Market town Mandi Bahauddin
Originally Mandi Bahauddin was a village called as Chak number 51. It started expanding after the completion of Rasul Hydroelectric Power Station on Upper Jhelum Canal in 1901. Today, Mandi Bahauddin is an over crowded market town famous for its agricultural markets (Grain Market, Vegetable Market and Livestock Market) and local industry of making colourful bed legs.The name Mandi Bahauddin originates from two sources: Mandi (market) was prefixed because it was a flourishing grain market and Bahauddin was borrowed from nearby old village Pindi Bahauddin, which has now become part of the town. After the partition, thousands of refugees from India rehabilitated on the evacuee property of Sikh and Hindu landlords. Lately, after the construction of Rasul Barrage, people from the belt along southern edge of Salt Range up to Pind Dadan Khan and other areas across the River Jhelum came settling in the town. Due to migrations and increase in business activities, the town has expanded in all directions. The result is that more than half of the population is living outside municipal limits without any civic amenities. More unplanned localities and kachi abadies are coming up everyday. The tendency to move from rural areas to urban centres is on the increase.
People from adjoining villages come to exchange their agricultural products like grain, chickens and Ghee with matchboxes and other commodity items and see the ‘bright lights’ in this dusty town. Donkey carts to heavy vehicles are plying indiscriminately on any road they feel like. The town roads have bumps, wobbles and unauthorized speed breakers (sleeping policemen). The right of way has been shrunk due to encroachments and fast growing traffic. Most cross-junctions like Hospital Chowk, Gurha Chowk, Sut Sire Chowk, College Chowk and two railway crossings are always busy and there are no traffic signals.
The sugar mills constructed ‘farm to mill’ road that can be used as a bypass for the traffic not concerned with the city. But it is not being utilized because there are no arrangements to divert the heavy traffic on to the 20 feet wide metallic road. Mixture of slow and fast moving traffic, lack of footpaths, parking facilities, presence of bus and wagon terminals and many tonga stands has aggravated the situation in this agricultural market town. It is located away from Grand Trunk road but well linked with Pind Dadan Khan, Jhelum, Kharian, Lalamusa, Gujrat, Gujranwala and Sargodha with railways and good road network.
The small town having gridiron pattern (all roads and streets meeting at right angle) has developed haphazardly into an overcrowded city. Rehries and temporary shops have intruded all the main bazaars. The rehriwallas have a strong union. They thwart any effort by municipal authorities or district administration to remove the encroachments. The result is that what to talk of vehicles even the pedestrians cannot pass through the bazaars. Dual carriage way was introduced from Sadar Darwaza - gateway built in 1930 - to municipal committee office but the encroachers have also occupied this bifurcation.
The right of way on roads going out of the town has also been reduced due to unchecked encroachments and linear development along the roads. Number of shopping centres has come up in the residential areas. Beside sugar mills, local shaped industrial concerns are spread in and brick kilns around the town. Bed legs and colourful furniture are famous products of the town. Commercial and industrial activities in the residential areas have put a great pressure on the demand of already deficient houses.
Grain Market is located in the centre of the town. Goods’ Forwarding Agencies and lack of amenities have made miserable the lives of merchants and customers of the Market. Large number of goods’ trucks is always standing in the 4.3 acres of market area, which adversely affect the business. The surrounding area of town’s landmark and highest building, majestic Jamia Mosque built by the corner of Grain Market is also noisy and bustling with commercial activities of ‘Lohar’ bazaar.
Even worst is the condition of Vegetable Market. There was time when much of what is today Sabzi Mandi was tranquil and pollution free market consisting of few shops. People could go to the market and buy some of the freshest fruit, vegetables and some of the choicest of spices, nuts, meat and chicken. But now it is very difficult to move in and out of this largest perishable’s market in the area because there is no regular sweeping or lifting of garbage and all the free space has been occupied by vendors who buy any one item in the morning and sit on ground to sell inside and around Sabzi Mandi.
