Click, Flash and Capture!

By Syeda Zehra

A new thing that I have noticed in my generation is that we are becoming less camera conscious. We create memories everyday, capture them and last but not the least share them through the not-so-happening Facebook.

Students like us only need a camera whether digital or in a cell phone and we start posing and clicking. No more tension of sitting at the right place with the right background. We can snap pictures anywhere and anytime. In classes, corridors, backyard, sofas, stairs, rikshaws, food outlets, libraries, washrooms, pedestrian bridge, public buses and KU points, even in cars (which are actually ‘lifts’), you name it and we have already done it.

This paparazzi spirit in us always rises to its peak on occasions like birthdays, student’s week, cricket tournaments, seminars etc. Recently we were celebrating cheap day and Cultural day in our department. There were flashes all around. Our department was presenting a sight of a studio with celebrities and photographers everywhere.

The height of our craze for pictures can be easily gauged by the number of messages the ‘photographer’ (one who has got camera) receives by the end of an event from his/her fellows to upload pictures. After that is another round of comments, likes and dislikes on famous social networking sites.

In my past two years of university, I have made a collection of around 500 pictures (a record itself), wondering how many more memories will add to it!

Term end troubles!

By Saniya Khan

Gone are the days when we used to run away from our teachers and used to pull faces at the name of studying yet still manages to complete our course on time, but now because of lack of interest shown by the administration and some teachers most of the time students are seeing running after teachers to complete their notes especially when the end of the term is approaching.

If a teacher leaves during the term it is the responsibility of the administration to immediately appoint a new teacher in his/her place so as to avoid the maximum loss of studies but here just when a term is about to end you are blessed with a teacher who urges you to rush and get done with the remaining course in the next four classes and also keep preparing yourself for the terminals,not just this students now have to mould themselves according to the teaching style of new teacher in which most fail as it is not easy to adapt oneself to a new teaching methodology.

However,absence of a teacher is somehow tolerable because what can one do when there is no teacher, but what if a teacher is present but doesn’t show up in class and keeps the student waiting for a long time most part of the semester? And when semester is about to finish asks you for an extra class, no matter if one already has a class in the same timing the teacher will go on with the lecture for two hours because she has to compensate for the lectures she would have given earlier, and then it becomes the responsiblity of the students to take the class whatever happens if they have to get their notes completed before the term ends and terminals starts.

This attitude of teachers and administration often creates problems for students and they are unable to perform well in their examinations,thus collective effort from the administration and teachers can save students from all these troubles.

Brays and Neighs

By Maham Tanveer

Our biggest and most distressful national tragedy is that, we comfortably adopt the direction, we are directed to. It is as a donkey rides see-saw and believes that he is heading towards his new office of governor. But the most ancient thing that has always whirled around and among us, is "changing the system". Any system of government has not become profitable to us since 63 years of creation. It cannot become actually as long as we follow others. Root cause of all our problems is that we don't adopt what suit us!!

It is exactly the same as students of Mass Communication (UOK) and the syllabus taught to them. We live in Pakistan, quote French quotations, wear Italian, eat Malaysian, watch Indian and study American. It is a fact that we are bombarded at books and as a result, students like us, chop books to bits. It is as our teachers teach differently the same topic from the same book. If currency is a news value for one teacher, for other, it is a thing to be laughed upon. We have studied different definitions of news, some of them are :

news is news and views is views

everything that is new, is a news (so everything with physic is physics??)

One said read as much as you can, other said write as much as you can, the next said speak as much as .... We read rejected constitutions of Pakistan scores of time, but never read that where Quaid-e-Azam used which policy?

Apart from professional jealousies, our some teachers are victims of departmental jealousies too. Our very dedicated compulsory teacher said : I will never teach in Mass Com after this, then he placed an order of hanging at least 7 fans in every room, then ordered AC in every class too, then he felt insufficient ventilation and then finally he had problem with duster too. We had traditional day today and I am glad to say that he did not DESPERATELY comment on it.

We have some teachers who mark absent of whole class when class goes for IT (ijtamai tulla) but they themselves never come on time or don't come instead. Last day a girl came to me (when i was resting on department's favorite sofa) and asked that she want admission in Mass Com, is it tough? You should be gossip expert to pass time, I replied!

