Rectification from the source --- Brain Drain

One day, a General of a very small army was threatened by a superpower. He was asked to surrender. He smiled and said that you will not only be defeated but will be humiliated as well. Some of his own companions made fun about him at that time. Then they asked, "you don't have long-range jets, no guided missiles, what is there to take out from the depo to fight". He smiled and ordered them to take out the old guns with knives on them.

He won.

One day a great governor was told that his region has high rates of premature deaths or malnutrition babies. After a few weeks of data collection, he started a training program for primary class teachers.

The numbers reduced.

A mayor was once questioned about the strategy to cope up with the congestion in the city. He was asked how will he provide more roads and flyover to cater to traffic growth with a limited budget. He smiled and told the press that his plans are to narrow the roads to decrease the congestion. Everyone thought that he is getting abnormal.

The congestion decreased.

But in Pakistan, a good planner was asked once to suggest measures for resolving the traffic issues of Karachi. He said investing in the police. He, unlike the other scenarios above, was not allowed to implement that.

One day I was with a man I have huge respect for. He was asked that how will our country change when good men are not allowed to do their work? He smiled, pointed at the person asking and said, "it's easy, just don't plan on going abroad".

So the war threatened area was a hilly dense jungle where no guided missiles or jet can work. The best tool for war, there, was a short-range gun and a knife. The only possibility of winning was to know the paths. On which a native definitely has an edge.

So the governor researched, and found out the premature deaths were due to the lack of nutritions in mothers, lack of nutrition in mothers were due to the lack of education about this in schools. And lack of education about this in schools was because even the teachers of the school were unaware of it.

So in the congested city, the drive was a luxury most of the time. He narrowed the roads. Removed the luxury. And the in a few months the drive was only for a need.

The planner from karachi knew that most congestion is because of the lack of obedience to traffic laws. With shows an incompetent police. Police are incompetent because there is no training or incentives for them. Even no technology to monitor them. So the planner suggested investment in the police.

One day I asked a senior road designer that why are you making this flyover. He said because no one is following the signals. So I said with the cost of one 100 million bridge you can train police of this entire city to make sure that every signal is followed.

But, why the voice of that planner is unheard? Why the man I respect too much suggested not to go abroad as a solution?

Let's dig deeper. All the first three; the general, the mayor and the governor were unorthodox, people with them disagreed, but they allowed them to implement. Because they all were competent, educated and well experienced. They were just thinking differently. Soon they realized their error. But in Pakistan, whenever these posts are empty. We find no one to fill the gap. Because all of them are gone serving the nations they don't relate to.

Stop the brain drain and then complain why people are not thinking straight, or not thinking at all.

PS. I once requested a genius traffic engineer, a teacher, not to go abroad. Now we hire people, train them to be a traffic engineer, then after some months they actually start working.

The architecture of a livable town

We live in an era where every genius is discussing how to make a town sustainable as if we are machines and no one is discussing how to make a town livable. It's not possible for the north start to be there always, because the beauty of this universe doesn't lie in uniformity but it is in the rarest anomaly, so God created an inner self for guidance.

Not so many north stars are left I guess so I searched for some in my memory. There was a discussion some years ago with a brilliant architect. He was trying to convince the mayor to make a rule that all the buildings in this town should give the same feel, to look alike, like musqat. It will give a good feel. But no one was convinced. After the meeting, I caught him near the parking lot, and asked, how can every building with different nature and size and can possibly look alike. He smiled and like a darvesh gave me a few words, "just make it with the same theme. Then with its most different architecture, it will look alike". Some things are stored safely to be understood at a different time so I understood it lately.

One day I asked my niece (05 years old); 'How do you want your town to look like?' She said it should have candies everywhere.

The other day I asked an architect, how do you want your town to look like. He said it should have modern skyscrapers everywhere.

To search more I asked my grandmother one day. She (being fond of books)said it should have libraries.

Then I looked into the cities like Dubai with modern architecture, nice candies, and huge libraries and I saw people grieving, suffering, willing to meet their loved ones at hometown.

Then I studied about Mecca in its old times when it was converted from Yesrab to Madina tun Nabi. I saw poverty, no Roads, no abundance of basic facilities, sometimes no water. But people were satisfied with the town.

Then I got the theme which is if we follow the design we can make everyone happy. We can make a happy town where there is "happiness" and "equality".

Anyone wants to convert the towns of this city into a beautiful place? Think of developing everything with equality. Make roads, which majorly serves the people with cars and wealth, plan respectable bus systems for the poor. Make flyovers for maneuvering of vehicles, plan pedestrian realm. Making skyscrapers, make parks. Indulge communities.

