Young Doctors, Respect and Money...!!!

The word DOCTOR reminds me of the days when my father argued with me to opt for Pre-Medical subjects in FSc. His strongest point to convince me was that the doctor earns a great RESPECT in the society. But I was never born to be a Doctor rather an Engineer. The line was drawn long time back in my childhood when I de-assembled my battery operated toy to discover its inner world and found it interesting. Finally, he let me go my way.

His words "the doctor earns a great RESPECT in the society " always remained in my mind and urge me to ask many questions to myself like would I be able to earn the same respect in the society or not...how can I achieve that…and list goes on and most of the time I failed to satisfy myself against this claim.

Imagine a situation when you or your loved one’s life is at stake and the DOCTOR comes to your survival...The RESPECT for a DOCTOR is unavoidable in this case. Now think of the situation when you or your loved one’s life is at stake and the DOCTOR goes on STRIKE...just to get more MONEY as their livelihood. Would a DOCTOR earn a GREAT respect in the society.?

The recent strike by Young Doctors Association of Punjab that lasted for couple of days has left many patients unattended in the hours of sufferings and eventually few of them died due to lack of treatment as a result of their STRIKE. Now many questions come in my mind that had the moral values of their profession changed now..?  Can a DOCTOR really let somebody die for the sake of a pay rise and few perks..?

R U a Great Wall Certified climber...?

No doubt that the Great Wall of China is listed as one of the wonders of the world. But it is also one of the most adventurous places at the same time. It is made to be tough, to climb otherwise it wouldn’t have served the purpose it was built for.

So, if you are sure that you are ready to take the challenge then you have two choices. If you are a "GORA" type tourist then you may opt for a real hard core trekking track alongside the wall and climb till the mountain top. Or if you are a "DESI" type tourist like me...then you may opt for a well paved path made with bricks.

If you choose to be a "DESI" type tourist then no need to be embarrassed or have some complex because you will find many actual GORA guys following you as well. It is not only the challenge because hard to climb till top but for a person like me who is in his late twenties can find some people in their late fifties taking the lead, let me tell you it is not like a single lane wall rather wide enough like a narrow street, for multiple people to climb and descend at the same time.

There are many Beacon Houses built along the wall that were used as the surveillance towers to watch for the enemy. But now a day they serve as a mid-way break point. There are also few Cafes to have a sip of a coffee, tea or some refreshment. You can buy some souvenirs as well. The most important is the CERTIFICATE that you have climbed the Great Wall of China with your name and date engraved on a metal medal or shield packed in a beautiful red box. You wouldn't be successful to bargain a penny and had to pay the asking price. If you did I would pay you the full price. Although descending is more difficult than climbing but you only get the certificate for the later. Any way I managed to get mine and how about you...R U a Great Wall Certified climber...?

...The Privilege Lost...!!!

.... since ages people used to tie a black thread across their wrist to form a wrist band as a protection from evil,s eye.It is still a practice in some rural areas.The method varies at various places and among different ethnic groups, one of  them is to be tied by a child who,s all four grand parents are alive, can only fasten.The child has to say "May the black thread band break...and May my all grand parents stay alive"..while tie the knot.

Since birth I was fortunate to have my all four grand parents to pamper me and had a reason to be privileged to tie the black thread (Ghanha). Once I visit my village to see my grand parents, some ladies from neighborhood visit our house and ask to tie the black thread for them.I used to do it for them a few times.

Although I never exercised this privilege since many years but I had LOST it when my Grand Father (my mom,s father) was no longer among us...last year...!!!

For many, it may sound baseless...useless... against their faith...but for me...a privilege that was priceless, it reminds me of the person who is very dear to me...the loss which is irrecoverable...non compensable... May his soul rest in peace and May ALLAH (S.W.T) forgive all his sins and grant him a place in heaven...Ameen...!!!

An Obligation...!

Today evening I went to a supermarket ...on the shelf I saw a daily with a headline on the from page. It says that the parents could face lawsuit if children not attending the school.I captured the below picture and could not resist to share with you.

The COLOURS DAY....!

