Adil Najam

Thanks to an excellent and informative article and pictorial spread by Haris Zuberi in The Express Tribune, I now know that today (May 6, 2011) one of the schools I studied in – the St. Patrick’s High School, Karachi – turns 150 years old. Congratulations on your sesquicentennial, St. Pats. And many happy returns.

I spent two wonderful years at the St. Patrick’s High School as I moved from city to city and school to school across Pakistan. I took away great treasures from every school I went to, including the Islamabad College for Boys (ICB) where I studied longer than in any other of my schools, but in many ways my two years at St. Patrick’s (7th and 8th grades) were especially formative. Some of those friendships and many of those memories still remain with me. It gave me some great teachers to learn from (Mrs. D’Mello, for one), some great students to learn with, and maybe most importantly the idea that learning happens not just in class but all around you and all the time. Thank you, St. Pats.

Adil Najam

Having just completed the poll on who, amongst Pakistan’s recent leaders, did the most good to the country, the obvious followup is to do a second installment of the ATP Poll on “Who Did the Most Harm to Pakistan?”

We had conducted a poll on this question back in August 2009 and repeating the question now will give us a sense of whether our readership’s opinion on this question has shifted in this time.

Adil Najam

It seems that the United Nations has declared Neem (Azadirachta indica) as “The Tree of the 21st Century.” I should confess that I have not been able to find an official reference to such a proclamation (especially since I was not aware that the UN would officially make such a pronouncement) but I have now found multiple references of such a designation on ‘Neem-friendly’ websites. If it is, in fact, official; I am very glad because I am a huge fan of this fantastic tree. Even if it is not, that does not take away anything from the tree, which remains deserving of acclaim and recognition. Most importantly, I am happy that it is finally getting the recognition in this century that was so hard to come by in the last century.

I am specially happy because Pakistan and Pakistanis (amongst others) had a lot to do with getting the one lowly Neem tree the prominence that is is now enjoying.