Grass root recycling

Nargis Latif, the founder of Gulbahao, a non-governmental organization (NGO), laid stress on recycling garbage and not burning it. She turned waste into wealth by building shelters our of garbage in the remote areas of Karachi for those who could not afford their own. The materials she used included cardboard, paper, plastic bags, glass and metal. Her idea of recycling waste material not only helped people but saved the environment.

We need to contribute to saving the environment as well as by recycling at an individual level. There are a couple of ways you can get started. First, start collecting the newspapers you get at home. Once you have collected a big pile, hand them over to the local recyclers in your area. You can also unsubscribe to newspapers if you are not a regular newspaper reader. Both ways, you will be saving trees.

Using recycled paper is another way to save trees. Just keep a separate file at home where you stock all those papers that might have been misprinted or are of no use to you and use them whenever needed.

At the School of Media and Mass Communication (SMC), recycled paper is kept next to the printer and if ever needed, students are able to use recycled paper to print assignments and save pages. Any recyclable paper is submitted to the lab and can be reused. In case of recycled paper, if one side is printed, the blank side is used for printing.

If you are willing to put in some serious team effort, you can collect money from your neighbors and buy recycling bins or bags for the neighborhood. All the recyclable material should be put in these bins. You should make people aware that only recyclable material can be put into these bins, not rubbish. Also, contact your local recycling center and make them conscious of the effort you have put in so that they can help in putting it into use.

Also, it is better to use cloth bags when shopping instead of polythene bags because it is non-biodegradable, and does not decompose with time. It is a petroleum product and since it is light, it flies to the water with the wind. Also, if animals eat these by mistake, they may choke and die. You can reuse cloth bags for as long as you want.

At this time of the year, it is also a good idea to indulge in some spring cleaning and organize your course books and files to see if any papers or files can be reused instead of buying new ones. Try recycling as many things as you can, and save space, time, and money along with the environment. 

Originally published in The BNU Gazette, Issue no. 24

No saas bahu, cricket we love you

The 2011 ICC World Cup is in full swing. The men of the house re seated around the TV, their eyes glued to the screen. The women are finishing their everyday chores and with every passing minute the tension in the lounge becomes almost tangible. The clock is about to strike eight.

Suddenly havoc is let loose in the TV lounge. Remotes are snatched and the men are all removed from their places in front of the TV. The same little munna, who was the center of attention the entire day, is left alone in his crib and anyone who dares to question these women is in for a fierce telling off.

The men start looking for the emergency exit and a place to regroup. They know that for the next two hours, everybody in the house will be left to fend for themselves, and their absence will go unnoticed. Cricket was now out of the question: it was soap opera time.

But the channel has not changed. There are no fanatic bahus on the screen. The men in green remain. The volume has gotten louder. The men cannot help but stare, something is not right. The very same drama watching, spatula-yielding women that would chew your head off for even looking in their general direction during a drama, were fixed on Geo Super.

Yes it was the miracle of the 2011 World Cup; no saas or bahu was found watching any dramas. All eyes in Pakistan were on Boom Boom and his super squad.

Women threw themselves into the cricket, much like they had done with the dramas. They tried different totkas to try and help the Pakistan team won, like putting their shoes over one another, and screamed at the TV, just like they would when the wrong man was marrying the right girl during an episode of their favorite drama.

The message the women of Pakistan gave during this world cup was clear: ‘no saas bahu, cricket we love you’. 

Originally published in The BNU Gazette, Issue no. 24

Special Olympics 2011: bravery in Athen

The XIII Special Olympics, World Summer Games’ opening ceremony will be held on June 25, 2011, in the Panathenaic Stadium, Athens. It is a host to 21 games, in which a total of 7,500 athletes from 185 countries across the world are expected to perform, under the supervision of 3, 000 coaches. The event closes on July 4, 2011.

The Special Olympics’ organization came into being in 1968 and was founded by Eunice Kennedy-Shiver, sister of former US President John F. Kennedy, who used to run a summer camp at home, which eventually led to the creation of this organization, which focuses solely on helping the disabled.