UET Lahore...University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan...a DREAM for many and a place to accomplish the DREAMS for few chosen ones...Lol... luckily I happened to be among those few chosen ones.

I never thought that the last day at UET would be as exciting as the first day...the story goes like this...soonest we started studying pure engineering subjects...the side effects of Electronics Devices, Calculus-I & II,Engineering Drawing, Workshop Practice, Java...etc. was started appearing on our faces...and was giving a typical ENGINEER,s look. These side effects was more evident on the faces of FINAL YEARS students...by their typical ENGINEER,s look...even a lay man can figure them out in a crowded place like LIBERTY or ANARKALI...Ohh... he looks like an ENGINEER from UET.

But it hardly completed a year, one day we come out of the ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING department and entered into LALAZAAR...witnessed the strange happenings there...these FINAL YEAR seniors was behaving in a quite different manner, contrary to the outlook they have been portraying for the last four years....YES...they were celebrating something...the thing which changed their seriousness into celebration...that was the last day of their studies at UET..No more lectures to attend...no more Labs to attend...Khalas..!!!...they were enjoying by throwing colours on each other... totally free from the worries of final exams ahead.

The DAY repeated every year...and we witnessed as observers for two more years...the next year...the day was OURS...it was the turn of 02 session to celebrate their COLOURS DAY...! A day to celebrate our accomplishment...a day to cherish the time spent together...we had our share of fun and joy...!!!

No doubt the tough challenges of practical life was waiting for us but sheer joy of this day was evident from every ones faces as pictured below.

My visit to Guangzhou,China

Our next planned visit was to Guangzhou city,capital of Guangdong province of PRC.Since it was about 110 Kilometers away from our place of stay; Shenzhen, so we plan it on weekend. We started our journey from Shenzhen to Guangzhou on Saturday by car. Although there is an intercity train service connecting Guangzhou with Shenzhen and option to travel by air but we opted to go by road. It took about two hours to reach there.

Our tour guide was waiting for us outside the Guangdong Folk Art Museum. It is a historic building built as Chen Clan Academy for the preparation of Imperial examination in 1891 in Qing Dynasty and now converted into a museum. It also served a temple to worship their ancestors. The complex is an example of ancient Chinese architecture and contains a large number of Southern China art piece like wood carvings and pottery, embedded in the building structure. There were few shopping stalls inside the complex selling art work pieces. We bought few items from there, especially made from famous Chinese Jade stone and captured few photos. 

Once we finished our tour of the museum, everyone was feeling hungry and our tour guide took us to the "1001 Arabian nights restaurant", a Lebanese restaurant. We had our fill there, food was good. Since we were on one day trip so was on the mercy of our tour guide. He suggested that there is a big exhibition going on and he can take us there if we are interested. We looked at faces of each other and collectively uttered "OK". so we headed towards our next target...it was a famous a CANTON FAIR repeats in April and October of every year, I forget to mention earlier that we were lucky enough to visit in October. It is also known as China Import and Export Fair. It was hosted in 3 phases and spans over three big multistory convention centers. It was the biggest industrial exhibition I ever seem. You can meet the manufacturer or supplier of any item in the world with "Made in China" written on it.It was full of the businessmen from all parts of the world, busy in selecting the items of their interest and making deals with manufacturer.

After finishing some window shopping at the exhibition we planned to do some real shopping like clothes, shoes and some gifts etc. Let me tell you first, If you think that any item written Made in China would be the cheapest in China than you might be thinking wrong...It is a dilemma...which could be a myth or fact depending upon the item you are buying from China. The reason is if any item that is made from the raw material produced in China would the cheapest. If any item produced from the imported raw material, it would face extra sales taxes and duties if sold within China and no taxes or duties if exported back abroad...so that particular items would be expensive in China and cheapest in the rest of the world. Anyway, had to complete our shopping irrespective of cheaper or expensive

Although there were more places to visit and the most exciting event to be held there was Asian games 2010 (in November), which we couldn’t make out. Another thing, a high speed bullet train service between Guangzhou to Beijing has been started recently. You can keep in consideration if you plan to travel between these two cities. Now it was time to take dinner and we did not take risk to try any other restaurant.So we had a buffet dinner, again at 1001 Arabian nights. It was a bit expensive as compared to other restaurants there...199/- RMB per head but was worth it. Then we started our journey back to Shenzhen and thanks God we reached back safely. Although it was only one day visit but we enjoyed our trip a lot and thanks to the welcoming and friendly nature of the Chinese people.

