On the Go 2

A train crosses a busy intersection. Hats off to all the Pakistani's waiting patiently in the heat without honking their horns.
Took this photograph after 14th August, our independence day. The sight of the Flag flying at full mast on top of a crane filled me up with pride and joy.
The politicians in our country like to rub their position in the faces of the common man whenever they get the chance. MNA (Member National Assembly)
The print media has started to make bold statements through the use of transit media (billboards) because of the fact the big is more.
Another fine example of the print media using the transit media (billboards) as mouthpiece.
Quite a bold statement by a leading newspaper mogul in Pakistan using the power of the transit media (billboards).

On The Go

A cobbler sets up shop at a busy roadside, sure to get a lot of customers.
Wasps have made a street light their home in the middle of a busy intersection. I used to see this wasp nest while going to uni on my bus. I finally managed to capture this on camera on day.
I was feeling a bit blue that day. Sitting in a car in the parking lot of a busy market in Saddar, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Suddenly I looked up and saw this minaret through the bare branches of a tree. it looked so serene and peaceful amid the humdrum of the bazaar (considering the fact that this mosque is opposite a wagon stand). Lifted my spirits.
Saw this dejected man sitting outside a filling station shop next to a busy road. His whole posture tells a story.
This happened at the peak of the rush hour in Saddar, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Just had to capture it.
A car cum bicycle wash in the middle of a busy road. A broken pipeline has become a defacto wash for the road runners.

Glories of Days Gone By

Once upon a time there lived a general in the land of pure. The leaders of the neighboring lands used to hold him in high regard. He assumed power in a controversial manner but his people prospered under his rule. Even the super-powers namely USA and UK gave him respect on a one-to-one basis (as can be seen from the news report above and the photograph below.)

Friends not Masters

(President Ayub Khan patting Lyndon B. Johnson in pure pathan style.)

Your Obedient Servant

(Our honorable president Mr. Asif Ali Zardari listens while President Obama lays down the law)

Renovating: Triumphs, Trials, Tribulations

My ever resourceful mum never lets anything go waste. Here she made the gardener use a discarded toilet seat as a planter.

Storage becomes a problem while renovating, Here the bath tub serves an unusual purpose, storing travelling bags.

This toilet seat awaits relocation while serving as much-needed storage space.

Rawalpindi War Cemetery

Rawalpindi, a British cantonment, locally known as Pindi, is a bustling city strategically located between the Punjab and Azad Kashmir. Many tourists use the city as a stop before traveling towards the northern areas. Not a city boasting many old architectural wonders but still having lots to offer the foreign tourist who cares to look past the recent construction boom of the city.

Rawalpindi has played an important role in the history of the subcontinent which often goes unnoticed. Following the British invasion of the region and their occupation of Rawalpindi in 1849, the city became a permanent garrison of the British army in 1851. In the 1880s a railway line to Rawalpindi was laid, and train service was inaugurated on 1 January 1886. The need for a railway link arose after Lord Dalhousie made Rawalpindi the headquarters of the Northern Command and the city became the largest British military garrison in British India. On the introduction of British rule, Rawalpindi became the site of a cantonment and, shortly afterward, the headquarters of2nd (Rawalpindi) Division. Its connection with the main railway system by the extension of the North-Western Railway to Peshawar immensely developed its size and commercial importance. The municipality was created in 1867.

The cantonment, with a population in 1901 of 40,611, was the most important in all of British South Asia. It contained one battery of horse and one of field artillery, one mountain battery, one company of garrison artillery, and one ammunition column of field artillery; one regiment of British and one of Native cavalry; two of British and two of Native infantry; and two companies of sappers and miners, with a balloon section. It was the winter headquarters of the Northern Command and of the Rawalpindi military division. An arsenal was established here in 1883. Rawalpindi cantonment played an important role in the ensuing melee of both the world wars as the last resting place of the fallen soldiers who fought for the greater good of the British Empire on foreign soil.

