QUIT please!!!

By Fatimah Mazhar


Once my major teacher declared ‘teamwork is good, all of you who think that doing an assignment individually is better, can quit the group you are in’. Well, I was the one who went for the ‘one man show’ policy and this sentence was targeted at me.

All this happened when our teacher was assigning us a blog…this blog actually.Sahafionline. A name that is, to some, childish and a not-up to-the-standard assignment for students in their second year mass communication degree.

I am writing this article because I am facing issues with such people who think that this assignment is too impractical. They are the ones who are ‘career-oriented’, ‘creative minded’, ‘aspiring’, ‘adventurous’ etc. but I wonder why do these ‘professionals’ skip assignments and classes, and in doing so, cause problems for the people who are here (at the university) to learn. They are the ones who want a rather ‘practical’ approach towards our assignments and curriculum. Well, if you want this, why don’t you use your ‘EXPERTISE’ and start a campaign against this program of study which you loathe so much???

                                                                          

This is one problem that is always confronted while working in a group: some people never take it seriously. They are too clumsy to do their assignments and give innumerable excuses to hide their failures. Actually they are the ones who are the aspiring “media people” of our country .Honestly, I will doubt the caliber of my country’s media if it will accept people who were not even sincere with minor assignments at their university.

My plea to students like these: “if you are ‘that’ career oriented, I guess these insignificant assignments should not be much of an issue to you. After all, if you have the moral fiber to report the Afghan War as a correspondent then definitely you can take out some time for this blog and stop creating problems for the group members (who were reluctant to have you in their group).

You are the would-be journalists; reporters etc. shouldn’t teamwork be one of your principles? And if you really think that you want to make a team with your kind, it’s my humble request to you: quit please!”

Working in a group for assignments is always a challenge if you end up with people who are not cooperative. In my opinion, such people ought to leave and form a group of their own. May be, they could create something big with their brilliant brains working together.

Constant Vigilance!!!

Time & Trouble..!..

By Zoobia Noor..

As the Holy month of Ramadan has now ended so.we would definitely observe a change in our University schedule..

The University timings always changes in the month of Ramadan..The timings for the first class changes from 8:30 to 8 o'clock despite of the fact that official timings for points is 8:30..

. .As most of the students in the campus use points as their mode of transport,so it becomes difficult for them to reach at 8 to attend the first class...every year,the changes in timings for the month of Ramadan becomes a reason for debate between students and the administration..
Students have to rush for their classes as mostly miss half of the lectures of the first class throughout the month..

In some departments teachers starts the class sharp at 8,without considering the issue of point timings..

Beside this, the students who come by public buses or by private transport wait for shuttles and lifts at the muskan gate as its a tough job to walk all the way long to the departments from muskan especially when one is fasting..

During Ramadan,point timings should also be chaged alongwith the timings and schedule of classes..
 This is an important issue for not only people who use points,but also for the rest as 8 o'clock seems very early for everyone and so we have 0% attendance in the morning classes in month of Ramadan...

At the end of this Holy month ,we again have a good hope for the next year and next Ramadan..

We hope that we will have no timing issues next year and will be able to attend our classes in the morning time..and will no more be irritated by the schedule.. ..

We have big hopes but their decisions seems bigger than anything else ..!

The not so SEMINAR libraries…

By Sameen Meher

The University of Karachi was built in June 1951. It consists of different faculties with several departments. More or less twenty one departments are administered in the faculty of Arts at K.U., each having five to eight classrooms in an old building including a spacious hall (as compared to the other classrooms) named as the “SEMINAR LIBRARY”.

                                               

The purpose of these libraries is to provide suitable research material for the students, relating to their subjects, in their respective departments. Though all departments of the arts faculty have a seminar library but only 10% of them are properly administered.

Here in the following article I am going to share some bitter but true facts about these libraries.

 Usually, a library is known to be a place where rich, informative and knowledgeable resources are provided, along with a librarian, to control that particular ‘pin drop’ silence and guide the students how to use the reading material and take care of the books and assemble them properly. But the librarians of these seminar libraries are irresponsible and do not perform their job efficiently. They are not punctual and not even guide you in search of any material. Once you enter the room, you find a mess all around.

Most of the seminar libraries are used as substitutes for classrooms. While there are students who want to utilize their time by studying in the library, the teachers ask such students to leave in order to conduct their classes. This is an inappropriate practice since the library is not for these purposes. The administration ought to plan the development of the rickety old buildings and accommodate more classrooms instead of gardens.

While on the other hand the most pitiable situation is that there is not enough library material such as books or research papers, for this very reason, students prefer the digital libraries for their studies.

The seminar libraries of department of economics, Persian, Bengali, philosophy, social work, women studies, English literature, education, and political science look like ancient ruins. Not a single librarian is present there and if luckily they show up then they do nothing but sleep or groan at students. Resources are not arranged as they ought to be and a situation of chaos is found all over.

