My blog has been under attack by spammers and pornographers. I didn’t have enough time to check the comments and today I just happen to click on one of those and it took me to some porno site. I am sorry if you too have clicked on any such comment which apparently looks fine but is linked to the indecent site.

What I like about WordPress is that it gives you total control on comment moderation. So dear readers, have patience if your comment is held for moderation or doesn’t appear for a while… it will appear when I check and approve it.

Here I’d like to mention that it was good to see that WordPress changed the style of smilies. Some of them are:

I didn’t like the one with tongue out. Don’t you think the tongue is just too long?

Nice changes are always welcomed. Overall I liked them

We are the inhabitants
Of a different world
Where things that interest us are told and retold
The art and literature
The characters of epic proportions
The sublime tales of antiquity
Diverse discussion on everything imaginable
The electronic laughter ‘LOL’
Harmless gossips
Form part of our conversation
Each day of a month
And every month of a year
Year after year
Our words echo
Between you and me

Although I had put my money on Andy Roddick (not literally) but in the end the usual monster of grand slams won the 4 hours and 17 minutes long (epic) battle. I have no regrets because Roddick provided us the best of entertainment and made a real match of the final game.

Score: Roger Federer defeated Andy Roddick:  5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 16-14

The Champion

Note: This is my first ever 100-word fiction

The Surreal

The electricity was available yet the neighbor’s generator had been turned on for hours, making constant grueling sound, driving him insane. He buried his head between the pillows to escape but of no avail. Not just sleeplessness he was battling with a severe headache too.

A thought occurred to him awhile later. He smiled demonically and with his eyes closed his heart churned a sentence or two. He shuddered and broke into sweat. With a blasting sound the machine had been silenced forever. No harm in using a gifted power for a valid reason, he thought, and went to sleep.

Last week the news about Jinnah’s maternal great grandson Aslam Jinnah surfaced as to how miserable and poor life his family were living while being the great grandson of Jinnah he should have some recognition. I was wondering Jinnah had only one daughter Dina Wadia (nèe Jinnah).

Jinnah & Dina

Dina got married to a Parsi born Indian Neville Wadia against the wishes of her father. Wikipedia states:

Mahommedali Currim Chagla, who was Jinnah’s assistant at the time, recalls:

“Jinnah, in his usual imperious manner, told her that there were millions of Muslim boys in India, and she could have anyone she chose. Reminding her father that his wife (Dina’s mother Rattanbai), had also been a non-Muslim, the young lady replied: ‘Father, there were millions of Muslim girls in India. Why did you not marry one of them?’ And he replied that, ’she became a Muslim’”.

Neville

Dina and Neville lived in Mumbai and had a son and a daughter. Dina’s son Nusli Wadia is an industrialist and business tycoon.  His sons – Dina’s grandsons and Jinnah’s great grandsons are Ness Wadia and Jeh (a.k.a Jehangir) Wadia.

About Jinnah’s rest of extended family:

The only grandson of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah is Nusli Wadia, Chief Executive Bombay Dying & Manufacturing Company and lives in Bombay. There is no other grandson of Quaid-i-Azam. The only great grandsons are sons of Nusli Wadia who also live in Bombay. Jinnah’s daughter Dina Wadia lives in New York and Bombay.

This was stated by Liaquat Merchant, grandnephew of Quaid-i-Azam and grandson of Jinnah’s sister Mariambai in a clarification following media coverage which projected Aslam Jinnah as grandson or great grandson of Quaid-i-Azam and invitation extended to him by executives of Baitul Maal in Islamabad.

He said he had in past clarified his position on several occasions during period 2004 to 2007. He said it was incorrect to describe anyone except Nusli Wadia as Jinnah’s grandson.

Merchant, who is Administrator Estate of Quaid-i-Azam, Managing Trustee Jinnah Foundation, Executive Trustee Quaid-i-Azam Aligarh Education Trust, President Jinnah Society, author of publications on Jinnah and recipient of Sitara-e-Imtiaz awarded by President of Pakistan in recognition of his publications on Jinnah, public services in health, education, said he had never met Aslam but thought he was probably a descendent from Nathoo Poonja family.

He said Quaid-i-Azam’s father Jinnah Poonja had two brothers — Walji Poonja and Nathoo Poonja. While grandsons of Walji Poonja had come forward and made claim for a share in Estate of Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah in accordance with Hanafi/Sunni law in their capacity as distant kindred claiming through Jinnah’s paternal uncle Walji Poonja, there was no claim by any male descendent of Nathoo Poonja but a claim filed by one Jenabai, a daughter-in-law of one of grandsons of Nathoo Poonja but her application was dismissed as it did not merit consideration. No other claim has been filed up to date by any member of Nathoo Poonja family.

He said if Aslam is a descendent of Nathoo Poonja, he should establish his ancestry and make a claim before the Sindh High Court for a share. He said he only wished for record to be set straight and had no grievance or reservation against any member of Nathoo Poonja family.

Liaquat Merchant said descendents of Walji Poonja who were settled in Karachi included Muhammad Ali, Jaffer Ali, Hussein Ali and Ghulam Ali who are now survived by Amir Ali son of Hussainali Gangji Walji.