A corner of the Gora Qabristan on Harley Street, Rawalpindi, bears testimony to the fact of the role played by the subcontinent in the two world wars. Agreed that there are no graves of the locals but it serves as the last resting place of soldiers of the Great Allied forces who died on foreign soil but rest in peace in these peaceful and tranquil surroundings. In both these wars the Army of undivided India, the second largest in the Commonwealth and the largest voluntary army in the world took an important part. Its peacetime strength was .2 million which was expanded to 1.5 million in WWI and up to 2.5 million in WWII, sending expeditionary forces to three continents. Close to 700,000 men were sent to campaign in Iraq during the First World War, where the Indian Army played a major role. 140,000 went to France and Belgium where their timely arrival helped the hard-pressed allies hold off the German advance, while 144,000 men went to the Middle East.

During the Second World War the Indian Army was a major force in the East African campaign, where there were no fewer than two divisions in the North African war, while two fought in Italy. But the most memorable feat achieved by the Army was in Burma in 1942-1945, initially defending the eastern frontier it went on to win one of its greatest victories.

The Army of undivided India played an important role in protecting the Suez Canal from the Turkish advance from the east during the First World War and from the German and Italian onslaught during the Second. It also played an important role in protecting the Iraqi and Iranian Oilfields. Thus these brave soldiers fought and died on foreign land, commemorated in death by headstones, special memorials which are an acknowledgement of their efforts by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Side by side they lay; comrades in life as well as in death, a multitude of men and women, of diverse faiths and races, who fought for a common cause.

The Rawalpindi War Cemetery contains the burials of 357 dead of both wars, including the period after the First World War until 1921 while the operations continued on the north-west frontier. Interestingly not all these soldiers died in action but quite a few were victims of heatstroke, sickness, influenza, malaria and other local ailments during leave or while on training. Fatalities due to heatstroke were a common occurrence, but these soldiers were accorded the proper committal rites by their comrades and kinsmen, according to their faiths. There is a lone headstone proudly proclaiming the role of women in these wars, not on the battle front but behind the battle lines nursing the wounded. Nurse Ruth Mary Nodder, aged 33 years is representative of the fact that women too were not behind their male comrades in playing an important role in both the wars.

Similarly the war memorial in Karachi commemorates the burials of 568, who died during WWI, and the names of 25,200 soldiers and 700 airmen are recorded by the WWII memorial in the cemetery.

The Common wealth War Graves Commission, which oversees the upkeep and maintenance of these war cemeteries all over the world, was established in 1917 by Royal Charter, paying tribute to 1,70,000 men and women of the Common wealth forces who died in the two world wars. Its founder was Sir Fabian Ware. Since its inception, the Commission has constructed 2,500 war cemeteries and plots, erecting headstones over graves and, in instances where the remains are missing, inscribing the names of the dead on permanent memorials. Over one million casualties are now commemorated at military and civil sites in some 150 countries. The principles of the commission are:

• Each of the dead should be commemorated by name on the headstone or memorial.
• Headstones and memorials should be permanent.\
• Headstones should be uniform.
• There should be no distinction made on account of military or civil rank, race or creed.

Visiting these war cemeteries one can see for oneself how well kept these graves are. While I was photographing the headstones I noticed a couple of graves without the trademark headstones, on enquiry the caretaker told me that while laying an underground beam, these headstones broke and were sent to the Commissions headquarters for repairs.

Searching the web for information on war cemeteries I came across the War Graves Photographic Project. Initially started as a private venture to photograph every war grave, individual memorial, MoD grave and family memorial of serving military personnel from WWI to the present day and make these available within a searchable database, it is now recognized by CWGC. It is a daunting task to be under taken but people are there who want to bring solace and closure to the countless bereaved that lost their loved ones fighting on foreign lands.

The CWGC has tried to maintain all the different graveyards in different parts of the world following a single pattern. This fact struck me while I was going through photographs of other graveyards on the web. The cemetery should be visited to see how the dead are honored by their countrymen in a far-off land.

Rawalpindi was and always will remain a city which is bound to the core by its military traditions and sacrifices. Be it the British Army of yore or the Pakistani Armed forces of today Rawalpindi is a typical army town.

http://www.twgpp.org/volunteers.php?volunteer=964&start=0&cid=66

How to Change a Light bulb on a busy intersection

Instructions from the RCB (Rawalpindi Cantonment Board)

1. 1. Drive the crane to the intersection.
2. 2. Electrician climbs into cherry picker (also known as a boom lift, man lift, basket crane or hydra ladder).
3. 3. Grab hold of the malfunctioning traffic light.
4. 4. Unscrew the light holder.
5. 5. Change the light bulb.
6. 6. Screw the holder back into position.
7. 7. Lower the boom lift.
8. 8. Electrician gets out.

