Apple started with iphone and I did the same. Iphone 3g was my first phone after coming to USA. Then they evolved iphone into something bigger. I always argued with myself that its just a bigger phone with different name. Calling it ipad but same launcher and ui, it kept me away from ipads for long. Even after the launch of ipad 2, I didn’t get one for several months. In the mean time, I kept myself from buying even an alternative. And then it happened.

I did buy my first tablet eventually and it was not for me. When it comes to a gift, iPad is probably an idea at least for me. So I bought one to gift my wife and that’s when I used a tablet for the first time. I have to say that it was a great tablet with some really great features and equally annoying shortcomings. No support for extended memory, crappy itunes sync, pushing for apple proprietary accessories for simple things like HDMI, and on top of everything no flash?? But despite all that, its simple and suitable enough for my wife to use and love :-)

So I still was not going to get one for me. Ipads were expensive but not what I wanted and others were not from apple like beauty but still charging almost same amount of money. And then something unexpected happened.

HP touchpad selling for $99-$149. Who would not get a tablet now? Within hours whole USA was sold out and people were getting crazy to find a single touchpad. Lucky enough, I was able to score 1 at HP SMB site. The tablet I bought in august finally got shipped in mid october. So now I had my first 32 Gig tablet bought at $149. I love this tablet so very much. Great OS, best flash support that I could find in any browser, a screen that really feels as good or even better as ipad 2, best sound system available in any tablet anywhere, nd a really great community of developers. The OS and features were so good that I really didn’t miss the fact that there is no hdmi or way to extend storage and its thick and heavy. I really love this tablet and rate it best. On top of all that love, it dual boots with android. What else one can wish?

Then came the november. A time when whole USA thinks about nothing but shopping. As a result, everyone wants to sell as much as possible. Lots and lots of deals on everything. I also look for a thing or 2 in this frenzy. This time, suddenly I found that amazon is going to run a special on an android tablet. Deal started at 9 AM and within single minute it was all sold out. This is when I scored my 3rd tablet, a toshiba thrive. Now about thrive, there is no need to say much. Everyone knows the beauty of android and thickness and weight of tablet was compensated with the features like full size hdmi and usb host ports and an SD card slot. Most hurting for me was sound in headset but easily handled by my fii-0 portable amplifier for headset. It really was a great tablet and I used it a lot.

So, after using 3 tablets of all 3 major lines, and actually the best ones out there, I just wish that we already had a windows 8 tablet as well. Whenever it happens, I’ll make sure to try one and see if Microsoft has done any wonders. For now iPad 2 stays for my wife and touchpad for me and Toshiba thrive has found a new home. I sold it because it was not better than touchpad and android is still not ready for my wife.

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Yeah right, its very simple, You can do it from control panel, Your laptop does it, I have a cheap laptop, blah blah blah…

Blv me when I say that I cannot do it on any of my 4 laptops. I can make it to sleep, hibernate or even turn off. But one thing I cannot do on any of my windows 7 laptops is to make them lock windows on closing lid.

I also thought that it should be easy, should be some option in control panel, should be some utility available if I google. But guess what, nothing at all. Nothing in entire world wide web. I am not saying that I am an expert in search but I couldn’t find anything to perform this simple task for me.

At the end, I had to write it myself. A small piece of c# code, doing just that. Nothing fancy and, to my amazement, very very easy to implement. I’ve seen that people want to do it but nobody knows how to do it. It’s not because its hard, but only because its not very well known and properly documented. I intend to keep it same and have no intention of writing a whole tutorial on how to write this tool.

However, I can mention that all one has to do is register a service or application to listen to power setting change event and be sure to register for lid switch change event. That’s it.

If you don’t want to do it yourself but need this tweak, ask me and I’ll email it to you.

And Microsoft!!! I have no clue about why you couldn’t do it. Do you think no body wants to keep their programs running while limiting access at the same time? I mean, there is more to user friendliness. isn’t it so?

Note: I would like to mention that this tool works only on Windows 7 and may work on Vista as well. However, I have not tested it for XP and have reports that it does not work for XP.

