Mobile Mania

By Suzanna Sardar Masih



The invention of the mobile phone has changed the face of communication and human interaction forever. Now, you can get connected to your friends, family or acquaintances in a matter of seconds even if they are living in the farthest corners of the world, via the revolutionary wireless signal system. The mobile phone is our connection to the world. It provides on the go and instant communication. In today’s fast paced world it has become a necessity for everyone and I do mean everyone from your local sabzi walla to bus drivers and beyond.

So the question arises would the modern student deny himself the pleasures of the latest and priciest cell phone models? Of course not. We are not lesser mortals! Students from universities, colleges and even schools are seen sporting the trendiest cell phones to hit the markets and showing them off to peers with monotonous descriptions of the various applications the phone is equipped with.

In truth this little wonder has become an essential part of our daily lives. The problem occurs when it overtakes all other important tasks of our life. For instance, the lecture is an integral part of our education; however, students are seen wasting away the time sitting in class playing games on their mobiles or texting. It is incredibly rude behavior towards the teacher who is taking out the time to educate you and not to mention very distracting to those who actually pay attention in class.




In a vast institute like KU cell phones can be particularly useful when you are unsure about the class timings and dont feel like risking walking long distances to your subsidiary classes. Just text your friend to confirm it and save yourself the trouble. However, excessive use of the cell phone in class should be discouraged. Teachers usually turn a blind eye towards the students who indulge in such behavior and many a times themselves are seen disrupting a class to take a phone call! The cell phone has even become a convenient way of cheating in an exam you can just get someone to text you the answers or save them in the drafts folder beforehand.

Although the university rules clearly stipulate that cells phones should be switched off during class timings but just like all other rules that are written down it all comes down to implementation which sadly is missing.

A PLACE CALLED G.C.R

 By Ifrah Ali Khan

Like all the "good" departments of the university, Mass Communication department also occupies a space for a G.C.R i.e Girl's common room. A girl's common room is actually a place where girls can relax or do whatever pleases them. There is a big list of the activities that one can observe in the mass communication's G.C.R, let me highlight few of them. One can find there girls chatting with each other like anything, making assignments, offering prayers, sleeping (only if the fellow girl does not feels like listening to loud music) and so on.. There are so many common yet stupid activities one can find in a G.C.R.

When i first entered the Mass Communication department, I was told by my fellow that the department bears no girl's common room. I was shocked, hell shocked! But later on as the days passed i finally came to know about a room called G.C.R in the department. I was really excited to see that how the G.C.R of such a great and well-build department would be.

The moment i opened my eyes in the G.C.R , my hopes together with my good thoughts regarding the G.C.R were crushed to death.Because what I found there were just few old sofas, a broken table and a few "chatai" kind of things lying on the floor. There was a small dusty cupboard kind of a thing and,that's all!

Days have passed and so two years but unfortunately the condition of the G.C.R instead of going towards betterment has declined from bad to worst. Talking about the present condition of the G.C.R that we have in our department, I seriously have no words. It has nothing but an old 19th century, half rolled half spread carpet, few broken chairs and this is it! I mean, I have never experienced such a "COMMON" G.C.R in my entire life. Girls ek G.C.R to comfort themselves but whenever the thought of going to the G.C.R strikes my mind, I always become more uncomfortable.

Knowing the fact that i have just wasted my energy on this topic and that it has nothing to discuss , but somewhere my hopes are quite high that one day the administration will take notice of this and will try to make the G.C.R a better place for girls to unwind.

This site needs therapy!!!

BY Syeda Zehra


Gone were the times when interpersonal connections were the ‘only’ means to gather information and socialize. We have passed the era of communication revolution and have stepped into the modernized techno-tronic world where everything is just a click away. Search engines provide us information from every nook and corner of the world. Rest of the responsibility is assured by the widely popular social networking sites.

Being a student of University of Karachi (UoK), Mass communication department, and an active internet user, I strongly feel the need of a proper website of my campus. The first impression after visiting www.uok.edu.pk is everlasting. Readers do not start thinking that the site is so informative and well designed that it leaves an enchanting effect. The fact is it has the same look for last seven years (as far as I know).

The ‘Quick news’ section is the only link which bears the honour of getting updated everyday. Rest of the site includes information about existing departments and teachers. The map of the university is the same which was uploaded I guess at its launching. A significant example is my department, marked near the library sciences department in the map, which no more exists.

The site looks like a half baked cake and provides information in bits and pieces about the campus. Only the news of the announcement of a result is flashed with zero details and the results of BS programs are totally disregarded where as all other public sector universities upload detailed account of results in PDF format. May be I m expecting too much after all it is UoK where the proforma of every semester is provided after a year!

Recently I was shocked but happy to see a newly designed homepage of our varsity’s site but the happiness lasts for a click which pushed me back into the former html format website again. It forces me to think that may be there is a ray of light at the end of the tunnel (hope it’s not a truck!).

Rally conducted by KUrians....

By Hurma Khan.

Now a days protest against Dr. Aafia Siddiqui's case is the burning issue. The verdict which came up on Sep-23 from American court of justice according to which, she has been sentenced to 86 years imprisonment on seven charges, is unbearable for all the Pakistanis and muslims through out the world.

Its just excruciatingly painful that the daughter of our nation and a symbol of pride (the world's only neurologist who received an honoury degree from Harvard in neurology and was awarded by many certificates from twenty institutions of the world, hafiz e Quran and aalima) is being tortured by US.

