Note:This post is for educational purpose and a part of our entrepreneurship training where we aim to teach you how to think outside the box and explore the world with open eyes.
We have seen enough of good human beings but sometimes meeting people who are convicted or under trial for committing crimes help you to look at this dark world from a different perspective. I live near National Stadium and I often cross Central Jail Karachi to reach my office which is located on Main Shaheed Millat Road. I was always curious to know what exists behind those tall walls and how does life looks like from inside. Fortunately on 20th August 2016, I went for a prison tour thanks to my friend Hussain Kango whose father Aurangzeb Kango is SP Police and administrator at "Youthful Offender Industrial School Karachi". What I saw inside completely changed my negative perception about life in prison.
Hussain Kango also accompanied me in our Eureka Seminar that was organized on 13th August. You can read more about it below:
Just like any normal citizen who has not seen prison from inside, I thought Jail was a nightmare zone with dark sophisticated rooms with poor ventilation, limited access to open air and no quality food. Prisoners in jail would be living in small cages like animals with guards surrounding them from all corners. This is the image we all have in mind thanks to movies and dramas that we watch on daily basis through local television networks. But the reality literally shocked me.
A Jail or Prison is different from Police Thana (station) where you see small rooms with iron bars at front. A Jail is basically a learning institute where criminals are taught how to become civilized human beings. Central Jail Karachi is the second largest jail of Pakistan housing over 6000 prisoners including convicted terrorists and international militants like murderer of Daniel Pearl. The jail is divided into three sub-jails which are:
Central Jail - Houses serious terrorists and convicted criminals
Women Jail - Houses women
Bacha Jail - Under 18 prisoners (One We visited)
Central Prison For Women is a Jail for women prisoners which is sub divided into two sections for boys and women. This prison is dedicated especially for "Women" mostly but a small section is dedicated for teenage boys for their schooling purpose and this smaller section is called "Bacha Jail". Boys and women are kept in separate barracks divided by huge 20+ Feet walls, with no direct contact in between. We were allowed access to the boys prison only. The women prison is safely guarded by trained female police guards and only women or authorized staff is allowed access.
What Did I Saw Inside Prison?
I was accompanied by Hussain Kango (center) and another friend from Islamabad named Muhammad Fahad Raza(right).
We received a kind reception by SP Aurangzeb Kango who is surely an educated and senior police officer. Whatever that you will read later on happened due to SP Aurangzeb's hard work for Jail prisoners.
Our mobile networks seized to work due to jammers. Telephonic communication could be done only using landline PTCL. Mobile phones signals do not work as soon as you are at a distance of 100 meters away from jail. This is done due to security precautions. Jail is now surrounded by bomb proof walls from all corners, which is a development that occurred after a failed penetration through tunnels by TTP.
The moment guards were informed about our arrival. I felt like watching a movie. The world behind large Metallic Gates uncovered for the first time in front of my eyes. I saw a large green ground with ducks moving to my left and a small playground area for kids as shown in the image below.
Image Courtesy:Dawn News
To the right of this play area was a kitchen for prisoners. The food menu was really impressive. Prisoners were served chicken thrice a week and beef once a week. Apart from beef and chicken major menu was Moong Ki Daal, Daal Masood and similar seed recipes. Sir Aurangzeb told us that the staff including him, eats the same food that the prisoners are served and the food is cooked by a contractor and not by the prisoners. Hussain told me that the food is so delicious that it outstands the food we eat at home when it comes to taste. I never expected that prisoners would be served with meat 4 days a week and this was surely a great discovery in its own.
We were not allowed to take pictures but we were told that a TV drama by the name "Ye maira dewanapan hai Episode 31" has been recorded here so we will find most of the screenshots there. Sir Auranzeb Kango has himself acted in it also which you can watch below during the duration 9:15-15:00 of this video.
After the second gate, we moved towards Gate 3 which was preceded by a long pathway surrounded by two 20+ feet long walls on both sides as shown below:
Every gate was guarded by two police officers, who would salute SP Kango the moment we would cross them. I saw around 100 teenage boys running towards the mosque on our left because it was time for Zuhr prayer.
We then visited the barracks which were large rooms to house over 50 prisoners. All prisoners were kept inside the same room. I saw comfortable beds, with windows on all sides for ventilation, fans and even a small TV where prisoners could see documentaries and behavioral programs on fixed schedule basis.
