Operation Cleanup, etc.
Posted by anas on Dec 18, 2008 in London Diary | 48 commentsThis post is an agglomeration of thoughts and stories of the day. There was something unsual about today. It began differently and stimulated different regions of my brain that were dormant (huh!). I woke up late today, around 11 a.m. (near Zuhr time). This was a usual time of waking up in Karachi but probably my first here and that too because I ended up scratching my head over a snippet of code until 4 a.m. last night. I decided not to indulge in any academic stuff during the day and so I started with my Operation Cleanup.
The first step was to clean my laptop, physically. I ordered a cleaning kit off amazon last week to get rid of all the dirt that has accumulated on/in the keys and screen in the last 2 years! (Yeah, I never cleaned my laptop). With the laptop shining I couldn’t resist browsing and checking different blogs 
BTW, even the mouse touchpad feels good now! [I'm taking special care to wash my hands, dry them nicely before typing this]
Next, I sorted out my desktop issues. There was no space for any icon and this kinda triggered my urge to cleanup. I’m proud to say that the desktop is pristine now and I also removed extra stuff from the computer.
Then came the biggie, room ki safai. This is how it looked:
Slowly and begrudgingly, cursing myself for creating the mess, I collected the empty cans of red bulls and diet cokes, wrappers of maltesers, minstrels, mars and bounty, filed the rough papers which are usually ‘scattered in some organized way’ and breathed a sigh of relief when completed.
Next I threw the clothes in the laundrette, came back to the computer to check out the happenings in the politics. There is something going on about the CJP daughter’s marks and admission. Same old story!! Iftikhar Chaudhry got his son in something too. So did Nawaz Sharif, when he got his daughter in some medical college (link), and now he dares to speak for the same crime that he did. Surely, the judge should be kicked, and so should the others!
The clothes were clean and dry and I neatly stacked them completing the Operation Cleanup!
Then I had this chat with a friend:
Friend: Parhai set hai?? and teachers?
Me: haan, the teachers are great…wish i had some at undergrad too!
Freind: why don’t you get in to teaching when you are done?
Me: i dnt like teaching, uknw that and the other reasons too
Friend: then you shouldn’t complain if you can’t help in improvement
Me: acha sai hai bhai…ghalti hogai
….and then i changed the topic
This got me in some serious thinking about considering teaching an option. After all, as Pakistanis we have to make an effort at least. But, I don’t know, this guy is weird! Does anyone agree with him??
I also got my NFAK collection back (downloaded again!) and I’m listening to one his songs, a live performance in India, and I haven’t changed the song for the past couple of hours.
After posting this, I think I might go back to some coding – its difficult to do it in the morning.
If anyone is wondering why I didn’t attend the university today it is because the classes are over! And the term shall end this week officially. But with all the courseworks and stuff, the vacations can be counted as an active part of the term.
Still wondering if I should resume the coursework or work on my new website :S
And I also made some decisions today:
1) I will make an effort to keep the room clean.
2) I will not have a haircut for the next few months and will resist all temptations of another haircut by that Portuguese girl.
3) I will buy Nikon D60 immediately after Christmas! (enough of waiting)
At the end, I will leave you with an interested link. Do read it, especially the programmers.
http://www.aegisub.net/2008/12/if-programming-languages-were-religions.html
what is with that portuguese girl. I think i missed that story.
secondly no hair cut for few months…i just hope u don’t intend to lose ur hairs like me…..
i usually do operation cleanups on the weekend…two reasons…1 so that my room is prepared and i am not caught off guard if some one comes to drop me to my room….secon its more easy to do it weekly rather than daily or monthly.
i would like to see ur D60 when are u comming to lahore????
As for the link i liked the idea of C++ begin islam but i think it has so many back doors that could prove it other wise.
Room ki safai – you showed us the ‘before’; now waiting for the ‘after’.
