You will get a good news Today



Five years ago, I saw an billboard which has a counter on it telling how many users have subscribed so far to that particular mobile operator. That particular mobile operator supposedly had the largest number of subscribers as they claim. The counter was showing the count around 10 million. It was till then that there were 4 mobile operators working in the country. Now there are 5. As per PTA, roughly there are around 98 million mobile users currently in the country whose total population is around 180 million. Surprisingly a country whose average income per capita is less then $3, has got half of its population a mobile connection which obviously requires a mobile set whose cost is at the least 2000 Rupee. But that is none of my concern today.



Our country was hit with the worst catastrophe ever last month. As per the media, almost half of the population of the country is affected by the flood. More than a couple of thousands have lost their lives. Many have lost there homes/businesses.

Ramadan started a few days ago. It is asked in our religion to give Zakat in this month. People usually have a special inclination towards religion and religious activities. Its been quite some days since Ramadan has started and there was not even a single day when I did not receive at least 3 "sacred" message out of which at least two were sent from one of my contacts saved in my phone-book, and 1 from a very random number. These "sacred" messages are usually Islamic messages telling me, how many 'Sajdas' I have missed so far. How many good deeds can I earn in a day by just reading out a single "Aayat" in that very message. How many blessings will I get if I pass on that message to at least 10 people in my phone-book. And what a wonderful news I am going to get the day if I will forward that message to an X amount of people.

Due to my non secular writings previously, most of you will assume I am going to ask you NOT to send me those messages. But I am not going to do that today, although you can still reconsider this article while sending me a pious message next time.

However what I am going to do is a little maths.

Considering the survey which tells me that there are 98 million mobile users in our country. I know its a very far fetched figure, and is probably only in the books of our 5 major mobile operators. Lets just assume that the figure is very exaggerated and may be, there are only 25% of the said figure who are actually using the SIMs on a regular basis.

So the number of users would be (98 million x 0.25) = 23 million (approximately)

Now I have received on average 3 messages a day.

Lets just say 10% of the 23 million receive 3 messages a day.

20% gets 2 messages a day.

30% gets ½ a message. (That means they get 1 message in two days).

And the rest 40% does not get any message the whole Ramadan.

So the 10% of 23 million mobile users who gets 3 messages a day, would be:

23000000 x 0.10 = 2300000 Mobile users

2300000 Mobile users x 3 messages a day = 6.9 million messages a day

Lets assume the cost of a message on average is Rs. 1.25 (inclusive of tax)

So the money spent upon 6.9 million messages a day: 6.9 million x 1.25 = Rs.8.6 million

Similarly

20% of 23 million mobile users who gets 2 messages a day, would be:

23000000 x 0.20 = 4600000 Mobile users

4600000 Mobile users x 2 messages a day = 9.2 million messages a day

Cost of a message = Rs. 1.25 (inclusive of tax)

So the money spent upon 9.2 million messages a day: 9.2 million x 1.25 = Rs. 11.5 million

Again

30% of 23 million mobile users who gets 1/2 message a day, would be:

23000000 x 0.30 = 6900000 Mobile users

6900000 Mobile users x 1/2 message a day = 3.45 million messages a day

Cost of a message = Rs. 1.25 (inclusive of tax)

So the money spent upon 3.45 million messages a day: 3.45 million x 1.25 = Rs. 4.3 million

Summing up all the money spent on these messages in ONE day would be

8.6million + 11.5 million + 4.3 million = 24.4 million Rupees.

And the money spent over 30 days (assuming the religious scholars do not get to see the moon in time)

24.4 million x 30 = 732 MILLION RUPEES or

Wohoo!! Now that is an amount. I believe you have a fine idea what I am implying here. I am not quite sure that if I had forwarded those messages to the X number of people could have brought a good news to me that day. But if we all, collectively, feel the need of hearing a good news once and for all. Then may be we could actually contribute those few rupee that we spend everyday (on sending sacred messages to our beloved friends and family) on some better cause. Such as to the millions of displaced homeless, shelter-less, food-less and clothes less people.

May be if we just do it for one month. For the month in which we are asked to be slightly more religious then we normally are. Which we most commonly obey.

Then may be we will get a good news Someday!

Aman ki Nirasha!

by Fahd Sadiq (Wednesday July 6, 2010)
1947: It was a split. Split of cultures, split of religion, split of relationships, split of races and split of ONE nation. The races which had been living with each other from centuries; faced various enemies, friends and foes together.

From that day every Pakistani on our end and every Hindustani on the other end of the wires had been anticipating a treaty or reconciliation so that the borders may open. But if you pick up the history and see that whenever any bold step is being taken from any of the sides of the border, something somewhere goes all wrong and we are back to square one. The seedling for this rift was sowed in the very start with the "Kashmir Issue". And then they sleep for a while...

"Aye puttar hattan tey nai wikday"
"Aye watan kay sajeelay jawanoun"
"Sohni dharti allah rakhay"
"Aye rah-e-haq key shaheedo"

I wish I could translate them all into English for those who cannot understand it but my limited English vocabulary couldn't do any justice to any of these sentiments even after trying a lot. These were those melodies that boosted the moral of the nation and of the jawans of Pak army.