Guess what I saw next?
Prisoner dining room with marble tables and comfortable seats. This looked no less than an auditorium also.
A body building gym with few equipment where prisoners could work out
A tailor room where prisoners are taught cloth stitching
A small computer training class where prisoners are taught basic computer operating skills
A small library
A hair saloon for prisoners and also for training purpose
A Dhobi Gat for washing cloths
A Mosque for prayer
A Painting room for art work. the paintings that you see in pictures is mostly painted by prisoners themselves.
A carpenter workshop
I saw no weapon in hands of prison guards, only sticks.
Near Gate2 prisoners could meet their family members in meeting area behind iron bars.
Before we could exit, we took some photos with prison guards on exit gate.
Hope I could give a helicopter view of life inside prison. Signing off from Central Jail Karachi! =)
Your Views
What are your views about life in prison after reading this blog post? Do you think educating prisoners inside jail and providing them with comfortable environment would help them to become better citizens or you are in favor of a more harsh environment. Do share your precious views by commenting below.
On 8th Feb, 2016 NEDuet university which is amongst the most popular engineering Institutes of the country, invited us for a motivational talk on Entrepreneurship and Corporate Slavery. This orientation ceremony was organized by the IEEE NED Computer Society with an intention to welcome the new batches with positive energy and offer them productive counseling on how to make best possible use of their four years bachelor's journey. This was my second most memorable visit to Civil Audio Visual Hall of NED after "BluePrint to PlanB" seminar. Last time I presented there as a student and this time I was honored to present as an Alumnus. I am extremely grateful to NED administration especially Dr Muhammad Khurram for all their love and respect. Today's blog post will discuss all important highlights of the event that took place and some untold stories which followed afterwards.
Event Venue and Hosts
The orientation session was organized inside Civil Audio Visual Hall and hosted by the IEEE NED Computer Society. Popular IT disciplines which participated in the event were:
Computer & Information System Engineering (CIS)
Software Engineering(SE)
Department of Computer Science and Information Technology (BCIT).
When it comes to facing a crowd, it's something I love the most. This presentation was different because I had rarely slept properly since a month due to new year's projects and some pending clients' work. I only had 4 hours to prepare the slides before the event could start and yet attend calls from friends (including family of a hard working tailor who also wanted to know more about online business) who wished to attend this motivational session. Somehow I managed to get prepared, take my laptop and drive straight to the venue.
What I saw next was a house-full auditorium with a humble and enthusiastic crowd of over 300+ students. Their hospitality and kind gestures deserves an applause. After a routine introduction of the orientation ceremony, I was invited to attend the stage.
This time my focus was more on advent of corporate slavery after Industrial revolution in 18th-19th century and how it effected our academic goals, living standards and priorities in life. I explained in brief that though different empires abolished black slavery completely back in 19th century but it has taken a whole new shape in modern era.
Back in old age, feudalists or capitalists needed black labors to work in their firms on fixed wages. Later as the world changed and got illuminated with education, capitalists started drafting new laws to attract a more skilled generation of workers towards their factories and empires.
Amongst their biggest success was reshaping the academic system to achieve their goals. They did succeed in giving the mindset to work hard in school to get enrolled in a good college then work hard in college to reach a good institute then work hard in university to get a good internship and finally a good job! Millions of dollars are invested each month in advertisements, seminars and workshops where students are taught how to write a good CV, how to prepare for a job interview and how to become a good employee. Today the primary goal of higher education is transformed into employment.
Believe it or not, today the biggest dream of our youth is joining a multinational firm. To explain it in more better words: youth today dream of getting enslaved in a corporate firm on fixed wages. Every IT student today dreams to join silicon valley and to become the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates but rarely do some choose to become the first him or her.
Mark Zuker Berg, Bill Gates and Steve jobs were all lovers of education but to live up their passion they preferred creativity and invention over following the social trends of better grades or GPA. They were considered as back benchers by their classmates but rarely did anyone realized that they were living a dexterous life that I call PLANB.
I am against higher education but never against higher education + skills combined.
Education is good only if applied else it will set you on a roller coaster ride with no direct path and goal in life. Academic education without skills equals multiplying equity with zero.
