Kiya Bola?

Too Early Still?

2008-06-24T11:56:00.002+06:00

So, having returned from a fun evening at my friend's brothers wedding event, I managed to catch some waking hours with Soph and eventually hit the sack for a short nights sleep.

This morning I awoke, got my self dressed and made sure I looked sharp for my meeting and took off. I felt pretty good when I left home, but something must have happened when the sun hit me because not long after leaving home, I approached a round about where a large SUV was parked right in front. I stopped, looked right and put my foot on the gas the moment the SUV looked as though he was moving.

BAM!!!!

He wasn't and I was...now I have a four inch hole poked by a cast iron pecker protruding out of the SUV's rear. The guy who jumps out, obviously someone quite misunderstood, felt he needed to get up all in my face. Being sublime as I was, I asked for his forgiveness and told him he can only imagine what the rest of my day will be spent doing. He, on the other hand, required some coaxing before feeling like the bigger man for letting me go. Fortunately by the time the cop approached from the distance, the SUV guy made up his mind to let me off the 'hook' if you know what I mean. As he pulled off, the pecker pulled out and I was all exposed, or at least my poor car was.

Moral of the story = Thank God and all the others responsible for insurance!!

amaana Enters BBC World Challenge 2008

2008-06-24T11:34:00.005+06:00

About a month ago, I was asked to submit amaana as a candidate in the BBC's World Challenge, where small companies are targeting the low/middle income groups with their products and services.

We thought that with our business model of enabling micro-payments, even for the poorest of users, we are introducing efficient mechanisms into the existing system.

Here are the answers to the major questions that I answered, allowing us to distinguish amaana from the other candidates for the World Challenge 2008.

*Why was the project initiated and what does it aim to achieve?*

This project was established keeping in mind the millions of un-banked people in Pakistan, lacking any access to affordable financial services. Through the course of rolling the product into the market, amaana aims to provide financial options for the low-income market by enabling micro payments via mobile phones at a significantly lower cost than existing financial channels such as banks and money transfer agents

*How does the project measure its achievements?*

We look at usage patterns starting with our airtime feature for prepaid purchases over SMS to any mobile phone. For outreach we see how virally the service has spread by word of mouth or referrals in any given community in the country. For usage we look at overall traffic and volume for any particular user. These power users represent their communities, or trust networks, and become amaana's evangelists by promoting us locally. amaana finds particular pleasure in noticing how apparently illiterate people can memorize roman SMS commands or numeric shortcuts to use our basic services**

*How does the project benefit the community and/or environment?*

By providing services over their existing mobile devices at no additional cost, amaana increases each users own income-value by reducing costs typically associated with existing financial services available to them. Accepting amaana as a payment option induces the growth of cash-less economies. This substantially provides economic growth opportunities to the community at large by increasing efficiency, reducing currency printing costs, theft, and sabotage

*How does the project use environmental resources sustainably?*

We enable cashless economies, which in turn enable paperless environments. Taking physical aspects out of any system increase the inherent security and cost effectiveness of that system. The State Bank of Pakistan has started issuing cotton based currency for it to circulate longer, but that only increases the capital expenditure of producing currency and bank notes continues to transport disease. Our real time over the air processes eliminate time and cost related to physical documentation and transport.

*Please write in no more that 250 words why you think this project deserves to win World Challenge 08*

We live in a world today with a population of approximately 6.7 billion people, the majority of whom are below the poverty belt. Where, once the world feared Hitler and Communism, headlines now turn to Islamist groups spreading fear throughout the world. With so much diversity in our history, there has been little to rejoice. Pakistan embodies a mere 2% of the global population, yet we have managed to attract attention from the other 98% for nearly a decade. Acts of violence and extremist slander have brought social sanctions home. However, despite the circumstances, life goes on. Part of the life being exposed here is the kind that incubates passion in ones struggle for improving the lives around you. With such passion come situations where the youth that once sought to find success and opportunity elsewhere, are now finding solace in bringing the better wisdom of the world home. One such wisdom is the idea that one day, a company such as amaana, might become a part of the greater solution to challenging economic disparities and social persecution. amaana prides itself in the insistence that everyone should be entitled to flourish. Leveraging the incalculable benefits of modern technology, amaana provides access to financial services over even a basic mobile phone to the poorest man, woman or child, exposing them to prosperity. amaana's low-cost technology platform turns mobile phones into powerful keys that can open doors to change. With consistent resilience and determination, perhaps amaana can fill such big shoes.