We were taught by a teacher who took 3 classes in whole semester. We were taught by a subsidiary teacher who gave marks in 90s to students whom he knew by name (no matter if they took classes or not) and 70s and 80 - 85 marks to remainders. It means that you can score remarkable marks if you are often found in teacher's office. And now we are being taught by a subsidiary teacher who, after asking meaning of some word, says "kissi k baap mein himmat nahin hai k mujhe is ka meaning bata de". We have heard epithets of "dog" and "ullu ka patha" from a teacher. One teacher even prated in class, don't know what!

Our some teachers are victims of idealism and male chauvinism too. You use heavy words and philosophy and you will become favorite.

I am not apologetic if I hurt anyone' sentiments through this post. After so much of investigative work, I wanted to speak my heart out, the heart which is fluttering with hopes, trembling with thoughts of 2 more FREE years in Mass Com and waiting anxiously for job's golden era :)

Finally we are studying something important

By Fahad Ullah

Its been very difficult for me to post blogs don't know why but it's something I am not interested to do so.
Several of my group members have criticized my lazy attitude but I can not explain my problems to them as I have much more to do in life instead of clearing my account in front of others.

But now at this time of the night I would like to highlight a fact that I we have wasted our three semesters in this university and thank god we have something to learn in the 4th semester finally. Sir Humair Ishtiaq and Ma'am Sadia have finally get the practical work rolling from us which is better than learning from books.

The blog and report writing will definitely help us immensely to improve our writing skills, the way we think and the technicalities we need to learn in order to become good journalists. I am not fond of reading out long chapters and handouts so for me its a blessing that we are going through the trauma of reading books What all we need to do is to think a bit and then transform our imagination into words.

I sincerely thanks both the teachers mentioned above in helping us to get the feel of practical work which will help us in professional life.

Students week

By Nabeel Hashmi

Students week has started from Monday and so has the fun. It can not get more funnier than what happened on the first day  as the cheap day was celebrated in the department of Mass communication.

Though I opted to remain out of the cheap day celebrations but I was observing people with their bizarre dressings. Some of the boys really showed that they can dress just like Gabbar Singh of film Sholay by wearing T shirts and shirts over Shalwar while the girls were wearing different bright colours to stand out among their fellows.

Well the week has just begun and I am sure there will be many more interesting things which we will witness in the upcoming days and I am keeping my fingers crossed as I know unexpected things could be expected from the students of our department.

Jiye Mass comm

Eve teasing!!!!

By Huda Ayaz

We are being taught since our childhood, the role and respect a woman possesses in a society. Even our media emphasis largely upon woman’s rights and the tragedies she endures in this contemporary world through different soups and reality shows.

But, with all these increment of awareness programs and the bills that are passing to promulgate women’s right, we are still the victims of ignorance. Women are being humiliated mentally, physically and psychologically and the male chauvinism remains constant. They are tortured in public places, in streets, in public transport, and even in their families. Despairing as it is, women are no longer safe in their education campuses as well.

hen we join Karachi University, we were supposed to feel free to go any where within the premises of our varsity, as if it’s our second home. But there are few unfortunate events and notorious people who have made us girls not to feel protected anymore.

There are girls who are being teased with a worst possible ways to threaten their dignities.

A friend of my friend was a victim, who was molested by her department’s chairperson. When I questioned what had happened latter, she said the girl left varsity and the student adviser who supported the girl was rusticated, thus nobody dares to reopen that issue again.

My cousin’s friend was harassed by rangers on her way to the department near gymnasium, because she was alone on Saturday, and her department does not give Saturday’s off. Another girl was mentally harassed with abusive remarks by few boys, and the guards standing their laughed on her, instead of protecting her.

The point is why these hideous people don’t get punished even though we have strong political wings in our varsity?? It’s somewhat unfeasible to eliminate these harassments, but they can be put under control.

SUPERIORITY COMPLEXES

By Tooba Altaf


Everyone is aware of the fact that many KUrians are the victim of inferiority complex due to lots of reasons. But few pay attention, on the contrary, there is a major chunk of students present in UoK who are superiority complex sufferers. Following are the different categories of such people:

Adjusting in KU was never easy:

This statement is mostly heard by the new students of UoK because their college and school were of another level (according to them). They all were aware of the fact that Uok is a “PUBLIC” university and after this if they expect something out of UoK then it is completely their fault.

