The light is out: Goodbye Amjad Noorani

 

 I am not sure when was the first time I met Amjad Noorani; it must have been in 2009 or 2010.  Amjad Noorani and his wife, Najma, were physical therapists by profession and had recently retired and moved from Salinas to Los Altos. In the Bay Area, Amjad Noorani had become a desi circle socialite.  We ran into each other often. His big smile and affable demeanor attracted people; I too became friends with him.  I visited him at his home and went hiking with him.  Of particular interest to me were his childhood stories of Karachi, my hometown.  Several years before I discovered Karachi’s country club, he went there to hitch rides on private aircrafts flying out of the Karachi Aero Club.

In his quest to make the best use of his retirement years, once Amjad Noorani got involved with The Citizens Foundation (TCF), there was no turning back. Providing quality education to every child in Pakistan became his dream.  He not only understood the philosophy and work environment of TCF he decided to write a book to tell the story of this one-of-a-kind nonprofit to the world.  The result was ‘Agents of Change’, a book he coauthored with Nadeem Hussain.

 We all have our expiration dates mostly unknown to us but if the checkout time is  revealed, our priorities suddenly become clearer.  After Amjad Noorani was diagnosed with cancer, I noticed a sense of urgency in his desire to get the ‘Agents of Change’ published.  The book got printed a year ago and was well received in literati focused on social change and universal primary education.

 Having heard stories of his younger years and reading the memoir part of ‘Agents of Change’ I thought about doing more in-depth interviews of Amjad Noorani and ultimately become his biographer.  That did not happen.  Amjad Noorani succumbed to the cancer today.

What makes Joe Biden say, 'Putin cannot remain in power'?

 Biden: ‘Putin cannot remain in power’

Look at this photo.  He is the most important man during the ongoing Ukraine conflict.  His name is John Sullivan, and he is the current US Ambassador in Russia. Presumably, through its staff in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, and Vladivostok, and paid informants within the Russian Government, the US is constantly collecting information about the prevailing views in the Russian Government and the military about the Russian war in Ukraine.  What made President Biden, during his Poland visit, say ‘Putin cannot remain in power’?  Has the US received information about a growing dissent within the Russian establishment, or is the Biden’s statement part of a psyop meant to put distrust in the mind of Putin for his close associates who may try to unseat him--and by making Putin distrustful of people around him, alienate him from his confederates to ultimately make the prophecy come true?  With in-person peace talks between Ukraine and Russian officials starting very soon in Istanbul, all of us are anxious to see an end to the war and peaceful times to return.

Photo, courtesy of the US Embassy in Moscow

3/28/22; It turned out Joe was just being senile; the State Department says Biden was saying things off-script.  The US has no plan for Putin to be or not to be in power.

Thoughts on Movies: Goodfellas

 

The 1990 film ‘Goodfellas’ is based on the book ‘Wiseguy’ by Nicholas Pillegi.  Henry Hill (played by Ray Liotta) is half Sicilian (and Jewish) being raised in a New York neighborhood dominated by the Mafia.  He looks up to the cartel and wants to grow up to be a gangster.  And soon in his adulthood he becomes an integral part of the criminal network.  Extortions, thefts, drug deals, murders…all happen very frequently.  This goes on for a while till one day Henry becomes dispensable for the gang.

Movie poster, courtesy of imdb.com

Corona Lost, OPEN SV Forum Won

 

Corona Lost, OPEN SV Forum Won

 

It’s the largest regular gathering of Pakistani-American alpha males--and a few alpha females. It’s an annual Silicon Valley conference where you run into acquaintances you seldom see outside Facebook.  It’s a convention where attendees get educated about the latest developments in technology and the technical jargon in vogue. It had become a yearly ritual for participants to find out what leaders of technology had achieved since the last meeting.  And then the show was disrupted by a virus.  There was no OPEN Forum 2020.  But the virus could only hold the floodgates shut for that long.  The virus lost this year; OPEN Forum came back with a bang. Under the leadership of Andaleeb Ahmed, OPEN Forum 2021, attended by around 400 masked and unmasked people, signaled the official end of the pandemic.

 

Zoozee Z 50 robot vacuum cleaner and mop

 

Zoozee Z50 review

This robot vacuum cleaner plus mop is working fine for me, but I now know how someone can easily get frustrated and return the product within a week of getting it: there seem to be software glitches that require resolution, with patience.  For example, the robot had been charging for over 24 hours, but when I tried this morning for it to start working, the voice prompt told me the robot wanted to recharge.  Recharge?  Why?  You have been charging all night long!  So, I did a couple of things to make the robot understand that it was already charged.  [Turning it off and then on; unplugging the base and then turning the robot off and on; pressing the on/off button along with the arrow (start working) button.]  The resetting worked and the robot got to work quickly.  It did a decent job cleaning up around 250 sq. ft of area--I had closed doors to the rooms and was making the robot work only in the living room and the common areas.