Even though the first International Special Summer Games took place in Illinois, USA, with 1,000 participants from 26 states of America and Canada in 1968, it was not until 1971 that the US Olympic Committee gave Eunice’s organization the privilege of attaching the title ‘Olympics’ to the games. From then on it became a world sporting event.

Pakistan was invited to participate in the 1989 Special Olympics. Special education schools, training volunteers, and coaches got together to create the Pakistani team for the Olympics. Grounds for tennis, football, and other sports were also borrowed. There was a special program organized to teach people how to participate in the athletic events. This program has now blossomed into a proper organization.

During the last Olympics held in 2012, Pakistani athletes won an incredible total of 88 medals of which 40 were gold, 28 silver, and 20 bronze. The Pakistan Special Olympics team included 34 boys and 26 girls, who participated in sports including basketball, football, aquatics or swimming, tennis, athletics, badminton, table tennis and bocce (a ball sport). The team for bocce won the most medals, 21, and the star athlete was Umair Farooqi, who won gold, silver, and bronze medals in three separate events. Hopes are high for the Pakistani contingent in the upcoming Olympics.

The Special Olympics slogan states ‘Let me win! But if I cannot win let me be brave in the attempt’, which is a clear description of the idea behind these games. It is to provide those with disabilities a chance to prove themselves to the world, while also offering the world a chance to get to know these special people for more than just their disabilities. 

Originally published in The BNU Gazette, Issue no. 25

That day at a Chocolate Cafe

So they say, 'humari chocolate sauce aur chocolate imported hain' and we believe it. Really! Which is basically why there exists a hype about the oh-so-chocolatish Butlers' Chocolate Cafe and no parking space outside the building. I missed the opening of the cafe which I regretted only until yesterday, 7 pm to be more precised (which is when I looked at my plate).

A friend who had been there before said, 'pehle tau glass ka size bara tha, serving kum nahi ho gayee?' traumatized by merely looking at the waiter holding the glass of the shake in his hands even before putting it on the table for her. She explained to us friends, who were acquaintances to the place, the gigantic glasses they used to serve in before, which was only about a month ago, or maybe a month and a half. Oh anyway, moving on.

Let's talk about the ambiance. The music was low, lightening was fine, the display area was well designed, the sitting area and the surroundings were all good, but it was difficult to talk to the person sitting in front of you without actually screaming. 'KYA, CAN YOU REPEAT, AWAZ NAHI AYI?!' yeah just like that. Why? because it was too crowded and people were even louder. Or perhaps there was something noisy about that place, except for the music and chit chat, there was... some sort of a secret noise.

I have to admit that they are cooperative, they want to give the customer whatever he wants. Let's move to the part where they shatter all your expectations. A friend explained to the waiter that he wanted something that would have three things essentially: bananas, chocolate, and vanilla ice cream. What the waiter offered him was an extra topping of bananas which he would get from the rerhi wala outside, and for cutting it into slices and placing them on his dish, he would charge about 200 bucks which after his bargain and bashing came down to 60 bucks. Cool, no?!

What was more cooler, was the fact that the waiter (don't know if that's what he should be called) carried an iPad, oooooh yeeees, he took orders on that little, one of its kind, technological device. And do NOT under any circumstances try and ask for the WiFi password. They'll tell you 'hum iPad use kerte hain sir, password nahi de sakte'. Is it not interesting? I never knew you couldn't share passwords because you used iPads.

Now, the serving size is not worth the price, they charge you but they give you a lot less food. I got shocked looking at those two little triangular waffles and seven pieces of chopped banana on the top, oh also the eight or nine little pieces of nuts, not to be forgotten. The scoop of ice cream was more like a spoon of ice cream. Coming to what the chocolate sauce tasted like, well my ambassador of Butlers' friend finally claimed 'haan you're right, galay main ja k lag rahi hai' after I refused to eat it. Don't know how she ate that brownie in the sundae!

Coming down to drinks!!! So a friend asked for lemonade, what we all know as leemoopaani to which the waiter recommended her a magical experience in a bottle, yes, the-according-to-him best lemon drink man had ever blended: perfect mix of magic and juice. You do not want to know how it tasted. No! because I sipped it, and she sipped it too, and so did the rest.

All in all, it was a disappointment. Especially knowing that it opened only a few weeks earlier and the standard of food had already dropped down.