Well chalking is another problem of the town. Political, religious, commercial slogans and different advertisements can be seen all over the town. Political slogans respecting one candidate who contested last elections, every time from a different platform can still be found written on the walls of the town.
Besides going to nearby Rasul Barrage for eating fish Kabab, there are no recreational or cultural facilities and no healthy activities Mandi Bahauddin that was made district headquarters in 1993. This has far eaching effects on the youth of the town. They are seen playing cards on roadsides or snooker in corners of every street. Large numbers of video shops have come up and are doing good business. Video shops rent TV, VCR and as much as five films at a time even in the period when multi channel satellite has become a household item. There are two old cinema houses with 803 seating capacity. Degree colleges (one for boys and one for girls) are doing good jobs but given the resources of the municipal educational institutions, they are not enough for the youth of the area.
A Lalamusa-Sargodha-Khanewal railway is a profitable rout. At present only one Peshawar-Karachi train - Chenab Express - runs on this route. It could be useful to introduce at least one more Peshawar-Karachi express train for passengers, agricultural products produced in the area and a few of the minerals from Salt Range. This track is linked with Khewara Salt mines as well. Moreover, this track is strategically important in case of any threat to Peshawar-Lahore-Karachi main railway track. In that case, Lalamusa-Sargodha-Khanewal rail route could take all the rail traffic.
The “Mandi Bahauddin Development Plan 1986-2012″ has not even come on the tables of people responsible for is execution. But a possible nice start for the town may be to declare at least two bazaars (Sadar Bazaar and Committee Bazaar) totally pedestrian, vehicular traffic and animal transport contained out. Any body listening please!
Tellecommuting in Pakistan
Advances in information and collaborative technologies have recently resulted in changes in work practices. Emerging technological phenomenon called telecommuting (or telework) is changing focus from physical presence at the primary work site to what an employee can deliver. While the concept of telecommuting has been in existence for some time, the technological tools available today are making it possible to practice it more productively. The trend has steadily grown over the past two decades in the developed world.
Why telecommuting trend is not picking up in Pakistan, find out here.
Look at my car wheels
Everyone loves cars. Only some people love to drive power and love their cars more than others. They also own the best cars and want to keep their cars in a perfect condition always. Car lovers always look for powerful accessories they can add and make their automobiles more powerful, comfortable and safe. One of the best places most car lovers are already familiar with is CARiD – an online automotive accessories superstore, based in Edison, NJ that has been happy customers since 2003 by offering them automotive accessories for both interior and exterior custom styling, performance and comfort.
Given my own personal preferences and my passion for knowing more about cars took me to CARiD that offers wide range of auto accessories including wheels. I was amazed to see what all is on the offer. CARiD helps users find ways to improve the look and feel of your automobile.
Have a look at the information rich, neatly laid out and resourceful CARiD.com and see what they are offering and how. The imagery at the site is good and gives you the feeler of any item you may be looking at. There are enough details with each product to help you make informed buying decision. Try those wheels and have an enriching auto experiences.
Power for Travel Gadgets & Gear becomes Portable
One of the nuisances of traveling with technology is all the chargers and adapters we drag along to keep our gadgets running. Gadget guy Phil Baker reviews some new ways to stay charged up on the road.One of the positive trends is that many devices—including cameras and mobile gaming devices—now use either a mini-USB or micro-USB connector.
Between the device and your computer, only one cord is necessary, with no additional adaptor required.
A computer or an adapter rated at 500 miliamperes typically charge at similar rates. Alternatively, travelers can bring along a charger in which the connecting cord can be swapped out to work with different electronics.
