In my teenage life, I always used to watch all the travel guide TV shows which aired on PTV & PTV World and by watching them I always felt so proud that I live in such a beautiful country and I always wished and dreamed that one day I will travel to Northern Areas of Pakistan.

But, I didn’t have permission from home and neither have enough money to spend on travelling. So I waited for the day that whenever I started to earn, the first thing I wanna do is to travel to up north no matter what.

Finally in Oct 2009, my wish came true. Me with three of my colleagues and friends M. Omair, FurSid and Azfar planned a trip to visit Skardu and Hunza. I always have thought that I would go to Murree or Abbottabad or somewhere near to these places like Naran Kaghan or Saiful Muluk which I have always watched on all the travel guide TV programs. But I must say that I was travelling for the first time to up north Pakistan and I found Skardu, Deosai & Hunza the most beautiful places that I have seen or watched on those  TV shows or on magazines.

So four guys from Karachi, pumped up, excited, feeling adventurous, wanted to take a break from work and spend a vacation with no computer or internet around; traveled all the way from Karachi to Islamabad and then Skardu by plane and from here start the Day 1
(Experience the trip with pictures & videos from each day below)

Day 1 (Saturday, Oct 17, 09)

• Upper Kachura Lake
• Lower Kachura (Shangrilla) Lake

Pictures from Day 1

• Photos by M. Omair
• Photos by FurSid

Video from Day 1

Day 2 (Sunday, Oct 18, 09)

• Shigar Fort / Valley
• Satpara Lake
• Budha Rock
• Kharpocho Fort

Pictures from Day 2

• Photos by FurSid
• Photos by M. Omair (Part 1 & Part 2)

Video from Day 2

Day 3 (Monday, Oct 19, 09)

• Khaplu Fort / Mosque
• Machlu Village / Mosque
• Skardu White Sand Desert

Pictures from Day 3

• Photos by M. Omair (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 & Part 5)
• Photos by FurSid (Part 1 & Part 2)

Video from Day 3

Day 4 (Tuesday, Oct 20, 09)

• Satpara Village
• Deosai National Park
• Shatung
• Bara Pani
• Kala Pani
• Sheosar Lake
• Chillum Choki
• Astore

Pictures from Day 4

• Photos by FurSid
• Photos by M. Omair (Part 1 & Part 2)

Video from Day 4

Day 5 (Wednesday, Oct 21, 09)

• Astore
• Raikot
• Jhing
• Ferry Meadows
• Nanga Parbat

Pictures from Day 5

• Photos by M. Omair (Part 1 & Part 2)
• Photos by FurSid

Video from Day 5

Day 6 (Thursday, Oct 22, 09)

• Ferry Meadows
• Raikot
• Juglot
• Gilgit
• Rahimabad
• Hunza

 Pictures from Day 6

• Photos by M. Omair (Part 1 & Part 2)

Video from Day 6

Day 7 (Friday, Oct 23, 09)

• Hunza (Karimabad)
• Baltit Fort
• Ultar
• Hunza Bazaar
• Rakaposhi Peak
• School / Hostel / Girls

 Pictures from Day 7

• Photos by M. Omair (Part 1 & Part 2)

Video from Day 7

I shot all these videos from my Nokia E51 mobile handset as I couldn’t arrange or buy a good camera at that time. So sorry for the shaky and bad quality footage.

Finally, I would like to thank M. Omair & FurSid for deciding & finalizing the road map of our trip. Tariq Sulemani, for all the generous help & support through out the trip. Sulaiman Alriyami from Oman, for making me realize that our country is the most beautiful country in nature wise comparing to other countries. Azfar, without him the fun we had on the trip wouldn’t be same.

“Khatam”

Photo Courtesy: M. Omair

National Anthem of Pakistan Lyrics with Translation

Pak sar zameen shadbad
Blessed be the sacred land

Kishwar-e-haseen shadbad
Happy be the bounteous realm

Tu nishan-e-azm-e-Aalishan
Symbol of high resolve

Arz-e-Pakistan
Land of Pakistan!

Markaz-e-yaqeen shadbad
Blessed be thou, citadel of faith

Pak sar zameen ka nizam
The order of this sacred land

Quwat-e-ukhuwat-e-awam
Is the might of the brotherhood of the people

Qaum mulk saltanat
May the nation, the country, and the state

Payinda tabinda bad
Shine in glory everlasting!

Shadbad manzil-e-murad
Blessed be the goal of our ambition

Parcham-e-sitara-o- hilal
This flag of the crescent and star

Rehbar-e-taraqqi-o-kamal
Leads the way to progress and perfection

Tarjaman-e-mazi shan-e-hal
Interpreter of our past, glory of our present

Jan-e-istaqbal
Inspiration of our future!