Important points to be kept in mind:

1. 1. Always service the street poles, traffic lights during rush hours.
2. 2. Always position your crane in such a way that the traffic is disrupted.
3. 3. Always take your time in fixing the problem so that the traffic can remain disrupted for an hour or longer period of time.

P.S.:

Keeping these instructions in mind can result in a successful career in RCB.

The Big Blue Bus

Four times a day every day, the residents of the twin cities are treated to the sight of big blue buses gracing the thoroughfares. These buses twenty eight in all providing pick and drop facility to the graduates and postgraduates of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, are a familiar sight for all. A very valuable service provided by National University of Modern Languages, the buses provide a basic necessity to all the students irrespective of their caste, creed or cadre for a very paltry monthly fee taken six months in advance.

In a country where the public transport system is in shambles, the general public face countless problems, rising fares and reckless drivers, the initiative by public-sector universities to provide transportation for students is always a welcome sign, and parents can breathe a sigh of relief when they know that that the most important aspect of their child’s education i.e. how to get to the institution, has been taken care of. But the most important aspect of having transport systems for educational institutions is how one bus is able to save the environment from all the pollution caused by as many cars on the roads.

The NUML Bus Service deserves to be appreciated. I know students crib about the conditions of the buses, that they are not appropriately upholstered or sometimes in the evening, students of two buses are made to sit in one because they are less in number but just think for a meager sum of one thousand a month, the bus picks you up from the nearest possible place to your house and drops you there as well. I remember not one day in the past two years that I ever had to wait for the bus because of any technical fault even if the bus was late a couple of times that was because of the prevailing law and order situation in the country.

The big blue bus is not just ‘a’ bus but a support system, a family for the students who use it regularly. Every semester--- faces change but students forge a bond too strong to break. My bus 19, to be precise was a joyful place to be in every day. I used to feel so happy waiting for it at my stop and as soon as I saw it passing Al-Shifa CNG Station towards Sowan I knew that in another five or ten minutes it will turn round the corner of the cliff bordering FFH. Coming round the bend the first thing that would show was the NUML (written) in black on top of the bus. My heart pounding with pride I would then point a finger at the bus as if to tell the waiting cabbies that my ride was just around the corner.

I remember that when I was applying for my admission I was hell bent against using the bus service, thinking how uncomfortable I would be in a bus, how much time it would take but now I realize the foolishness of my desire. I have had the best time of the past two years in my bus, getting to know new girls, lending someone a shoulder to cry upon and most of all the laughter that we all shared which made our return journey so memorable that more than my days in my department; I miss my bus.

NUML has long been in the news for all the wrong reasons but there is always another side to the story. There are so many plus points about this university and one being this bus service which deserves its share of accolades.

Bold Statement

Talk about making a bold statement. The News certainly did. Driving on GT road outside Ayub Park one will not miss the large billboard stating the obvious. Quite an unlikely place for the message because mostly the people who will be seeing the billboard are not of the literatti crowd. Mostly truckers get to park over there; but kudos to the advertising team of The News who chose that location and yet made their point audaciously enough as if they are the only mainstream newspaper which has the guts to call a spade a spade.

I started reading The News on a regular basis when our investigative journalism teacher said that to understand investigative journalism in Pakistan we would have to read this newspaper throughly. and this I did and really enjoyed my experience. Initially I had planned to read this newspaper daily only for the duration of my third semester but it grew on me. Getting to compare the the headlines of Dawn and The News became an intriguing breakfast pastime. Discussing how differently media organisations look at the same event but from different points of views, why one newspaper gave importance to one event and the other to another. What made a banner headline and why some advertisements were displayed on the front page.

All in all yes! The News has indeed been making headlines in the past two decades. Investigative journalism is still in its infancy in Pakistan but journalists like Ansar Abbasi, Umar Cheema, Usman Manzoor and others stay true to the essence of IJ i.e. to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.

I applaud the efforts of the advertising team behind this billboard but don't you think if it had been placed in some other locality it would have indeed made many uncomfortable and efforts would have been made to quash another free expression of opinion.