Edit: Looks like I am not the only one anymore with a solution. Based on my not so good programming skills, I can advise you to look at other solutions if you have problem with mine. For an alternative, look at comment by Jonus in comments. I don’t know if my post helped him or not and I don’t want to take any credit at all. But apparently, he was able to write his own tool. I am assuming, again based on my skills, that his tool is probably better than mine. Check that if you like.

Edit2: I am not sharing this utility anymore. Please use the similar utility provided by Jonus. Look in comments to find details. As Microsoft is coming up with a new version someday, based on developer release that is out in public, I think it’s right to design something for new OS. No promises, but I will try to come up with some kind of power tools for new windows. I need to see how much room the developer preview gives me for development.

4
Dec

A real HAPPY Birthday…

   Posted by: AK   in About me, Daily life

Yes, I am another year older. Short of another year in my life. This day, for the year ended last night, I am very very thankful to God. like always, He has blessed me and my family so much this year as well. However, when I look at this past year, I feel overwhelmed by the blessings I had.

It was this year when my belief got stronger than ever before. My faith in Allah and recognition for his unconditional and utmost blessings on a bad bad muslim like me, my love for Prophet (SAW) and his beloved family, my relation with my Murshed Pak and my belief in his assistance and guidance towards recognizing myself and my religion.

It was February this year when we had the worst snow storm in Gaithersburg. Then it was a hard moment when  I made the mistake of doubting in Allah’s blessings due to my corrupted mind and He responded in the most unexpected way. May Allah forgive me for my mistakes and keep his blessings on me.

Immediately after that, it was the time when during my visit to Pakistan, I was able to fulfill the long awaited wish of my wife. Not to mention that it has already become my wish as well but credit is still hers. Finally we were able fulfill our wish to pay a very humble tribute to our Murshed Pak by Allah’s blessings.

By Allah’s blessings and then by continuous support of our Murshed Pak through his advises and prayers, when I returned from Pakistan, I finally got a job that I wanted in a company that I wanted. Joining Citrix was a great thing, and then joining probably the best team available. I had no idea that I am going to like a team this much again. It’s true that I’ve always been blessed by having best teams in all my companies, but Citrix being biggest company in my career, I feel really good about it. I have a Cuban manager, a Russian team lead, a Chinese dev lead (now a Belge). In my team, I have people from all over the globe. Apart from all being very talented and supportive, they all make a real good friend. The kind that you can talk to and trust about any of your problem.

Another good thing about Citrix and coming to Florida was my exposure and relation to all other kind of muslims that I hardly met before. I have Syrian neighbors, prayed mostly in Egyptian lead mosque and have miuslim co-workers from Arab region as well as India and Pakistan. Also, this has been the first time that I’ve been this close to muslims from different classes and ideologies. When we pray even at work, in same prayer it’s a combination of deoband hanafis, ghair muqallids, shafiis and barelvis. Barelvi being me as per other’s blv but I don’t classify myself as Barelvi. It is true that none of us discuss the ideological differences a lot except me and my ghair muqallid friend.

About that ghair muqallid friend, he’s one of the best things happened to me at this company. Not only because he had helped me a lot in worldly matters, but also because of his “curiosity”. He like to question me a lot. To him, lot of my practices either end up on shirk or not good islamic practices. However, by grace of Allah and then by help and prayers or my Murshed Pak, the more he questions and sometimes really “forces” me to get deep into things,  more my beliefs get clear and firm. I thank Allah for giving me this blessing in disguise. Honestly, I was never more clear about my beliefs in my life than now. May Allah keep me on right path and guide him. We differ a lot, discuss a lot, but most of the time we end up agreeing to disagree. Which is a good thing I guess. May Allah bless him and his family. Allah alone has the power to guide me or anybody else.

