The Student’s Guide To Urdu Poetry

Ladies and gentlemen.

After four years of Matric and F.A combined, of reading Meer Taqi Meer, Meer Dard, Iqbal, Ghalib, Nasir Kazmi and all sorts of ghazals by other poets, not to mention consistently being told by five different Urdu teacher’s that the renowned verse;

 

was written by Iqbal,  although the poet was not Iqbal, but Syed Sadiq Hussain Kazmi. And I should know, because he was my great grandfather.

Okay, I’m done bragging now.

My point is that I had Urdu ghazals drilled into my head for almost four years now and I never understood a word. But now, finally, when my Urdu learning days are over, I suddenly understand what it’s all about.

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Summer Vacation To-Do List

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I really should be studying right now since my 2nd semester final exams start on Monday, but I’m really just genuinely excited about the 2.5 month summer break that is just 10 days away.

So excited, in fact, that I’m going to write down the things I want to do in it. Things that I’ve been wanting to do all these months but couldn’t due to lack of extended periods of free time.

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How To Ace Pakistan Studies At Matric/FSc Level [COMIC]

304672_205936872804682_205447279520308_578655_136911938_nI had an interesting wakaeya back when I was in matric. Back when Pakistan Studies was a compulsory subject and I simply loathed it. Partially because our teacher was way too fast at covering the course but mostly because of the way we had to prepare for exams and tests.

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Pages From My Journal: iDream About Steve Jobs

Koi haal nahee hai mera. An entire journal post dedicated to just another quirky dream! Wah Awais, wah!

Thankfully, this ‘quirky’ dream was a short one, so penning it down shouldn’t be too time-consuming (unlike other dreams which span different continents and eras of time)…

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Pages From My Journal: A Tuition A Day, Keeps… The Supplee Away?

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It’s that time of the year again… wintersteen-teen tuition’ein… staying up late, waking up earlydophahar ko ghar aate saath hee sou jaana.. ek routine set hogaee hai: College. Home. Lunch. Sleep. Up for Physics tuition. Go for Chemistry. Then Math. Home. Chai. A little internetz. Parhai till 2AM. Sleep. Repeat until Finals.

I feel so productive. Learning something new everyday (at least in subjects which don’t start with a “C” and end with “mistry”). Acing tests like a boss.

I find it strangely.. fun.

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One Student’s Journey From a Small Cantt in Gujrat District to NUST-SEECS

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It is time.

I write this the night before my Orientation Day at NUST-SEECS. I’ve been waiting for this day for a long, long time. The story, my story, from Garrison Academy to National University of Science and Technology’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (kaafi lamba hai ye tou [that’s what she said]) is quite interesting.

It involves crying man-tears up in my bathroom (confused over which career path I should choose), taking evening classes at a entrance test preparation center, studying for 12 hours straight in preparation for the entrance tests, getting into FAST-NU and, finally, getting selected for SEECS.

Read the full story, after the break.

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Q&A Session with Problogger Saad Hamid

Saad HamidSaad Hamid is one of the pioneer professional bloggers of Pakistan. He started blogging at the ripe age of 19 at Sizlopedia.comwas the youngest blogger in Pakistan of his time (I believe I currently hold this title :P ) and currently runs iPhoneism.com along with Adnan Farooqui. He graduated from Bahria University last year, where he did Bachelors in Telecommunication Engineering and is currently working at Mobilink.

I spoke with Saad on how he started blogging, the difficulties he faced, the mistakes that he made, what keeps him blogging and what advice would he give to young bloggers.

Read the interview, after the break.

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To The Children We Once Were, And Always Will Be :)

A really funny thing happened today.

My brother Ahmed, aged 6, was in my room. All of us had changed into our night suits. I was putting on Mehndi on my little cousin’s hand and Ahmed was in the room with us, drinking water from his mug. Drinking water from his mug felt quite peculiar to me, normally he would use your average transparent glass through which, well, you could see what was being drunk. Nonetheless, I asked him what was drinking:

Ahmed: Nothing, just water!

Me: Kahan se liya?

Ahmed: Fridge say, yaaar.

Me: OKAY. *eyes suspiciously*

After our conversation ended, I continued mehndi-o-fying my little cousin only to stop suddenly in my track when I realized that there was Sprite® (A big attraction for Ahmed) in the fridge!

Read the rest of the amusing story of childhood innocence, after the break!

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The Facebook Drug And Why You Shouldn’t Be High On It

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I’ve become a bit of a Facebook druggie lately. Who is a ‘Facebook druggie’? Well, if you check up on Facebook every half an hour (which sometimes involves taking your phone to the bathroom), if you love it when people like your status updates, photos etc. and if you have this habit of feeling overly disappointed when seeing photos of people having fun on Facebook then, my friend, you are an addict and you need help.

Read the full article after the break!

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Announcement: WE’RE BACK!!

Salaam dear readers, we have formal announcement to make: artsyHANDS is back in action!!

Over the past year, we here at artsyHANDS have experienced, well, a lot of, new experiences. These experiences have had a lot of effect over us and we’ve learned a lot from them and, of course, we’ll be sharing them with you in the coming weeks. We apologize for the sporadic activity from late 2010-mid 2011. :)

Starting from tomorrow, we will have at least one new article published on a Friday or Saturday. These articles will be based on personal experiences with a touch of that signature tunz-o-mazah that our readers have come to love so very much.

Looking forward to your comments.

Your artsy admin,

Waisybabu

P.S. Follow me on Twitter or join us on Facebook to stay updated!

P.S. 2: If you aren’t familiar with what artsyHANDS is all about, read some of the bestest articles here.