Nose for news…

BY: ZUBIA NOOR

Nose for news, role of a watchdog and sometimes a lapdog…all these are not the facets of a dog but of a journalist. Sir Humair Ishtiaq delivered a lecture on the basic qualities of a journalist in our class last Wednesday and it truly was thoughtful.

He asked us to keep an eye out for any “news” around. According to him even the bushes around us can make news. Interesting isn’t it? This reminded me of a comment from a friend who visited my department on Independence Day. He rightfully noticed that the boys’ washroom was in the worst position possible.

If you ever come to the Mass Communication building you will definitely admire the exterior, but as soon as you will enter things will get filthy. I mean it, literally. The reason is the welcome given by the absurd Boys’ lavatory door shamelessly opened towards the entrance.

I wonder what the architect was thinking when he was designing the building. Was he THINKING at all?? Now I can definitely make some news from this question.

Another problem is the “echo” problem, that not only the students but the teachers, most importantly, face everyday. The subsidiary students, who are way too many in quantity, are the ones who suffer this echo the most.

My question is: if these are the problems here that were not in the previous building, why was this huge department “re-departmented”??

We have no mikes, no proper computers; no cameras…yes no cameras!!! Journalism students without these facilities are like doctors without a stethoscope. My teachers tell that the same were the problems back in the previous building. No technical and LOGICAL improvements have been made.

May be the authorities wanted the Mass Communication students to be in shape cause if the conditions are same and nothing was changed except for the distance from the entrance gate, I guess the reason I just mentioned, was the reason to build this masterpiece. I will definitely investigate and make news out of this. but whenever I look at this building I think

 “kuch toh socha hota banana se pehle”

Psychology as your choice...

 By Sameen Meher

Before applying into any department, my aim was to become a psychologist. But people suggested me to choose a field which had a bigger scope. At that time I was not aware of the scope in psychology therefore I took admission in Mass Communication. But to keep up with my aim I chose psychology as a subsidiary.

Few of our class mates wanted to take psychology as a minor subject, thus we reached to the psychology department. There we met a major’s student who gave us frightening views about the subject. Except me, rest of my classmates got scared and decided to reject psychology.

In these two years only psychology has proved its worth. Rest is just theoretical headaches.

Basically psychology is a study of unconscious behaviors, how we get aware of them and generate them.

It’s a popular myth regarding psychology that it deals with “psychos” especially the ones like Norman Bates. Therefore parents never let their children opt for this subject.

People may also think that students of psychology become AAMIL BABA and will tell your profile by watching your body language. Well its not true.

Humans are very complicated creatures of Allah that show various aspects of their personality in different scenarios. Therefore psychologists never take decisions about anybody without a case history, interview, assessment test or any experiments.    

In our society people avoid to go to the psychologist as they think only the 'nut cases' seek help. I convey a message to you all: please stop this prejudice against psychology. Because of these myths, our society suffers with a number of problems which may never be resolved without an expert behavioural analyst..

I suggest people should study psychology literature under good guidance and I believe that it will help you in further life and you will feel dramatically changed in your present behavior.

IT’S ALL ABOUT MUFTA…

By Sehar Azhar Dar

My life was going on in a very peaceful and safe manner when I was not a part of Karachi University. Once I became a part of KU, all the peace of my life vanished suddenly as it was never there in my life. Apart studying, “Mufta” is another purpose of getting enrolled in KU because we, the youth always wait for a “party”. Mufta is the biggest advantage of being a KUrian.

Mufta is something when you look for a reason to hang out with friends and the most important part is, only one person is targeted to pay the bill. We call that one “bakra of the day”.

Friends are a blessing but when it comes to a treat, the blessing turns into a suffering because the amount of friends and the amount of bill is directly proportional. But all this is a part of our enjoyment, even if one doesn’t have enough money to pay for the treat, it’s taken as a joke and then everybody contributes their share.

KUrians mostly enjoy Mufta at Burger.com, KFC, Pizza Hut, Sufi and Majida Hotel. Hope next time you guys plan a Mufta; you do it the KUrian way. Go find your “bakra of the day” and don’t forget to invite me!

Water issues…

By Summya Khan

Water is life… well we all agree on this one. Without this ‘hydrogen-combined-with-oxygen-in-a-two-is-to-one- ratio’ compound, we are nothing but dust. And when we are at KU, the normal requirement of this liquid is abnormally, doubled and sometimes tripled.