Saya-e-khuda-e-zuljalal
Symbol of the protection of God, Owner of Majesty

Few details about National Anthem of Pakistan:

Music composer, Mr. Ahmed Ghulamali Chhagla, had the privilege to compose Pakistan’s National Anthem in 1949. Mr. Chhagla died four years later in 1953.

Mr. Chhagla used twenty-one musical instruments and thirty-eight different tones to compose Pakistan’s National Anthem.

The duration of Pakistan’s National Anthem is eighty seconds.

Seven hundred twenty three poets submitted their songs to the the Pakistani government.

The government of Pakistan approved Mr. Hafeez Jalundhary’s lyrics, which he had written in 1952. Thus, Mr. Hafeez Jalundhary’s poetry was transformed into Pakistan’s National Anthem.

Additionally, the Pakistani government awarded Rs. 10,000 to Mr. Hafeez Jalundhary. Mr. Hafeez Jalundhary was born in 1900 and died in 1982.

Mr. Hafeez Jalundhary used Persian words in the Pakistan’s National Anthem. The only exception is the word ‘ka’ which is an Urdu word.

The eleven singers below had the honor to lent their voice to Pakistan’s National Anthem:

1. Ahmed Rushdi.
2. Shamim Bano.
3. Kokab Jehan.
4. Rasheeda Begum.
5. Najam Ara.
6. Naseema Shaheen.
7. Zawar Husain.
8. Akhtar Abbas.
9. Ghulam Dastagir.
10. Anwar Zaheer.
11. Akhtar Wassi.

Pakistan’s National Anthem was broadcast for the first time from Pakistani radio stations on August 13, 1954.

For more details, click here.

Me:

So this is what I blogged about after 445 days. National Anthem of Pakistan is the only thing came up on my mind when I was thinking about this Independence day. So this is it, nothing new just posting the lyrics with translation cause I can see that people in Pakistan are forgetting their Qaumi Tarana. So this might help and  please just respect, love & serve your country and be united.

Do check the videos below.

Love,
Zair

EP – Shor Macha:

As the title says it all. I’m obsessed with WordPress more after the launch of 2.7. The new Admin UI and features are just great.  What I like the most in new WordPress is the updation of plugins & WordPress. This will probably be the last time I upgraded my blog manually. Now whenever WordPress have updates to install, I’m just two-click away – awesome.  Wanna know more about the new WordPress 2.7, click here.

Oh yes, I’m alive . Damn, I haven’t updated my blog since ages. Okay there is so much to tell and write about so here I go:

Work:

1. Teabreak v2.0 
   Didn’t do much on this version, just a helping hand with Shahzad
2. SOCH ’08 
   Got this project from batty. I liked the cause and  it was great working with Rumaisa Reem and Kiran Nazish, specially Rumaisa. I hope I did justice to this project in such a short timeline.
3. Learning jQuery 
   On a very beginner stage rite now.
4. WAP/Mobile websites
   Did a basic WAP project at office (can’t share the link here). The optimization for mobiles take hell loads of time . But its again a good experience for me – learned something. Oh btw, my blog is now mobile friendly .
5. My website
   Yeah I’m working on my website . Hopefully, it will be launched by end of Jan 2009

Blogging:

Many of my friend have started blogging. Adil Siddiq is one of them, my really good friend, do check his blog http://adilsiddiq.wordpress.com and also Ali Hamza’s blog

Movies:

I’m now regularly watching movies, downloading from torrent, watching in Cinema or at Adil’s place . Recently watched these movies

1. Batman – The Dark Knight (awesome movie)
2. Dostana
3. Golmaal Returns
4. My Sassy Girl (nice movie)
5. Never Back Down
6. Hellboy II
7. Hancock
8. Keith
9. Kung Fu Panda (good movie)
10. Madagascar 2 (I like to move it, move it )
11. Rock On!!! (good movie)
12. The Secret (very nice documentary – recommended by Sundus, my colleague)
13. Wall E (good movie)

Flickr Meetup:

Went to Mubarak Village with Photo Club Karachi (PCK) Flickr Group on 02 Nov 08. Did some photography there. Now I seriously need a good camera . Planning to go on next meetup which will be held this month

Music:

Listening to these albums and singles now a days

1. Noori’s new single Do Dil
2. Nickelback’s album Darkhorse
3. Dido’s album Safe Trip Home
4. David Cook‘s singles and covers
5. David Archuleta‘s singles and covers
6. Linkin Park‘s Road to Revolution Concert and album Songs From The Underground

That’s it from myside. Take good care of urself

Love and Peace,
ZA

I’m the Voodoo Dude of the Month – April 2008

I won 5 Free Voodootee-shirts of my choice.