Coming back to the year past, I am most thankful to Allah for making me capable enough to take care of my mother’s wish. A wish that every muslim has in heart. To visit house of God and resting place of Prophet (SAW). My mother has finally performed her first hajj few days back. She, with my mother in law and my father, are now close to visiting the holy city of Madinah. InshAllah, there will be a day when I’ll be going there too. Till then, I am very happy and contented that my mother has been there and done that Smile

At this time of happiness, when we celebrated eid just few days ago and my parents performed Hajj, we had a really tough time as well. My brother got dengue fever, got admitted to hospital. It got worse when he developed brain swelling and lost his senses and control over his body. While continuously praying to God and seeking help of Murshed Pak in this most difficult time, there was not a single moment when any of us lost hope. He was in ICU, my parent were praying in Holy Kaaba, Our Murshed Pak seeking spiritual guidance for him and prayed in Astana Pak of Syed Ali Hussaini (RA), My sisters, cousins and whole family including us were reciting darood-e-paak and ayat-e-karima and everything while praying to Allah for him. Doctors had mentioned that medicine he is getting will reach and effect to recover his brain in 3 days and then he’ll be conscious again. Sarkar G told us not to worry and consoled us that he is going to be alright. That was the time, when my cousin took the water of Wudhu of Sarkar G (our Murshed Pak) and put few drops on his head. By the grace of Allah, it worked miraculously and he was conscious in no time. They kept putting drops of that water on his body and head and whole staff was amazed on his recovery including the neural surgeon and main doctors of ICU. When they were expecting him to regain conscious in 3 days, he was actually recovered and discharged after 3 days. Indeed Allah has his blessings on us and has helped us through the time of great difficulty. He is the one providing means for his blessings and keeping us patient in hard times and thankful in good times. May Allah protect everybody from any difficulty in the sadaqa of his beloved Messenger (SAW).

Truly, having my brother back at home (still far away for me), makes this birthday really happy along with all other blessings I’ve had whole year.

I pray for more blessings in coming year, not just for me but for every muslim and every human.

1
Jul

Kis duniya ka Islam hai yeh

   Posted by: AK   in 1. Islam, Daily life, In Pakistan, Poetry

Dedicated to any wild animal who labels himself as human and then as Muslim. Any bloody murderer who kills any innocent Muslim or non Muslim and then justifies that Islam taught him to do so. I hate you all. You are not even human and Islam is not even close to you.

I am so hurt. I am hurt for all the pain of innocent humans specifically in my country and at all the places in all the world wherever they are killed/suffered for whatever reason and people doing so called themselves proud Muslims.

I do complain when a non muslim does something terrible. But they are not on the right path. They are not Muslims. But when people do the killings and they are Muslim, it hurts me and my really great and peaceful religion really bad.

~*~ Kis duniya ka Islam hai yeh~*~

Mein kehta hoon insaan nahin
jo khud ko muslim kehte hein
jo kufr mitaney nikle hein
per qatl jo deen ko kerte hein

kya aurat, bachey, bazurg, jawan
nahin dikhte aqal ke maron ko
parhen kalma Nabi pyaarey ka
phir maaren Nabi k pyaaron ko

Islam to hai bas utna sa
k jitna inko suit kiya
dil kiya to jhooti shahadat di
dil kiya to sach ko jhoot kiya

Qaran uthaey hathon mein
aur sar pe sharaa ka parcham hai
eemaan dilon mein ho na ho
bandooq ki goli mein dum hai

jab chaha mimbar loot liye
jab chaha nimazi maar diyey
jab chaha school kiyey veeran
jab chaha baagh ujaar diyey

Per yeh to hamesha haq per hein
jisey yeh maren, taaweel buhut
woh muslim ho ya na muslim
hai inkey paas daleel buhut

aur kaun inhen samjhaye ga
in jhootey numberdaaron ko
Eemaan se khali roohon ko
eemaan ke thekedaron ko

Islam hai deen muhabbat ka
jisey nafrat mein rung daala hai
jiss deen ka tum dam bharte ho
uss deen ka naam uchhala hai

nasamjho, qatl-e-aam hai yeh
diya tum ne naam ibadat ka
tum maasoomon ki jaan bhi lo
aur rakho azm shahadat ka?

kya isko samajhna mushkil hai?
kitna seedha qanoon hai yeh.
ik jaan bhi nahaq li tum ne
to kul insaan ka khoon hai yeh

Aur tum ne kisko nahin mara
aur kiska lehaz yahan baqi
jab khoon baha ker sajde kiye
to rahi nimaz kahan baqi

jo lin tum ne, jo leni hein
kya qeemat hai un janon ki
bas Laanat hai tum logon per
hai laanat sab insaanon ki

I have not updated this blog in a long time but I feel myself forced to write today as I think not sharing this experience will be a huge mistake of keeping an experience really great and beautiful hidden from the world.