All the readers of Sahafionline must have learnt these facts by heart now: how we travel long distances to get to our Mass Communication department, how we wait on shuttles that arrive late, how we bargain on fares with the rickshaw folk, how we take the risk of lifts and how we sometimes get chased by dogs. After clearing all these levels, one gets tired and when one gets tired one gets thirsty. And one gets insane when one finds out that there are no water coolers inside the department. Yes, nowadays at Mass Communication we have been deprived of this blessing. Reason is still unknown, but my guess is that they have been removed probably because of the unhygienic conditions of the water cooler and the place where it stood.

Whenever I feel thirsty I drink water from my own bottle but a time comes during the day when it gets all empty and I am forced to visit that cooler. On its drain slab, I mostly find betel nuts and “supaari” wrappers. Now, how am I supposed to drink from this thing? It’s disgusting to see the traditional eastern broom a.k.a. ‘jhaaroo’ leaning comfortably against the water cooler (as if they have been good pals). And the filter is there only for ornamental purposes. It doesn’t work I guess. Does it? It’s for me to know and for you to find out. I don’t want to confirm my doubt as many of my friends pleasurably drink from it or used to. There are no coolers for now.

 I would want to request my authorities to at least install hygienic and reliable water coolers instead of removing them. We need them since we can’t buy dozens of Mineral Water Bottles everyday. And please, don’t drink from those installed at the Sociology department especially…their connections come from the washrooms. God knows if they are “REALLY” connected or not. Better safe than sorry people.

SIR FAISAL, THE BACK BONE OF THE I.R DEPARTMENT: BECAUSE OF HIM IS THE STRENGTH OF I.R

BY ZUBIA NOOR

‘INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS’ is my most favorite and preferred subject at KU. There are many reasons for loving this subject but there are a few I would want to share with you guys.

I.R. is a very beautiful department with a calm atmosphere and a lush green garden outside our classroom. The classes are large and airy with big maps of the world; they really come in handy while studying world politics. It really creates an environment that we all are present (and alive) in an ‘international relations’ class. Besides this, I am impressed by many teachers at I.R. Miss Nabiha Gul, Sir Moonis Ahmer, Sir Faheem uddin and Sir Faisal Awan are some prominent names of the capable I.R. teaching faculty. My favorite is Sir Faisal Awan. I can safely label him as the ‘back bone of I.R. dept’. He taught us in our first semester and did it with absolute perfection. He never ignored his purpose: passing on his knowledge to his students. He made us fall in love with I.R. which is, according to some, a really dry subject. The concepts he taught us, are engraved on our minds forever.

I would like to appreciate him since he is a hard working teacher and is well- informed about all the politics, history and all the policies of the world. I know he should know that since he is a world politics professor, but what makes him different is his compassion and perspective and outlook towards the world which is outstanding and better than all the other teachers of I.R. at KU. His examples go nicely with the information and are clearly understood by the students. He gives lectures both in English language and Urdu.

Sir Faisal Awan is a very polite teacher and has never scolded a student in his class, ever. It’s because he believes that if a student is given what he likes, no problems can erupt between the teacher and a student. His words are like tranquilizers that take us deep down where he wants us to be…world politics of course. Yeah, I know I am exaggerating, but once you attend one of his lectures, you will definitely agree.

He also gives us Islamic information while maintaining a balance with his actual subject. He also adjusts timings with the consent of students and help us get rid of the ridiculous time table revealed from ‘his highness’ office. I really enjoyed taking his classes and he has had a good influence on my personality. For all the aspiring I.R. students, watch out for him, you will only benefit from this man. He is truly an inspiration, one that you hardly find at public universities nowadays. hats off to you!

Where to apply the 'Applied Chemisrty' ? ?

By Syeda Nadia Zareef.

A beautiful, well designed, and well decorated house with a beautiful garden and swimming pool outside attracts everyone but this structure cannot be called as complete until it has all necessary rooms and places with proper and well planned construction.

But Karachi University has many such departments which are very well designed and looks beautiful from outside but when you step in, you find major flaws in their construction. Same is the case of the new building of 'APPLIED CHEMISTRY' which is well constructed and looks nice as compared to its old building but unlike its old building it has no proper practical labs.

Meaning of Applied Chemistry in dictionaries: 'The applications of the theories and principles of chemistry to practical purposes'

But unfortunately the department of applied chemistry in UoK has no  proper places where the applications of the theories can be put to practical purposes !!

