Le Coolness-Jet Ski found its way to Karachi

Karachi has its own way of attracting its residents. Whenever the city is running out of entertainment stuff someone volunteers to step up and calls ‘Challenge Accepted’ (Barney Stinson style) and bestows the city with some great entertainment. After the restaurants and amusement parks came the cinemas, followed by cafes and now the city is exploiting its shore and the boon of water to provide exciting stuff to people.

These kinds of activities are especially becoming popular in the urban dwellings of the city. The Defense Housing Authority Phase 8 with its line of alluring restaurants located near the Do Darya side has built the reputation of generating great business. Savor, an eatery located in Phase 8, a little aloof from the rest of the chain started offering boating and other water sports like Banana Boating, Para Sailing, Water skiing etc. in the Gizri Lake and the Bundle Island. After the tremendous triumph of the introduction of these, the managers saw Jet Skiing as a lucrative opportunity and decided to introduce the sport for water lovers. Savor thus took away the title of being the pioneer in introducing Jet Skiing in Karachi. Madeen Kalia, the owner of Jet Ski Karachi, explained how this was an untapped market and how he sees its demand growing exponentially in the next few months.

I happened to be the first one to try out the sport in Karachi a couple of days ago and I’m still at a dearth of words to describe the feeling; a feeling so mesmerizing that I got transferred to a totally different world. As much as I am scared of water and keep my distance from it, when I first heard about it coming to Karachi, a force so irresistible compelled me to go for it. The moment I stepped my foot into the motor and took off was the moment I felt I was floating over water. The experience connected me to nature so brilliantly that I couldn’t come out of the euphoric state for quite some time.

As much as I would like to keep talking about the experience, I believe now comes the time to answer some technical questions. The place has Five Yamaha Jet Skis ranging from 700cc to 800cc ones and can go at 60 to 70 km/hour in terms of speed. The managers understand that safety feature is the most important concern for all and thus have the hand cuffs type keys and life jackets at their disposal for the riders. The boats have the capacity of 2 to 3 people at a time depending on their weights and have experts to ride and even rescue people through a life motor boat available at all times.

‘The best time for jet skiing is when the waves are at high tides’, said the manager Mr. Ismail, who had been the National Champion for Wind Surfing for the past 12 years.

With all questions answered, I opine that Jet Skiing can prove to be a very different experience for you, if you are a fun-loving adventurous person and are on the lookout for some different leisure activities within the city. For more details and further queries, you can visit the Facebook page of Jet Ski Karachi, the link of which is http://www.facebook.com/Jetskikarachi. Happy exploring! :)

Creative Chaos CTO Receives Award for Inventing a Mass Transit Touch and Pay Solution

Umair Aziz - Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of Creative Chaos, a leading technology consultancy, recently received the 1st Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Achievement Award for inventing and developing a state of the art NFC (near field communication) based fare collection system for mass-transit.

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, in the presence of distinguished business leaders, presented the medal to Mr. Aziz at a ceremony held in Karachi.

The system is called bPass and is currently being piloted in Kuwait, Jordan & Sharjah.

The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industries (FPCCI) is the apex body of trade and industry of Pakistan. FPCCI servers as the bridge between the Government and the Private Sector and its membership covers 48 Chambers and 96 Associations.

The FPCCI achievement awards recognize and honor the dedicated individuals and enterprises of Pakistani origin that have made sustained and lasting contribution at the in economic and socio-economic development of the Country and helped build its image and thus rendered all Pakistanis proud.

Gandhi vs. Jinnah: Is it even worth debating over?

There have been times when certain individuals have risen up to the deceitful religious dogmas, bigoted maniacs, societal injustices and opposed the wrongdoings. Rising up against conformist ideologies is sometimes possible but there are times when these acts turn to a massive turmoil and a mass opposition. The individuals who bring about these reforms are sometimes termed deviants and sometimes praised. But they all should be presented with the title of a “Leader”.

Here I would like to take my discussion to the phenomenal qualities of two such leaders of whom the world knows about; the two leaders from this side of the world that the entire globe is particularly interested in. Mahatma Gandhi and Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah: the two people who beautifully carved their names in the books of the history of subcontinent. These were the men who rose up to the challenging situations of their times and gave their followers refuge from external rule.

I would like to highlight some major similarities between the two leaders. Both Gandhi and Jinnah had similar leadership styles. They made people believe in their vision and carried such a strong charisma that dictated the moves of their followers. They bestowed their nations with eternal freedom. True that Gandhi was a people oriented person and had a very non violent self stimulating type of style, Jinnah had to act all strong and stern. They molded their personalities according to the need of the day and made relative sacrifices.

Why is then Gandhi considered to be a better leader? Why are the two even compared? Just because they both supported and led opposite sides of the independence war doesn’t make them comparable. The situations that shaped and transformed the decisions of both were different. Their ideologies were different. Their approaches were different yet it is concluded that Gandhi was a better leader by the West. During my exchange year I encountered with so many people who asked me this: Do you think Gandhi was a better leader or Jinnah? The meaning of Mahatma has been explained well as the great one but people in the West aren’t aware that Quaid-e-Azam also has similar meaning.

Yes this perception owes to the fact that Indian film cinema has uplifted Gandhi’s image through its pro-Gandhi films but until and unless all facts are properly analyzed of the pre-independence era, vague statements like Gandhi was a better leader shouldn’t be passed. Also the perception that Pakistanis hate Gandhi and Indians hate Jinnah as leaders is not correct. Despite being a Pakistani, I absolutely adore Gandhi as a leader and quote his example whenever relevant and know Indians who loved Jinnah’s brilliant moves to give Muslims what they required. Both are exemplary leaders and both should be appreciated for their contributions.