This happened to me (Abubakar A. Khaliq) directly and it was just the evening before yesterday. Here goes the true incident.

We had worst snow storm in DC metro area (Gaithersburg) on weekend and it continued through Wednesday, till Thursday morning. I went to work on Thursday and while leaving from work my wife called me telling that we don’t have enough milk at home for my 20 months old Kid, Armaghan Ali. I asked my co-worker John to stop at Grocery store before he drops me at my home. When I reached the grocery store, It was almost empty. There was NO MILK OF ANY KIND. I called my wife, telling her that they don’t have milk, and she told me that remaining milk may work for tonight hardly. I could feel in her voice that situation is even worse. But I could not do anything since there was 5 feet snow every where and I had ride to home only, that too because of John. I was HELPLESS, and to a great extent hopeless.

In the way, I thought about an email that my father (M. A. Khaliq) sent me last year. Then I spoke to myself “but that was just an email”. Then I thought, only if that could happen for me today . Yes, I practically had not a fragment of doubt that something will be happening like the one mentioned in that email. So I made up my mind to call Nitin, another fellow and friend, next day and ask him to drop some milk at home around lunch time=.

I came home, I said my wife that let me change then I’ll tell you about my plan for tomorrow’s milk. I was heading to change my dress when door knocked. It was my neighbor, Javed Iqbal, having a gallon of milk and bread at my door telling me that he just thought about bringing those for us because of weather. I was SHOCKED. I couldn’t think or speak of anything and I had tears in my eyes. I thanked him and My heart was thanking Allah, submitting to his powers and greatness.

I don’t know the story of Javed Iqbal that why and how he brought the milk. But really, you should read the below email which was sent to me last year and I considered it just another email.

May Allah keep you all safe.

Here is that email

———————————————————————-

Allah listens to our prayers. A nice story testing FAITH -.

A young man had been to Wednesday Night Class of Quranic Studies.
The Muslim (Scholar) had shared about listening to Allah and obeying
Allah through intuition.
The young man couldn’t help but wonder, ‘Does Allah still speak to

people through intuition?’



After Lessons, he went out with some friends for coffee and pie and
they discussed the message. Several different ones talked about how
Allah had led them in different ways and that at the end you’ll know it
was Allah

(SWT) Who h as directed you.

It was about ten o’clock when the young man started driving home.
Sitting in his car, he just began to pray, ‘Allah…If you still speak
to people, speak to me. I will listen. I will do my best to obey.’

As he drove down the main street of his town, he had the strangest
thought to stop and buy a gallon of milk.  He shook his head and said
out loud, ‘Allah is that you?’ He didn’t get a reply and started on
toward home.  But again, the thought, buy a gallon of milk came into
his head. ‘Okay, Allah, in case that is you, I will buy the milk.’ It
didn’t seem like too hard a test of obedience. He could always use the
milk. He stopped and purchased the gallon of milk and started off toward home.


As he passed Seventh Street, he again felt the urge, ‘Turn Down that
street.’ This is crazy he thought, and drove on past the intersection.
Again, he felt that he should turn down Seventh Street. At the next
intersection, he turned back and headed down Seventh. Half jokingly, he
said out loud, ‘Okay, Allah, I will.’

He drove several blocks, when suddenly, he felt like he should stop. He
pulled over to the curb and looked around. He was in a semi-commercial
area of town. It wasn’t the best but it wasn’t the worst of
neighborhoods either. The businesses were closed and most of the houses
looked dark like the people were already in bed.


Again, he sensed something, ‘Go and give the milk to the people in the
house across the street.’ The young man looked at the house. It was
dark and it looked like the people were either gone or they were already asleep.

He started to open the door and then sat back in the car seat. ‘Allah,
this is insane. Those people are asleep and if I wake them up, they are
going to be mad and I will look stupid.’ Again, he felt like he should
go and give the milk.