@Anas: Why was there no post on that Portuguese girl??? I am sure there wasn’t any. I have never liked barbers/hairdressers/peoplewhoruinyourhair, but I am sure she will be an exception!!!. I am on the same path, I have no intention of getting my hair cut in the next 6 months. Lets compare after 6 months
.
@Awais: The people who “want” to meet you will already know what your room looks like (Like Me), they won’t care. For the rest, show them the dirty room, better: Ask them to help you clean it up
, I’m sure they won’t care about your dirty room.
ok the link is really cool esp where it says that C++ is like Islam and VB is like Satanism
so true if you try to analyze it using that analogy
so where’s the ‘after’ operation cleanup pic?
@Awais: no u didn’t miss it, but tumhara focus wahan per hi kyun hai?
@Talha: leave the girl alone
@Saadia and KW: yaar its clean!! y doesnt anyone trust me on this????
How can anyones focus not be on the Portuguese girl?
Aray get a Canon yaar! Seriously, consider the D450.
@Anas:How can I not focus on the Portuguese girl? I am Pakistani… and a PNEC graduate….
That’s what I was wondering having that haircut
Canon D450 expensive hai yaar, I will have to wait few more months for that, phir koi doosra ajayega
You know what..? Consider that chat.. seriously. I remember being amazed when somebody suggested teaching to me..I was amazed cuz I had never considered TEACHING as an option…
But over the years (the suggestion came some years back)
.. so over the years, I have accepted that the standard is deplorable here.. Instead of lamenting about the style of teaching here, why not get a taste of what foreign studies are like, and then come back and try to impart it..
Research main agar interest hay…to teaching is a very nice option..
Don’t you think?
Mulk ka bhee bhala hojayy gaa
Nice post.. good that you cleaned the room. Its a nice feeling when something is cleaned.. Problem (at least with me).. it doesn’t last long:P
Finally, someone talks sense
Actually I wanted views on that little conversation, and everyone was more focused on the Portuguese chick!
Any more views??
Hey you know what .. I was wondering the exact same thing.. why did people just take that one liner out of the entire post and comment about it
:P:P
Funny, actually
..
@Anas: Yes, get a PhD and start teaching at NUST. I visited the new campus (The one in H12 Islamabad) today. The setup is awesome. No wonder they are jumping 90 ranks at a time. They pay good as well. I tried to take pictures to show you (and some other people) but I was told to put my camera away or they will throw it out(Secret Lab??? Paranoid???). Then I got into an argument with some Information Manager (Girl… Apparently smoking is not allowed in the campus premises, felt soooooooo good to know that they couldn’t fine me
, but she did try). Eventful day!!!
Bring that Portuguese chick along if you can, people might need a haircut
No pics allowed, that’s….well…NUST
As far as I know, phd is not a prerequisite for teaching Pakistan, and I certainly don’t intend on going for it at this point in time, unless i get a full scholarship – yeh masters nai horaha mujhse
*ignores Portuguese chick*
@Anas…pehli baat mera focus wahan per nahi ha….my focus was on everything other than teaching…u might go and check my post again.
Now for teaching is Pakistan. Well you are right Anas PhD is not a prerequisite for teaching in pakistan u can teach BE lvl even if u are a bachelors but its only until 2010.As far as i remember after that there is some compulsion by HEC that a teacher should be at one step higher than his students.
In that case if u will only be master than u will be left behind both carrier wise as well as financially. Take an example of Mr. Fawad headed by Dr. Pervaze. Ur objective for becoming a teacher is to change a system and what i think u can do that well if u are at the top lvl so sooner or later u will have to do PhD.
Now for finances and scholar ship can’t comment on that u can judge better.i knew u will never want to do PhD from NUST or NED after doing Masters from imperial college. Still its an option.
Summarizing all that in my opinion one should go into teaching if he thinks he can teach and is willing to do Doctorate else it will be of no use both as carrier and financially.
