Ali Azmat...Jo Tum Mein hai Dum Woh Kisi Mein Nahin...Josh-e-Junoon

Well...If you are a Pakistani then it is impossible that you did not love the "JUNOON" band. The mystic trio of Ali Azmat, Salman and Brian who ended up breaking their band in rather tragic manner...But what a blast from past these guys still are. Anyways, it might come as a surprise for few amongst us that Ali Azmat has created another signature "Junoon" track for the world cup 2011. And belie me it is tons better that chewing gum pop ditty composed by Ali Zafar. Those who grew listening to Junoon songs will definitely relate with this one within an instant. The song with lyrics can also be easily searched at Youtube since this one is actually instrumental version broadly speaking. So...enjoy the work of "old boys" of Pak Rock...

Josh-E-Junoon...Jo Tum Mein Hai Dum..Woh Kisis Mein Nahin

Fluid Mechanics Group, Quaid-i-Azam University...is there any need to feel despair?

We as Pakistanis are usually subjected to a very harsh criticism regarding our supposedly lack of research aptitude. In this way, we are constantly told that we are destined to live at the bottom of food chain of human development since we are nowhere in the research. By the way, a lot of what is said is actually a fact and we need to improve ourselves. But the rhetoric and its systematic method is quite depressing. A few years back, I too subscribed to this opinion and was quite pessimistic about my future as an individual and as a nation. But then, fortunately, I cam under the supervision of some very enlightened teachers such as Dr. Aftab A. Maroof, Dr. Anwar Mirza, Dr. Abdul Rauf Baig and Dr. Arshad A. Shahid. At the same time, I had company of some very bright fellows who later turned out to be very illustrious PhD doctors such as Dr. Arfan Jaffar, Dr. Ayyaz Hussain, Dr. M. Amjad Iqbal and others. What is common amongst all of these is that with the exception of one or two cases, all above mentioned names have one thing in common. All of them are garduates of Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. After meeting all of these gentlemen and working under or alongside them, I realized how much this great seat of learning is under appreciated amongst us Pakistanis. What a gem, we have in the form of this university and how much this university needs to be promoted and upgraded. Indeed, Quaid-i-Azam University ahs potential to become the stanford of Pakistan and it will come out even better one day with the grace of god.

The inspiration for today's blog came as I was going through various research groups set up at this university and I cam across this vibrant reserach group titled as Fluid Mechanics Group (http://www.fmg.org.pk) or FMG. Just look at the PhD produced under the banner of this group (http://www.fmg.org.pk/Ph.D.Produced.php). The list is long enough that you may not expect. So just to give a shock therapy session, I shall just copy the whole list below....

1.      Muhammad Ayub                           PhD(1992)

Thesis Title:        Diffraction of acoustic waves by half planes
Supervisor:         Prof. Dr. Saleem Asghar 

2. Masud Ahmed                                   PhD(1992)

Thesis Title:        Propagation of the love type waves in inhomogenous media
Supervisor:         Prof. Dr. Saleem Asghar 

3. Bashir Ahmed                                   PhD(1994)

Thesis Title:        Scattering of spherical acoustic waves from an absorbing    half-plane
Supervisor:         Prof. Dr. Saleem Asghar

4. Akhtar Hussain                                 PhD(1995)

Thesis Title:        Diffraction of acoustic waves
Supervisor:         Prof. Dr. Saleem Asghar

5. Tasawar Hayat                                  PhD(2000)

Thesis Title:        Scattering of waves by half-planes with mixed boundary conditions
Supervisor:         Prof. Dr. Saleem Asghar

6. Tahira Haroon                                   PhD(2002)

Thesis Title:        Non-coaxial rotations of porous disks for unsteady MHD flows of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids
Supervisor:         Prof. Dr. Saleem Asghar

7. Sohail Nadeem                                  PhD(2004)

Thesis Title:        Oscillatory flows of magnetohydrodynamic non-Newtonian fluids
Supervisors:        Prof. Dr. Saleem Asghar and Dr. Tasawar Hayat

8. Masood Khan                                    PhD(2005)

Thesis Title:        Some flow problems of an Oldroyd fluid: Homotopy analysis method and numerical computations
Supervisors:        Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ayub and Dr. Tasawar Hayat

9. Khalid Hanif                                       PhD(2005)

Thesis Title:        Accelerated flows of viscoelastic fluids with no-slip and partial slip conditions
Supervisor:         Prof. Dr. Saleem Asghar