Our mayor often complains about lack of funds. To make people happy usually no funds are required. Mecca had no funds but the higher-ups were going through the same situation. That's why no one complained. Suppose a mayor complains about lack of funds to ease out the choking of roads with a VIP protocol and then suppose if a mayor is stuck at the same junction from an hour when he comes on the roof of his car and says, see I am stuck too. Within the same second people will be happy.

While planning a city, the objective should not be to make a modernized sustainable city, but a happily liveable city. And then treat your self with equality even your own self. Suffer if everyone is suffering. And no one will complain.

One day Sahabis told our prophet (p.b.u.h) that we are so short of food that we all have tied our stomachs with one stone. The Prophet (p.b.u.h) lift his qameez, and there were two.

Aim high, take the baby steps

We often talk about the importance of dreaming, the need for envisioning, the demand for Innovation and the usefulness of curiosity. But when it's preached to dream the problem which occurs is that everyone jumps so high and starts to live in their dream. Every step between reality and the dream is like a serious waste of time. They don't realize that one of the most important things successful dreams don't forget is, "it is a dream".

So I went to my university to give a short talk on entrepreneurship. I discussed the importance of having good entrepreneurs, New companies and a healthy competition. I talked about dreaming big and I suggested everyone to start aiming big. But a very important point almost everyone missed is that; to aim big, you need to have a clear vision, and to have a clear vision you need to have lots and lots of knowledge.

The sequence should be; to set a goal, start dreaming, do good homework, aim high, work hard and lower your expectation. A good dreamer is a person who knows the true difference between reality and dream. That's how he/she can take the full enjoyment in the dream.

But the real sequence people are adopting is, no goal, no homework, aiming high, willing to work less, expect the highest. And the result is some days of fantasy with no achievement. And when they wake up they say. Oh Crap, that was a dream.

So one day I received a phone call from a newly passed out guy. After the usual sentences, he informed me that I want to open a project management consulting company. I said nice aim now start working on it. He said, no I want to meet you to discuss how u can open it now. I was amazed. What now?  I asked. And he was jumping high. So I asked what is project management? He said its one of the parts of construction management. I smiled and told him that whatever it is you need to have at least an experience of 10 projects with a masters degree to file your case for such a company. I asked again, why do you want to begin this company. He said because there is no good salary structure in Pakistan. Nice aim, I mumbled.

Now he is working in a highly demotivated state in a construction company. No goal, no homework, hating baby steps and highest aim. Results, as expected, is a complete failure.

Dream, take baby steps, then walk steadily, then run as long as you can and one day you will see that a road is ending near the river with high fog blur vision. Have faith and jump.

Inspiration or Inferiority Complex

People when talk about engineers of Pakistan we hear some very common problems. They say, they don't have inspiring ideas, innovative thinking, will of something new when they graduate. They are good at operations i.e. doing same thing again and again. They are very hard working. But with no new idea, no new vision.

That acts true for 80% of us. But there is a reason. Inspiration comes from reading. But there is no reading culture left. Our libraries are vacant. Inspiration comes from education. But even our curriculum now needs some inspiration. Inspiration comes from surroundings. But frankly when I get out the thing I notice most is the piles of used plastic bags. That is the reason one day when I asked one of my junior what exactly was you passion. She said I once tried to buy a truck so that me and my friend can pick up the garbage.

See, when you see garbage all around you what will you think of next act? To clean it. When you will see clean streets, then you will think of beautifying it. When you will see a beautiful street, only then you can create a more innovative idea for them. You are giving everyone a worst picture every day and demanding an innovative idea?

So the way forward is, read. There is no excuse or short cut for books. If not in library try finding stuff on net. Not getting too much from curriculum? Try connecting with the industry. Not getting an inspirational surrounding, travel. See places, get inspiration. Embrace the beauty and then come back to make one.

But the problem is when they travel they don't get inspired instead they come-up with an inferiority complex. ""Oh they are too professional"" we are nothing in-front of them".  It's their common dialog.

Once when I was travelling I heard the same dialogue in a completely different meaning. I was with a friend from Holland (We both have serious travel obsession). We were on our way from sawat to kalam. When we got stuck in the middle due to land sliding. The situation intensified with heavy rain. But for my friend it was worst when he realised that we both forgot our wallet in sawat. He said now what will we do where we will stay. I smiled, took him to a near by home. Knocked. Who's there, someone asked in pashtu. 'Mehmaan' I replied. And for the next seven days we we stayed with no money in there house like the lords. We were forced to eat too much. Forced to not help them in any work. And still when we left they were worried that they didn't treat us well.