Fashion Guruzzz:

Uok caters a huge group of fashion experts who consider commenting on everyone’s appearance as their duty. These people seem to have a great misconception about themselves that only they know the fashion and in trends. The funny part is that usually this generation supports the idea of “FREEDOM”. Then, why can’t they give the liberty to people to appear as they want?

We Can Do Everything:

The attributes of this particular group is that they can do assignments, exams, informative workshops, successful seminars, magazines, newspapers and what not. In short, you name it and they can do it. But the only flaw is that, the result of their efforts is usually not very satisfactory.

We know it all:

There are some students present in UoK who think they know better than teachers. They always have issues, be it any subject or any topic. They are never satisfied with teacher’s teaching methodologies. Just to get them out of this illusion, teacher should once give a chance to such students to deliver a lecture.

Islamists:

Most political workers of a religious party think that only they are true Muslims. According to them, listening music, sitting with a girl and other such stuff is prohibited but not attending a single lecture and just taking exam is very right and a justified way.

So, here were some categories which according to me are experiencing the imbalance of attitudes and behaviors.

Target killings and education

By Suzanna Sardar Masih

Karachi is a mega city with a racially, ethnically, politically and religiously diverse population. With so many people of varying ideologies and beliefs conflict is bound to arise. The last year or so has seen a rise in the trend known as target killing usually carried out by but not limited to political parties and their ‘karkuns’. The stream of endless violence and gore has paralyzed the city on various occasions. Education like other arenas of life is also very badly affected by all these episodes.

One of the most recent examples is that of the killing of MQM MPA Raza Haider. Within a matter of hours of the incident violence erupted all over Karachi shops, buses, petrol pumps were set on fire and much chaos ensued. More than 30 people lost their lives in the violence. Due to situation in the city all educational institutes were instructed to remain closed the next day. Even the days after that attendance in them was very low as parents preferred to keep their children home fearing more violence.


Target killings are taking a toll on the academic lives of us students. With bouts of violence erupting anytime anywhere in the city without so much as a warning our studies are affected. Due to unavailability of public transport or points we can’t make it to our universities or colleges and if by some miracle we do either the teacher couldn’t make it or a political party has ‘declared’ classes as off.

Then there is the issue that target killings when area specific create problems for students as well. One part of the city may be shut down whereas the rest goes on as normal. In this situation it is the student who suffers because he can’t reach the university or college and thus misses out on a whole day of lectures and not to mention the all important attendance.

KU being as diverse as the Karachi landscape itself is a hub of student politics and party activists. In the past, incidents of altercations between these parties are very common resulting in tense conditions inside the university. With target killings on the rise it is only a matter of time before what is going on in the city enters our university too. Because of such worries many parents including my own are reluctant to send their children to study here. God forbid a day like that ever comes till then we can only hope that these terrorists (because that’s what they are) realize the damage they are doing to themselves, us and future of Pakistan.

WHICH WAY TO FOLLOW??

By Ifrah Ali Khan

A student in my eyes is someone who goes through a lot of educational stages in his/her life. From school to college and then finally to a bigger platform, " a university".

Talking about the Karachi University ( as i belong to it ), a student needs to be someone who has the skills of moulding and adopting quickly. Why am i saying so?? Lets discuss about a very general yet common problem that we face regularly. As a student of K.U one experiences a lot of different teachers with their sophisticated styles and rules.

After every 50 minutes a K.U student has to adjust himself/herself according to the styles of their teachers. Now which style am i talking about?? of course, it is about their weird teaching styles.
Regarding this, here comes a short story:

In a classroom, a student notes down every single point and word of a teacher because the teacher wants him/her to do that and so the student follows it ( its a very commonly practiced style of any teacher who appreciates noting down everything delivered by him/her).

As those 50 minutes comes to an end and the second class starts, student goes through another style. Now the teacher wants the student not to write anything in front of him/her as it creates disturbance ( according to them). They wants the student to absorb every word and point in their minds only. So the student follows and keep his/her "Just used" belongings aside. ( Its a style very seldom followed by the teachers who just want their students to listen and not to write).

These two styles are the very common styles of the K.U teachers. As a student, here i want to say that it seems quite an easy thing for a student to switch quickly to an another mode but actually it is not. Firstly a student is made to write in the class and then after a short period of time he/she is restricted not to write. Such a change is sometimes really annoying for a student like me.

