Mitti deya putleya oye, kadi apne ap nu v pehchan mitti,

ajj, mitti de utte tu oye, kall miti de thalle tu mitti,

Hona hai sara jahaan mitti, mitti di khed wich hai jag sara mitti, anth hona hai sara jahan mitti.
Kadi ta mittiye hosh kar ni,

Tera Kamliye ni Antt anjaam mitti, tere hath mitti, tere pair mitti, tera naam mitti,
tero asli mitti, teri nakli mitti, teri subha mitti, tari sham mitti,

Mitti ta kare tabah mitti koi mitti nu kare salaam miti,

Likhdi mitti nu khat mitti mangdi mitti di khair mitti.

my base is in Gujranwala…we lived there happliy….but left my mother land due to

the viloence of 1947………..

A poem dedicated to my pind……..

Aaj Akhan Waris Shah nun’aj aakhan Waris Shah nun, kiton kabraan vichchon bol,

te aj kitab-e-ishq daa koi agla varka phol

ik roi si dhi Punjab di, tun likh likh maare vaen,

aj lakhaan dhian rondian, tainun Waris Shah nun kaehn

uth dardmandaan dia dardia, uth takk apna Punjab

aj bele lashaan bichhiaan te lahu di bhari Chenab

kise panjan panian vichch ditti zehr ralaa

te unhaan paniian dharat nun ditta paani laa

is zarkhez zamin de loon loon phuttia zehr

gitth gitth charhiaan laalian fut fut charhiaa qehr

veh vallissi vha pher, van van vaggi jaa,

ohne har ik vans di vanjhali ditti naag banaa

pehlaa dang madaarian, mantar gaye guaach,

dooje dang di lagg gayi, jane khane nun laag

laagaan kile lok munh, bus phir dang hi dang,

palo pali Punjaab de, neele pae gaye ang

gale`on tutt`e geet phir, takaleon tuttii tand,

trinjanon tuttiaan saheliaan, charakhrre ghukar band

sane sej de beriaan, Luddan dittiaan rohr,

sane daliaan peengh aj, piplaan dittii tor

jitthe vajdi si phuuk pyaar di, ve oh vanjhali gayi guaach

Raanjhe de sab veer aj, bhul gaye uhadi jaach

dharti te lahoo varsiya, kabraan paiaan choan,

preet diaan shaahzaadiaan, aaj vichch mazaaraan roan

aj sabbhe Kaido` ban gaye, husn, ishq de chor

aj kitthon liaaiye labbh ke Waris Shah ik hor

aj aakhan Waris Shah nun, kiton kabraan vichchon bol,

te aj kitaab-e-ishq da, koi aglaa varka phol

(Amrita Pritam)

Ambarish has contributed this amazing poem about Gujranwala from Kolkata, WB, India

I got few images through an e-mail.. These are worth seeing..

Nothing But Shadows and Tears
I wish I could climb
Deep inside your dreams
And bring you all the way back
To me and what we were together
With each aching moment
You drift further out to sea
And I wave my arms in panic
But you fail to notice that I am drowning
What alien force has entered you?
Taking hostage of your soul
Leaving nothing but shadows
Cast out to dance with ghoulish glee
Through the shattered glass and flooded foundations
That are all that remain
Of the crumbling temple
That housed our sacred past
Trembling with fearful anticipation
Of a future imprisoned by the past
A combination of cheated memories and hollowed out dreams
I fight to connect, to bring you back
Struggling to navigate
Through the desperate nights
And gut twisting days
In order to locate any glimpse of a route
Into the realms of your being
Where once at the core
Resided the firm belief
That to be without me would be to die

Azhar Masood wrote and dedicated this poem to me

Rubab Saleem was interviewed by The Pakistani Spectator
This was an interesting interview and i was intrigued to get this type of things on my Blog also.
I am grateful to Ghazala Khan for taking this interview.

Could you tell us what made you decide to blog?
I always want my voice to be heard, i have been writing for the National dailies of Pakistan in this connection, thus i have tendency to write. Pakistani Newspapers are though a great tool to reach the Pakistani masses however to reach the world and convey my message to them convinced me to have a blog or two. In my blog i prefer to address such issues that can bring change to Pakistan constructively.

What do you think sets Your blog apart from other blogs?
The news paper format of my blog and its exclusive news coverage with an added factor of opinion and reviews. It is almost an online newspapers that has great readership and contribution from almost every sphere of life within Pakistan. It has potential to provide serve the appetite of readers who needs information about Pakistan. I conduct surveys to pour the opinion of a lay man to the literati..
I have a special section of success stories, where everyone is open to share their personal, professional and spiritual stories.