Finally, he opened the door, ‘Okay Allah (SWT), if this is you, I will
go to the door and I will give them the milk. If you want me to look
like a crazy person, okay. I want to be obedient. I guess that will
count for something, but if they don’t answer right away, I am out of here.’

He walked across the street and rang the bell. He could hear some noise
inside. A man’s voice yelled out, ‘Who is it? What do you want?’ Then
the door opened before the young man could get away.

The man was standing there in his jeans and T-shirt. He looked like he
just got out of bed. He had a strange look on his face and he didn’t
seem too happy to have some stranger standing on his doorstep.
‘What is it?’


The young man thrust out the gallon of milk, ‘Here, I brought this to you.’
The man took the milk and rushed down a hallway. Then from down the
hall came a woman carrying the milk toward the kitchen. The man was
following her holding a baby. The baby was crying. The man had tears
streaming down his face.  The man began speaking and half crying, ‘We were just praying.
We had some big bills this month and we ran out of money. We didn’t
have any milk for our baby. I was just praying and asking Allah (SWT)
to show me how to get some milk.’

His wife in the kitchen yelled out, ‘I ask him to send an Angel with
some milk.  Are you an Angel?’


The young man reached into his wallet and pulled out all the money he
had on him and put in the man’s hand. He turned and walked back toward
his car and the tears were streaming down his face.
He knew that Allah (SWT) still answers prayers.

Sometimes it’s the simplest things that Allah (SWT) asks us to do, that
Enable us to understand His words clearer and better than ever.
Please listen, and obey!

———————————————————————-

27
Sep

A “Rainy” Muslim Family Day in Maryland

   Posted by: AK   in Daily life, US

Yesterday was the Annual Muslim Family Day in USA announced by ISNA/ICNA. All over the US, they reserved “Six Flags America” theme parks solely for muslims and made tickets available to all muslim brothers and sisters through Islamic centers, Islamic schools and Halal grocery and superstores….

I thought that maybe this is a good time for me and my family to get together with muslims of USA and know them more. So we decided to go :)

Saturday morning was heavily clouded and as expected, it started pouring around mid-day. That was the time when we are waiting for our last bus on the route. Talking about the route, not having a car is always a pain. This time, it involved a bus, a train, another train and then another bus.

When we reached SFA at Bowie, it was already raining. Rushing towards entrance, trying to get least effected by rain, we couldn’t help noticing the large number of people already there and still coming. I don’t think I saw this number at Eid Prayer, maybe because there are several small centers catering for prayer and this park was to accomodate all Muslims of DC and Maryland.

Things were really nice irrespective of all the rain coming down from heavens above. We could see muslims from every region of the world. As expected, people talking in Punjabi and Urdu were of more interest for my wife and kid on their first gathering among muslims. There were bazars with bangles, jewelry, and dresses from almost all regions. Then there was an area full of stalls serving all kind of Halal Food. You could any kind of food from region specific items to typical fast foods.

Some of the portions of the park were closed due to rain that was getting heavier every moment. All other areas were full of kids and elders alike. Most of the people were interested in rides involving some kind of free fall or all kinds of weird angles of hanging in the air. For us, Due to Armaghan, we enjoyed every ride bu just watching others and hearing them scream :)

By the way, did I mention that our rides in parks of Pakistan are more frightening then what they have got here? Seriously, couple of new rides in Joyland are too good to handle :)

Anyways, we could enjoy the train that circles almost all the park and we enjoyed heavy lunch and after all that we were ready to leave. These 9 hours, 6 in travel and 3 in park, were fun even without enjoying the rides in rain as everyone else was doing.

I really like the concept and efforts of ICNA/ISNA to arrange this kind of events to make muslims of US get closer to each other and know each other better. I hope to see more events like this in future but in less rain :)

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12
May

Humans…

   Posted by: AK   in Daily life

For past 2 months, just like the rest of my life, my kind has been influencing my life in all the ways. When I say my kind it definitely means “Humans”. Influencing my life like never before.

Some filling all the empty space in my apartment and my heart with all the happiness of the world. My sister’s wedding and then my wife and my son coming to US with me, those were probably the happiest days of my life.