One say that writing and noting down is good for a student while another say that capturing everything in mind is more useful as it exercises the brain and makes one remember everything. Now here arises a state of strong confusion among students. A student keeps questioning himself/herself as to which way to adopt and which way not to adopt? which way to follow and which way not to follow? who is right? or who is wrong?

Why do not teachers think that moulding oneself into another style and that is also quickly is not that easy? Not all the students are same. Not all the students have the same capacities. Some might not have any problem but some might have. But sticking to the reality, none of the teacher thinks in that context, a student is always left helpless. Teachers themselves feels that they are doing best to their students but only a student knows how much difficulty he/she faces

The Uninformed Youth

By Syeda Zehra

University of Karachi is a hub of cultures as it enrolls more than 26 thousand students every year from different social and economic backgrounds. This diversity widens the exposure and chances of learning about various aspects of society from which we, the youth of Pakistan, are unfamiliar.

I have met many people from different social circles in the past two years of my university life and I have found them quite amusing. But sometimes their lack of knowledge and their crave for conspiracy theories annoys me. Most of them never bother to dig deep enough to uncover substantial facts.

The majority is either uninformed or ill-informed. The former are the ones who are simply not interested and they believe in cramming (read rattafication). The latter are the ones who are constantly fed by the so called independent media (read bay-lagaam media) which routinely provides them with an unhygienic diet of botched up conspiracy theories. These people have a tendency to argue over petty issues and they sometimes make mountain out of a molehill e.g.: issuing Fatwa’s (religious edicts) over dupattas and regarding the status of women in our society and the old age argument of calling music as forbidden in Islam.

Being a part of this ill-informed youth, I feel like a fish out of water sitting among some of my friends as I came across ideas which I have never heard or learned but they are associated to my religion and culture. At times “Ahadith” are quoted for senseless arguments. Some times the music I am listening to is labeled as sacrilegious and the content I m reading is regarded as blasphemous without any reason.

These amusing but pointless discussions are followed by a reminder that you can raise your voice at your own risk otherwise you will be given the status of an apostate (off with their heads).

Its high time for our youth to question their engraved thoughts and try to differentiate between the facts and the rooted ideas before its too late.

We are no less than students of top universities of Pakistan

By Hurma Khan

For me its very upsetting too hear discriminatory remarks about the students of Karachi university on the issue that whether they are worthwhile or not to have them in any organizations, conferences etc.

People should realize that even the best of intellectuals have came up from this very institution and are presently working on top posts in different fields. This clearly shows if you have the talent in you then you can succeed irrespective of the circumstances.

One of our very own Haya Fatima is presently studying in New York University on a scholarship. Not only this previously, she has tripped to USA and Thailand for different educational purposes on different scholarships. In addition Manam Iqbal went to China as a youth delegate from Pakistan. I can proudly say that two of my class mates Narjis Fatima and Ferya Ilyas are in USA these days for a six month period on full bright scholarship under cultural exchange program.

Sabina Rizwan of our department was presented with bronze medal by duke of Edinburgh in UK for being one of the outstanding young talents. Similarly Sadaf Asif of IR department participated in SAARC simulation exercise which was conducted by KU and went onto grab the award of best individual performer. For her efforts she was awarded a trip to Germany for a one month program.

The reason for highlighting these facts is that we should be proud of ourselves for being a part of KU and try to enhance its reputation trough our individual achievements because duffers can also be easily found in best private universities of the country. I am proud to be a part of it and so should be all the students who are studying in it.

Really,it does work in daylight!

By Saniya Khan

Invertors, UPS and Generators have been invented to facilitate people, especially people of Pakistan who have to undergo endless hours of Loadshedding everyday, though KU is exempted from load shedding but sometimes electricity failures makes us suffer whole day.

Mass Communication department happens to be a proud owner of a Generator placed at the back of Department but it is only there to facilitate the evening programme students,because its get dark in the evening and illumination is a problem that’s only when it is turned on, but what about Morning programme students, are they forever destined to take their classes while cooling themselves through paper fans and folders, don’t they need electricity?