If you could choose one characteristic you have that brought you success, what would it be?
Hardwork is major factor that i am blessed with to reach any goal in my life i aspired to. I attribute my every success to Hard work come determination.

What was the happiest and gloomiest moment of your life?
Life is intricate web of several relationships and our happiness and gloominess is always associated with most of our relations, While my father passed back in 1988, i probably was unable to understand at that time what his absence can bring to my and my family’s life. But i was extremely despaired. I always become the happiest person while someone appreciates my mom’s efforts to rear me up like a symbolic daughter for so many others.

Urdu Blogs have got huge potential, when do you think they will really take on the online horizon in Pakistan?
Urdu widely understandable not only in Pakistan but in other parts of Asia also. Even huge number of overseas Pakistanis also speak and understand Urdu. I have got a request from one of my journalist friend to develop an Urdu blog for him also. So i find in near future it would be possible for the Bloggers who blog in Urdu can reach to a targeted segment of Urdu speaking audience. Urdu bloggers have a great future provided an Urdu Social Bookmarking Site is established for them.

If you could pick a travel destination, anywhere in the world, with no worries about how it’s
paid for - what would your top 3 choices be?
Ahhh Lovely question! I would want to explore each and every part of the world however being particular and giving three destinations i would want to go to Egypt, Australia and Rome.

What is your favorite book and why?
I am a book worm thus like several books but for one book i always want to stop to refresh myself is Qur’an Kareen. It is a complete “How to” guide to spend life in most righteous manner.

What’s the first thing you notice about a person (whether you know them or not)?
It is the aura that i always feel and notice on meeting anyone stranger or acquaint. In most cases i find myself right and it helps me in defining my level of relationship with people. Aura covers every perspective of somebody’s personality.

Do you think Pakistani politicians could benefit from the social networks and things like twitter?
Frankly speaking, they don’t have knowledge of things like twitter however their PR machineries can surely get benefit out of these sites, Facebook is a worthy tool as more and more people are clinging to FaceBook. Politicians can certainly get help for molding opinion in their favour. I have found US candidates for Presidential Election’s 2008 coming and networking on Digg, it allows them to reach to their people. However politician first need to make Pakistanis addictive of internet to the extent that they could use it as a tool for their political compiegns.

Whose Future is more bright in Pakistan; English blogs or Urdu Blogs?
Yet English, as most of the people who surf internet are able to understand English. They come online with a perception to come accross with English stuff whatever it is blog or other sources. But with the increased ratio of literacy, more population will consutl to internet and can benefit from Urdu also.

How Pakistani bloggers can benefit from blogs financially?
Google AdSence and PPC is the major element that can help these bloggers in earning like so many other bloggers who are getting financial benefit out of Blogs in other parts of the world. Further advertisement from the multinational Companies is another good source provided a blog has good Page Rank. and Alexa and readability.

Do you think Pakistani bloggers tend to remain somewhat self-centered and really don’t go out of their shells? Is it the oriental style of blogging, or they are still unsure about it?
People usually are the products of the societies where do they live and grow, so we can not blame bloggers from Pakistan to be self-centered, it is quite natural. I have found several doctors writing blogs about medicine; health and fitness, many environmentalists who only write about environment not in Pakistan but in every part of the world. So writing depicts anyone’s interests and natural tendency and what things effect them. as far as i know There is no code of conduct yet defined for bloggers to restrict them from writing anything. I have my personal blogs along with the blogs where i write as a professional.

Blogging is still an emerging concept in Pakistan, 2007 has been the year for people all over the world who started blogging but very less number of Pakistanis have gone for Blogs. I believe this is an upcoming strong shape of media so people will start relying upon blogs and mature content will come up. It is in phase one comparing with our neighbors India, so give Pakistanis a cushion to gradually move forward.

Is it true that who has a successful blog has an awful lot of time on their hands?
To reach to some heights is easy but to maintain it is difficult, i am afraid you are partially wrong in saying that successful bloggers have awful lot of time. Success is directly proportional to hard work and hard work is another name of investing time particularly in online entrepreneurship. In many cases bloggers outsource content and social media marketing, even than they have to keep an eye on what is coming on their blogs

What are your thoughts on corporate blogs and what do you think the biggest advantages and disadvantages are?
Corporate blogs are a useful tool to reach organizational goals, a PR technique. Feed back in shape of comments and posts in helpful to determined organizations to redesign their goals in accordance with the demand. Every organization supports internal and external blogs where stakeholders can be the organization’s consultants. Several browsers support RSS technology thats without actually visiting blog one can read what is new to these blogs.
It is an easy access for the prospective public to reach the organizational structures, even CEO.
These logs are an additional source of popularity and image building. These can be use to influence Markets and competitors.
Similarly posts with negative perspectives can destroy the image of organization. For me there are more advantages though I encourage corporate blogs.