However, as my recent trip to Asia proved, there are plenty of devices that require specialized chargers: I had oodles of cords and adapters to charge my MacBook, iPhone, Bluetooth headset, new Palm Pre, and external batteries and cases with built-in batteries
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Summer School with Monika and Sophie
Due to the heavy rains falling all over Pakistan, this year's Thatta Kedona summer school was more adventurous than usual. Monika Kuppler (handicrafts teacher) left Thatta Ghulamka Dhiroka together with her students (Shama Bibi, Razia, Nazia and Shazia Sarfraz, Sughira Rafiq and Rahina Perveen) on July 19, 2010 to meet me [Sophie Kuppler, the English teacher] in Islamabad and then continue their travel up North to Gupis.
Short of Gupis, the travel was interrupted for two days due to landslides blocking the road. As clearance work took much longer than expected, we decided to leave some baggage behind and walk across the landslides.
Arriving in Gupis, classes stated. Our daily walks through the surrounding scenic areas helped to get in contact with local women, who would invite us into their houses for tea, delicious local bread and homemade apple jam. Some would even send apricots and apples to us at place where we were staying. This interaction gave us a chance to compare local handicrafts work with work from women art center Thatta Ghulamka Dhiroka.
Our days at Gupis were thus filled with studying, cooking, doing handicrafts, and playing educational games for repeating the vocabulary learned. The students were learning very fast and all were enjoying the beautiful scenery and hospitality of the local people.
A few days after the rain had started the bridge in Gupis broke and all supplies were cut off. Fortunately, the owner of the guesthouse, where we stayed, had warned us early enough for us to be able to buy enough food for the coming days. Our worries about how to travel back were quickly dispersed: the local people had built a new wooden-bridge within two days.
Once it was possible to travel again we left Gupis for Gilgit, again only taking what we could carry as the streets were broken in many places and our journey had to be continued on foot.
Once in Gilgit, we were stuck for four days as the Karakorum Highway was blocked and flights could not operate due to bad weather. During this time we continued with the English classes and handicrafts work. Finally, the road through Naran valley was re-opened and two jeeps brought us safely across Babusar pass for our onward travel to Islamabad.
Despite the challenges all had learned a lot and were very happy. We would like to thank all those, who made this year's summer school possible and enjoyable and who helped us to get safely back to our respective homes. These are especially: Lions Club Heilbronn, Mrs Gabi Fröhlich, Mr. Shah Wali (Explore Pakistan), Mr Dildar, the hotel staff in Gilgit and all our drivers. [Also here]
Related: Summer Camp 2009
Related: Summer Camp 2009
Drug Rehabilitation
Drug and alcohol abuse have, unfortunately, become quite common. Rehabilitation from this abuse is not that simple if a person chooses to do it on one's own. Giving up drugs all of a sudden, with no professional advice and medication, leads to complications, both physical and psychological. This, at times, may turn out to be unbearable and worse than the habit of using drugs or alcohol. So, it is better that one takes professional advice and medication. The treatment to get rid of drug and alcohol abuse is not done using a formula applicable to all. The treatment certainly varies from person to person. Not only that, the treatment has to be duly supervised. There are criteria which need to be met by all patients individually. The patient should not be under the influence of any mood altering substance. There should be no immediate medical danger due to use of drug or its withdrawal and the patient should not be suffering from major withdrawal symptoms. There may be need of massage therapy or acupuncture treatment. Professional medical staff and counselors can be of great help to successfully complete the withdrawal process. The true process of returning to normal life only begins once an addict is physically free of the drug. There is a need to design treatment program specific to each patient.
For all above you need to approach best drug treatment centers. There is a need to undergo cognitive rehab. It is only then that you can confidently detach yourself from drug and alcohol abuse. You need to complete the treatment at your own pace. The healing process should be the one suiting you individually and not the one followed by someone else. The recovery from drug and alcohol abuse should not be temporary but lasting. There should be no chance of relapse, otherwise, all efforts go waste and one lands up in a situation which may be worse than before resulting in dejection and at times excessive abuse. The treatment of the abuse must be taken seriously and professionally.