I am not sure what i have written so if there is something confusing do let me know i will try to rectify it btw i had left “that ” girl alone…happy now
One more thing u didn’t told me if u plan to come to pakistan/lahore in near future or not. See u urself picked only one reference from my previous post
talking about teaching, i think i should be sharing my experience here. wen i was done with my masters, i seriously didnt consider teaching as an option at all. I just wanted to do something which if even doesnt help me make good money, should help me feel satisfied at the end of the day. So initially you might not believe this, but I actually worked for 2 NGOs voluntarily for 6 months. Working with them I found out that most of them just pose to be messiahs and itd be better if I would just do something alone, completely on my own without a trumpet (u know what I mean). Ofcourse, for that I needed money and thats wat made me think of teaching as an option. Ofcourse I have chosen it as my career now as I think there cannot be a greater service that I can provide than imparting the knowledge that I have. I am simply not claiming that I am the best teacher around but seriously this is one of those jobs if done sincerely can actually get u some sawab too. I am currently working towards two different research projects and also working with some other like minded faculty members to develop a small research center in the university with the limited resources which we have.
@Anas: According to the new policy, a MS qualification will only get you a job of a lab attendant. You’ll need a PhD to teach in class.
@karachiwali: I thought people like you were extinct, specially in Pakistan.
Bravo! lol! I feel sorry for that laptop! dou saal tumne uskay saath ye sulook rakha?!
So apart from the all the coursework and stuff – wat’r your plans for the vacations??
I so want to go back to school. I miss England but I heard things are pretty tight there ajkal with the recession and all.
@Uni: You said k agar research mein interest hai to teaching is a good option, but does teaching in Pakistan give me a chance of getting my phd after some years?
@karachiwali: apart from sawaab, what abt the remuneration? teaching is a good job, and chance to make a little change..worth a try.
@Talha: If needing a phd is compulsory, how many teachers will we have man?? will the universities close????
@Awais: getting a scholarship for phd from abroad is an option – if any local university does so
@Ammar: apart from the courseworks, i plan to do more courseworks in the vacations
@Tazeen: “credit crunch” and “financial crisis” are buzzwords….even the marketing guys are using that e.g. price crunch, etc…things are pretty tight, therz some store here, 99 years old, which is closing down in jan because of such probz…thats jst one example
@ Talha
we are near extinction
@ Anas
well there were some really good funding options till just a few months back cuz of HEC. its getting a lil difficult now…and im suffering cuz of that. i now need to pataofy a supervisor which I am already working on. as for research facilities in Pakistan, there are none! everyone wants you to be researching but they wouldnt support you so are basically on your own and it depends a lot on how well you can motivate yourself. i wouldnt recommend anyone to go for a phd here…atleast abhi. i cant say how things would be in a few years from now. we know that a lot of hec scholars would be coming back and many of them would definitely become approved phd supervisors per abhi tou bohut kharab scene hai idher.
and yes, teaching is a good job, definitely worth a try.
@KW: that’s the thing…HEC is struggling these days
okk…two more things…wats the pay scale? and what abt the thing talha said abt phd being a requisite for teaching?
@karachiwali: What do you mean by “WE”, because I might share your views, but I surely haven’t done anything practical yet
.
@Anas: If my memory isn’t corrupted (Which it isn’t
), a PhD get around Rs. 120,000 per month to teach at NUST. For MS qualified, that pay scale is from 15,000 to 70,000 depending (depending on experience).
@karachiwali: Ok I get the “WE”… you mean the people… I’m a little slow on Fridays.
@ Anas
the payscale aint bad…its quite good in fact. dr saeed ghani of IBA is getting 4 lakhs plus a car and all his utility bills paid by the IBA but ofcourse you have to work really hard to be where he is. as for being a phd, u can at max be an assistant professor without a phd abhi tak tou
@ Talha
lol…its ok
@ Talha
btw, by ‘we’ i meant people who take teaching the way I do but there are definitely some who think pretty much like me. In fact, there are some who are far more sincere than I am. Heard of Dr Nasir Tauheed?
@karachiwali: Actually no, but I “googled” it, he teaches at IBA. That’s all I could find on him.
