Wadiblog

Saw this on an advertisement banner outside a bike shop going down El Camino Real just South (is it South?) of Stanford and had to do u-turn to go back and take a pic:

What can I add?

We’re going to be adding a bunch of Flickr and other multimedia links on this site…check in on them, early and often, as they say! And please do send in your suggestions, favorites, least favorites, and the like to be included in the WadiView section. (Oh, and check out what we have so far!)

Hi everyone,

This is spunkymasala, your NYC correspondent.

I had the pleasure of talking to 8coupons recently. 8coupons is a startup providing consumers with coupons for restaurants, entertainment, shopping and the like in Lower Manhattan. A great business concept and even greater people behind it. Check out an interview of the co-founders below and learn about the startup, where its going, and key tips for aspiring entrepreneurs for you. Enjoy!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Sorry I have been MIA for a bit. A couple or three things jump out from the New York Times, NPR and the ‘Net this morning.

Firstly, a shout-out to my peeps, so to speak. There’s a clip on Google Video today of an interview with two of Pakistan’s most prominent bloggers on an English-language breakfast show. Well worth watching, what with Pakistan in the news in such a big way.

[Original at The Teeth Maestro’s blog.]

Then there’s an op-ed in the NYT this morning by the country director for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting providing his personal perspective about the bombing of the Serena Hotel in Kabul, a watering hole (and just a place to hole up) for expats, particularly. And there have been other stories about Afghanistan in The Times, on NPR, other places in the last few days. It seemed to hit me; is it a coincidence that the Western Media and Zeitgeist is sitting up and noticing–or should I say acknowledging, since some information has always been around–that Afghanistan is down the tubes because the Taliban, as Mr. McKenzie tells us, have now started a policy of targeting westerners?

The other thing that jumped out at me was from a series that NPR is doing on Muslim Women in Britain.
Continue Reading »

Today, Tuesday, January, 22nd, 2008 - The Valley once again has been dressed in white. I stepped out this morning for work, atop the Diablo Range, amidst thick clouds, the mountain peaks are covered with what looks like fresh snow…being an adventurous outdoors type I am considering going up to the Lick observatory, or at least as far as one can drive…if anyone from the Valley is interested, let me know by submitting a comment to this post.

You can get visuals of the Diablo Range from the the Lick Observatory HAMCAM

Today — Tuesday, January 22nd — is the last day to register to vote in California. If you’re eligible for the first time: register. If you’ve moved to a new address since you last voted, register. If you’re unsure if you’re registered: go down to your local post office, or click here, fill out the form, and drop it into a mailbox. Make sure you’re registered.

Then, begin on these urgent tasks: tell your brothers and sisters, your daughters and your sons. Tell them they need to register. Call your friends or send them a text message. Tell your co-workers,your classmates to register to vote. Tell everyone you know, tell them that this day, two weeks before the Feb. 5th election, is their last chance to register and say they will be counted and their voice will be heard.

When we register, we announce that we will count, that we will make our voices heard. We tell Washington that we can fundamentally transform politics to serve the common good. We tell the nation that we can achieve a more perfect union. We tell the world that we can renew it and repair it. We tell them: yes, we can.

Click below to learn more about the Voter Registration…
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm

Click below to look up your voter registration…
http://eservices.sccgov.org/voterlookup/home.do

I attended a Mehfil-e-Ghazal last month organized by the Urdu Academy of SFBA. It was well organized except it was not very well attended. They are now arranging another event which they hope to continue organizing once every month. The particulars of the event are as follows:

WHERE: PAKISTANI AMERICAN CULTURE CENTER (PACC)
830 Stewart Drive , Sunnyvale, CA 94085

WHEN: Sunday, January 20, 2008

TIME: 3:00 TO 6:00 p.m.

PROGRAM:

1. ESSAYS ON THE FOLLOWING TWO POETS AND RECITATION OF THEIR POETRY

a. JANAB MIR SOUZ (CLASSICAL POET)

b. JANAB MAHIR-UL-QADRI (MODERN POET)

2. TANQEEDI NASHIST

a. NAZM BY SAEED KHAN SAHIB

3. PARVEEN SHAKIR (A Tribute to the legendary poetess) BY Noshi Gilani

SPONSORED BY:
PAKISTANI AMERICAN CULTURE CENTER

While going through some useful blogs, I came across this great website with some excellent resources, http://www.allbusiness.com, that I think can help SMB as well as startups.
I thought I would share it here at Wadiwallah for all the Wadiwallahs.
Do pay a visit and let us all know if you found the content useful.

Mohsin Hamid’s latest op-ed is pretty good. Recommended reading for anyone who wants to know how things looked/look from the perspective of the every day life in Pakistan. You can read it here, on the Washington Post site.

I attended a talk by him at Stanford last year, and my first reaction was that what he was saying, the world view and experiences were the experiences of any Pakistani of our age and station, so to speak. (I think he’s about a year older than me.) And he writes well. It’s good to have him around, with his facility with English and “global” culture to bring that voice, that view of the world to the table. And given his visibility and position as a globally-best selling author, to have what he says read and noticed.

[Of course, I am still very disappointed with him and others of our generation and/or background–and this even includes, to some extent, folks like Imran Khan, who made sympathetic noises–for initially supporting the military take-over in 1999. But more on that as and when I can write–or maybe some readers can comment and discuss that aspect.

Recently I was browsing through the sitemeter account of my personal blog. Here, one can view site visits from all across the globe - from Australia to Europe, North American, Africa and the Middle East. The site has been visited from all corners of the globe where internet connectivity is available. Amongst all the various location, one country, that you don’t see a whole lot to often stood out - Afghanistan.

Afghanistan, a wore torn nation, where basic amenities and luxuries much of the world take for granted are hard to come by, none can imagine there would be Web surfers, or for that matter decent internet connectivity. However, the proof is in the pudding - there was one hit from this dissolute region of the world!

Upon further investigation, which led me to the Afghanistan Ministry of Communication and Information Technology the following “somewhat surprising” statistics can be found,

Statistics

The following statistic updates every after 3 months.
Last updated on 02, Oct 2007

Landline Phones:	39,608
GSM Subscribers:	32,85,332
CDMA Subscribers:	43,646
ISP Companies:	17
GSM Companies:	04

Who would have imagined, a nation such as Afghanistan would have 17+ ISPs! This may seem like a small number, it however shows great promise for this nation - paving the way for innumerable entrepreneurial opportunities. It is only a matter of time before the Silicon Valley Entrepreneur and VC community cash in on the the innumerable opportunities in this far off land.