Link: http://www.voodootee.com/voodoodude/vd.htm

Get ready to go naked. On April 9th, 2008, hundreds, possibly thousands, of blogs and websites will go naked in honor of CSS Naked Day. Join fellow WordPress bloggers in honoring web designers and WordPress Theme builders by going naked.

This is the third year of the annual CSS Naked Day which honors web design and designers around the world who help make our websites and blogs look “pretty” to the eye while still being totally functional under the hood. Dustin Diaz wanted to give the web world an opportunity to remind everyone of the benefits of CSS web page design. By removing the stylesheet for the day, the world would see naked web pages, giving a little more appreciation for the skills of web page designers.

As explained yesterday in the Blog Herald announcement of CSS Naked Day, this is also an opportunity to showcase how usable and accessible your web page structure is even without the pretty, reminding the world that it is the law that your website must accessible by everyone using any method to access your blog.

Make Your WordPress Blog Naked

Do check out TeaBreak.pk as I worked on the theme for this wonderful website done by my very good friend and colleague Asim Imtiaz.

About TeaBreak

Our mission is to give our readers a break from work and let them enjoy their “tea” time.

And we are doing this by bringing all the popular blogs of Pakistan on one platform. So that readers have an easy access to their popular blog feeds. In this manner we are not only facilitating Pakistani blog readers but also providing bloggers a platform to launch their write ups and increase the “readership” of their already established blogs.

We present to you posts from Pakistani blogosphere – tagged and categorized.

Click here to:

Learn more about TeaBreak | How TeaBreak works?

Do you have a blog?

If you do, we invite you to join our network of Blogs and reap the benefits we have in store just for you!

How can TeaBreak help my blog and why should I join?

Take a Tea Break, now!

TeaBreak.pk

Subject: I want you to know..

What would you do if every time you fell in love with someone you had to say good-bye?

What would you do if every time you wanted someone they would never be there?

What would you do if for every moment you were truly happy there would be 10 moments of sadness?

What would you do if your best friend died tomorrow and you never got to tell them how you felt?

What would you do if you loved someone more than anything else and you could never have them?

Some people live and some people die.

But I want to tell you I love you and you are a true friend…

That I will always be here for you when and if you need me…

If I died tomorrow, you would be in my heart forever..

Would I be in yours?

we might be best friends one year, pretty good friends the next year, don’t talk that often the next year, and don’t want to talk at all the year after that..

So, I just wanted to say, even if I never talk to you again in my life, you are special to me and you have made a difference in my life..

I look up to you, respect you, and truly cherish you..

Remember, everyone needs a friend, someday you might feel like you have NO FRIENDS at all, just remember this e-mail and take comfort in knowing somebody out there cares about you and always will..

I LOVE YOU

So yeah go and let them know that you love them.

Oh no, YouTube is banned in Pakistan. I’m like a daily user of YouTube and I almost watch all my favorite programs and videos there but what to do now . It is banned and this is really sad .

The popular video sharing site ‘YouTube’ has been blocked by all ISPs in Pakistan on PTA directive. It is, reportedly, the second most visited website on the internet trailing Google itself, which owns YouTube.

This leads to a dark recollection of the blanket blocking of the blogspot.com domain which rendered all blogs hosted on Blogspot inaccessible for the majority of Pakistani users who didn’t knew how to utilize proxy servers and about bypassing such restrictions.

An email from Micronet Broadband Limited [MBL], a leading ISP in Islamabad follows:

Dear Valued Customer:

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (www.pta.gov.pk)
has directed all ISPs of the country to block access
to www.youtube.com web site for containing
blasphemous web content/movies.

The site would remain blocked till further orders from
PTA. Meanwhile, Internet users can write to
youtube.com to remove the objectionable web
content/movies because this removal would enable
the authorities to order un-blocking of this web
site.

Hope you all having a great time in your life. Yeah, this is my first post here, where I would write and share about my blah blah stuff.

A little about me, I’m Zair from Pakistan. By profession I’m a web designer / developer. Currently working at a company named Creative Chaos (Pvt.) Ltd. I handle the XHTML / CSS based websites there. Now I’m also leading a team there which is an honor for me.

Besides from work, I love listening to music and I like to do photography in my spare time. So do give a visit to my flickr page.

Will add more about me and myself here later but I would like to inform you that this website is still in Under Construction process. So you would be seeing some major or minor updates in future. I’m signing out now.

Have a good life ahead.

Love,
-Zair