Jan 12
2
The Book Shelter
The year 2011 has been quite dull in terms of writing good blog posts and now as the year 2012 rises bright and shiny, I just look forward to punching up some material on my blog. Thoughts come and fly by but when reduced to writing are saved for a lifetime.
A few days back I stumbled on a twitter account thebookshelter and found that two young ladies in the Emirates have literally started and orphanage for BOOKS!! There are so many good things you could do one might wonder and better buy a new one rather then hording old stuff and also spending on the maintenance of the so called Book Shelter. Apart from that, since the flow of eBooks have begun people have just begun to forget the touch, feel and scent of paper. These are the first few thoughts that same up my mind.
Being a book lover with so many sitting on my bookshelf, personally I would not even think of parting with my books with any one. I love them. Just looking at the shelves filled with them makes me feel my hunger for learning. I took a breath and emailed thebookshelter.ae that I would like to donate. They replied promptly and had the few books that were ready with me, picked-up.
I started surfing their website and found a book that I had been wanting to have a glimpse at since some time but had not dared buy it for the simple reason that time would not permit to go through it.
People who love the written word would not part for it even though the digital world grows faster and feel of paper, its wonderful smell that one breathes in being engrossed in the book opens the doors of imagination, creativity and knowledge. Homes are growing smaller, and the price that once pays per square feet nowadays its much larger for someone to actually fall in love with having a library at home but then I would not dare speak the same having more then 150 books lying on my bookshelf and having known people who have collected newspapers and weeklys over years. The lust and hunger for knowledge in these people cannot be explain in words, for the written word would fall short of it.
For those who would like to know more about the work done by the two Emarati ladies or even have a book for yourself visit http://thebookshelter.ae
Hoping to write more blog posts then the past in 2012. 🙂
Posted in Education Interesting Personal Views The World by .
It has just been a few months since the launch of Google’s Social Media Service, the widely talked about Google+ and just a few days since its launch of Brand Pages.
Google has tried and tried again to plunge into the social media business to get a scope of it highly lucrative and viral reach but has withdrawn most of its products after the much enthusiasm with which it was launched was never met. Google Wave was withdrawn from the product line and so is Buzz being turned down in a few weeks time.
Google does have to understand that FaceBook has already done its trial and error thing and understands the user’s needs from its age and learn from the trends set by such a successful venture, from its pros and cons, rather then build from scratch and then keep people waiting for the most needed features yet to come. The wait turning tiring and the enthusiasm fading out.
What Google simply lacks is its integrity with existing social networking media. Google+ would have rocked if it were to have feeds from twitter and facebook, from multiple accounts off-course. Better and tighter privacy options and since Google+ does not allow profile pages for Businesses and in turn has launched pages, they should have focused on allowing people to reserve their brands in the URL rather then having to ask then to remember some funky digits.
I recently plunged into the pages thing to get pages reserved for the organizations I am associated with and then kept wondering as to how I could add other contributors and admins to those pages on Google+. At the end of the day I realized they are still working on it. Its quite simple, can’t they learn from FaceBook that this is supposed to be a basic function for a page that represents an organization or a business entity or does Google+ seem to have a single employee, LOL.
The entire game about so many people running into, what I would call, an immature network, is the mere fact that googleplus accounts tend to get listed on google’s search engine faster then a facebook one, but what about other search engines like Bing. Let’s face it Google is still number one and synonymous when it comes to Search Engines.
It needs a lot of patience to educate people on new tools and time is scarce when it comes to the speed of the Internet, so lets wait and watch what how rapidly Google+ makes its way to into the Social Media.
As for the short URL I did manage to get an easy to remember URL for all my Google+ pages as well as my profile.
http://gplus.to/ekhwan
http://gplus.to/attalim
http://gplus.to/hitechuae
Posted in Interesting Internet & Hosting Personal Views Technology by .
In the heart of Al Jamea tus Saifiyah, in Ewan al Barakat, the hearts of Abnaul Jamea were beating with a high-pitch rhythm and cadence. They were enthusiastically reciting the most recent, Eid al Fitr Qaseeda Mubarakah(1432H) of Dai al-Fatemi Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin TUS.
