Thinking of living off the land? Read this:

http://www.thehammer.ca/content/2004/0430/rugged_outdoors.html

Did Osama Bin Laden survive the earthquake?
C.

Making banners and placards is easy and fun

Some people like hand-written banners and placards. I believe I have graduated them. I like billboards with neat writings that appear to have come out of a professional print shop.

With trial and error I have developed a method of making professional looking banners and placards. Here it is.

1. Based on the available space on the intended placard or banner calculate the approximate height and width of each letter of the publicity text. I say approximate because you will be doing some adjustments later.
2. Use WordArt in MS Word software to generate large sized letters of the text. In the Word environment, WordArt is opened by clicking on the tilted 'A' icon, normally present in the toolbox at the bottom. [For a banner I recently made I printed each letter on 11X17 paper. Used text height of 16"; let the program take care of the width--for the same height, each letter has a different width (e.g., 'W' is wider than 'U'; read the previous sentence again and see the difference for yourself). In WordArt environment I kept the letters hollow and used dotted, faint lines to be the outlines of the letter--this saved me printer ink. I used just one Word file. Once I settled on the height of the letter, the page borders, the outline of the letter, etc., I printed the first letter and then kept changing the letter in the same Word file.]
3. Once a letter is printed out cut the paper around the letter. In case of placard directly paste the letters on the placard; use a straightedge and a marker to thicken the outlines (if you have printed hollow letters). To make a banner, pin up the letters on the fabric; using a marker, trace the outline of each letter on the banner fabric; remove the pinned up letter; fill the outlined space with the color of your choice.

There you have it, publicity material that looks adorable.

Soz e Jigar
Soz e Jigar, a literary gathering to celebrate the work of great Urdu poet Jigar Muradabadi, was held at the Indian Community Center on June 25, 2005. The program was arranged by Bay Area Urdu teacher Hamida Chopra.
The Urdu report that I just posted on this blog was written by a participant who wants to remain anonymous.
C.

Soz e Jigar Report--Page 3

Soz e Jigar Report--Page 2

Soz e Jigar Report--Page 1

Review of Urdu Adab monthly, from Canada

Just received the June edition of Urdu Adab, an Urdu
literary magazine published in Mississauga, Canada.
Read the whole magazine in one go--well, the prose
part, as I understand prose better than poetry.

First and foremost, the Urdu speaking Diaspora settled
in North America really needed a quality Urdu
magazine.  Kudos to Urdu Adab's editor Munir Saami for
taking the initiative!

The June edition--the first one--is dedicated to Jaun
Elia, the Howard Stern look alike Pakistani poet who
died not too long ago.  I was hoping to find some
biographical information about Jaun; the only write-up
that came somewhat close to being personal was
Peerzada Salman's article, originally published in
Daily Dawn.

"Afsanay kee naee aawazain" by Asif Farrukhi is a good
read but it does not provide the kind of information
one hopes to find in an article of that title.
Farrukhi gives us, in the last third of his narrative,
names of only five new Urdu short story writers!  Only
five! 

"Allama Iqbal, aik mehbooba, teen beeviyan, char
shadiyan" by Dr. Khalid Sohail is the kind of articles
I love to read more of.  Excellent research!

Short stories presented in the June edition of Urdu
Adab:

Karamat Ghouri's "Safr e Na-Tamam" seems more like a
true story--a story that the writer heard in one of
his travels and found it worthwhile to beautifully
transform into an Urdu afsana.

Rahim Unjan's "Do Monhi" provides a representative
sample of that genre of Pakistani nationalist
literature that feeds on its own venom.  This is the
kind of literature that makes sure that the animosity
between the peoples of India and Pakistan is kept
alive.

Abid Jafri's "Koi aur hoga" is a creation of a very
sensitive mind.  It is the story of our time when we
hear of the bombs dropped on people like you and I,
when we hear of blasts killing sons and daughters of
people like you and I--but we seldom come out of our
apathy to raise a voice of resistance.  And one day
when the misfortune falls on us we complain of others'
indifference.
An alternate title of Abid Jafri's story can be "Giree
hai jis peh kul bijlee."

The price of the Urdu Adab magazine is not indicated
anywhere but its austere look--the magazine is printed
on scrub paper--gives confidence that the production
team understands the economic realities and that it
won't let its efforts go financially bust after a few
publications.  [Many like myself must be willing to
pay the subscription.]

Well done, Urdu Adab team!

Police shot Brazilian electrician in London

This is the level of discretion British hold in dealing with people in their own country. You can imagine what professionalism they must be keeping when dealing with "suspected" people in Iraq.

A test with Urdu post

Re-post
Was able to find the text of May 24 post, on my computer. It now appears under that day.

Fireworks at the Central Park at 9:30 p.m.

Everybody was walking in one direction. We just followed the people who were ahead of us. I am sure the ones behind us were following us. Somebody up there, all the way up there, must have known where to go. Novice fireworks watchers were still in their cars, making rounds of the block to find a parking place. The most convenient parking places were already taken—long time ago.

We reached the park and stood at the periphery of a very large human circle. We waited with everybody else. People hate to be quiet; they just keep talking. There were a lot of people around us but no one spoke English. You could hear Pilipino, Spanish, Tamil, Punjabi, Bosnian, but no English. Well, I should not say 'no English'; you could occasionally hear a child say something in English, but then the parents would respond back in their native tongue.

I like watching fireworks. I try to lose the sight of people around me, or of the trees reaching out in the sky. People and trees remind me of my surroundings. I want to be totally absorbed in the magic of the fireworks and don't want to be reminded of the real world. Fireworks are so wonderful! A little ball shoots up in the sky; it bursts and there comes a shower of sparkling stars. It is like life itself, ephemeral and full of energy.

At the end of the show they just let out a volley of the crackers. There were so many of them, so much going on you could not concentrate on one part of the sky, you just had to look at the entirety of the show and absorb the general impression. The sky was truly lit by the fireworks. My eyes welled with tears. This is what independence truly means. This is what being free is all about. The recognition of independence should fill you up with joy. Forget about the toil of tomorrow; forget about the worries of your distant future; enjoy today, now, this very moment when the sky is being decorated with fireworks, for you.

I wondered how many people were behind the show--I mean the workers. Must not have been too many. So few people, giving happiness, providing entertainment to so many! I also thought about the many faces of a state--spectacular decorative fireworks for the amusement of some, menacing fireworks in foreign lands for the punishment of the others.