1 year Later & Return of the Retards

2008-05-21T15:37:00.009+05:00

There was a time when I had started blogging some years ago, mostly because of the constricted sensation I suffered being back in Pakee-Stanee-Landee. Frankly, I loved being back, but was so anxious to see change for the better.

I moved around from place to place, city to city, job to job, industry to industry, corner to corner throughout the country desperately in search of something I wasn't quite sure of then. Well, to be quite honest, I had no clue what the hell I was even looking for after college. A lot of people graduate with some idea of where they are headed, even generally. Me, i was like that chick in clueless, except I knew i was clueless and that's probably where the adventure really started.

Some folks look back at their lives and consider all the things that have happened and take the breakups and the expulsions and the school yard fights and the speedy car wrecks as a bad thing they wish had never happened. I suppose I would consider myself an optimist...I look at them as opportunity.

Opportunity, if one can recognize it, comes not in a particular shape or package, but rather a juncture in your life perhaps when you least expect it. I graduated, hunted jobs like everyone else, thought about heading down to Ecuador to do some volunteer work (a 6 week program that would cost ME about $3,000 US), flew back to Pakistan (on PIA!!), got a job, worked, left it, went to the mountains to do some quake relief work, etc etc etc. Lots happened and then somewhere along the line I even got hitched, which is about the only concrete thing I am really happy about.

All the while, the President of Pakistan, Musharraf, did a few things and pissed some people off. Now all you read about is Nawaz did this so Zardari did that and then the occasional Let's get them judges back. I personally have not heard Mushi's name in the media as of recent other than some protestors and potential aggressors who want his head on a sheepskin platter. I don't really have an opinion about him or what he did, frankly I don't really see the point in wasting energy on it when, unlike many others, I only have a 24 hour day.

Wrapping this random post around, I suppose what I am attepting to profess is that even though some new roads popped up and new faces finally get their 15 minutes in the GOP, for the most part stuff really just stayed the same....wasteful and tiresome. PPP is out, PPP is in, PML is out, PML-N is in, PML is out, PML-Q is in. Shit....how much can you divide things up? To the point there are half a person here and half a person there?

Arre bhai, stop preaching about who is good and who is bad. Lead by example if you are so bothered by it all or get another citizenship. Whether we like it or not, these are the cards we were dealt and if you look back, not a lot has really happened since 1947. Power has shifted hands, the army has popped in for 10 year long Hello's, Benazir saw a dreadful death, some dude with a fake moustache claiming to be her husband pretended to give his 18 year old son something really cool like a lordship title or chairmanship of some sort (I know what it is, but it doesn't really matter since he can't wave his magic stick until he kicks his dads ass), Nawaz came back thinking Zardari's a friend forever and then suddenly realized that he's only playing the fiddle, etc, etc, etc, etc..........

I think my tone, angle and approach to life has altered quite a bit since the early blogger days. I suppose I have had the advantage of realizing that you get 1 shot, 1 attempt, 1 try, 1 life, 1 power-up (for all you gamers, you!) to do as you will. After which time there is afterlife for those who believe and maybe something else for those who don't.

How will you spend the rest of your....wait, do you even know how many days you did get? tsk tsk...should have read the fine print more carefully. You don't really know how many, do you? That's because no one really knows for sure until the NASA guys figure out how to calculate the incalculable.