Though there are some of the managements that look after the library assets properly, they remain exceptions, for mostly these seminar libraries are slowly turning into mid-day chit chat rooms. Something must be done immediately to improve the situation.

Till ‘grease’ do us apart…

By Fatimah Mazhar



The sociology department is a busy department. You find clusters of students sitting and standing here and there. The intriguing part is that this department is associated with the Bengali department which does not have many students and sociology itself is not a very popular subsidiary subject. Then how does it manage to be the second most cherished spot for people after the Arts lobby? Let me tell you the answer. It’s because most of the time, the corridors of this haunted department are deserted. And who, better than the ‘Love Doves’, knows the value of an empty branch on a maple tree. In short, the sociology department is the perfect meeting point for all the people-in-romantic-relationships aka ‘dates’ found in K.U.

The seating arrangement for these dates is a special one. The love stricken (rather thunder-stricken) souls place themselves comfortably along the corners of the raised pathway leading to sociology. Sometimes you can see a boy giving out a hand to his fair lady to help her sit on the stairs. Many a time you can witness both of them whispering among themselves and some are found holding hands, listening to the recent (pathetic) Atif Aslam track on their mp3 players, completely oblivious of the fact that someone or rather ‘some political activists’ are watching and observing their postures like a vulture eyes its prey.

Yes, it’s the same political party who thinks that a girl and a boy are nothing more than brothers and sisters in Islam and must maintain a “Shar-aee (according to Islamic principles) distance” when talking to each other or else the consequences are bound to be severe…and I mean it when I say “severe”, both for the male and female doves, since this particular party doesn’t discriminate between genders when it comes to spanking and beating. Sad but true.

So, whenever these “pseudo mullahs” see an overwhelming presence of love birds chirruping along the corners of the sociology department, they consider it as their solemn duty to correct them. What they do is, that they pour a handsome amount of grease along the corners of the pathway and on all those seats where the ‘dates’ enjoy their quality time. This makes the whole situation (and the pavement as well) too messy and filthy for anyone who wishes to have a seat there. The poor love doves have to find other places that can keep them far from the madding crowd.

Not only do these dates suffer from this idiotic ritual but also innocent singles like me get offended when our brand new pair of sneakers gets greased. This is wrong and must be stopped. Who has given “those who we don’t speak of” the right to step into the way of love/flirtation/time-pass/whatever –is- between those two people??? One word of caution folks, next time you wish to visit the sociology department, watch your step!



Constant Vigilance!!!

Gol gappay.. ! !

By Sana Batool Naqvi..

Gol gappay is a South Asian (Pakistani/Indian) appetizer,really tempting and mouth watering..It has a touch of every flavour,sour,sweety,spicy,salty etc.Its a wonderful snack served as chat on roadside food carts all over.This smacking snack is served with spicy water,and meethi chatni..(sweet tamarind chatni)..

Whenever anyone talks about this dish my mouth in real sense get filled with water ..it reminds me of crispy saucers filled with chatni and masala, placed in mouth at once and enables a person to look funny..

Few days before Ramadan started ,we were craving for gol gappay at University and so immediately after the class rushed towards the canteen but unfortunately canteen wala announced 'gol gappay Eid k bad milengay'..this sounded really bad and disappointing for all of us but especially for me as its been ages since I last had gol gappay..so my craving for gol gappay started increasing day by day and my taste buds are still waiting for them..

Obviously Gol gappay can be eaten at any other place ,keeping in mind the fact that no canteen in the Campus has gol gappay as its speciality but enjoying them with friends,standing uncomfortably in front of the canteen,continuosly asking for more , making funny faces while eating and laughing at each other,is no less than a festival.
So as the Holy month is near to its end,alongwith the excitemenet for Eid,my heart is also filled with the eagerness for gol gappay at University..

I stop here because not more than this, can be written about my craving for gol gappay. ..!

Lights. . .camera. . .action !!!

By Suleman Saadat Khan.

I had known that I would like to be a journalist since the day I was born. Watching reporters traveling and speaking in every part of the world was no less than a fantasy to me. So the day the intermediate result came, I broke this auspicious piece of news to my parents. “I’m going to take admission in mass communication department”, I said smiling ear to ear. Unfortunately the reaction was not what I had anticipated. “Beta tum ne pre-engineering men itnay achay marks liay hain, to NED me admission lo na…journalist bun kar kya karo gay?”, but I was hard to be convinced. “But mujhe shuru se journalist bunnay ka shouq hai…mera dil wahen lagay ga” I said. After a big argumentative discussion I was able to convince my parents and make them believe that mass communication department in KU will be able to offer me a great deal of practical work, reporting equipments, critical ability to analyze current affairs and eventually wealth!..