انت يا طيب العصر معتمدي * ادركــــــني مـــــولاي خذ بيدي
O’ Imam Tayyib al ‘Asr AS, thou art my succor and support; be my savior O’ my Moula, and hold my hand!
Not that this was the first time they were doing this in history! No, rather, it was being rendered in style and quite a different manner. The hexagonal setting and the central bir, along with other accoutrements, decoration and tazyeen simply accentuated the entire ambiance this morning.
This Qaseeda Mubarakah possesses a rare and a distinctive flavour of Fatemi literature that is equaled by few, if any. It is a repository of the wisdom and philosophy of Fatemi adab. Small wonder then, that the readers never cease to be overwhelmed by every bait of it. The brilliance of this Qaseeda will forever continue to surprise and inspire thousands of its readers. The emotions expressed therein so plainly are too large for words to describe. Throughout the Qaseeda there is a sparkling gleam of Moula’s TUS deep affection for Mumineen, Moula’s doctrine of kindness, muwasaat, charity and love for humanity and he requires but few words to express these emotions. It also exhibits a beautiful approach to life and its meaning.
The intense thoughts and style and the compassionate outpouring make us feel we are in his proximity, rather, it is as if we are in his very heart. This is best explained by these abyaat (Verses):
و اجمعن بلطفك يا جامع الشـ * مل ما قد تناثر من بدد
و امـــلأن بيــوت المحبين مــن * طـارف نافع هــــكذا تلد
و مواليــــك اغنيتهم حاكمـــا * انمــــــا الكنز والله للولد
These profound emotions in poetry are of particular timeliness in contemplation of the difficulties the world is facing today, and much can be gleaned therefrom for human welfare and upliftment and in the understanding of life and its beauty. The Qaseeda has a specific recognizable message to convey, and the simplicity of the style brings the message to the inner consciousness of the reader quickly, clearly and effortlessly. From the heart it has sprung, and to the heart it shall penetrate.
May Allah grant our Aqa Moula TUS a long and healthy life and endow his Mansoos, Aali Qadr Moulaya Mufaddal Saifuddin a long life. Ameen
by Shk Mustafa bhai Zakir
(Ustad al-Jamea tus Saifiyah)
Saturday, 18th Zil Qad 1432H
Posted in Dawoodi Bohras Deen Jamea by .
Oct 11
5
MAF Najmcard Irony
MAF, one of the most reputable group of companies launched credit cards a few years back with staunch terms and conditions in store for applicants. The credit card is basically issued by MAF Finance and the initial card they launched was the JCB card while the Visa was added to their range later on.
These cards were initially promoted by the MAF group hyper mart, Carrefoure by adding discounts almost every other thing available off the self there. In addition to this the NajmCard boasts upto 4% cash back in all promotional material including the website and all other printed materials. They also have “Free for life” cards with a lower cash back value which is by all means acceptable.
So far so good. The surprises are yet to come, just like most banks that astonish the consumer with finer prints rarely readable, known as, terms and conditions apply. However, these terms and conditions are rarely mentioned in promotional material which lure consumers into a trap of so called loyalty shopping at times, turning it into tied up and bound to shopping.
What a cash back means in Najm Card language is accumulation of points that can later be converted to Carrefoure Vouchers that can be redeemed to pay ones carrefoure bills.
The Najm Card cash back system is not a cash back system but its a holding back customer for myself system. Such promotional material cannot be deemed as accurate and in consumer interests, rather it is misleading to those who have to offer a blank dated and signed cheque to MAF Finance, have a large salary and other such conditions to apply for the so called Cash Back credit card.
Unless you are willing to pay a good amount of fee for the Najm Card, just forget getting one with an adjustable cash back system. Except for the priority counter benefit at carrefoure nothing is so attractive about the Najmcard. The special discounts that were initially offered also do not exist any longer.
Posted in Marketing Personal Views by .
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Disclaimer
Not all posts on this blog are my own words. Nor are all articles written by me. The blog is intended serve as my journal and dairy of interesting reading I have enjoyed and want to share. Some write-ups do not have the name of its author, the reason behind it is that I do not know the original source nor the author. If someone knows it they can add it to the comment box.