Then there were some bringing lot of Fun and Joy, just a weekend but full of fun. Naeem and Family travelling 12 hours from Boston to Gaithersburg, just to have fun, that was really great:) Those 3 days are also a memory, a happy one.

And then, there are humans who leave us. Us, who are dearest to them. Never want to leave, never ready to go, Yet they leave us crying. Nothing they can do, and nothing we can. On Tuesday, they talk to us for hours. On Thursday, my brother calls me telling me that he is no more. All of a sudden, My Father-in-law left us crying in most desperate moments of life. Daughter still not able to believe that he is gone. Just after a month when she left home to come to this foreign land. She is broken and I am trying in vain to save her from tears and sadness. We both, knowing that we will not be able to be their ON TIME, were trying to figure out the fastest way of reaching back. I hate the distance between US and Pakistan and it has never been that far far away. I never felt so helpless in my entire life. Oh Allah, why do humans leave? Why the dearest ones? Why so early and why so suddenly? Why when we are so far away?

Among the ones bringing happiness and the ones being the tears in our eyes, there are humans of another kind. The ones who are there and we don’t feel how important they are.
Ones like my CEO Nandan, Who says me to do just as I want to. He knows that his product is going to suffer if I leave suddenly for Pakistan. But he also understands the gravity of the tragedy and the loss of my family.
My friend and colleague Mukta who, without spending a minute, came with me to my home after hearing the news. Who took care of my child when I managed to break this tragic news to my wife. Arranging the travel agent to facilitate us with the same night travel arrangements and then leaving us at airport in evening, she was everywhere supporting us.

And then there is Nitin. My friend, ex apartment mate and colleague. Saving money for his car, moving to his apartment in 2 weeks, and when he knows about tragedy, he offers me his everything. If it was not him, I could not even think about arranging the tickets for that night. Without waiting for a single word, without saying a single word, offering all of his savings, He proved himself to be more human than many around. I might be able to repay his money in few months but can I ever repay rightfully for what he did?

These two months made me realized many things in a much better details. I know the value of moments. Value of smiles and burden of tears, I’ve never understood better before. I don’t know how much life I have. But being a human, I don’t want to leave like humans do and I don’t want any one else around me to leave me. But I know I have no control over what’s nature and what’s written. But whatever time is left, I want to live it happily, with my Family, my friends and with humans.

3
Mar

And I moved :)

   Posted by: AK   in Daily life, US

Finally, after almost 4 months in US, I moved into my own apartment. Rented this apartment for its good shape, very good community and its walking distance from office.

Moving in was fun :) Daily spending hours and hours on craigslist, watching for garage sales, cheap furniture, electronics, etc…. Then emailing all the good offers and then knowing that everything that you want is sold and every time you are the lazy one…, seriously that was fun. I mean you just read a post, you email them and you know that you are few minutes late :)

Khair, I managed to finalize a dining table some how. Bed I finalized to get from my old place from Office. Crib and beddings for my baby I finalized to buy from my CEO. The worst and the most time consuming was TV. I could not find a single TV which was reasonably cheap and for which i was not late and still it was in a good working condition.

Got keys on Thursday and moved the Baby Furniture and Dining Set on the same day using my CTO’s truck. Actually he was helping me a lot in all the movement. That dining table, damn! it was HEAVY. I had to bring it up from basement alone and uffff, It was a pain. Once it was up, me and Nandan (my CTO and company owner) managed to fit it in the truck with all 6 chairs and a uniquely designed comfort chair. This chair was in for free and I like it too much.

Major part of shifting was due on Saturday. Decided to use a UHaul truck to move the bed and my luggage. My friends were there to help me. I took the electric instruments of Jan from the office to disassemble the bed. Took a toolkit from Hemant to finish it up. Nitin was there to help me disassemble and carry things out. And last, but not the least, was Mukta.

This wonderful girl has a wonderful car. Just like her, her civic is also small(looks so) but has a lot of potential which you don’t imagine in the first look. The way we managed to fit complete bed and two side tables in car, I never expected that before. Mukta advised me not to use the UHaul and try the cars instead. This saved me another 50+ bucks :)

Last trip included Hemant’s car as well and we could move the luggage with a heavy Futon Mattress.

