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.

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.

Small Wins

Whenever there is a discussion on betterment. We usually focus or  actually stuck in eyeing the big wins. Everyone wants to be the prime minister to initiate some change. But they don't realize that every big change is the collection of some very very small wins. Few days earlier I was in a discussion where everyone was arguing about how backward we are in the field of engineering. We don't have any manuals, codes or standards of our own. We are following the standards and all the guidelines made by other countries, which is very very true.

So hating to interrupt, but when it is necessary, one has to. A question was pitched that who will make these codes. The bureaucrats? The politicians? The army? Or the engineers?

"Engineers", everyone said.

"So who are you guys?", That was the next questions.

After a pause one "engineer" asked that 'okay! so how to do it?'

So he was told to study the manuals made by the world and select the most appropriate best suited for your environment, and then modify it.

This solution did not receive a charming response. Everyone said that we are not willing to copy. Now we are motivated, we will do it from the scratch. Like re-inventing the wheel before making an SUV.

This thought has two common problems.

Firstly, that we don't know the history. Because most of the western inventions were launched after they stole, copied or changed the name of the author, of the books they vanished from libraries of ottoman empires. That's why you see a hint of Al-Farnas's flying machine in Wright Brothers' invention and things like "to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" in Newton's theory. Hence it is more salient that smart people do not reinvent the wheel, they take the wheel and invent the next part. (They stole it, that is not smartness of'course)

Secondly, there is no harm in copying the good stuff. Its not a religious battle. Its true science, which will remain true even if a Non Muslim states it.

So the same argument was made and now there was calm among the enthusiastic individuals. 'What will now be the way forward?', was the next question.

"In chapter A, there is one factor showing the value of X which is suited for America, lets find the best value for our country" was the reply.

And suddenly, all the enthusiasm was gone. Everyone was thinking, 'are we here to do this small thing?' And that's the biggest problem, bigger than the two discussed earlier. We want a quick, sudden big win. We want a magic stick to make a manual or guideline or a code book for us.

They never realize that line is actually a collection of millions and billions dots. A big win is a collection of millions and billions small wins.

Now what is the actual start point of betterment? Stop blaming the past, blame the inner self. Because when you will realize the root of the problem, things will change. Which means, 'you' will change, 'we' will change. And just like line, a big win, millions of "we" is called a country.

A City of Cars

The argument commenced off with, "we need mobility" as stated by the authoritative.

Need is although a strong word, usually applied to something which is a life line for an entity. Unluckily, this word is always confused with want. Sometimes with the luxury of power, limited interaction with humans, above average living, no accountability and mile long VIP protocol, people are henceforth unable to understand the difference between need and want.

Well the governors or the men in power decided to choose access instead of mobility. For a city of 20 million in actual and 15 million after all the cutoff due racism, divisions and political strategies. But still they did not choose 'increase in access' instead of mobility. And the work began. All the relevant footpaths providing access for the most economical mode of transportation i.e. "feet" were removed. All the green belts comprising of old trees vanished. All the service roads providing increased safety and access were transformed into the highways. A city which once performed 50 percent of its trips by walk or cycle was forced to use motorised vehicles from one destination to another.

There are design standards for every area; Urban areas need urban access roads, Highways need mobility. But someone thought about Karachi as "Not" a city and even with a population of 20 million people, they designed every other road as a rural highway.

So the argument became reality. Power when held irrespective of accountability usually creates the biggest mess. Once a lively city, which was well connected is now converted into a lot of segments between connected rural highways. Parks were destroyed, because the priority was highways, beautiful roundabouts were replaced by underpasses because aesthetics do not matter it is not what a city need. Focus of the city governors shifted from community gatherings to repairing pavements. Beaches became dustbin, but the roads near them are well paved. Huge skyscrapers were built all along the roads with no consideration of their frontage.

This created a huge influx of more and more cars. So a meeting was called again to access the need. And again it was called by the people enjoying the luxury of power, involved in very less interaction with people of the city, confident about no accountability and accompanied by a mile long protocol. So they decided that wider roads, more mobility and lesser access create more cars. So it’s time to widen them more to accommodate the new addition. Just like a person, trapped in debts, takes more to manage the situation.

Meanwhile when this decision was being made. A man was on the road with his child. They visited every park and beach, once very beautiful; and at present not in a shape to spend the quality time. Then the child asked, "no parks, no good beaches, no nice community festivals, just big wide roads, is this a city for humans?" The father was quiet, but there the SUV mumbled, 'This is a city of cars.... Get out....