10. Muhammad Raheel Mohyudin          PhD(2005)

Thesis Title:        Inverse solution of Rivlin-Ericksen fluids
Supervisor:         Prof. Dr. Saleem Asghar

11. Muhammad Sajid                             PhD(2006)

Thesis Title:        Similar and non-similar analytic solutions for steady flows of differential type fluids
Supervisor:         Dr. Tasawar Hayat

12. Rahmat Ellahi                                   PhD(2006)

Thesis Title:        Some steady and unsteady flow problem involving Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids
Supervisor:         Dr. Tasawar Hayat

13. Zahid Hussain                                  PhD(2007)

Thesis Title:        Rotating disk non-Newtonian fluids
Supervisor:         Prof. Dr. Saleem Asghar

14. Faisal Shahzad                                 PhD(2007)

Thesis Title:        Non-Newtonian fluid flows in rotating and non-rotating frames
Supervisor:         Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ayub

15. Muhammad Mudassar Gulzar           PhD(2007)

Thesis Title:        Flows of third grade fluid in rotating frame
Supervisors:        Prof. Dr. Saleem Asghar and Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ayub

16. Ambreen Afsar Khan                        PhD(2008)

Thesis Title:        Effect of magnetic field on the peristaltic motion of fluid
Supervisor:         Dr. Tasawar Hayat

17. Iftikhar Ahmad                                 PhD(2008)

Thesis Title:        Solutions of unsteady flows over a strectching sheet using         Homotopy analysis method.

Supervisor:         Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ayub and Dr. M. Sajid

18. Muzhar Hussain                              PhD(2008)

Thesis Title:        Transient flows in a porous medium
Supervisor:         Dr. Tasawar Hayat

19. Tariq Javed                                     PhD(2008)

Thesis Title:        Homotopy solutions for flows in a rotating frame
Supervisor:         Dr. Tasawar Hayat

20. Sher Baz Khan                                PhD(2008)

Thesis Title:        Rotating flows of non-Newtonian fluids in a porous space
Supervisor:         Dr. Tasawar Hayat

21. Nasir Ali                                          PhD(2008)

Thesis Title:        Mathematical models of peristaltic transport involving non-Newtonian fluids
Supervisor:         Dr. Tasawar Hayat

22. Haider Zaman                                 PhD(2009)

Thesis Title:        Flows induced by a stretching surface
Supervisor:         Dr. M. Ayub

23. Zaheer Abbas                                  PhD(2009)

Thesis Title:        Numerical and series solutions for flows of non-linear fluids
Supervisor:         Dr. Tasawar Hayat

24. Muhammad Ramzan                        PhD(2010)

Thesis Title:        Application of Wiener-Hopf technique on diffraction problems
Supervisor:         Dr. Muhammad Ayub

25. Khadija Maqbool                              PhD(2010)

Thesis Title:        Some simple flows of non-Newtonian fluids
Supervisor:         Dr. Tasawar Hayat

and that is not all...I shall not dare to paste the whole list of impact factor publications this group has made during last 15 years so I shall just give the link (http://www.fmg.org.pk/publications.php)

So...why am I writing all this??? Only because these achievements by us give us beliefe that we are not all just a downtrodden and long forgotten story. We have people and institutions amongst us who know their duties and responsibilities and deliver only their duties with any care for reward. Groups like FMG, universities like Quaid-i-Azam Universities and people like Dr. Aftab Maroof, Dr. Anwar Mirza, Dr. Baig, Dr. Arfan, Dr. Ayyaz, Dr. Tasawar Hayat, Dr. M. Ayub, Dr. Saleem Asghar need a big salute from all of us. May universities like QAU and groups like FMG always prosper.

A piece by Andrew Hughes on Pakistan Cricket team in World Cup 2011

Andrew Hughes is a writer and avid cricket watcher who has always retained a healthy amount of cricketing wit intact inside him...In one of his writings about world cup and Pakistani squad that is participating in it...he came with perhaps the wittiest commentary yet on Pak squad...these are his lines that appeared on ESPN Cricinfo website recently

Can we have the real Pakistan please?

Shahid Afridi thinks that Pakistan are dangerous. I disagree. A tamer set of green-clad cricketers you will rarely see. Shoaib Akhtar is an ageing rockstar, Younis Khan and Misbah ul-Haq are as sensible as a stout pair of brogues and even the captain is on his best behaviour. They’re about as dangerous as a Sunday afternoon in Bournemouth. And frankly, all this harmony, discipline and focus is dull, dull, dull; we get more than enough of that from the other teams. Loosen up, Shahid, and do something silly!

Good observation indeed!!!!!

