I know streets of Islamabad to an extent that I often wonder my hometown is Lahore of Islamabad. Well , none of them are my hometowns. I believe my hometown is Karachi where I have spent initial years of my life. Not really , I don’t know what development have happened there during last decade and have lost in touch with that massive city. I guess my hometown should be Vehari a small town east of Multan where I had spent around 8 years. As per our traditions, town of father is supposed to be the town of the son, therefore I should belong to Hasilpur then. Oh right ! but then I don’t know people of Hasilpur that much except for extended family members , neither have I spent enough time over there.

Talking in a broader context , My country of origin is Pakistan , I have lived and studied here. Got my Masters degree from England and now I am working In Qatar. I don’t know If I’ll continue living in Qatar or change my location or job after a year or so. Anyway , I would like to be known as a “citizen of the world” ,rather than identified from my Nationality. That’s doesn’t mean I am not proud of my heritage and country. I love Pakistan and love my culture, traditions, language and food. heck yeah ! I want to be in a place where people around me should judge each other from their personalities , known on basis of Nationalities.

I was surprised to hear the words of country manager of my company. He assertively and straight forwardly said that he doesn’t want to see more Pakistanis in company. I don’t blame him ,he must have sensed something. Probably number of Pakistanis might be getting higher than other nationalities or he might have seen some problems created because of Pakistanis.

Forget it. All I wanted to say was , I had a good time in Islamabad. Met relatives and all those good old friends of university times. Jokes, cracks, laughter, restaurants ,multiplayer games, overnight stay and movies made the trip awesome. We were remembering those university times when most of our problems were revolving around assignments and other related things. Now I am back in Lahore ,doing almost nothing just relaxing and waiting for next week when I’ll be flying to Doha. I faced some bad times over there at work but eventually coped with it. I presume there is lot more to come. I don’t care. I’ll work hard without a question or a pause and things will remain alright. Last 4 months have taught me a lot. I have worked through a project where a new entity was created with a joint venture of two companies. It has taught me a lot. Time management, working under pressure, improved my communication skills and taught me how to tackle difficult people. 

I always enjoy writing without a writing plan. When words keep coming like a flow river and I just write whatever comes in my mind ,without a question or a pause. I love it. As they on ‘run-time’ basis in computer sciences. There was a time when I knew much about computer sciences field. There are things we don’t know. We may know about them but we may not understand. What is the difference. Difference is huge, it’s just that they don’t want us to understand certain things, they will do everything to keep us ignorant. Ignorance is blessing at times, but not at times when things need to be changed and the system needs an overhaul. System was never on our side, it has been with the ruling force for centuries. Who are we then? Why can’t we rise up and speak for ourselves? Can’t we have a system that represents us. We the people. The actual people, the populations, communities, creeds not the ‘noble’ robbers. They talk about impeachment now. Who is doing that? And Who is being impeached. A robber of National wealth is accusing a General of mismanaging funds. Brilliant! Generals have a different mindset, they are trained to cope with difficult situations with strategy and force. Negotiations and discourse were drained out of their blood during their training , as they don’t have to  use these skills in their career. They are defenders of homeland , warriors, strategists, patriots, a symbol of valor and gallantry. They enjoy  a lifestyle of their own. It’s not that comfortable for them to easily mingle with civilians. They don’t understand civilians , neither do civilians comprehend military mindset. Military must not rule civilians, the consequences could be catastrophic. This is 21^st century , media rules the world and things that could had kept secret from public in the past ,can’t remain hidden so easily now. Role of media is definitely important , it should be free and fair but at the same time must not forget their responsibilities. Unfortunately, media can be manipulated and influenced by state and corporations, whoever gives them money. Creating panic , deviating from important developments and fabricating hoaxes have  become norms for today’s media. People tend to believe what media is telling them and it is a grave mistake underestimating power of media. So , one of the first few things governments do is to straighten their relations with local media. They can’t afford any type of confrontation with them. Relations play a great role in an organization. Good relations and harmony among peers provides employees respect and a sense of importance. As a result, improved performance  leads to better and efficient delivery of organizational tasks. What can we expect from an environment where trust issues are on rise, blame games are integral part of the work ethic and backbiting is a favourite pastime of employees? Tasks are accomplished ,work goes on and time keeps flying in such places too, but leaving people disgusted and defocused. Not so understandable thing is , If we have to spend most of our day time in office , with same colleagues then why don’t we keep good terms with them? What is the point in politics. One should be ‘man’ enough to accept responsibility of his actions. Ok …I’ll alter it a bit for associates having gender issues. “one should be ‘woman’ enough to accept responsibility of her actions”. This will not only make your life easier but will also be an example for others to follow. Doing so will be beneficial for overall organization.

Things That Can Drive A Sane Person Insane:
 
· The tiny red string on the Band-Aid wrapper that never works.
 
· There are always one or two ice cubes that won't pop out of the
tray.
 
· You have to try on a pair of sunglasses with that stupid little
plastic tag in the middle of them.
 
· The person behind you in the supermarket runs his cart into the
back of your ankle.
 
· The elevator stops on every floor and nobody gets on.
 
· There's always a car riding your tail when you're slowing down
to find an address.
 
· You open a can of soup and the lid falls in.
 
· There's a dog in the neighborhood that barks at EVERYTHING!
 
· You can never put anything back in a box the way it came.
 
· Three hours and three meetings after lunch you look in the
mirror and discover a piece of parsley stuck to your front tooth.
 