BUILD A DOOR OR DON’T WAIT FOR A KNOCK – FOR ALL THE INTERNS

From roaming around the corridors hooting, shouting and planning for nothing else but picnics and parties, also with a plathora number of bunks to a full fledge professional life, I have learnt one thing: Every effort is interconnected, all you have to do is move forward with some planning.

I was, in my university, one of the most non-serious person as far as it was about attending the classes. In the first year I went on touring Pakistan twice, organised a number of picnics and parties. Which made me realise, “A person who can arrange a successful picnic can also arrange a professional event”. All the events are the same. There has to be some financial management, some marketing, some lectures and also a very lazy team to manage. That was the first very useful lesson my university taught me. Actually sometimes we underestimate our abilities because of the taunts of the people who can’t do that.

In third year, during the internship season, we heard that internship is the most useless thing in the world. It never helps you in your professional life. But luckily we went to a very good organization under the management of some very professional and experienced people. And believe me those lessons still help me in the professional life. Surprised to see a hooting and shouting lover taking internship seriously? So that was the second useful lesson I learnt. “There is a time for fun mostly, but in a very rare few moments, life wants you to be serious”.

And this is the problem with the most of the students, a non-serious fun loving person always stays the same way no matter what and where he is. And a nerd always stay nerd. There are many things which non-seriousness teaches you. A) Handling work load, B) Management, C) Submitting the work before the complete satisfaction of self-esteem etc. Also there are many things which nerdiness teaches you. A) Completeness in work, B) Following the routine, C) Being organized. All of this is necessary at random intervals of life.

In the final year, we heard that choose a teacher who can give you maximum marks in the FYP. It never helps you in your professional life. GPA is more important. And believe me just after my FYP, I had 03 job offers just because of my FYP. Because why will a person hire a fresh engineer he didn't know, rather than a person he is teaching since the last year. So I learnt, “plan everything, at least two years prior to the professional life”.

So my advice is:

·  From third year, this is the time to think, what is the most suitable discipline for you? (Transportation, structure, construction, water, soil etc.)

·  Decide and do the internship there, and for only a month or two, be serious.

·  When you finish your internship, make sure that every senior in that firm is your friend.

·  From 3.2 GPA to 3.8 GPA there is no difference, if you have learnt more than 04 GPA groups.

·  Irrespective of how many bunks are in your belt, your concepts should be very clear.

·  Office is not a venue for bunks, that time is now over.

The Illusion of Scope

The Illusion of Scope

We live in a society where too many rumours become facts, too many sounds become voices and too many likes become happiness. All you have to do is pitch anything wrong or right as many times as possible until it becomes a universal truth.

So I heard people saying that there is no scope of traffic engineering in Pakistan. Most of these people are my personal contacts, my juniors, my mates etc. When I ask them, “what is traffic engineering?” they often reply:

•         The counting of vehicles
•         Vehicular traffic study
•         Traffic impact studies
•         Vehicle congestion study etc.

Then after hearing all this with immense patience from these social media philosophers, I ask:

• Who will decide how many visitors a theme park should receive after its construction?
• Who will decide how many lifts a building should have for smooth operations?
• Who will decide the paths of pedestrians?
• Who will decide the cargo movement patterns?
• Who will finalize the operations of railways and airports? (number of trains, bogies, frequency)
• Who will decide the demand and supply of dry ports?
• Who will synchronize the city?
• Don’t you think that there is a requirement of capacity analysis of sea channels and corridors?

This gives their weak stomach a food for thought. Then with a pause, I say, every object that may move from one recognised origin to another recognised destination comes under the traffic engineer’s scope. Weather it is the traffic of containers in the container yard, traffic of visitors in the shopping mall lift, queue analysis of a roller coaster ticket holders, busyness of runways or the vehicular traffic engineering.

Then the argument expands with its extreme irrationality, they say no one wants to accept that, they design town cities without consulting a traffic engineer, there is nothing we can do. Then I conclude the argument with two points. One is, even you never knew all this, how can they know? And as a second point I tell them a story I like, once told by my teacher (Mr. Tahseen).

One day a shoe maker was transferred to a village, he resigned the next day with an argument that, company wants to sink my career because in this village “no one wear shoes”.

They accepted the resignation and send another shoe maker to that village, next day he ordered 100,000 shoe pairs with an argument that this is an amazing venue give me 100,000 shoe pairs immediately because here in this village “no one is wearing shoes”

Illusion of Scope or Massive Scope, assume again!