The immediate family of Quaid-i-Azam comprised of his daughter Mrs Dina Wadia and her son Nusli Wadia. Quaid’s sisters are Rehmatbai, Mariambai, Shirinbai and Fatima Jinnah. His brother Bande Ali died and his brother Ahmad who was married to a Sunni lady had one daughter Fatima Goepfert.

Merchant said children of Quaid’s sisters Rehmatbai, Mariambai and Shirinbai are no more alive. Daughter of Ahmed Jinnah lived in Switzerland while Fatima Jinnah did not marry.

Grandchildren of Quaid’s sister Mariambai, presently living in Karachi, are Kulsoom Ibrahim, Zehra Chandoo, Gulshan Chandoo, Rohina Peerbhoy, Liaquat Merchant, Hussein Ebrahim and Moonira Kassam. Other grandchildren of Jinnah’s sisters Rehmatbai and Mariambai live in Bombay and Calcutta.

Quaid’s grand nephew issues clarification

Even if Aslam Jinnah is a relative of Quaid then the media shouldn’t call him his maternal great grandson. He might be a distant relative or he may not be related to him at all.

The history we read at schools never talk about such things. It is the responsibility of media and the historians to set the record straight.

Nusli Wadia

Ness

Jeh

All I know about supersonic is that it sounds like a huge explosion and often when the fighter jets break the sound barrier people misunderstand it for a bomb blast. Here is an interesting news and a photo.

The breaking of the sound barrier is not just an audible phenomenon. As a new picture from the U.S. military shows, Mach 1 can be quite visual.

This widely circulated new photo shows a Air Force F-22 Raptor aircraft participating in an exercise in the Gulf of Alaska June 22, 2009 as it executes a supersonic flyby over the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis.

The visual phenomenon, which sometimes but not always accompanies the breaking of the sound barrier, has also been seen with nuclear blasts and just after space shuttles launches, too. A vapor cone was photographed as the Apollo 11 moon-landing mission rocketed skyward in 1969.

The phenomenon is not well studied. Scientists refer to it as a vapor cone, shock collar, or shock egg, and it’s thought to be created by what’s called a Prandtl-Glauert singularity.

Here’s what scientists think happens:

A layer of water droplets gets trapped between two high-pressure surfaces of air. In humid conditions, condensation can gather in the trough between two crests of the sound waves produced by the jet. This effect does not necessarily coincide with the breaking of the sound barrier, although it can.

What supersonic looks like

Apple has recently released a new and improved iPhone. The BBC’s Rory Cellan Jones compares Apple’s iPhone with Nokia’s smart phone N97.

I was a little surprised to know that iPhone had just 2 MP camera while it had no video recording feature. The new iPhone has 3 MP camera and video recording has been introduced as well as the feature of MMS. The speed in new iPhone is better. iPhone has compass, mini piano and video editing.

For information about full specifications visit Apple store.

Apple Store

Nokia N97 on the other hand, has Carl Zeiss optics, 5 MP camera, 3.5″ touch display, maps, improved web browsing and the key pad.

Smart Phones Compared

PS: I wonder does Apple iPhone available in Pakistan? Because I have never seen anyone using it. Nokia N97 computer phone has already hit the local market.

Nothing can beat the taste of home grown, fresh and nicely cooked okra. Yesterday I took some random shots. The soil in our home isn’t very good for cultivation but strangely okra grows well. It is one of those veggies that I have always liked…

Okra Flower

I have tested Bing. To me it almost looks like Google. The difference is that Bing offers wonderful backgrounds that change daily. Although I like trying new pages and layouts but personally the uncluttered and simple look of Google appeals to me.

This means I have no plans of making Bing my default search engine

That’s how the search results look like

Michael Jackson: 1958 – 2009

I found about Michael Jackson’s death from a friend’s text message. For a while I couldn’t believe it because apparently he seemed fine, gearing up for a series of his come back concerts in London.

I admit that I have been grown out of MJ’s music long ago but in 90s like every other teenager around me I too was his die-hard fan. His albums, Dangerous & Bad became my all time favorites and in mid 90s I must have listened to them hundred times.

I think  I liked him because he was The king of pop with unique style and everyone was into his music, when you have so much fan following of someone around you it is difficult to ignore it. Eventually I too grew fond of his music but what enchanted me were his trade mark dance moves and remarkable on stage performance. There was a video tape of his concert available at the local video shop, I saw people fainting in his concert. And it was there I disovered he was one of those talanted pop singers who would enthrall the audiences with his live singing and dancing.

With time MJ started going in the background. His name would appear off and on in media but mostly for the wrong and bizarre reasons. In 2002 when there was an outcry for mishandling his 8-month old baby by dangling him over the balcony in the Berlin hotel and then in 2005 once again when he was accused of molesting a 12-year old child, subsequently he was acquitted of all charges or when he was accused of having a surrogate mother for his child. From all the glitter and glamour he moved to Bahrain. Some people suggested, the Prince of Bahrain helped him bail out of his financial troubles. And finally there were whispers of his conversion to Islam (which I believe are sheer rumors).

He had a tourbled childhood, strange youth with ever changing facial features and mysterious last years. But despite all this he was a great artist with a successful career that people can only dream of and he kept the world entertained for decades.

The death of MJ has effected me in the sense that you grow up on someone’s music, admiring him and then all of a sudden your childhood icon dies leaving you wonder that nothing is permanent in this world and we all are walking towards our end.