· You drink from a soda can into which someone has extinguished a
cigarette.
 
· You slice your tongue licking an envelope.
 
· Your tire gauge lets out half the air while you're trying to
get a reading.
 
· A station comes in brilliantly when you're standing near the
radio but buzzes, drifts and spits every time you move away.
 
· You wash a garment with a tissue in the pocket and your entire
laundry comes out covered with lint.
 
· The car behind you blasts its horn because you let a pedestrian
finish crossing.
 
· A piece of foil candy wrapper makes electrical contact with
your filling.
 
· You set the alarm on your digital clock for 7 PM instead of 7
am.
 
· You rub on hand cream and can't turn the bathroom doorknob to
get out.
 
· Your glasses slide off your ears when you perspire.
 
· You can't look up the correct spelling of a word in the
dictionary because you don't know how to spell it.
 
· You have to inform five different sales people in the same
store that you're just browsing.

I am not feeling like myself for sometime and obviously because of this I should be missing myself. I can’t find much time to ponder about things these days anyway.

Working late hours, coming home and eating whatever is there, watching what others are watching on TV, and then going to bed. I am missing even those insomniac nights when I had lots of time to think about things. The “real” things of life , fun, friends, history, wars, religions, geo-politics, business models, relationships, ideas to put into writing ,hopes, dreams and memories. I don’t know where these thoughts have gone have. The passion for music, love of food, urge for writing ,the motivation of going out , meeting new people and improving my social network and the pleasure of reading. Yes, I do miss all that.

Getting up in the morning running and having something for breakfast starts my day. And the day eventually ends with an uncomfortable calm and uneasy silence lasting for five to ten minutes , while I try to keep myself awake on bed with a head full of so many questions I don’t dare to ask myself. Then I fall asleep.

The time of growing up out of a world full of miracles, fantasies dreams had come in my life sometime ago. Harsh realities of life wait for me ahead. There is no real me, anymore.

“Twisted perceptions flow through my mind a never-ending doom slips through my soul the paper rips and my

heart is torn what is real is only an illusion time passes and dreams fade like the desert sun. ,irreversible changes occur,

I am only a memory “

I believe , I’ll be back to my “real” self soon. Probably ,it’s the pressure of new job, new country as well as new people that forced me to behave differently. I will come back soon. Very soon. At the same time, this process of ‘growing’ up all by myself has taught me some real lessons that I might never had learnt if I was back in the comfort of my home ,people and family.

Some people don’t accept incomers very well. They see their already developed comfort zone and personal space getting hurt because of new person’s arrival. They tend to resist change and try to avoid new comers as much they can ; any act of newcomer is perceived as negative and poor. New comers usually see themselves in a situation where they find them under pressure. Stress of getting adjusted to a newer environment, anxiety of learning “unwritten” and “hidden” rules of the new place.  They feel like they are useless and they have disturbed other person to an extent. At such times, it is probable that one of the member loses temper and utter something unkind, with a every possibility of making things even worse. Time keeps flying and the hidden communication, silent swearing and unsaid things become part of their daily lives.

This case is not true for all situations as many strangers can get acquaintance in lesser time too. Either, person already there is more open to the change or the new comer behaves wisely and gives space to other person .Thus both of them have better chances of getting adjusted well with passage of time. Patience is very important as we might have to hear harsh things at times, but keeping your cool and not responding with same bad manner makes things even easier. The person, who has treated other harshly, becomes softer in embarrassment and to reverse the effect of bad treatment.

Interestingly, I am pretty vague, what point exactly, I wanted to put here; just felt like sharing the thought.

Source : www.stopcorporateabuse.org

Global warming. Toxics in toys. Sub-prime mortgage lenders preying on the poor. Hired U.S. guns killing civilians in Iraq - it’s been a year of widespread corporate abuse. We’ve picked eight nominees for you to vote on in the Corporate Hall of Shame.

(Archer Daniels Midland) for making Indonesia the world’s worst contributor to global warming (after the U.S. and China) through its clearing of endangered forests and wildlife habitat for palm oil plantations. First the good news: burning ‘biodiesel’ fuels emits less global warming pollution than burning standard, oil-based gasoline. Then the bad news: producing biofuels creates tons of global warming pollution – easily enough to offset any global warming benefits gained at the tail end of the process.

(Blackwater)  for killing unarmed Iraqi civilians, hiring paramilitaries trained under military dictatorships, and using its close political and financial ties with the Bush Administration to secure lucrative contracts.They are known for silencing their critics too.

(Countrywide) for predatory mortgage lending to elderly and non-English-speaking borrowers, and for gouging minority borrowers with discriminatory rates and fees. These actions have forced nearly a quarter of borrowers into default, at the same time their CEO earned a $120 million salary. 

(MATTEL) for producing tens of millions of lead-contaminated toys and aggressively lobbying against bans on other highly toxic chemicals.

(NESTLE)  for numerous labor violations including child exploitation, contributing to the obesity epidemic, and threatening community water supplies for its bottled water brands.

(TOYOTA)  for aggressively lobbying against increased fuel economy standards and state measures to reduce global warming gas emissions, while hypocritically spending millions to advertise its environmental leadership and popular Prius line.

(WAL-MART) for displacing local businesses, failing to cover employees under the corporation’s health plan, and opposing legislation that would increase homeland security.

(WENDY's) for its contribution — as America’s third largest fast food franchise — to the obesity epidemic, and for refusing to meet nutritional labeling guidelines.