What good is that education if a MBBS doctor can not prescribe you a good tablet compared to a salesman who works in a pharmacy.
What good is that education if is a car mechanic knows more about how to tune an engine compared to an automobile engineer who read it only in books.
What good is that hard work when a student gets 100% in an exam paper but fails to remember even 50% of it the next day.
What good is that 16 years of education when a vegetable stall owner is earning more than a graduate doing job today?
All this is happening because we remember 80% of what we see and do compared to 20% of what we read.
Parents and teachers today are concerned mostly about a kid's grades but rarely do they care if the kid is provided with tools and resources to polish his technical skills.
A single Photoshop course at the age of 11, transformed me into a professional web developer today. Imagine if I had also practiced basics of programming at that age, I would have been an excellent programmer long before I joined the university.
Let me quote my last seminar speech here:
Today institutes, teachers and parents pay great focus to 100% excellence in education but rarely do they motivate students to distribute 70% of their time to education and the remaining 30% to extra curricular activities, innovations and building Tech skills. They would encourage a student with full attendance, great marks but never a student with 70% study performance who dedicated the remaining 30% to develop entrepreneurship skills. Nick D' Aloisio was an average school going guy but his summly App that he created during his 10th grade got sold out for $30 Million US Dollars to Yahoo. The credit goes to his parents who taught him programming skills at an early age when he was just 15! I salute such parents and such students.
To build an iOS app you need to have strong programming skills of Objective C. What Nick learnt at the age of 10, graduates today learn it after spending 2 years in a job that means at the age of 24-26!
Advice for parents and teachers:
Human is the most complex machine built by God with unlimited potentials. Where is it written that to learn or practice something you first need to wait for 16 years of education? Why can't our children be taught that they can practice a technology long before time.
Dozens of student commit suicides in India, Pakistan and USA because they fail to achieve their desired GPA in order to receive scholarships. Students today are so over loaded with assignments, exams, tests and forced attendance that they rarely get a chance even to put their creative ideas to execution.
We can't change this social system of education but we can at least change the way we counsel our children and attach expectations with them. Parents must allow their children to play with tools, learn their field related courses before time and participate in extra curricular activities. Buy your children an Apple laptop and iPad and ask them to start building apps. Give them such tools, the Dexter inside them will rise by itself.
Don't just buy them fancy books but also buy them gadgets to practice. When they break a toy or smartphone, don't punish them instead ask them to mend it through reverse engineering. Send them to participate in mini workshops, ask them to build an online store by learning web development, ask them to start a blog to share their random views with the world and cultivate in them the thirst for a startup business no matter small or big.
The benefits of such counseling are countless. They will be more mature than their classmates and financially established long before their graduation.
Advice for Students
Once a person came to Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and he asked him that what to do for living. The Prophet (PBUH) advised him three things based on decreasing priority:
Start a business
or Do farming
or Find a job
The lowest priority was given to employment. Today the biggest priority is given to Jobs by the highly educated community of Indo-Pak. If you read the stats, most of the businessmen, stock market tycoons, real estate tycoons, transportation and textile tycoons are people with no Harvard or MIT degree but with simple 10th Grade certificates.
You need to choose one option out of the three below to decide your goals in life:
Study like a nerd and work like an ass for a firm - PlanA
Don't waste time studying and instead only develop skills to establish a business - PlanC
Study like a nerd, develop skills to start a business and work like an ass to live up your dream! - PlanB
I chose the third option i.e. PlanB when I was a student and I am really thankful to God for this selection. Now it's your time to decide whether you will live someone else's dream or you will work hard to live a life of your own.
If you are an IT student, don't wait for years to learn programming from your professor, go learn it within few months from a nearby credible institute. Practice all basics programming languages within a year and start building mobile/web apps the same year. Yes your code will look ugly the first day but the more you practice it and take inspiration from successful products in the market, the better will you program. If you have 2-4 years before graduation than start a blog and share tutorials on whatever tools and technologies you know best. This blog could become a parallel source of income for you in future after graduation just like it become a source of living for me.
Can a Pakistani Student earn ?�2000 in two days?
Utilizing your energy and applying your skills in positive things can help you do wonders. Just now when I am writing this tutorial, I received a surprise visit from one of my closest high school classmates, Hussain Ali. His story is something that could be an inspiration to those who are seeking education abroad and fail to meet their educational expenses.
