Warid Telecom recently participated with the theme of “Transforming Futures” at the LUMS Mega Career Fair recently held on Saturday, January 28, 2012.  Warid Telecom’s Recruiting & Staffing team advised the students about application process, requirements, eligibility criteria and job scope in the Telecom Industry. A good and positive response was seen by the LUMS graduates and final year students who were seeking career opportunities with Warid Telecom.

Some of the event pictures are given below:

via Press Release

LAHORE POST

The Knowledge Factory held its first Comedy Night on 21st December and played host to an audience who left with big smiles on their faces.

The night started off with a new entry into the comedy world in Pakistan, but no stranger to stand up comedy in Manchester, Zubair Asghar. The British accent did not hinder this talented young man from having the audience roaring with laughter as soon as he started his act.

Next was a seasoned, veteran stand-up comedian from Karachi, Junaid Akram. He picked up his audience well from where Zubair had left off with the laughs and his last set of slides about Paki versions of Hollywood movies got roars of laughter.

The last stand-up act of the night by Shehzad Shaikh, President of Cogito Productions, had the audience rolling off their seats in no time. His mimicry of famous personalities, the spot on punch lines, and his animated account of instances around the nation left the audience in hysterics.

Next up was improvisational comedy by the Room for Improvment – a troupe of entertainers brought together by a passion for comedy. The 3 stand up comedians along with Shah Fahad (from FAST University), Murad Awan, Abdul Ahad Ayub and Amtul Haseen Baweja (students at LUMS) and Daniyal Malik (the lyricist of Aaloo Anday) took comedy to another level with their improve games and especially their Pakistani version of the Irish Drinking Song. Shah Fahad and Daniyal Malik won much applause for their outstanding performance during the games.

An improve troupe has been Shaikh’s dream for a while now, he said, and it seems like his efforts are finally paying off and he truly has it going for him this time.

 British comedian Shazia Mirza, too, seemed to enjoy the event fully. Comedy Night did not only fill up the room with roars of laughter, but also left the audience asking for more. Laiba Moin, a student at LSE, was in awe after the improve session and said she could not wait for the next Comedy Night.

LAHORE POST – Struggle for a Judicious Society

Back in college, every night was a late night, spent sometimes in an air-conditioned computer lab pretending to study or  sitting under a tree, on a wooden bench, pondering over the philosophy of existence, with a malbaro light hanging onto dear life from the two nimbly forefingers which would otherwise be pointing people out and laughing at their immature, obviously juvenile behavior at such a time of the night… Whether or not they were climbing a tree like a monkey is another story…

…criticism of the other and tolerance for, went queerly hand in hand here…

… also went, overdosing on tea, not drugs, sometimes falling asleep on the said bench, unawares, sometimes falling asleep with head onto a friend’s lap, amidst discussions into the epistemological approach towards modernity and post modernism or the loopholes in Descartes‘ ontological argument on the nature of God…forgetting in the morning who had the better argument but does that matter really?

Actually, back in college, every night was an early morning. We wouldn’t get tired of cup of tea after cup of tea till the head started to hum happily, singing songs of spring, asserting that sleep was something you did when you were done with life. We weren’t. And to proof the tea-effect right, we would roam round and round and round the campus, watching the miracles of nature unfold as we roamed: huddle of girls and boys sitting on the grass by the pavement playing hopscotch, sticks and stones or sometimes simultaneously singing out-of-tune lullabies to each other and giggling mischievously (even the boys!)

… another group sitting in a dark corner, cult-worshiping, head bobbing, lap thumping while one of them (the clear leader) plays the guitar with a passion reminiscent of the Zeppelin days, covering songs the likes of Pink Floyd and Coldplay (but, I never heard anyone play Meatloaf, what a pity!) … yet another corner has a couple, a literal ‘couple’ of angry birds demonstrating their anger at each other- rather civilly- by throwing dirty stares at one another, the female bird is the stare-master, hands down… and ofcourse, in contrast to these birds who are in dire need of anger management are the very familiar, the very beloved, love birds unashamedly, unabashedly canoodling away in broad moon-light….

…not to forget, lying squat in the middle of the road, on a speed breaker, a girl; spreadeagled, enjoying the view of the sky while one or two of her friends sit by her side, waiting for the stunt to be over and her philosophical bubble to burst so they could all go have a cup of tea…yet another one…miracles of nature indeed.

