Engineering Marathon '12

As the title goes, it was a marathon to remember!

Perhaps you're getting the image of engineers hard at work on a task, time running short, frenzy over completion? The part with frenzy would be true, but the rest, na-an!

The Engineering Marathon organized by ASME -> UET Taxila Chapter was basically about answering assigned questions but in no ordinary way. It went something like this: each team of 4 is given a question with 4 options. Each of the options in turn corresponds to a specific location on campus. You have to run to the option you think is right and check from a person standing there to confirm your answer. In case of a wrong answer, you then have to run to the next possible option and so on till you finally hit it right.

Time was of the essence and each team was 'clocked' upon reaching the right answer.

The liaison desk was set up in front of the MED and that's where we got our first question: When was baseball invented?

And so it began, the marathon.

We sprinted like Flash from MARVEL Comics, jumped over the fence since the place was crowded and began our 'marathon' with hair running loose and the wind whipping our clothes.

The guideline of the event was sort of vague and my team had a totally different perception to what was actually the format of the competition! Looking at the name we assumed we would have to search the locations for physical 'clues' and use to them to get to the next one.

After we got the first Q, we split into two's. Me and a friend Sara ran to the EED since that was a prime option for the correct answer. We searched the flower pots, looked into classrooms to check the noticeboards, even checked around the dustbins for clues. Nothing gained.

Just as we were leaving the department out of breath from all the running around, I spotted an old faded, B&W photo of a girl, stuck on the SIEP Workshop page. *wow*, a clue!

We beamed at each other and got set taking it down, all sure that we’d just hit the pot.

But it wouldn’t come off. Strong glue? I lifted a corner and saw chewing gum beneath. *ewwww*

But no time, gotta rush! So through the disgusted-ness we set hacking away at the picture. Just then Sir Gulistan Raja was coming out of his office and we met his gaze. We 'salam'ed of course, but he seemed quite taken aback by what we were doing. We just smiled BIG smiles and pretended we didn't know anything about old photos on posters and chewing gums and clues; everything normal, Sir! But in all probability he thought we were STICKING the picture on!

Embarrassing, but time's running short, so hurry!

We finally managed to pull the thing off. At the back was written a registration number, 89-CE-18.

Immediately we felt like it was our Eureka! moment. I mean, the clue was staring us in the face, right? 19th century [roll#] was the answer, and the next step lay at the Civil Dept.

All smug, we left the EE dept and rang up our remaining team.

And that's when we found out we were wrong. Not in the answer, but in the game format! Gosh!

So back we rushed and followed the 'real' format now. Got the right answer at TED, and got our next question: Which island is the largest?

Greenland seemed like a fair deal so we rushed to the Cafeteria since that's where the clue pointed. Nope, wrong, the guy shook his head. So next we ran to the Admin Block, then the CED, and finally the DISPENSARY since all our answers had been nodded off! Panting but at last sure we were at the right place, we spelled our answer. The guy there shook his head.

WHAT? We just ran the SPAN of campus and went to all 4options, and you say WRONG, Mr Dispensary? For crying out loud!

He insisted we go back to the TED since the question we'd been given was wrong. WHAT?

But there was no time to stand and argue so we ran all the way back to the TED. Referred further to the MED. Huh?

Our legs were beginning to feel alien to ourselves but there was determination, there was spirit, so alien was alien and we didn’t care, go take care of yourself!

We heard the mob before we saw it.

Apparently, some guy along the route had handed out  a wrong question and disturbed the whole path. No wonder all 4options were coming out wrong, since the route was broken!

Oho! We looked at each other with a mixture of perspiration, red-facedness, panting, disappointment and excitement. Sorry for the inconvenience, rescheduled to the next day.

But of course sparing the next day for the same event was out of the question, busy schedule. No problem, maybe next time?

But it was a great experience despite event cancellation.

It was great to be the only girl-team in the event. And the TOPS juice for refreshment at the end could have done better, but ;)!

Cities: In View of Lahore

Cities. All too familiar. We live in them, but so what?

We live in these entities and take them for granted. It may be Dubai, New York, Delhi or Islamabad, or any others besides - they all share distinct features.

Cities are living, breathing organisms in a sense. There has even been an experiment to measure the so-called 'breathing rate' of a city! [courtesy: Discovery Channel]

I went to Lahore with my university class this weekend on an industrial tour. I've been to Lahore twice before, the most recent being in Gr8 though that seems like long ago.

I realized there how similar different cities in the same country were! There were places and parts of Lahore we visited that reminded me of Rawalpindi, and others of Islamabad. It stands to reason that Lahore has a night-life whereas Islamabad and Rawalpindi are European only in that they shut down early (something I had a hard time adjusting to since Dubai is a nocturnal-city). There were the same billboards up along the roads to sell soap and cloth as in Rawalpindi, the same dusty look all too characteristic of Taxila with it's granite-cutting machines. There was the same divisioning into the posh and urban areas with the noisy city centre. There were the same run-down workshops with electricity poles dangling dangerously at the entrance. There were the same side-walls splashed hues of orange-ish red with spit 'paan'. There were the same hawkers pulling carts loaded with goods of every imaginable kind; shouting after potential customers, lowering prices to insane levels just to get a purchase.

There were the same traffic jams where Punjabi folk music blared from the colorfully painted trucks and buses; the drivers shouted obscenities to show their dominance  while the conductors couldn't resist the temptation to swing with the outer pole and poke their heads outside to get a look(as if that would make the traffic clear, lol!)

There were the same corner shops we prefer to call 'tuck shops' selling your average biscuits and Lays^®. There were the same smokey roadside inns selling curry steeped in unnecessarily extra cooking oil for a 'tarri'.

But some things stood out too. One of the most prominent and probably the most disgusting too, was the smell of sewage in just SO many areas of Lahore! Even the posh areas weren't safe and you couldn't be far from the stench wherever you went. Another feature I thought had already become obsolete was DONKEY CARTS. Yes, donkey carts. I mean, are they still in use? :|

I saw a LOT of them along the sidewalks and they reminded me so strongly of something, which I'd better not mention for fear of being discovered!

Lahore is world-famous for its food - both the cooked delicacies and the gazillion eateries of all standards and stature dotted about the city. 'Vegetarian' is a forbidden word around and it's just meat galore there!  And while in Lahore, we clearly felt the capacity of our appetites expanding too; in short, we felt ourselves turning distinctly 'Lahori'.

The experience on Food Street was amazing. The 'kulcha' especially was mouth watering and the Kulfi beat the best I've tasted so far! But there I start again, showing off my primal partiality for things food.

Lahore was as near to Taxila and Rawalpindi as it was far away.

Though there are just so many intersecting points in the Venn diagram of Pakistani cities, Lahore is, simply, Lahore.

For that is the reason a proverb goes: He who hasn't seen Lahore has yet to be born! [Adapted from Punjabi]