While Hussain was pursuing his bachelors in civil engineering degree from Imperial College London, he started looking for ways to afford his academic expenses which was around �26,000 annually. Instead of working like a normal boy at McDonalds or some other cafe, he used online technology to find students for tuition. Just within a year he managed to earn ?�2000 each weekend that helped him pay his annual �26,000 university fee. He did it by simply posting free ads on sites like thetutorpages and gumtree. This is one practical example of using online power!
PS: I am sorry Hussain but I had to share your story and photo because your story does surely deserves an applause! =)
Hussain Ali and Mohammad at STCnetwork Head Office
Why there is no barkat in a job?
If hussain had given preference to an odd job, he would be making �7 an hour at McDonalds compared to �200 an hour giving tuitions which is something he loves to do.
Barkat in Islam means the blessing on whatever we have collected (assets).
In business you have the option to multiply your coins and you have no fixed boundaries. In a job you are limited to a fix monthly wage/salary.
In business you often have leisure time to try out new things or test your creativity. In a job you barely find leisure time to test your innovational skills and you are limited to a fixed SOP (Standard Operation Procedure).
In business you earn the reward for every effort you put in. In a job, all credits are attached to the company's name.You may know how great is bill gates but you don't know those thousands of engineers who worked for him in developing Windows OS.
In business there is Sabr and Shukr. You thank God when their is profit but you turn to God even more when you are in a loss. But In a job, an employee is more concerned with his monthly wage and less with whether the company's graph is going up or down.
This list can go on...
A Surprise Message Of Love To India
Following is a message of love that the students of Pakistan wanted to give to their Indian brothers and sisters. It's also a video message on Indo-Pak peace from Pakistani Bloggers to India which was requested by my brother Abhishek Mishra from India.
Event Photos
Thanks to NED Photography society and Omais Siddiqui, we have plenty of HQ pictures to share with you all. Full list of pictures can be downloaded from this FB link and here.
Thank you President IEEE Syed Usama Jamil for this kind honor and brother Usama Masood Siddiqui for inviting me. =)
Thank you everyone! =)
Your Views
Respect comes from God. I was and I am just a small man who is trying his best to learn and share every single day. It's the greatness of this country and this youth that has given me so much love and honor. Throughout my 7 years of online business if there is anything that has helped me maintain barkat in my online endeavors then it is only through learning, practicing and sharing.
I am leaving you all with one important note:
Always remain thankful to your God for blessing you each day with a new sunshine. With the same healthy body but a fresh new start. God has placed all puzzles to success in front of you, you just need to join the dots to reach your targets. Never stop learning and sharing. And you must never fall a prey to pride, ego or prejudice after attaining success, they will destroy you inside and outside morally forever. Never give up hope because great future comes to people with great patience. If you are alive today that means, success is still watching your doors. Just let it in!
Wishing you all the best of life and a successful future a thousand times better than me or anyone else, full of happiness and joy. God bless you all buddies!
How wonderful does it feels to hold your baby girl for the first time in your arms while she smiles at you! It was the best experience of my life ever! Your brother is finally a father to a little princess from heavens Alhamdulillah and gifted with the most beautiful responsibility of raising a kid. We named her "Ifza" meaning "Protective Angel" so her official name thus becomes "Ifza Mustafa". Ifza is an Arabic name having a synonym 'Hifza', so people often confuse the names because of the same syllable sounds. Since I take the blogosphere community as part of my life, let me introduce this soon-to-be baby blogger with all of you!
Ifza is 15 days old now!
Ifza was born this month on 5th November, 2015 at "Aga Khan Hospital", Karachi. She weighed about 3.6 KG at the time of her birth which equals approximately 8 Pounds. MashAllah she was the most healthiest kid born that day in Aga khan, after all she is a Pathan kid. :0
Just today I had her hair's cut. Her head is much cleaner now and fully bald. :D Will share the new photos very soon.
Ifza has given us a tough time throughout her mother's 9 months and 10 days of pregnancy and if she is reading this post after some 9-10 years inshAllah then she must know that she barely lets me sleep at night! She sleeps during day time but it takes me hours to calm her down at night. Surely nurturing and feeding a kid requires a lot of hard work not just only for the mother but also for the father. Since a week both Ifza and her mother are at my mother-in-laws house and I am so much at peace now! I am so thankful to God that I can finally take out some time to write this post! =p
Will she be a blogger?