 

Battery life of Zoozee Z50/ robot cleaner battery replacement

Once charged, the robot can work for 60-75 minutes.

Zoozee Z50 uses a 5200 mA-hour LG Lithium Electronic battery. 

Reading from the Internet I understand that the Zoozee Z50 battery can last around 400 cycles i.e., I can discharge and recharge the Zoozee Z50 battery 400 times before the battery will die forever.  Will I be able to replace the internal battery of this robot?  I sure will try. [A quick search on the Internet tells me I can buy a 5,200 mA Lithium-ion battery for $13-$20]

 

Is it economically viable to use a robot vacuum cleaner?

Indeed, it is!  Expect to pay someone at least $20 to clean and mop a 200-400 sq. ft. area.  Zoozee Z50 can do this job in two hours: first hour vacuum cleaning, then recharge, and then another hour of mopping.  In other words, in two charging/discharging operations the robot is paying you back $20.  With a 400 charging/discharging cycle life, this robot is expected to do 200 of your cleaning/mopping jobs, or a total of $4,000 in pay back.  Considering that you paid less than $200 for this robot, the investment makes great sense!

 

Movie Review: Dear Comrades

 This is a place-holder for movie review of the Russian film 'Dear Comrades'

The world did not know about the Novocherkassk massacre when it happened, or for several decades after it happened.  On June 2, 1962, several dozen protesters were killed by the Soviet forces in the town of Novocherkassk, over 650 miles south of Moscow.

You wonder what goes on in closed societies.  You wonder what stories will come out of North Korea after the fall of the Sung dynasty.


I loved the movie and wished my filmmaker friend Irina Sosnovaya would have made it.

I will write more, later.

Photo, courtesy of Wikipedia ('Dear Comrades' film poster)

Forgot your passport? No worries. Your face is now your passport

Passengers Can Now Enter the US Without Showing Their Passports

US Immigration is now using facial recognition software to screen travelers arriving in the US.  The working of the artificial intelligence technology was observed by this correspondent on July 30 at LAX when all arriving passengers, regardless of their nationality, were asked to stand in one line; each passenger was let in after their picture was taken and the immigration officer checked the information popping up on the computer screen based on the latest photo; passengers were not even asked for their passports.
Presumably the US Immigration is not only using the database of its own citizens, it is also using data obtained from the US embassies around the world of the non-US citizens being granted visas, and has information about the citizens of other countries that are able to enter the US without a visa.  It is estimated that the US Immigration has key information of over half a billion people (US citizens and citizens of other countries) that its facial recognition software can capitalize on.

Tags:
You don’t need your passport to enter the US
You no longer need a passport to enter the US
Forgot your passport? No worries.  Your face is now your passport

The outré life and tragic death of Iqbal Tajir

 The outré life and tragic death of Iqbal Tajir
[This post is a placeholder.  I will add more to the story later.]

Mohammad Iqbal aka Iqbal Tajir lived a short but colorful life.  Originally from Bahawalpur, how did Iqbal Tajir end up being in London is a mystery—I am sure there are people who know that part of the story.  But Iqbal Tajir’s real story starts from London where he lived an ostensibly good life owning a restaurant and hosting South Asian celebrities at his flat.  What made him move from London to Karachi is another mystery.  In Karachi he ran Shalimar Restaurant featuring exotic food and live music.  To amuse his special guests Iqbal Tajir would take the stage and start singing.  Iqbal Tajir had a charming personality and was exceptionally good at making friends, and especially in befriending famous people.  Iqbal Tajir was very generous—continuously pleasing his friends with lavish gifts and picking up their tabs when they ate at his restaurant.  Nobody knew how financially bankrupt he was: a famous man with outwardly affluent ways, but in reality, living an impoverished life.
Iqbal Tajir’s luck ran out when Pakistan Navy, on whose land the Shalimar Restaurant was illegally running, kicked him out.  Then there is a gap of a year or so during which Iqbal Tajir is trying to restart his business at a new place. And then one day he suddenly went quiet.  A few days went by and his friends--being a bachelor he had no family members besides a brother--got worried about Iqbal Tajir’s wellbeing.  Iqbal Tajir’s mutilated body was found in the underground water storage tank at his house. [June 18, 1991]

Tags: Iqbal Tajir, owner of Shalimar Restaurant, Airport Road, Karachi; businessman, columnist

Shalimar Restaurant featuring quail, teetar, rabbit, deer meat.

Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, CIA Inspector

 restaurateur killed by his servants

Businessman killed by domestic help for nonpayment of wages

 

محمد اقبال عرف اقبال تاجر

 لندن

شالیمار ریستوراں کراچی

تیتر، بٹیر، خرگوش، اور ہرن کا گوشت

اقبال تاجر کا سفاک قتل

تنخواہ نہ دینے پہ ملازمین نے کلہاڑی کے وار سے اقبال تاجر کو ہلاک کرنے کے بعد اس کی لاش پانی کے ٹینک میں ڈال دی۔