The Back Bencher View: Cricket World Cups winners with trophies...Blog by Sheeraz Akram

The Back Bencher View: Cricket World Cups winners with trophies: "ICC Cricket World Cup, popularly known Cricket as World Cup is a quadrennial event that is held once in every four years. World CupCricke..."

Guns N' Roses-November Rain...Memories of an age gone by

An age that we were part of...a proud age for sure

Heartiest Congratulations to Dr. Muhammad Ramzan

We all are happy over the dream that came true on February 14, 2011. One of my dearest friends, my big brother and the backbone of many PhDs, Mr. Muhammad Ramzan who is the author of this blog as well, successfully defended his PhD thesis on that day, in National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, FAST, Islamabad. During his span of PhD, he successfully produced many impact-factored research publications along with lot of national and International conference papers. Many Many congratulations to Dr. Muhammad Ramzan and his family. We pray for him that May Allah bless him with many more successes in his field. Aameen

For Haider Miraj...A boy who transformed into man before us

For a lot of people...a blog dedicated to Haider may seem odd....but then to a lot of others, it may seem very appropriate and the reasons are obvious. For a man who came from a very traditional and obscure background, a man with no dynastic backgrounds in the fields where he excelled....a man just as ordinary as us and still....Miraj embodies the true spirit of a man destined to be worthwhile.

Perhaps...A Visionary in making...

Miraj came to our university as a young carefree and a very pleasant person with a penchant to throw verses and you and sometimes pen down a few lines himself. He grew before us as a sensitive man and as a man who knew his place and position in society. He is just a regular folk like many of us...no extra ordinary features, no miraculous intelligence, no very lofty aspirations to change the whole world and still he is changing the whole world slowly and steadily in his own way. Doing so many things right before us could only make us all envious of him but it is also to his credit that for most of us....he is nothing but a very obedient, pleasant and passionate person....a person who can only be appreciated.

So...to Haider Miraj....the excellent debater, host to so many renowned poets, organizer of nationally acclaimed competitions and last but not the least...true spirit behind "TAMASHA", the dramatic festival which was his brainchild and which he has brought in the national limelight within just two years. You, Haider, are just an ordinary man. Just like me, him and anyone else on the street. But you, Haider Miraj, tell all us ordinary men how to move forward in life with determination, strength and smile. You have what should really be called the "True Grit". You, and many like you, give us weak people a strong hope in our collective future as Pakistanis. May you and others like you keep this candle burning forever.

PS....Though many amongst you might be constructing cospiracy theories around the motives of writing this blog and I am sure, I can't remove those conspiracies. Yet rest assured that the blog was written totally on instint, was not "paid for" by anyone and I am not expecting "ANY" role in any upcoming drama by Haider Miraj. Lollllllzzzzz

Farewell Hosni Mubarak................... سب تخت گراۓ جایئں گے

Tunisia

The Ruled Ones

Egypt

Yemen

Pakistan

It is 100th birth anniversary of that mystic poet "Faiz Ahmad Faiz" who said these prophetic lines. Roughly translated as "The time when all crowns will roll and all thrones will be trampled...we shall see that time". The lines are taken from one of his most famous poem which is titled as "The destiny for us is to watch that time"

Muslim world has long been ruled by despots (whether military dictators, kings, religious fanatics and even democratic dictators). But it is also a trait of Muslim nations and their people that despite being subjugated and repressed for more than two centuries by various dictators, they keep coming out and forcing change. The irony is that whenever, we the people come out and change become inevitable, the change is again engineered to suit the interests of big players in the game. And yet, we, the people keep coming out and forcing change. They have been relentless in imposing their agendas but we have been tireless as well in resisting their designs and disturbing their equations time and again. All of us know what I mean by big players and "they". But as we have believe in ourselves...we should rest assured that "WE" shall always struggle to get our birthright, to become masters of our destinies. If not us, our children and our grandchildren and theirs...Our struggles and those of our fathers have written it in our bloods to continue struggling. We may be poor, backward, impoverished but we are not cowards and courage less for sure.