My poor parents believed every word I said. My mother thought that I would be a big name and would be offered a fat salary job the moment I do my graduation. My father thought under the sagacious guidance of KU staff and with such well equipped news labs I’ll be the most confident human being in front of camera, thrashing all big celebrities who’ll come in my way. Or a confident programme director shouting “lights, camera…action!” I don’t blame them. It was all my 15 days argumentative discussion that was showing colors.

The truth turned out to be somewhat different. The very first day we were introduced to our faculty members with praise-worthy academic records. We were told our compulsories would be subjects like Everyday Science, Math, Islamiat, Urdu etc. I thought “ok we’ll manage, after all the major is communications”. Minutes, days and months passed but I couldn’t even see what news lab was like from inside. All I could see was PG, Soofi ka Dhaaba, Qasim kay Samosay …and obviously, not forgetting, the great seminar library!. The compulsory subjects which seemed utterly irrelevant to me became troubles. The teachers were unforgiving and wanted all attention towards THEIR subjects. The time that we were supposed to be spending in libraries or reading newspapers was spent in reading Ribosomes, DNA, Ghalib kay mazameen, Probability, Integration, Differentiation and what not!.

“So what if we’re not doing journalistic stuff this year, next year I would be practicing in front of camera and writing error-free reports Inshallah!” I thought. When parents asked me how it was going, my answer would always be “Bohat hi achi chal rahi hai, inshAllah jald he ap mujhe newspaper aur channels per dekhen gay”. And they did. They did see my name in newspapers but always in “letter to the editorial” column. It was not that I wasn’t trying. I was writing, but the huge amount of time that was being consumed by blood-sucking compulsories obviously diverting my attention from communication studies.

Next year was no improvement for me. The compulsories continued and so did my bragging. I showed my parents the documentaries I had made on movie maker, the power point presentations and other pieces of work and continued giving credit to my university and “well chosen field”. They believed and appreciated. All they didn’t know was that the movies I had shown were learned and made on poor home-computer and our dear departmental heads don’t even easily hand-over the computer lab keys without having detailed-explanations.

The department gave me a lot. Talented teachers, helpful friends, communication books and theories. All it couldn’t give me was practical exposure which I had bragged about since day one.

After spending a year and a half in this field I’ve seriously begun to think if I had made the right decision leaving all other choices after intermediate. Only God knows!.

Donation Overdose..!

By Sumayya Khan.

Its a very unfortunate time in the history of our country that has made people hopeless and homeless..Funds are being raised all over the country for the flood victims and people are donating generously with sympathies in their hearts for the victims  and with love for their homeland..It seems that we will InshAllah overcome this problem soon.


But let me tell you about some issues that we have with the people(usually students) who are collecting funds at UoK.

Donation is something which should be given wholeheartedly and should be demamded with humbleness.But sorry to say ,people in K.u involved in fund raising activities,forcing people to give anything for the donation boxes that they hold are not at all humble in their job.I have been forced and afterwards made feel guilty many times at many places in the Campus.If I am refusing to give for such noble cause ,It  makes  sense that I have already made my contribution somewhere else but those people with boxes in their hands are never ready to get your point,instead they use to make people feel guilty and giving insulting remarks for you are not putting anything in their boxes and they will have to go back to their heads with their boxes half empty.

These days,I see 10 donation boxes in one day,and ofcourse I am not able to give donations for all those ten boxes so I prefer to give to atleast one in a day..but if the remainng nine give me insulting remarks then that is completely unexceptable and untolerable to me..

..I request all the readers ,that my opinions do not reflect the idea that I have no sympathy or love for my Country and for those victims but atleast the respected people collecting funds for this cause don't have any right to insult,force,humilate or to make you feel guilty.Their job is to raise funds and motivate people to stand up for those needy people,but motivation doesn't include forcing or insulting others.

Semester cell,and problem of students

By Zubia Noor.
I have a friend in B.s 2nd year ,Department of Mass communication, evening progrmamme. I was shocked after getting to know by her recently that their proformas even that of first year still have not been issued to the students for the one whole year has passed.

As my friend and some other students have to apply in morning B.s 3rd year and their semester marks proforma has to be attached along with the form.

The admission committee told the students applying for morning programme to get an application (with their marks written on it) signed by their respective teachers.
Some teachers of previous semesters have left the campus like Madam Lubna of Mass Communication and Sir Farhan of International Department who were the teachers for subsidiary classes so its a difficult job to find the teachers and get their applications signed by them.

Beside this the teachers who are there in University tell students to go to office as they don't remember their mark so that they could sign the application after checking the University record.

Thus looking for the respective teachers is kind of a difficult and time consuming task for the students.Even the admit cards were provided to the students after their examination and students didn't know their seat numbers during exams.
So to conclude all this,I would say that the semester cell of UoK is running away from its responsibilties and is creating problems for the students.It should realize its responsibilities and should help the students with their documents and other paper work.
The delay in the issuance of result sheets and admit cards can create many problems for the students.