Little Shiny Stars.

   

This year football fans across the world enjoyed the event in Brazil. Same country hosted the event for Street Children as well, Street Child football World Cup. Pakistan also supported it's less privileged children to go out and compete. All together 19 teams participated in the event. Pakistan Street Children's Team earned the 3rd position. A great moment of joy and pride for the nation and the country that is continuously facing uncertainty in politics, economy and Law & order.

Little Shiny Stars... I call them. These children didn't have much but they gave a lot back to the country. They gave their best. they made us proud.




A non-profit organization supports these children and when they won the bronze in the World Cup several other avenues opened for them. A local bank sponsored them and Pakistani community in Norway invited them to Norway to play a friendly match with a local team. Little Stars beat them too.











You can find out more on their facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/TeamPakistanSCWC

Well, we can make you laugh too!

A country where people only know too well to be sad and events that take place only support tears and sorrow has made some ripples in achieving a feat not known to us. Saad Haroon is a Pakistani stand up comedian and he is the second funniest man in the world!

Way to go Saad!

Saad Haroon is the second 'Funniest Person in the World'

Pakistani stand-up comedian Saad Haroon secured second position in the final of the first Laugh Factory Funniest Person in the World competition.

The contestants faced-off in an online voting competition for the prize.

During the voting, which started at 7pm (US Pacific time) on October 24 and continued till 11am on October 27, Haroon secured 59,213 votes to secure the runner-up prize. Haroon was among five artists who had made it to the final of the event.

Finland’s Ismo Leikola secured 158,945 votes to win the competition, while French artist Mustapha El Atrassi came in third with 22,658 votes.

Haroon is a standup comedian, improviser, director, scriptwriter and producer. He is known for creating Pakistan’s first improvisational comedy troupe, named Blackfish.

Haroon is also credited with Pakistan’s first English-language comedy show on television, called The Real News. The show was a mix of political and social satire and one of the first comedy shows in Pakistan to be shot in front of a live studio audience.

At present, Haroon is working on a brand new stand-up comedy show.

You can find out more about Saad on his facebook page and on UTube.

https://www.facebook.com/Saad.Haroon.Comedian

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saad_Haroon

Random Clippings

Random Clippings

Return of the Turtles!

Just a few days back, I came across a very refreshing news (such news are rare to come by these days!). Rare breed of turtles were smuggled from Pakistan to China. People involved in doing this were caught and the turtles were saved. But, Chinese decided to return these endangered species back to Pakistan as a gesture of goodwill. A decent neighborly act!.

Black Pond Turtles will be handed over to Pakistan authorities within next few days in a ceremony at the border.

This news makes me very happy, something that has put a smile on my face. With too much grim news all the time, such news gives you comfort that good deeds take place around us in many forms. I hope these turtles grow up and play their part as nature has intended for them to play.

Detailed news is as follows:

 

Random Clippings

Meet Yacouba Sawadogo

One man can make a big difference. The only thing you need is vision, courage and determination to stand tall against all odds.

Yacouba Sawadogo is my hero. A man who selflessly took an initiative that governments could not take to save the land and environment. 

Yacouba is from Barkina Faso and is regarded as 'The Man Who Stopped the Desert'. Now, environment societies and governments are studying his method to resolve the problem of desertification of land.

 
check out more about this brave man on the following links:

watch this video clip 

Random Clippings

Reconnecting with all of you after a brief absence. :-)

 

Brazuca is coming...... from Pakistan!

159th on the FIFA world football ranking and having no active national football team, But Pakistan is still taking part in the 2014 World Cup football tournament in Brazil.

Brazuca, the football, is officially being made and supplied by Pakistan. 

Pakistan is a Cricket crazy nation, football like many other sports like tennis is followed by few in the country. 

