http://www.sun.com/third-party/global/oracle/index.jsp

A vast majority of people was in the favor of restoration. I am witnessing that our people now have more political sence and they are becoming more patriotic. I dont know the exact reason but I am sure if this healthy trend will continue to grow then eventually a time will come when our leaders (actually the kings) will think many times before imposing any unjust and unlawful action of theirs to gain foreign benefits. This nation will retaliate against all the evils of the system. One of my Indian friend asked me why again our internal situaion is traumatic and pathetic. Why it happens to us again and again? I answered him in a very satisfied tone. No my friend, Pakistan is changing and atleast our people have now started thinking….

The clock said 8:00 pm and still some savers were lightening and one could clearly hear the buzzing sound of the computers. A young man, a relatively “hard-working” employee of a multinational was trying to beat the computing power of his PC by typing fast. Nobody knew what he was doing. But everyone who could see him was definitely impressed by his desire to work. He was clearly aware of the fact that his CEO was in the country those days and he would have been sitting in his room playing with spreadsheets or charts planning for the next year budget and revenue. Suddenly the door opened and the boss came out of his office. “Hey what are you doing at this time in the office”, the boss said in the polite mode. “Some work remains and therefore I am staying late to complete it on time.”  The young man said by setting his collar. “But you should have completed it by 6:00 in the evening”, the boss argued. The man became speechless. “Look my son, you have many things in life other than work. You should try to complete your work on time so that you don’t have to stay late in the office.” The boss was now moving towards the door as he was about to leave. “Sir!” the young man almost yelled. “Can I ask the same question to you?” Now the boss was speechless but suddenly he answered. “Yes you have the right to do so. Actually I have a meeting with a client tomorrow and I had to stay late to prepare for that.” He then rushed out to avoid any further open discussion with his employee.

This is the culture in most of the private sector companies of our country. Staying late in the office is often termed as ‘hard work’. There can’t be two opinions on the fact that in this age of competition you need to work hard to stay on top whether you are doing business or working for a business. Staying late in the office without any reason may give your boss a good impression of yours but might put you in illusion of being on top of everything. If you reach office on time, you should also complete your work on time unless there is any dependency or anything crucial.

Time management is a must-to-have skill for every professional to bolster his career. Many people discover the need to hone their time management skills when they step into their professional life. Most of the drop-out graduates of our universities don’t realize the importance of time and they believe that the same care free days of their educational life will continue in their professional life too. This is not the case in most situations. If managed properly, you can do a lot of things in one day from writing code to test your applications, from watering plants to watching movies and even some time can be taken out for your beloved parents and awaiting spouses.

Several strategies can be adopted to make the most of available time. You can schedule your work on daily or for even hourly basis. For example one can say ok I’ll remove three priority bugs in one hour and then will do some ad-hoc testing in the next hour. Breaking your work in small chunks of time not even tell you how much time will you need to perform certain tasks but it’ll also give you a sense of accomplishment when you try to stick with the schedule. Prioritize things and postpone some tasks that are minor in nature and not required immediate action. Use your free time wisely. It’s better to spend some time on reading some article rather than spending two hours for lunch. During work, take a break for not more than 5 -10 minutes and relax. Read a blog or write a comment on someone’s profile. Do anything what you like. Concentrating on a single thing for a long time might affect our productivity.

It’s a famous saying that time is money, it could rather be said ‘time is precious’. Time can’t only be significant when it transformed into money. Giving some time for the betterment of others may be more worth then earning some papered dollars. It’s more difficult to earn respect than money. Don’t run after money; instead make yourself something that money runs after you. The world doesn’t stop and the clock continues to tick every second. The only thing that passes every second is time. It can’t be stopped but can only be either wasted or utilized. It’s now an individual’s responsibility to think about his own time and try to find out different ways in which it can be utilized fruitfully. 

I already spent a quarter of a year in this country but was unable to find out why this is the “biggest economy” on earth. What is the driving force that is not only running USA but keeping it up to the pace of developed countries. I am staying in the state of Washington, a relatively calm state having “punctual” and “well-behaved” people. No offense but I never seen people walking on the roads after 10 pm in night. Though the residents of WA may disagree with me but nobody can deny my right of “freedom of speech”.

I reached JFK in evening and got a light airport train to get myself out of that big airport. It dropped me at Jamaica station. From there I had to catch a subway (local underground train) for Woodside station but since I wasn’t used to of these kind of subway systems so, I mistakenly took a train which was going to Penn station. Thanks to the person sitting beside me who actually made me realize that I was on wrong route.

Gosh! The moment I stepped out at Penn station a huge crowd was in front of me, heads moving in heterogeneous directions, some are trying to push me hard to find a nick of space to enter the train. Some are rushing towards their gates, can’t afford to miss the train. Some oldies were moving at snail’s pace, can’t afford to beat the train. So this is the New York city.

Finally I took the correct route and reached to the Woodside station in Jackson Height, a locality of Queens district containing enormous population of “desis” (term used for the people belonging to Indian sub-continent). My hotel was at 15 minutes walk from the station and thanks to google maps which dint put me on the wrong direction. I finally reached the hotel and after a couple of hours my friend also arrived.

I really like the environment of New York because of two reasons. First I can find my favorite Pakistan cuisine in most of the locations. Second you can observe multicultural and multi ethnic environment which is a norm in big cities of the US.

In the last part, I travelled by bus to the city of Boston, the home of Harvard and MIT. What a great experience that was. Harvard is much popular for its medical and business schools. Though the political science and law are also endorsed by the elites but very difficult to get admission there. MIT is known for its engineering and technical faculties. That was really a nice tour overall but the thing which I find common b/w Seattle and New York is that you don’t have time at either place. Life is very fast in America and I want to rephrase that famous saying like “An instance of free time is a Joy forever”.

“The war is not over,” Bush said, adding that “it is decisively on it’s way to being won.”

The so-called “terrorists” who if armed may be harmful for the peace of the world but what if the largest economy of the world, claiming themselves the patrons of  ”peace” provider continues to martyr tens of thousands innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan. The largest economy is shaking .. because I think they focus more on “war on terrorism” rather than thinking about its own people. This is the high time to realize that not a single nation can rule the whole world. We have learned it with our history. Every nation who came into power couldn’t continue it for a long. Europe (who basically made USA) have now learned that welfare of their people is more important then wasting money on inconclusive struggles.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/cyber-terror.html

So finally what I learnt is that a friend is someone to whom you live with in any stage of life just to pass your that phase of your life. Friend is a person who’ll be your must-to-have companion in all happy moments but he may/may not be available in your rainy days. Friend is a person who can be a valuable asset to have but his absence doesn’t make any difference. All worldy benefits take precedence over friendship.