After just putting it all at apartment, we left for lunch. Then had some other things to do. It was almost 9 PM when we got back. Muks and Nitin looked tired so I let them go and my self had another task in front of me.

I decided to do everything within that night. I assembled the best, then that heavy dining table. Then I had to disassemble the crib to move it in bed room and them assemble it back. After all was done I had dinner and slept (around 2 AM).

Woke up around 6 AM. After prayer, started with unpacking the luggage and arrange all the small things. By 10, I was done with everything. Apartment looked good with some furniture in it. Small, clean, spacious and organized… I like it.

Rest of the day was laundry. Afternoon, the couple with TV and DVD player reached. In 80 bucks, I had 1 mint condition Toshiba 20” FST CRT TV with a mint condition Panasonic DVD Player. Still, no cable.

Now the last thing for now is cable and internet. Comcast guy is coming in Morning :)

16
Feb

VSG and more…

   Posted by: AK   in Daily life

Almost 6 weeks since my last blog. Life was busy and a lot was happening. This week, however, something very big happened. Something that shook me completely on one hand but strengthened my faith on the other hand. I really thank Allah for guiding me and keeping me safe.

Vision systems group was the company that sponsored my visa. I knew that it was a consulting company and they place people on projects and they earn money from other companies and give a portion of that money as salary to their employee. When I joined them, I had few situations that turned me over and within my second week here, I was thinking about leaving them and making my own way. Among all other things that turned me over, the major factor was lie. They wanted me to modify my resume so that they can sell me better. They wanted me to include fake projects and fake durations. As a result, I had a 6.5 yrs of on resume experience comparing to my actual 4.5 years only.

Why would I do that? I am here to make a healthy yet honest living. Should I start it with a lie? I couldn’t handle it and tried a couple of things on my own. By the kindness and grace of Allah, within a week I was able to get my H1 transferred to an actual software company which hired me for whatever I am. It is true that I am getting a very low salary as compared to many of my friends, but I am happy that its an honest living and there are no lies involved.

And after 3 months, what happens? That company is under investigations for frauds and scams revolving around H1B visas and employments. More details are here: http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0902/090212desmoines.htm 

It is true that I am safe. It is true that this company might be getting what it actually deserves. But is that all? What about 1000s of consultants who work for that company? Are they still on payroll? What about 20s of consultants on bench (without pay)? Are they going to get a project? What about the people working on corp-to-corp contracts? If VSG goes down, are contracts valid? What about people who have their green cards in final stages? what about people who just got an apartment and were planning to bring family? what about people whose families just got their visa approved and were ready to join in?

Who is responsible for all these sufferings? ICE, who never took an action in all those years? VSG, who was doing this for so many years without any fear? Or my friends who were not lucky enough to get out of the bloody traps of the bastard parasites?

I hate these body shoppers and I really pray for all the people who are trapped by them. I disliked VSG when it was about me. Now I hate VSG when I see my friends upset just because of they are kind of trapped in to this situation that still has no clear ending.

31
Dec

Aik nazm naye saal ki sham…

   Posted by: AK   in Daily life, Poetry

~*~Carry Forward~*~
phir saal ki akhri sham hui
phir waqt ki dor mein girha lagi

lo waqt hua phir gin-ne ka
gaye saal ki khushyon k lamhey
aur gayee ruton k sab aansoo
aur waqt ki kaali aandhi mein
hamen raah dikhatey sab jugnu

aur bhooley kaun sitaron ko
un naye puraney yaaron ko
jo her mushkil mein saath rahey
jo sab rahon per sath chaley

Aur iss ginti mein shamil hein
jo jaag k kaatin raaten sab
jo sajni se kin baaten sab
jo maan ney sunaayee woh lori
aur saari duaen behna ki
aur apney des se doori bhi
jo hijr bani, majboori bhi

ger tumko lagey k yeh sab kuchh
gaye saal k saath na reh jaye
to yeh sab kuchh
tum gin-na apni ungliyon pe
phir muthi ko bund ker lena
aur pehli subha naye saal ki ho
to khol k apni muthi ko
in sab ko bhi sath hi le chalna

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