WEEK SIX

Assalam-o-alaikum

And finally the sixth has arrived after which we are going to have a midterm examination. I am not well prepared for the exams so feeling a bit nervous. This time I haven’t done even any kind of homework to get lectures refreshed in my mind. This time it is going to be a bad deal I suppose. If I take just a jist of my preparation subject wise than I am prepared for Linguistics…okay fine. Next I am prepared for communication skills….that’s too good. As far as literature is concerned, I don’t have adequate information regarding things we have studied during session as much I should have. The reason is that I couldn’t attend three important lectures due to participation in a competition. I expect to attempt it well but not best. Then comes mathematics, of which I will do preparation exact the day before the paper because it is not that much difficult for me. The last two subjects are interior designing and philosophy of education. I have nill preparation of these two subject because from the start of the semester I am not able to grasp these two subjects and I am sure that I will fail in these subjects. This is how my preparation is all about midterm exams.

WEEK FIVE

Assalam-o-alaikum

The task of fifth week is an essay on the following topic;

How did you spend your Eid-ul-Adha?

This time my Eid was quite exciting as I had never done one thing I did this Eid.

This time I had fun with goat we brought for sacrifice. We named that goat as “FIERCER” because that goat was of fiercely active nature. We bought that goat before two days of Eid. Actually my father was abroad this Eid and we had to do everything by ourselves. Firstly we kept on looking for a wise man who could find out a goat with all essential physical features.

 As we found a man, my brother went with him to buy the goat. Then the goat was purchased. The goat was of off white color as evident from his picture. We kept on awakening the two nights to serve the goat. Fiercer was same like little jerry as he never became full of food. He kept on eating day and night and was always hungry. He was fraught of hungar. Whenever we went out of sight, the goat cried so loudly that at least one person from the street came to ask what happened to him. We took pictures with fiercer. We had a lot of chats with him. Firstly I was haggard to go near to him but I did when I felt I was completely impregnable.  This was the first time that I went near to goat ever in my life. It was really a nice experience. We exulted with him.

The day came when he had to be sacrificed. My brothers came after Eid prayer with a butcher to sacrifice Fiercer. He did it. At the time when he was cutting Fiercer’s neck, our eyes were full of tears that our beloved goat was going to breathe his last. Perhaps this is what we say sacrifice before Allah Almighty. As He has asked us to sacrifice our beloved things before Him to get many times heavy reward.

This is how my Eid passed. The other thing I did was that I ate too much this time on Eid. Its proof is that my weight increased from 48kg to 52kg. Moreover I did a lot of help of my mother in the kitchen. Guests came on visiting our home all the three days of Eid. Overall this Eid will always be memorable for us because of Fiercer.

Best regards,

SAira Iftikhar.

WEEK FOUR

Assalam-o-alaikum to everyone,

Fourth week of ours was very interesting and full of new things as we attended two lectures regarding Gestalt Psychology. These lectures were delivered by Sir Mariano Ackerman. Before discussing his lectures, let me introduce Who Is Mariano Ackerman.He is a German painter as well as a renowned lecturer.

 Mariano Ackerman was born in Buenos Aires in 1963. He studied at the School of Architecture of Universidad de Belgrano (Argentina), completing his formation with a prized graduation project on the limits and space in modern architecture (1987). Living abroad from 1991 onwards, he studies modern art and researches the paintings of Francis Bacon and the architectural projects of Louis Kahn.

He develops the educational series of lectures In the Spirit of Linnaeus; Discovering Belgian Art and Raisons d’être. Specializing in visual communication, Akerman is an experienced educator and lectures on modern art at renowned institutions. A painter himself, Akerman has exhibited his artwork solo or in group in Argentina, Spain, Japan, Philippines and Sweden since 1979 onwards. He has been awarded with more than twelve major international prizes.He has lectured on this topic at renowned institutions such as the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires and the National Museum of the Philippines in Manila.

The both lectures we attended regarding gestalt were amazing and added much of knowledge to our minds. We were told the short history of different conditions of art at different times in Germany. Also we were told about different attitudes of people towards arts during different eras. 

Mr.Mariano introduced us from gestalt which means to perceive things as a whole. We were told about different laws of Gestalt psychology.

These were rather workshops rather mere lectures because it involved two way discussions because Sir Mariano also invoked us to participate in the session.

At the end, Marino Ackerman introduced us from collage work and invited us for participation in collage competition held by his alumni. Winners would get prizes in a ceremony at German Embassy.

Overall the lectures were very informative for all of us. Basically the main purpose of Mariano’s arrival to Pakistan and delivering lecture here is to promote healthy relationships between Germany and Pakistan. He wants to bring a harmony among the culture of Pakistan and Germany. No doubt his efforts will one day prove very fruitful for both countries especially for the students of both countries.

Third Week

Assalam-o-alaikum to everyone,

The topic assigned to our class for the third week is ‘’Should Co-education be allowed at all levels in Pakistan?”.