I like cricket, played a long time when I was young. I like tennis and regularly follow the top ranking player's matches. Football I only watch when it's world cup. But this time around, time zone is a big challenge as all the football matches will be played when it will be way passed mid night in Pakistan. Like many, my favorite teams are Brazil, Argentina, Italy and Germany. But I don't rule out others all together, I do watch them because of their players line up. How am I gonna watch the matches live this time, I really don't know. But I'll work out something.

But, as a Pakistani national, I am really proud to participate in a global sports event in some way. The Brazuca is manufactured in the city of Sialkot which is famous for manufacturing sporting goods for many global brands. 

I am pasting a link here that has details about how Brazuca is made:

http://www.emirates247.com/sports/fifa-world-cup/brazil-ready-for-made-in-pakistan-brazuca-balls-2014-06-07-1.551852


http://www.dawn.com/news/1111274/brazuca-the-ball-from-pakistan

Random Clippings

Chinese Whispers 7

By now my trip to Beijing had come to an end. Lot's of lovely memories associated with this trip. Met with lot's new people. This year our team meeting was appropriately titled 'East Meets West'. Participants joined in from Pakistan, India, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Canada, United States, Argentina and United Kingdom.  

Unlike regular business meetings, this one was very interactive and fun based. We even had a Tai Chi Master invited to join us for two days to learn how to manage stress at work place. The Master conducted very simple to do moves to manage daily stress.

For the last 3 years, I have been attending these meetings once a year and we have a tradition to exchange small cultural gifts, so this time around these are some of the gifts I received were these:

For all the arrangements I would like to thank my hosts Mr. Albert Wong, Edward Chang and Melony Li. Thank you guys for making this trip a memorable one. You were great hosts.

It is now time to head back home and with that I come to the end of 'Chinese Whispers'. Thank you all for reading and showing interest in my blog.

 

Random Clippings

Here's the 4th episode of Random Clippings.

Very interesting. a unique way to distribute mail in Germany.

Cool off in hot summer.

 A unique way to ask for voter's support in India.

 

Now this one is very very interesting. A 70 year old gentleman in India has 39 wives, 94 kids and 33 grand children. 100 room house. 

Don't ask me for details (especially the why and how....... :-)

Chinese Whispers 6

I regret the delay in completing the ‘Chinese Whispers’ due to some pressing issues at work and home. But here’s another interesting day’s followup:

March 23,

Last evening we  collected details about how to get to Beijing South Train Station to buy tickets for Bullet Train to Tianjin. Why Tianjin? Because, it’s not very far (only 150 km from Beijing) and it suits our main purpose of enjoying a quick ride of the Bullet Train.

Beijing has two railway stations, North and South. If you intend to take a train to some place from Beijing, please  make sure you go to the right train station. Beijing South Train Station is an impressive building and looks like an airport terminal. Shopping, restaurants, banks.  You’ll find all known brands and outlets here. 

To purchase tickets please keep your passport with you as your passport number will be printed on the ticket. For Chinese citizens, national identification card must be presented to purchase the tickets. The ticket cost 55 RMB one way. Security is very strict at the station and we were scanned twice before boarding the train.

The CRH is a very neat, clean and fast train. Has on-board café and hostesses.

We took the 10:30 train to Tianjin  and we reached there at 11:15. That was quick for a train ride!

We really wanted to experience the train which had it’s maximum speed at 292 km/h. This was my first time in a high speed train and I really enjoyed it. Maybe on a longer trip the speed might go beyond 300 km.

We were back in Beijing at 11:30. Now what? We decided to head for Niujie Street (Ox Street in Mandarin), a Muslim area. We offered prayers at an old Masjid (Muslim Prayer place) Niujie Mosque built in 996 AD, later had a quick lunch before heading towards The Nest.

Beijing is the only Olympic city I’ve been to and it would be incomplete if I didn’t have a look at the Olympic stadium. It's huge.

Opposite to the stadium is The Cube (complex for water sports).  

 we spent couple of hours there, had coffee and enjoyed the sunset before heading towards the city.

Dinner at The Ganges, Indian Restaurant. And a long walk back to the hotel.