Anas Imtiaz

Knowledge of self is the key to the knowledge of God [...] and real self-knowledge consists in knowing the following things: What are you in yourself, and from what source have you come? To which place are you going, and for what purpose have you come to tarry here awhile, and in what does your real happiness and misery lie? Some of your attributes are those of animals, some of devils, and some of angles, and you have to find out which of these attributes are accidental and which are essential. Till you know this, you cannot find out where your real happiness lies. The occupation of animals is eating, sleeping, and fighting; therefore, if you are an animal, busy yourself in these things. Devils are busy in stirring up mischief, and in guile and deceit; if you belong to them, do their work. Angels contemplate the beauty of God, and are entirely free from animal qualities; if you are of angelic nature, then strive towards your origin that you may know and contemplate the Most High, and be delivered from the thraldom of lust and anger. You should also discover why you have been created with these animal insticints: whether that they should subdue and lead you captive, or whether you should subdue them, and, in your upward progress, make of one your steed and of the other your weapon …

And today when I told my dad that I have passed with a DISTINCTION, scoring more than 85% in my dissertation and 76% in the taught courses, his voice told the story. I was happy when I got this news, jumping up and down for a while, recalling all those tough moments that I spent during the last one year. I really worked hard during this time and I was expecting a good result. But never THIS good. I can only thank the Almighty for His countless blessings showered on me during this period.

While I was happy and excited my father sounded more like a child getting some new toy he had been eagerly waiting for I haven’t been able to speak to my mother yet, but I’m sure she will be excited too. As for me, I am happy that I have been able to give this moment to my parents, although, I believe this is all due to their prayers.

I’m glad that all those early morning and late nights I spent at the labs and library have finally paid off!

Now I think I should quit this post before tears start trickling down my eyes and spread the precious ink on this paper…Oh no wait, I’m writing this on my iPhone 3GS

Time to celebrate? Hell YEAH!!

Do you work? NO

Oh..unemployed? Bad economy ehh? NO

Err..okay so what do you do? Nothing. I am in transition, and it sucks!

Similarly, men bring their ambulatory kids to the mosque and let them loose when the prayers have begun. The child keeps wandering around, walking between people in probably thinking why are people not moving to get him? Then comes those slightly older ones who don't know how to pray but come to enjoy the day. The take part physically in prayers but they can keep moving at all times and the slightest of hand movements can cause the person standing next to him to lose his already shallow concentration.

So why do people bring kids the mosque? It is absolutely not the child's fault because he doesn't really appreciate what's going on around him, but what about the guardian?

And then there is this point of view that bringing kids to mosque may inspire them to pray. I don't subscribe to that school of thought but it is, nevertheless, valid under some conditions.

Anyhow, personally I think all sources of noise should be kept away from mosques, be it a child of a mobile phone. It will be interesting to see if the readers have something to say on this.

Consider an example. I met my dad’s friend who gladly pronounced that his son has taken up electronics engineering and towards the closing stages of his speech he asked me to guide the child. Another example of a cousin who has also taken up same degree, and unlucky for him he ran in to me that very day asking for some advice.

As much as I am honoured to have people looking up to me, I don’t really like it and I may even hate it. I avoid such people. One of the reasons is that I don’t give out career advice to anyone because there is no such thing as a sure shot formula to a nice career. Secondly, circumstances differ for each individual.

My answer to that passionate-speech-man was simple. I told him that your son will learn it himself. But when the kid approached me, I decided to have a go at him. I took him to a table and sat down with him. I’m sure he thought something good was coming but only if he knew I am not what he thought.

So, I asked him, “why did you chose this career (elec. engr)”? He simple answered that he likes it. Next, I probed “how was your maths at college?” and he answered it was good but his face defied his words (I have read two books on body language so I can tell the difference on most occasions). I probed him with several other questions to which his answers were that he doesn’t really like programming and eventually he told me that his dad wanted him to take up this career. Hah! There I knew it all along!

The cousin came in next and I grilled him only to inform him later that what he thought this field is about is not really what it is. If you like those cool looking PCBs and pretty LEDs on them that’s not really what its all about.

The point of this post is that you can’t really look at a person and try to follow in his footsteps. To those who think I’m someone to look up to are wrong. Personally, I believe I have many shortcomings as an engineer and I should really have worked much harder, but then that’s me. And you are not me!

The other point is that parents should let the children decide the career and not really force them to take what they think is a blossoming career. If you aren’t good in those subjects, getting a degree won’t give you that wonderful job you imagined. I wonder why people don’t understand that. My parents always wanted me to be a doctor, but they never forced it upon me. The choice was left to me and they supported it all along. Despite the fact that a part of me feels I should’ve taken medicine owing to the sheer number of girls there, I’m extremely satisfied with my decision. I knew what I was going in to and I did my research before choosing the path.

Finally, I believe people should seek advice, nothing wrong with it but eventually go with what they think. Its their OWN career we’re talking about here.

Anyway, other than that I'm loving the other things that I am doing. I am reading this awesome political thriller where a member of cabinet forces the PM out of his office and then contends for the seat himself. Full of conspiracy and dirty work – its brilliant! I am also trying hard not to keep reading it all day, which has been the case usually resulting in the book being finished in a day or two. 

The WP theme that I am working on is also an interesting work and a couple of days back I ended up pulling an allnighter without realizing and desiring to do so just because I was deeply involved in coding the homepage. This however is a work that will take a long time to finish.

I have also started on the Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) kit that I recently ordered. It uses the TI MSP430 MCUs which I am very comfortable with but I need to read some wireless protocols before moving forward with it. 

Digital photography will take priority once I start processing the Oxford pictures.

And I have a list of things that I am supposed to do, other than these…and I thought I'd be farigh!

Whether you have seen it or not, just watch it again, and enjoy

PS. I'm listening to some political debate show and someone is saying, 'mein koi bohot parha likha banda nahi hoon…mein ek political worker hoon' …. LOL

All this because I have finished and submitted my dissertation and I'm done with studies! The official result transcripts come in Nov/Dec but I know (and I have a letter to show for it) that I have passed…so yeah..I think I can say I do have a masters degree now. After getting the transcripts I will be switching my visa category from student to work and it is then a new phase in life begins…

I will be starting a wonderful job in December. I secured the job few weeks ago, and since then I have been dispensing tips on CV and interview Talking about the interview, mine was about a 3 hour show (or maybe a bit more). The details of that day will be part of another post.

For now, I have nothing to do.