S.A.J Shirazi

Nanga Parbat – naked mountain – is the ninth highest peak (8125 meters) in the world and second highest in Pakistan situated on the western tip of great Himalayan. It is also known as Killer Mountain because of the difficulties of reaching the summit. Its face in the south called the Rupal Face rises over 5000 meters from the valley floor to the summit.

After a German climber Hurman Bhul scaled it in 1953, many climbers have stepped on the majestic peak including of Nazir Sabir of Pakistan. Many have lost their lives in this pursuit too. This is a story of an expedition with which I opted to go as a facilitator.

Owais Mughal

After hitting 6 sixers today, Shahid Afridi has taken his career tally of sixers in One Day Internationals to 224.

He now holds the World Record for hitting the most number of sixers in ODIs.

For a long time this record used to be with Vivian Richards of West Indies. Jayasuria of SriLanka and Shahid Afridi alternately held this record couple of times and now it is back with Shahid Afridi.

Here is the list of 10 most six hitters of the World with 3 Pakistanis making to the top 10.

1. Shahid Afridi (Pakistan) 224 sixers at 1.00 sixer/innings
2. Jayasuria (Sri Lanka) 222 sixers at 0.6 sixer/innings
3. S. Ganguly (India) 172 sixers at 0.63 sixer/innings
4. S. Tendulkar (India) 155 sixers 0.42 sixer/innings
5. C. Cairns (New Zealand) 153 sixers 0.79 sixer/innings
6. Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pakistan) 141 sixers at 0.4 sixer/innings
7. Brian Lara (West Indies) 128 sixers at 0.45 sixer/innings
8. Sir I.V.A. Richards (West Indies) 126 sixers at 0.75 sixer/innings
9. A Gilchrist (Australia) 126 sixers at 0.5 sixer/innings
10. Wasim Akram (Pakistan) 121 sixers at 0.43 sixer/innings

Adil Najam

Vehicles like this have always fascinated me. Traveling on any major highways in Pakistan, you always enounter them. Sometimes I think these are metaphors for our national existence. Having to do more than one was designed to do. Living on the edge. Pushing the limits. Feeling overloaded and overwhelmed. Feeling burdened down. So many emotions and ideas come to mind. Maybe you can add a few yourself.

I always worry that they will suddenly tip over; they sometimes do. I also wonder how they actually load these vehicles. Its quite a balancing feat and requires some pretty impressive mental calculations as well as physical jugglery. I would really love to see one of these things being loaded up. One also has to be impressed by the vehicles themselves. This one is not even a full-fledged truck; and yet it is batting above its capacity. On the other hand, I can only wonder about the environmental efficiency or road safety of these things. These are dangerous contraptions, for those within them as well as those around them.

I just thought this picture screamed out ‘Pakistaniat’ in all sorts of ways. Note also the Qingqi in the background.

By the way, I found the picture at Flickr.com where it was posted by orelyinjapan.

P.S. After having written this, but well before posting it, I saw a similar (but different) picture posted by the very perceptible Jamash at Karachi Metroblog.