Coffee anyone!!

Its amazing how many coffee houses have sprung up in Pakistan over the last couple of years - and when we talk about world-wide statistics, the number keeps growing. Fact is that coffee houses are the buzz word of today and will be around for a long time to come. Unlike previous trends which turned Zamzama DHA into a graveyard of restaurants, coffee houses and cafes if managed well, have identified a specific segment of people who have been craving for their 'ideal abode' since eons. They are the X factor people who dine in style but are cool laptop savvy people, plugging into their wifi while sipping coffee and munching on a light sandwich.

Coffee houses are most relaxing where you can break the rules, sit with your legs on the couch, smoke a cigar or sheesha, read the paper and laugh out loud with your friends and colleagues and occasionally flirt around with the gorgeous female Guest Relations Manager who usually all-smiles for everyone.

My personal hats off to two particular Cafes namely, Indulge and The Second Floor. They have actually broken away from the conventional Franchising paradigms and started with their own identity. I'm pretty sure that with time and consistent re-innovation, they will climb the ladder of International fame and fortune.

Street Kids........

Street kids plagued by glue sniffing
KARACHI: It’s a chilly night in a run-down part of Karachi and several boys squat in a dirty alley, getting high on glue. Breathing in fumes from glue-soaked rags and glue-filled plastic bags is a daily ritual for these boys who live rough on the streets of Pakistan’s biggest city. “The fumes burn the eyes and leave the body dry. It kills your appetite. But after being kicked and treated like a dog it gives you peace,” said one of the boys, Mohammad Naeem. Cheap at Rs 50 a tin and easier to get than illegal drugs, “Samad Bond” glue – the sniffers’ favourite brand – is flooding the streets of Karachi. The Pakistan Medical Association says substance abuse among street children has reached alarming levels. “If more is not done soon, Pakistan is heading for a street children hooked on glue crisis on the scale of other countries like Morocco and Brazil,” said Qaiser Sajjad, the association’s general secretary. There are about 14,000 street children in Karachi and most are sniffing glue, said Aksa Zainab, a social worker who helps street kids at a drop-in centre operated by the Azad Foundation in cooperation with UNICEF. “According to our research, 90 percent of these children are involved in glue sniffing or in some other solvent abuse,” Zainab added. The problem is getting worse as more and more poor parents with large families are unable to make ends meet and their children end up in the streets of cities and towns. Severe urban poverty, a rising cost of living and few job opportunities for the poor are causing the growing street children problem in Karachi, explained economist Asad Saeed. “There is also no law on the compulsory education of children. It’s a free-for-all society,” Saeed said. Akram, one of the boys sniffing glue in the alley, explains how he ended up homeless. The 15-year-old, dressed in a ragged blue shirt and dirty jeans, said he ran away from his stepfather who beat him with iron rods and scorched him with cigarettes. The boys make money cleaning cars and scavenging for scraps in rubbish. “I wash cars, collect paper and metal from garbage dumps. I even beg for alms but I’m committing no crime,” said Mohammad Khalil, one of few who prefers to sleep on the streets with his friends because of family fights at home. Abdul Karim, a scruffy-haired boy with bucked teeth, is among a small group of street children who have kicked the glue habit. Small and cocky, Karim attended a detoxification and rehabilitation programme at the Azad Foundation drop-in centre, which is housed in five small rooms in a narrow lane of a downtown residential area. Karim is a regular visitor to the centre where children get clean clothes, food, medical aid, counselling and even schooling. “I used to sniff glue until three months back. I used to feel dizzy and sleep all day. Now I feel better and am also trying to stop smoking cigarettes,” said Karim. One room at the centre has a television set, a major attraction for the kids, another has games and a third has been turned into a classroom with colourful charts and a chalkboard. “The numbers are increasing as they tell their friends of what benefits they get here,” said social worker Zainab.

readin all of this it makes one sad.... it made me sad tooo...

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES on life

Life is like a taxi. The meter just keeps a-ticking whether you are getting somewhere or just standing still. -- Lou Erickso

Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us. -- Thomas L. Holdcroft

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. -- Winston Churchill

Live as if your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. -- Gandhiji

Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead, that is where your future lies. -- Ann Landers

Imortal Thoughts!!

Voyager upon life's sea:-
To yourself be true,
And whate'er your lot may be,
Paddle your own canoe.
- EDWARD P. PHILPOTS
Paddle your own Canoe

DO YOU THINK THAT GOD IS FAIR..... I THINK NOT

I DONT THINK GOD IS VERY FAIR ACCORDING TO HOW HE PLANNED MY DAY TODAY... I THINK LIFE IS LIKE LIVING IN THE JUNGLE, HUNT OR BE HUNTED.....