My friend on our way back said. Thank god we didn't get stuck at my country. They only do it for money. ""They are too professional""

See they have every thing to sustain life. We have everything to live for. Love, care and selfless hospitality.

So read with no excuses, connect without delays and travel with a positive intent. You will surely have innovative ideas in some days.

The Illusion of Reality

The weekend comes with a series of discussions for me. Within me, with my friends and mates. Time sometimes looks like the biggest illusion and sometimes it may seem like the only reality in this twisted, fabricated environment. Well since we can't be so sure, so let’s just not say a day or a few hours earlier, let’s just say earlier.

Earlier within a series of discussions on the need to write, I heard a very interesting argument that, "I can’t write on engineering topics, because I can't think of real stuff, the stuff that exists". This small argument has two vast topics within it.

Firstly, what is thinking. Is it like reciting, or remembering, or repeating? Or its the search of something new; things that don't exist. If you write on anything that exists or is real, it’s not thinking at all. It’s an effort to remember as much as you can, it’s a repetition of an event within your brain; it’s not thinking. So, my answer to this is, "you can't think of the real stuff".

So, don’t worry. Develop an idea, no matter ho stupid it is, feel it, think on it and one day it will be so crystal clear that you will be envisioning it, living in it and then there will be a search within you to make it real. Leave the last part on time. Or if it’s an illusion, on faith. Just write. Because every engineering marvel was once a stupid idea, that someone felt, though, envisioned and loved.

Secondly, what is the reality? Consider the macro figure, what if this entire world is a connected dream? What if we woke up one day and the test is over? In this prefabricated world, the reality is something that we are willing to accept. This word 'we' has many individuals that speak differently but hate to interrupt. They are the dreamers, the world operates because of the accepters, world changes because of the dreamers.

The reality was once a stupid idea, for which an individual searched some practical means. Just write whatever is in your head. Because in this scenario "whatever" is lesser important than "write".

The Illusion of Reality

The weekend comes with a series of discussions for me. Within me, with my friends and mates. Time sometimes looks like the biggest illusion and sometimes it may seem like the only reality in this twisted, fabricated environment. Well since we can't be so sure, so let’s just not say a day or a few hours earlier, let’s just say earlier.

Earlier within a series of discussions on the need to write, I heard a very interesting argument that, "I can’t write on engineering topics, because I can't think of real stuff, the stuff that exists". This small argument has two vast topics within it.

Firstly, what is thinking. Is it like reciting, or remembering, or repeating? Or its the search of something new; things that don't exist. If you write on anything that exists or is real, it’s not thinking at all. It’s an effort to remember as much as you can, it’s a repetition of an event within your brain; it’s not thinking. So, my answer to this is, "you can't think of the real stuff".

So, don’t worry. Develop an idea, no matter ho stupid it is, feel it, think on it and one day it will be so crystal clear that you will be envisioning it, living in it and then there will be a search within you to make it real. Leave the last part on time. Or if it’s an illusion, on faith. Just write. Because every engineering marvel was once a stupid idea, that someone felt, though, envisioned and loved.

Secondly, what is the reality? Consider the macro figure, what if this entire world is a connected dream? What if we woke up one day and the test is over? In this prefabricated world, the reality is something that we are willing to accept. This word 'we' has many individuals that speak differently but hate to interrupt. They are the dreamers, the world operates because of the accepters, world changes because of the dreamers.

The reality was once a stupid idea, for which an individual searched some practical means. Just write whatever is in your head. Because in this scenario "whatever" is lesser important than "write".

Power of a mistake

Lets just not say, "once upon a time". Lets be very very honest and say, "most of the time" .... this happens.

An engineer was inducted in the company, fresh, energetic, full of impractical ideas and false inventions. Glorifying the profession, passionate about the job, willing to make some marvels and totally non-aware of the actual situation, he entered the scene.

After a few lectures and meetings, he was assigned to design a road connecting two localities. He picked the project, researched it and came up with a new idea. When he pitched the idea infront of the individuals in control, he faced a lot of criticism. And finally he was instructed to follow the previous projects' methodology. Job was important so he followed the instructions, designed the project as per the previous methodologies. The art and passion was burried in the uniformity of correctness.

Now he is at a very very senior post, with 100+ projects' experience in his cv. Suddenly a junior came with a wrong idea and he realized, because of the uniqueness of this wrong idea, that he doesn't have 100+ project in his experience belt he has only one, with 99+ copies.

Of'course his idea was wrong too. But this was the biggest plus point. Because this shows that he was thinking differently. This is the power of the mistake. It opens new venues.

Its was once said but only a few understood that, 'when six people are 100% sure about something, its the duty of the seventh to perceive differently.'