Do you think this whole emphasis on blogs and whatever online is a significant indicator to show that the web, the social web, is becoming a very important social force?
I deem it wise to agree, more and more emphasize is on being social on internet. There are so many social media marketing sites that are compelling internet users to be more social particularly bloggers, this is a techniques for search engines also to have more stuff on their engines i order to make their engines full of reliable stuff. Another thing, The information given on the social marketing site is usually shared. and producers of several products also pick targeted users for their products, ideas or content.

What do you think where the Pakistani blogosphere is right now?
It is in emerging phase and in a transitional process from personal to professional usage, i am sure after one or two years Pakistani Blogsphere, if things keep on working with same pace will capture South Asian markets.

Who are your top five favourite bloggers in Pakistan?
I am sure i can refer their blogs
www.dirjournal.com
www.pakspectator.com
www.chowrangi.com
www.pakpositive.com
www.mypakistan.com

Have you ever become stunned by the uniqueness of any blogger in Pakistani blogosphere?
Yes!
dirjournal’s How to guides excellent technique

What is the future of blogging in Pakistan?
I am certain it is bright provided shortage of electricity is not dragging Pakistan to stone age. Blogs are run on unique content and ideas, Pakistan is rich in ideas therefore the future of Pakistan is blogging.

In political respect, can we say blogging a ‘democracy of message’?
Yes it can be, till the ordinance like PEMRA by the Government of Pakistan are up to curb the free expression of opinion on Pakistan’s blogsphere. Well Blog are democratic messages in other parts of the world. Also there are examples of curbed blogs in several regions where people spoke against governments.

Can Pakistani blogosphere play any notable role in the forthcoming elections, if they happen at all?
I am afraid “No”, yet it can not play a noticeable role in the forthcoming Elections. People have strong affiliation with certain ethnic, regional or individualistic political parties thus to change their opinions are a bit difficult. Secondly Electronic Media is now a days more active and building Public Opinions in favour of the politicians who pay them more and small number of masses consult internet to get information, as ratio of literacy is not high and access to resource like computers and internet is yet not in support of this idea.
However in future with UN, West and US aided agencies new era of computers will start and elections would be fought on blogging platform.

You have also got a blogging life, how has it directly affected both your personal and professional life?
It is my life now regardless of personal and professional. I am always on my blogs writing and giving my message to the people. I have got several online friends and contributors for my blog. I am more sociable online and less off line while it was exactly opposite to what is right now.

What are your future plans?
I am interested in starting a Social Media Bookmarking Site for Pakistani Bloggers, great news is i have started with the name of PublicWar
I also intend to come into main stream journalists of Pakistan who have the strength to influence the minds of people.

Any Message you want to give to the readers of The Pakistani Spectator?
Love Pakistan Be Pakistan and visit regularly The Pakistani Spectator.

Interview with Blogger Rubab Saleem

My Brother Hasan Saleem is the best brother is of this world. He is younger than me and elder than Ali Saleem. These both are my loviest and cutest ever friends.
Ali is studying in Ireland and Hasan owns a internet Business in Gujranwala. His site BitExtra is a profitable site.

He is leaving for USA on December 1, 2007. He suppose to attend PubCon Conferences regarding E-Marketing, World tell you something he is the only Pakistani to participate into those conferences in Las Vagus and Huston.

Me and Mom particularly and rest of the family generally are sad and have started missing him, when Ali left we were sad but we had Hasan with us but now he is also leaving thought he would be coming back soon but we are getting emotional about him.

There is a Chinese proverb that “Think before you dream, dreams might come true”
The day i entered into the cyber-world, i aspired to have my own web page. In 8 years i could grow to few e-mails on www.hotmail.com and www.yahoo.com. Further I could get an official e-mail from my workplace however it was over with my job ended.
Hye World!
See i have so many websites listed under several categories and Google has ranked them according to my efforts.
After having my websites i started managing content on these pages via WordPress.
Next step was to promote these pages on Social Media Networks.

I developed profiles on several leading Social Media Marketing Sites including Propeller, Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us, Sphinn, Technorati, Newsvine, Facebook, Myspace, StumbleUpon, Spurl, Twitter, Livejournal, MyBlogLog, Squidoo, and several other newbies.
You might see my profiles in my upcoming post.
But what next i have got my own Social Media Marketing site…….. Public War

Now i need your help people, get registered to this site and start socializing.
Lets share your part to make it popular on every forum of the world as the emerging Social Media Marketing site from Pakistan.

I have noticed that India has launched various sites on similar pattern and helping Bloggers to grow in world and making money online.
This is great opportunity for the Pakistani Bloggers to come and get Registered here to promote their weblogs.