Happiness in 24 Pieces

This image was taken near my home beside railway lines in Gujrat Pakistan on August 9, 2013. I often see people gathered around this old tree and playing an old traditional draft like game called "Barah Gout" (12 Pieces) . The game uses good calculations and logical thinking ! These people use to spend their leisure time by playing this game ! 

Whenever I pass by , a question comes to my mind and I feel myself asking me " Itni bhi kya jaldi hai ? " Why u are in so much hurry ?

Their low cost setup with few lines on the ground and 24 stone pieces shows that you can get happiness out of so simple and apparently invaluable things ! 

The example of Dalda Ghee

Today I had a meeting with Mr. Muzaffar Hussain Bhatti. He is the GM
of Pak Fans and working there since last 48 years. Like always he
talked about the past and various eras of history.

While talking he mentioned a very interesting example, that "before
nationalization and before1965 war it was the time when we use to buy
Dalda Cooking Oil & Ghee from the store and we use to wrap it in some
paper or box so that no one could recognize it. That was because it
was considered an inferior good at that time. Most people used Desi
Ghee for cooking.
But then came the time of nationalization during which economy
activity went so down. Even ghee manufacturing units were nationalized
by Bhutto government. Supply of Food items like ghee, sugar & flour
was very short. Common people were not able to purchase it due to
shortage of supply. Only if someone had very good links & relations
with ghee & oil distributors he was able to get that from their store.
Similarly, Mr. Bhatti use to buy ghee from a friend who was an oil
trader, but after purchasing ghee, he used to wrap it before getting
out of the shop so no one can recognize that what he is buying, but
this time he was hiding that oil can not because it was not an
inferior good, but it was a rare and valuable item.

This simple but interesting comparison gave a very good example how
economy was so much affected by nationalization of industries in ZA
Bhuttoo era.

Regards

Shams


Sent from my iPhone

Preparing for Economic Wars

In the past wars were based on fighting and killing each other, but
now a days countries confront through economic wars and by
implementing economic sanctions on a country.

Beside spending on Defence we should also prepare ourselves for
economic wars. We should prepare keeping in mind that if we are
isolated from the whole world economically we can survive for years !
This means that we should develop our country with a balanced growth
of all sectors !


Just a thought I wanted to share !


Regards


Shams

Reforms for education

There should be some arrangements by government through which the
people graduating should spend two or three months in some rural
school as teacher ! Similarly, those getting masters degree should
teach in government colleges for some time !

This might help in creating awareness about the poor arrangements in
our rural schools and the students going from big cities would be
associated with such areas and some of them might think about bringing
improvement when they reach on some significant position !

Engineers should spend time in vocational training institutes and
doctors should work with dispensers and lady health workers!

On the other side the students in such backward areas would not only
get quality information but also they would be enlightend with the
trends going on in the world and this would give ideas to them for
their future lives and would Also enable them to become a good citizen
of their society !

Government have to make arrangements that such guest teachers should
get accomodation in such areas Either as a pay in guest or in some
government rest house ! Such students should be encouraged through
stipends or waiver in their smester fees!

People won't leave the luxuries of their home untill such requirements
would be compulsory to get a degree ! Or there can be extra points of
such activities ! Such policies can help in balanced and sustainable
growth of the society as people would go in such areas and spend there
which would also bring positive effects in the local economies of such
rural areas !

Govt. Treat us as slaves

Few days back I heared the news about Shahrukh Khan fighting with
Stadium security and they banned him from entering the stadium for
next five years. SRK said that the reason behind all this was his
denial to give protocol to the families of the stadium officials!

I am writing about this coz few s
Days back I encountered a same situation while managing a cricket
match in Gujrat. The government officials and security personnel were
suppose to help us in controlling the crowd and in checking their
tickets while entering the ground ! Ad they were on the gates, they
tried to get benefit from this opportunity by allowing their friends
in stadium without tickets ! And in some cases they took Rs. 100 per
head to enter illegally in the ground ! This activity was reported to
the management team by gate staff and when we took action on this and
got harsh with the accused. They took it against us and started
creating problems for us ! They first of all stopped our movement
between the enclosures, they stopped managing the crowd and
resultantly it got out of control! Even it got out from their
control ! At the end the crowd won and they entered the ground by
climbing the walls with ropes and by breaking the gates ! Security and
police just saw that happening and allowed them in ! Due to this the
event became an example of mismanagement! Security was flawed ! We
hardly took the players into the ground. Pavilions were filled with
people! And there was no space for players to sit !

Hence, it was a total mess ! Just because we didn't allow them to
misuse their authority!

Security and police should help us as we are paying them through our
taxes but they think that they are above law !

All these Giants ! Collared by IT guys !

All these big corporations are now heavily dependent on their IT
departments ! And offcourse their IT people have made them sure that
they are the best, but the management can only realize untill there is
a security breach by some hacker!

I am surprised that how vulnerable we are in the era of IT where there
are no checks by the regulators that how organizations are managing
their IT security and there are very few standards available in our
country!

Loadshedding is sometimes Good !

It's ten at night and I am in my bed writting this post ! Thanks to
loadshedding that I am so early in bed whereas usually it gets
midnight till I get asleep !

In this post I m going to discuss the positive impacts of loadshedding
on our society and social behaviors ! Normally at this time people
mostly watch TV and in the absence of loadshedding they just sit with
their families and talk to kill time. This family interaction becoming
instinct due to soial media and Electronic media ! So, through
loadshedding people are getting close with their families !

I remember when we were kids, we use to sit in our courtyard with
father during loadsheddings and use to gaze at stars and father told
us varios combinations of stars some stories related to them and their
usage! He also told also so many stories which included stories from
Quran too ! That was really interesting at that time and we use to
listen those stories very attentively. Similarly, might be somewhere
kids would be sitting with parents and listening stories during the
loadsheding time and through this they can go bed early !

In our country we are facing severe energy crisis and to tackle this
people have bought generators & UPS and now they are moving towards
solar energy. I think this situation has made our economy so much
resistant to adverse economic shocks and we survived some really bad
times in the history of our country ! So this loadshedding has also
made us more resistant. Another good thing is the introduction of
solar energy technology and adoption of that by local businesses ! If
this technology would be promoted by our Government we can be self
sufficient in this field very soon as we have ample solar energy
throughout the country!

Govt should promote this technology by reducing import taxes on solar
panels and also bound multinationals and bank to convert their
billboard lights to solar energy and gradually implement it on a
larger scale. Thus, through this technology can be promoted!

No doubt loadsheding is not good for the country but as it is said
"smooth seas never make good sailors"but sometimes such challenges
makes us strong ! I think issue of loadshedding should be resolved
with some solid and longterm beneficial policies to bring a positive
impact on our economy !