Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

The legendary Airblue service (not)

How the mighty have fallen? I use to rave about this airline on this blog but they have proven me so wrong. First they move my flight, thrice in 2 days, completely ruining my plans. Second there is no way that I can contact them short of physically showing up at their office and abusing [...]

April 11, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Things they never taught me at Columbia Business School…

Despite my numerous comments about how much I owe Bruce Greenwald, Mark Broadie, Don Sexton and Ralph Biggadike on this blog, there are a few thing that they didn’t get around to covering in my all too short stay in school. Here is my list The link between dropping kids to school and closing deals [...]

September 24, 2008  Tags: , , , , ,   Posted in: Columbia Business School, Desi Startup, Failure, Startup, Uncategorized, entrepreneurs, new ventures, small business  No Comments

Gary Travnicek

It was a Tampa, Florida type of a day. Hot and humid! I could also say bright and shiny but the thick air that hit you when you stepped out of your cool room didn’t leave space for any other reaction. Hot and humid, it was. Gary came to pick me up from the Holiday [...]

September 20, 2008  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Failure, Startup, Uncategorized, entrepreneurs, new ventures, small business  One Comment

Of Traffic Jams, Equilibrium and John Nash

(Photo credit and source) Deep in the middle of the MBA, our strategy professor introduced John Nash and Nash’s equilibrium. I didn’t get it. Since the course was a case based, no final exam, high end elective, it was all right for me to not get Nash and manage barely with a low end B. [...]

September 19, 2008   Posted in: Columbia Business School, Uncategorized  No Comments

This calls for a blog post…

No comments. Unconfirmed email source, couldn’t get confirmation on the MarcFaber website since the content is no longer public. No offense intended but still read at your own risk. Dr. Marc Faber concluded his monthly bulletin (June 2008) with the following:“The federal government is sending each of us a $600 rebate. If we spend that [...]

August 26, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  3 Comments

I wish I could write like this…

Sally Jenkins story at the Post, comparing Phelp and Usain Bolt amazing feats at the 2008 Olympics highlights the many ways one can win or write. Where for some of us natural endowment plays a part in how we fare in life while for others it is an extended 8 year plan with discipline that [...]

August 19, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  3 Comments

The pen is mightier than the sword…

This, btw, marks my 200th post. Every once in a while I should utter something meaningful. Wanted to say all of this, but she said it much better than I ever could. Make up your own minds, I just do the forwarding. Of all the hype, the noise and horse shit floating around at this [...]

August 16, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Happy birthday to me

My favorite number now for a decade and a half: Streets of Philadelphia, by the Boss: I was bruised and batteredAnd I couldn’t tell what I feltI was unrecognizable to myselfSaw my reflection in a windowI didn’t know my own faceOh brother are you gonna leave me wasting awayOn the streets of PhiladelphiaI walked the [...]

August 16, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  4 Comments

In memory of Nicole Dial

Please see Sana’s post on her blog about Nicole. This is not the Islam that we believe in or practice.

August 15, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Road Trip, continued

The ride from Ormarah onwards was un-eventful. Once we left our luxurious pit stop and out house behind, we were all looking forward to our 5 star bathrooms at the Zaver PC, which was unfortunately only 290 odd kilometers westwards on a flat unwinding road. There were glimpses of distant waters and mounds of brackish [...]

August 12, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Road Trip…

This Saturday morning a bunch of alchemists, their significant others and friends from Lahore took the long road trip to Gawadar. This conspiracy was hatched by none other than our very own favourite cousin (as in MI6 and CIA) from Lahore, Jareer, with two members of the dev team who will remain unnamed. Unfortunately for [...]

August 11, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

New models from Alchemy’s Gawadar Road trip.

Let me introduce: I can walk on air, very much in demand Fawwad, Hotshot movie star, politician, KU terror, or String lead vocalist Hyder, Don’t let my seriousness fool you, I can party as much as the next dude, Farhan, I am a model from model town, Hammad, Lord of the surf (now working for [...]

August 11, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  7 Comments

State Bank raises discount rate by 100 bps

SBP raised the key discount rate by 100 bps this afternoon. The market is expected to take the smaller rate hike positively with yields on treasury bills and PIB heading lower. 6 month KIBOR this morning had declined to lower level after yesterday’s meeting with Bank Presidents. Interbank rates are expected to slide lower in [...]

July 29, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

400 short of 100,000 hits

December 2006 is when DesiBackToDesh moved from blogger to its new home on WordPress. I had started blogging in October 2004 and at the time of the move had been posting infrequently (some things never change) for about 2 years when the big move happened. In those first two years we booked 14,000 hits on [...]

July 4, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Thank you Naeem and Imran

To this day about 20 years ago I was introduced to two coaches of Pakistan Railway’s track and field team. Naeem and Imran, who thought me everything I know about running and endurance. Twenty years later when a thirty seven year old overweight, out of shape, father of three outpaced and out endured a young [...]

July 4, 2008   Posted in: Uncategorized  5 Comments