Yes of course why not! But first she will be a Lady Doctor inshAllah!
God is surely the best planner and with our trust in Him, I pray to be a great affectionate father and to provide her with the best love and compassion she needs. After having seen how much intense hard work is done by a Lady Gynecologist and nurses inside a hospital, my respect for them have increased three fold. No doubt cure (Shifa) is in God's hand but medical science is the major resource (Waseela) to it provided by God Himself.
I am a Computer Engineer and blogger by profession but I always wished to study medicine and serve the humanity. This dream will be fulfilled by my little baby girl one day inshAllah.
This Picture was taken the next day she was born i.e 11/6/2015.
My community unfortunately lacks lady doctors and women here rarely gets a chance to complete their studies after primary education. The major reason behind this is illiteracy, early marriage and not understanding the Islamic rights of a woman in its true essence.
Woman has a great place in Islam and she is the mother, daughter, wife and sister who makes up a family. My sisters and I am educated today thanks to my parents who are educated themselves. My eldest sister is an assistant Dentist in California, USA and she is still supported by my parents with her academic goals in life.
Ifza will inshAllah lead the row and will become amongst the very few Lady M.B.B.S doctors in my tribe. By the time she gets 10 years of age, I will teach her how to blog and will mentor her on how to share her knowledge with the world outside. Blogs on medicine educate millions of people online to better take care of their health. This is one reason why I respect blogging so much. It's the only diary where you share nothing but knowledge!
Need your prayers!
Do share your prayers so that by the time Ifza gets at least 10 years old, she could read all your comments and know how much people loved her here! :)
Do not forget to share the cutest photo of your newly born baby in the comments box below by using the shortcode below:
[img src="Insert your Baby Photo Link here" width="50%" /]
By the time we developed our mini software firm STCnetwork and started recruiting more and more developers, it came a point where giving attention to every single office stationary became mandatory. We first started the trend of Business cards for bloggers back in 2012, we are next promoting the new trend of Letterheads for small online businesses to better portray themselves to local clients. Presentations count for 30%-50% of your business deals and contracts. The more professional you act and sound the better the rate of return on investment (ROI).
Business Card Design Changes
Company designs should be kept identical at all times without any major changes because after all keeping your identity same at all times is the whole concept behind a business logo. We have made slight changes to the web domain and email domain address. We simply replaced the blog domain address with company website URL inside the new design. We also changed NETWORK to lowercase and made the blue color a little brighter rest all things are kept the same.
The cards are printed at both sides, matt laminated and match the size of a credit card 310g2. Went through 3 + 2 color printing with dye cutting. Its designed by keeping MBT's parent design in mind, utilizing the same blue and black color combination. The front of the card contains details about the network administration, logo and some contact details whilst the back contains my favorite quote i.e. "I blog for living"
We printed a total of 1000 copies this time:
Our previous design:
Letterhead Design Specifications
As a business, every single time you reach out a customer, whether through an invoice, contract or offer � you�re saying something about who you are. Letterheads leave your trademark on all documentations and business correspondence that takes place. Thus a unique form of marketing that further boosts your authenticity and credibility in the eyes of customers.
Letterheads can be used for both offline and online correspondences. You can print anything inside them using a inkjet or laser printers just like you do on any A4 size paper.
We have kept the design both comprehensive and yet simple in concept. The header consists of the company logo and office address while the footer contains the company web address. We have also inserted a large faded logo inside the center-left of the paper to make things more eye catching.
These letterheads will also be used as certificates in our coming workshops and conferences. The paper consists of a thick layer of 150 g2 matt paper with tri color printing
Your views?
How important do you think are letterheads for a business and have you planned designing VC and letterheads for your blog? If yes then do share the design with us by using the following shortcode inside comments:
[img src="Insert your Image Link here" width="50%" /]
Our Cards and Letterheads are designed and printed by Waqas Haider from Al - Rehman Enterprises. Waqas is a great friend and an excellent designer without doubts. I would recommend his services to anyone home or abroad.
Do give us your feedback on this latest development and let us know what could be done to make the cards even more better. Peace and blessings buddies! =>
By the time we developed our mini software firm 