@Anas: This country needs teachers like you. Does it matter how much cash you make? If you want to make serious cash, then don’t come back. Earn there, sent it here, and may be steal a technology from the Whities
Well, in NED we have teachers who are BE, MSc and very few Ph.D.. We had teachers who had done their Masters from abroad, came back, did two years here, left for Ph.D in Faculty Development Program full scholarship
.. the bond is that they come back after 3-5 years, and teach for another 7 years at least 
So it’s not a VERY bad deal now is it?
For those who don’t want to or can’t go abroad, we have had teachers doing Ph.D from the university only…
Everything is possible.. I am learning this now, that it only depends on the student.. How WELL he/she avails the facilities and opportunities offered..
@ Talha
well he’s someone i have always idolized. he had modest beginnings and now he’s one of the best that we have in the country. he has 3 masters degrees and a phd. he doesnt care about money and he’s a well of knowledge. i havent seen anyone more sincere than him.
@ Uni
wen you talk about research, you need facilities. there are not even enough supervisors here…its just not about getting the degree, its about getting the degree in the field you want. i know a lot of people who are doing their PhDs from here…i work with a lot of those at my uni only. they are doing their PhDs from here cuz of certain very personal issues. as for getting the hec scholarship which you are talking about, its not being offered anymore. in fact many of those who are already abroad, halfway through their course have been told that they have to arrange for the rest of the fees themselves.
And oh btw, the new rules were supposed to be implemented in 2010 where this pre req of phd was to be implemented but now it seems verrryyy unlikely
@karachiwali: OMG, three master!!!
@karachiwali:
i know a lot of people who are doing their PhDs from here…
So.. are they satisfied? What problems do they face. Please enlighten me on this. I really did believe doing a Masters from abroad, and a Ph.D from here was a feasible option. One can easily enter the Academia then right?
I know it’s not just about a degree, and even without an HEC program , isn’t it possible to do so?
@ Uni
il suggest you to do the opposite. do ur ms here and then go for a phd. the major chunk of ms is coursework and thesis comes much later. if you know people who are doing their ms thesis, they’l tell you that research is something which is just sooo difficult in pakistan. thesis is a small part of ms and thats wat takes the maximum time. as for phd, the thesis itself is the major chunk. further, in ms you can get away with a survey report sort of a thing but wen it comes to phd, u have to come up with something completely new. Further, there are a lot of problems in finding the right supervisor. If you go through the list of HEC approved supervisors, you would notice the limitations wen it comes to research areas. For example, I started working on a small project on intelligent user interfaces and was thinking of converting my results into a format which could be used as my PhD research proposal. I was hoping if someone could help me achieve that. You might be surprised to know that there is not a single supervisor in Pakistan who could be of any help as no one is working on it! So I had to directly approach a professor in Australia who was kind enough to read the crap that I had jotted down, gave me suggestions and helped me come up with a decent research proposal which helped me get an admission too.
All the people that I know who are doing their PhDs from here are having a tough time because of three things:
1) lack of facilities
2) mindset of people who do not even know the meaning of research
3) not the right sort of expertise (just as I mentioned, although you would find plenty of people working in AI, they are all working on those areas of AI which I am not interested in)
PhD is tough, really tough. You have to spend nearly 4 years on your own. There are no set target dates, no exams. You are the only one who can motivate yourself and thus it is very important to be working on something which you find interesting. That is, decide wat you have to do and then find the resources rather than try to find wat can be done in the resources that you have. Perhaps these problems are the main reason why most people doing their PhDs from pakistan take around 8-10 years while the ones doing from abroad come back successfully in merely 3-4 or at max 5 years.
Oh my God! it seems im trying to make some sort of a record in giving long comments
Yeah, and you win easily
BTW, that was very informative. You got admission for PhD???
yep, i have the admission for 2010, but im broke. funding is the main issue. i now have to try pataofy that same uncle (my supervisor) to help find some funding opportunities for me. he’s suggesting that i should be applying for TA ship which is definitely not bad at all.