Though our classes are built in a direction that we don’t have any illumination problem and its always bright in there in morning, but the blazing sun heats up the temperature in our classrooms to an extent that sometimes even four fans doesn’t seems to work and to make matters worse if electricity goes we have to endure long lectures in this sultriness. Not just this, electricity failure causes news labs to shut down and students have to do without it, no matter they have their exam that day, even the busiest photocopier of KU has to sit hand on hand turning down the students of UBIT who come for photocopies and printouts when there is an electricity failure.

Maybe it costs more to run a generator in daylight than in evening,but we must always keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best, maybe one day VC gives a surprise visit to our department in absence of electricity and that’s when our administration realizes that generators do work in daylight as well!

CUL-DE-SAC .. KU Vs LAND MAFIA ..

By Maham Tanveer

CUL-DE-SAC .. KU Vs LAND MAFIA ..

The University of Karachi was established as Federal University through parliament in 1951 under act of 23^rd October 1950, later through another act of parliament in 1962, the status was redefined as University of Province of Sindh. At the time of establishment the land provided to university was 1279 acres. Prof. A.B.A Haleem was the first VC whereas 50 students filled the seats in very first year. Now the university holds above 28000 students with 53 departments and 20 world class and highly reputable Research Centers and Institutes. In initial years the university was housed in small buildings near Civil Hospital. On 18^th January 1960 it was shifted to new (Country Club Road) and present (University Road) campus.

KU and land mafia are very old accompanists. The “basti” sort of community living opposite to the main Silver Jubilee Gate is not actually a mafia group, but they are fighting a mafia war for that land with I don’t know whom, because they have easily encroached KU land and there is no one to detain them. VCs make statements with time to time about doing this and that for land, but I feel those narrations more towards making news or just filler because no action has been taken since.

““KARACHI - The land mafia has grabbed the precious land of the Karachi University (KU) and started construction work at the premises of the university illegally, The Nation has learnt.

The land mafia has grabbed the costly land in front of KU Silver Jubilee Gate in broad daylight but the university administration is playing the role of silent spectator, which shows the involvement of the big fish in this crime. KU Engineering department has shown criminal negligence towards the issue and providing support to mafia by conducting fake survey of the KU land.
The fake survey has encouraged the mafia to do so, a well-placed source in the KU administration told The Nation on Wednesday. He said that land mafia had grabbed the precious land of the university with out any fear due to the support of the KU State Department and Engineering Department.”

(http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Regional/Karachi/02-Jul-2009/Land-mafia-grabs-university-land

The same type was the case of “Ali Garden” which was built illegally at 500 sq. yards in front of university. The University requests that the plot situated in SB 03 Block 1/A Scheme no. 36 Gulistan-e-Johar should be considered illegal because University is the legal owner of this land.

(ref: http://www.onepakistan.com/news/education/20686-Karachi-University-begins-efforts-take-back-encroached-land.html)

When I came to know about the “basti” community that a department of Urdu and Islamic Learning or something was to be constructed there and due to insufficient funds, it was not formed and “basti” established there, I became curious to know not actually about the views and comments of KU administration but about the life of those “basti” people. I went there with my friend. A man, being very supportive, provided maximum of the information-thanks to him. According to him, the basti is situated since 22 years. Basic facilities of electricity, gas and clean water are not available. Basti comprises around 300 huts with 8 to 10 people in every hut. According to them, the land where bus stop is established, belongs to KU, whereas the land where garbage sort of store is formed belongs to Sui Gas and basti land belongs to Water Board. A school was established where students of KU taught amounting 200 fee per student 3 years back, now the school is not working.

Majority works, only some beg for earning. Their women work in houses , men sell balloons, flowers, lemonades or other soft drinks, some are painters, some conduct business of recyclable metals. Majority is Punjabi, Siraiki and Hindu. They keep animals and the total of land is 5 to 6 acres.

Answering to my question that if you earn 150 to 250 PKR daily (as they told) then how this man (standing nearby) Is affording a mobile phone and that girl is eating Cornetto, they blazed in anger and said “ghareeb ka dil nahin hota hai kia?”

My another question, which was not satisfied, was that I have heard that you people are mostly involved in intoxication and criminal activities, they said that actually we are not those, we are just disreputable. In fact we pay 50 rupees/house to a dominant party as “bhatta”.