Pakistan in its 60 years history has seen the people's struggle many times. Our generation is the proud owner of legacy of "Lawyers movement" which toppled a dictator and restored the true justices to their rightful place. But what is also a collective treasure of other Muslim nations, us and the whole mankind is the way muslims from various countries have struggled to rid themselves of imposed rulers. It was heartening last year to see how central Asian nations made their rulers flee and it is also encouraging to see the struggle of Tunisians and Egyptians in making their rulers leave the reigns of governments. I, a few days back read a statement by an unknown egyptian on twitter and it made me feel like 20 years younger due to the fact that every word written reflected upon the courage and moral strength of those who had stood up against their dictator. The line read as "Mubarak...we never had a living "ex" president in Egypt...Gamal died as president while Saddat was assassinated as president...but God willing, we shall soon have a living "ex" president...President (EX) Hosni Mubarak". Such peaceful demonstrations, such commitment, such strength of character as exhibited by those protesting in Egypt has made me proud for being a Muslim and being a human.

I don't subscribe to the notion that imperialism and great powers were now willing to sacrifice these rulers. True that the outcome may have been engineered by these powers yet it was the heroic and brave struggle of people which forced these powers to make alternate arrangements. Otherwise, these rulers were deeply engrained withing the system, ruling for several decades, preparing their heir apparent and serving the interests of their masters quite well. It is ultimately "the people", the common man, the unemployed, the dreamer, the poet, the visionary, the street hawker, the farmer who has overthrown these despots.

Today's blog is a salute to all of the "PEOPLE" in Egypt, Tunisia, Algiers, Morocco, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Syria, Pakistan and everywhere who have strived and sacrificed their lives to win back their god given rights from those imposed by others. And who have promised to keep striving to win these rights back no matter how many times their sacrifices are engineered and tampered with. To martyrs of Egypt and Tunisia... For those who understand urdu...

لازم ہے کہ ہم بھی دیکھیں گے

وہ دن کہ جیسس کا وعدہ ہے

جو لوح ازل میں لکھا ہے

جب ظلم و ستم کے کوہ گراں

روئی کی طرح اڑ جائیں گے

ہم مخدوموں کے پاؤں تلے

جب دھرتی دھڑ دھڑ دھڑکے گی

اور اہل حکم کے سر اوپر  

جب بجلی کڑ کڑ کڑکے گی

جب ارض خدا کے کعبے سے سب بت اٹھواے جائیں گے

جب اہل صفا، مردود حرم

مسند پہ بٹھاۓ جائیں گے

سب تاج اچھالے جایئں گے

سب تخت گراۓ جایئں گے

بس نام رہے گا الله کا

جو غائب بھی ہے - حاضر بھی

جو منظر بھی ہے - ناظر بھی

اور راج کرے گی خلق خدا

جو میں بھی ہوں --- اور تم بھی ہو

لازم ہے کہ ہم بھی دیکھیں گے

[Translation]

  The destiny is That We Shall Also See
That Day Which Has Been Promised
Which Is Written With God's Ink

When The Mountains Of Cruelty And Torture
Will Fly Like Pieces Of Cotton
Under The Feet Of The Governed
This Earth Will Quake
And Over The Head Of The Ruler
When Lightening Will Thunder

All The Idols Will Be Shattered
Us People Standing In The Mosque
Will Be Elevated To A Higher Platform
All The Crowns Will Be Tossed
All The Thrones Will Be Toppled 

Then Only God's Name Will Remain
Who Is Both Absent And Present
Who Is Both The Observer And The View Itself
When The Anthem Of Truth Will Be Raised
Who I Am And You Are As Well
And The People Of God Will Reign
Who I Am And You Are As Well

We Shall See
It Is Destiny That We Shall Also See

We Shall See

Khayyam sarhadi is no more with us

I was planning to write about the recent political upheavals (or awakening as many are calling it) but the suspense is still stretching and as long as Egypt doesn't settle down, any opinion will be perhaps running too quick towards conclusion. But in the mean time, Pakistan and its artistic diaspora receive another setback. renowned actor, Khayyam sarhadi left for his eternal abode last night. He was 62. Son of renowned director, lyricist and political activist Fazl e Qadir (also known as Zia Sarhadi) who is best known for masterpieces such as Biju Bawara and Hum Log, Khayyam in himself proved to be an equally talented and gifted artist.  A master with voice, he knew how to utilize his voice and expressions for optimal effect. A veteran of many TV serials including the most famous Aik Thi Maina, Daastan, Laazawal, Sooraj Ke saath Saath, Man Chale Ka Sauda and Ghulam Gardish.

A recipient of Pride of Performance by Government of Pakistan, Khayyam Sarhadi is mourned today by all those who have been witness to great tradition that once was called Pakistani Drama. Rest in Peace Khayyam (1948-2011)

Below is link to one of the last talks he gave to Romana Hussain of Dawn Images that she posted on her blog...

http://karachiwali.blogspot.com/2010/12/inherited-talent-long-innings-khayyam.html