes you can only pray that you don’t fall for it. And yet every time you do. Yes, you are right! I am talking about the nastiest of the nasty, the worst of the worst timers, the bane of skinny people…BEHOLD!!!
The Seasonal Cold. It comes at various times of the year. It usually crops up at the most annoying times, just when we are thinking about this great Friday hangout scene. At weddings it gets its due share of curses. But nowhere is its presence more unwelcome than in students premises at exam times. Either it is a dirty trick of our timetable makers that they schedule exams to coincide with the shift in the weather or the cold just thinks it plain amusing to torment us, the puny students. This article is dedicated to all the brave sufferers of this nasty tormentor.

1) The Breeze with the Cold Touch:
It usually starts with a gentle breeze in spring or autumn. The type you find most pleasant at first…yes only at first. It taps you on the ear, says HI! And before you know it you are sneezing like bad. Welcome to the start of your cold bout. Nasal voice and 13-sneezes-in-a-row make you feel like a little kitten, shirking even from the tiniest of contact with cold atmosphere. You call your mom, and apart from the concerned lecture in which you catch glimpses of gargles and joshanda, you at last hear the magic words: Anti-Allergy tablet, pop a few and forget the cold. You are now on a strong dose of steroids and the sneezes are all but gone in a jiffy. An hour or two after you find yourself drowsing, and before you know it, you’re asleep. Good for you ain’t it? Yeah? You think so…? Think again!

2) Stalker in the Night:
Sleep is the favourite part of the lurking monster in your ENT canals, and it always turns out victorious in the battle at Nasal Bridge. All the sneeze causing stuff that your anti-allergy stashed away for those 8 hours has been reproducing at ten times the normal rate in somewhere up your ENT canals…and the army is ready to take you down. You only know of the marching army when it is just rounding the last bend before your nostrils and you desperately find a cloth to wash it off!  Ugh! Not to mention the watery (actually, rivery) eyes and the thick saliva forming at your mouth. Desperately hoping to find some hot water to battle this army of flooding nose waters (sorry, couldn’t find a better name) you curse your luck when hostel geyser fails to cooperate. Then you find yourself sitting up at six in the morning sipping boiling hot Qarshi ka johar joshanda thanks to your roomie’s heating rod. Now you gain a few hours respite, albeit you having to carry a cloth with you to stop the flood…sorry nose waters.
And just when you think you have bested the cold, it has yet to pull out its next weapon in its bulging arsenal, the clogged ENT.

3) The Clogged ENT:
You thought you had defeated the flu only with a cup of johar joshanda and your hanky. How naive of you! Now there’s no runny nose, big respite that. But what to do with this Army on Dharna in your ENT canals, neither getting out (no matter how much pressure you apply) nor getting destroyed. Making trumpeting noises at the sink and inviting weird glances from passers-by you desperately take out your phone and call your mom, AGAIN, and this time it’s a vaguely named tablet ( usually of yellow colour). And before you know it the army is on the march again. And you meet it with cupped hanky again. Now you have seen the last of the Nasal Army, or rather you think you have. How naive you gonna get, puny human!

4) The Plague of the Phlegm:
Come nightfall and neither is your hanky there, nor is the army intent on marching soon. But it is movable. Yeeeess (Read it in a creepy tone!). Through the natural process of breathing, the army is going back the way it came, up the nasal passage, down your throat… uuhhh I think that’s enough. I’ll suffice by asking a simple question: How many times you gonna spit? 1,2,5, 10 20? How much? You are losing there, honey.
You wake up and you realise that that your throat is so sore you don’t even want to open your mouth. Don’t even think of swallowing. A hundred spears ready to stab on your throat on a simple act of swallowing. The army has you by the throat. Down comes the heating rod to the rescue. Gargle after gargle followed by tea after tea and you can finally swallow again.
A sigh of relief.

5) The Army's Camp:
And you go to breakfast, *(cough cough)* eat some yummy parathas and the like *(cough cough cough)*. The day was quite busy and your friend’s pizza treat just added to that *(cough cough cough)*. And now you notice it, you are feeling a slight constriction in your chest. Oh no, no, no, no no GOD!!! NOOOO! You feel like screaming your head off!! Scream away honey…scream all you like, that’s not gonna bring the army that’s camped out in your lungs. Gargles, Toot Siah, Joshanda…nothing works!
And then you feel the tap on your shoulder only to turn back and hear your mother’s voice, we are gonna need an antibiotic dear, that frozen yoghurt aint coming back up on its own. And there goes your self-medication down the gutter. Pop away tablets all you want, you still have to pay a visit to the doctor and finally, after three long days you at last see the back of the army….that was a nice week long battle and you have emerged victorious. Congratulations!!

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.