My dad always told me "accidents don't happen, they are caused". This relates to Murphy's law, "If something can go wrong, it will" and for those of you who are looking for trouble, you can stop wasting your time because all you're doing is looking for murphy. He only goes for the ones he wants and you are probably just not one of them. Be productive, get your mom a flower, dad a tie, brother a girlfriend and sister a handbag. Go out and try something you haven't, give good advice, don't impose and if you really want some exciting ideas, let me know and I can give you some ideas ;)

I will finish this not-s0-long-awaited-post by saying How Random and I'm Back! Again!
Stay Tuned

New Wave of Technology for the New Year

2007-01-03T00:10:00.000+05:00

$100 laptop project launches 2007

The first batch of computers built for the One Laptop Per Child project
could reach users by July this year.
The scheme is hoping to put low-cost
computers into the hands of people in developing countries.
Ultimately the
project's backers hope the machines could sell for as little as $100 (£55).
The first countries to sign up to buying the machine include Brazil,
Argentina, Uruguay, Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan and Thailand.
The so-called XO
machine is being pioneered by Nicholas Negroponte, who launched the project at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab in 2004.
Test machines
are expected to reach children in February as the project builds towards a more
formal launch.

Mr Negroponte told the Associated Press news agency that three more African
countries might sign on in the next two weeks.
The laptop is powered by a
366-megahertz processor from Advanced Micro Devices and has built-in wireless
networking.
It
has no hard disk drive and instead uses 512 MB of flash memory, and has two USB
ports to which more storage could be attached.

"I have to laugh when people refer to XO as a weak or crippled machine and
how kids should get a "real' one"," Mr Negroponte told AP.

"Trust me, I will give up my real one very soon and use only XO. It will be
far better, in many new and important ways."
The computer runs on a cut-down
version of the open source Linux operating system and has been designed to work
differently to a Microsoft Windows or Apple machine from a usability
perspective.

(Read more at News.BBC.Co.Uk)

This is a groundbreaking move up for getting developing countries on board with innovative technology. I was quite excited to see that Pakistan is one of the 7 countries to have signed up so far. I hope that it really will be a project taken seriously by whoever is responsible for the procurement and not just another opportunity to make a quick buck at the expense of the poor.

Too many people are trying to find more productive and lucrative ways of alleviating poverty, most of which involve their own professional skills and time. With embezzlement from poverty reduction schemes, that time and effort is merely wasted and thus making the process counter-productive altogether.

2006-12-14T15:25:00.001+05:00

House view facing sea

2006-12-14T15:25:00.000+05:00

Lounge facing sea

2006-12-14T15:24:00.000+05:00

View of Mediterranean Sea from Patio

2006-12-14T15:21:00.000+05:00

Lounge facing dining table

2006-12-14T15:20:00.001+05:00

Pool

2006-12-14T15:20:00.000+05:00

From the Front

2006-11-29T10:55:00.002+05:00

This time I took the shot

2006-11-29T10:55:00.001+05:00

Karachi skyline

2006-11-29T10:55:00.000+05:00

T, the cookie monster n Reem

2006-11-29T10:51:00.000+05:00

The final result

2006-11-29T10:50:00.001+05:00

The pasta

2006-11-29T10:50:00.000+05:00

The bread

2006-11-29T10:48:00.000+05:00

Me n T cookin it up at my place. He's the main ingredient.
jujipic

2006-11-29T10:25:00.000+05:00

A New York City Sky (Chrysler Building in the Background)
jujipic

2006-11-29T10:24:00.000+05:00

Nisha n I (bestestest buddy from school)
jujipic

2006-11-29T10:23:00.000+05:00

Kamikaze in an injection
jujipic

2006-11-29T10:22:00.001+05:00

The sky over the road en route to NYC
jujipic

2006-11-29T10:22:00.000+05:00

Katie, Savitha n Bhavika....u guys lookin for a ride?
jujipic

2006-11-29T10:21:00.000+05:00

Bah-Naq n I
jujipic

2006-11-29T10:20:00.001+05:00

There he is, Brian Trelsted, our CIO
jujipic

2006-11-29T10:20:00.000+05:00

Nothing like humor with a pinch of salt! Kudos to Jacqueline, David and Brian (absent from the shot)
jujipic