Yes it sounds really surprising that the Department has no proper labs.There are very few Chemical Labs in the department.Beside this other important labs of Workshop, Heat and Mass Transfer and Unit Operation are conducted in the old building which is miles away from the new one.

Every day students have to rush towards the old building in  hot sunny weather for their labs not to mention that the old building seems like a horrifying castle that we usually see in horror movies.

The doors of the department produce suspicious and horrible sounds.It has no proper electricity system neither the labs are provided with proper apparatus.

Its not at all a new issue in UoK,every year the authorities assured students of the betterment and progress but no such step has ever been taken that proves that they actually want betterment in anything at the Campus.

And as these days our University is already suffering from lack of funds so there is no hope for the students and they have to carry on with these problems.

This is only one example but there are several other examples regarding the lack of perfection in the construction of buildings.

We all know that there are no satisfactory outcomes of the appeals of students but we still have hopes for good days and betterment in the entire system.

The show must go on. . .

By Sana Batool Naqvi.

Blogging is a kind of work which is seen by the readers daily just like a newspaper so there is no space for mistakes and irresponsibility.'Time' has proved to be the most important factor in the whole process especially when we have other people in our competition.

We faced and are facing countless problems for the accomplishment of this task but I and my group members have always focused on the point that 'the show must go on' .We learnt that whatever are the circumstances and issues between and among the group members,the focus should be the task and the learning process that we are going through.This assignment helped us alot in increasing and polishing our writing skills and gave us an opportunity to let others know about our writing abilities.

Blogging has proved to be something that has engaged us on daily basis.Its just because of the readers ,their feedback and off course the marking that makes us punctual in blogging..

All my group members went through different busy situations in which they had no time for blogging but its because of dedication to our work that the rest of the members put all their efforts to fill the space and finally became successful in keeping the interests of the readers alive and helped for the show to move on..

Beside this we also faced alot of discouragement and  critical comments and  feedback that becomes the reason of disappointment of all the group members.

I also had some major problems due to which I was not able to work ,but the idea that 'the show must go on' somehow compelled our muscles to move and write for our blog.

In the end I would like to conclude my piece with an advice that being sincere to whatever work we do is the key to success.We must have a plan 'B' for the situations in which we fail to do what we actually planned to ,recover the situation and to manage in difficult times and this is what I have learnt through this 'blogging'.

The most successful people are those who are good at plan 'B'..

                                                                       (James York)

In the light of the above quotation I can say that despite of the problems and hurdles in life one should never give up rather should manage the situation.

This piece is something that I have written in complete illness with  no such interesting material..but I believe that...

THE SHOW MUST GO ON..!!

 

Despair. . .everywhere. . .

By Kanwal Naz

I am tired of writing negative views about my varsity, but whenever I set out on a mission to find positive points, I find something rather irritating and then I am forced to write about it. For instance last week I decided that I will not write a post unless and until I find something interesting to share. I entered my International Relations classroom, while discussing these plans, where I saw something really annoying.

All my plans of writing “happy-happy” views about my beloved KU vanished when I saw that absolutely pathetic teacher’s desk facing the class. International relations is one of the best departments we have at our university, often where foreign delegates give lectures. It is frustrating to see how the administration is neglecting its duties. Okay, we are well aware of the fact that the university is not getting funds and blah blah…but is there not enough money to buy decent furniture for the teachers? That table, for a whole week now, is standing in the same terrible position. My requests to that irritable receptionist have had no effect. And this is not the only table that needs to be replaced; there are hundreds of chairs, fans and tube lights that need to be thrown away.

But my focus is this desk. Just take a look at it if you ever visit KU these days. Room no.5 ‘International Relations’ department. This table is a masterpiece of its own kind and the best part about it is that you will find it in the same pose every time you visit it. It is a sign of creativity on the students’ part, because I am sure of the fact that its stability up till now has been maintained by the I.R. students. It’s a regular teacher’s desk which should have, like any other desk, four legs. Unfortunately, it lost its two left legs (God knows how and when) and now, after two whole weeks, someone was kind enough to take out its drawers and place them under the “deprived-of-legs-side”. (It reminds me of those pirates with wooden legs)

All said, that table and her sisters are older than the Victorian desk present in the White House. Please I.R. authorities. Wake up! Change this table before it loses all its legs and the teacher will have to carry it in his lap. Wake up!!!