            I say “yes”. Co education should be allowed at all levels in Pakistan. What my logic says is bring the rule of law and do whatever you want. As a matter of fact coeducation is considered something really embarrassing and undesirable in Pakistan. As we go out of our home and conduct a short survey on the cause why coeducation should not be allowed in Pakistan, then we will be able to know that maximum people would answer like this;

“You know Pakistan is an Islamic country and Islam strictly forbade the mixing of males and females”.

  But again a question arises here that the people (who say like above) really know Islam?

If they know then surely they would not pass a comment like this because Islam forbade the mixing of males and females freely but never forbade education at any cost. Hazrat Muhammad (SAW), the greatest preacher of Islam has emphasized upon getting education at several occasions. He (SAW) said;

‘’Seek education from cradle to grave”.

And

‘’Seek education even if you have to go to China’’.

Moreover he said;

‘’It is obligation of each and every Muslim man and woman to seek education’’.

This is what Islam says. During his entire life Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) never gave any statement like mentioned above (former most). If we sharply notice Islam then at the occasion of HAJJ-the most sacred worship, there  is a free intermingling of males and females without any kind of wrong connotations, Why? Because Islam is the most modern religion of the world. While offering “Tawaaf” during hajj a woman is not allowed to hide her face. None of the men get attracted towards women neither women get attracted towards men. The reason is that everyone feels oneself nearest to Allah. So the need of hour is to cultivate a thought in our minds that God is always nearest to us.

The thing which really matters for any purpose is our up grooming and the ethical values injected into our souls by our elders. If one has negative intentions for anything then one will do anything to achieve one’s aim in any case. Same is the case for positive intentions and positive thinking.

Our ethical, social, mental and physical maturity matters for having a coeducation system. If there is positivity and real essence of our religious values engraved into our souls then we can handle all situations like little problems of coeducation.

Moreover Pakistan is not an ideally perfect country. We lack the reasonable resources for running separate institutes for boys and girls.  So one of the reason for my favor to this topic is that we should utilize the opportunities for getting ahead at any cost.

One more point to be noticed is that in our and other countries solo institutes also have bad reputes regarding mutual affairs among boys and girls as the girls or boys who bear  a lose character and ill moral values can get themselves involved in bad issues wherever they are no matter opportunities provided or not.

One more reason for increasing number of non-marital affairs in educational institutes is irrational use of mobile phones, cable televisions, movies and internet. From childhood level to the completely maturity level one needs proper moral attention and teachings.

 In medical colleges, females can never get educated solely because for future life when urinal and vaginal operations have to be performed then it becomes really embarrassing and creates a lack of confidence to operate on patients because it is almost impossible for society to have completely separate hospitals for males and females.

At the end,  to conclude I would like to say that in a non-ideal country like Pakistan, it is not possible for government to uphold separate education institutes for men and women. So we should go out of such mental clitches and hypothetical world and go for a rational and pragmatic approach. The need of the hour is not to think whether there should be co-institutes or not but to up groom ourselves and our children both mentally and ethically so that we may get prosperity.

Second Week

The second academic week of ours was a bit hectic as we had to participate in the class work and also we have been given homework continuously throughout the week. In "Communication skills" class, our teacher divided our class into groups.

Then she assigned one topic to each group and asked us to have a group discussion among us. After having a discussion, we had to put forth our conclusion in front of the class in only one minute. So we had a group discussion on different topics. I belong to group "Knight Riders" .

And the names of my group members are Mehwish Hameed, Mehwish Javed, Saira Kanwal and Arooj Aslam.I am the leader of my group. The topic assigned to our group was "Should fashion be followed or not?".

As we all discussed the topic we came to the conclusion that fashion should be followed. When the time ended our teacher called me from my group to share the views of my group with the class. The reasons for our favor to this topic were;

1)      Fashion should be followed but religious, cultural, moral, economical and social limits should be observed.

2)      Following the current fashion in above limits one keeps us up-to-date.

3)      In order to glamorize ourselves and look better then ever before we have to follow current fashion.

4)      Fashion is a source of recreating ourselves. So It should be followed but in proper limits, as Robert F. Schuller says; “You will never be licked as long as you know what you have lacked”.

At the end, Madam Aakifa assigned all of us another topic to search about and write any two points regarding that topic. The topic was “Should women allowed to ride motorbike in Pakistan?”.

As far as I have searched and thought about the topic, I have come up with the conclusion that women should allowed to ride motorbike in Pakistan because;

1)      It creates a sense of confidence in the women because mostly women are considered weaker sex and they are given the rights they should enjoy in normal cases due to which women have a lack of confidence. So in order to build confidence in women they should be allowed to ride motorbike so that along with going before a cooking range and doing house jobs they should enjoy themselves.

2)      It creates a sense of freedom and life can be enjoyed by having a ride on motorbike that can be as short as a rip to the nearby market. It is equivalent to going above a mountain and exploring our own selves.

                                                                                              

Best regards,

Saira Iftikhar.