No one wants to tour Pakistan
As someone who has watched Pakistan play cricket on numerous occasions overseas, as well as in Karachi, I can tell you the experience is enormously different at home. Overseas, the seats are comfortable, the stadiums in pristine condition, the crowds well-behaved, the food non-threatening and no eyesore security grill to separate the playing area from the spectators. At home, the seats will put your rear to sleep, the biryani is spicy enough to make you wish you brought antacid with you, and the frighteningly energetic crowd is so loud that you can’t speak to the person next to you without the aid ...
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Help! My boss hates me because I’m hot
Dear Miss Informed, I have been working at an advertising agency for six months. They pay well and my colleagues are more or less cheerful, but I’ve been feeling unhappy lately. The reason for this is that my boss is a slave driver. She makes me work much later than I am expected to and never appreciates anything I do. She takes out her personal frustrations on me, sends out emotional e-mails and never seems to be happy with anything I do. Sometimes, I think she just does it because she’s jealous of me; I’m better looking, younger and have more ...
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Ask questions, your doctor isn’t psychic
Miscommunications are part of daily routine. You order a large Coke and no fries at a restaurant and the waiter brings you extra fries and a regular Fanta. You ask a classmate for physiology notes and she photocopies the entire term’s anatomy notes and presents them to you the next day. But there’s one place miscommunication can be a serious problem. Having spent time on both sides of the physician-patient fence, I’ve started noticing how doctors often do not explain stuff adequately and patients will not ask enough questions, resulting in huge communication gaps. In a clinical setting, these gaps ...
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AIDS: Battle the disease, and the stigma
It has been almost 30 years since the symptoms of HIV/AIDS first presented themselves in 1981 in San Francisco and New York amongst young homosexual men; 27 years since the virus itself was discovered and in this time we have come a long way in figuring out how HIV spreads and what precautions to take. As far as treatment is concerned, leaps and bounds have been made and now people with the disease can live an (almost) normal life. But what has not changed in this time is the stigma attached with having the disease, the public perception and the public ...
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A cigarette a day, may kill your wife
Most people in Pakistan are aware of the hazards of tobacco use but general awareness on the hazards of second and thirdhand smoking is minimal. Most people including children can be seen inhaling tobacco toxins in public transport, shopping centers, restaurants and other public places. First, what is the difference between second and third hand smoke? Smoking by association Secondhand smoking or passive smoking is the inhalation of smoke, called secondhand smoke (SHS) or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) from tobacco products used by others. The term third-hand smoke was recently coined to identify the residual tobacco smoke contamination that remains after a cigarette is ...
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Making editorial pages from scratch
My last job was at The News where I edited their editorial pages for more than three and a half years. It was an interesting time at the paper and there was a tug-of-war between various sections of the publication. For instance, the Karachi edition was run by the thoroughly professional and sensible Talat Aslam (who had prior to that edited Herald for a number of years) and its front page was decidedly saner than its counterparts in Islamabad and Karachi. The organisation, editorially, at The News was different. Each city edition has its own editor and each edition ...
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Is Islamic banking really Islamic?
The journey began with trying to establish Shariah compliant prudent banking opportunities. The concept was to provide Halal banking and safety from Riba (interest). The aim was to avoid foreign banks and their banking system in Muslims countries. The vision was to establish an Islamic Economic System. After the initial stage, people started having questions in their minds: Is Islamic banking really is Islamic? The matter is drawn from two aspects. First, what is the difference in the methodology the common man can see when he deals with an Islamic bank in comparison to a conventional commercial bank? And second, whether ...
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