interesting tidbits

So Angela Merkel is the first female chancellor of Germany; the fatherland now has a matriarch. Lets see how long she lasts.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are set to visit the earthquake stricken regions of Pakistan. I wonder what this will mean for the survivors of the earthquake, who are at serious risk of dying now that winter has started. One thing is for sure, some generals will get to rub hands with Jolie.
Bush and Blair are said to have discussed bombing Al-jazeera. CNN may headline this claim as being outlandish, but there is nothing strange about this. Twice the Americans did bomb Al-Jazeera offices. Not being able to understand Arabic, I have never watched Al-Jazeera, though it must have rubbed the US (and its pets) at the wrong places to invite heavenly wrath upon itself (Bush said God talked to him, didn't he).
One good thing about CNN though is that a bookmark I have from more than 4 years ago is still functional.

classical music...

...of the western type: this is what I listened to yesterday. It was played by Leipziger Barocksolisten, who are on tour of South Asia, and there stint in Lahore was organized by the Goethe-Istitut Karachi, and the German Cultural Center in Lahore, which, as it so happens, is quite near my place, and I happen to know its director, which, as it further happened, landed me an invitation.
Not the music type, and totally ignorant of western classical music, I went just for the fun of it, and found that the Sonata in D, Sonata in E Minor, Bicinium 75 (whatever these are) by Corelli, Fasch, Finger, Bach etc (whoever these may be), played on instruments like trumpet (identifiable), violin (identifiable) oboe, bassoon, hapsicord (all unknown) were not too bad, at least for a one-time listening experience :-)
This concert was held at the venue where in a few days time the World Performing Arts Festival is about to begin. This seems to be an interesting event, and I may try to attend some event at this festival taking my elder son along.

back to work after Eid

Last Friday was the Eid, the occasion after the end of the fasting month. This time I was together with my family after a very long time. The previous two years I was in Hamburg, and though I was at home 3 years ago, I had come home from Hamburg not for the Eid, but because my father was seriously ill, so I had hurried back home. That Eid was not a happy occasion, and my father died the day after Eid.
This time the occasion was a happy one, though subdued due to the devastation caused by the earthquake in Kashmir.
I had a few days off after Eid, so that was pretty relaxing as well. Yesterday I went to the zoo with my son. Lahore's zoo is pretty good. I have been to the much renowned Hamburg zoo, but was thoroughly dissappointed by it. On the contrary, we were equally thoroughly impressed by the unrenowned zoo at Poznan in Poland that we had visited a few months earlier.

The best and the worst

Excellent article to be read here: DAWN - Ayaz Amir Corner; October 28, 2005