The World as I see It

One more year went by like a flash. Its time to look back. Although looking back at a year is no comparison to looking forward but stil… I mean… for the sake of a blog post maybe?

January: At the beginning of 2008, I was jobless. Actually in a way I had opted to remain jobless. Maybe I was a little complacent and a little bit illusioned by the charms of studies in Europe. I had told my family that I am jobless because I need to prepare well for IELTS and a good band score will guarantee my admission.  I also told them that in order to prepare a good convincing application I need time and concentration. All that was rubbish of course. I was plainly complacent nothing else. Although the luxury of time that I enjoyed, enabled me to send a good piece of application. If you are wondering whats this all about  sending a convincing application. Well here is the thing, usually admissions in masters studies require a document called “Statement of Purpose” in which the applicant explains that what is his background, strenghts and ambitions, why a particular study course will suit him and why the university needs to give him admission. A well written SOP usually counts a lot in the decission. So I spent all January *preparing* for IELTS and *preparing some super persuasive SOPs*. In reality I spent about a week on preparing 6 different SOPs for 6 different programs. And I spent about one and a half day preparing for IELTS. But still, and by the grace of Almighty I scored 7.5 band score and later on also secured admission in 2 different programs in Sweden.

January was the middle point of the football season and Arsenal were cruising at that stage. The football they played was phenomenal and for a change the team had discovered some real steel that season. At the end of January Arsenal were sitting 5 points clear at the top of the league. It was however the last time when I saw Tomas Rosciky wear the red and white of Arsenal. He was substitued just after 9 minutes on 26th Jan in a FA Cup Home ties against Newcastle following a recurrence in a knee ligament injury. And he hasn’t recovered since.  I miss you Tomas.

February: Thanks to one of my friends from the university I got a part time job in Allama Iqbal Open university as an examiner of spring semester exams of BS in Computer Science. Basic requirement for the job was to be a graduate in computer science. The job was to read thoroughly and mark the papers on different computer science courses. Two other friends from university were also with me there. At first we tried to read every paper in detail so as to properly mark the papers but our supervisor was less than impressed. She said  “You are not here to read this crap, you are here to mark it. Not more than 5 minutes on one paper. We have hundreds of papers to mark and we only have three weeks and we are only 8 people”. So we tried to comply with it. We did our best not to mark incorrectly and not to do injustice with anyone. There were others who just went on ticking each page, sometimes when they were too busy talking to each other while ticking the pages, they would tick even the blank pages. If  handwriting was neat, they would give the student 70-75 marks. If it was normal they would give 60-65 marks. If it was poor, they would give 45-55 marks. No one tried to read the content. I remember I saw a paper in which handwriting was so poor it looked as if the guy had been trying writing with his foot rather than the hand, yet its content was good enough to earn him around 70 marks. And there were papers whose handwriting was so good it almost looked like a work of an artist yet the actual content was utter crap. They had stories of fairies, story of a prince who got lost on his travel to the jungle, a story of how ali baba is the best story ever, and the most typical of them all; account of a cricket match.  repeated over and over again in the answer of each question. There were some papers in which the candidates would beg the examiner to pass them so that and in return they would offer prayers for you for the rest of their lives. Me and my other two friends were ruthless about such papers however the senior lot of the examiners never really found out as they never bothered to read it properly. And almost all of them were teachers in colleges and universities. Its a real shame. After 3 weeks, I left the job. I was promised I would get my pay cheque  in less than 2 months yet I got that cheque some 8 months later in September.

It was a different experience that exposed me to some of the stuff I never had an experience of but still it is an experience of my life that I may never look back fondly to. And one that I am not too proud about.  I did my very best not to do injustice to any candidate. I hope I achieved it too.

The day I left that job, it was Saturday. Arsenal were due to play Birmingham City that evening, being five points clear at the top of the table with about 12 games to go. Things were looking all rosy and beautiful until the 3rd minute of the game when a studs-up lunge by Martin Taylor of Birmingham snapped Eduardo’s leg into two. The game ended as a 2-2 draw but he implications were much more far reaching than they looked at that time. Arsenal haven’t recovered since.

But now he is back!

March: Thanks to my good friend Junaid, I got a job Xyon Software Developers in F-11. I was working for a change now but the distance I was traveling each day was too much. It was hectic to the core yet I was convinced at that time that it was worth it. Office environment was ok and I was happy to be working.

It was also the time when league title started slipping away from Arsenal’s hands, a string of draws in March meant we were no longer the table toppers and Man United crept in from behind to take the top spot. Still there was one remarkable game which I wont forget in a hurry and that was a 2-0 win against the defending Champions AC Milan at their home ground San Siro. First English team to win their in a century. It was a remarkable performance. We are indeed the legend killers.

April: This was the month when I first appeared for an interview for my current job.

More to follow soon..