My father was the Sultan of Delhi

In my childhood my late grandfather (My mother’s father) told me a story of Sultan of Delhi and his sons. After the fall of Sultanate of Delhi, the sons of last Sultan used to introduce themselves by telling that "My father was the Sultan of Delhi”. But they never earned any respect in the society just because their father was Sultan and do not had their own identity by themselves.

The story amused me a lot in my childhood especially due to the witty remarks by my grandfather about the sons of Sultan and his great sense of humor but it contained great many lessons for me which I realized later in my life. The most important lesson learned was to become a SELF MADE man and in my opinion, soonest you learn is better.

My visit to Shenzhen,China

Last year I got a chance to travel to China, first time in my life with some of my friends. We started our journey from Doha, Qatar to Shenzhen, China. We took our flight from Doha to Hong Kong; it was approximately 9 hours flight and thanks to the hospitality of the airline staff which made our journey pleasant. We enjoyed the coffee at Hong Kong Airport and bought the tickets for the ferry service from Hong Kong airport terminal to Shekou sea port. Once we reached at the port, we took our luggage and rushed towards the immigration counters. It did not take much time at immigration as there were very few passengers because ferry service runs every 45 minutes.

Our host welcomed us at the port and we headed towards hotel. It was a five star hotel located in the Hua Xiang Bei area. It is a business hub and has plenty of electronics plazas and shopping malls at walking distance from our hotel. Let me tell that Shenzhen itself is not very old city like other big cities Shanghai and Beijing. The city was built about 30 years ago and is a business hub. All major electronics companies have manufacturing units in this city. Being not an ancient city it is full of immigrants from other parts of china and most of the population consists of young people. They are educated and relocated there for work.

Soonest we settled down in our rooms and next step was to search the food. Within no time we spotted a Turkish restaurant in a small street alongside the Hua Xiang Bei road. We had a wonderful dinner there. Surprisingly they also serve Shisha, which two of friends could not resist to try. There are few of Chinese Muslim Restaurants and others include a Moroccan, an Indian and Pakistani too. Also you can get a vegetarian Pizza or pasta at Pizza Hut. Thanks God we found our means of survival.

Shenzhen, apart from being an industrial city and a business hub, it offers a much more attractions for the tourists as well. One of the famous attractions is "Window of the World" theme park. It has about 130 reproductions of some of the most famous tourist attractions in the world squeezed into one park. It contains the models of all wonders of the world including Eiffel Tower, Pyramids of Egypt, and the Taj Mahal; all in proximity to each other are all part of the appeal of this theme park. Another attraction is the "Happy valley theme park" equipped with rides for kids and adults. There are also some evening shows. The more to mention are the "China Folk Cultural Village" and "Splendid China". If you want to know more about the Chinese culture then visit to these places are a must. Although an outsider looks at China with a typical imagination in his mind but in fact Chinese culture is as diverse as China itself, each region is different from other in terms of culture.

The medium of public transport include the buses, underground metro trains and taxis. Although the streets are full of people due to huge Chinese population but still they stand in the queue and wait for their turn to get into a bus or train. No doubt china is making a tremendous progress in all the fields but tourism is also becoming a flourishing industry for them. I met a couple of teens who work as a part time tourist guides. When you ask them what was their major subjects during their university studies...the answer you get is ''ENGLISH'. Many universities offer undergraduate courses with majors in English. During the shopping at an electronics market, I came across a young guy with a bag on his shoulders voluntarily guiding the customers. I asked him what do you do, he told me that he is a university student and after university he works as a volunteer salesman at some of the shopping malls and guide the customers about the products. It gives him an opportunity to interact with foreigners and eventually to improve his English language skills.

For further reading please visit my post A trip to Guangzhou,China .

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