India-Pakistan Cricket World Cup 2011 Semi-final, Mohali, Punjab

The last stop was the Pakistani American Culture Center in San Jose. At the PACC around 15 people were watching the match on a projection screen. India beat Pakistan by 29 runs.

India-Pakistan Cricket World Cup 2011 Semi-final, Mohali, Punjab

The second stop was the India Community Center, Milpitas. Around 400 people were watching the match there.

India-Pakistan Cricket World Cup 2011 Semi-final, Mohali, Punjab

My first stop this morning was the Sunnyvale Hindu Temple. Over 250 people were watching the televised match.

Cartagena dancers

Cartagena photography continued

Back in the 60's and 70's, common folks of Pakistan got introduced to Faiz's wonderful poetry through the music of Mehdi Hassan. At Faiz's birthday centennial on March 19, two sons of Mehdi Hassan, Kamran Mehdi Hassan (vocalist on harmonium) and Imran Mehdi Hassan (on Tabla), along with Ali Shahabuddin on keyboard sang many of Faiz's ghazals originally sung by Mehdi Hassan.

Zia Mohyeddin mesmerized the crowd for almost an hour reading an enchanting pastiche of Faiz Ahmed Faiz's prose and poetry. The prose was in fact a beautiful Urdu translation of Faiz's letters, in English, written to his wife Alice during Faiz's period of incarceration.

Star of the evening was Urdu world's most famous narrator of this age, Zia Mohyeddin. Mohyeddin was introduced by Bay Area Urdu events organizer Annie Akhter.

Ahson Rabbani of TCF gave a talk on education in Pakistan.

Brigadier General (Retired) Feroz Hassan Khan gave the keynote speech.

Farrukh Shah Khan, PACC Co-founder and President, spoke about the past and future events of PACC.

The event combined Faiz's centennial with PACC's Pakistan Day celebrations. Irum Musharraf and Amjad Noorani sang the Pakistani anthem.

Farah Noorani emceed the program. The event was sponsored by:
Computers and Structures, Inc. (CSI),
Amina and Javed Patel,
Tiny Prints,
Mubarika Foundation,
Nature's Basin Beauty Products,
Aesthetika Event Planning & Design,
Thru' the Lens Photography,
Curry Village Foods, and
The Pakistan Link.

An excellent performance of classical South Asian music by Jeff Whittier (playing Bansuri) and Leslie Schneider (playing Tabla) provided an apt musical overture for the cultural evening.

Faiz's Birthday Centennial, organized by The Citizens Foundation (TCF) and the Pakistani American Cultural Center (PACC), held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View on Saturday, March 19 drew a crowd of around 400.

Quenepa/Mamoncillo

Twilight in Cartagena.

A Guanabana eaten in Medellin.

A lot of places to photograph, in Cartagena.

Tree tomato

More Cartagena

Pitaya

Cartagena

Granadilla

Jashne Azadi was made by Sanjay Kak, an eminent filmmaker based in Delhi. The film was shot between 2003 and 2005.

An hour long Q&A session followed the March 9 film screening.

On Wednesday, March 9, the Culture and Conflict Forum (www.CultureAndConflict.com) arranged a screening of "Jashn-e-Azadi", a documentary on Indian-occupied Kashmir. The program held at the San Jose State University Engineering Auditorium was co-sponsored by the Humanities Department and the San Jose Peace and Justice Center. Over thirty people attended the event.

Lovely Cartagena

Cartagena beach.

A hearty cereal bowl--the contraption was made possible because of an obsession with the idea of fewer and fewer belongings and multiple uses of everything.

We bought this new year cake from a popular Barichara bakery.

Barichara cathedral.

Barichara is a pleasant small colonial town near San Gil.

Bogota Terminal. "It is very safe inside," we were repeatedly told, even though we did not ask if it was or not.

On January 13, Dr. Arshad Ali who teaches at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, spoke to a group of Silicon Valley professionals at the NED Alumni Association of Silicon Valley monthly meeting. Dr. Ali wishes to see more technical collaboration between students and researchers at his educational institution and the US companies.

Cathedral in La Candelaria

La Candelaria graffiti