And the night goes past like that, without any care or worry. The research paper that had to be written will be written, the project report that had to be analyzed will be analyzed, between tea cups upon tea cups and an occasional indulgence of an extra puff, all the work will be done because the night, my friends is still young and shall remain so…

Mumbai for Peace: "SAY NO TO TERROR AND WAR! SAY NO TO VIOLENCE!"

Below, my comment in The News about forthcoming visit of Indian journalists to Pakistan (The News also carried this report on their visit based on their press statement). As I wrote earlier, just one of these journalists has ever visited Pakistan before. A CORRECTION to my comment below: the Mumbaikars who formed the human chain on Dec 12, 2008 numbered not in the ‘hundreds’  but thousands. “Nearly 60,000 people including several celebrities… formed a 50 km long ‘human chain for peace’,” according to this report in The Indian Express (I found it after filing my story). One of the people behind this event, organised by ‘Mumbai for Peace’, was the journalist Jatin Desai, spokesman for the current delegation to Pakistan.

Situationer: Mumbai journalists’ visit: yet another sign of hope

 By Beena Sarwar

 The journalists from Mumbai landing in Karachi on Monday will arrive to a warm welcome – and no cell phone roaming. India and Pakistan both deny this facility that millions today take for granted, to each other, as foreign correspondents, businesspeople and others who travel in the region know all too well.

Schoolgirls formed part of the Mumbai for Peace human chain of Dec 12, 2008 / mumbaicitizens.com

The visit of the Mumbai journalists takes place after two years of efforts by journalists from Karachi and Mumbai who have been trying to initiate formal relations between their Press Clubs – slowed down by the difficulty in obtaining visas.

Visas to the Mumbai journalists were granted just days ago, coinciding with the conclusion of the SAARC meeting in the Maldives where India and Pakistan reiterated their resolve to take forward the dialogue process and work towards better relations between their countries.

At every meeting of Indians and Pakistanis – including those organised by Aman ki Asha for journalists, businesspeople, strategic analysts, doctors and educationists – participants stress that easing the visa process would be the single biggest step towards improving relations between the two countries. Allowing cell-phone roaming would also be a step in the right direction.

It is significant that the journalists’ initiative stems from Mumbai, the site of the horrific attacks of Nov 26-28, 2008 that claimed 164 lives and left over 300 wounded. The media hype at that time overshadowed the citizens’ calls for peace – hundreds came together in Mumbai on Dec 12, 2008 to form a lengthy ‘peace chain’ for example, urging India to show restraint in its dealings with Pakistan at this critical hour.

Mumbai students also took the lead in reaching out across the border, with their groundbreaking ‘Ummeed-e-Milaap’ (hope for unity), a platform for Indian and Pakistani students to connect. Ummeed-e-Milaap involves a Diary campaign in over 30 colleges in Mumbai, Lahore and Karachi to “un-mute” the voice of the youth of both nations.

Ronnie Philip of IIT Mumbai

The chasm between the two neighbours is evident in the wonder and excitement felt by Ronnie Philip of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai and Haasan Zafar of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), when they spoke to each other on the phone — the first time for each of them talking to someone from across the border, as they wrote in articles for Aman ki Asha recently.

Hassaan Zafar with India, Pakistan flags at LUMS

Students from Lahore and Karachi and Mumbai have enthusiastically participated in this initiative – so far only virtually but the young organisers hope that their Pakistani partners will be granted visas to attend the TechFest in Mumbai, Jan 2012.

The Mumbai journalists also hope to host their colleagues from the Karachi Press Club soon, and for such visits to become part of a series of bilateral visits between journalists.

Several other events over the past few months have raised hopes for better relations between India and Pakistan. They include the heartfelt letter of condolence from Qais Hussain, a former Pakistan Air Force pilot to Farida Singh, the daughter of an Indian pilot whose airplane he shot down during the 1965 war, and her courageous and moving response; India and Pakistan’s support for each other at the UN; the Pakistan Army’s prompt return of an Indian helicopter and personnel after they had strayed across the Line of Control in Kashmir (see ‘Signs of improving times‘ by Shivam Vij); and better trade ties expected with Pakistan’s granting of ‘most favoured nation’ status to India.

But many dare not look these signs with too much hope — members of separated families and cross-border marriages, and most of all the elderly born ‘on the other side’ who yearn to visit their birthplaces. They retain too many painful memories of other times when their hopes were dashed in the past.

(ends)