Romantically Academic.

Quite a nice day out at Oxford. Good thing about cheap bus rides and evening lectures is they allow you, and give you a good reason too, to savour a place in a time- and investment-friendly manner and talk about it (rather than the other option of having to pay a fortune and/or spend years for a degree there). Also good to have an insider to get a proper guided tour adapted to your specific interests - from Latin American shrunken heads to business schools (lobby access only) [hAk, if you're reading this... thanks again! Fabulous time. I can promise you one jamming session - but only one :)].

Anyways, (since one thing London teaches you is to identify "characters" of places - the most popular character in London being "dodgy") Oxford has a character of its own. The various norms including amongst others, priveleges to dining halls and access to walking on the grass, would definitely make you feel better as a fellow/member. The various effects create a sense of calm and non-urgency (very noticable to central London dwellers). Of these the most significant seem to be the vacant (unspoiled) expansive lush green lawns. Quite the thing that makes you talk academically about politics, society and world affairs. Its good to see education given this status.

Lal Sharbat

Traditional Rooh Afza and a tribute to Left's liquidated Struggle in Pakistan; comes with traces of lemon - Reminiscence of still present oral resistance.

Civil Military Mix aka dudh soda - A Pakistani household offering of sorts! Meek and mild civil milk is mixed with uniformed but effervescent soda; higgledy-piggledy saccharine elements of intelligentsia are whimsically added to sweeten the mix. Taste may vary as its 'work in progress' recipe albeit decades of experimentation. It has particular digestive value for progressive & democratic stomachs.

Development milkshakes - Refreshing varieties: top down, participatory, bottom up (the difference is of apertures; substance remains the same!); aided with loaned ice creams.

All these and more available at CJ, Islamabad, started by LSE Alumnus Arshad Bhatti (also an uncle of an ex-classmate). More at http://www.civiljunction.org/menu.html

Don't know about you, but I wouldn't pay for a Musharraf Guespresso, though I can guess it should be very popular with the liberal elite. Brilliant venture nonetheless.

British Museum III: Architecture 2

Pic credit: MA Samad

British Museum II: Architecture

Photo credit: M.A. Samad

British Museum I: One man's freedom fighter...

Closed Sundays

The problem with Lecture Chairs

Usual story. You go to a lecture. Chances are, more often than not, the speaker is not a rational (or has gone overboard in his rationality so that the common man cannot digest his words - both in content and form). Now you want to ask him a question. But his view is coming from a planet so different from yours that it would be necessary to explain your context. You want to use this opportunity, this gathering of people concerned about the topic in question, to achieve a meaningful displacement of ideas so that there is at least a little more harmony amongst this small subset of the population of the world when it goes out from the doors of the lecture theatre than there was when it came in. All good so far.

But wait. There is the Chair. If there is nothing that would end in a question mark if written, in the first 20 seconds of your speaking time, you get this look from him. 10 more seconds and you're rudely interrupted and reminded of your moral and ethical responsibility to only ask a question. The look continues until the seminar ends. Perhaps there should be before every question and answer session at a lecture, a vote to ask if people were willing to get into longer debates so that some sort of useful middle-way could atleast be explored between parties adhering to the speaker's vision, and those opposing it. Ofcourse, time-permitting. Obviously universities are getting money by teaching students, so it would make more sense to vacate the lecture theatre as soon as possible for the next "academic" lecture, but then there is no dearth of space in the world (yet) and the debate could continue elsewhere.

Until then, I shall prefer to keep my lips pursed during question answer sessions. Maybe one day I will give lectures. If that were ever to happen, I'd make sure what my Chair was like. Until then, my dear friend (if you're reading this chances are you fall in this category), I shall keep pestering you with my opinions and editorialization of this messy world as I see it.

The view from the window.

7.10 am. Morning's just here. Its the most motivating time of the day. The sun is still in the process of rising. Like us mortal humans, the cold probably makes it lazier in the mornings too. It probably wakes up in stages before realizing it would miss get behind its schedule.
There's something awesome about post-all-nighter mornings. They make you feel super-human. Others have succumbed to being normal and slept, while you've used that time to accomplish other things. I guess people like me need the occasional all-nighter to belief in their abilities. Otherwise we'd die from feeling low.
Its quite calm and peaceful. The window has rain-drops from the previous night. For a moment you think the city is sleeping. Only for a moment. A bus passes by partially field with the early-risers. In the distance is a plane ready to land at the Heathrow runway any minute. Behind it the clouds race by swiftly confirming the pace of the city even at this early hour.