In order to condemn this imprisonment several rallies and demonstrations are being organized in various parts of the country by political parties, civilians and students of universities, very actively.

We, the students of one of the biggest institutions of Pakistan i.e, University of Karachi, also took a part and organized a rally to condemn the verdict of Us court and to demand unconditional release of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui.

The rally was organized by the students of Mass Communication. It was overall a peaceful protest and the march stared from our dept and the destination was the silver jubilee main gate of KU. Kurians from other departments also joined hands with us. We held banners, play cards, shouted slogans etc. Although it was not a big rally as such because it was non-political attempt but as "Little drops water make an ocean and Little grains of sand make a piece of land" similarly it was a little attempt which can be done from our part.

Students claimed that the allegations against Dr. Aafia were false because US court of justice could not prove them. Secondly, if she was supposed to be a culprit then why her three innocent children were kept in custody along her? What kind of justice was behind that?

One of our senior student claimed that it is a need of time to stand as united and this matter should not be associated to any political party as we all know that the first rally was conducted by Jamaat e islami in favour of Dr. Aafia then it was associated by some people that it is a political issue.

Slang Story

By Saniya Khan

Oxford,Websters,Chambers are all famous names in the world of vocabulary providers and they have been successfully providing the world with latest words and terms until recently when a wave of slangs came and wiped out their efforts.



Mothers lap is the childs first educational instituition where he or she learns the right's and wrong's,do's and dont's of life,and then there comes schools,colleges and finally university which if I am not wrong besides polishing our technical skills is also teaching us some not so impressive slangs these days,and KU is not any different infact within a few years time student can publish their very own campus dictionary with all the latest slangs.



One of the most cherished sentence of KUrians is "BHAND",which in english means blunder,error,mistake and so on,but in KU it is frequently used by students to describe a person's foolish act either intentionally or unintentionally but the use of this word doesnt end here infact it is a one word that fits all....



Aj ka din waise tou set tha lekin history ki teacher ne buhat pakaya,unki class se bahar janay k liye unhen buhat topi karwayi lekin unhon ne jane nahin diya,magar hum bhi cheetay hain humne bhi unki itni hatayi k tang akar khud hee class se chali gayin...



I know that the above paragraph is absolutely senseless but it was just written to show that how these slangs are used.



Now we are so used to hearing these slangs all day, that we dont even care that accidently we might utter a slang while conversing with our parents,obviously they are not going to punish us for this mistake but they are just going to ask that "we sent you to good instituitions to learn all these slangs and to debase our mother tongue"? and this would be the height of shame for all of us,would'nt it be?

No time to play...!

By Sharjeel Ali Khan

Ever active and steady towards students’ problems, welfare and assistance is no other than the student advisor of our department.
In the early days of 2010 much sports activity was seen by certain students of our department under the student advisor’s leadership. It was well appreciated by sports lovers, but now the fervor has evaporated.

We saw the formulation of half a dozen committees, several meetings were held, discussions and plans of a lot of coming projects were made, but no practical implementation was seen and everything remains on paper. I had the honour to be the head of the sports committee from which after a short span of time, I “resigned”.

Our department was the champion in inter-departmental tournament in sports like badminton (Sara Ali and Sara Mehmood) and table tennis (Qurat-ul-ain).

The names in the brackets state our students who won last year’s title in their event. We were also the champions of an unofficial but “widely watched and supported” cricket tournament last year. Our teachers appreciated us and our colleagues boosted our morals but what happened this year is truly ridiculous.

We didn’t participate in any sports tournament or inter-departmental games this year mainly because a couple of students who even though are very concerned and enthusiastic in participating are very conveniently absent when the time to act comes.

And when the responsibility is only on one person who is there in her office conducting classes matters do not improve. When I approached her for an immediate application to allow two of our department players to participate in a badminton match she told me very briefly how to get a permission letter from her.

So sadly due to mismanagement of a few “not-so-able” bodies the department of mass communication could not make it to any sports event organized by the university.

Math’s Crap!!!

by Huda Ayaz

When our 4^th semester started, we found our math’s teacher a little weird. But today,when he took our mid test, almost every one from my class was

completely annoyed due to his hostile and cold behavior.

A day back he had issues in submitting our assignments and today he had issues in giving us a 2^nd copy for answering questions. Instead he came up with a new rule that if a s

tudent is taking 2^nd copy in math’s paper, it means there is something fishy and he or she must have been cheating or must have been writing wrong answers. After a long debate, he allowed us to have a copy but he further added that he will cut marks anyway.

Later he fired another of his ‘self-made’ rules that we have only an hour to solve the lengthy, hideous paper, even though he wrote time of 1 and half an hour at top of the paper all by his self. We pleaded to give us more time to finish our darn paper, but no pity from his side seen.

The funny part is, although of his angry-teacher-look all the time, he was powerless to conduct a paper in our class of just 39 students. Every body was free to look here and there. The well known people, who had caught cheating before, were freely doing ‘their things’ and our dearest teacher had no idea what was going on at the back-benches.

In the end, he declared that he won’t take any make up test, which hit us again like a headache and those who had hopes that they would try to do better in make up was all went in vain. What can us poor and helpless students do to have justice with this chaos!!!

I hope RT would take a step in our favor and try to find another teacher but not a Hitler like him!! And those who wanted to appear in make up test could have it in finals.