Government has demolished their houses several times and they have re-settled their basti after 2-3 days every time. It was miserable when they begged us to do something for them but apart of all acts of humanity, I believe in law and accept it as prior of all deeds and acts.

They have not only grabbed KU land but such people may also be harmful to KU students, they may supply toxic stuff or conduct criminal acts of mobile snatching etc, may be they already do! The locality matters!!

Please Don’t pretend to be clean follow up with your actions

By Nabeel Hashmi

Being in a tire state of mind makes it even more difficult to write a blog which is a part of our assignment yes ASSIGNMENT seriously.

After rubbing my eyes thrice I have found something really boring to write on so that the readers and the teacher who will definitely read this piece pleads me to stop writing these awful pieces which are even worse than a trash.

Trash reminds me of something which Miss Sadia Mehmood pointed out yesterday. What it was? mmmmm yeah A tea bag. Oh please don’t do this, surely a person cannot write on a lowly tea bag please for god sake do something different oh come on lets write on it. What she would do at most? She will deduct two marks no problem. If a two minute issue can spread smile on two faces than the marks are not worthy enough.

While fussing on an issue with my classmate Fahad, Miss pointed out look at this tea bag. It is neither in the department nor outside it. Out of all what was being said at that time my mind clicked on that Tea bag suddenly.

The tea bag is crushed daily whenever the grill is closed or opened.  The tea inside the bag must have become so strong after so much grinding that several cups of tea can be served to our teachers. But the sad part of all is that several tea bags are thrown daily by those who few months back were a part of disciplinary committees which were formed to maintain neatness, rules and regulations in the department.

It doesn’t matter if you pick any garbage from any corner to clean the mess. I would strongly advise people studying in Mass communication that it would be far better not throwing the garbage in the department instead of keeping the periphery clean.

No matter how beautiful the department looks from outside if it is not clean and neat from inside it is not worthy of being touted as one of the best building of the university.

    

Jukebox…!!!!

By Huda Ayaz

In our school lives, we were told not to bring things like cell phones, music players, games, etc. We could not even imagine of carrying something discreetly that was not allowed, with a fear that our teacher might catch us red handed.

But here in Karachi University it’s all so different. There are no restrictions anymore. And that’s the reason why music remains with us every now and then.

“Let the music play” is what majority of us students belong to Karachi University emphasis upon in our leisure time. Few of us certainly don’t consider it as inevitable, but the rest do believe it as the only melodious way to calm them from daily hustle and bustle.

Handsfree in ears, ipods and cell phones in hands from our way to varsity, to our ways back home. In lobbies, libraries, balconies, lawns, cafeterias, corridors, and even in classrooms just to break away from lectures, music is played everywhere.

Sharing is caring, and that’s what we do through Bluetooth by sharing our favorite playlists whether Indian, English or Pakistani with friends. Loudspeakers are for everyone, even though our teachers don’t allow us to play out aloud, but still we’re all walking jukeboxes.

Of course our academia is for studying only, but music is also an art. It is not adept largely here, but it’s something that can not apart from us.

Where will our education end?

By Rehan Basheer

As it has came to my knowledge that in the universities of Japan the salary of a professor remarkably is more than of the prime minister, hence this is proven that a professor is more respectable than a prime minister.

But in our country this thing is opposite. Few days ago our minister of education announced to cut down the government universities grant and this step have received severe criticism throughout the country from different universities. It is a shame that funds on education are cut down in order to balance the expenses of the government. After all education institutions (universities) play a positive role to create good sense among the students to look after themselves and their country. The people who will be leading the command of their country are neglected which will surely have a negative impact on our future.

If we talk about our institution then this decision have affected out university as well. Due to the resent conflict every day the university workers protest for their monthly salary in front  of the admin gate and the above announcement has created a new problem for teaching faculty as well. Furthermore the Dean Faculty of science has announced that they do not have much money or resources to facilitate the students with equipment of lab.

 If this was not all they have crossed their limits by cutting down the 40%of their budget which will have an adverse affect on students. In the end all the burden will be on shoulders of students as it’s highly likely that the fees will go up from next semesters. In addition several departments have called off mid terms and now students do not come regularly to university due to this situation which getting worse day by day.

The big question mark for top brass officials is do they really care about students?? I would say no because their own children have been studying abroad and they cannot understand our problem until and unless the same problem is faced by their children.