Another Bloody Basant

The day before yesterday, the residents of Lahore along with thousands of tourists celebrated the 'Basant' festival. Last year, the Punjab government had imposed a ban on kite flying - a rare commendable step. This year the kite flying was allowed for two days on 24th and 25th February. Many objected the relaxation in the ban knowing that it would attract several accidents risking many human lives. The concrened authorities turned a deaf ear to these voices and were adamant at giving it a go.

As it stands now, as few as 11 have died in various incidents. Fortunately this number is low as I had feared more. A school going 11 years old boy in my uncle's neighbourhood died as a sharp string cut his throat.

It's so disturbing to know that it was all imminent and yet nobody could prevent it. Who is to be held responsible for this manslaughter? - our reasonbly incapable leaders who lifted the ban, the law enforcement agencies who could not enforce the law, you and I who could not do anything except writing in the media and on the blogs.

There is something seriously wrong with all of us as a nation. We need to fix our attitudes before its too late.

Commenting Service Moved!

I have shifted to HaloScan.com for the comments on this blog. The default commenting system provided by Blogger is not accessible from Pakistan. I'll have to manually copy-paste all the comments from Blogger to HaloScan whenever I feel like doing it. I guess I'll probably keep all the nice comments and do away with not-so-nice comments ;)

So 'Comments' section is up and running - give it a shot.

MS - What is it worth for?

Last year I had an opportunity to attend an open house session with the final year class of my undergraduate school, FAST-NU. The session was aimed to provide an insight to the students about the employment and the higher education opportunities available after they graduated. Alongside me, there were several other alumni mostly from local software industry and graduate business schools. One impression that I walked away with after the session was that somehow people from local industry thought that a MS would be a waste if anyone was willing to work in the software industry. Some of them passionately opposed going for a masters degree. I used a few arguments as a rebuttal to their misconception during the session. I intend to present the summary of some of those arguments in this post. One reason that inspired me to blog on this topic is the increasing number of questions that I am repeatedly asked by friends, colleagues and fresh graduates about the significance of a masters degree. Here is what I have to say on this issue [and it is limited to a MS from abroad]:

- Going abroad in a new country is a different learning experience altogether. Your faculty and class mates come from many different countries and possibly from various backgrounds. Each one has a different problem solving approach. Therefore working with those guys, learning in the class and outside the class is immense. I had my class fellows coming from more than 13 different nations. Some of them had been to schools like Caltech USA, Monash Australia and EPFL Switzerland etc.

- One important thing that a foreign degree contributes to is the broadening of vision. You get to know what the world is doing and what you want to do in it. Also, you get exposed to lots of opportunities that are almost inaccessible from Pakistan. To reach out for these opportunities, a masters degree is one right step in this direction.

- You learn to live at your own. No more pampering by the parents, you are virtually your own mom and dad. All this exercise does a world of good to your confidence and goes a long way in completing your personality.

- It looks good on your resume and you can use it to impress your colleagues and friends :)

Each of these points can be stretched to pages but I'll keep it to what it is right now. If any of the reader has had a similar experience of studying abroad, I solicit your input to make this list complete. Let's hear what you have to say on this topic.

A Brand New Start

It is exactly a year ago when I started writing this blog and it is such a shame that I was able to update it only twice throughout this period. Although I have not been an active blogger but I refuse to accept that it was a bandwagon effect that brought me to blogging. I was purposefully here. Anyways, It's a new year and I plan to give a brand new start to my blogging life. Hopefully I'll be around often this time.

As for 2006, my word! what a year it has been for me. Some of the events that took place in this year may have long term repercussions on what I do professionally (and otherwise) in years to come. I am tipped to 'Discover Life on the Last Line of Defense' - only if you know what I mean :) That said, God knows better what lies ahead.

My experiences in Sweden - Preamble

Time is surely riding a roller coaster. Almost two years ago, at this time of year, I was subjected to a great deal of confusion and uncertainty. Should I continue doing job? Should I accept PhD offer from LUMS? Should I go to Sweden for masters? Should I or Shouldn't I. These were the questions I was asking myself. All the options, I had, were quite good from their own standpoints:

The job was getting along nice and well; LUMS was offering me fully funded PhD position with 23K monthly stipend and Sweden offered me a degree which I always wanted to pursue i.e. a MS in AI. I ended up opting the last option. Sweden, it was. The factors that influenced the decision are as follows:

- Although LUMS was/is a very reputable institute. The monetary incentive was good but spending the next five years of my life in a university which was in its embryonic phases of developing a research culture was not a plausible idea.

- Job, well, after doing a full bachelors degree in computer science with a distinction, I didn't find it worth fixing HTML, ASP tags and writing select queries in database. I wanted to write compilers, AI engines etc.

- MS degree from abroad was a lucrative offer. At the least, it promised international exposure and perhaps new avenues of opportunities. At the same time, it threatened me of all the hardships that a "pampered" child like me had to undergo. Considering 1.5 years was not a substantial period - although later it turned out, it was - I took the plunge.

These long introductory paragraphs bring me to the main topic, I wanted to write about. This and the following series of posts are dedicated to share my experience of studying and living in Sweden. The above plot was necessary to enable the reader understand the surroundings in which I took the decision. In the later weeks, I'll be writing in bits and pieces about the visa process, accommodation issues, my adventures with cooking etc.

Stay beautiful.

Back to Neverland

First of all excuse me for not updating this blog for so long now. There are whole host of reasons for not doing so; laziness and business may be the prominent ones. Anyways, better late than never.

I’d use this post to summarize what I have been really upto for the last couple of months. I mentioned in my last post that I was nearing graduation and would soon be getting back home. By the grace of Almighty I am done with my studies and now back in Pakistan.

The later half of my stay in Sweden was really eventful and memorable: serendipitous, I would say. I got an odd job in November meaning that I no longer had to worry about bucks and award of RISH scholarship in December was really the icing on the cake. In January, a week long tour to UK and then to USA gave me an opportunity to travel a bit before I came back to Pakistan.

A lucrative offer from a company in United Kingdom followed me. I had to turn the offer down mainly due to my parents. They were in no mood of letting me go abroad once again. Meanwhile, I accepted a job offer from my previous employer for a senior level software development position. This is my second month on the job and I am quite pleased the way things have shaped so far. So far, so good.

As far as Pakistan and Lahore is concerned, situation has not changed much in these 1.5 years: poor is getting poorer and rich is getting richer. Cars are breaking out like a virus, thanks to the banks and leasing companies. There are lots of other things as well which I shall point out in my future posts, Insh'Allah.

I hope I’d be able to keep this blog updated from now on. Posts regarding my experience of studying abroad are still to come. Stay tuned :)

Yet another blogger

A good old ”hello” to all of the readers. For the details about me, please take a peek at my profile.

Owing to the ubiquitous spread of blogging, I thought that it was a nice idea to start my own blog where I could write about myself and my experiences, could share some tech knowledge and the most important of all, could get some feedback from you, the readers.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing my experience of living and studying in Sweden. I am on the verge of graduation and would soon be getting back to Pakistan. I am sure that this information, even in retrospect, would be helpful to all the readers who are aspirants of foreign education especially in Sweden.

P.S. I do intend to improve the look and feel of this blog but for the moment you'll have to live with it.