Yes, it certainly was informative. Thanks a whole lot. Gave me a whole new perspective of what Ph.D studies is really about.
And what you said is veryyyy true. In my undergraduate project, I found only 4-5 people in the whole of this country, who could help us out. Like, only these few had done something in it. It was terrible actually, because we were on our own THROUGHOUT the project, and obviously didn’t come up with anything new, cuz it took so much time just understanding the whole thing .:( [add to that 9 more subjects,and the associated tests and assignments, life was hell].
It’s so confusing
.. Some say, do your MS abroad, now your advise is to do Ph.D abroad.. Chalain, if I manage to achieve that (less than 1% probability btw).. when I come back (and i do plan to come back because my ultimate aim is to serve Pakistan), will I find anywhere suitable to fit in as a teacher? Think about it. I might have done my Ph.D in something completely alien in Pakistan..
Uss ko introduce karanay main hee 10 years lagg jaingay..
The future is sure bleak
@karachiwali: Try NUST.. maybe they’ll sponsor your PhD… but you’ll have to sign a bond.
@karachiwali: As far as I know HEC funding is not possible these days but the universities can provide private funding.
@Uni: Doing something which is completely alien in Pakistan can be a good thing too. You will be the most sought after entity whenever universities chose to include those things in their course. These days, I google a lot, trying to find out if there are professors of my field in Pakistan. I only found one serious guy, who’s the head at LUMS school of engineering. Other than that there’s not much there.
@talha: NUST needs to be de-militarized!!! Seriously
@ Uni
u’d be the only person having expertise in that.
just as Anas said, doing something alien in Pakistan should be your goal
as for the suggestion of doing ms here, ofcourse the better option is to do ur ms from abroad too but that obviously depends on how much you can spend on ur studies.
@ talha
i have actually heard some weird stuff about NUST
@ Anas
dekho yar kya banta hai, i will be applying for TA ship and funding both. idher uni main bhi apply ker loon funding key liye.
can someone adopt me please?
aah…comment moderation?
LOL.. yeah doing something alien should be cool.. but doing something here, has the HUGE step of introducing something here
and that involves changing mindsets. I am not even 1% sure I can do THAT!
One more thing. Doing MS from here..
Basically doing it from my own university is too much to bear right now.. especially right now, since I got OUT of it after FOUR years!
And doing something from my other choices like NUST, Sir Syed .. Well!! The ones who are doing masters from NED right now had teachers from the above two… Needless to say, their reactions when we suggested to them that should we do our MS from these places, was enough to make me reject those …:S..
That’s what made me decide on MS from abroad.. and um, Im wholly and solely dependent on scholarships..!! But for post grad there are a number of them….:S So that option is not fully shot down.
Thanks for the advice people..:S
@ Uni
ill tell u how things work for ms degrees in Pakistan. I have taught at ms level too so i think i can share the inside story. most ms programs are designed only to make money. Most unis are able to churn out good results cuz they start off with good students. ofcourse most students who are not good at their bachelors wouldnt think of getting enrolled in ms in the first place. so ofcourse getting an ms degree from abroad would definitely be a better choice but if funding is an issue, i dont see a harm in doing ms from here.
@karachiwali: What weird stuff?
@Anas: You said the same thing about Pakistan. Look at the situation now. NUST is okay the way it is.
@talha: I NEVER said Pakistan should be de-militarized. But in academia, they can only be good managers and well educated people are needed to serve the real purpose.
BTW..this post has suddenly turned from the Portuguese girl to my room and now msc/phd opportunities
@Anas: Aha! so you admit that your post was primarily about the Portuguese Girl?
@ Talha
i already work at a uni with naval administration. they are not educationists and thats wat their main problem is. now NUST ka environment is a step closer to…well…u know more military like. i wouldnt like to deal with that while studying. i have nothing against them but there are certain things only an educationist can understand.
@karachiwali: I think I know what you mean. My time at PNEC was the darkest of life.
@KW: exactly, they’re trained to think differently.
@talha: we all know the navy