1965: We were told as per our text books that Pakistani army gave a nice slap back to Indian foot soldiers as well as their air attacks so much so that it gave them a sour tooth. We still get to see the plane of MM Alam every time we pass by Town Hall Mall Road, Lahore. A very well known road is named after him as well, now considered to be the most happening road of Lahore. In other words you can call it the Times Square of Lahore.

A peace treaty was worked out when UN called the cease fire and the armies had to step back. The process of reconciliation was so slow and tedious that it never turned out to be fruitful and brought no relief or benefit to the common man. And they slept again for a while till the next engagement…

1971: Yet again, when the things were getting a little mature we had to face a second battle, which was geologically very tough for the country. The divide was inevitable and it was kept in mind during the time of "split". Half the country was surrendered by armed soldiers, major revenue generating industry lost and 90,000 POWs were held by India, a feat yet to be matched.

Blame was conveniently placed on the civilian government and off they returned to the good old sleep...

Kargil: I need not to say anything about this incident, I believe the intentions and background of this war was pretty much obvious to both the countries but they did go for a war. The funniest part was that the Prime minister who was elected with 2/3 majority was unaware of the forces moving to the borders and had no idea of what the plan of action was, or at least that's what he claims. They retreated, bearing huge financial and human loss. They blamed everything on the civilian government and then they went to sleep.

9/11: The world changed after the towers fell, and we played along. They woke up for a while because they just had the powers and a lot of money was obviously coming in to track down the criminals who were responsible for the ground zero. They collected everything, and did nothing, until we come to the point where: Imagine a mosque which became a fortress carrying enough amounts of arms and ammunition that it fought back with them for almost a week. And that happened right under the nose of ISI (which is one of the top five intelligence agencies of the world) headquarters. Eventually they gave in everything and went to sleep again in 2008.

Which actually they didn’t, just like it had been happening before, they were forced to resign. They were just not ready for downing another C130.

Bombay Attacks: We were about to sign a treaty with India when Mr. Ajmal Kasab surfaced and the treaty got canceled and all the progress that was made for friendly talks and a level playing field got ruined and we were back to square one_ in fact the equation got completely unbalanced with India having the upper hand now more than ever.

There is talk of peace talks again. Let’s see what adventures are in store this time around. I am sure everyone’s aware of all these incidents and probably has more information than I do, but my point here is not to remind you of all these incidents. It is something else.

I will construct an analogy over here to make my point clear.

As we study in marketing that we have to make our client believe that they are in deep shit and only "We" can take them out of it with a small price tag attached. They agree to it. Similarly last time when I went to my car mechanic, my car had broken down due to some problem in its generator. But when I was coming out of the mechanic's shop I had gotten the generator, a timing belt, a fan belt, accelerator wire and wiper rubber changed. He sold me all that, and due to my ignorance I could not argue with him over the problems he was showing me.

We have been told that India is our worst enemy amongst all. We have been told that Indians are the ones whom we could never live happily with. We have been told that our fauji jawaans had fought so bloody well against them since 1947 and that is the only reason India has not yet been able to conquer Pakistan.

Do you know how much is the population of India? Do you even know what are the economical and political crisis they are going through? Do you even know what is happening in the south of India where the Government is taking over land for various mining and dam construction projects? Local tribes are being left homeless and they are surviving by fighting back with the local police and they are almost in the state of civil war in certain areas. India is a population of 1 billion or may be more. You know if they have to conquer Pakistan they don’t even need an army. All they have to do is collectively start walking towards Pakistan and no nukes can do shit about it.

Come on, wake up. THEY DO NOT WANT to take over a land which is full of terrorists. Where there is a terrorist training camp in every couple of miles. A country on which the whole world is keeping a watch; it being a breeding ground of terrorism. A country whose economy is almost NILL.

So all this is just the bug of your own brain and this seedling of hatred was planted in our mindset since the day this country came to be. Along with the azaan, we are told to show hatred to Indians when we are born. Why?

Let me tell you. This happens only to keep 85% of the country's budget in the pockets of our Military and Establishment. Basic rule of management is to create a problem and become a problem solver, and there you go. Just like my mechanic did to me. Just like we all do in our everyday life, one way or the other. It’s just that this particular picture is so big and vast that we will have to move a couple of steps back and take a look at the bigger picture. It is crystal clear, and all the incidents that I have mentioned earlier might have other reasons but I am sure one way or the other they are part of this bigger conspiracy.

I am not saying it’s happening only from our end, but unfortunately we can only fix our end, and leave the rest unto them. Don't think whether who is doing more and who is doing less. At least the people on the other side of the wires are sensible enough to never let their military take decisions of the nation. And probably that is one of the major reasons they are decades ahead of us in terms of technology and education.

We will have to take a step. We will have to go one step ahead. If we can do this much with 15 percent of our budget, imagine what we could do with 25 percent, with 50 percent, with 75 percent? None of which has been accounted for ever!

Now whether it is Aman ki ASHA or NIRASHA... Saving me from The Mechanic is definitely my own duty. Not yours, nor my neighbor's.